| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Sobering Scripture
By Andy Coticchio
There is much that is joyous in Scripture which makes the heart of the child of God leap up and sing. There is also much sadness in the disobedience to the Lord, with lives wasted and opportunities missed which are chronicled in God’s Word. And more than a few passages of Scripture which make one pause in sober reflection of God’s sovereignty, His patience and His grace. Here are a couple I have reflected on often.
“When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10).
It is sobering to think that a people, holy and righteous in the eyes of God can be a generation away from falling away from the Lord. The generation of children who grew up during Israel’s desert wandering, who learned of the consequences of faithlessness or disobedience to the Lord from their parent’s dying off in the desert, raised a generation that did the same. Joshua and the leaders of the generation to enter the Promised Land died off and look what happened.
The sad truth is that any nation, no matter how diligent in following after God is only a generation away from falling away from the Lord. Without godly parenting and biblical teaching, without a love for the Lord instilled in the upcoming generations, a nation can easily and quickly fall from the grace of God.
As I look at America, and what has happened in the past few years, as I read of the concerns in the books of earlier preachers and teachers of the Bible, it may be that generation by generation, we have, as a nation, been slowly but steadily falling away from the Lord. Our fear is that we have reached a tipping point, an inflection point, and a point of no return. It may be that there is no coming back for us, and all we await is God’s judgment upon our nation as He has judged many nations before us.
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:24-25).
It is sobering to think that an individual, or possibly even a society or culture as a whole, can be so enamored of self, so lustful and desirous of fulfilling personal cravings and sinful urges that a point can be reached whereby God gives us over to our own sinfulness. A sinfulness becoming so self-absorbed as to reach that point of no return. A worship of self so deeply rooted within a person that God hardens the heart which is in sinful defiance and disobedience. A hardened heart and eyes blind and ears deaf to sin, insensate to the call of the Lord and the prompting of His Spirit.
The frightening prospect is that there is no border fence we can see approaching, no cliff we see dropping off in the (not so far) distance, and no warning or hazard signs. It happens when God, with a grievous heart has had enough. When a loving, merciful, gracious God will tolerate no more. For many it could be tomorrow, for many it could be now, for our nation it may have already passed. Dead for eternity, but unaware of the catastrophic loss of God’s grace.
These thoughts should make those of us who have Jesus as our Lord and Savior tremble in fear for the lost. It should give us renewed energy and urgency to proclaim the gospel to a fallen world. For Jesus is coming soon! It may not be today nor tomorrow, but for any one person’s lost soul, today or tomorrow may be the last chance to turn to Him.
Nothing, outside of tears shed for our own sins which caused our Lord to have to die upon the Cross, should cause us to cry like the thought of another soul being separated eternally from the creator God of the universe. Nothing should make tears well up knowing it may well be happening today to someone we know and love. This should encourage and exhort us to preach Christ, and Him crucified—to all, whether they will listen or not.
Jesus is coming soon! Yet for many, it may already be too late.
Andy Coticchio
Executive Director – Rafter Cross Ministries
http://www.raptureready.com/soap2/wc11.html
Great article!
“It is sobering to think that a people, holy and righteous in the eyes of God can be a generation away from falling away from the Lord.”
Actually, I find that news quite encouraging. Atheism is spreading and christianity is on the decline, but the spread of atheism can’t come fast enough.
And by the way, guess how much evidence there is that the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians, rebelled, escaped, and wandered the desert for 40 years? If you guessed zero, you’d be right!
There’s a reason it’s called “faith”. Because it’s not knowledge.
“Without godly parenting and biblical teaching”
Did you mean religious indoctrination/ brainwashing?
ALL RELIGIONS ARE FALSE AND SHOULD BE DESTROYED! WE ARE NOT IN THE END TIMES! THERE IS NOT GOING TO BE A RAPTURE! GOD OR JESUS IS NOT GOING TO SAVE ANYONE! THERE IS NO SATAN OR ANTICHRIST! THERE IS NO GOOD OR BAD! EVERYBODY GOES TO HEAVEN TO BE WITH GOD! DO AS YOU WILL, WITHOUT ANY FEAR OF ANY JUDGEMENT! THIS IS THE TRUTH! HANDLE IT!
religion, aka the belief in non-existant deities, is akin to a mental illness.
how apparently sentient human beings bring themselves to sing to an invisible man in the sky is a mystery to me.
there is no evidence for any deity. there never has been.
it would be laughable were it not for the fact that for millenia,people have been killing each other on behalf of their god.
how can we even dream of progressing as a species if we continue to buy into this nonsense.
