Intermarried With The World

So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites served their gods. [Judges 3.5-6]

I commented on this same passage on this day back in 2019 (Complacency...). Since that time, it has only become more obvious that God's people today have become thoroughly intermarried with the world.

The Church has embraced the ways and gods of the world. But is is worse even than that. The Church goes to the same doctors, relies on the same insurance, and trusts the same knowledge the world does. While this may not seem so bad (because we are all human, right?), little consideration is given to the element in medicine, insurance, and knowledge that denies God altogether. What is even more damning (and this is where the Church is most guilty) is that all three of these things seek to remedy or remediate the losses described by the Bible as curses with no attention whatsoever to repentance. And so, the repentance that curses should call for has been diluted into non-existence today.

Is it any wonder that God's undeniable and irrefutable miraculous power does not manifest today? I know those I go to church with will scold me for making this statement, but I challenge any one of them, leader and follower alike, to give account for an unexplainable. observable and instantaneous miracle like Jesus performed. I have been in those prayer lines... I need and want healing in my body... and I have walked away having been touched by many hands and having experienced much emotion but untouched by the glorious healing power of God. To say I (or anyone else needing healing for that matter) was simply not "in faith" is irrelevant because not everyone Jesus touched and healed participated with faith - otherwise, Jesus would never have been able to raise the dead! So, just save that excuse! If I don't have faith to be healed, and you don't have the faith to heal me, IS THERE NOT A PROBLEM?

The problem is obviously sin (because curses are evident), but the Church has adopted and adapted to the world's unrepentant view of curses (identified as non-sin-related physical, material, or emotional losses) and therefore sought solutions exclusive of God evidenced by the absence of repentance as the first step. Yes, the Church has intermarried with the world and, for all practical purposes, lost its understanding of what curses are and what they require (repentance).

FYI: To say curses are simply the work of Satan is not very well thought out. If Satan could only do what God allowed as it pertained to Job, why would anyone so mindlessly think Satan could inflict people now at will after Jesus' work on their behalf? That is preposterous!

Job had to repent and we need to repent. The huge difference for us is that Jesus died once and for all as our sacrifice. And this brings up an even more damning indictment against us! How can we be sure we have faith in Christ to be saved if we don't have faith in Christ to be healed? Hint: there is neither saving nor healing faith in the world to whom we are married!

You know what I think God hates more than divorce? Adultery! If we claim to be "married to God" but adulterate ourselves with the world and its godlessness, how can we think we are alright? WE ARE NOT! WE NEED TO REPENT!

As Israel married into ungodly people and lost the power of God upon their lives, so God's people today have married into the world and lost God's power upon their lives. "Wishful thinking" prayer lines are laughable - it's time we stop the nonsense and get to repentance. Then, and only then, will we witness God's power in ways which no one can deny!

Father, I'll take my scolding right here, right now. Forgive me for all the prayers I have offered for others that have done little more than actually damage their faith because of those prayers' powerlessness. Forgive me for every worldly allowance I have made for myself that has rendered me powerless for Your Kingdom. Forgive me that I have not kept Your name holy in that regard (and many other ways). Forgive me for proclaiming the name of Jesus while looking and acting nothing like Him. Forgive me for pointing a finger at others while I am the epitome of what I am pointing out! Oh please forgive me and help me be an encouragement to the Church instead of an accuser...