Monday, March 13, 2006

Stand against the oppressors of influent church men

I was thinking about the powerfull men of God but it leads me also to think about how much some supposed to be men of God use their influence in the church to gain a good position, some special priviledges, some goods or even to catch a woman in their web.

In 1 Chronicles 13: 10 It is said that the anger of the Lord burst againts Uzza and God hit him because he extended his hand to the Ark. Uzza dead there before God.

I don't really know who was Uzza, but he certainly knew the rules for serving before the Ark of the Almighty God: so why did he acted like he did ? Maybe just a reflex, or may be was he looking for a way to personnaly glorify himself as the one who rescued the Ark ? After such an act would'nt had he became a hero ?

In number we see a son of Levi Kore and Dathan and Abiram that get rebelled against Moses with two hundread fifty men saying "Why do you put yourself higher than the assembly of God?"...... (Number 16:1-40).. But in verses 9-10 Moses explained the real reason why the guys performed such a rebellion. It was envy and jealousy and because the were searching to gain the sacerdotal position, they were not contended in the position God gave them.
But God had burried them all publicly, and I can say God has judged them publicly. And their sins were revealed to the whole community: they entered alive in the place of the deads (Number 16:33): it was such an amezing and terrible judgment that all the community was afraid.

It is somewhere similar to what happened to Moses brother Aaron and Marie when they talked against Moses regarding to the ethiopian wife he took and they just said "Is it only by Moses that Go speaks doesn't he speak also by us". And God heard it. But Mose was someone very very humble. (Number 12:1-15). And this time again God judgment came upon Aaron and Mary and it was just like God as a father split on Mary and she was impure for seven days (verse 14)

What was the problem with Aaron and Mary ? They tried to use their influence in the community to take Moses position. They just tried to take advantage of this fact of "Moses takin the ethiopian wife" to accuse him of sinning and use It as an evidence of the fact that the spirit of prophecy has left him and come upon them.But all this was not God will and they got the judgment of God upon them.

The last example I looked at in Bible is in 1 Samuel were we see the two sons of Elijah, the tutor of Samuel, acting in such a bad way that irritates God. 1 Samuel 2: 17 Said that: those young men were making themselves guilty about a very great sin before God because they were not considering the offers to God. and verse 22 says When Elijah was old he heard how his children were acting before all Israel, and he learnt also that they were sexualy involved with the girls that gathered at the entry of the assignation place.

God send a prophet to rebuke Elijah because of the sins of his children and to prophesy their death, and of course that's what happened.

Why Am I talking about all this ? Because theses kind of abuses take place every time and every where in churches, in particular in our african countries.

Because of our culture a man of God is always seen as a powerfull and spiritually protected servior of the lord. In our culture we easily assume that spiritual things preceed material ones and we know that the strongest man is not the one very strong physically but the fight is won spiritually. So people just let themselves be deceived and used by those kind of men of God, and in Africa it is not rare to hear that a pastor or his right hand man has commited such faults.

Moreover when it is not about trying to get more important position, in the church or in a financial institution, or any kind of powerfull stuff, it deals also with social matters like mariage: because people are afraid to resist to the influence of a pastor or his right hand man, thinking that if they do it, they would not be well considered in the church, may be they will be excommuniated or so....

But in general those persons are not deeply involved in reading the Bible and living trought the word that's why they are easily deceived. And this fact doesn't mean they are not good christians: they can be good christians in the fact that they really believe in the power of cross, but as the child can recognize his mother and goes only to her so as can they know that jesus is the true God without knowing how to follow him. I don't know if this kind of situation is frequent in Occidental countries but in West Africa it is very common.

My concern is how is God seeing those kind of christian influent personnalities that used their influence in such bad ways ?

According to the word of God their is a judgment coming upon them, in spite of the fact that church or the people around see them as good guys, God is the one who really know evrything and weight the spirit of every man. Only he can really judge the deeper nature of a man. Every man can wear a mask for his public life.

In fact I really believe that this is an important issue to the eyes of God,as in Ezechiel 8, God shows to the prohets all the horrible hidden practices made by 70 ancients of Israel and between them there were some very well known ancients.

God shows the prophet how much the true things were far away from the facts he considered as true everyday.

So I would like you brother, if it doesn't disturb you to pray a little prayer before God, asking him to change the hearts of such christians which generaly are basicaly good christians but have catched themselves in a lying system with some false appearance, always trying to look good to the eyes of the men, but seem to be unconscious of the fact that the only judgment which is important is the one of God.

It's like they become very proud and see it as a personnal defeat to recognize they were wrong in one area or another, like what we are doing here on earth is most important thant standing before the Eternal glorious face of the Lord.

Thank you for praying God to send his holy spirit again in their lives so that he will convince them about rightousness, truth and judgment.

Thank you for praying God to change their hearts so that they become humble before him: not to the eyes of a man. And so that their adoration to the Lord be done in Spirit and truth.

Blessings

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