Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
Solomon said, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." There is even a time to obey God, and it can pass. Isaiah suggested this when he said, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near" (55:6). God spoke of a time when He would laugh at those who prayed for mercy because the time for mercy had passed. "I will laugh at your calamity," He said, "I will mock when your fear cometh. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me" (Prov. 1:26, 28).
In Numbers 13, the Israelites reached the border of the Land of Canaan, the land promised to Abraham by God. God then told Israel to go forward and take the land, but they refused to go. They provoked God with their stubbornness, and He then told them to turn back into the wilderness. The next day, they changed their minds and decided to obey God's first command to take Canaan, but the time to obey that commandment had passed. God was no longer with them to help them take the land. Moses begged them not to try, but they refused to listen to him. They marched forward, and they were attacked and beaten badly by the inhabitants of southern Canaan. The Israelites had rejected the word of God saying to take the land, and now it was too late to do what God had wanted them to do just twenty-four hours before. On this day, there was a completely different word of God for them; to wit, "Go back into the wilderness for forty years!"
This is how it is with men who wear religious robes, who burn incense to God, who sprinkle holy water on things and people, and who consume natural substances such as bread and grape juice in their worship of God. It is too late to worship God in such things, and it is sin to continue in them. There was a time, under the Law of Moses, when God commanded men to worship Him in such ways, but the time for obeying God's commandments concerning worship in fleshly ceremonies is passed. Now, said Jesus, "true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:23-24).
Now is the time to obey God's commandment concerning how He is to be worshiped. Someone, someday, will be in the Lake of Fire hating himself for the opportunity missed to be filled with the Spirit. Please do not let that someone be you.