Micah 2:3-5 English Standard Version

³ Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.
⁴ In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.”
⁵ Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

Apostate is defined as a person who renounces a religious or political belief or principle.

Martin Luther was an apostate. He changed the portion of believers and that was only the beginning. What began was the reformation, a reforming of religious beliefs. That has everything to do with personal faith. When we come before the Lord we will not be able to plead religion as justification when we are called before the judgment seat.

The party line carries no weight. It is one on one before our God.

We will answer what we, as humans, have done to live by faith in the Son who died for us.

When we recognize the Lord as our Lord, who was always Lord, there will be a time when we make our humanity take a back seat to faith.

That awakening is a personal event. We do not all make it in any kind of definable order. There is no list to order up our conformance to Christ. Some might see Him as a big brother, the first son of many. Some might not see Him that way and see Him as friend, or teacher, or prophet, or the great physician.

Nor do we have the right to tell others they are wrong if the great physician is what they need today.

He is our all in all.

Psalm 139:14 English Standard Version (ESV) I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.^[a]
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Footnotes ^[a] Or for I am fearfully set apart

Being human is unique in the animal kingdom. We can understand the idea of being set apart from all the other animals. Some resent being classified as an animal. This is not to argue that point but to explore what being human means.

There are two distinct paths that are followed in defining what it means to be human. The first is anthropology. That is genetic in design. We evolve as a species and if we want to argue that point please look at the first photographs that are available to show us what mankind looked like some 200 years ago.

The nature of man has not changed but our appearances have changed. We as a species have become bigger and stronger and better looking from all appearances. Not everyone but in general. Because the amount of pure knowledge in the scientific fields has increased exponentially over the decades there is a sense that we have become smarter as a species.

The second approach is created beings. This begs to be seen as being created by a god with creation abilities. Excuse the use of the small g as opposed to the capitol G. In the arena of creation the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not stand alone. There are many cultures with many gods but to identify the one true God that created everything is a Herculean task unto itself.

At this point we must ask ourselves which god has made Himself known. Which god has made Himself known in any real and tangible way that is known to each and every believer in a personal way?

This is where the fear part of creation takes on its most salient point.

Since God loves us and gives us free will there is always the danger that we might choose to leave Him.