“religion, aka the belief in non-existant deities, is akin to a mental illness.”
What have you got against properly-formatted sentences and attention to small details like spelling? For a character who so desperately wants to be heard (and actually listened to) you might consider providing a higher-quality presentation of your efforts.
Now then, belief in (truly) non-existent deities WOULD be comparable to mental illness, if mental illness were in fact what it is purported to be. But the facts belie the mythos in this case, as they do in most: Mental illness is a misnomer. The root causes of ALL maladies which are (incorrectly) classified as mental illnesses, are in actuality, spiritual maladies.
“how apparently sentient human beings bring themselves to sing to an invisible man in the sky is a mystery to me.”
That’s because you presume to condescend. Devotion and homage paid to a Creator we cannot see, is an abomination to all who would rather THEMSELVES be the object of that devotion and homage. Your problem is that you worship yourself, and you would like nothing more than to be worshipped by others as well. You will, in all likelihood, deny this. But your denial would be solely attributable to the fact that you just aren’t as self-aware as you think you are.
“there is no evidence for any deity. there never has been.”
These very words were typed with fingers – segmented and jointed digits –, themselves attached to a complex series of tightly-spaced, interlocking structures, leading to a compound hinge, itself attached to two articulable frame-like rigid supports, then to another hinge, and finally joining the main framework of a machine, the engineering specifics for which roundly humiliates ANY example of man-engineered contraption ever invented. ‘No evidence’ indeed. There are none so blind as they who WILL NOT see.
“it would be laughable were it not for the fact that for millenia,people have been killing each other on behalf of their god.”
And, in the vast majority of cases, this has been done in DIRECT CONTRADICTION to very specific orders from on High NOT to murder. Mankind was never very good at following instructions. Even his own.
“how can we even dream of progressing as a species if we continue to buy into this nonsense.”
Have no fear, Godless one, there are (actually) very few folks who will ever ‘buy into’ this nonsense. But the purveyor of ‘this nonsense’ is you.
Your efforts are neither worthy nor commendable. You haven’t even taken the time to become viable opposition to a message you hate. Your laziness transforms your work into meaninglessness and makes you the friend of none – including yourself.
yes,thank-you so much.
your aggression and hostility are typical of a religious adherent.
this is why so many deaths are attributed to religion.
each of you who believe in a deity,and there are many deities,are so indignant to anyone who dares to question that said mythical being,they are prepared to go into battle for their god.
in your case verbally,however in all too many cases,literally.
your criticism is largely nonsense,and revolves mainly around the usual ”my god is real,so everyone else is stupid”.
you are clearly not a student of history. people have been claiming their god is the only god since we worshipped the moon.
a moon-worshipper 4 millenia ago would take a club to your head because he believed the sun was the right god.
nothing much has changed.
possibly people have got a touch more erudite and literate,however,they have not grown up spiritually.
how are we going to progress as a species if we still think there is an invisible man up in the sky who we need to sing to?
please do not believe in what you were indoctrinated with. please think for yourself,as an individual,as a sentient human being.
well,at least give it a shot.
also beefy,tell me where i made a spelling mistake.
aka is a well known acronym for ‘also known as’.
possibly you have not come across it before.
you may need a dictionary to look up acronym.
as for akin,i guess your first language is not english.
i will not bring myself down to your level and dissect your final paragraph.
it is enough to drive an english teacher into his grave.
when i say drive,i do not mean he went there in a car.
i just thought i should clear that up for you
I’ve taken the liberty of cleaning up your text to include things like proper spacing and capitalization. It just looks better and reads better that way. Otherwise, nothing you said will have been altered by me in any way. You wrote:
“Your aggression and hostility are typical of a religious adherent.”
