Can We Do Something?
It’s been said that no one can do everything but everyone can do something. Sadly, we like our comfort so we often refuse to even look at what needs to be done. If we don’t read or hear about it, we feel “off the hook” to do anything about it.
Isaiah 32:9-10 say, “Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.” These verses can prick a conscience.
Isaiah was warning these women who were living in ease. In their wealth and ease, they did not bother with the needs of others. They were not affected by the poverty around them. He warns them that they will not be so comfortable for long. Soon, there will be no fruit to gather and no “joyous houses” (verse 13) left in the city.
At this moment in time the Christian world is talking about the injustices and flat out horrors of Planned Parenthood. But, what are we doing to try to end it? We were vocal about our outrage at the political legalization of “homosexual marriage.” Now, we have forgotten and allowed it all to be “water under the bridge,” believing we can’t “fix it” (event though we still know it’s broken).
We continue to live our comfortable lives. We allow the complacency of being able to read and complain on social media to be enough for us. We live lives of ease while evils triumph. We talk like we care but we do nothing. Faith without works is dead. James 2:17.
That culture of death and destruction is coming closer to those who are complacent. I know that this includes me. We ignore the expectations the Lord has of us in our times of plenty, including the expectation to act against evil (Ephesians 5:11) in the world. In his commentary on these verses, Matthew Henry makes a pointed observation. He says, “The abuse of plenty is justly punished with scarcity.” Is what we hear about scarcity coming to us true?
Scarcity may come in food or money — or joy. It may show up in the family (as our culture is working hard to destroy it). We may experience scarcity in preaching of the Word of God as He gives us understanding of what life without Him may be like (Amos 8:11). None of these are appealing but it would be understandable if God would allow us to know this kind of scarcity as He has seen scarcity of faith, obedience to His Word and action proving our love for Him.
None of us can right every wrong in this world. None of us, though, can justifiably sit by in complacency and allow it all to happen because we are so busy enjoying the good life as babies are murdered and the family is undermined.
We can’t do everything but we can do something. What will you and I do to get out of our comfortable complacency?
Greetings Beth,
In answer to your last question, one thing I have done to get out of my comfortable complacency is to take seriously what God has commanded His people to do and to remind my brothers and sisters in Christ of His commands.
Clearly, God’s people are being destroyed more and more each day in various ways throughout the world. My concern is in regard to God’s command to “come out from among them, and be ye SEPARATE and touch not the unclean thing AND [then] I will receive you AND will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be MY sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:17,18.
In 2 Cor. 6:14 we are told to not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what FELLOWSHIP hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion [community – common unity] hath light with darkness?
Fellowship – a friendly association or group of people with the SAME interest, company, or BROTHERHOOD. Webster’s New World Dictionary
Do God’s people have the same interest as the unregenerate people in the community or as the secular humanistic government? If not, then what fellowship do we have with these unregenerate people and their unregenerate government? Please answer this question because I can’t think of a thing God’s people have in common with the unregenerate people in the community and their unregenerate secular government.
I do not expect that you will respond but I am certain that God wants me to ask these types of questions in the hope that He will move you to prayerfully consider them and in good faith respond and at least attempt to answer them. I genuinely want to KNOW how you would answer these questions if our Lord should ask.
Exactly what happened at the point in time that we were born anew and changed by the sovereign power of the Spirit of God from a “natural man or woman” into a spiritual “man or woman?”
If “all things have become new” at that point in time then would this not include our change of “standing” in relation to other unregenerate people in the community as well as our relationship with the secular government? If not why not? That is my question and few there are who are willing to consider this question and share their thoughts with me. Why is this? If I were to question your REFORMED beliefs you would be quick to answer my questions.
“Now WE have received NOT the spirit of the world, But the Spirit of God; that we might KNOW the things that are FREELY GIVEN TO US of God. Which things also WE SPEAK, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the NATURAL MAN [natural person aka unregenerate human being] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he KNOW them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him.” BUT WE [regenerate converted spiritual men and women of God] HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST. 1 Cor. 2: 12 – 16 Perhaps it is time to access the mind of Christ in order to answer questions such as the ones I am asking.
This passage clearly tells us that our status or standing in relation to other unregenerate people in the community has CHANGED and that WE are no longer “natural men and women of the world but NOW all things have become NEW including our standing.
Due to this change, we are now to “owe no man any thing but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. ” We are to love our neighbor as ourselves but we are not to be unequally yoked with our neighbor as “members” of and in the secular humanistic community since we are to be separate from the unregenerate neighbors as far as our fellowship is concerned as we are NOW a peculiar people of God’s own. We are His property and He owns us. We BELONG to Him, not to some secular government or community. God has separated us from the other [unregenerate] people in the world to be ambassadors for Christ. Our calling is to CALL OUT His elect from among the peoples in the nations to be transformed by Holy Spirit by being reconciled to God.
I know your ministry is to women and I pray daily for God to bless your ministry. I also know that quite often women are more open to embracing the truth than we men are. As help meets our wife considers our questions and struggles from their different point of view and it is wise for us to consider the subject matter as seen from our wife’s point of view.
Perhaps your husband could share with me his understanding of the change of standing that occurs when we are born anew and become a people of God’s own that belong to Him and Him only.
Truly, I am only seeking the truth. If God wants me to pledge my allegiance and fidelity to the United States federal government, register and vote for men then I want to do that. But, honestly, I cannot see how I can pledge my allegiance and fidelity to two (2) sovereigns.
Peace be upon your house and family
Harry