Browsing Tag

Obedience

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Woman with an Audience, Part 2

Posted on July 12, 2010
Enter Cozbi

Families were weeping as they witnessed the hanging deaths of loved ones. The method of execution was not left to human discretion. There were no appellate courts to prolong life for the guilty. God was prosecutor, judge and jury. Twenty-four thousand were already dead. Millions were in mourning.

In this setting Cozbi enters the camp. Her appearance was a blatant and blasphemous slap in the face of God. While weeping multitudes were being humbled by the death plague, Zimri, an influential Simeonite, brought his adulteress publicly and pridefully before his brethren. In the somber setting of God’s wrath being dispensed, he displayed this whoredom before the assembly that now wept as a result of the consequences of such whoredom. Furthermore, Cozbi wasn’t just any old Midianite maiden. She was a princess of Midian. Zimri’s alliance was not only with an immoral woman of Midian. His alliance was with the influential and important idolaters (vs.15).

The Final Act

Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron was incensed by the utter defiance of Zimri. He followed Zimri to the pavilion and graphically illustrated for all of Israel, God’s disdain for his arrogance.

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel (Numbers 25:8).

God was pleased with the zeal of Phinehas. He established with Phinehas his covenant of peace. When blatant sin is in the camp today, God expects his people to address it and purify his congregation (I Cor.5). The plague was stayed and the healing process was begun. God re-ordered the smiting of the Midianites and re-issued his warnings about the beguiling nature of the idolatrous peoples of Canaan. He was preparing their hearts for the challenges that lay ahead for they were about to enter Canaan, a land they were to rid of idolatrous multitudes. How could Israel fail to recognize at this point the oneness of Jehovah and His wrath on those who would divide their allegiance?

When the Curtain Closed….
(Lessons Learned)

Joining the devils forces is a progressive decline rather than a sudden fall.

Sexual sin binds with strong cords.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).

Blatant and intentional sin must be Biblically confronted by people of God.

*This post and the previous one taken from Women of Deliverance, by Cindy Colley; Publishing Designs, Huntsville, AL
Please visit Cindy’s Blog at cindycolley.blogspot.com/
Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Woman with an Audience, Part 1

Posted on July 10, 2010
Cozbi’s name means deceitful. Her story is one of sexual shame and idolatry. More importantly her story graphically illustrates the disdain of God toward blatant sin in His camp. Ironically, God used the shameless Cozbi to establish His covenant of peace with one who was unashamed to stand for right. She reminds God’s people today to be serious about the sanctification to which God calls us. We are to come …out from among them and be separate (II Cor. 6:17).

Setting the stage for Cozbi

The saga of Cozbi occurs during the last year of Israel’s wilderness wanderings. The magnificent promises of the land of corn and wine are on their immediate horizon. The generation that trembled in fear at the inhabitants of Canaan (Numbers 13, 14), has now been replaced by a generation that seems, not only fearless, but fraternizing with the riotous people of Canaan. Balaam, a Midianite seer, but one through whom Jehovah spoke to the Midianites, has desired and pleaded with God for permission to prophesy against Israel and favorably toward his sister nation Moab. God’s anger had been kindled against Baalam (Numbers 22:22) because he went with the princes of Moab to meet with their king who had courted his favor by promising him great honor if he would only curse Israel. God had powerfully shown through a talking donkey (Numbers 22:22-35) that his proposed alliance with Moab against Israel was potentially destructive for him and the lands of Moab and Midian.

But Israel should have heard the donkey’s message, too. In Numbers 25:1-3, we see that while God was blessing Israel and cursing her enemies, Israel herself was busy making sinful alliances with the very nations God was cursing.

And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
And Israel joined himself unto Baal–peor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.

Notice the three progressive steps Israel took to wholesale idolatry.

