June 3, 2020 WWJWMTD by Steve, the son of John

CSA

Calling for a Solemn Assembly

It is obvious that God’s Church in America has medicated itself with spiritual sedatives (has been putting itself to sleep with its decisions). As a whole the Church seems unable to find the direction and the calling God has given His Church as referenced in the New Testament. It is indeed time for a Call for a Solemn Assembly (CSA). Below is a Jewish definition for such an assembly:

“SOLEMN ASSEMBLY (עֲצָרָה, H6809, from a root meaning to restrain or contain). It is the gathering and sanctifying of the community of Israel for a solemn occasion. It is used in a technical sense as the eighth day of the Feast of Booths (Lev 23:36; Num 29:35; Neh 8:18) and the seventh day of Passover (Deut 16:8). In both instances the people are instructed to “do no work” on this day for they were in a state of ritual holiness. At the dedication of the Temple, Solomon proclaimed a solemn assembly on the eighth day, “for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days” (2 Chron 7:9). For quite a different purpose, Jehu ordered the people to “sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal” (2 Kings 10:20). He was able to complete his purge of Baal worshipers from the land of Israel through the massacre of those who had gathered in the solemn assembly for the sacrifice to Baal he was to have offered.

In contrast to the above-mentioned feast days, the solemn assembly also was convened for special days of fasting. When the locust plague threatened the land, Joel exhorted Israel to “sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God; and cry to the Lord” (Joel 1:14; cf. 2:15).

Amos and Isaiah disparaged these solemn assemblies (among other things) as that which God could not endure (Isa 1:13; Amos 5:21), because the people did not do justice in the land. As Isaiah charged, “even though you make many prayers…your hands are full of blood” (Isa 1:15).

This word, עֲצָרָה, H6809, also occurs in Jeremiah 9:2 for ‘a company of treacherous men’.”

The Church when tried by God over the past few months failed in its response to the restrictions given by the medical profession to the coronavirus (strike #1), and now with very little spiritual reaction and offering no spiritual remedy for the tragic death of George Floyd. Yes, the church has struck-out again/strike #2. Will it face another strike within the coming days, thereby making it ‘strike #3, and finding itself striking out completely when tried by the Holy Spirit? Will the Church become totally irrelevant to what is taking place in the world?

There were some churches and some religious leaders speaking out and trying to show the Christian church what to do and what to say. But it was very few and without much impact! Church you have a window of opportunity to do the ‘right thing’ and ‘with the anointing of the Holy Spirit’. Will you finally act like a New Testament Church?

It is time for a CSA—a time of protest against sin! A time of repentance and mourning! A time of confession and admitting where we have gone wrong. A time to state that ‘sin is sin’ and it is the Bible that is our measuring stick—not the ‘watered-down gospel’ of compromise and seeking not to offend.

It is a time for an assembly, not within a church building but out in the open. We are the church (not a building) and we must find a voice of grief, humbleness, and admitting our failure. We must come together in an assembly to be broken by the Holy Spirit. To hear God’s word convicting us of all our sin and failures—individually and corporately.

It is the time; it is now—not tomorrow or when we feel moved.

I will write in tomorrow’s article on how to have a CSA and what God is expecting of us.

WWJWMTD

What would Jesus want me to do?

Dr. Steven J. Wentland www.wwjwmtd.com

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