The first message was to the church at Ephesus. They had left their first love. It is amazing to read what they were able to do, in spite of having left their first love. It just meant that God had lost the first place in their hearts.
A little more than 27 years ago(1966) when I left my home country South Africa, to go to Korea an elderly sister worker said to me, “Well, Ernest, I suppose you think you are making quite a sacrifice to leave your country, your parents and everyone you love to go to a country where you do not know what to expect, but I want to tell you today that it doesn’t matter where you are, the greatest sacrifice you will ever make is the price you will have to pay every day to give God the first place in your heart.” In those years. I have found that those words were so true. The greatest sacrifice you will make will always be the price you all have to pay every day to give God first place in your heart.
I suppose none of you could dare to think you are serving an idol. But do you know what an idol is? It is first the thing that is occupying the place in your heart that God should have. The thing that occupies the first place in your heart is the thing that your thoughts run to when they have a moment to wander. Ask yourself, “Where do my thoughts tend to hang around?” You will find out what it is that has first place in your heart when God loses the first place in your heart you lose your way to the tree of life; you don’t feel the warmth of God’s presence; you know you are missing it and deep down you feel very uneasy.
Ezekiel 44:1 – “Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. Then said the Lord unto me. This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.” A spiritual temple which was never a building. It is your body, and you read of a door which must be kept closed and never opened because the Lord God of Israel has gone in there. To me that is an exact picture of the door to the first place in our hearts.
Before we made our choice, we were opening and closing that door all the time. But when we made our choice, it was an awful battle and that is what the battle is, to put out whatever is in there, and open the door so the Lord can come in and take first place. Then the door must be shut. Sometimes we are very careless and without realising it we have opened the door and something else has slipped in there. God is not going to share that place with anyone or anything else, so He just quietly withdraws. If you make that choice again, and it was not going to be any easier, you will find your way to the tree of life.
Truth Archive 