First, the men of Israel began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. Even casual observation by anyone who does counseling shows that sexual sin binds with cords stronger than any other sin (Read Proverbs 5 and note particularly vs. 22). Men are often willing to forfeit their homes, children, relationships with parents, fellowship with godly people, and jobs in order to continue an illicit sexual relationship. Fornication and adultery have even caused men to verbally admit that they are willing to be lost in hell eternally in order to continue in this sin. As one man I know put it, “If my relationship with her is going to keep me out of heaven, I’d rather have my heaven now.” I wonder if this person also believes he will schedule his own personal itinerary for hell, as well.

Secondly, the people became involved in the idolatry of Moab.

And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods (Numbers 25:2).

Sexual involvement with ungodly partners is sinful and shameful within itself. But the spiritual ruin that it leaves in its wake for entire families is devastating. Young people in our congregations need to hear strong teaching from early ages about sexual purity before marriage. Older women need to be in classrooms teaching young girls specifics about purity of heart , discretion in dating behavior, and the choosing of godly companions. Most importantly, mothers need to accept the burden of responsibility in molding the young hearts within their care to reject Satan’s mentality of sexual freedom. This mentality has so weakened America’s moral climate, her political strength, and her health (notice these three weaknesses were obvious in Israel in Numbers 25) that her very foundation is shaken. Raising children who will not be pulled away from God via sexual sin in such a society is indeed a formidable challenge. It will take more than general cautionary statements about purity when our children become teens. We must, from very young ages, instruct and require compliance regarding modesty in dress and separation from the world in entertainment choices. We must give them specific guidelines about touching, kissing, hugging, and general propriety in relationships with members of the opposite sex. This takes a great deal of fortitude and large quantities of time spent with our children. I heard about a mom in my neighborhood who, upon hearing that her young daughter had a boyfriend in the house each afternoon for a couple of hours, responded by saying, “Okay, that does it! She goes on birth control tomorrow! How I would love to come home right now and catch her with him, but I have a hair appointment.” No wonder her daughter had no sense of moral values! The best form of birth control is parent control and it is dispensed far in advance of the teen years.

The devil is very busy getting his propaganda about safe sex to your children. He uses school courses, organizations like Planned Parenthood and centers for disease control. He leans heavily on mass media: television, movies, CDs , and the internet. He does it most powerfully through peers. It will not be an accident if my children remain pure until entering God-approved marriages. It will be a product of several factors including prayer, instruction, time, discipline and Bible study.

Once sexually involved with Moab, the Israelites were only a short step away from idolatry. Though 21st century idols in America are not statues of stone or carvings of wood, they nonetheless pull allegiance from Jehovah, giving it to whatever the godless society worships. Most often today the gods are materialism (Col. 3:5), sexual pleasure (Rom. 1:23,24), and entertainment (II Tim. 3:4).

It is interesting to note that it was contextually the MEN in verse one who were committing whoredom. But it was the PEOPLE in verse two who were bowing to the gods of the Moabites. Sin grows proportionally in severity and scope. When fathers fall to Satan, their families are often close behind them.

Third, Israel was JOINED to Baal-Peor.

And Israel joined himself unto Baal–peor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel (vs.3).

Satan seeks solidarity among his allies. Becoming friendly with his forces puts me in the danger zone that borders the full scale Baal alliance.

God’s response to this joining was extreme anger.

…and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal–peor (vs.3b-5).

Let no one doubt that God is a jealous God (Deut. 5:9). Let no one doubt His wrath (Rom. 1:18).
Let all know that He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). 24,000 lives were required before Cozbi came on the scene and through a series of events, the plague was stayed.
Please visit Cindy’s Blog at cindycolley.blogspot.com/
Uncategorized

