Who's Going To Call the Shots

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Sometimes we have to talk about the wrath and judgement of God. It’s coming, and in addressing it, one can hope and pray that some will take note and run to the cross for refuge.

 

I was reading the account of  the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 today, and in verses 6 through 8 we read: “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.

 7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.

 

We live in an age where the world is again speaking one common language and it’s not English. It’s the binary language of the computer.

 

This language (the use of computer technology) has already brought about amazing things, some good and some potentially very bad.

 

AI Artificial Intelligence is the new buzz word and it’s frightening to think about the possible abuses involved, and I’m wondering. “What is God thinking about this?”

 

Will AI cross lines that weren’t meant to be crossed? Will AI eventually dictate the morality of the world, rather than the true and eternally abiding Word of God?

 

When will AI cross a line and if it does, will God say, “Enough!” as He did with Babel?  Will it be like the Psalmist who writes in  Ps 78:65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.

 

Obviously, no one can answer that question, God may just let it all ride, but in the end, when Christ returns, His certain wrath against unbelievers will be carried out.

 

But He has graciously provided a means to escape His wrath, through faith in Jesus!

Joh 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

 

The follower of Christ knows that true intelligence, true Wisdom comes from God, and in these latter days we should pay attention to what the Book of Revelation says about it!

 

Re 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is six hundred and sixty-six.

 

Will you put your trust in man via AI or trust in God?

 

This is interesting to note, and quite a coincidence. There is a city in the Bible called Ai, and it comes from a word that means, “ruin.”  I think that is the eventual outcome for those who let AI call the shots.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

A Changed Perspective

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

I was reading the 73^rd Psalm this morning and an old saying popped into my mind. I don’t know where it came from, but someone has rightly said, “This life is the only heaven that an unbeliever will know, conversely this life is the only hell a believer will know. “

It sounds flippant, but it’s very painful to ponder, especially when you consider the wayward loved ones in your life!

 

The psalmist spent most of the 73^rd Psalm lamenting the good life of the unbeliever compared to the difficult times often experienced by the believer.

 

We pick it up in Ps 73:16, “When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me- 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end.

 

One glimpse of the holiness of God (a visit to the sanctuary) and the psalmist understood the frightening end for the unbeliever, and that changed his perspective.

 

 

May it change ours as well. May it add a greater sense of urgency to our prayers and witnessing as we consider the end of those who reject Jesus.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

God Wants You To Get It

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

God really wants us to “get it” He teaches us of His justice, His mercy, and His goodness, His love  through nature, life’s circumstances and most importantly through His Word and Sacraments. It really is His desire  that all should come to repentance”.(2 Pet 3;9)

Not one word of the Holy Scriptures is wasted in that regard. 2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

Yes, ALL Scripture, even Genesis chapter 5. It’s one of those seemingly boring chapters on genealogy, following the line of Christ from Adam to Noah, but a closer look at the names of those involved tell a different story.

 

The name Adam means man.

Seth – appointed

Enos – mortal

Cainan – sorrow

Mahalaleal- the blessed God

Jared – shall descend

Enoch – initiate

Methusaleh – man of a dart

Lamech – lament, despairing,

Noah – rest

 

Put them together and you have, “Man is appointed to mortal (deadly)  sorrow on this earth, but the blessed God shall descend and initiate the dart (the arrow of the penetrating gospel)

That will give the despairing rest.

 

My friend, God really wants you and I to get it!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

No Fault Divorce Has Been Around A Long Time

  

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Heb 13:4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

 5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

 6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

We’ve been talking about marriage, (the institution that God loves Mal 2:11) and I think it’s time we in the church fessed up to the fact that we have allowed the world to define what marriage is rather than the Word of God!

 

 

Most of us have grown up in the world of “no fault” “easy” divorce, and it gets easier every day with the advent of the internet. Maybe easier on paper, but not in reality. Divorce is hard on all parties involved, just ask any spouse or child that has been affected by it!

 

There’s a reason it’s so hard….God hates it! Mal 2:16 "For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one's garment with violence. What had been one seamless garment put stitched together by God is ripped apart by divorce.

 

No fault divorce is nothing new, it was around when Jesus walked the planet and the subject was brought up in Mt 19:3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"

 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,'

 5 "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?