Is that so? I wonder then if you wouldn’t mind informing me which religion it is I am an adherent of.
“This is why so many deaths are attributed to religion.”
Call a spade a spade, Godless one. Atheism is also a religion. If you want to rail against unjust murders, then rail against atheism – the single most responsible school of thought when the name of the game is counting bodies. Atheism is just Satanism, of course, in one of many guises.
“Each of you who believe in a deity, and there are many deities, are so indignant to anyone who dares to question that said mythical being, they are prepared to go into battle for their god.”
Am I indignant? Hardly. Answering your one-dimensional complaints requires nothing that one should reasonable mistake for indignation. Am I prepared to go into battle for my God? Only if He orders me to do so. Nor would I ever take such an order from a man claiming to act as proxy for my God. But if my God ever told me to go into battle, then off to battle I would go. Cheerfully. As it happens, my standing orders are to REFRAIN from engaging in the physical battles of this world. My orders are NOT to do battle. Those orders are the same for every man or woman professing to be adherents of the Values and Instructions taught in the written Word.
“In your case verbally, however in all too many cases, literally.”
If you consider this, what you and I are engaged in right now, to be battle… then I feel very badly for you indeed, friend.
“Your criticism is largely nonsense, and revolves mainly around the usual ‘my god is real, so everyone else is stupid’.”
At no time did I insult your intelligence. I only insulted your diligence. Your objection is therefore inappropriate, and your complaint about my ‘criticism’ is unsubstantiated.
“You are clearly not a student of history.”
You have made this determination how, exactly?
“People have been claiming their god is the only god since we worshipped the moon.”
Did you worship the Moon before you became a God-denier? How embarrassing for you.
“A moon-worshipper 4 millennia ago would take a club to your head because he believed the sun was the right god.”
Here we have a prime example of what little effort you put into your work. Why don’t you reread the above ridiculous statement and see whether it makes any sense, even to you.
“Nothing much has changed.”
Technology and fashion change. In this world, not much else ever does. But little harm will come of fashion. The same cannot be said of technology. Both categories, however, are wholly-driven by the machinations of an Enemy whose very existence you deny: an inauspicious augury for your ability to defend yourself against the advances of this Enemy.
“Possibly people have got a touch more erudite and literate, however, they have not grown up spiritually.”
Nothing in the above statement seems objectionable to me.
“How are we going to progress as a species if we still think there is an invisible man up in the sky who we need to sing to?”
What is your definition of progress? You would need to define the term before I could hope to offer a meaningful reply to your question.
“Please do not believe in what you were indoctrinated with.”
You are condescending again.
“Please think for yourself, as an individual, as a sentient human being.”
And you are being presumptuous. You are resorting to these tactics because you are running low on the literary devices available to you. Your bag is almost empty and we just got started. This isn’t because you’re stupid. It’s because you’re lazy.
“Well, at least give it a shot.”
There’s plenty of time for that. But I think you had better duck before I do. Your settled upon variant of atheism is an empty shell designed to give you an excuse to avoid diligent study and diligent thinking. Your philosophy is a cop-out. You’re satisfied because you think you’ve found an adequate whipping boy in ‘religion’ and once you found it, you pitched your tent right there and said: “Hitherto shall I pass and no further.” Any chance of ‘progress’ for you is a forlorn hope until you pack your gear, retrace your steps, stop assuming and stop presuming to condescend. Knowing your type as well as I know it, I don’t much like your odds. There’s far too much work involved.
“Also beefy, tell me where I made a spelling mistake.”
The word existent is spelled ENT. Not ANT.
“You may need a dictionary to look up acronym.”
Why? Do you imagine I have trouble with words of substance? Examine the evidence.
“As for akin, I guess your first language is not English.”
There’s that presumption we talked about. Is your bag about empty? Looks like it might be.
“I will not bring myself down to your level and dissect your final paragraph. It is enough to drive an English teacher into his grave.”
Yup. Empty. But this is actually amusing, considering who’s correcting whose work.
“When I say drive, I do not mean he went there in a car.”
Near to losing your trail, Godless one. In fact, I just lost it. Would you mind staying on topic, or at least discussing something even tangentially related to our conversation?