Milestones

Posted on May 12, 2010
This cannot be happening to me already. Ten days ago I went to a university graduation and watched our son, Caleb, receive a Master’s degree. In five more days, I’ll go to a different campus and watch Hannah receive a Bachelor’s degree. Meanwhile, I’m celebrating thirty years of marriage to an incredible, faithful and funny guy that I recently met while a student at FHU!…and that’s really how it seems. All of the dating, marriage, birthing, childrearing, moving around the southeast, traveling around the world, speaking, writing, and just living have been freeze-dried and condensed into a few short hit-and-run years and I have no clue where they have gone. I am going to find pieces of them one day in my family video collection and reminisce nostalgically if I ever have the time. My daughter, (who was born a few days ago) has fast-forwarded her life right before my eyes and will be walking, next Saturday, across the same stage where I walked to get my bachelor’s degree. She is finishing up her job as a Resident Assistant, just like I did. She has lots of the same professors as I and she walked the same halls. In fact, she walked some of the same halls as her grandmother and her great grandfather. And, in the grand scheme of the passage of time, she is just barely behind me in her travels across this planet and on to eternity. Our lives really are just little vapors that appear for a brief moment and then pass away, as the Holy Spirit phrased it through James.

The Spirit also said that because we know life’s brevity we ought to always live by the “if-the- Lord-wills” clause. All of the going, buying, selling and getting gain is contingent. It will one day come to an abrupt end. Journeys will be halted. Purchases will be left at the counter. Transactions will be incomplete. Checks in the mail will never reach their destinations. Life at it’s lengthiest is relatively brief. Briefer still will be many lives that are interrupted by the sound of a mighty trumpet and the unmistakable voice of the archangel. One day I really will look up and see a form descending in those billowy clouds that settle on the mountains around my house. The only question is whether I will see Jesus as an amazing and welcomed interruption from life or awaken to see Him from the sleep of the grave. But I will see Him and then I will feel my body, which seems more and more bound by gravity as the years pass, strangely begin to defy it and rise to meet my Savior. All of this is already scheduled in the mind of God. I don’t know exactly when, but I’m pretty sure, it will all transpire at a future date that will seem like just next week, given the rapidity with which my life elapses and the amazing fact that over half my vapor has likely vanished already (I AM fifty years old!).

The point is this: Every milestone should shout to me to live my life in readiness. Every diploma, every birthday, every contract, every anniversary, every deed, every birth certificate and every memorial service should sharpen my resolve to find Him in every ordinary day; to study the only letter I have from Him—the Holy Bible–, to communicate more from my house to Heaven—the permanent home of life–, to latch on to every golden chance to influence a loved one to live prepared–for the ends of these activities make up the tangible condensation-the only thing that will one day be left–of the vapor that is life.

Sometimes I want to trap the vapor. I just want to put a lid on my life and stop the escape of precious days because I am so incredibly blessed. I love my life. But then I think about it and I understand that the only reason I am so happy living here is because I have never seen heaven.

But very soon…

Go to now you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and spend a year, engage in business and make a profit,” for you really don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow.

Life is just a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

But instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we’ll live and do this or that.”

Please visit Cindy’s Blog at cindycolley.blogspot.com/
Uncategorized

A Bird in a Basket

Posted on May 10, 2010
This past Saturday I spoke at a ladies seminar in the state of California. It was a great day–rewarding in lots of ways for me. It was a stormy weekend in my home state of Alabama, while sunny and calm in California. Sometimes it’s just a little serendipity when I get to slip away from the storms (in my mind and in the sky) and enjoy a space of calmness. I actually got to sit on a tiny sunny townhouse patio and visit with a sister I’d never met before. Two small birds live in a basket on that patio and I stood about two feet from Mr. or Mrs. Bird (not sure which) and clicked his/her photo. (I really wish I had brought along my Canon rather than just my cell phone.) I’m told that those birds come back each year and have begun to feel so comfortable in that basket that sits among some artificial flowers on a plant stand, that they don’t even bother to stir when people walk all around them. Before the evening was over, we had five people within a very few feet of the nest and no panic in the nest whatsoever. My host told me that one of that family of birds plucked one of those artificial flowers one year, took it around to her front yard and used it in the building of it’s own nest in a front yard tree.

My host, Mrs. Maggie, knows a lot about the birds that feather that nest each year. But she cannot be sure it is the same birds year after year. She pays close attention to their patterns of nest-sitting. She knows that it is both a male and female that exchange places sitting, for she looks through her kitchen window (only a few inches away) and sees them swapping places. She knows that baby birds are born there each spring because there are a few fleeting days between the hatching and the flying when she enjoys watching them grow. All she has to do is keep putting the basket out for them year after year and they check-in as if they know their upscale room is reserved.

