2435AFC083024 – WHAT DO WE WANT TO DO?
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Deuteronomy 4:6-8 – 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
Psalm 15:1-2 –
t1 O Lord, who may abide in your tent? [Tabernacle]
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
and speak the truth from their heart;
James 1:21 b-22 – welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
Mark 7:21-23 – 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Today we have another instance where suddenly we can see that there is a series happening, and we had not recognized it. the series is about “Everybody makes choices.” How often have we all used that as a disparaging remark? Yes, we make choices – As Mark Twain opined, ““Good decisions come from experience, and a lot of experience comes from bad decisions.” Doesn’t that sound about right Belovéd? I have noticed that – once again, without my expecting it – that we are running a series here. The first post in the series was 2433AFC081624 – A Tasty Choice. There we learned that getting to know God is like choosing something by taking a little taste of it. O Taste and see that the Lord is good. We also learned that choices, discernment, decisions – all of these have consequences. One very good choice we can make is to recognize that it is indeed God’s Will that praises go to him before anything else we offer. In the second post in the series – 2434AFC082324 – Choose to Be Chosen – we focused on Joshua’s classic statement, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (↔ Music Link).” There we learned that the whole thing about God creating earthlings, was that {A} God chose to create us and {B} waited for us to choose to Love and Obey him. He began with a man named Adam, and when Adam failed to choose correctly, God waited until Abram came along and chose to make him the head of Many Great Nations. Abram chose to Love and Obey God, and when God sent him to a strange land with the promise that it would all belong to his descendants, Abram Obeyed and Loved the Lord. Because he chose that course of action God changed his name to Abraham, and he was the father of Isaac who became the father of Jacob, who wrestled with an angel and gained the name Israel. Here is the result of that encounter in Genesis 32:27-28 – 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel * for you have striven with God and with humans, ** and have prevailed.”
*The one who strives with God or God strives ** or with divine and human beings. So, up to this day, when we say the name of Abraham’s grandson – Israel – we are saying “Strives with God.” When other Semitic nations speak about that great country, Israel, they will pronounce it “israh-elies”. Whenever we hear that word we must remember that God chose a righteous man and his descendants to love and obey him. At the founding of that nation, Isaac showed that the nation Israel would always strive with God.
Why, then, did God choose them? Please take a quick break and grab your Bible. Open it to Deuteronomy 7:6-11 (or just follow that link). God chose the Hebrews because they were a tiny nation, a weak nation, a stubborn nation, a fickle nation. They were the least likely to be a people peculiar to Almighty God alone. If they would Love and Obey God, their creator, they would be a perfect example for other nations. They would show that a puny, rancorous, arrogant, rag-tag, family-based group of former slaves could become a great, wealthy, powerful, and well-respected People, a “Light to the nations,” so that other nations would look at them and say, “What a wonderful and powerful God they have that he has done so much for them. Would that he would do so for us!” The People of Israel lived down to their predicted nadir. We have an account of the dreadful condition of the leaders and the People in
2 Chronicles 36:15-16 –
15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; 16 but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy. The Apostle Paul reminds us that God sent Judges, and Prophets, and Messengers, and his earthlings rejected them because they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy. He had already destroyed every living thing except the inhabitants of the Ark, so instead, he sent us his Son, our Savior, for this reason: 17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (↔ Music Link) 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Those who embrace Wrath do so in their own darkness and – having rejected the Light – they are condemned already unless they repent and believe the Gospel. And woe to those who claim to be believers but lure others into sin and darkness by claiming to be pure, wise, and “woke.” In short, like us – the present-day earthlings who are the Children of God – they refused to “purge the evil from their midst” and brought punitive judgment on themselves. Is that what WE want to do?
It should be no surprise (↔ Click Link) that most of us have the solution to that riddle in our homes, maybe even in our offices, or our vehicles, or our smart phone. It’s the B.I.B.L.E.! That’s what we do here every Friday, we turn to the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to show us God’s own Wisdom. Ah! And there we have it: Reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Paraphrasing Proverbs 9:10 from my logo). We have full, unrestricted access to the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth – and that is what WE must do, what WE want to be – we can be the Children of God who Love and Obey the Lord in all things. WE can be the ones who are faithful regardless of everything that’s going on around us. WE can be surrounded by all that is evil, like captives in Babylon or Egypt, and we remain faithful.
