The Days are Coming

Thursday, June 30, 2011, 7:18 a.m. – “First Things First” was playing in my mind when I awoke this morning. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 30:

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. 3 The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess,’ says the LORD.”
4 These are the words the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah: 5 “This is what the LORD says:

“‘Cries of fear are heard—
terror, not peace.
6 Ask and see:
Can a man bear children?
Then why do I see every strong man
with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor,
every face turned deathly pale?
7 How awful that day will be!
None will be like it.
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
but he will be saved out of it.

8 “‘In that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty,
‘I will break the yoke off their necks
and will tear off their bonds;
no longer will foreigners enslave them.
9 Instead, they will serve the LORD their God
and David their king,
whom I will raise up for them.

10 “‘So do not fear, O Jacob my servant;
do not be dismayed, O Israel,’
declares the LORD.
‘I will surely save you out of a distant place,
your descendants from the land of their exile.
Jacob will again have peace and security,
and no one will make him afraid.
11 I am with you and will save you,’
declares the LORD.
‘Though I completely destroy all the nations
among which I scatter you,
I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you but only with justice;
I will not let you go entirely unpunished.’

12 “This is what the LORD says:

“‘Your wound is incurable,
your injury beyond healing.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
no remedy for your sore,
no healing for you.
14 All your allies have forgotten you;
they care nothing for you.
I have struck you as an enemy would
and punished you as would the cruel,
because your guilt is so great
and your sins so many.
15 Why do you cry out over your wound,
your pain that has no cure?
Because of your great guilt and many sins
I have done these things to you.

16 “‘But all who devour you will be devoured;
all your enemies will go into exile.
Those who plunder you will be plundered;
all who make spoil of you I will despoil.
17 But I will restore you to health
and heal your wounds,’
declares the LORD,
‘because you are called an outcast,
Zion for whom no one cares.’

18 “This is what the LORD says:

“‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents
and have compassion on his dwellings;
the city will be rebuilt on her ruins,
and the palace will stand in its proper place.
19 From them will come songs of thanksgiving
and the sound of rejoicing.
I will add to their numbers,
and they will not be decreased;
I will bring them honor,
and they will not be disdained.
20 Their children will be as in days of old,
and their community will be established before me;
I will punish all who oppress them.
21 Their leader will be one of their own;
their ruler will arise from among them.
I will bring him near and he will come close to me,
for who is he who will devote himself
to be close to me?’
declares the LORD.
22 “‘So you will be my people,
and I will be your God.’”

23 See, the storm of the LORD
will burst out in wrath,
a driving wind swirling down
on the heads of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
until he fully accomplishes
the purposes of his heart.
In days to come
you will understand this.

My Understanding: I was praying for revival for my family members and for the church, and had spent time in prayer for various people and people groups in need. The song, “First Things First,” began playing in my mind again. When I was singing in my mind the second stanza and was singing the words, “I will follow Him where he leads me; where He goes, I’ll go with Him,” I suddenly had an image in my mind of my mother, post WWII, probably just following the war when she married my father, a soldier she had written to during the war. So, I inquired of the Lord as to why this image of my mother was in my mind. Then, I had an evil image of my father in my mind. My mother had no idea who she was marrying. My father was a dictator, a tyrant, an abuser of the worst kind, and a very evil person. So, again, I inquired of the Lord. Why were these images of my parents in my mind? Just then I heard the name “Mao.” I recognized the name. He was a dictator of the worst kind in China, beginning in 1949 (the year of my birth). He slaughtered more innocent people than Hitler and Stalin combined together, it appears. Ref: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/dictat.html.

This passage of scripture in Jeremiah appears to be a prophetic passage of scripture concerning the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the time of tribulation yet to come on the earth. “The days are coming,” “that day,” and “in that day” are all phrases believed to refer specifically to the ‘Day of Judgment’ to come on the earth during the time known as the Great Tribulation when the dragon (Satan), the beast and the antichrist will rule on the earth for a time, times and half a time. “How awful that day will be! None will be like it.” Again, this appears to apply specifically to the time of tribulation yet to come on the earth. I believe this is why the Lord placed these images in my mind, to give me a picture of what is coming and where the Lord is leading his people. He is going to lead us into these “grief stricken trials and valleys” of tribulation on the earth, yet there will be mountain top experiences, too, and in the midst of it all we will know the peace of God within.

Israel had sinned greatly against the Lord. She had been living in spiritual adultery against God Almighty, and she was steeped in idolatry. She had forsaken her One and Only true god to follow after “other gods” that were not gods. They were cheap substitutes for the real thing. Yet, out of this great time of distress would come great deliverance. It will be a time of great trouble for God’s people, and yet the people of God, i.e. believers in Jesus Christ, will be saved through the time of tribulation. During this time of great distress to come upon the earth, God will revive and restore his people to himself. He will break off the yokes of bondage to sin that have plagued his people. He provided that freedom from sin when he died on the cross for our sins, yet many believers are still living in bondage to sin as though Christ did not come to set them free. So, he will use divine discipline to break those bonds of sin from the lives of his followers, I believe, in order to purify his church, his bride, for his return. I believe a remnant of Jews will be saved, as well.

Instead of God’s people following after “other gods” to serve them, a time is coming when they will serve the Lord their God and Jesus Christ their Messiah and King. God will discipline his people with justice. He will not let us, as his people, go entirely unpunished. Without God, the wounds of sin of God’s people are incurable, which is why they continue in their sins. They are beyond healing, absent of the power of God in their lives. This is true of today’s lukewarm church. God has called and called her to repent of her sins and to return to her first love, but she has been unwilling. Because her guilt is so great and her sins so many, God will have to punish her in order to bring her back to her One and Only true God and to Jesus Christ her only Lord and Savior. Yet, it is in God’s plan to restore his church to himself through judgment, I believe. And, she will be revived and many will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through her testimony.

God will restore his people to a right relationship with himself, he will have compassion on her, and he will bless her with spiritual blessings from above when she turns from her sin and rebellious ways and she turns to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in full faith and obedience. He will “rebuild” her ruined lives which were destroyed and corrupted by sin. When he restores his people, from her will come songs of thanksgiving and sounds of rejoicing, because she will truly be free as God had planned for her to be. God will add to her numbers through the salvation of lives who are impacted by her newfound witness for Jesus Christ. And, he will establish her as his community of people once again. He will truly be her God and she will be his people, not just in name only, but in practice. Jesus Christ, our Messiah and Lord, will lead us and guide us, and we will be, as a people of God, restored to true fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ and to God the Father and Holy Spirit.

Yet, prior to this time of restoration and spiritual blessing, I believe, is going to come a time of judgment in order to bring the lukewarm church back into a right relationship with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ wants to be in first place in our lives. If we are going to spend eternity with him in heaven, then we should be making him Lord of our lives while we are still on the earth. There are no guarantees that any of us will survive what is coming, so if you are still floundering in your sin or in lukewarm faith, I pray you will get right with God today while you still have today.

First Things First / An Original Work / April 27, 2011

First things first! Last things last!
Will you be the first to love others?
Will you follow Jesus, the Lamb?
Will you witness, dispelling darkness?
Will you be the light to the world?
Show the world how much Jesus loves them.
That’s why He died for their sins.

I love God! He loves me!
I will follow Him where he leads me.
Where He goes, I’ll go with Him
Into valleys, grief stricken trials,
Or on mountain tops, peace within.
There is not a challenge He can’t meet
If we but trust in Him.

First things first! Last things last!
Loving God means He is in first place.
He is King; He’s Lord of my world.
I give Him the glory and honor;
Magnifying the great I AM!
He is worthy of all my worship.
He deserves all of my praise.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

If You Do Not Listen

Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 11:29 p.m. – “Send a Revival,” is playing over and over again in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 26:1-15:

1 Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. 4 Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’”

7 The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD. 8 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!”

12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

My Understanding: God told Jeremiah to stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house and speak to all the people who came to worship in the house of the LORD. So, the people to whom Jeremiah was to speak were worshipers of Almighty God. These were believers in God. Today they would be those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, who collectively comprise the church. He was to speak in the house of the Lord. Today, the house of the Lord is in the hearts of those who are true believers in Jesus Christ, so this would be wherever believers in Jesus Christ gather together, as we now have God living within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, and we worship God in spirit and in truth.

