Today, most of us are privileged to gather together with a segment of the body of Christ and worship the one true and living God. We are called together to give praise to God and to exhort one another. As you prepare to gather, let me share some words with you from Richard D. Phillips, from his commentary on the Old Testament Book of Jonah:
"If our primary concern in worship is our consumer preferences rather than the God whose name we praise, if we gaze on the wicked around us and see mainly a threat to our Christian lifestyles instead of perishing sinners in need of the gospel, and if we pray for forgiveness of our sins but justice for the agents of a wicked culture, then it cannot be doubted that the Pharisaical spirit of Jonah is in us...Jonah's resentment reveals a deep ignorance of God. He understood the Lord as his God and Israel's God but not the God of Nineveh."
Whom do you understand this morning as you gather with the body of Christ?
(taken from Jonah & Micah, Reformed Expository Commentary, p. 8)
"If our primary concern in worship is our consumer preferences rather than the God whose name we praise, if we gaze on the wicked around us and see mainly a threat to our Christian lifestyles instead of perishing sinners in need of the gospel, and if we pray for forgiveness of our sins but justice for the agents of a wicked culture, then it cannot be doubted that the Pharisaical spirit of Jonah is in us...Jonah's resentment reveals a deep ignorance of God. He understood the Lord as his God and Israel's God but not the God of Nineveh."
Whom do you understand this morning as you gather with the body of Christ?
(taken from Jonah & Micah, Reformed Expository Commentary, p. 8)
3 comments:
So many missed the Messiah because they thought he would be, like God, a warrior like David who would fight for Israel. They totally missed God the Son because they sadly did not know what God, or a spiritual warrior, looked like.
Yet many are bullied out of churches by bully pastors. Bully pastors defy Rom. 14 with zealous impunity. They demand greater loyalty to themselves than to God. Their shepherds crook quickly become a brutal cudgel if you dare disagree with the pastors decrees. They will assail you from the pulpit with Pharisaic zeal for not becoming one of their sycophants. They claim to believe that Christ is the head of the Church but their action prove otherwise. Their man made handbooks and church loyalty vows in practice supersede the word of God.
@ T. I. Miller - I am not sure I understand your comment nor now it is relevant to this quote. If you come across this type of unbiblical shepherd, leave the assembly and find one that has a godly shepherd. If you are using them as an excuse to absent yourself from the gathering of the body then you are in sin. Anything that God has given us can be corrupted and abused or abusive, so utilize maturity and discernment and understand the God of Nineveh and the God of the Bible.
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