In This Issue:
Bee Gone
The Unwanted Watchman
Volume: 945 February 19, 2024
Theme: Christianity
All need to read the Bible every day. Do you have difficulty doing so? Sign up to receive a daily e-mailed devotion, which includes a KJV chapter a day and much more spiritual food!
One of God’s smaller creations, honeybees, is very important to the Earth’s ecosystem. Their buzzing from one flower to another while gathering nectar and pollen is critical in producing fruit and plant reproduction. Some estimations calculate that more than one-third of our food supplies depend on the tiny bees’ hard work. Without them, man’s food supply would be in danger.
In recent years, particularly after 2006, something unexplained and disturbing has happened to the critical, tiny pollinators. All over the world, in many countries, including Belgium, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Germany, and the United States, beekeepers have discovered many bee colonies have just disappeared!
The hives have been found empty of adult bees, with few or no dead bees left behind. Many of their unborn hatch, along with their honey food supply, are left behind, which bees rarely do. The phenomenon has been termed the “Colony Collapse Disorder.”
If not controlled or stopped, the loss of bees could drastically hinder man’s food supply. It could be a very serious problem.
Many theories as to why the bees are disappearing have been presented. The explanations for this unusual happening include viruses, malnutrition, pesticides, mites, fungi, beekeeping procedures, and radiation from cellular phones.
Although many scientific communities are working diligently to solve the problem, many are realizing what could happen if God’s key to plant reproduction disappeared. Without the bees fulfilling their tasks, the entire world will suffer. They are an essential cog in this world’s wheel of survival.
Prayerfully, the mysterious bee disappearances will be stopped shortly. Examining what could happen from the loss of bees and their work reminds me of another small but essential, unseen worker who is very important to the present and eternal future of all humanity. It is the Christian, particularly the practicing, obedient believer.
The world is doing all it can to stifle and silence Christians. The once permanent fixture in all public schools, the Bible and prayer, has been removed. Within the same walls where God’s Word was once taught and read, young people are now trained to show disrespect to Christianity, as it is ridiculed, scorned, and questioned.
TV and other media have had an open season on Christianity by mocking, scoffing, and ridiculing the things of God. Special days originally celebrated to help America remember their Benefactor and Saviour, including Christmas and Easter, have been banned or altered. Those once “religious” days are now just holidays in which many do not even murmur the name of the Person the day is honoring.
It is now upsetting to the news media and others when God is called upon to help our nation. This happened when a past governor of Georgia called to God in prayer to help his state with their drought situation (by the way, it did rain shortly after he prayed).
Laws once inspired by the Word of God are being changed to limit the public recognition of Him. Many have attempted to remove public displays of the Ten Commandments and other biblical references from courthouses and government buildings. If public prayer is performed, great offense is registered if Jesus’ name is mentioned.
In response to the pressure put on them by a God-hating, immoral few, many Christians have succumbed to the pressure put on them. Public figures, preachers, and many others, afraid of not being politically correct, have toned down and quieted their cry against ungodly practices and sin. The once stalwart Christian influence in America has become a weak whisper.
Just as the world would face disaster if the bees disappeared, so will this world if Christianity and the Bible continue to be silenced. God and His word are the root of all morality. Without the Bible’s influence and standards, there would be no stopping crime and ungodly behaviors.
Crime and sin are often identified by the Word of God, which puts its finger on sins such as stealing, murder, adultery, homosexuality, and many more. Without the Bible’s guidance, why would those crimes be wrong to a culture that does not accept the Bible’s truths? Without biblical influence, what would keep an ungodly world from doing “whatever feels good,” no matter how disastrous it would be to society?
Sadly, this is already happening. Adultery is commonplace and even somewhat tolerated when performed by governmental and educational leaders who are supposed to be examples of good behavior to our society.
The crime rate is so high that much of our tax dollars are spent trying to control it. Generations have grown up and have not even known what is right or wrong, according to God’s guidelines.
Right and wrong are being redefined by whatever power or group has the loudest voice and can put the biggest scare into the people. In many places, godless anarchy is in control.
The world is suffering greatly because Christians, who have God’s only truth and know better, are silent. Obedience to the Word of God can improve this world and has done so for thousands of years. It can be done again if only more would hear His truths.
Like the bees, practicing and obedient Christians are essential to have an in-control world. Although unpopular and unwanted, the only hope for this world is when Christians take the truth they have hidden and bring it to light again to help this world.
Christians have God’s truth. How will the world know it if we do not share and show them it?
“In the Christian life, we must lose to gain; we must give to obtain; we must be last to be first; we must be humble to be exalted.” — Henry
The Unwanted Watchman
Bill Brinkworth
Ezekiel had a daunting task that many preachers and obedient Christians have today. He was to watch over the people God appointed him to minister to and to warn them of what God would tell him (Ezekiel 3:17).
To make the prophet’s mission more difficult, God told the watchman that the people he would deliver his message to would be rebellious against God (Eze. 2:3, 3:7), would be shameless in their involvement in sin, and would be stubborn in changing their ways (Eze. 2:4). His task, as is ours, was to be the “delivery boy” of the Word of God, no matter what happened. What they did with the Truth was up to them, but Ezekiel was to broadcast God’s Word.
God knew how hard it would be for Ezekiel to continue giving God’s commandments to a people who did not want to do God’s will and way. He knew many would not stop their determination to do their “own thing”. The Lord knew those resisting His commandments would speak hurtful, degrading words to the prophet, would give him demeaning looks (Eze. 2:6), and eventually jail him for his persistence in trying to help them (Eze. 3:25). Still, the man of God was to continue to be faithful in warning the people of the inevitable judgment for their sins.
Ezekiel’s message to the people differs from what every child of God is responsible to give to those they encounter today. Still, all we have an opportunity to speak to should be made aware of God’s warnings to those who violate His will and way.
Since few read the Word of God for themselves and will not know God’s commandments without reading it, Christians must tell as many as possible what His truths are. Most of us would not be saved (Romans 10:9) and have God’s promise of Heaven if someone had not planted a seed of God’s Truth or attempted to tell us what the Bible said. We also have the same unselfish responsibility to tell others (James 5:20, Mark 16:15, John 4:36, Luke 14:23).
Not everyone who hears God’s Word will happily repent after being told what God says about their lifestyle, sin, or actions. The first time we heard God’s Truth, most likely we did not heed God’s commands, nor will others always obey it.
Ezekiel was warned three things could happen to a person because of the prophet’s expounding what God’s Word said. Those principles can also apply today when a Christian does or does not warn his neighbors of what the Word of God says. They include:
- When there is an opportunity to tell others about the consequences of their sin, and we do not, their blood can be on our hands! Their demise from sin could have been averted if we had told them, and we may be held accountable!
“When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Ezekial 3:18 Also: Eze. 3:20, II Cor. 2:16, Heb. 13:17. - If we warn others of their involvement in wickedness, and they do not cease their participation in sin, they may even die! We, however, will not be held accountable.
“Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” Eze. 3:19 - If a person is warned and they refrain from their sin, they may not face chastisement, and we will have helped that person.
“Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.” Eze. 3:21
It may not be popular when a person is warned that they will not go to Heaven unless they trust Christ alone for their salvation. Nor will many be receptive when we tell them what the Bible says about the iniquities of adultery, drunkenness, lying, cheating, disobedience, or any other sinful behavior.
Warning others about what God says about their involvement in sin may earn us their unkind words or cross looks, as it did Ezekiel. However, being a caring watchman for their souls will be doing what the Lord requires of us. If we do not tell them, who will?
“Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.” — Aristotle