Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Sep 3rd Willpower

Today’s Reading – Ezekiel 14 – 16

How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; (Ezekiel 16:30)

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41)

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: (Galatians 1:6)

In today’s reading from Ezekiel 14 – 16, God is pronouncing judgment upon His people for turning their back completely on Him. He reminds them in chapter 16 how that He blessed them more than any other nation on the face of the earth. He took them from nothing and gave them everything. Yet, they soon bit the hand that fed them: they forsook God and turned to the idols that were worshipped by the Heathen nations that surrounded them, even going as far as sacrificing their own children (burning them). In the midst of chapter 16, God says, “How weak is thine heart…seeing thou doest all these things…”.

I got to thinking about my own weakness. God blessed me above anything that I could have asked for; and He has convinced me over and over again regarding surrendering my life to Him completely. However, I continue to forsake His principles and do things (or not do things) that I have committed to do. Why is it that we have no willpower to resist evil. The other verses listed above share the same principle: the disciples were too weak to stay awake at a prayer meeting; and the Galatians were easily swayed from the doctrine of Grace. Our flesh indeed is weak. Our hearts are desperately wicked.

I don’t think the solution to this problem, however, is an increase in our fleshly will power. Paul gives us the solution in Galatians 5: “walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”. Do you want to have more spiritual willpower? Walk with God: walk in His word; spend time communing with Him in prayer; gather with His children; and serve Him with all of your heart. I can look back at my life and clearly see that the times that I struggled the most with my thoughts and actions were times that I was not walking with God as I should have been. The closer I get to God, the farther away goes the desire to sin.

By the way, notice what it says about the cause of Sodom’s fall:

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16:49)

We can see here that Sodom had the same problem that Israel (and America) has. They are too proud to acknowledge that God is the source of their blessing; they have too much free time on their hands and they are not using this time to serve God; and they are very prosperous, yet they will not share their wealth.

Sep 2nd Are You Ready for the Storm?

Today’s Reading – Ezekiel 10 – 13

Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter: Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. (Ezekiel 13:10 & 11)

At the time of this writing, the East Coast of the United States is busy preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Earl, a category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 145 MPH. Looking outside now I don’t see any sign of the impending storm: the sun is shining and the crickets are chirping; and it is so still that all I can clearly hear outside (besides the crickets) is the sound of the sprinkler moving back and forth as it waters the grass behind the church. The weather people say that the storm is coming, yet there are many who are dismissing the warnings, and are choosing to go about their business as normal, even in some of the more vulnerable barrier islands. Maybe they are listening to the wrong prophets. As for me: I choose to listen to the folks who at least are trained to know about these things; and though we are not located right on the coast, we are close enough to it to be concerned enough to make a few preparations.

God uses the illustration of a storm here in chapter 13. He say that He is going to send a stormy wind to blow upon the people of God. The problem is they have been listening to false prophets who have been tickling their ears and telling them that there is nothing to worry about. God further illustrates His point by saying that these people have built a wall of protection, but have used untempered mortar which will not harden. The wall may look strong, but it is a false security, because unless the mortar hardens the wall will fall when the storm comes. However there were a few good prophets such as Ezekiel and Jeremiah who were telling people “Thus saith the Lord”. These men were building strong walls of security for those who chose to heed their warnings.

It is amazing to me all of the prophets we have in America today that are telling people all sorts of things that will not help the people at all. Many are proclaiming “peace and safety” like the false prophets of old. However, I choose to listen to the God of the Bible. I want to heed the warnings of the prophets that speak for the Lord. I want to build my house on the Lord Jesus Christ so that when the storm comes, my house (my family, my church) will stand. How about you? Be careful who you listen to. Make sure that the “prophets” in your life are preaching the truth found in the Word of God. The storm is coming. Will your wall stand.

Sep 1st What Do You Do in the Dark?

Today’s Reading – Ezekiel 8 – 9

Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. (Ezekiel 8:12)

In our passage today Ezekiel is sitting in his house in Babylon along with the elders of Israel, when suddenly God appears to Him and reveals to him the extent of the idolatry among the people of God. God shows Ezekiel what the people were doing when they thought that no one else was looking. The people didn’t think that even God could see them when they were in their own little wicked world.