Jeremiah received God’s words directly from God, and he was the word of God to the people. Today we have the written word of God, the Holy Bible, which is God’s divinely God-breathed word to the people of the church and to the world. Yet, God also uses human messengers to bring forth that word in ways that are practical, understandable, and applicable to our lives today, and they are his servants and messengers, too. God is speaking today through many of his messengers to the church in many of the same ways in which God had Jeremiah speak to God’s people of his day. Today’s messengers of God are applying the Biblical principles set forth by God himself in the OT, and as continued in the NT, to the spiritual condition of today’s church, and are calling God’s people to repentance.

As I read this passage of scripture and the message which Jeremiah was to give to the people, there were several key words that stood out to me that repeat themselves over and over again all throughout scripture, in one form or another:

• Listen – pay attention; take note; heed; follow
• Turn – repent; change directions, in this case, in the opposite direction
• Relent – to not do what you said you would do, usually out of forgiveness
• Follow – obey; respect; abide by; adhere to; go by; pursue; pattern yourself after
• Commands – orders; instructions; guidelines; directives
• The Word – All Scripture is God-breathed, living and active and still speaks to us
• Messengers – envoys; heralds; proclaimers; criers; representatives; ambassadors
• Reform – remodel; rearrange; renovate; restructure; amend; change; revise
• Ways and actions – deeds; attitudes; behaviors; habits; practices
• Obey – submit; follow; conform
• Judgment – ruling; verdict; sentence; punishment; discipline; correction

The people were to listen to God’s words in the sense of heeding what he said, not in just hearing audibly his words. John 10:27-28 says (Jesus speaking): “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Notice the direct connection between the word “listen” and the word “follow.” To truly listen to God is to follow him and to adhere to what he is saying. James 1:22-25 says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” True listening is accompanied by doing.

The people were also, in response to what they heard from God, to turn (repent) from their sins (evil ways). In other words, they were to go in the opposite direction of what they had been going. They were supposed to be followers of God, yet they were following after their own selfish and evil desires, they were following after other “gods”, they had forsaken God in truth and in practice, many were giving lip service only, and they were living in spiritual adultery against God. So, he was calling them to turn from their sins and to listen, follow and obey him and his commandments. In order for them to turn from sin, they had to turn to God. This is what it means to be reformed. We can’t just stop sinning. We have to become someone or something else (See Eph. 4). We have to be remodeled in conformity to God’s pattern for our lives instead of to the world’s pattern for our lives. And, we have to change our ways and our actions to ways and actions in line with God’s holy word.

God told the people of Jeremiah’s day that if they did not repent of their evil ways, he was going to bring his hand of divine judgment against them. Yet, if they repented and they turned from their sins and they followed, obeyed, and conformed to God’s plan for their lives, he would relent and would not bring against them the judgments he had planned. A lot of people think that this is just OT teaching and that this does not apply to us today. Yet, I Corinthians 11, in the instructions given to us on communion, we are told that if we judge ourselves (examine ourselves and repent of sin) we will not come under God’s judgment.

I Peter 4:17 states that it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God. Peter was speaking of God’s discipline upon his children in order to purify them. In Hebrews 12 we learn that God disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. And, in Revelation 3, in the letter to the church in Laodicea, God warns that those he loves he rebukes and disciplines, so they should be earnest and repent. And, in most of the letters to the churches in Revelation God promised or warned of some kind of judgment (divine discipline) if the people did not repent – turn from their sins, reform their ways, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will for their lives.

The church of today here in the USA, in particular, is in great need of revival. The world and its pattern of how to behave have crept into the church, and the church has adopted its ways, actions and methods, so that the church is barely distinguishable from the world, if at all. Many Christians do all or many of the same things the people of the world do. There is not much difference between believers and non-believers. The church does not stand out in stark contrast to the world anymore. It blends in with the world and its culture, thinking it is reaching the people of the world for Christ, but worldly means and methods only draw people to more of the world, and to what their human flesh craves and desires. Many Christians today are not that much different than God’s people in Jeremiah’s day. They are caught up in their sins, their idolatry and are living in spiritual adultery against God. God is calling them to repent of (turn from) their sins, reform their ways, obey God’s commands, and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ with their lives in full surrender and obedience.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, but you know that you are not living your life in full surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you are living a double life, that your worship of God is shallow or non-existent, and/or that God is speaking to you, and you have heard him speak, but you are not listening and you are not heeding his voice, then I pray today that you will listen, that you will obey, that you will turn from your sins and that you will be spiritually renovated (revived) in your hearts and minds today. Give Jesus your hearts!

Send a Revival / An Original Work / June 25, 2011

Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.
Teach us to daily walk in your footsteps.
Guide us in your truth, and may we find rest.
Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.

Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.
Change our hearts to conform to your likeness.
May we love others who are in distress.
Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.

Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.
Keep us in fellowship with you, I pray.
May we obey you in all things today.
Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.

Song

Are You Listening?

Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 8:38 a.m. – When I woke this morning, the song, “Send a Revival,” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 25:1-14:

The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 2 So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: 3 For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

4 And though the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. 5 They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever. 6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

7 “But you did not listen to me,” declares the LORD, “and you have provoked me with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”

8 Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, 9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. 10 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever. 13 I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. 14 They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

My Understanding: The very first thing on my heart was to ask the Lord Jesus to show me where I need to be revived in my own heart, to convict me of any sin that I may have overlooked, to point out to me where I may have offended anyone needlessly by my own careless words, and in general just to reveal to my heart and to speak to me about any areas of my life that may not be pleasing to the Lord Jesus and where I need to make necessary adjustments to how I live, love, walk, serve, speak, etc. I cannot speak to others about revival if there is anything in my own life hindering my relationship with Jesus Christ.

I’ve been reading the book of Jeremiah for several weeks now. All of the prophets, major and minor, gave the same messages over and over again. So, when I write out my quiet times from my reading in the prophets, the messages will seem to be repetitious. They are. The message has not changed since the days when the prophets of old wrote what they did. Man is still sinful. He is still bent toward sin. Believers in Jesus Christ are not exempt from sin, though they are forgiven the ultimate penalty of sin, which is eternal punishment in hell and eternal separation from God Almighty, because Jesus Christ paid the price of his life on the cross so that we could go free. He also died that we might be free from bondage to and the control of sin over our day-to-day lives, yet many believers in Jesus Christ seem to have missed that part of the gospel message. And, so they continue to flounder in their sin.

I believe that a big part of the problem here is that the church itself does not stand out in stark contrast to the world, but has rather embraced it, and so believers in Jesus Christ are being desensitized to sin and oftentimes do not even recognize when they are sinning against God and are doing what is displeasing to him. Another problem is what is being taught in many of the churches by preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are telling people that all they have to do is to pray a prayer and they have their ticket to heaven. They are telling them that God is pleased with them no matter what they do and that repentance (turning from sin) and obedience to God are not necessary for salvation. So, they leave the people in their sins and without hope of being truly saved and freed from the control of sin over their lives. Thus, the people have been given a false sense of security that does not encourage them to turn from their sins or to walk in obedience to the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:14 & 16 says this regarding these false teachers:

“They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from his wickedness.”

“Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me,
‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts
they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’”

Yet, God was saying to them then, and he is still saying to us now:

• “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices”
• “Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them”
• “Do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made”

He told the people then that they needed to repent, and I believe very much so that he is saying the same things to the church here in America today: ~I have given you my words. I gave my Son to die on the cross for your sins so that you could go free. I have been calling and calling you to repent of your sins, to turn from them, and to walk humbly in obedience before me. Yet, you are not listening. You are not paying attention to what I am saying to you. You are continuing in your sins and you are continuing in your idolatry and spiritual adultery against me and my Son, Jesus Christ, who died for you so you could go free from sin. You are bringing harm to yourselves and you are bringing judgment upon yourselves by your refusal to listen, to repent and to obey me and my words to you found in the Bible.~

So, God will punish such disobedience and refusal to listen, to repent and to obey. Yet, he is still calling out for us to turn from our sin, to obey him, to come into pure fellowship with him, to hear him speak to our hearts each day, to follow him wherever he leads us, to do what he wants us to do, and to be who he desires us to be. He is a jealous God and he wants to be the only God in our lives. May we listen to his voice speaking today and obey.

