"Woe to the rebellious children," declares the LORD,
"Who execute a plan, but not Mine,
And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin;..."
-Isaiah 30:1 (NASB)
A child may take a gift they recieve for granted. They play with it, toss it aside and yet greedily grab the toy back should another child try to play with it. They in the end abuse the gift they were given... To discourage this behavior, a good parent would disicpline the child; and though the child may feel hurt, offended or cry for the moment, in the long run it's just what they needed.
He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
-Proverbs 13:24
We as a nation have taken the blessings God granted us to another extreme -we've turned them into our idols. Our heavenly Father is a good father. He will not let our bad behavior go unnoticed. We may cry, we may scream, we may even threaten to hate Him forever... but He knows that in the long run if He allows this to continue, this nation will end up in Hell.
It is the Lord's job as our loving Father to discipline us, how we take that correction and the attitude in which we take it, is our choice:
Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, And he who hates correction will die.
-Proverbs 15:10
He disciplines out of love; He disciplines knowing where we could end up if we don't turn to Him. God sent His only Son to pay the price we were supposed to pay, so that He might adopt us into His Kingdom. Jesus stayed on that cross because He too knew of the torture we'd otherwise endure... but if we don't come in and take our seats in this time of coming trials, they will be left empty.
For each seat is set for every person on this earth. You can't say "Well, you go to heaven and take my seat for me, you're better of a person/more deserving/ect" because they have their own seat to take. Every one has a seat and no one has been missed. It will remain there waiting, whether or not you take it, is up to you. Because a time will come, when all the empty seats will be removed and our very just King will have to say to those who did not come, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Matthew 7:23)
We are warned 13 times (6 throughout Matthew, Mark & Luke) "He who has ears to hear let him hear!" and (7 in Revelation) "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
So listen!! Listen now, while you do have a chance and realize this is just the beginning of God's discipline to this nation...
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/05/23/us/20110523_TORNADO_600.html
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An awesome friend's response to this message; I had to add her thoughts for you all to think about as well!
I've been reading through the prophets lately and I'm in Zechariah right now and it seems like the big sin is that they were apathetic, the Bible says they were at ease. And I think the same thing is true of our country.
A friend and I have talked about it alot and we realized that as a country, we Christians have that terrible sin of apathy, not caring about sin, ignoring it and just going on with our lives and not wanting to change,or not caring about the things of God and just living our life the way we want to. and it's very sad and scary when we read through the prophets and see our country committing the same sins Israel did. We are becoming like England, who used to be the religious powerhouse if you will,and now it's desolate and missionaries need to go there.
My goals for my life right now,what God has called me to do in my life (or at least this is what He's telling me for now) is to change our country by being missionaries to America, when Jesus gave us the great commission He didn't want us to go just far away, we need to witness in our own homeland first, why should we neglect our country?
Check this :) It's pretty much saying the same exact thing you are. http://theramp.org/media/9911-friday-7pm-message-womens-ramp/
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