Friday, November 7,
2015, 6:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Broken and Contrite.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Jeremiah 17:1-14 (NASB).
The Tablet of Their
Heart (vv. 1-4)
The
sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus;
With
a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart
And
on the horns of their altars,
As
they remember their children,
So
they remember their altars and their Asherim
By
green trees on the high hills.
O
mountain of Mine in the countryside,
I
will give over your wealth and all your treasures for booty,
Your
high places for sin throughout your borders.
And
you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance
That
I gave you;
And
I will make you serve your enemies
In
the land which you do not know;
For
you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which
will burn forever.
Recently the Lord has been showing me a sinful practice of
both those who make no claims to faith in Jesus Christ and of those who profess
Christ as Savior of their lives. The practice is that of serving as government
spies (informants), who inform on people of their own family and of their church
fellowships, and who inform on their neighbors, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances,
etc. The US government has been soliciting US citizens for some time now to
report what they deem as “suspicious activity” coming from people they know. I
believe that at least some of these informants are remunerated in some way, and
that serves as their motivation to do so, though I have no way of proving that.
Some of them may have been coerced into ratting on their friends and relatives
because the government has something on them and is threatening to expose them.
Some will agree because it makes them feel important and powerful, some will
agree because there are people with whom they want to get even, and some may
truly believe they are helping.
These people could be members of our own families or of our
church fellowships, or they could be our neighbors, i.e. people we already
know, or they could be people who just recently came into our lives who pretend
to be our friends or who try to get close to us who then take whatever information
they can squeeze out of us which they then pass on to the powers that be. Those
powers which are soliciting such spying on American (or other country’s)
citizens, I believe, are tied in with the New World Order “Beast.” They are
monsters, vipers, controlling, influential, hateful and vile people who are
self-serving, and whose goal it is to take down sovereign governments and to
destroy the gospel of Jesus Christ and its messengers. This “Beast” is authoritarian,
communistic, a global military force, deceptive, and destructive, and will go
to any means to conquer all people and all governments in the world so that it
can establish its own one-world government and one-world religion, which means it
must take out or silence all opposition.
These who agree to work as spies for the government, though,
are not merely informants. They also assist the government in utilizing tactics
to try to persuade the opposition to give up its stance. They do this through
something called “gang stalking,” in which they use various tactics to try to
take out, distract, confuse or otherwise drive crazy those who would oppose the
New World Order, or those who stand as a threat to the N.W.O. and its one-world
religion, mainly evangelical Christians who still hold to the truths of
scripture, who obey Christ’s commands, and who still preach the full gospel
message. They use harassment, psychological warfare, slander, persuasion
tactics, hacking of people’s computers, planting information, etc. in order to
try to silence their targets. If all that fails, they may eventually carry out the
murdering of them in order to silence them. In this way, these spies who are
Christians, or who claim to be Christians, let go of their own inheritance as
they assist their own government in taking down their own nation and their own
people.
Flesh His Strength
(vv. 5-8)
Thus
says the Lord,
“Cursed
is the man who trusts in mankind
And
makes flesh his strength,
And
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
“For
he will be like a bush in the desert
And
will not see when prosperity comes,
But
will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A
land of salt without inhabitant.
“Blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord
And
whose trust is the Lord.
“For
he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That
extends its roots by a stream
And
will not fear when the heat comes;
But
its leaves will be green,
And
it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor
cease to yield fruit.
These who serve as government spies and who rat on their own
people for a price, or for some other personal gain, put their trust in humans
instead of in God. They make humans their strength instead of relying on the
strength of the Lord. Many of these who end up becoming informants are those
who are already weighed down with numerous sins, and thus they are most
vulnerable to being solicited by the government for such purposes. The government
may even help feed their addictions, and this is one way in which the government
is able to maintain control over their minds and hearts. Possibly many of these
informants are those who profess Christ as Savior of their lives, but have
returned to sinful ways, and instead of making the Lord their trust, have
turned to humans in order to make themselves feel important and powerful. But,
it will be their downfall.