Send a Revival / An Original Work / June 25, 2011

Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.
Teach us to daily walk in your footsteps.
Guide us in your truth, and may we find rest.
Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.

Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.
Change our hearts to conform to your likeness.
May we love others who are in distress.
Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.

Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.
Keep us in fellowship with you, I pray.
May we obey you in all things today.
Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

Return to Me

Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 10:27 p.m. – I was awakened by a thunderstorm outside. The song, “Laodicea,” was playing over and over again in my mind. So, I got up to inquire of the Lord and to see if there was something he wanted to say. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 21-25, but I was not connecting where it was that the Lord wanted me to focus my attention. When I had gotten up from bed, I had the urge to have a Fig Newton bar, which seemed odd to me since I don’t usually think of food in the middle of the night. I didn’t think I needed anything, so I dismissed the idea. When I was struggling to understand what the Lord wanted to say to me, the thought of the Fig Newton bar returned to my thinking and so I got one out of the pantry. As soon as I did, I remembered that one of the chapters I had read was about figs, so I went back and read Jeremiah 24:

Two Baskets of Figs
1 After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the craftsmen and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD. 2 One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
3 Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

“Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the poor ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.”

4 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. 6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

8 “‘But like the poor figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. 9 I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, an object of ridicule and cursing, wherever I banish them. 10 I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their fathers.’”

My Understanding: The song, “Laodicea,” is taken from Revelation 3:14-22. Jesus was speaking to the church in Laodicea. He told them that he knew their deeds, that they were neither cold nor hot, but they were lukewarm, so he was about to spit them out of his mouth. He said they were self-sufficient and did not feel they needed anything. Yet, they did not realize that they were “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Jesus counseled them to come to him in repentance, faith and obedience and to receive his healing mercies and his grace. He informed them that he rebukes and disciplines those he loves, so they were to be earnest and repent (turn from their sin). Jesus was standing at the door of the church and was knocking. He told them if they would hear his voice and would open the door, he would come in and would eat with them and have fellowship with them.

Although Laodicea was a real place and a local church fellowship was located in that city and this was a letter to that specific church congregation, still these letters to the churches in Revelation are for the church throughout history, wherever and whenever the truths contained within it apply to a specific group of people at a particular time, I believe. Some people see the letters to the churches as representing the church ages, and they believe we are now living in the age of the Laodicean church, i.e. the lukewarm church. I sympathize with this view, though I believe there are principles to be learned from all seven letters that may apply to today’s church. I do believe, though, that the church in the USA collectively is a lukewarm church and that the Lord Jesus is giving this same message today to the church in America. He is calling to us to repent of our sins, and he is warning of judgment.

Laodicea / An Original Work / April 29, 2011

Laodicea, Laodicea, I’m calling you.
You hear Me calling, you hear Me calling. I’m calling you.
Will you not answer? Will you not answer? I’m calling you.
If you but follow, if you but follow, I’ll answer you.
Won’t you give Me your heart and your soul,
So I can cleanse you and make you whole?
Laodicea, Laodicea, I’m calling you.
If you will answer, if you will answer, I’ll come to you.

I stand at your door, I stand at your door. I’m knocking there.
Will you not listen? Will you not listen, while I’ll be there?
If you’ll but open, if you’ll but open your hearts to Me,
I’ll come within you, I’ll come within you, you’ll sup with Me.
Won’t you buy from Me some gold and salve?
These costly treasures are yours to have.
Laodicea, Laodicea, I’m calling you.
If you will answer, if you will answer, I’ll come to you.

Are you contented, are you contented to be lukewarm?
Will you not have Me? Will you not have Me? Of this I warn –
If you don’t hear Me, if you don’t hear Me, and so obey,
I will spit you out, I will spit you out without delay.
So why not heed this your final call,
And give to God absolutely all?
Laodicea, Laodicea, I’m calling you.
If you will answer, if you will answer, I’ll come to you.

https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/laodicea

The people of Jeremiah’s day were in a similar situation as this church in Laodicea. God had been warning them for a very long time to repent of their sins or he was going to bring judgment upon them. They were mixing their faith in God Almighty with the worship of idols and they were living in spiritual adultery against God. Not only that, they were not listening to him or to his messengers or to his calls to repent. They had turned away from him, they had forsaken him, their only true God, and they were following after men and man-made idols. So, God had to bring divine judgment upon them. When he did, the people ended up being divided into two groups: good figs and bad figs. The good figs were those who acknowledged their sin, who repented, and who returned to God with their whole hearts. The bad figs were those who did not repent and who continued in their wickedness.

For those who refused to repent of their sins and who continued in their wickedness, more judgment was in store for them. Yet, for those who returned to God with their whole hearts, God promised them that he would watch over them for their good, that he would restore them, that he would build them up and not tear them down, that he would plant them and not uproot them, that he would give them a heart to know God and that he would be their God and they would be his people.

God, I believe, is still giving that same message to us today, only the promise is more along the lines of spiritual restoration: rebuilding and replanting us spiritually, by his grace. He will give us a heart to know him, and he will be our God and we will be his people when we come to him in repentance and we forsake our idols and our lukewarmness and we get on fire for the Lord, i.e. we return to him with our whole hearts.

When I had finished taking notes on this chapter of Jeremiah about the good and bad figs, the Lord brought to mind this song, which is the prayer of my heart. I hope it is yours, too.

By Your Grace / An Original Work / June 27, 2011

Speak Your words to my heart,
Let Your grace and love impart.
Be to me all I need
To love and serve Christ my King;
To love and serve Christ my King.
Change my heart; be like You;
Let me love and serve in truth.
Guide my steps ev’ry day,
As I bow my knees and pray;
As I bow my knees and pray.

Love You, Lord. You love me.
You died so that I’d go free
From my sin; pure within;
By Your grace I’m saved from sin;
By Your grace I’m saved from sin.
Invite You in my heart;
Now I have a brand new start.
Repented of my sin,
So that I’d be cleansed within;
So that I’d be cleansed within.

Live for You ev’ry day,
List’ning to the words you say.
Make You Lord of my heart;
Be Your witness, grace impart;
Be Your witness, grace impart.
Obey Your ev’ry word;
Do the things I’ve seen and heard.
Your word, Lord, in me burns,
While I wait for Your return;
While I wait for Your return.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/by-your-grace

By Your Grace

No matter what we are doing in love and service to our Lord Jesus Christ, it should be by God's grace and in his strength and power that we do what we do. We cannot serve God apart from his grace, mercy, love, compassion and tender mercies at work within us and through us as we serve and love him and others.

By Your Grace / An Original Work / June 27, 2011

Speak Your words to my heart,
Let Your grace and love impart.
Be to me all I need
To love and serve Christ my King;
To love and serve Christ my King.
Change my heart; be like You;
Let me love and serve in truth.
Guide my steps ev’ry day,
As I bow my knees and pray;
As I bow my knees and pray.

Love You, Lord. You love me.
You died so that I’d go free
From my sin; pure within;
By Your grace I’m saved from sin;
By Your grace I’m saved from sin.
Invite You in my heart;
Now I have a brand new start.
Repented of my sin,
So that I’d be cleansed within;
So that I’d be cleansed within.

Live for You ev’ry day,
List’ning to the words you say.
Make You Lord of my heart;
Be Your witness, grace impart;
Be Your witness, grace impart.
Obey Your ev’ry word;
Do the things I’ve seen and heard.
Your word, Lord, in me burns,
While I wait for Your return;
While I wait for Your return.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

I Cannot Hold It In!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 8:43 a.m. – When I arose from my sleep this morning, the song, “Speak, Lord,” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening to you. I read Jeremiah 19-20 (quoting 20:7-13):

Jeremiah’s Complaint
7 O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
10 I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Report him! Let’s report him!”
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to the LORD!
Give praise to the LORD!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.

