Monday, March 18,
2013, 7:46 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Sing Praises” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening. I read Jeremiah 18-20,
but will summarize most and quote only some.
The Potter’s House
Jeremiah was instructed by the Lord to go to the Potter’s
house and there God would give him a message. So, Jeremiah went, and there he
saw the potter working at his wheel. “The
pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed
it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” Then, the Lord
said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as
this potter does?”
God/Jesus is our potter and we are the clay (see Rom. 9; 2
Co. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:20). And, he does have the right to do with us just as this
potter did with his clay, because he is God – our creator, Savior, Master &
sustainer. If he announces disaster to any nation, and if that nation repents
of its evil, then he will relent and not inflict the disaster he promised, but
if he announces blessings, provisions and abundance, and if that nation does
evil in his sight and does not obey him, then he will reconsider the good he
had intended for it.
So, Jeremiah did as the Lord said and he told the people
that God was preparing disaster for them, so they were to turn from their evil
ways, and reform their ways and their actions. I believe the Lord is giving a
similar message to his unrepentant and adulterous and idolatrous church of
today. A lot of people have the idea that judgment only means the final
judgment, but we read in Revelation of the judgments of the final days, and we
read in other New Testament passages concerning our Lord’s divine discipline
(judgment) he will bring on his church because he loves her, and because he
wants her to turn from her evil ways; and to reform her ways and her actions (see
Rev 2-3; 1 Co. 11:31-32; Heb. 10:29-31; 12:6; cf. the book of Isaiah). This is
called repentance.
The Evil Plan
The people were not happy with the messages Jeremiah was
assigned by the Lord to give to the people, so they concocted a plan against
him. They said, “Come, let’s attack him
with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.” So, Jeremiah prayed
to the Lord:
Listen to me, Lord;
hear what my accusers are saying!
Should good be repaid
with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember that I stood
before you
and spoke in their behalf
to turn your wrath away from them.
Jeremiah was just serving his Lord. He was just obeying God.
Yet, he also loved his people very much, and he did speak often to God on their
behalf. He did only good to the people, yet they did not see it as good, and so
they chose to repay his good with evil, i.e. to attack him with their words,
and to pay no attention to anything he said.
Opposition and
Resistance
When we give out God’s full gospel message, we may meet with
some of that same type of response as what Jeremiah faced. Not many people want
to hear that they have to daily die to their sins and to self-will, and that
they have to walk in obedience to Christ (see Luke 9:23-25); that they have to
be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and that they have to
live completely new lives, “created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph. 4:17-24); and that
they should no longer conform their lives to the pattern of this world, but
they should live lives holy and pleasing to God (see Rom. 12:1-2).
They also probably don’t want to hear that they must love
Christ above all else – above family, possessions, their own desires and goals
for their lives, etc. He must be first place in our lives and in our hearts! And,
I am quite sure many don’t want to hear that following Christ with their lives
may cost them their reputations, their friendships, their homes, possessions,
career choices, et al, and that they will be hated and persecuted for their faith
and testimony for Jesus Christ, even by members of their own families.
So, if we are giving out the true gospel message to people,
we are likely to face some of the same resistance as what Jeremiah faced,
because many people do not want to give up their own way of living and to have
to reform their ways and their actions in order to be pleasing to God and to
his service. They will even make up lies and try to convince people that a
loving God would not require anything of us – no repentance, no obedience. And,
they will try to convince the people, as well, that God will never discipline
us (judge us) for our idolatrous and adulterous ways. Yet, does this even
compute with a loving parent? What loving parent would permit his child to keep
doing wrong and to never correct him or to never try to instruct him in the
right way that he should go?
The Lord is With Me
When Jeremiah gave the people the messages from the Lord the
priest Pashhur had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks, yet he released him
the next day.
In America we have not yet to face much of this kind of
persecution for preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is coming to
America, just as it has come to so many other nations throughout the world. And,
I believe it is coming to shake up the church, to get us on our knees in
repentance, to get us to turn back to our God in faith and obedience, and to
get us to reform our ways and our actions so that we do live lives holy and
pleasing to God.
Jeremiah then voiced a prayer to God that was a mixture of
faith and trust in God and also of much emotion and pain due to all the
suffering that he had to endure for speaking God’s truths to the people. He
said (only quoting part of his prayer):
I am ridiculed all day
long;
everyone mocks me.
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.
But if I say, “I will
not mention his word
or speak anymore 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.
I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let’s denounce 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.”
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.
Lord Almighty, you who
examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your
vengeance on them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of
the needy
from the hands of the wicked.
So, if you are giving testimony to the Lord and to his true
gospel, and if you are calling the people of God (the church) to renewed faith,
repentance and to reformation of their ways, and if you, as a result of your
obedience to the Lord, are being faced with much resistance and opposition,
then be encouraged. The Lord is with you like a mighty warrior!! Don’t get
discouraged, and don’t ever give up! Keep on sharing your faith, and keep on
giving forth God’s messages from his holy word, and do not hold them inside out
of fear of what others will think of you, say about you or do to you. You may
not be voted “Most Popular” while you live on the face of this earth, but you
will be rewarded in heaven! So, give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to him,
for he rescues the needy from the hands of the wicked.
Sing Praises / An
Original Work / November 30, 2012
Based off Psalms 6-9
Sing praises to the
Lord!
Tell of His wondrous
works.
Afflicted, they cry
out;
The Lord will not
forget;
The needy, not desert.
The Lord’s our refuge
now;
A stronghold when we fear.
The Lord will ne’er
forsake
The ones, who Him
pursue!
Sing praises to the
Lord!
With all my heart I
sing.
I will rejoice in Him;
Sing praises to His
name;
Tell of His wondrous
works.
My shield is God Most
High.
He saves those who
believe
In Jesus Christ, God’s
Son.
His grace has pardoned
you!
The Lord accepts my
prayer!
The Lord has heard my
cries.
He is so merciful.
He heals my anguished
soul.
The Lord has made me
whole.
Give thanks unto the
Lord.
Give praise unto His
name.
Our Lord is righteousness.
Sing praises to the
Lord!
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