I got to thinking about some of the things God’s people do today when they think no one is watching. Let’s go even deeper: what are some of the things that we think about? What are we watching? What do we do in the dark? The Bible tells us that our hearts are desperately wicked, yet God knows all about our hearts. Nothing is veiled from Him: He sees it all. There is not a thought, motive, or an action that escapes the eyes of God. We may think that nobody knows the real us, but God knows us better than we know ourselves.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

I think that if we could ever get hold of the fact that God is really watching and listening all the time, it would help us to keep our thoughts and actions pure. But the thought that really boggles my mind is that even though He knows me, He still loves me; and I don’t even like myself most of the time. Let’s pray and work to not only clean up our outward actions; but also our inward thoughts. Besides, the outward actions always follow the inward thoughts anyway.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Aug 31st Conviction, Contrition, and Correction

Today’s Reading – Ezekiel 5 – 7

And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. (Ezekiel 6:9)

Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is dealing with the children of Israel and Judah regarding their rebellion against God: their pride; their idols; and their immorality. Ezekiel has experienced already the beginning of the judgment, but he is sent to tell God’s people that the worst of the judgment is yet to come. He describes a horrible scene of famine and utter destruction. The saddest statement in these passages to me is when God says about his people in Ezekiel 5:8 that He is against them. God is fed up with the wickedness of His people and judgment has to come in order to get their attention. We tend to minimize or ignore our backsliding as long as our lives are prosperous; but when judgment comes it causes us to wake up and see ourselves as we really are.

In the verse above, God says that the people that survive this judgment will loathe themselves for their spiritual condition. This is the first step toward restoration. We have to be convinced that we have sinned against a Holy God. We have to understand that he is right and we are wrong. The next step is confession. Once we realize that we have done wrong, than we can confess it to God and ask for His forgiveness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) The third step is to make “an about-face” with our lives: repent and turn back to God, living our lives in obedience to Him. Now God can begin to bless our lives again. This doesn’t mean that all the affects of our punishment has been completely removed, but we can start seeing God’s favor again in our lives.

Let me give you a personal illustration. For the past year or so, our church has been experiencing a bit of a dry period. We haven’t seen much in the way of numeric growth, in fact we have lost some good families; we have been struggling financially; and we haven’t seen many saved or baptized. An older preacher once told me that when a church experiences times like this it is a divine indication that there is something somewhere in the church that is not right. Needless to say, I was very concerned about this as the pastor: I began to “loathe myself”.  I even contemplated a few times leaving the ministry, reasoning that if I left the church, they could find somebody else that could fix things and cause God to once again bring His blessing. This time period of dryness caused me (and others) to really seek God’s direction regarding our ministry. We asked God to show us what we were doing wrong. We increased our time spent in prayer, and we increased our time out on the streets. I must confess, God never did reveal to me a big, specific thing that we were doing wrong; but He did convict us about a lack of zeal; a carelessness about His will; and certainly a laziness in fulfilling His commission. We are trying to get these areas corrected. Pray for us, we have a long way to go. But the good news is, God is beginning to bless this ministry again. Last Sunday, we had many visitors come; and many people saved and baptized. Praise the Lord! Now if we could just get the offerings up! (just kidding) The great Sunday would not have been possible without God first sending us a little wake up call. It brought us to our knees, and caused us to stop leaning unto our own understanding. Thank God for His loving correction.

Aug 30th Boldness

Today’s Reading – Ezekiel 1 – 4

But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 3:7 – 9)

Ezekiel was writing to the children of Israel that were in captivity in the land of Babylon. He was God’s prophet sent to preach the message of repentance to a very “stiff necked” and “rebellious” people. They were a very stubborn bunch; rejecting the repeated warnings of God. The Israelites are not unique in their “bullheadedness”: the people of our generation are just as stubborn. Yet God told Ezekiel that he would cause him to be just as stubborn in his passion for delivering the message of God without compromise and without wavering.