My Understanding: Prior to this dialogue that Jeremiah had with God in prayer, and in anguish of heart and mind, the priest, Pashhur, “the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying” judgment of God against the people of God because:

• They had forsaken their God – the One and Only true God
• They had followed after other “gods” that were not gods (idolatry)
• They were shedding innocent blood, and
• They were stiff-necked and would not listen to God’s words

After Pashhur heard Jeremiah prophesying “these things,” he had Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks (restraint; confinement) at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD’s temple. When Pashhur released Jeremiah the next day, Jeremiah prophesied the word of the LORD to Pashhur. He prophesied God’s judgment against him and against his friends and against all of Judah. Pashhur and his friends, to whom Pashhur had prophesied lies, pretending to speak for God, would go into exile and there they would die and would be buried.

Jeremiah’s emotional response, thus, to all that had just taken place, and to how he had just been treated at the hand of Pashhur, was to express his emotional state to God in feeling as though God had not adequately prepared him for this ministry to which God had called him. He had been an obedient servant and messenger of God to the people, and yet he was mistreated by the “religious” leaders of his day, even by the chief officer in the temple of the Lord. Jesus Christ was treated the same way by the same group of people.

God had prepared Jeremiah for this possibility, and he did tell him what he could expect - see Jeremiah 1 where God told Jeremiah that the people would fight against him but that God would be with him and he would deliver him. Yet, it seems we can never realize the full impact of those words of God to our hearts until we actually go through the circumstances God told us ahead of time that he would take us through. All through the New Testament we are told, that as servants of the Lord, that we will go through hardship, persecution, betrayal, even at the hands of those closest to us, that we will share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, and that some of us may even be put to death for our faith in Jesus Christ. So, it should not surprise us when we are rejected, persecuted, pushed aside, mocked, betrayed, and ultimately face being killed for our faith in Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah described to God his plight, even though God knew what Jeremiah was going through, yet Jeremiah needed to cry out his emotions to God. Jeremiah expressed to God in prayer that he was:

• Ridiculed all day long
• Mocked by everyone
• Asked of God to cry out, speaking and proclaiming violence and destruction
• Insulted and reproached (accused, scolded, criticized and reprimanded)
• Whispered against: “Terror on every side! Let’s report him!”
• And, betrayed by his friends, as they were waiting for him to slip so that they could prevail over him and could take their revenge upon him.

Yet, Jeremiah knew that he could not stop speaking the words of the Lord. “His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot,” said Jeremiah. I identify with Jeremiah here. Do you? God has called each one of us who believe in Jesus Christ to be his witnesses and his servants and to speak his words, found in the Holy Bible, to the lost and to the people of God, yet many do not want to hear God’s words, only the parts that make them feel good about themselves, but not the parts that confront them with their sin and that call for repentance and obedience to God. They don’t want to hear that God will actually judge his own people if they do not repent of their ways and they do not return to their One and Only true God by forsaking their idols. So, when we share the whole gospel and not just the parts people like to hear, we may, as well, face many of the same things as did Jeremiah, and, in fact, the New Testament tells us that is what we should expect when we are true ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Even though Jeremiah was in anguish of heart and mind over this mistreatment at the hands of the chief officer of the temple of God, yet he stood confident in who God is, and in who he, Jeremiah, was, and in who he had been called to be, with God within him and at his side helping, encouraging and strengthening him for the task before him. He knew that God would rescue him emotionally and would bring much comfort and strengthening to his heart and mind, and he also knew that one day God would physically rescue him, as well, from the hands of his persecutors. So, he sang to the Lord and he gave praise to the Lord, even in the midst of his suffering and anguish of heart and mind.

I find it interesting that Jesus’ worst persecutors and his murderers were the religious leaders of his day in the temple of God. Jeremiah faced this same kind of mistreatment as did Jesus many years later, and at the hand of the top spiritual leader in the temple of God. And, times have not changed all that much, either. When we choose to truly walk with God in faith and obedience to his commands for our lives and we choose to put our lives on the altar of God as living sacrifices, and we walk away from our idolatry and the sins that had so easily entangled us previously, we will face persecution from brothers and sisters in the Lord who are living worldly lives, and we will face rejection and abandonment from the religious leaders in our churches because of our testimony for Jesus Christ, and for the sake of sharing the whole gospel of Jesus Christ, which many church leaders today are watering down to where it is no gospel at all and is giving people a false hope.

Yet, we must be encouraged in knowing we are obeying God and his word and we are giving out the messages, from his word, that the Lord desires that we give to his people and to the lost, and we must remain confident in our relationships with our Lord Jesus, in who he has called us to be, and in what he has called us to do, and to know that He is within us fighting the battle for us, and that he will deliver us if we will put our trust in him and not let the fear of man overtake us.

Jeremiah ended this prayer to God with a lament that he had even been born. Job lamented something very similar to this to God in prayer. Both men were righteous before God and were true servants of the Lord, but they were still human, and they hurt when they went through times of persecution, false accusations, and feelings of abandonment even by God Almighty, who had allowed them to go through such suffering. Jeremiah could not understand, in his present emotional state, why God had allowed him to even be born to see such trouble and sorrow and to end his days in shame.

Yet, that is exactly what happened to Jesus Christ. He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Men hid their faces from him. He was mocked, spat upon, rejected, betrayed, denied, abandoned, falsely accused, beaten, imprisoned and ultimately hung on a cross, although he had done no wrong. He went through all of this so that he could take upon himself all our sins, crucifying them, burying them, and then rising from the dead, triumphing over them so that we could be free from the penalty of sin (eternal punishment in hell and eternal separation from God), and so that we could be free from the control of sin over our day-to-day lives.

When we come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, via repentance and obedience to God in turning from our sins and in making a conscious decision to now follow the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do, we are, thus, crucified with him so that we (our flesh natures) no longer live, but Christ lives within us, and we now live by faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, and we live and walk in faith and obedience by his grace and power at work within us. Life with Jesus Christ, therefore, means to share in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Yet, he will not abandon us. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will be with us always, giving us hope, encouragement, strengthening, teaching us his ways, filling us with his peace and joy, even in the face of much suffering, keeping us from sin, leading us to victory, and in daily comforting us with his presence within us, as we continue to walk in his grace and love. I pray today that all servants of the Lord who are suffering persecution for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be comforted in knowing that God is with us and he will give us all we need.

Speak, Lord / An Original Work / May 8, 2011

Speak, Lord, for Your servant’s list’ning to You.
Let me hear You speak in love and in truth.
Guide me, I pray. Teach me Your way.
Speak, Lord, while I bow before You now.

Speak, Lord, fill me with Your peace and Your joy.
Let Your Holy Spirit’s work now employ.
Strengthen within. Keep me from sin.
Speak, Lord, words that lead to victory.

Speak, Lord, so that I might walk in Your ways.
Let Your love o’er-flow in my heart today.
Be my desire. Set me on fire.
Speak, Lord, comfort me with Your presence.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

The Deceitful Heart

Monday, June 27, 2011, 8:13 a.m. – When I got up out of bed this morning, the song, “A Still Small Voice,” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 16-17 (quoting 17:1-14):

“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool,
inscribed with a flint point,
on the tablets of their hearts
and on the horns of their altars.
2 Even their children remember
their altars and Asherah poles
beside the spreading trees
and on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the land
and your wealth and all your treasures
I will give away as plunder,
together with your high places,
because of sin throughout your country.
4 Through your own fault you will lose
the inheritance I gave you.
I will enslave you to your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for you have kindled my anger,
and it will burn forever.”

5 This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

10 “I the LORD search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.”

11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
is the man who gains riches by unjust means.
When his life is half gone, they will desert him,
and in the end he will prove to be a fool.

12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the spring of living water.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise.

