Stand Your Post - Part 1

 

Ecclesiastes 10:4 “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post; For conciliation pacifies great offenses.”

 

This week, Micheal writes: If we leave our post even for a little while, a lot of destruction can happen. The old saying goes: In a little while, a little fly can putrefy the perfumer’s ointment. In leaving our post, our reputation can be sullied and many followers will fall. The Bible has many warnings about men and women who had stood for God and the integrity of His word. According to Romans, Do you who say, “don’t commit adulatory, commit adulatory?” As men and women of God, and servants of the most high God, may our prayer be: “Keep me in the hollow of thy holy hand... that I would be a witness unto you to your glory and honor.”

In my own flesh dwelleth no good thing. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Our redemption is not through our own works. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.Therefore keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Sin thrives in darkness and isolation. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We’re called to the body of Christ to build up one another and to encourage one another in love.  

Pride blinds us from our weakness. Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. The love of Jesus keeps us pure in heart. In His presence we develop a “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” If we focus on sin, we’ll fall deeper into sin. Sin means to miss the mark. The emphasis on the Greek word for sin “hamartia” is not on the missing of the mark but on the mark itself. Therefore, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Ecclesiastes 10:4 says, despite the battle raging around you, don’t leave your post: “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post; For conciliation pacifies great offenses.”

Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet.” He loved the children of Israel whom God had called him to minister. He delivered God’s message for the tribes of Judah to return their hearts to the Lord. Despite his repeated warnings that they would be carried away into captivity if they did not repent, Judah continued to forsake the Lord.  

Despite God’s dire warnings about the consequences of Israel’s sin, there are also great and precious promises for God’s people. The choice is always truth or consequences. Jeremiah 24:7 is about repentance: “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”

Let's continue Michael's message of standing your post in the next post.

In Christ, Brian