SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/20/2016 8:05 AM
This SD will be a bit different
in that I wish to quote from the last chapter of a book written by Warren
Wiersbe. “Be Concerned” is a commentary
on the book of Zephaniah, a book that I have just completed studying and as I
read this last chapter in this book last night I thought that it would be a
good idea to post it onto my blogs, on both of my blogs as it gave conviction
to my heart and so I want to share it.
“THE COMPANY OF THE CONCERNED”
Excerpt from Warren Wiersbe’s “Be Concerned”
One of the
key truths found in the Minor Prophets is the presence of a godly remnant in
times of moral and spiritual decay. This
remnant is a small group of people whose devotion to the Lord can make a
difference in the nation. After all, if
God had found as many as ten righteous people in Sodom, He would have spared
the whole city! (Gen. 18:32).
“Israel was
at its lowest ebb during the period of the Judges. Yet God could always find a dedicated man or
woman to lead His armies to deliver His people.
Elijah thought he was the only faithful person left in the land, but God
informed him that He had 7,000 who hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings
19:18). The Prophet Isaiah wrote,
‘Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have
become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah’ (Isa. 1:9 NKJV).
“I like to
call this godly remnant ‘the company of the concerned.’ They are people who are truly concerned about
the will of the Lord and the character of their country, people who are
distressed by evil and want to do something about it. The Prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the
remnant in his day: ‘Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry
for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof’ (Ezek. 9:4). The NIV translates ‘sigh’ and ‘cry’ as
‘grieve’ and ‘lament.’
“Whoever
wrote Psalm 119 belonged to the ‘sighers and criers’ of his day. ‘Indignation grips me,’ he wrote, ‘because of
the wicked, who have forsaken your law’ (v. 53 NIV); and he confessed, ‘I am a
companion of all those who fear you, and of those who keep Your precepts’ (v.
63 NKJV). He was an encouragement to
others who belonged to the ‘company of the concerned,’ for he said, ‘Those who
fear You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your word’ (v.
74 NKJV). And he told the careless
sinners in the land, ‘Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the
commandments of my God!’ (v. 115, NKJV).
“But I need
to make one thing clear from the beginning:
I’m not talking about people motivated by anger so much as by
anguish. Certainly there’s a place for
righteous anger in the Christian life (Eph. 4:26), but anger alone may do more
harm than good. ‘For the wrath of man
does not produce the righteousness of God’ (James 1:20 NKJV). When righteous angers is mingled with
compassion, you have anguish; and anguish is what the ‘company of the
concerned’ feel as they behold the moral and spiritual decline of the nation.
‘Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your law’ (Ps.
119:136 NKJV). ‘Trouble and anguish have
overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delights’ (v. 148 NKJV).
“Each of
the prophets whose writings we have studied belonged to the ‘company of the
concerned,’ and they are good examples for us to follow.
“First,
they were totally committed to the Lord, Amos was an ordinary farmer and
shepherd, untrained in the schools of the prophets; yet God called him to
deliver His message at a strategic time in history. As I travel in ministry, I’m more and more
impressed by the ‘laypeople’ God has called to serve Him in significant places,
people who have no professional ministerial training, yet who are doing great
things for the glory of the Lord (2). ‘This statement isn’t a criticism of
ministerial education. Since I teach for
several evangelical Christian schools, I’m not anti-intellectual. But often God lays hold of ‘untrained’ people
and trains them in His own way to accomplish His work. There’s a place in God’s vineyard for a
brilliant Jonathan Edwards and also for a D. L. Moody, who probably had
equivalent of a sixth-grade education.’ Robert
Murray M’Cheyne wrote, ‘It is not great talents God blesses so much as great
likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an
awful weapon in the hand of God.’
“The
‘company of the concerned’ is made up of people who are separated from sin
(Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1), but who are not isolated from the real
world. They aren’t ‘holier than thou’ in
their attitude toward sinners. They have
courage to be different (but not odd) and to walk the narrow road no matter
what it may cost them. They are people
who pray consistently for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-4). It does no good to write letters and protest
if we aren’t praying for those leading our nation.
“Second, the ‘company of the
committed’ (perhaps he means concerned) is composed of people who have a proper
fear of God in their hearts. The
prophets certainly teach the love of God toward His people and toward lost
sinners, but they also remind us that ‘our God is a consuming fire’ (Heb.
12:29). They believed the Word of God
and knew that judgment was coming to the land.
“The only
nation on earth that is in special covenant relationship with God is the nation
of Israel. While many of the founding
fathers of the United States of America were God-fearing men, the people of the
United States can’t claim special privileges from God because of their
citizenship. It’s true that the Puritan
forefathers felt called to build God’s kingdom on America soil, but we have no
biblical basis for their vision.
