May the mumbling commence!
Power corrupts.
Pride corrupts. Look at what I’ve
done! It is the path to
destruction. Read from Second Chronicles
chapter twenty-six:
But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to
his downfall. He sinned
against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord's Temple and personally
burning incense on the altar.
Azariah
the high priest went in after him with eighty other priests of the Lord, all brave men. They
confronted King Uzziah and said, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn
incense to the Lord. That is the work of the priests alone, the
sons of Aaron who are set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary,
for you have sinned. The Lord God
will not honor you for this!"
Uzziah was furious and refused to set down the incense
burner he was holding. But as he was standing there with the priests before the
incense altar in the Lord's
Temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead. When Azariah and the other priests saw the
leprosy, they rushed him out. And the king himself was eager to get out because
the Lord had struck him. So
King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in isolation, excluded
from the Temple of the Lord.
His son Jotham was put in charge of the royal palace, and he governed the
people of the land. (Verses 16-21)
Power and pride had replaced the Lord in the heart of
Uzziah. He personally offered incense to
the Lord – an act rightly done only by the priests. He knew that he could offer the incense, but
he never considered whether he should.
The High Priest Azariah and some other priests did a
brave thing. They confronted a person in
power. They let him know that even the
king is not above the Law. To confront
the king could mean death.
And Uzziah
was furious. He refused to listen to
them. Then the Lord struck him with
leprosy. And Uzziah had leprosy until
the day he died.
Power and pride had fallen far and hard. They had become isolation and exclusion. The throne was handed to his son Jotham. Uzziah had a permanent “timeout” for
misbehavior.
Yes, we can do anything we want. But not all things are good for us. It is better to follow the lead of the
Lord. Read from First Corinthians
chapter six:
You may say, "I am allowed to do anything."
But I reply, "Not
everything is good for you." And even though "I am
allowed to do anything," I must not
become a slave to anything.
You say, "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for
food."
This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them. But our bodies
were not made for sexual immorality.
They were
made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. And God will raise our bodies from the dead by his
marvelous power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
Don't you realize
that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and
join it to a prostitute? Never!
And don't you know
that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are
united into one." But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes
one spirit with him.
Run away from
sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own
body. Or don't you
know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was
given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a
high price. So you must
honor God with your body. (Verses 21-20)
We are made for the Lord. God has bought us with a steep price. We are not our own. We are the property of God – bought and paid
for.
Everything that we do should bring
praise and glory and honor to our Lord.
If what we do does not bring praise to the Lord, then we must stop doing
it.
Help us to keep our bodies
pure. Help us, O Lord, to be aware of
the stop signs that Your Holy Spirit puts before us. May we also be aware of the times that the Spirit
tells us to go.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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