04/13/24 A BUCKET WITH A HOLE IN IT

04/13/24 A BUCKET WITH A HOLE IN IT

The term, "A bottomless pit," can imply either a container with an endless capacity or a container without a bottom, which actually contains nothing.

Too many church goers are more like sieves than containers. No matter how much they "hear" or how often they "hear" it, and no matter how clearly it is said, they never really hear it.

They are deaf and blind and dead to the voice and word of God.

Just as loving family or friends watch folks walk brazenly into a life of drugs, crime, immorality, infidelity, so also do pastors watch week after week as folks walk into darkness, regardless of the light that has been shed on their pathway.

It is not because God unilaterally chose to put them into darkness or leave them in their darkness. It is because they have loved their own way and shut God out. They often take some of the blessings of God, some of the standards of God, but they do not surrender to the Lordship of God in their lives.

Loved ones watch in horror and disbelief when family or friends continue on a path of destruction. While it is true that they are deaf and blind, it is also true that they have chosen not to receive the message of God, though God has offered them the very truths that would save them and align them with God.

We have a choice about being deaf, blind, dead. We can listen and believe the call of God. God's grace and the work of His Holy Spirit is greater than the wound of sin, but God will not violate our decision to reject Him.

And remember, God does not call us to a lower level of sin and lostness; He calls and enables us to believe and receive, to hear and heed His call to be saved to the uttermost, to be forgiven of every repented sin, to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, to be more than a conqueror, to always triumph, to resist all temptation, to keep His commandments and to do that which is pleasing in His sight. He offers us GREAT SALVATION.