\u201cLet the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.\u201d \u2013 Psalms 141\u201d5<\/p>\n
What happened to Christianity? A short answer is that for the most part it has ceased to be the church, the Body of Christ. In particular, professing Christians ceased to be possessing Christians. Life became all about them, and not about God. More disastrous, conviction is practically non-existent. Further, it is plagued by the consequences of living in the shadows and mitigated by numerous hirelings and heretics. Their main purpose is to pander to individuals who believe that God is a supernatural genie that grants an endless supply of wishes. Few people will suffer any inconveniences to discover how to obey God\u2019s will, much less obey it. Fewer still will enter the fellowship of Christ\u2019s sufferings.<\/p>\n
Remember the old song, \u201cJesus use me, and oh Lord don\u2019t refuse me. Surely there\u2019s a work that I can do. And even though it\u2019s humble, Lord help my will to crumble. Though the cross be great I\u2019ll work for You.\u201d? There are few songs with that message today.<\/p>\n
Well, there is nothing that brings about humbleness in a true believer like a rebuke. When our will needs to disintegrate and become lost in His will, the major hindrance to that process will be rebuked. Call it conviction or godly sorrow, it is necessary. The door to that process stands open continually, but seldom does the shadow of a surrendered life fall on the threshold.<\/p>\n
Can we agree from the depths of our hearts with the last line in the second verse of \u201cDraw Me Nearer,\u201d \u201c\u2026and my will be lost in thine\u201d?\u00a0 Oh the joy of God\u2019s rebukes! The tears wash away the scales from our blinded eyes to recognize our fallibility melting in the light of His infallibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the deer pants for the waterbooks\u2026\u201d He has been running, perhaps from a predator. He is thirsty. He hears the noise of its life and longs to quench his longing. \u201cSo my soul pants for You, O Lord.\u201d (Psalm 42:1).<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.\u201d \u2013 Proverbs 9:8<\/p>\n
\u201cPoverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, But he who regards (Hebrew: shamar = gives heed to) a rebuke will be honored.\u201d \u2013 Proverbs 13:18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLet the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.\u201d \u2013 Psalms 141\u201d5 What happened to Christianity? A short answer is that for the most part it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-the-remnant","category-the-great-apostasy","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-iA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1401,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}