Godsloveandlaw's Blog

Recently many are discovering within the church that not only the keeping of the Holy 10 Commandments are important for God’s approving seal, but we must “sigh and cry” for sins done in our midst and in the church. But what is really meant by sighing and crying? Let us look deeper into this area of extreme importance.

In a recent post, we discovered that Ellen White revealed that the end time seal (Rev.7:3-4) was the same as Ezekiel saw in vision (Ezek.9:4) In that vision, we are told that the Lord commands His marking angel to go forth through the “city” (Church) and mark the men who sigh and cry for abominations done in the midst thereof. So we see clearly that in order to be counted worthy of God’s seal in the last days, we must sigh and cry.

The Hebrew word for sighing is “anach”, which means to mourn, groan or sigh. The Hebrew word for cry is “anaq”, which means to cry or groan. So the words mean a literal feeling of despondency. You feel bad about something, hence you may cry or sigh about it.(I have found the software called esword (http://www.e-sword.net/) invaluable in helping to find the correct meaning of certain words. I highly recommend it, and it’s free. But if you get good use out of it, please find it in your heart to donate a little something.)

Our beloved sister White sums up the sighing and crying in her typical beautifully worded message (Testimonies for the Church, Vol 5, page 210-211) “In the time when His wrath shall go forth in judgements, these humble, devoted followers of Christ will be distinguished from the rest of the world by their soul anguish, which is expressed in lamentations and weeping REPROOFS AND WARNINGS.  While others try to throw a cloak of the existing evil, and excuse the great wickedness everywhere prevalent, those who have a zeal for God’s honor and a love for souls, will not hold their peace to obtain favor of any.”

Let me give you a personal recent example of a sighing and crying issue occured in my presence. Awhile back a high leader in our church and I were chatting after service. The subject of proper keeping of the Sabbath came up. I mentioned that we should have a sermon in our church to help explain the meaning of keeping the Sabbath “holy”. l told him it’s not right that some of our members go to eat out on the Sabbath. He acted as if he was offended! He started rationalizng about how Jesus and the disciples went through the corn fields on the Sabbath. This justified (in his mind )  the  eating out as acceptable.

We can see from the above,  the perfect example EGW’s word “others try to throw a cloak of the existing evil.” What do you think God would have thought of me if I just nodded in agreement, or say “Yeah I see your point.” ?  Oh, woe to me,  I would become a NON sigher and cryer! This my friends, is an example of what will seperate us for the sealing or lack of.

Let’s not kid ourselves, God does not change ESPECIALLY His unchanging stance towards His Holy 10 Commandments. If  He wanted His people in Old Testament to obey them then, He certainly wants them obeyed today.

Let’s now look at some real concrete ways we can be on the look out for our fellow members, and sigh and cry in reaching out to them. But  one important thing to always remember is the  necessity to be a Commandment keeper FIRST. Those who sigh and cry and continually break the Commandments, are fooling themselves. Kinda like a guy with a megaphone standing atop a  ship that is going down saying “hey everybody be careful this ship is not safe”. The sigher is going down just as well as the others. Jesus made it so clear when he said in (Luke 6:42)”…cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shall thou see clearly to pull out the twig that is in thy brother’s eye.”

One of the prime areas of the  abominations are found  in God’s Sanctuary (church building). Jesus gave us a most profound example of not tolerating abominations   in God’s House or courts,in the example of whipping the money changers and over turning the cages of merchandise (Matt21:12).

Example number 1.  You are in the foyer of the church, you notice a man talking on his cell phone. After he is done you kindly walk over and let him know it’s better if he goes outside to talk on the phone. Most will accept this kind reproof, however if someone takes offense don’t argue, you’ve done your job. You sighing has been done, it is now between him and God.

Example number 2. You arrive at church and you see a brother ( NOT a first timer but who’s been there many times before) wearing shorts and sandals. You kindly approach him and say “you know brother, maybe it’s better if you can wear some more respectful clothes in God’s house, next time for Sabbath service.”  I know this takes a certain degree of courage and fortitude, but who are you trying to please God or man? If you need to be strengthened in the area of courage , pray and ask for it, you’ll receive it.

Example number 3. The church is having the church lunch. You sit at a table in the room next to the sanctuary. The guys at your table start talking about the football game and other sports. You kindly say “don’t forget guys it’s the Sabbath, anybody got a good bible story or question?”  This one will be sure to make them stop and think for sure just what the Sabbath is all about!

Admittingly, example 3 is difficult for some as you are kindly admonishing a group or at least more than one person. At the  minimum, we should at least excuse ourselves from that table, as to show the Lord we don’t agree with such world conversation on the Sabbath.

The above examples are but a few of the wrongs we see through out our churches. There will be something before you that the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, will call you to reprove.  We must ever be remindful that the Lord will “sprew out” the lukewarm among us. Lukewarm means to be kind of for Him but not totally. You “throw a cloak over the evils” you see in your midst, thinking “that’s his or her problem, not mine.”. The Lord will not be fooled. He is watching who are standing up for Him and not merely saying good words, but DOING good deeds.

It is not my words that point out that the ones who will be sealed are those who “sigh and cry for the abominations done in the midst.” IT IS THE LORD’S WORDS. So let us do as the Lord has said and call out the sins in our midst. Our silence or looking the other way does NOT go un noticed.

Let’s close with the prophetic words of sister White on the subject of sighing and crying. (Test. for the Church, vol.5, p.212) “The day of God’s vegeance is just upon us. The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those ONLY who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. Those who link sympathy with the world are eating and drinking with the drunken (spiritually) and will surely be destroyed with the workers of iniquity…our own course of action will determine whether we shall receive the seal of the living God or be cut down by the destroying weapons.”

He loves each and every one of us and because of this,  He has guided His last day prophets to warn us and to set our course straight, to know how we can stay on the “straight and narrow”.

In Christ, Rob

This entry was posted on December 31, 2011 at 4:51 am and is filed under Sighing and Crying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.