Cliftton Williams, 33, went to support his cousin during a hearing on a felony drugs charge, but during the sentencing he stretched his arms and let out a loud distracting yawn. His cousin got two years’ probation, but the yawning got Williams six months in jail for contempt of court. Surprising isn’t it?
We do worse than that to God both in and outside the church. We take God for granted too much. We have become overly familiar with Him that we believe we can get away with any and everything… after all, He no longer strikes people dead like in the case of Ananias and Sapphira or Uzzah.
This has led to unmarried people living in sexual immorality – premarital sex (kissing and romancing), adultery, pornography, masturbation, incest, bestiality, bisexuality, paedophilia, etc. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_sexuality); deceit and cheating, lying, stealing, defrauding and embezzling church funds, and so on and so forth.
People has become too casual as they enter into God’s presence. This condition can affect even those who are closest to Him, and have known Him for the longest time. Remember when you were first saved? You came to the house of the Lord and were awestruck, right? You would enter his presence with a trembling in your heart. Every time you opened your Bible, it was as if you had dug in the sand somewhere and found this hidden treasure. In addition, every time you opened the lid, you were going deeper and deeper into incredible gems of truth that were revolutionizing your life.
Ask yourself if you pass or fail this test. Have you become so familiar with God that you have little to no fear of Him? How do you know? Simple – if you premeditate sin and rationalize, “God will forgive me,” then you do not fear God. It is the most hazardous place to be. Your heart has become full of sin. You have set your hand to the ark of God, Christ Jesus the Lord, and you have mishandled the glory of God. How? By treating that which is holy as commonplace, to such a degree that you could easily mistake it for contempt. When you take the holy Son of God and you treat Him commonly, it is as if Uzzah is putting his hand to the ark all over again.
If you no longer set Him up as high and holy; if He is not the object of your greatest respect; if you now consider His mercy to you a right and not an undeserved kindness, the sacred has become common. That is the prevalent sin of God’s people today: this is where we are, we mishandle the sacredness of God because we are so familiar with Him. I plead today; let us repent of hearts filled with contempt. Let us regret our cold casualness toward our God. Can you not shed at least one tear for mishandling the sacred? Ask and pray for a boldness that fears not to come to God; for a grace that draws us near; for a holy fear that causes you to draw near rather than away from Him. May you and I live life so characterized by carefulness that people see in our face and countenance the face and the glory of the Son of God, and that glory smites them with a conviction that causes them to tremble that they would ask us, “What must I do to be saved?” Amen.
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