Call Upon The Lord

“And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.” Joel 2:32

Dear Congregation,

          This is one of those verses that comes at the end of an unsettling passage and offers its own clarity and a respite. In Joel chapter two we read about the great and terrible day of the Lord. The description of that day is one we consider with some trepidation. The Scriptures make it clear that the enemies of God and those who have refused to believe in Him will not fare well. While we intellectually recognize they get what they have earned, it still does not comfort us to hear it. So the above verse is one that soothes and redirects our attention to where it needs to be. The day may be terrible but the Lord will save those who call upon Him and trust in Him.

          It always amazes me when I read through the Old Testament and particularly the prophets, to see that the attitudes of their day parallel our own society. When times are good and the harvest is plentiful, God’s commands are forgotten and new religion is explored. Amazingly, when the times are bad and people are suffering, God is cursed and still disbelieved. Humanity has the same pattern through the millennia. Yet, we can be thankful that the Lord God also has consistency through the ages. The remnant in any century that believes in and calls upon the Lord will be saved! His mercy is everlasting.

          As a twenty first century church we are naturally unsettled when we encounter so much unbelief. We want to see people come to faith and yet so much seems to act as a barrier to that. Our struggles are no different than what the true remnant church has dealt with in biblical times or in all of history. When the Holy Spirit convicts a person, he or she recognizes they are without hope and calls upon the name of the Lord. If that person has hope in something material they will not call upon the Lord. We can thank God that we see our brokenness and that He alone can fix it. We pray for revival, perhaps we should also pray for desperation. Pray for people to know the need of God. In the great and terrible Day of the Lord He will be the needed lifeline. Calling upon him will be so soothing and overwhelmingly satisfying. May it be so now! Praise Him that He has made belief in the Gospel so simple, that it has not changed and we can call upon Him any time any where and know His salvation, His presence, and His peace.

In Christ,

Pastor Basile

God Sees and Works

Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ” Ezekiel 8:12

Dear Congregation,

     This passage gives us another glimpse into the actions and attitude of backslidden Israel in the days near the captivity and exile. Ezekiel is shown abominable acts committed by leaders on temple property. The verse highlights that they ceased to fear the Lord and feared only the criticism or judgment of other people. Not only that, but they created their own new theology concerning God. Since God was largely speaking through a minority of prophets at this point in history they could dismiss God as having abandoned the land or earth. God did not see them because they had declared it so.

          First lets remember that we do not get to dictate or decide what God can and cannot do. We also cannot make assumptions about God based on our own experiences. All of our understanding of the Lord must come from His revealed Word. Therefore God always sees all things, God is always with His true people despite appearances, and God will always have final justice and victory no matter how it may appear to the contrary. I have often noted in Sunday sermons how people do not change through history, and their actions are cyclical. We can say much of our own culture, indeed, even of “Christians” today to match the above verse. People as a whole can recognize evil generally yet they still practice it because in secret there is the pretense of privacy. Society has dismissed God from the largest public forums because as they judge it, He has abandoned the Earth or never existed. Therefore we have become the law makers and the law breakers. What we know from Ezekiel’s prophecy as a whole is that these elders were terribly mistaken. So the modern idolaters and leaders who dismiss God’s word are as well.

          We as the Bible believing church in the 21^st century can take warning from this passage and also be encouraged by it. God has not forsaken the earth or His church and His Word is still powerful and effective despite what our news and entertainment sources would like us to believe. When society walks away from the path of Christ we know that God is neither ignorant of nor powerless to deal with its actions. We can find our strength and solace in the firm unchanging truth of the Gospel and we can know that He is God and does rule and will rule. Justice will be done, the saints will be vindicated, the Church will be triumphant, and all will be put right because of the real, objective, revealed Lord Jesus Christ! Let us call out sin for what it is and not cover it up. Let us proclaim the Gospel as the only solution, and be about the Father’s business till He come.

In Christ,

Pastor Basile