My Understanding: God described to Jeremiah how he viewed the sins of his people, Israel. An iron tool and a flint point were used to engrave or to chisel out words or pictures into a stone tablet. My husband owns an instrument such as this. It is a wood burning instrument that has various sizes of tips. Yet, the one described here was for engraving words into stone tablets, which represented the depth, seriousness and permanency of Israel’s sins being engraved into their hardened hearts. Their sins described here were directly related to their idolatry. And, their idolatry was associated specifically with their wealth and their treasures (valued possessions).

We are not all that different today, especially here in the USA. Christians in the USA are among those who have wide-screen TVs in the place of honor in their living rooms with nearly all seats situated to face and to give honor to the idol that has dominance in that room in many living rooms in America. At the feet of these idols are the hundreds of video games, DVDs, Wii games, Xboxes, etc. used to keep this idol happy and actively employed to keep us entertained continuously, if we should so choose. Many American households plan their days around their TV programs and feel at a loss as to what to do with their time if they have a power outage for a period of time and are not able to connect to their pacifier. The TV, movies, games, computers, the internet, IPads, cell phones, etc. all serve to keep Americans continuously connected electronically to their friends, family members, entertainment, news, games, et al, and can be a continuous source of distraction and mind numbing to where God Almighty is barely an afterthought throughout our daily routines.

These are not the only idols that can creep into our lives, though. Our jobs, homes, cars, vehicles, possessions, properties, toys, personal libraries, knowledge, education, family members, hobbies, sports, people, religion, church edifices, doctrines, rites and rituals, leisure time, fun activities, and/or our “good deeds,” etc. can all become our idols, as well, and the list goes on and on. Basically, when something or someone takes the place of God in our lives and in our hearts to where our time, devotion, obedience, worship, allegiance, emotion, heart, passion, minds, speech, and/or energies, etc. are given over to that something or someone above and beyond what we give to God, then that something or someone may be our idol. Sometimes, though, we can give plenty of time and energy to something or someone, or even to God, but our hearts are not given over. In other words, just because we give God our time or energies to church work or community service and good deeds, it does not mean God is in first place in our lives or that he has our hearts.

Not only can things and activities become our idols, but humans can become our idols to where we trust them more than we trust God, and we worship, adore and praise them more than we worship, adore and praise God. When the acceptance of man is greater in our hearts than God’s acceptance of us, man has become our idol and we are guilty of placing our trust more in man and of turning away from God. If God asks us to do something that will get us most assuredly rejected by man, whom will we choose? Is our goal mainly to please man (and woman) and to have them like and accept us, or is our goal to please God in all that we do, think, say and are, even if it means being rejected by man? So many people shy away from witnessing and sharing the truth of the gospel, and from speaking the truth in love to a fallen brother or sister, using the excuse that they don’t want to offend anyone and they don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. Yet, what they are really concerned about, in most cases, is their own lives and not wanting people to reject them and to think ill of them. They want to be liked. They want people to say nice things about them. And, so they just say things to people that will get them liked and accepted.

Yet, think about this with me for a moment. If someone is drowning, will you offer him kind words to console him, or will you jump into the water and rescue him, risking that your own life could be lost in the process? Will you at least call for help? If someone is asleep in a house that is on fire, will you avoid waking him up so that he is not angry with you? Will you stand quietly outside the house and just watch him burn up inside? Or will you just say nice things to him but not be willing to lift a finger to try to rescue him? If someone is stepping out into the street and you see a truck barreling down the road toward him, will you just stand and watch? No! I hope not!! I would hope that you would call out to him. If someone is dying of a horrible disease and you have the antidote or the cure, will you keep it to yourself? Or, will you let the person know that he can be saved and he can be healed? Many of us take these cowardly approaches to our relationships with people to where we want their acceptance of us and for us to be thought well of so much that we refuse to speak the truth in love to them, and we avoid sharing the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus we have made them our idols and our trust is more in man than in God.

In contrast to all of this idolatry and worship of man and things is the one who places his or her trust in God, giving to God his or her heart unreservedly, turning from sin, walking in faith and obedience, and is one who is willing to suffer rejection, persecution and even death for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the sake of the salvation of human lives. This person is blessed by God. He is a fruitful believer who produces fruit in keeping with repentance, faith and obedience to God/Jesus Christ, because his faith and life and practice are rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his love and mercy, and in his Word, and he has made the decision to put his trust in God above trust in man. He will not fear man or what man can do to him, because he wants to please his Master and Lord above all else, and because he understands that the greatest love is for one to lay down his life for another and to be willing to die so that another can be saved, which includes dying to our own pride, self-will and desire to be liked by man above our desire to please God.

“The heart is deceitful above all things…” The Lord searches our hearts and examines our minds. We are deceived when we think that we can fill our lives, minds and hearts with all these things and activities that have nothing to do with our relationship with Jesus Christ and that God is pleased with us if we give him a few moments of our time each day or once a week for an hour. We are deceived if we think that being a “nice” person who always says “nice” things to people and never offends anyone or hurts people’s feelings makes us good Christians that others should emulate. We are not called to be “nice.” We are called to obey God, to be his messengers, to be kind, compassionate, tenderhearted, loving, merciful, but to speak the truth in love and to be willing to die so that others can go free. This is love!

Where is your heart today in relation to your God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Is he truly in first place in your heart to where you have no idols or gods before him? Do you trust him and follow him more than you trust man and follow man? Do you inquire of him as to what he wants of you - your time, money, energy, thoughts, words, behaviors, habits, hobbies, etc.? And, then do you listen to him and obey what he tells you, even if it means getting rid of your “idols”? Are you more interested in pleasing God with your life than you are in pleasing yourself or in being liked by others? God is still calling out to his people to get their lives right with him, to forsake all their idols, to turn from their sins, to walk humbly before God in faith and obedience, and to be fruit-bearing disciples for Jesus Christ in leading others to follow the Lord Jesus in all faith and obedience, being willing even to suffer rejection, persecution and death for the sake of His Name, for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the sake of salvation of human lives. Don’t let your hearts deceive you.

A Still Small Voice / An Original Work / May 23, 2011

In a still small voice He calls you.
Won’t you hear and let him in?
He’s still speaking, oh, how gently.
He died to save you from sin.
Softly He speaks to our hearts.
His mercy and love imparts.
Won’t you come to Him today?
Let Him wash your sins away.

In a still small voice He whispers,
Kindly, calling you to Him.
He loves you so much, He’s willing
You not die, but live with Him.
He keeps prodding, gently so,
For His grace, you come to know.
He died so that you’d go free;
Live with Him eternally.

In a still small voice He hastens
You to turn your lives to Him,
Humbly walking in obedience,
Making Him your Lord and King!
Turn from your sin, turn to God,
Put your trust in Christ, His Son.
Invite Him into your hearts.
He’ll give you a brand new start.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

Send a Revival

I had a simple tune in my head that sounded like a beginning piano piece. So, I wrote it down. Then, I inquired of the Lord if he had words to go with the tune, and he gave me the words to "Send a Revival." I pray often that God would revive our hearts and to bring his church back into a right relationship with him.

Send a Revival / An Original Work / June 25, 2011

Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.
Teach us to daily walk in your footsteps.
Guide us in your truth, and may we find rest.
Send a revival to this nation, Lord, I pray.
Bring us to our knees, Lord, humbly today.

Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.
Change our hearts to conform to your likeness.
May we love others who are in distress.
Be our desire and our hearts’ pure devotion, Lord.
Make us a people who walk close to you.

Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.
Keep us in fellowship with you, I pray.
May we obey you in all things today.
Teach us to be an example of your love, Lord.
May we serve others as though serving you.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

Ruined and Useless?

Sunday, June 26, 2011, 12:25 a.m. – The Lord gave me a song to write a couple of weeks ago, or maybe a week ago, and I had put it aside because we had out-of-town guests and family events happening. I picked it back up late Saturday evening before going to bed, and then finished keying the words into the sheet music. My husband and I went to bed, we read Ezekiel 12, and then my husband went to sleep. This song, “Ministers of our God,” kept playing in my mind and I could not sleep, so I got up to hear from the Lord. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 13 (quoting vv 1-11):

A Linen Belt
1 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” 2 So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.

