It all started when my pastor said one of his favorite words in Greek sounded like "Go Goose Moose." That seemed like a lighthearted start for a sermon, but.... My pastor is preaching through Hebrews. My friend, James White, is also preaching through Hebrews. Coincidence? I think not. I am being double dipped in the truths of God found in Hebrews. Any time you get immersed in double portions of truth you are bound to be convicted. My guilt glands are definitely swollen, and for good reason.
My notes from this morning's sermon have a couple of things that weigh heavily on my mind.
1) Complaining is unbelief.
2) Unbelief is evil.
Complaining and grumbling are my specialties. The term gongusmoo means to grumble. The kind of grumbling that is under the surface and incessant, like a dripping faucet. Grousing. In Australia we called it whinging. Whinging is not a clear objection that addresses the source of the unhappiness, it's annoying and persistent; more like the cowardly complaint. That's me. For all my bravado, I am mostly a coward.
Like the Israelites (who had suffered slavery, seen the plagues and been delivered from pharaoh's attempts to reclaim them by the miraculous means of God) no matter how faithful God has been to me, I still kvetch and snivel. I lose sight of the fact that my soul is free and worry about every little inconvenience in my life as if it were a matter of biblical significance. As if the God who has promised good to me and not evil and has promised to see the work begun in me through to completion only half meant it. Oh sure, He could work everything together for good if He wanted to, but He's tired and going to let me work things out the best way I know how. I am the exception.... right? Wrong. But it's hard to have a pity party and be faithful. In fact, it's impossible. If someone could be full of self-pity and fully dependent on God at the same time, I'd be the one to do it, or so I would like to think.
Unbelief is evil. Complaining is unbelief. Therefore complaining is evil. There isn't much you can do with that but repent about complaining and beg for mercy. This is especially powerful and discouraging for me during this period of my life because quite frankly, I don't like anything or anybody right now. I don't want to be held captive by these circumstances. I don't want to have to make adjustments in my lifestyle to accommodate physical limitations. I don't want to have to lose my freedom and depend on people to help me do my gardening, my house cleaning and my shopping. I don't want a short blog article like this one to take me 4 days to type. I don't want to be injured so I sure as heck don't want surgery. I don't want take drugs to get through a day. I don't want a body that can't derive B12 from food. I could go on and on about what ails me, but it won't fix anything. The important thing is I also don't want to be the faithless, lost, miserable woman I once was. As bad as things are for me now, that was worse. As much as I dislike most of the inhabitants of the world today, including myself, I know a good night's sleep, some time in prayer and an attitude adjustment from God is going to change that, so no allowing myself to grumble and whinge. No more go goose mooses for me.
Hebrews 3:12-4:3
12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.
13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is {still} called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;
15 while it is said, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me."
16 For who provoked {Him} when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt {led} by Moses?
17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 And {so} we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
CHAPTER 4
1 Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
(NAS)
My notes from this morning's sermon have a couple of things that weigh heavily on my mind.
1) Complaining is unbelief.
2) Unbelief is evil.
Complaining and grumbling are my specialties. The term gongusmoo means to grumble. The kind of grumbling that is under the surface and incessant, like a dripping faucet. Grousing. In Australia we called it whinging. Whinging is not a clear objection that addresses the source of the unhappiness, it's annoying and persistent; more like the cowardly complaint. That's me. For all my bravado, I am mostly a coward.
Like the Israelites (who had suffered slavery, seen the plagues and been delivered from pharaoh's attempts to reclaim them by the miraculous means of God) no matter how faithful God has been to me, I still kvetch and snivel. I lose sight of the fact that my soul is free and worry about every little inconvenience in my life as if it were a matter of biblical significance. As if the God who has promised good to me and not evil and has promised to see the work begun in me through to completion only half meant it. Oh sure, He could work everything together for good if He wanted to, but He's tired and going to let me work things out the best way I know how. I am the exception.... right? Wrong. But it's hard to have a pity party and be faithful. In fact, it's impossible. If someone could be full of self-pity and fully dependent on God at the same time, I'd be the one to do it, or so I would like to think.
Unbelief is evil. Complaining is unbelief. Therefore complaining is evil. There isn't much you can do with that but repent about complaining and beg for mercy. This is especially powerful and discouraging for me during this period of my life because quite frankly, I don't like anything or anybody right now. I don't want to be held captive by these circumstances. I don't want to have to make adjustments in my lifestyle to accommodate physical limitations. I don't want to have to lose my freedom and depend on people to help me do my gardening, my house cleaning and my shopping. I don't want a short blog article like this one to take me 4 days to type. I don't want to be injured so I sure as heck don't want surgery. I don't want take drugs to get through a day. I don't want a body that can't derive B12 from food. I could go on and on about what ails me, but it won't fix anything. The important thing is I also don't want to be the faithless, lost, miserable woman I once was. As bad as things are for me now, that was worse. As much as I dislike most of the inhabitants of the world today, including myself, I know a good night's sleep, some time in prayer and an attitude adjustment from God is going to change that, so no allowing myself to grumble and whinge. No more go goose mooses for me.
Hebrews 3:12-4:3
12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.
13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is {still} called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;
15 while it is said, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me."
16 For who provoked {Him} when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt {led} by Moses?
17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 And {so} we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
CHAPTER 4
1 Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
(NAS)
Comments