When God Yells

I don't like to yell at my kids, but sometimes I have to.  Sometimes they get so wrapped up in themselves and their situation, that when I speak softly and sweetly to them, I get totally ignored.  They want to talk over me, telling their side of the story.  They get blinded by their emotions, consumed in the moment, consumed with themselves and their own point of view.  And sometimes it's simply a matter of seeing how long they can ignore me.  I will say something to them and they will continue doing their own thing, because their thing is more important to them than my thing.

So what happens when we willfully continue along a path of ignoring God?  What happens when we ignore God's still, small voice that speaks to us daily in our spirits but is drowned out by the world?  The same thing that happens when I'm ignored by my own kids--- He yells.  Sometimes God has to yell to get our attention.  When we stay consumed with ourselves and our own point of view, when we see how long we can ignore God, when we see how long we can continue doing our own thing because our own thing is more important than God's thing, He must yell at us to get our attention.  Scripture says that, "the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as his son.  Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?" (Heb 12:6,7). 

I don't know what the days ahead hold for our nation or His church.  All I know is that lately God has impressed upon my spirit to pray, "Lord, burden me with Your will."  The other day He burdened me with a word for His church to stop whoring themselves after the world.  Today the burden is for us to understand that sometimes He has to yell to get our attention.  As a church, we have fallen so far from the mark of true righteousness.  We have no excuse for not reading our Bible, we have no excuse for not teaching our children the truths contained within It.  We have no excuse for chasing after the world when God's word says, "As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." (John 15:9), and "come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." (2 Cor 6:17).  We have no excuse for being ignorant of God's word because scripture says that His word is written upon the hearts of all those who choose salvation, "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Heb 8:10).  Therefore all those who claim salvation, yet live lifestyles to the contrary are without excuse.  God says even the unsaved are without excuse, "that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Rom 1:19,20).  Scripture says that a human being has to willfully choose not to have a relationship with God because He has set eternity in the hearts of men (Eccl 3:11). 

God will not be mocked, and we mock Him as a church when the world cannot tell the difference between us and them.  When the Church tries to be friends with the world and gives the word of men precedence over the word of God, the thinking of those within it becomes futile, "and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools...for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever."  (Rom 1:21-25).

When gentle speech will not be received by my own children, I must yell at them to make them aright.  I don't yell at them because I want to, I yell at them because I have to.  I must yell at them to bring order and to set them back on the right path.  Perhaps God has been yelling at us for a while now, but we continue to ignore Him.  And when yelling no longer works, the only thing left to do is scream.