Loving the Word with the MudPreacher

What a Blessed day of Thanksgiving for God and His Reign! “Thy will be done on earth just as it is in heaven!” But obviously California is exempt from God’s Will. Today Maureen Dowd published a little article titled “Gay marriage on the rocks” In it she quotes: “Feinstein felt sure that gays who have been married in the state since June are still married. “You can’t redact it,” she said. “You can’t blot it out. It’s so intrinsic to the Constitution that you cannot remove it by a vote of the people.” Jerry Brown, the California attorney general who is also featured in the archival reels in “Milk” from his days as governor, agreed: “I believe those are valid,” he told me, saying that he will argue in the appeal before the state Supreme Court that there cannot be “a retroactive invalidation of these marital contracts.”

I never realized that sodomite marriage was such an intrinsic part of the Constitution of the United States. It must be a ‘California thing’. Jerry Brown says he will argue against the invalidation of these ‘contracts’, saying that they were valid. I realize I live in a world far removed from California, but I see marriage as much more than a ‘contract’. Besides, aren’t contracts meant to be broken? Isn’t that what lawyers do all the time?

I perform weddings as a mudpreacher, and I always point out to the couples that they are engaging in a marriage covenant, and the authority for that covenant is God’s Word. God has ordained marriage as an institution of His design. There are so many pictures of His relationship with us that are seen in a God-ordained marriage. That is why the corruption of the institution of marriage is a reflection of the corruption of our relationship with Jehovah God, the Covenant keeping God.

It may not seem ‘fair’ to invalidate these ‘contracts’ because of the vote of the people according to California law, But it is perfectly “JUST” according to God’s Law. In fact something very similar happened almost 3000 years ago, when the remnant Jews re-discovered the authority of God’s Law. After reading God’s Word for the first time in 70 years, the remnant Jews realized that they had married women not allowed by God’s Word. They reached a decision in unity-we must put away these wives, even if there are children. We must “redact” these marriages in order to obey God’s law! I remember reading Ezra 9 & 10 as a teenager and getting sick at my stomach when I thought of men getting rid of their wives and children. It did not seem “fair”. God dealt with my heart through several revelations of His Sovereignty in my life, and I now understand that this world is not about me and you, it is about God! When I center my thinking and my heart upon the Word of God, I understand that God Reigns and we must obey. That was the point of Ezra 9 & 10. Read the account of how this unfolds:

Ezr 9:1-7 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all of this!” When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and my robe and ripped out some of the hair from my head and beard. Then I sat down, quite devastated. Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering. At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the LORD my God. I prayed, ‘O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens.  From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and priests, have been delivered over by the local kings to sword, captivity, and plunder, and embarrassment— right up to the present time.

Of course, if you do not hold the Words of God in awe, you will do as you please. But if you DO hold the Word of God in awe, you will choose to obey His Word. This is what the remnant of Jews chose to do in the restored Jerusalem. They were standing amidst a graphic picture of the results of NOT obeying God’s Word. They were standing amidst the ruins of one of the grandest cities of all time, Jerusalem. That mighty city and nation had been utterly destroyed by invaders because a few years earlier the people had not obeyed God’s Law, nor obeyed the warnings of His Prophets.

The account of Ezra continues:

Ezra 10:1-5 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites — men, women, and children alike — gathered around him. The people wept loudly. Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra:  “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the local peoples. Nevertheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. Therefore let us enact a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in keeping with your counsel, my lord, and that of those who respect the commandments of our God. And let it be done according to the law. Get up, for this matter concerns you. We are with you, so be strong and act decisively!”So Ezra got up and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take an oath to carry out this plan. And they all took a solemn oath.

The people made an oath to follow God’s Law. Ezra continues:

Ezra 10:10-12 “Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel. Now give praise to the LORD God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents and from these foreign wives.” All the assembly replied in a loud voice: “We will do just as you have said!”

Everyone wants to know and experience God today. There is a great rise of ‘spirituality’ in America, indeed throughout the world. These people in Ezra wanted to know God as well. They read His word, and God revealed Himself to them, but in that revelation, they realized they had sinned against God. There can be no relationship with the True God without dealing with our sin. Any sense of spirituality we may have must have an antidote to the sin that curses our lives. That antidote is Jesus Christ. It is not our praise, our prayers, our ‘goodness’ that brings God into our lives. It is what Jesus Christ has done and our embracing of Him that makes us ‘accepted’ in the Beloved. Jesus Christ fulfilled the stringent requirements of God’s Law and His Holiness. Only when our lives are “in Christ” do we have forgiveness and acceptance before Jehovah God.

We must be willing to follow God’s Word. We must hold His Word in awe! We must be willing to separate ourselves from the foolishness of this world and submit our will and world view to the Word of God! It may be difficult to invalidate these sodomite marriages, and certainly result in hardship and hurt, but the law must be obeyed. America is a great nation because of our laws! Obedience to those laws is the bedrock of the American Society. You may cry “You can’t blot it out!” but the truth is we must. We must obey God’s Word! If we stiffen our neck and close our ears to God, we ourselves will be blotted out.  Exodus 32:33 warns: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” Praise God, we have a Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the guarantee that our sins will be blotted out, and we will be in God’s Book of Life.

As Colossians 2:14 proclaims:

“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”.  Praise God for His great love for us, that through the sacrifice of His Son, our sins would be blotted out and nailed to that horrible cross.

Obedience to God’s Word should be the bedrock of our lives. Anything else results in following a false god of our own making. Anything else will result in you being blotted out of God’s book. May you live a life of Thanksgiving because you enjoy Jehovah God living in you through Jesus Christ!