Preach the Gospel!!!

Judges 8:22

Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.”23 But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.”

That’s the response of a true servant, someone who is humble enough to realize all the strength they have been given is from the Lord. All the victories that he was told would happen are from the mouth of the Lord. The people wanted a ruler, the people wanted a leader and they failed to look at the One who was already leading them.

That’s what the Christian church is doing today; we are looking for mere men to lead instead of someone who is completely sold out to Who Christ is.

Pastors and leaders today are so concerned about fitting in, so concerned about what everyone else is doing, that the church is looking more and more like the world rather than what God designed it to be.

The bible tells us that God will build His church, but now churches are having rock concerts with a light show and a fog machine, for what? We are downplaying the gospel and saying we are trying to reach this generation….Jesus will draw all men to Himself!!!!

The church needs to wake up, preach the gospel, preach repentance and stop trying to look or sound cool; we need to stop associating ourselves with those who preach another gospel.

To understand the fear of the Lord

Proverbs 2:1-5

My son, if you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
 turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
 indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
 and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.

Do we see the direction that is laid out for us,the progression that leads to an understanding of what the fear of the Lord is?

First one is accepting His Words, which is to take complete hold of, to take it as truth, to believe it with your whole heart. That's a big step because if we accept it as truth then there's a responsibility that we must consider as Mark 4:24 states “Consider carefully what you hear,”, really think about what you hear, and consider what you really hold dear to yourself.

The next one is to store up my commands, that is hiding it as a treasure since you believe it completely you hold it so dearly. Like the man who sold everything to buy a field that had the ultimate treasure. Its the same word used in chapter 10 of Proverbs "The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin." If we desire to be wise than will desire to store up knowledge.

Which leads to the next action of turning our ear to wisdom, continually turning to hear what true wisdom is which is knowledge that is applied to life in which we should be applying our heart to understanding. The writer directs us to cry aloud, to look for it, to search it out as something precious.

How valuable does this sound?

How important is this?

When I really desire this then I will really seek it and heed what is explained, The Lord who inspired all of scripture knows how we are, knows the direction we can go. That why He gives these steps, thats shows a love we can never explain.

God is saying if you want to understand Me accept what I say, store it in your heart, turn your ear to hear, apply all that you are learning, call out for it, look for it, search for it intently.....then you will understand what the fear of the Lord is.