“What do we
have? The promises of God for those of
His people who will obey 2 Chronicles 7:14 and intercede for their
country. God works in response to
believing prayer, and believing prayer must be based on the Word of God.
“The fear
of the Lord is the fear that conquers every fear. John Wesley said, ‘Give me one hundred
preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a
straw whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of
hell and set up the kingdom of God on earth.’
He was describing the ‘company of the concerned.’
“Third, the
‘company of the concerned’ is indeed a company, composed of believers who
realize that God wants His people to ‘flock together’ and not try to do
everything alone. The most dangerous
believers are those who aren’t accountable to anybody but do whatever they
please and think they’re serving God.
They write angry letters to government officials, media people, and even
local pastors, and often they don’t sign their names. God has called them to set everything right
in the world, even though they often don’t really understand the problems
they’re trying to solve. Instead of
belonging to the ‘company of the concerned,’ they’re charter members of the
‘Company of the Confused.’
“Malachi
3:16 is a good description of the kind of ‘company’ God is looking for: ‘Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one
another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrances was
written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate in His name’
(NKJV). ‘The more the truths by which we
believe are contradicted,’ said Alexander Maclaren, ‘the more should we commune
with fellow believers.’ When you study
the ‘one another’ statements of the New Testament, you discover how much
Christians need one another and need to minister to one another. It was well been said that you can’t raise
one Christian any more than you can raise one bee.
“To be
sure, every local church has its weaknesses and faults, but it’s the family of
God, and that’s where we belong. Nobody
was born into a perfect family. Yet we
love our brothers and sisters and try to ignore the things that irritate
us. When Jesus sent out the twelve
apostles, He sent them out two-by-two, because ‘two are better than one’ (Ecc.
4:9). People who are a part of the
‘company of the concerned’ don’t try to go it alone. They love one another, pray for one another,
and seek to encourage one another.
“Something
else is true. They realize the
importance of righteousness and justice in the land. ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people’ (Prov. 14:34 NKJV).
The believers in the ‘company of the concerned’ seek to be salt and light
in the land (Matt. 5:13-16) and do all they can to prevent decay and dispel
darkness. The influence of their
character, conduct, and witness promotes righteousness, whether it’s in their
daily work, the way they vote or pay their taxes, their example, the way they
raise their children, or how they invest their time and money.
“Nehemiah
is a person who exemplifies what it means to be in the ‘company of the
concerned.’ When he heard about the
tragic condition of Jerusalem, he sat down and wept, knelt down and prayed, and
then stood up and worked to change things (Neh. 1-2). He could have excused himself by arguing,
‘It’s not my fault that Jerusalem is in ruins,’ or ‘I have ajob to do right
here in the palace.’ Nehemiah never read
the words of Edmund Burke, but he lived them:
“it is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to
triumph.’
When you
read the Book of Nehemiah, you meet a man who enlisted the help of the Jewish
leaders and rallied the common people to rebuild the wall of the city. He didn’t try to do it alone. He was a man of prayer who trusted God to
supply the needs and defeat the enemies around Jerusalem. In fifty-two days, the job was done, and the
song of praise from Jerusalem could be heard for miles.
“Much more
can be said about the ‘company of the concerned,’ but let me close with this
observation: these people know the
importance of good leadership in the nation.
‘Everything rises and falls with leadership,’ claims Dr. Lee Roberson,
and he’s right. However, during the
times of the prophets the leaders of Israel and Judah were to often selfish,
disobedient to God’s Law, and unwilling to trust Him for the wisdom and help
that they needed. The prophets warned
the kings, princes, and priests that their sins would ruin the nation, but the
men refused to listen. After Judah was
ravaged and Jerusalem and the temple ruined, Jeremiah wrote that it had been
caused by ‘the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests’ (Lam.
4:13).
“A
democracy is not a theocracy, where the king is God’s representative on earth;
nor is a pluralistic society the same as the homogeneous society of the Jewish
people, who were all governed by the same moral code. But leaders in a democracy should be expected
to be men and women of character, who practice honesty and integrity and who
genuinely care for their people. Someone
has said that a politician is concerned about his party and asks, ‘Is it
popular?’ The diplomat is concerned with policy and asks, ‘Is it safe?’ But the
statesman is concerned about the good of the nation and asks, ‘Is it right?’
“Edward
Everett Hale, author of The Man without a
Country, wrote:
‘I am only
one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything,
But still I
can do something. And because I
cannot do
everything, I will not refuse to do the
something
that I can do.’
“That’s a
good motto for the ‘company of the concerned.’
But add to it the great words of Paul:
‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…for it is God who
works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure’ (Phil. 4:13; 2:13
NKJV).
“It’s time
to be concerned.”
