Still in Love with Myself

Yesterday, I commented on an application of the commandment "Love they neighbor as thyself."  Today, that commandment still rumbles in my soul, especially as I came across the Facebook post about ISIS beheading 21 Christians and this story about hundreds of children being released from child slavery.

I sit here, realizing that I am beyond measure blessed.  Blessed.

Yesterday, our pastor asked, "Will be accountable for what we don't know?"

I have to think that, yes, we will.  

The more we are blessed, the blinder we seem to become, taking all these blessings for granted, expecting them to always continue.  That, though, is not the covenant that God has made with us:  that the blinder we become, the more He will bless us.  Not, not at all.

Please consider this scripture from Ezekiel:

59“ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. 60 Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. 62 So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63 Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

Then, from yesterday's Sunday School literature, Nehemiah 9:32-39:

32“Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. 33In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.34Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. 35Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.  36“But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. 37Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.38“In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”

Side Note:  Re-read the above scripture and, instead of Israelites and Jerusalem, substitute Americans and the USA.  Almost scary, right?

What can I do?  What can you do?  We can pray.  Just call on His Name. For as James 2:19 states: "You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror."  That, my friends, is what we need. We need the enemy, the devil to tremble in terror.

The example for us in scripture after scripture is that the people have to return to where they left God; that begins with prayer.  Then deeds.

When read in context, this scripture in James 2 expects "deeds" to go along with that faith.  I do not have all the answers to which deeds need to be taken.  God does.  He will lead us.  If we return to Him.  That is the covenant.