We read often in the New Testament of the Apostle Paul praying for boldness, and liberty to preach the Word of God with great conviction and passion. As God’s ambassadors today we need to also be very bold in our life and witness. Christians today seem to be a very fearful bunch, hiding in the world, and almost apologizing for their relationship with the Lord. Why are we like that? We have the omnipotent Creator of the universe living inside of us. We should be a confident people, expressing with our life an assurance; a boldness that plainly declares that we are the children of the King.

We obviously have a faith problem. Our faith is weak. We can cure that by spending more time in the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) The people need to come out from among the influences and philosophies of this world, and get into their Bibles; and into their churches where the Word of God is being taught. Maybe then, we will have a little more confidence and boldness as we represent the Lord in this generation.

By the way, the picture above is of Billy Sunday, who was one of the boldest preachers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Look him up on the internet; read about him. He was as bold as a lion; unwavering in his zeal, and uncompromising in his message and mission. No doubt, this is the reason that he was able to make a dramatic impact on his generation, leading many thousands to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Aug 29th Laugh Now

Today’s Reading – Lamentations 3 – 5

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

I do not know for sure if I am interpreting these verses correctly; but it seems to me, without having studied the passage, that the Edomites were rejoicing because of all the judgment that was being afflicted on God’s people. They were ecstatic that their enemy, Judah, was being taken in such a cruel way into captivity into Babylon. However, God says that their rejoicing would be short lived because their day of judgment was coming as well. And remember, God promised His people that He would not make “a full end” of them. I do not think the same promise applies to the Edomites.

God is not pleased when people rejoice when their enemies are falling (Proverbs 24:17). We expect this kind of behavior from the lost world; but are we guilty of the same thing? Have you ever rejoiced (maybe even just a little) when you received word that someone who has hurt you in the past has had some kind of bad thing happen to them. I hate to admit it; but I know that I have done it on occasion. Worse yet, I know that my flesh wants to do it every time. God despises that kind of attitude. To think that we who are sinners deserving of judgment, rejoice when another sinner, no more deserving than we, receives it. God must get weary with us and our wicked attitude. Next time you hear about somebody you don’t like (or doesn’t like you) going through a tough time, why not pray for them; why not thank God that you are not facing the same or equally painful situation. Maybe if you will sow a little mercy and compassion, you just might reap a little of the same back when you need it.

Aug 28th The Saturday Morning Post by Pastor Ted Stahl

Today’s Reading – Lamentations 1 – 3:36

Got compassion?

Look what happened to Judah in Lam 1:1-2…

“How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.”

Got compassion? Jerusalem was getting what she deserved for following after strange gods. Does that give us a cause to kick her when she’s down, and become her enemies? What about our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and for that matter the unsaved too. Do we know what they are going through? I don’t want to make you paranoid, but has anybody said something to you degrading someone else? Chances are they say things about you when you’re not around. God hates this. God knows how to deal with His children. If we take joy in their chastisement, God may take away the very thing that would turn them back to the Lord. If someone has wronged us, we need to show compassion: the compassion of Stephen, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Or Jesus, “Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do.”

Got compassion? In these troubled times, people are under a lot of extra stress. Wen someone wrongs us we need to be more forgiving. When someone is going through the fire, we need to be more understanding and edifying. Read Psalm 22: it paints a good picture of what Jesus did on the cross for us: because He had compassion on us. Maybe we should be more like Jesus.

Got compassion?

Aug 27th Are You Still in Prison?

Today’s Reading – Jeremiah 51 & 52

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the firstyear of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, (Jeremiah 52:31)

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah and he reigned for only eight years when he was taken into captivity by the Babylonians. The Bible records that he was an evil king while he reigned. God caused the captivity to happen because of the evil kings of Judah which lead the nation into a downward spiral of immorality and idolatry. Jehoiachin remained in prison in Babylon for 37 years, thus making his age 63 at the time of his release. He had spent most of his life in prison. In our passage today we see that he was released out of prison and given a place of great honor in the kingdom.

