By: Scott Adkins, Sling ‘n Stone Ministry
Carter County Times
The holidays arrive! Many bask in an abundance of plenty – plenty of turkey, ham, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and so on. Many think this abundance is God’s blessing. But God thinks otherwise; He warns us. Proverbs 30:8-9, for example, pleads that God gives “neither poverty nor riches… lest (we) be full and deny (God), and say Who is the Lord.” The prophet Hosea records how after Israel was “filled… their heart was exalted,” and they forgot God and destroyed themselves. (Hosea 13:6-9). Even in Moses’s day, centuries before Hosea, God’s people “grew fat” (Deuteronomy 32:15) on “butter… milk… lambs, and rams… and goats.” (Deuteronomy 32:14).
Tragically, as God’s people “grew fat” with their abundance of plenty, they “forsook God… and lightly esteemed the Rock of (their) salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15). They forsook God for idols and “devils.” (Deuteronomy 32:17). As King Solomon wrote, “there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). As in Moses’s and Hosea’s day, so it is in ours. As God’s blessings and abundance rained down on us, many have “lightly esteemed the Rock of (our) salvation,” The Lord Jesus Christ.
Long ago, the Laodiceans did the same. (Revelation 3:14-22). They said “ (we) are increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” The Laodiceans’ doing so garnered not only the Lord’s undivided attention, but His fierce rebuke: “ (T)hou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (.)” (Revelation 3:17). The Lord threated to “spew the (m) out of (His) mouth.” (Revelation 3:16). But, in His mercy, the Lord urged the Laodiceans to “repent,” (Revelation 3:19), because He “st (ood) at the door, and knocked (.)” (Revelation 3:20).
Like the Laodiceans long ago, God’s people today must repent. But how? First, by “eat (ing) ()our bread with trembling,” (Ezekiel 12:18); and second, by doing as Jesus said: “Occupy till I come.” (Luke 19:13). “Occupy” doing what, exactly? Jesus tells us: We must “watch” and “every man (do) his work,” lest He come and “find (us) sleeping.” (Mark 13:34). If you’re asking, “What work must I do,” then asking the Lord what work He intends for you presents a sound starting point towards repentance.
But we needn’t wait to hear from heaven; The Lord’s Word guides us. (Psalms 119:105) (“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet.”). His Word commands we “give alms, provid (ing) for ourselves treasures in heaven” because “ (w)here our treasure is, there will be our heart also.” (Luke 19:33-34). His Word also commands we “go” into “the highways and hedges and compel (sinners) to come in that (His) house may be filled.” (Luke 14:23). Rather than bask in our abundance of plenty, grow fat, and forsake our Lord, we must obey His Great Commission (Mark 16:15) by inviting sinners to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and flee their otherwise eternal and fiery fate… lest we be filled and forget our God.
