Consequences

It isn’t often that we sit down and recount the Old Testament prophets’ messages to the people of God who failed to bear witness to the world of God’s truth in their time.

The failure to accomplish this divinely assigned mission was to reap the consequences.
What happens when a child fails to learn of God’s love? What happens when darkness instead of light becomes the focus of a life? What happens when there is no one to show the way? What happens when the danger is not recognized because there is no voice of warning? What happens when the opportunity of blessing is ignored and forsaken and forgotten?

The present generation has often been cited for failing to teach morals and manners, for a lack of discipline and ethical decision-making in all manner of business, work, and political interactions. There is a recognizable hunger for spirituality and a search for meaning, but too often the remedies of our time are “therapists,” “self-help models” and clinical solutions with medication and pain-killers leading the list of devices for overcoming fear, anxiety, and dis-ease.

When was the last time you took a heavy dose of biblical instruction? Have you considered the passages that declare “Thus saith the Lord”? Have you thought about measuring yourself in light of something other than a mirror and considered the life of Christ as your guide? The message of divine truth is hard-hitting at times, but always redemptive. Of course, that is the mission of the church…joining in the ministry of reconciliation…being ambassadors for Christ in the world…taking the gospel of hope and salvation to a world hungry for it. When we fail in that mission, we fail in our own experience of faith to comprehend the joy of life in Christ…a life full of meaning and purpose and truth.