Eze 14:3 "Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?
Certain elders come to the prophet, wanting to consult the LORD about certain things, but God sees their hearts, that their heart is joined to idols. The faces of their hearts are away from God, and the eyes of their hearts are looking at abominations that are stumbling blocks of their iniquity.
Our idols so cling to our hearts and block our vision of God. We can be holding on to our idols in our hearts and looking at idols in our minds and yet still try to hear a word from God.
God will not speak any word to us, except demand for repentance. We cannot give just our ears to the LORD, but must give our heart, eyes, face, our whole self.
Eze 14:5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
When our hearts are enjoined to idols, and our face is turned toward God, no matter where we are geographically, spiritually we are estranged from God. We are far from Him, though our bodies may be near, even in front of Ezekiel the prophet.
Eze 14:9 And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10 And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike—
The only ever word God gives idolaters is "REPENT". There is no other word. But anyone who tells idolaters any other word than repentance are false prophets.
Repentance is all we need to hear. Our whole life must be repentance after repentance, turning constantly away from distractions and beholding God. Only then God will speak words of comfort. Those who do not repent do not deserve any other words from God.
Also we see here that GOD has deceived the false prophet. If we refuse the word of repentance from our idols, God will give the words that we want to hear - only to our demise and condemnation.
False prophets exist in this world by God's decree so that idolaters can be separated from true worshippers of God. Those who love idols, will listen to false prophets and therefore prove themselves to be idolaters.
Those who love God, will bear the word of repentance, and persevere in continuous repentance of their sins until God gives them another word of grace.
Eze 14:18 though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
This passage on Noah, Daniel and Job clearly teach that salvation is an individual affair. These Israelites were probably were relying on the "few righteous" who were in their city, thinking that God would not destroy the city because of those. They never bother themselves to become these righteous, but they relied to others to save them. But God's word is that even if the best of believers from the history of mankind were there, they would not be saved. One cannot rely on the piety of others, or push responsibility on the few good men, thinking they would save the whole. EACH soul that sins, shall die.
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Psa 16:1 A Miktam of David. Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
Psa 16:2 I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
Psa 16:3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
Psa 16:4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
Psa 16:5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
Psa 16:6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Psa 16:7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
Psa 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Psa 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.
Psa 16:10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
Psa 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
What we see here is the joy of worshiping YHWH as God.
The sorrows of those who RUN after another god multiply. They go from sorrow to sorrow.
But David has chosen the LORD as his God, as his good, as his portion. As his everything.
Therefore he "delights" in the saints of God. He considers the lot that he has given him "pleasant" and "beautiful". His heart is "glad", his whole being "rejoices". In God's presence is "fullness of joy" and "pleasures" forevermore.
Idols promise joy, but their joy is fleeting, and at the end is eternal death. Only God gives the resurrection life to be enjoyed forever v10.
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Luk 6:2 But some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"
Luk 6:3 And Jesus answered them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
Luk 6:4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?"
Jesus is asking the Pharisees: "What is the TRUE Sabbath lawfulness?" These disciples are hungry. They need food. Feeding them IS lawful because it is loving.
These laws of Judaism were not even the laws of God. The law of God is not so inflexible. In it are concessions based on the law of love. Why should these Pharisees be so angry and rigid with the human laws that they have made for themselves when even God is not so rigid with his own law? Such is the sin of pride.
Luk 6:5 And he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."
What this must mean, is that Son of Man rules over the Sabbath and all its laws and regulations. Human beings are not under a different authority on Sabbath day. The Son of Man has greater authority over what happens on the Sabbath than these Rabbis with their "protection" around the Torah. The Christ has the last say on what a Sabbath should be, not what these legalistic Jews made it to be. Christ RULES the Sabbath as well, and makes decision on what is lawful and what is not. And, the rule is LOVE.
Luk 6:8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, "Come and stand here." And he rose and stood there.
Luk 6:9 And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?"
These Jews had become so phobic of breaking the Sabbath, that they forbade people from doing ANYTHING, neither good or bad. But they had gone too far. They should have allowed good to be done, related to saving of lives.
It will be they that will be breaking the Sabbath (destroying life), by planning to kill Jesus on that holy day.
Luk 6:11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
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1Jn 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1Jn 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
1Jn 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The Father had an intense desire to adopt fallen human beings as His children. The Son also had the intense desire for human beings to experience all that it is to be a child of God, and to have the Holy Spirit. So, Christ laid down His life for us, that we may partake in His sonship, by swapping places with us, dying the condemned death that we should have died, that we may indeed be called and be the children of God.
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All human beings desire to be like God.
Adam and Eve fell to sin when they desired to be like God, and decided to choose Good and Evil for themselves.
But God still wants us to be like Him. That's what being a child of God is all about. A Son is supposed to be like the Father.
It's just He wants us to be like Him the PROPER way. He doesn't want us to desire the power, sovereignty beauty, strength of Him.
Because when we desire only those things, then we become just like Satan, and other demonic angels, who desired to be like God in only those things, the powerful things, the glory and majesty and authority and power and might.
You cannot pick and choose what part of God you want to be like. To love only a part of God, is to hate the whole of Him.
And how subtle did the Devil use this truth to tempt our first parents? The Devil knew that human being's goal and purpose was to be like God - but he changed the focus to get Adam and Eve to imitate the WRONG PARTS of God.
This is why Jesus Christ came to this world: to teach us how to REALLY be like God. And how did Jesus show what God is like? By dying. Through crucifixion Jesus showed God's love, righteousness, patience, holiness, humility, goodness, faithfulness.
The cross showed God's character, what God is REALLY like. And this God, Jesus Christ, urges us to "follow Him" - meaning, "Become LIKE Me. Take up the cross. Die for love and holiness, die in humility, gentleness, meekness, kindness".
This is the part of God that we are to strive to be like. "Be Holy as I am Holy". Then we are called the Children of God. We bear after His image.
And when we have lived this life in holiness - being like God in His character - then we shall in the next life be like Him in glory, authority and power. We will reign with Christ in the New Earth.
Yet even in heaven, we will give all glory and honour and power to Him. Because we know that the greatest thing is to be like God in His holiness, in His mercy and love and righteousness and goodness and gentleness. God is LOVE but God is not "Power". To be love is to be truly to be like Him. Such truth the devil the counterfeit god will never understand.
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