Wednesday, May 10, 2017, 5:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Be Strong and Take Courage.” Speak,
Lord, your words to my heart. I read Jeremiah
31:15-22a (NASB).
Bitter Weeping
(v. 15)
Thus says the Lord,
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
Because they are no more.”
Do you have loved ones who do
not know the Lord Jesus as Savior of their lives? Do you have people you care
about in your life who profess to believe in Jesus Christ, but their lifestyles
speak just the opposite? And, or do you have friends, neighbors or family members
who have believed in Jesus Christ, who once walked with him in sweet fellowship,
but have since fallen back into some of their old sinful patterns of behavior?
If you do, there is still hope they will turn around, and will come to their
senses, and will repent of their sins and trust Jesus, so we should never give
up praying for them.
Do you, as well, have a
burden for the part of the church, the body of Christ, who is living in
spiritual adultery against her Lord, who is fleshly, sensual, worldly, and idolatrous;
who is following after human desire instead of after the Lord? She partnered
with the US government in an unholy alliance, which God forbids, and she turned
the Lord’s house into a marketplace, which Jesus spoke strongly against (That
is why he cleansed the temple). She incorporated the body of Christ and turned
the church into a business of men, and she is marketing it just like any other
business, and thus bases a lot of what she does after human desire, rather than
after what God desires.
She gives honor to the
government via a pledge (vow) of allegiance (fidelity) to the republic of the
USA, via the singing of patriotic songs, and via the honoring of our soldiers
who are fighting in all these other countries, and by trusting in the news
media and believing their stories, without even testing to see if they are true.
And, she gives honor to the world by making the church and the gospel more
attractive and appealing so that the world will want to come to the meetings of
the church. So, she entertains the world, and makes the church fun,
comfortable, and non-threatening, as well as she dilutes the gospel to where it
is no longer a narrow road but a broad path that just about anyone can travel,
regardless of lifestyle or other beliefs.
And, yet she pushes God –
Father, Son and Holy Spirit – into a corner, and she does not give him the
honor, respect, value, submission, obedience and reverence he so deserves. This
Sunday we honor our earthly mothers who birthed us, but so many who call
themselves Christians do not truly honor the ONE who gave them the breath of
life, as well as who gave them eternal life. They do not honor the ONE who died
on the cross for our sins, and who gave his life up for us to free us from the
punishment of sin, and from slavery to sin, and to free us to now walk in his
righteousness and holiness. Instead, they teach a gospel absent of death to sin
and walking in righteousness. They teach a gospel which requires no repentance,
obedience or submission to Christ, and they think it is ok for them to live in
sensuality and to indulge in the flesh, and yet still claim heaven as their
eternal home.
Because this fleshly, sensual
and worldly church has pushed God into a corner, and has pretty much all but pushed
the Holy Spirit out the door, she also rejects the Lord’s servants who do still
hold to the tenets of the faith as taught by Jesus, and by his NT apostles.
Even her leaders are being trained in how to “sift out” certain people with “strong
convictions,” and in how to encourage them to “go someplace else” where they
will be a “better fit.” And, many of them are even coming against the Lord’s
servants by accusing them of teaching “works-based salvation,” even though they
teach what Jesus and his NT apostles taught. Some even go so far as to accuse
the Lord’s servants and messengers of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance, and may
even refer to them as “dangerous,” too, because they preach the gospel.
This worldly and sensual
church may not realize it, but they are under the influence (spell) of Satan
and his many false shepherds (wolves in sheep’s clothing), who have deceived naïve
minds into believing lies, rather than truth. They are being held emotionally
and spiritually captive by clever manipulators of truth who say what itching
ears want to hear. These false shepherds have convinced much of the church to
unify with them in their marketing goals and objectives for the church,
thinking they are obeying God, since the Bible says much about unity, although
it is unity with Christ first of all, which then is what unifies us together as
the body of Christ. They are convincing many of them to be like-minded with
these “dogs” in ridding themselves of all which divides us as a nation, so that
we can join hands and hearts with all the people of the world in singing “Kumbaya.”