Hopefully you will recall the anecdotes about the two banners we placed in our kids’ bedroom. One said, “What do you want to do?” and the other said, “THE RIGHT THING.” At times, sporadically and briefly, Israel “did the right thing,” but quick-as-a-wink they were back to idolatry, massive and abominable sins, and desecration of all that God had set aside as Holy. Here we must recall Edmund Burke’s famous aphorism, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” These days, that reference is made to remind us of Hitler, Kim Jong Un, Xi Junping, Vladimir Putin, and the evil-doers. This quote from Burke leads us to another of his quips, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” What do WE want to do? Too often it is “as little as possible.” Instead we must strive to do “as much as we can however little that may be.” Remember, it is the weight 
of the final snowflake on the mountainside that triggers the avalanche. (See Terry Goodkind ↔ Click Link) Some of us (I stand guilty as charged) use the term snowflake to refer to the overly-entitled, easily offended (think “Karen”), pretentious yuppie-puppies who seem to be offended by everything from road-signs to livestock. They take no responsibility for the havoc they cause in their ignorance. They protest against that which they do not understand, and so their protests are alogical. They ask for permission to cause death and still be held guiltless. THAT is not what WE want to do! These verbal and physical broadsides of protest are very much like the historical broadsides of two navies firing canons point-blank at each other at sea. It is something like death by attrition or mutual annihilation. The best strategy in dealing with a broadside attack is to confront the enemy straight-on, taking a course perpendicular to the attack. What does that mean in policies being attacked by verbal and political broadsides? Think about how many times the Book of Proverbs tells us not to argue with a fool. Collecting these images together, to avoid an avalanche, stay away from locations and positions that are susceptible to avalanche.
To deal with a tumbling snowball, get to the beginning of the problem and stop it rather than wait until its momentum is overpowering. What do WE want to do? THE RIGHT THING! And just how do WE do the right thing? How do we know the right thing? Riddle me this: Who or what has the answer to finding the Right Things?
We stop at the Stop Sign, not beyond it, not ignoring it – we stop because it is the law. If the speed limit is 25 mph, we go the speed limit; if it is 35 we don’t accelerate to 42 because the police won’t stop us unless we are exceeding the speed limit by more than 7 mph. WE do what is right because it is right, not because we are afraid of being punished, but rather because WE are committed to being OBEDIENT. WE respect the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Real Presence of Christ, and we do not receive the Holy Eucharist if we have skipped a Sunday to go fishing with grampa unless we have first reconciled with God. WE remember that YOLO-F is really, really Real, and so are Heaven and Hell. WE remember what The Apostle Paul said in Romans 12:1-2 – 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.
WE do NOT go along to get along because getting along with the World is a failure to get along with God. WE do not make idols of our jobs, our sports or cinema celebrities, our music-industry stars. WE know God’s Laws and “observe them diligently.” WE “do what is right” and “humbly, with meekness, welcome the word that has been planted in US” because we are “doers of the word, (↔ Music Link) and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” We know what our Lord and Master meant when he told us, it is “from the human heart, that evil intentions come; all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” WE cast those things away. WE stop, confess, apologize, and turn around to return to our God when we are distracted by the World. That is REPENTANCE, and God desires and blesses every moment of repentance. Do you ever struggle with interruptions in your prayers, or find yourself distracted about something banal while attempting something devotional? Do this: Stop. Tell God, “I’m sorry. I repent of that distraction. I’m back now.” Then continue to pray. God can, will, and does mark and reward those simple moments of repentance just as surely as he takes note of our greatest, most lethal sins if we Repent and Believe the Gospel ! WE can do that because we are anointed as Priest, Prophet, and King. He is our God, and we are his servants and therefore we are NOT conformed to this world as if we are a herd of lemmings looking for the perfect cliff.
WHAT DO WE WANT TO DO? WE want to be those WHOM God sees as ones who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their hearts. Those two banners sum it up, don’t they? Adelphos, it is time to STAND up, SUIT up, GEAR up, SPEAK up, and STAND for Truth, Justice, Freedom, and Right. It is time to do Right things better, and Better things right. It is TIME to Taste and see that the Lord is good! And in HIS Goodness we declare and decree his blessings of wisdom, courage, and strength will come down on all who stand in the gap against the Worldly who call evil good and Good evil (Isaiah 5:20 ← #Clickit!) May the Lord of Hosts preserve us from all their evil in our going out and coming in! Let now the Holy Spirit renew us with the Fire of El Shaddai-Olam’s Sh’khinah Glory. (↔ Learning Link)
We are the People of the Covenant through the Suffering and Victory of Jesus and so we remember what God prophesies about us:
Deuteronomy 20:3 b – 4 – “Today you are drawing near to do battle against your enemies. Do not lose heart, or be afraid, or panic, or be in dread of them; 4 for it is the Lord your God who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory.” But wait! There’s MORE!
1 John 5:1-4 – 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. We have chosen the Best of All and left the rest of all others behind. When we have been humbled as The Chosen, we are blessed because we choose MOMENT-BY-MOMENT to be the Children of God. (←POWERFUL!!) And, ʻŌmea, why do you think every first-person plural of to be is spelled WE? So that WE will remember that WE are the Body of Christ, WE are the Bride of the King of the Universe. WE are not now and have never been, and will never be alone in this battle … so long as we Love and Obey the Lord as he has commanded. That is what WE want to do, and it is ALL we want to do. WE will not be distracted by the evil surrounding us because we will unite at the foot of the Cross and fight evil by depriving it of what sustains it — vanquish the demons by suiting up. Then get into the fray as the faithful remnant who affirm,
WE MEAN IT WHEN WE SAY,
“Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on Earth
AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