3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4 “Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.

6 Many days later the LORD said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 “This is what the LORD says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! 11 For as a belt is bound around a man’s waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,’ declares the LORD, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

My Understanding: Linen was a symbol of spiritual purity before God, as well as it was worn by priests. The linen belt was thus a symbol of priesthood and servanthood and of Israel’s priestly calling as kingdom priests, as well as it represented the people of Israel whom God had chosen to be his kingdom people. Revelation 1:5b-6 says: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” So, Israel of the Old Testament, and true Israel, the church, of the New Testament were/are assigned to be kingdom priests to serve their God and to be ministers of God. So, this song (below) is speaking to all of us who profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and who profess to be his servants and ministers of the New Covenant.

God had Jeremiah perform a symbolic act to illustrate a message God wanted to give to his people. He asked Jeremiah to wear the belt around his waist, then he was to take it to Perath and hide it in the crevice in the rocks. After some time he was to dig up the belt only to find that it was now ruined and completely useless. Again, the belt represented God’s people. Binding the belt around Jeremiah’s waist was symbolic of the close, intimate relationship God had intended for his people to have with him for his praise and honor. Yet, his people followed the stubborn and rebellious inclinations of their own hearts and minds. They refused to listen to God and to his words. They followed after false gods and they worshiped them instead. So, they became just like this belt – ruined and useless. So, God was going to have to send judgment upon her in order to get her to repent of her sins.

God has the same plan for intimacy with his people, the church, as he did for Israel of the Old Testament. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are to be crucified with Christ. Our old ways of living are to be eradicated from our lives. We are to forsake our sins and sinful lifestyles and we are to turn in the opposite direction by following Jesus Christ in full faith, surrender and obedience. It is in that newfound relationship with Jesus Christ via his death for our sins on the cross and his resurrection and thus conquering sin, so that we can go free, that we experience that close, intimate relationship with Almighty God and we become his people and he becomes our God. Our hearts desire is then for him and for serving and obeying him. He becomes the focus of our lives from whom all else flows. And, it is there that we are like that belt around Jeremiah’s waist, i.e. in that intimate fellowship with our God whom we love and serve and obey.

Yet, many who have come into relationship with Jesus Christ have since drifted away and have followed the ways of man and of the world more than they are following after God. Activities, entertainment, careers, school, friends, family, etc. take up most all of their energy, time, affection and attention. God has taken a back seat or has been forgotten altogether. They may do good things for God, but they are no longer in intimate fellowship with the Lord. Their times of personal worship, prayer, and time in the word are sterile, routine, sparse or non-existent. God is not even on their radar, in some cases. They rarely inquire of him unless they want something. They worship created things more than or instead of worshiping their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our reasonable service of worship is that we present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable, no longer conformed to the pattern of the world, but rather being transformed by the renewing of our minds (See Rom. 12:1-2). This is the worship that God accepts.

Others may have made only a surface-level confession of Christ as Savior. They may have prayed a sinner’s prayer and were then told that they had their ticket into heaven, yet they never truly repented of sin, they never turned from sin and toward God, and/or they did not feel it was required of them to repent or to obey because someone told them they only had to “believe,” though the word “belief” was described more in emotional terms or as an intellectual assent or moral decision to be a better person, rather than as death to self. Yet, coming to Jesus in faith means coming to the cross of Christ and dying to our old ways of living and then choosing to walk in faith and obedience to him on a day-to-day basis, confessing sin, daily repenting, daily being cleansed and renewed in mind and heart, and being in that close, intimate relationship with him to where we sit at his feet, we hear from him, we listen to what he says, and then we obey what he tells us to do.

God is calling out to all those who have ever made a profession of him as Lord and Savior, and he is asking that those who have drifted away and have become corrupted by the world and its influences, and/or those who had the assumption of a relationship that never truly existed between them and Jesus Christ, to either come to the Lord Jesus in true faith and obedience for the first time, forsaking their idols and their sins, or else to return to the Lord Jesus Christ in full faith, surrender and obedience, forsaking sin and idols, and recommitting their lives to following the Lord Jesus in all things and in all ways. One day God is going to judge. The Bible tells us so. And, judgment begins with the family of God. So, if you are not in a right relationship with our Lord today, and the Lord has revealed to you that you are like the linen belt that is completely ruined and useless or even partially ruined and useless, I pray you will return to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and make him your all today.

Ministers of Our God / An Original Work / June 11, 2011

Ministers of our God, harken to hear Him speak.
Have you given Him your hearts and souls today?
Hasten to give all to Him. Let Him cleanse your hearts from sin.
Cast yourselves on His altar. In your lives do not falter.
Ministers of our God, harken to hear Him speak.
Have you given Him your hearts and souls today?

Ministers of our God, flee from all your idols.
Remove them from your lives. Be transformed today.
Listen to the words I say. Give your all to Christ today.
Let him rule within your hearts, cleansing from sin, grace impart.
Ministers of our God, flee from all your idols.
Remove them from your lives. Be transformed today.

Ministers of our God, won’t you come to His cross?
Die to sin and yourselves. Penitently pray.
Humbly accept Him today. Let Him wash your sins away.
Receive Him into your hearts. His grace and mercy impart.
Ministers of our God, won’t you come to His cross?
Die to sin and yourselves. Penitently pray.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

Why God?

Saturday, June 25, 2011, 8:57 a.m. – This morning I woke to the song, “Teach Me, Lord,” playing through my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 12:

Jeremiah’s Complaint
1 You are always righteous, O LORD,
when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?
2 You have planted them, and they have taken root;
they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips
but far from their hearts.
3 Yet you know me, O LORD;
you see me and test my thoughts about you.
Drag them off like sheep to be butchered!
Set them apart for the day of slaughter!
4 How long will the land lie parched
and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked,
the animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying,
“He will not see what happens to us.”
God’s Answer
5 “If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
6 Your brothers, your own family—
even they have betrayed you;
they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them,
though they speak well of you.
7 “I will forsake my house,
abandon my inheritance;
I will give the one I love
into the hands of her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to me
like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me;
therefore I hate her.
9 Has not my inheritance become to me
like a speckled bird of prey
that other birds of prey surround and attack?
Go and gather all the wild beasts;
bring them to devour.
10 Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard
and trample down my field;
they will turn my pleasant field
into a desolate wasteland.
11 It will be made a wasteland,
parched and desolate before me;
the whole land will be laid waste
because there is no one who cares.
12 Over all the barren heights in the desert
destroyers will swarm,
for the sword of the LORD will devour
from one end of the land to the other;
no one will be safe.
13 They will sow wheat but reap thorns;
they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.
So bear the shame of your harvest
because of the LORD’s fierce anger.”

14 This is what the LORD says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. 15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. 16 And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people. 17 But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,” declares the LORD.

My Understanding: Jeremiah asked God a question that has been asked throughout life on this earth, I believe, and that is “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” Or, it could be asked, “Why does God allow evil?” “Why do bad things happen to good people and yet those who do evil tend to prosper and have nothing bad happen to them?” It seems as though God allows injustice to take place to those who truly follow him, by allowing them to go through such difficult times, and yet those who are truly wicked seem to be successful in whatever they do. Where is the justice in all of this? This was Jeremiah’s question, and I am certain many of us have had the same or similar thoughts as these at one time or another. Jeremiah had been called to be a prophet of God to give messages of impending judgment, yet the people who were living wickedly were saying that God doesn’t see, so Jeremiah was distraught over the cavalier attitudes of the people, as well. He did not understand God’s slowness in bringing upon the people the judgments he had been warning the people about.

