Hosanna Restoration Church

I don’t know about you, but the first thought that comes to my mind at the word circumcision, is pain. God knows that there is some pain involved it separating ourselves to Him. There is pain involved in uncovering our hearts and standing naked before Him. On the day that we are convicted of our sinful state and we humble ourselves before God we may well think, “that is end of that.” But as time goes one we find that it is only a beginning.

Receiving forgiveness for our past sins is easy. But now we have a new life. The old man died and we were made alive in Christ. The longer that old man is dead, the more he stinks when he tries to come around again. The longer we let him hang around, the more difficult it becomes to get rid of him because we get kind of use to the stink.

This was what was going on with Israel. They were so used to the stink of the evil they were doing that they ceased to even bother to do anything about it. So God said it was time they cut themselves off from everything that was not what He wanted for them. It was time to uncover their hearts so they could see how ugly they had become. If they did not do this, God was going to let loose fury that would come forth like fire and burn so that no one could quench it. Face it God never like evil. Not then and not now.

Our society has become expert at excusing evil. Worse than that, it seems that a majority are willing to condone it. Now all that is bad, but worse yet is the fact that the church has become pretty good at closing their eyes. People come to the Lord and really go to work getting their lives in God’s order, and then many just sort of stop at one point or another when it seems to be a bit painful or costly to go on. Once a person begins to do that, they begin to try and find others that will agree with them. What was the first thing Eve did? She went and got Adam to eat of the fruit too.

This brings us to another point. God said that we should circumcise ourselves to the Lord. We don’t need to try and circumcise someone else. They won’t stand for it. They have to come to that for themselves. We may be able hand someone the knife if they ask or pour on disinfectant to help them once they are done, but the act is only good if we do it ourselves. And remember, God will not do it for us either. He will give us strength and wisdom, but He will not do the cutting. That is up to us.

As the Holy Spirit is being poured out around the world, awareness of evil is growing. As we get into the river, it is harder to be comfortable with our own stubbornness and rebellion. Peace can only come through circumcising ourselves to God. It may hurt for a while at times, but not near as much as separation from God. Use a sharp knife!! I of course am speaking spiritual pictures here…not a physical act!!