Amos 5:21

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell (savour) in your solemn assemblies. (22) Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. (23) Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

Yes, God hates. Israel was bringing offerings to God and praising Him in song, but it was just a ceremony. They did not love Him and they did not live for Him in the rest of their lives. They were sacrificing to pagan gods at the same time. They were also disobeying His laws.

When I read this yesterday morning, a picture of the modern church came into my mind. I could almost SEE the crowds with their hands raised up, singing a worship chorus. Then I can see them going home to their big screen TVs, fancy houses and cars, and getting their children ready for atheist school the next day. I could SEE them acting just like their “heathen” neighbors; lying, cheating, stealing, committing adultery, being self righteous and selfish.

Today’s Christian is no different than those pre-captivity Israelites. We come and worship God, but we don’t love Him. If we did, He would be in our every decision, our every moment. We would come closer and closer to His perfection, not stagnate in worldly habits.

I know many are preaching that God doesn’t care what you do with your life as long as your heart is right with God. This is bologna. Yes, God cares what is in your heart. This is primary. But if your heart is right with Him, YOUR ACTIONS WILL FOLLOW! You cannot have love for your neighbor in your heart and rob him blind. You can’t “Teach [My Words] unto your children every waking moment” (paraphrase Duet. 6:7) and “Raise your children in God’s culture and education” (paraphrase Ephesians 6) and still send them to an atheist school. You can’t present God a pure heart and have sex with someone you are not married to. You WILL act the way your heart is tuned.

Now, I will give a nod to new converts. There are many things to change in your life when you come to the Lord and some things can not be changed no matter what due to sin in this world. For example, I know a single mother who would love to homeschool and even like to send her child to private school. However, she has to make a living and can barely feed them both, much less afford private school. Homeschooling is out of the question. God knows her heart, her desire to follow the scripture. He counts it as obedience to her. She is truly doing the best she can.

Also a new convert who may be shacking up when he is saved, may not have the means to move out on his own immediately. It may take a few months. God understands, as long as the man is truly trying to improve his situation.

What is not excusable is the married couple who are perfectly healthy, who own a big house, new cars, electronic “toys,” and says they can’t afford private education. Obviously their hearts are in materialism, not worshiping God with all they’ve got.

Lets take it farther. The Bible says for older women to teach the younger women to be keepers (stayers) at home, for younger women to stay home and raise children. Yet how many “Christian” women are in the workforce? (Yes, yes, I know single women have to work. I am not talking about them). How many “Christian” children are spending the majority of their waking hours in a daycare and thus being raised by that institution instead of their God-ordained parents? How many “Christian” women think life is about THEIR fulfillment instead of service to God and His people (including the little lamb He gave them in birth)? How many “Christian” women would choose maintaining their standard of living over giving their children the most godly start available in life?

How many Christians see nothing wrong with sleeping around? Shacking up? Homosexuality? Pornography? Abortion? Plain ole selfish behavior? “Self Sacrifice” is almost a cuss word in our culture. We honestly think life is about us and our pleasure. It isn’t. Life is about God and His will in our lives. It is about service to others.

American Christians, we are in trouble! God has destroyed entire nations for less than what we have done. We deserve to be severely punished, even destroyed for our worship of money and leisure and self. The blood of aborted babies is on our hands. The blood of our children that have lost out with God because of their indoctrination into atheism in schools is on our hands. The blood of those children who can’t love because they were raised in daycare is on our hands. The blood of our children who are lured away from God by Hollywood is on our hands. The blood of sinners who see nothing different about us and so never consider accepting Christ is on our hands. It is only by God’s great mercy we aren’t already totally destroyed.

It is time we quit playing church and start living for God in every area of our lives. It is time we take our religion seriously. It is time we quit being hypocrites.