But did you ever think about how that God, from somewhere as far away as heaven and yet closer than that kitchen window does know whether it’s the same birds year after year? He knows whether or not the original nest sitters have survived the winter. In fact, he will know the exact moment that the bird in my photograph falls never to fly again.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father (Matthew 10:29).

The passage goes on to ask the rhetorical question: “Aren’t you more valuable than many sparrows?” God knows and cares about the nest home of those birds and its inhabitants. He knows about my home and its inhabitants, too. He knows that one day, like the sparrow I too, will fall. But I am of more value than many sparrows and I, who have never before taken wing will, on that “glad morning when this life is o’er, fly away.” Praise the God Who cares for the tiny bird in the basket, but cares infinitely more for me.
Please visit Cindy’s Blog at cindycolley.blogspot.com/
Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Part Three, "All That You Command Us We Will Do, and Wherever You Send Us We Will Go…”

Posted on November 27, 2009
Finally, I love the stability of their commitment. Notice Joshua 22:2:

You have not left your brethren these many days, up to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God.

They did not leave their brethren all these days. Sometimes when days turn into weeks, months and years while we struggle to achieve spiritual goals or conquer our own promised lands, we become less focused and more complacent. I have a friend who is a relatively new convert. When we studied and she was baptized, her daughter was about eleven years old. She started out with a great passion for the assemblies and a focus on improving her study skills and growing in godly motherhood. But the past five years have found her alternating between passion and passiveness. Her faith will be a fire for a short time and then cool to lukewarm and sometimes even coldness. Yesterday I talked with her about her daughter. Seeing our congregation’s children and teens learning leadership skills, training for service and participating in Bible bowl, she commented, “I sure wish Cassie was involved in this.” Her daughter, who once begged her to come to worship, now worships with her friend at a denomination. She’s sixteen now and the prime moldable years have passed. If only this mom could have seen the importance of not leaving her brethren all these days. When we lapse into unstable attendance and involvement patterns, we may forfeit the inheritance, not only for ourselves, but for the next generation.

…And remember, when the perspective is eternal, “all these days” is a very short time to stick with the people of God.

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The above post is taken largely from “More Than Conquerors: Studies in Joshua” the 2009 Lectureship book from the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver; Building Your Own Altars, by Cindy Colley.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Part Two, "All That You Command Us We Will Do, and Wherever You Send Us We Will Go…"

Posted on November 25, 2009
I also love the implication of the unknown in this pledge. The word wherever indicates that, for His children, all future paths may not be pre-designated. There will be surprises, challenges, and detours for those who are seeking first the kingdom. That’s why Jesus described this path as the difficult one with few travelers (Matt. 7:14).  Have you ever considered that on the day of commitment Abraham did not know about that day on Mount Moriah (Gen.22)? Whenever Job committed to walk in the ways of the Lord he didn’t know about that terrible day of repeated, multiple loss (Job 1).  When Elijah was called to prophesy, God didn’t forewarn him about living in a cave by a brook during a famine and depending on the birds for his bread (I Kings 17). Peter didn’t think about the consequences of commitment  until he was standing around that fire being asked if he was one of them (Mark 14:70).
I know teenagers who have sacrificed baseball tournaments, trips to famous places and positions of acclaim and popularity because of commitment.  I have a friend who sacrificed a recording contract with RCA because of compromises of spiritual commitment she was called upon to make. I know elderly people who routinely exit their comfort zones to faithfully assemble with God’s people because of a commitment. We should always be willing to make Matthew 6:33 have a practical application in life. We should be willing to say in reference to anything that becomes a roadblock to faithfulness, “I have a prior commitment.”

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The above post is taken largely from “More Than Conquerors: Studies in Joshua” the 2009 Lectureship book from the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver; Building Your Own Altars, by Cindy Colley.