Saturday, September
14, 2013, 6:18 a.m. – The Lord Jesus woke me with this song:
Do You Love Me? /
An Original Work / July 24, 2013
Do you love Me now?
Will you seek My face?
I have given you
My love and My grace.
Will you walk with Me
Ev’rywhere I lead?
Will you find in Me
All of what you need?
Won’t you meet with Me
Down upon your knees?
Will you obey Me,
And do what I please?
Will you hear My voice
Speaking now to you?
I am couns’ling you
To abide in truth.
I have died for you;
Taken all your sins –
Crucified with Me,
You have been
forgiv’n.
I have set you free
From your slavery,
So that you can now
Live in victory.
He then put the song “Great is The Lord” in my mind - http://originalworks.info/great-is-the-lord/. Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Lamentations 3 (ESV & NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations%203&version=NIV
The author of Lamentations is anonymous,
though many attribute this writing to the prophet Jeremiah. In it, the author appears
to not only be expressing his own emotions but those of his people, as well.
The setting appears to be the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem via God’s hand
of divine judgment which he brought on his people via his chosen instrument of
judgment against them, because of their sinful rebellion and their refusal to
listen to him and to obey his commandments. Yet, chapter 3 appears to stand out
as a personal lament of the author because of his own personal sufferings, and
is often attributed to Jeremiah.
There are many ways and purposes
for which God disciplines his children. For one, there is the discipline
brought upon us through suffering, much of which is unjust suffering, for the
purpose of building divine character traits within us, humbling us, teaching us
patience and endurance, filling our hearts with love and compassion toward the
hurting and toward the lost sinners of this world, putting within us much
passion and determination for God and for the preaching of his gospel, and for placing
within us the desire for and the tenaciousness of regularly and consistently calling
upon God in prayer to meet our needs and the needs of others. This type of
suffering also helps us to identify with Jesus Christ and to feel what God
feels about sin, evil, his unfaithful bride, and to understand the purposes for
which he must bring divine correction, discipline and judgment upon his wayward
people.
“In every generation God’s judgment and
discipline are misunderstood by most people. God’s chief desire is to bring
people to himself – or back to himself. When humankind willfully refuses to
turn to him, God mercifully uses discipline and judgment to cause the people to
recognize that he is the only true God, always faithful to what he has said in
his word!” ~ Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary on Ezekiel 6
Yet This I Call to
Mind
I
remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I
well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet
this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because
of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They
are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I
say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.” ~ Lam. 3:21-24
Whatever our suffering may be – whether it is unjust and is
for the purpose of strengthening us and building within us determination to
follow our Lord Jesus in full surrender and obedience, or whether we brought it
upon ourselves through sinful rebellion against God and it is thus for the
purpose to get us to return to God – one thing is true and is without question:
we serve a loving, faithful and compassionate God who will, if we are willing,
teach us what we need to learn, and he will supply all we need to make it
through this time. What we are going through is not without purpose, and it is
not without hope, though it may feel like it sometimes. We may grow weary and
we may even lose patience with God when he does not answer in our timing or in
the way we would hope. Yet if we respond appropriately to his discipline, it
can produce a harvest of righteousness, not only in our own lives, but in the lives
of those we love. We just have to wait for his perfect timing.
The
Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it
is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It
is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
Let
him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
Let
him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
Let
him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
For
no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though
he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love. ~ Lam.
3:25-32
So, if the Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, why
does he allow us to suffer unjustly? I think perhaps we misunderstand the
meaning of the word “good” in relation to God. The good God has in mind for us
is what is best for us in order to develop within us the righteous and godly character
which he desires for us, to cause us to place our trust and hope in him, and to
lead us to draw close to him and to believe in him for all things. Had I not
gone through the unjust suffering I have had in my life I propose that I would
not have the zeal, the tenacity, the determination, the persistence, the
passion and the compassion necessary for continued faith and obedience to my Lord
and for showing his love to his people. I might easily have become
self-absorbed and without concern for others had I not had the experiences I
have had in my life which have made me who I am.
In the process of suffering unjustly, we must learn
patience, endurance and to trust in God’s sovereign grace over all that he has
created. It is essential that we believe our suffering is not without purpose,
and it necessitates that we inquire of our God as to what he would have us to
learn through it. As well, we need to increase in faith and believe in all his
many promises and never lose hope. We ought to bear this yoke of unjust
suffering without grumbling and complaining and without arguing with God, but
we should submit to his will and his purposes, and we ought to humble ourselves
before God and be thankful that he finds us worthy to suffer for the sake of
his name. And, we must accept unjust suffering without retaliation. It is
essential that we, in return, love those who treat us unkindly and/or unjustly.
And, we must believe that, although we may have had to suffer for a time, it
will not be without purpose or fruit if we respond correctly to the suffering,
and if we allow God to produce within us all which he has purposed for our
lives.
Let Us Examine Our
Ways
Yet, not everyone suffers unjustly. There are those who are willfully
sinning against their God and are refusing correction and will not repent.
There are those among us who are treating others unjustly, who are crushing
others underfoot, denying people their rights, and even doing so before Almighty
God, thinking, perhaps, that he will not see or that he does not care because
he has not yet acted against them in judgment. But he does see, and he does
care, and one day, if he has not already done so, he will judge them for their
many sins and their crimes against humanity. I believe the Lord Jesus has been
showing me the government of the USA in this way and that God has a sword of
judgment hanging over their heads, and by a thread, and he is ready to act when
the time is right. Yet, this will be a judgment against not just our
government, but against us as a nation, and against his adulterous and idolatrous
church, too, because they have refused to repent of sin.
The author expressed how streams of tears were flowing from
his eyes because his people were destroyed through judgment. Yet, the greatest
tragedy of all is not that we should be destroyed as a nation, and that we
should be subjected to poverty and even to the rule of a tyrant, and/or that
the church should come under severe persecution for its testimony for Jesus Christ.
I believe those will be blessings in disguise. The greatest tragedy, which
brings unceasing tears to my eyes, is that God’s people are ruined through
deceit, false teachers, humanism, the flesh of man, and that they are not, for
the most part, walking in the Spirit of God, but have returned to walking in
the flesh and are following after the gods of mankind, and that it will bring
cause for God to judge us and to bring us harm and much, much suffering. Yet,
in mercy and in compassion for God’s people who have wandered far from him, he
will come to the rescue via divine judgment in order to bring us back to
himself so that he can restore and renew us in his perfect faithfulness (See
Rev. 2-3).
God is calling out to his unrepentant church today, and to
our nation and its government, to examine our ways and to test our hearts, and
to turn or to return to the Lord in humility, repentance, submission, surrender
and obedience to Christ and to his commandments. Will you hear him, and will
you respond to his voice today?
Return to Me / An
Original Work / September 5, 2013
Based off Jeremiah 31;
Cf. Rev. 2-3
I have loved you with an eternal love,
Which I give to you, in my faithfulness.
Keep your voice from weeping,
And your eyes from tearing.
You will be rewarded
With much fruitfulness.
There is hope for you that My family
Will return to Me; live in victory!
Though I discipline in My love for you,
My heart longs for you that you walk in truth.
Turn your thoughts to your Lord.
Choose to walk in His ways.
Turn from your sins daily.
Follow Jesus Christ.
Oh, how long will you wander in your sin?
Give your hearts to Me; be restored within.
I will satisfy ev’ry weary soul
Who repents of sin; is renewed within.
Behold, days are coming;
It will surely happen;
Though I discipline them,
They will thrive again.
I will be their One and their Only God.
They shall walk in white; be in Me, made right.
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