In contrast to those who feel as though they must trust in
their own strength or in their own conniving, manipulating, and deceiving in
order to get what they want, or in response to fear of man, and what man might
do to them, are those who make the Lord their trust, and who do not turn to
false gods, but who rely on the strength of the Lord as their all-sufficiency. They
will have confidence in the Lord, and will be given strength from the Lord to
endure persecution, “gang stalking,” or whatever types of opposition they
receive from the enemy and even through those, perhaps, who are closest to
them. They will continue in faithful surrender to their Lord, and in sharing
the gospel of Jesus Christ, even if it means that their reputations are
destroyed, they are abandoned by family and friends, and even to the point of
their death. When they are put under “heat” by the enemy, they will respond in
faith, rather than in fear, because they know that their God is all powerful,
and that he is completely sovereign over every aspect of their lives, and they
know where they are going.
Deceitful Hearts (vv.
9-11)
“The
heart is more deceitful than all else
And
is desperately sick;
Who
can understand it?
“I,
the Lord, search the heart,
I
test the mind,
Even
to give to each man according to his ways,
According
to the results of his deeds.
“As
a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
So
is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
In
the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And
in the end he will be a fool.”
Sometimes it is difficult to understand why people do the
things they do, or even why we, ourselves, do what we do. Although, as
believers in Jesus Christ, our hearts have been cleansed of sin, we have been
forgiven, and we have been given eternal life with God, we still live in flesh
bodies, thus we still have the propensity to sin. Yet, we have been delivered
from slavery to sin, and we have been given all we need from God to resist
Satan and to flee temptation, and to draw near to God in full assurance of
faith. So, we should no longer be under the control of sin nor give way to
temptation, especially not as a regular practice of our lives. In Romans 8 we
read that Jesus died that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully
met in us who walk not after the flesh but who conduct our lives according to
the Spirit, for if we continue (persist) in conducting our lives after the
flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the
flesh, we will live (Ro. 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-25; John 6:35-66; Ro. 6:1-23; 2 Co.
5:15; Eph. 4:17-24; 1 Pet. 2:24-25; & 1 Jn. 1:5-9).
Sinful practices never gain us anything. It is foolish to
think we can turn away from God and go our own way and that nothing should
happen to us, or that we will not be found out. God disciplines those he loves,
so we should be earnest and repent (Heb. 12:3-11; Rev. 2-3). We also should not
have the false notion that God cares nothing about our sin or that he does not
require repentance (turning from sin) and obedience, for he does (see scripture
references in above paragraph). God’s grace to us is not a free license to
continue in sin. His grace, which brings salvation, teaches us to say “NO” to
ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly
lives while we wait for Christ’s return (Tit. 2:11-14; cf. Ro. 12:1-2; Gal.
2:20). If we claim to have fellowship with God, but we persist in continuing in
living our lives according to our flesh, we are liars (1 Jn. 1:6).
The Fountain of
Living Water (vv. 12-14)
A
glorious throne on high from the beginning
Is
the place of our sanctuary.
O
Lord, the hope of Israel,
All
who forsake You will be put to shame.
Those
who turn away on earth will be written down,
Because
they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord.
Heal
me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
Save
me and I will be saved,
For
You are my praise.
Those whose sins are hidden, who deceive and who keep their
sins secret, are self-deceived into thinking they will not be found out, but
nothing is hidden from God, and it will come back to bite them. God is calling
out to all his rebellious and idolatrous people, and he is calling them to
surrender to him, to put their trust in him, to confess their sins, to turn
from them, and to follow him with their lives, even if it means their deaths
because they betrayed the government and thus the government must take them out
or will expose them. Better to be exposed, and to have people know the truth,
than to live a lie, and to hurt those you are supposed to love. So, repent of
your sins and choose today to follow your Lord always.
Broken and Contrite
/ An Original Work / May 13, 2012
I come before You, Lord, my Savior,
With humble heart and crushed in spirit.
I bow before You, I implore You,
Heal my broken heart, I pray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master,
You are the King of my heart.
Lord, purify my heart within me;
Sanctify me, whole within.
Oh, Lord, I long to obey fully
The words You’ve spoken through Your Spirit.
I pray You give me grace and mercy,
Strength and wisdom to obey.
Father God, my heart’s desire,
Won’t You set my heart on fire?
Lord, cleanse my heart of all that hinders
My walk with You, now I pray.
Oh, Jesus, Savior, full of mercy,
My heart cries out for understanding.
I want to follow You in all ways,
Never straying from Your truth.
Holy Spirit, come in power,
Fill me with Your love today.
Lord, mold and make me;
Your hands formed me;
Live Your life through me, I pray.
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