Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Playing by the Rules”
Our Bible verse for today: “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.” 2 Kings 12:2-3 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “A little disobedience leads to a lot of disobedience.”
I was reading this morning in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings when I came to chapter 12, which tells the story of good King Joash. I say “good” King Joash because during a period in Israel’s history when many of the kings were very bad, Joash was relatively good by comparison, at least in the early years.
But still, he wasn’t fully committed to God over the long-term. He did a pretty good job in the early years when the priest Jehoiada was still alive and providing solid spiritual leadership. But even during the best and most obedient years, Joash still was not fully committed to the Lord and therefore, neither were the people. To a large extent they did worship and obey the One True God, but they still engaged in pagan practices too.
I’m amazed at how common this theme is in the history of God’s people. We certainly see it in the history of the nation of Israel. Even during their most faithful times, they still allowed into their individual and corporate lives just enough ungodly influences to be a snare to them, and ultimately those ungodly influences always resulted in their downfall.
This is true for us too. As we consider the Christian community in the USA today we can see a lot of secular influence woven into the fabric of our individual and corporate lives. There are many individual Christians who pray, read their Bibles, and go to church, while also viewing pornography, listening to music with foul lyrics, and cheating on their taxes.
There are churches that sing praises to God during the song service, but then the preacher gets up and preaches a sermon that is mostly pop psychology and feel-good themes. It’s also not uncommon today to find individual Christians, whole churches, and entire denominations that embrace and promote both the Gospel of Jesus Christ, along with cultural agendas which are popular in the secular world, but which are clearly unbiblical.
In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 the Apostle Paul challenged this sort of intermingling of the things of the world and the things of God: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?”
That passage goes on for several more verses to teach that there is supposed to be a clear and observable difference between the church and the world, between Christians and non-Christians. A blurring of the lines is a clear sign of spiritual weakness and impending defeat. Such was the case with the nation of Israel and it will be the end result for us too if we don’t change our ways and remain fully committed to God, in both word and deed.
We have to play by the rules. In the Bible God has made it clear what His standards for our conduct are. We know how we’re supposed to live. But just a little deviation from God’s standards, just a little disobedience, leads to a lot of disobedience and the end result is always bad for us.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 