"My Sheep Listen to my voice"

It is difficult to understand how, in such a very short period of time, a relative handful of citizens could completely overthrow thousands of years of established laws, long-standing customs and viewpoints. Who would have thought that the traditional and biblical views of marriage would be set aside in favor of “something new.”  And not just in our secular culture but in our churches as well.  We are witnessing leaders, who used to be committed to speaking the “words of the Lord,” now give themselves over to the promotion of things the Lord has called an “abomination.’’  
 
That’s why I spend so much time reading the Old Testament Prophets. Things got so bad in their culture that God had to send special messengers with “the Word of the Lord” on their lips, since no one seemed to be paying attention to what He had already told them. Listen to these words from 2 Kings 17:38-41: “(the Lord said) ‘Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.’ They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.”  Now I can gripe and complain and become disgusted at what is happening in our general culture, but that isn’t really who my primary audience is. What was angering the Lord was that His own people, who were in a covenant relationship with Him, weren’t listening to what He was telling them. Instead of concerning themselves with what was ”right” and “wrong” they preferred to let the world tell them what was “cool” or “un-cool.”  But we can’t afford to live that way. In our own day, many Christians are taking their cues from the culture instead of being an influence upon their culture. Make no mistake, we are in a culture war. That war began when God first laid down His law to Adam and Eve and won’t let up until the Enemy is finally and eternally dealt with. But in the meantime Christian are on the front lines and must begin to act like soldiers instead of observers. “God has spoken” is our rallying cry and we must not be seduced by the siren songs of a people who no longer car what God says.  To paraphrase Forrest Gump, “a Christian is as a Christian does.”  We have no right to call ourselves children of  God unless we are truly committed to thinking, speaking and acting like children of God.  The only
alternative is to become traitors to the cause we claim to support. Jesus said: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).  It’s time we started listening to the only voice that really speaks with authority.


 

---