Seize the Moment – Day 546
The Root of the Issue!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 14.
When I provide pastoral care for a person, which often is a combination of active listening, pastoral prayer, biblical counseling, and Christian discipleship, I am attempting to get to the root of the issue and not manage the bad fruit. Another way I think about this is that while catharsis provides short-term relief, transformation brings long-term victory.
Leviticus 20 diagnoses the root of holiness issues as false worship. Listen to verses 6-8,
As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
The previous verses address the false worship of Molech with the Canaanite practice of child sacrifice, forbidding it by penalty of death. The chapter then lists many practices that flow from false worship that carried with them the death penalty, excommunication, or barrenness.
So often, churches have mutated Christianity into a laundry list of acceptable and forbidden activities, but that is not the heart of why Christ came. All our behaviors and activities flow out of our relationship with the God we truly serve. The God you worship will determine the fruit of your life because you are designed to reflect what you worship!
Seize the moment and worship Jesus in spirit and truth (John 4:24)! Jesus came to show you the heart of the Father and to bear the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).