 6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

 

LET NOT MAN SEPARATE! Let those words ring in our ears BEFORE we tie the knot.

 

Father, forgive us for letting this matter slide, often for fear of man, we sidestep the issue, lest we offend, but from the beginning it was not so. Help us to lead the next generation to a right view of the institution that you love and forgive and heal those have been victimized. By divorce in the past.  Let us draw a line in the sand and be like that woman caught in the act of adultery. You did not condemn her, but you told her to go and sin no more.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

Beware the Greener Grass

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Heb 13:4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

 

It’s not by accident that the admonition to be content with what you have and the reminder that Jesus will never leave or forsake you follows the verse concerning undefiled marriage!

 

First of all, many marriages end up in divorce court because one of the spouses is not content with the other. Someone comes along and the spouse starts thinking, “oh my life would be so much better if I pursued this new relationship” and off they go seeking the supposed greener grass on the other side.

 

Blinded by covetousness and lust they disregard God’s command not to covet their neighbors wife! Ex 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

 

Covetousness for the sake of another lover, breaks out into the sin of adultery and the marriage bed is defiled, and what God has joined together, man has torn apart.  Countless people have fallen for this trap of the devil and many lives (yes especially the children). suffer the ensuing damage.

 

If this describes your current situation, repent! Confess your played out act of covetousness as sin, receive God’s forgiveness, deal with the ensuing consequences of your actions and  be on guard so that the sin is not repeated.

 

And if you are beginning to have thoughts of “greener grass,” make those thoughts captive to Christ and flee to His arms, remembering His model of faithfulness to His bride. Seek to be like Jesus He will never leave His bride, and you and I should never leave or forsake our mate.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

A Word About Marriage and Divorce

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Heb 13:4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

 

I find it interesting that God considers marriage “honorable among all.” Marriage was God’s idea (His institution) for all, from the very beginning!

 

When the religious leaders of the day pushed Jesus on the matter of divorce, note His reply, He took them right back to the beginning with Adam and Eve!

Mt 19:3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"

 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,'

 5 "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?

 6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

 

Think of marriage between a man and woman this way. Ideally two undefiled garments (baptized believers) mystically yet virtually made into one seamless garment in God-ordained marriage. God does the uniting and man is not to rip this garment apart in divorce or spot it with sexual unfaithfulness before marriage (fornication) or after marriage (adultery.)

 

For the most part the church has allowed the world to redefine marriage and we have lost or neglected what God intended it to be. Namely a picture of the faithful relationship between Jesus and His church.

 

Honorable, undefiled, and faithful to the end.

 

Knowing that marriage is to be a reflection of Christ’s relationship with His bride, the church, what then do we do with His assertion that He will never leave or forsake her. (Heb 13:5)

 

We must go and do likewise. Stop tearing asunder, what God has joined together.

 

Divorce is not an unforgiveable sin, but the church needs to recapture all that God’s Word says about marriage and divorce.

 

Let us relearn that marriage is God’s institution that he loves!

 

Mal 2:11 Judah has dealt treacherously, And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, For Judah has profaned The LORD'S holy institution which He loves: He has married the daughter of a foreign god.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

Remember the Prisoners

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Heb 13:3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them--those who are mistreated--since you yourselves are in the body also.

This admonition from the Book of Hebrews is really quite foreign to most “cushy” American Christians. We have freedom of religion as a guarantee in our Constitution and I don’t know about you, but I am not acquainted with any believer who is rotting in an American prison because they profess faith in Jesus Christ or engage in any form of evangelism.

 

Maybe this verse should at the very least prompt a degree of thankfulness from each of us for the freedoms we enjoy in this land. Let us thank God while we can because we can already see rumblings on the horizon, where Christian freedoms to preach, worship,  and live out our biblical values are being curtailed.

 

The Covid crisis of 2020 is a classic example of the freedom to assemble for worship being threatened by the powers that be. Attempts were made to ban public worship and that flies in the face of  Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

In the meantime, Christians in lands that we may not be familiar with are being jailed and mistreated, and though we may not know them by name. They are part of the same Body of Christ that we are……therefore put yourself in their shoes (chain yourself to them) and keep them in your prayers.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word