“I just thought I should clear that up for you.”
Your results were the opposite of your intention.
yawn.
thankyou for your long but meaningless reply.
it says precisely nothing.
i commend you for your efforts to correct my grammar. however you fail to address any of the issues pertaining to the worship of deities.
you can offer no evidence for the existence of any god,so your only avenue is to dribble away at sentence construction(at great length!).
atheism is not recognised as a religion,since there is no imagined deity that they worship.
people do not charge into battle crying ‘come on lads,lets do this for atheism’.
however they do charge into battle for god,allah,shriva,hathor,mars and zeus.
that is the problem with religion.
“I commend you for your efforts to correct my grammar.”
I didn’t correct your grammar. I corrected your spelling, spacing, punctuation and capitalization. Pay closer attention.
“However you fail to address any of the issues pertaining to the worship of deities.”
Have you ASKED me to address any of these ‘issues’ (so-called) pertaining to the worship of deities? I must have missed it if you did. You’ve just slipped into auto-pilot, haven’t you? You think every one of these conversations about your Godlessness is the same. No matter who says what to you, you’ll hear only what you decided they’re going to say, despite the actual words being spoken to you. That’s a remarkably tragic trap to be caught in, albeit a very common one.
“You can offer no evidence for the existence of any god, so your only avenue is to dribble away at sentence construction (at great length!).”
Do you mistake my doing one for an inability to do the other? Why? This is nothing but more presumption and sophistry on your part. Yet further presumption on your part is the fallacious and arrogant idea that anyone owes you ‘proof’ of anything. You are owed no such thing.
“Atheism is not recognized as a religion, since there is no imagined deity that they worship.”
Atheism is a religion. And there absolutely IS an imagined deity being worshipped in the case of the atheist. That imagined deity is the SELF of the atheist. There is no difference between Hinduism and Atheism. It is all idol worship. It is all worship of FALSE deity.
“People do not charge into battle crying ‘come on lads, let’s do this for atheism’.”
Probably true. But what HAVE they said… Let’s do it for Vladimir. Let’s do it for Joseph. Let’s do it for Mao. Are you being willfully ignorant? Or are you just a hypocrite. Maybe a bit of both, eh, Godless one?
“However they do charge into battle for god, allah, shriva, hathor, mars and zeus. That is the problem with religion.”
And your problem (one of many) is that you are arguing past what you should be examining. Religion is absurd. That is to say, the explanations given to the uninitiated by the initiates into the Higher Mysteries, is a remarkably sophomoric and logically-flawed tapestry of symbolism and imagination. But according to YOUR flawed logic, diamond does not exist because cubic zirconia DOES exist. Your argument is equally as shoddy and preposterous as that. Your argument is no argument at all.
whew, if i ever get stuck in a faulty elevator with you,i would probably turn to a deity for help…
At least when your bag of literary devices has run dry, Godless one, you still have wit and humor to fall back on.
It has been a pleasure conversing with you. Perhaps we’ll meet again in the future.
Oh, BEEF INSANITY, thank you SO MUCH for correcting the grammar of please NO god!!!
HEY, BIN Readers!!!!!!
Read up on the insane antics of the BEEF JERKY!!!!!!!!!!
At the end of what I post, below (all written by the jedida beefy boy, himself), this idiot (for christ, of course) actually posted for all his REAL name,phone numbers, email addresses and a physical address for all to see!
Keep in mind this LUNATIC for the white-skinned mangod FABLE has a wife and kid in real life, and HE PUT THEM in jeopardy, also, by his very rash, hasty, emotional, actions, ALL TO DEFEND……..A FABLE!!
BEEF SUPREME wrote:
NOW HERE THIS DANIEL
Every time you post anything on this website, I personally am going to blow up the comment section by posting the video of your THUS SAYETH YAHWEH… “EFFF YOU.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ir3QC8MnbY.
YOU DISGUSTING LIAR. YOU HAVE NO FEAR OF YHWH. YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE TRUTH.
YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE GOSPEL. YOU WILL REPENT AT ONCE OF THESE CRIMES:
1. You have falsely and fraudulently usurped for yourself the office of a prophet of the Most High
2. You have falsely and fraudulently put words of filth and vileness in the MOUTH of the Most High, when HE HAS NOT SPOKEN.