I am not sure that my assessment is accurate here, but bear with me as I share my thoughts. Jehoiachin was an evil guy; the Scripture is clear about that. Jehoiachin spent a lot of time in prison thinking about his life. Jehoiachin was finally released from his prison. Could it be, though the Scriptures do not clearly reveal this, that Jehoiachin repented in prison and turned back to God? God judged him with his nation during the captivity; and now God was releasing him with the nation. Is this not a picture of forgiveness? Isn’t living in sin a prison? Does the Bible not say that we were in bondage to sin? The Bible even records that his prison garments were put off of him. Doesn’t God give us a robe of righteousness when we become His child? I think that this passage is a marvelous picture of salvation. When the sinner trusts Christ as his Savior he is released from the bondage (prison) of sin; he is given a robe of righteousness; and is positioned in a place of blessing and honor in the King’s House. Note also that this all takes place when he is in his sixties which tells me it is never too late to be forgiven.

Have you been released from the prison of sin and unbelief? God wants to take you out; give you some new clothes, and set a place for you at his table. Why don’t you take him up on his offer? Trust Christ, get changed, and come to the table.

Aug 26th Watch Your Step

Today’s Reading – Jeremiah 49 & 50

Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. (Jeremiah 50:31)

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

In the two chapters that we are reading today we see God’s judgment upon some more of the nations that surround Israel. The judgment upon these nations came through the hand of the mighty nation of Babylon, the same nation that God raised up to judge the nation of Judah. However, something very interesting happens in chapter 50: God judges the nation that He raised up to judge His people. Babylon was the tool that God used to punish His own people, but now God will judge and punish Babylon. Why? Because of their pride. It is clear from the Scripture that God actually raised up the nation of Babylon and equipped them to bring His people, Judah, into captivity. But as often happens, this nation began to believe that they were mighty because of their own wisdom and strength. Babylon was raised up by God, yet did not recognize God as the source of her success. America had better watch her step. Perhaps a fall is headed our way. Why? We have forgotten that it is God that has blessed us, and given us what we have today. Do we recognize that? I think it is safe to say that as a nation we have forgotten and forsaken God.

I also got to thinking about how often we as individuals get prideful about the gifts that God has given us. God has given us life and has uniquely gifted and equipped each one of His children; but sometimes we begin to get haughty about these gifts, as if we produced them ourselves. I had little to do with who I am. I am today a combination of  what God made me, and what others have invested in me. Why then should I think myself to be better (or worse) that somebody else. I have found that pride often manifests itself in three different areas: arrogance; over-confidence; and independence. If you really think about it, pride is the elevation of self to the extreme that self is placed above God. God is actually removed fro the throne, and self is placed upon it. We had better watch our step. Pride is inside of each one of us, more so than we realize; and we had better recognize that without God, we are less than nothing. God is patient; but eventually a fall will come our way if we continue to elevate ourselves above each other; or worse, above God.

Aug 25th Forgiveness

Today’s Reading – Jeremiah 46 – 48

Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished. (Jeremiah 46 – 48)

The Book of Jeremiah is book of judgment: most of it dealing with the coming captivity for the people of Judah in the land of Babylon. However, these three chapters that we have read to day deal with the judgment that God had prepared for three nations: Egypt, the land of the Philistines, and Moab. All three of these nations have had a bad history with God’s people Israel. For most of history these nations have been bitter enemies of the people of God. God would not spare these nations when he judged them: they would not receive the mercy that Judah would receive. Notice in the above verse that God says regarding His people that He would correct them “in measure”, but he would not make a full end.

I thank God that He loves me unconditionally and that, even though there are times when He needs to correct me and chasten me, He never stops loving me. We know that there is a principle throughout the Bible of reaping and sowing; but I know that God has not caused me to reap in judgment to the same degree what I sowed in disobedience. On the other hand, I have reaped far more blessing than I deserve. God has been very good to me: He loves me, and I am not very lovable most of the time. I am His child: I came in through the door, Jesus Christ; and God will never kick me out of the house. It’s mind boggling; but I am not complaining. People who do not know God misunderstand this unconditional love: they claim that it sounds like a license to sin. However, his unconditional love for me has constrained me, and His grace has taught me to deny ungodliness. When I think about His love, I want to sin less and serve more.

I thank God for His correction; but even more, I thank God that no matter how bad I get, He never stops loving me!