God answered Jeremiah by letting him know that things were going to get worse. If Jeremiah could not handle what he was suffering now, and if he could not endure the people’s reproach now, then how was he going to endure and overcome his circumstances when things got a whole lot worse? God confirmed, as well, that even Jeremiah’s own family members were against him and had betrayed him. Most of us, I think, when going through difficulties, want someone to encourage us, to console us, and to try to make us feel better, but that isn’t always what is best for us. Jeremiah needed a dose of reality, and he needed his circumstances put into perspective. He had an awesome task before him as God’s messenger of judgment, and God had no time to play around with Jeremiah’s feelings that he had expressed. Jeremiah must realize that what he was seeing and experiencing was only the tip of the iceberg of what faced him ahead, and he had to get prepared for that mentally, emotionally and spiritually, if he was to be used of God to be God’s messenger.

Then, God let him know, again, how he viewed his own people and what he had planned for them ahead. He used personal, intimate and affectionate terms of endearment to describe his people, so it was obvious that God loved them very much and it pained and grieved him greatly that they were continuing in their rebellion and that he would one day have to bring divine correction upon them in order to humble them and to get them to return to their God. He would have to forsake those he loved, and that pained him to do so. Even the thought of it brought much grief to his heart. Not only would he have to abandon his people by removing from them the wall of his protection that had been around them, but he would give the ones he loved into the hands of her enemies. I know, from the perspective of a parent, how painful that is to have to turn a child over to his or her enemies because he or she refuses to respond to correction, discipline and rules meant for his or her good. God did not want to have to do this, but his people left him no choice.

His people, his own inheritance, had opposed him as fiercely as a lion. In so doing, they had declared themselves to be his enemy, making known their voices against him. Thus, his turning against her would appear as hate, yet it was motivated by a heart of great love and compassion, as he so longed for his children to forsake their sins and their idols and to, instead, seek after their God to follow him all their days. God described his people here as “a speckled bird of prey.” They were of many colors, i.e. they blended worship of God with worship of idols, with spiritual adultery, and with the ways of the world and of the heathen and pagans. And, they refused to repent of their idolatry and their spiritual adultery against God, the One and Only true God. Even the leaders of the people were leading the people in the wrong direction. They did not care enough about the people to tell them the truth. They probably cared more about their own selves and wanted the people to like them more than they cared about whether or not the people were in right relationship with God.

Because of all this, God would have to bring judgment on his people, yet, when he finished using his divine instruments of judgment against his people, he would judge them, as well. Yet, in all of this, a remnant would survive. They would repent of their sins and would believe in God and God would once again have compassion on them and would bring them back to their inheritance in God - their Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And, they would learn well his ways and would become his people and he would be their God. And, they would know his blessings and his peace.

It is now the year 2011. Two thousand years ago God the Son, Jesus Christ, came to the earth, took upon himself human flesh, suffered as we suffer, and was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, so that he could become our faithful and compassionate high priest. Then, they hung him on a tree as a common criminal, although he had committed no wrong, and he took upon himself all the sins of the world. Our sins died with him and they were buried with him, yet he rose from the grave, triumphing over sin, death, hell and Satan, so that we could be free from the penalty of sin (eternal separation from God and eternal punishment in hell) and free from the control of sin over our day-to-day lives. By God’s grace to us in sending us his Son to die for our sins and through our faith in him we are saved. This faith includes within it repentance and obedience to Christ Jesus. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we then become his people and he becomes our God. We are thus true Israel, as Israel is now all those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Times have not changed all that much. The above description of God’s relationship with his people then is the same as his relationship with his people now. The above description concerning God’s people’s treatment of him and of their sinful lifestyles is not all that different from his church today. And, God is still calling his people to repentance, to return to him as the Lord and Master of their lives, and he is still warning of impending judgment if they do not repent of their ways and they do not return. Yet, he is slow to anger, is patient and compassionate, not willing that any should perish. So, he will allow the wicked to prosper while the godly may seem to suffer injustice until that day when he does judge us.

Yet, in all of this, God has a plan and a purpose, and it is our job to submit ourselves to whatever he has planned for our lives. One day, I believe, he will bring judgment on the earth, he will bring revival to his church, and his people will return to him. He will bless them once again, and they will learn his ways and will follow him with all their hearts.

I pray right now that God will teach me to walk in his ways and in his truth and to learn from him now how to honor, serve and obey him in all things, even enduring injustice, if that is what is required of me to make me into the person he desires me to be so that I can be used of him for his purposes and his glory. This is the prayer of my heart:

Teach Me, Lord / An Original Work / June 12, 2011

Teach me, Lord, to walk in Your ways,
And observe all You command.
May I ever hasten to You,
And desire to not offend.
Teach me how to follow Your steps,
Gently guiding me each day.
May I love and serve You always,
Loving others, this I pray.

Teach me, Lord, to listen to You
Speaking Your words to my heart.
May I never stray from Your truth,
And from Your law ne’er depart.
Teach me how to instruct others
In the way that we should go,
Leading them by my life witness,
So that Jesus they should know.

Teach me, Lord, to be a light in
This dark world of grief and sin.
May I always care for others;
Share their burdens; help to mend.
Teach me how to share with them that
Jesus came to set them free,
So that they could be forgiven;
Live with Christ eternally.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

Beautiful in Form

Friday, June 24, 2011, 5:38 a.m. – I woke several times in the night with the song, “The Joy of You,” going through my mind, which begins, “Jesus, keep me near the cross. Let me count my life but loss compared to the joy of You; transformed life; walking anew…” The song is based off of the passage in Philippians 3:7-14. The song was going through my mind and heart much of yesterday, so I kept praying the words back to the Lord in prayer, asking him to keep me near his cross and to count my life but loss compared to the joy of knowing him as my Lord and Savior. Appropriately, then, when I woke this morning, the song, “My Prayer,” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 10-11 (quoting 11:1-17):

The Covenant Is Broken
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 3 Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant— 4 the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. 5 Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’—the land you possess today.”
I answered, “Amen, LORD.”

6 The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. 7 From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” 8 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’”

9 Then the LORD said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. 11 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12 The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. 13 You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

14 “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.

15 “What is my beloved doing in my temple
as she works out her evil schemes with many?
Can consecrated meat avert your punishment?
When you engage in your wickedness,
then you rejoice.”

16 The LORD called you a thriving olive tree
with fruit beautiful in form.
But with the roar of a mighty storm
he will set it on fire,
and its branches will be broken.

17 The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done evil and provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal.

My Understanding: In the tenth chapter of Jeremiah, God warned his people against learning and following the ways of the nations and the customs of the people, which were steeped in idolatry and were worthless to the people of God. He reminded them that the Lord is the true God; the living God; and the eternal King. Only he could meet the longings of their hearts. Only he could bring them salvation from their sins and deliverance in times of trouble. Only he could supply all that they need and could offer them comfort, joy, peace, assurance, freedom from fear and freedom from the penalty, bondage to and control of sin.

He was to be their God and they were to be his people, and yet they were following the ways of the people of the world, they were following after “other gods” that were not gods and were perishable, and they were forsaking the One and Only true and living God who had created them, saved them, delivered them time and time again, protected and watched over them, and had brought them to victory so many, many times. So, God said he would punish them because his tent was destroyed, his sons were gone from him, the leaders of the people were senseless and did not inquire of the Lord, and all the flock was scattered.

Times haven’t changed all that much. God is still giving the same warnings and promises to his people, his church. And his people, the church, are doing the same kinds of things as did the Israelites. Today’s church has become so much like the world and has adopted so many customs of the world that it is barely distinguishable between God’s church and the world these days. These worldly ways are not only incorporated into people’s daily lives and routines at home, work, etc., but the church uses all the same marketing schemes as the world uses for building and growing businesses. And, the flock is scattered as a result.

The church of today has idolized certain public religious figures and has adopted certain men’s teachings and philosophies for how to build and to grow churches, yet this is not God’s way. They are relying upon the ways of the world to reach the world, and by doing so they are attracting the world to the world, not to the cross of Christ. Yet, that is not how God builds his church, which is not a business but His holy temple and his people, whom he builds through changed hearts and lives, through salvation from sin, through lives committed to honor, serve, and obey their Lord God in all that they do 24/7, and through the light of the gospel that shines through the lives of his servants; his disciples; his people, so that others may be saved.