You will repent of these crimes publicly, to the men and women of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL. You will repent to the people of Messiah Yehoshua.
Wherever you go on the internet, I will find you. I will resist you at every turn. You are in GROSS VIOLATION of the LAWS and the COMMANDMENTS of YHWH ELOHIM MOST HIGH. YOU TAKE HIS NAME IN VAIN. YOU ARE A FALSE PROPHET. YOU ARE A LIAR. YOU ARE A CRIMINAL.
Thus sayeth your elder,
BEEF SUPREME
“I have repented for using the f word.”
YOU WILL REPENT for saying THUS SAYETH YAHWEH when YHWH has NOT SPOKEN.
YOU WILL REPENT FOR LYING to your brothers and sisters.
You will repent for taking His Name in VAIN.
Feb 7, 2014, 2:11 pm
BEEF SUPREME
So help me Daniel, I will make you my full-time job.
Feb 7, 2014, 2:11 pm
Right here is where “your” real smart IDIOT, jed, THE BEEF JERKY of BIN, posted his name address, email, phone numbers, and name of wife and kid.
Notice, Beef the boy was SO incensed with Anger that he posted all this again, in a separate post.
Feb 7, 2014, 1:45 pm
You are just NOWHERE as tough, or as smart, as you “thought”, eh, jed?????
Like I have written to you numerous times, WHEN I GET DONE WITH YOU, beef Boy, YOU ARE GOING TO WISH THAT YOU HAD JUST BEEN DEALING WITH A DEMON! Because this HERETIC has JUST NAILED YOU, AGAIN, YOU COWARDLY WHITE-SKINNED mangod “worshiper’!!!!!
And, I am NOT going to let you forget about your BIGGEST mistake on BIN!
Why, yes, that LUNATIC grandiose male ego of yours acted rashly, and , that day, you were Coroneted by me, as “The Pope of Pompous Galore”, BEEF JERKY!!!!
Are you still going to “Punish” me, you blow hard (for christ, of course)???
Remember, you gave me “your word” that YOU are going to GET ME, YOU FREEK IN LUNATIC!!!!!!
An obvious TOS violation, and yet, here you are, still on BIN!
Do you “practice” blowing chris to warm up for ‘your” white-skinned mangod, when he arrives to “Save” you, IDIOT
And, that act on chris does keep you hanging around BIN, right jed???
You know beefy boy, ARSE HOLE (for christ, of course, I know), I think YOU, jed BOZO the christian clown character on BIN, are the one who had better be worried about “Punishment” !!!!!
no beefy, i have not given up.
but you win because you bored me into submission.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
john rolls,
it saddens me that you are against free speech.
everytime you post an article,and someone(or in this case several people)criticise your use of a deity,you simply pull the article.
censorship is an evil thing,and has been used as a weapon throughout mankinds history. i think you should be ashamed.
i know you must feel your selected deity has been maligned,but i feel you should at least stand your corner.
if you choose to put something on a public forum,then be courageous enough to stand by it.
throwing your toys out of the pram really does not do you any justice.
Anything that separates yourself from the rest of humanity is an act of violence, because by your self promotion in being better than everyone else, it breeds violence.
Stop being a violent rabble rouser imafo. You are just a farty mammalian like the rest of us.
The Israelites were polytheistic, not monotheistic, the only Israelite that became monotheistic was King David when he captured a settlement in Judea called YHW and was impressed with the local deity. Normally when they captured a place they utterly destroyed the local deities, because their own deities were better because they beat the local ones.
There is no evidence what so ever that anyone practiced monotheism until well after 70 CE and the Israelites long gone.
The worlds first monotheistic religion, Atenism was invented by the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, c1’300 BCE. It only lasted for Amenhotep’s life time, his son Tutankhamun abolished it returning Egypt to their traditional beliefs because Atenism bankrupted Egypt in it’s attempt to enforce it on the population.
The worlds second monotheistic religion, Judaism was invented after 70 CE by the political group of wealthy influential money lenders called the Pharisees.
…….IDIOT!