In some places of the world,
our government is even literally taking Christians captive, and is rounding
them up like cattle, and is placing them in camps with horrible conditions
where many of them will die off, if they are not killed first by all the bombs
our nation drops on them. I believe this is coming to America, too, because
this is all part of this New World Order beast conquering nations, peoples and
the saints of God (See: Rev. 13). And, this should bring us to tears – all of
this! We should grieve over the spiritual condition of much of today’s church
here in America, and over what our nation (the USA) is doing to innocent people
throughout the world, in the name of democracy, and we should lament over all
the Christians who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ
throughout the world.
Work Rewarded
(vv. 16-20)
Thus says the Lord,
“Restrain your voice from weeping
And your eyes from tears;
For your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord,
“And they will return from the land of the enemy.
“There is hope for your future,” declares the Lord,
“And your children will return to their own territory.
“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained calf;
Bring me back that I may be restored,
For You are the Lord my God.
‘For after I turned back, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh;
I was ashamed and also humiliated
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
“Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a delightful child?
Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him,
I certainly still remember him;
Therefore My heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the Lord.
The encouragement here, I
believe, is not that we should show no concern. We should (1 Co. 5:1-2; Jas.
4:8-10; Lu. 6:21). But, the encouragement is rather that we should not feel
without hope. We should not be so caught up in lamenting over our loved ones,
or over the worldly church, or over the persecution much of the church
worldwide is enduring, that we forget that God is absolutely sovereign, that he
is in control over all things, and that he cares about his children, too. We
need to believe that our labors of love in the Lord, and our service in
ministry, and in sharing the truths of the gospel of our salvation, and our
prayers for the church and for our loved ones will be rewarded. We need to
believe God for the salvation of loved ones, for the revival of the church, and
for the strengthening of his persecuted saints.
What may look bad, from a
human perspective, may be a blessing in disguise. I believe God will chastise
his wandering saints who have been duped by master deceivers and manipulators,
and in order to open their eyes to the truth, and so they will repent of their
sins and turn their hearts back to God and truly honor him with their lives. Yet,
this, too, is God’s grace to us. It is called “tough love,” and its goal is to
bring his wandering ones back into pure fellowship with him, and also to get us
ready for his return and for the consummation of our marriage to Jesus Christ, our
husband. It is to purify us in heart and mind, and to restore them to God. God’s
heart yearns for his wandering ones to return to him, for he loves his
children, and so he will have mercy on them, but the mercy will come in the
form of divine discipline and correction, but the results will be for our good.
Direct Your Mind (vv. 21-22a)
“Set up for yourself roadmarks,
Place for yourself guideposts;
Direct your mind to the highway,
The way by which you went.
Return, O virgin of Israel,
Return to these your cities.
“How long will you go here and there,
O faithless daughter?”
So, the counsel here for us
is to turn our thinking (our minds) toward the way of holiness and
righteousness, i.e. the way of the cross of Christ. We, as the people of God,
need to get our minds away from the things of this world and its values,
philosophies, attitudes and behaviors, and we need to fix our thoughts firmly
on Jesus Christ and on his Word (the whole counsel of God). I believe God is
also calling the body of Christ to come out from underneath this unholy union
with the US government (here in America), and to return to Jesus as her ONLY
Lord (head). I believe he wants her to also forsake following the schemes of
humans for how to conduct church meetings, and to put her focus back on Christ
and on the purity of his Word (his truth).
As well, I believe that we,
as the body of Christ, need to get away from this diluted gospel which so many
are following, and we need to read scriptures in context so we can see what the
gospel is that Jesus and his NT apostles taught, rather than putting our trust
in humans to tell us the truth. We need to know that Jesus died that we might
die to sin and live to righteousness, and that faith in Jesus Christ means we
now walk (in lifestyle) according to the Spirit, and no longer according to our
flesh, for if we live according to the flesh, it will result in eternal death,
not life (1 Pet. 2:24; Ro. 8:1-14).
Be Strong and Take Courage / Don Moen
Be strong and take courage
Do not fear or be dismayed
For the Lord will go before
you
And His light will show the
way
Why don't you give him all of
your fears?
Why don't you let him wipe
all of your tears?
He knows, He's been through
pain before
And He knows all that you've
been looking for
No comments:
Post a Comment