In the eleventh chapter of Jeremiah we learn that the people of God had broken covenant with God. They were under the Old Covenant. We are under the New Covenant. There are differences between the two covenants and yet there are similarities, too. A covenant relationship is a two-party agreement, not just a one-party agreement. Some people want to think God does it all and nothing is required of us, yet when we come to faith in Jesus Christ and we believe in him to save us from our sins, we are entering into a covenant relationship with him the same as when we enter into marriage and we vow to honor, love, respect and to be faithful to our spouses. To love God means that we obey him.

To love, honor and respect him means that we acknowledge our sin, we turn from it (repent) and we agree to follow him and his ways the rest of our lives. To be faithful to him means that we don’t follow after other gods and we don’t replace the affection, commitment, passion and desire in our hearts that should be for God and God alone with people, things, and our activities, etc. and then shove him into a corner and barely think about him and do not honor him enough to inquire of him and to hear his voice speaking to our hearts and to obey what he teaches us. It means we don’t follow the ways, patterns and attitudes of the world, and we don’t take into our minds willfully what is dishonoring to God and that glorifies and applauds sin or that makes sin entertaining to us so that we are desensitized to the seriousness of sin and how God feels about it when we sin against him.

God warned his people again and again, “Obey me.” Yet, they did not listen to him or pay attention. Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. They returned to the sins of their forefathers, who had also refused to listen to God. Generational influences are very strong. We are born with certain bents and personality dispositions that were passed down to us from previous generations. I noticed early on in my children’s lives how they favored certain members of our family, including me and my husband, but some they did not even know and yet were part of because of blood line. And, then we brought our children up, and they observed our behaviors and attitudes, and some of them adopted those same behaviors and attitudes, both good and bad, from us, and they followed in our footsteps. It is nice to see your children learn and follow your good example, but it is truly sad when you see the results in their lives of your bad example from sins you committed.

God said that he made us to be fruitful, i.e. to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives and to live out what he teaches us in all practicality and application to our daily lives, and to be servants and witnesses for him in loving and serving others, and in being a light for the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who need a Savior. He also made us to be beautiful in form, i.e. to be formed and conformed into the image of Christ via repentance and obedience and by how we live our lives each and every day to honor and obey him in all that we do, think, say and are. Yet, he will exercise divine discipline and correction against those who are his who are forsaking him for other gods if they do not repent of their ways. So, God is calling out to each and every one of us to follow him with our whole hearts and devotion, to love, honor and obey him in everything, and to be his faithful followers in all truth and sincerity of heart in being beautiful in form (God’s form) and in bearing much fruit for Him.

My Prayer / An Original Work / May 30, 2011

“Fill me with Your Spirit; help me to love others;
Let me know Your power; be an overcomer.
Show me how to follow Jesus Christ, my Savior;
Be His faithful servant to obey Him always.

“Lead me with Your presence; help me know the right way;
Teach me love and kindness, generous compassion.
Give me grace and courage to be Jesus’ witness,
Teaching His salvation to a world who needs Him.”

Won’t you come and follow Jesus Christ, your Savior?
He died so you’d be free of control of your sin;
Free to follow His ways in complete surrender;
Living sacrifices – let His grace transform you.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

Song

"What Else Can I Do?"

Thursday, June 23, 2011, 7:51 a.m. – When I woke this morning, the song, “Rest for the Weary,” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 9 (beginning with 8:21):

Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
I mourn, and horror grips me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
for the wound of my people?
Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people.
2 Oh, that I had in the desert
a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a crowd of unfaithful people.

3 “They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,”
declares the LORD.
4 “Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.
5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.
6 You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,”
declares the LORD.

7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:

“See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
9 Should I not punish them for this?”
declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?”

10 I will weep and wail for the mountains
and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures.
They are desolate and untraveled,
and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds of the air have fled
and the animals are gone.

11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals;
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
so no one can live there.”

12 What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

13 The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them.” 15 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. 16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them.”

… 23 This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
24 but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD.

25 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

My Understanding: In the eighth chapter of Jeremiah we have a picture of a people of God who have turned away from the Lord, they cling to deceit, and they refuse to repent and to return to the Lord their God. God has listened to them, but they do not say what is right. Each person pursues his own course without regard for God and for what he desires of them. God says his own people do not know the requirements of the Lord. They have rejected the word of the Lord. The leaders of the people, as well, are greedy, practice deceit, don’t take sin seriously, and offer words of peace and comfort when heart surgery is in order instead. Yet, they are not even ashamed of this behavior.

So, God said he would judge his people. That is why Jeremiah was crushed in spirit and was weeping over the sins and the punishment of his people that he knew was inevitable, as he called out for healing for the wounds of his people. He was praying for revival, because he knew, all too well, the spiritual condition of his people and that God would eventually have to bring judgment upon them, yet his hope was that they would be revived in heart and mind and would be healed spiritually so that they would not have to go through judgment.

In the ninth chapter of Jeremiah, we have a more detailed description of the spiritual condition of the people of God. They are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. They willfully plot and carry out deceit as a weapon engaged against others. They triumph over others via lies and deceit. They go from one sin to another, and they do not acknowledge God. They have even taught their own tongues to lie, and so deceiving themselves. They weary themselves with sinning. They speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set a trap for their friends, neighbors, and companions. In other words, they say nice things outwardly and give impressions that are false in order to deceive, manipulate, use and take advantage of other people. They have forsaken God’s laws, they have not obeyed God, and instead they have followed the stubbornness of their own hearts. As well, they have followed the ways of “other gods” which are not gods.

There is a warning given, to those who are not included among the liars and deceivers, to not be trapped or tricked by the lies and deceit of friends, neighbors and companions. In other words, we are to pay attention and we are to have discerning spirits so that we are not caught up in the lies of others and are brought down by their lies and deceit. We should never put our 100% trust in man, for we are all sinners by nature, and we will fail each other at one time or another. Our trust, instead, must be in our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we ought to ask for discerning spirits so that we are not deceived. We should then trust our friends, neighbors and companions to God to work in their hearts and lives and to bring them to repentance and to revive their hearts. We ought also speak the truth in love to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we should warn them against such deceit and should call them to renewal of mind and heart and restoration to a right relationship with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, instead of just ignoring their sin or trying to put spiritual Band-Aids over serious sin, because we care more for ourselves than we do them.

Because the people have forsaken their Lord, have relied upon lies and deceit, have rejected God’s truths found in his Holy Word, the Bible, have not acknowledged God, have been unfaithful, go from one sin to another without true repentance, and have followed the ways of the gods and idols in their lives that replace the One and Only True God in their lives, God will refine and test them. This is speaking to us, the church, today. God will bring judgment upon us if we are living like this passage of scripture describes God’s people as living in open rebellion against him and yet having a form of godliness and appearing nice on the outside. God is saying even today, “What else can I do because of the sin of my people?” If you are a parent, I am certain you have felt that way about your children, too. You don’t enjoy punishing them, and you try reasoning with them and gently prodding them to do what is right, but they continue in their rebellion, and so you say to them, “What else can I do?” You must discipline, though in your heart you wish there was another way to get their attention and to get them to obey you.

Our God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is a God of compassion, kindness, love, mercy, tenderness, justice and righteousness. He delights in all these things. He is slow to anger and abounding in love, yet he will punish us if we are circumcised only in the flesh, i.e. if we are cleaned up on the outside and have the appearance of righteousness but in our hearts we are uncircumcised, i.e. the sins of our flesh have not been completely cut away, but we are still holding on to them. God doesn’t want our “good deeds.” He wants our hearts.

Isaiah 30:15: This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”

Rest for the Weary / An Original Work / April 23, 2011

Rest for the weary; peace for the soul;
Light in the darkness; mercy untold;
Perfect salvation; pardoned and free,
For Jesus died so that all may believe.

While we are waiting for Your return,
Jesus, Redeemer, let our hearts yearn
For your soon coming to get Your bride,
Washed in Your blood, having been sanctified.

Father, Son, Spirit, all three in One
Giveth salvation through redemption;
Jesus provided the sacrifice,
For our sins blood bought, for He paid the price.

Song Lyrics @ Public Domain

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