Welcome!
Passage: Gen 9 (NIV 84); 1 Cor 10 (NIV 84)
Today: God of a perfect system!
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded[a] to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. (Gen 9, NIV 84)-emphasis added
The beauty of the Bible is that it exposes people completely; the Bible does not cover the wrongs of a person and speak about their wrights only!
Noah, originally a man of God , is now called a man of the soil!
Noah was all alone, and he did something wrong. He never thought that the whole world will know this one day!
Some spiritual experience in the past is not a guarantee of a perfect future !
In the 1st century Church at Corinth-a church that boasted of many spiritual qualities, there were some very serious issues; Paul addressed them one by one
And then, Paul gave them the following warning!
10 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. (1 Cor 10. NIV 84)-emphasis added
The warning was very strong! Paul had the audacity to do that!
Paul was reminding them that being baptized or having some spiritual experiences or gifts were not “tickets to heaven”! God’s system is 100% fool-proof; those who repent will be forgiven; those who don’t, will be given their tickets to hell!
We can see three types of responses to sin: those who claim to be without sin/that they never sin; those who claim that what they did was no sin; and then, those who really repent!
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1, NIV 84)-emphasis added
I think, most of us are like passengers in a heaven-bound air plane, boasting: “I have the ticket and the passport; I am a citizen of heaven”!
When a person lands in a country from another country, the immigration officers will make some personal checks; they don’t care which airline they came in!
There are cases where some people were sent back by the next air plane!
They had their passport, visa, ticket everything, but something else was wrong!
If we are interested in going to heaven, make sure we meet the requirements of God’s word; God is not concerned about the label of our church/denomination!
So, let’s be wise enough to give top priority to the things God gives priority to!
The problem with today’s church is the unawareness of God’s report on them!
It would be a good idea to ask for God’s “progress report” on a regular basis!
We may put many things on our “minister’s report” or “church report”; a good number of those are just numbers, and just lies! Many fail/fall half way through!
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. (Rev 3, NIV 84)
May God continue to minister to us
Have a day of true repentance, and true blessings!
BG
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for talking to me through various means. I know that the many things I boast about are things you don’t care about. Help me to correct my mistakes and wrong assumptions, so that I won’t be “caught” in the end; Amen
God alone is perfect; it is no small thing, if we can really call Him “Father”!