As We See the Day Approaching

Jeremiah 1:4-5 ESV

 

“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

 

‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’”

 

We read in Psalms 139 that God knit us together in the wombs of our mothers and that in his book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for us, when as yet there was none of them. And then we read in Romans 8 that those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son Jesus Christ.

 

And we read in 2 Timothy 1 that God saved us and called us to a holy calling because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. And in Ephesians 1 we read that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

 

Also we read in Ephesians 2 that we who are saved by God’s grace, through God-given faith in Jesus Christ, that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. And we read in 1 Corinthians 12 that God arranged the members in the body of Christ, each one of them, as he chose, and that the Spirit apportions spiritual gifts to each one individually as he wills.

 

So, if we are in Christ via being crucified with Christ in death to sin and being raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, and if we are now no longer living as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness, then God has a plan for our lives. For we are not saved from our sins just so we can go to heaven when we die. We are saved from our slavery to sin so that we can now serve Jesus Christ with our lives.

 

For when we believe in Jesus with genuine God-given faith, we die to our old lives of living in sin and for self, and now we become God’s possession and he is now our Lord (Owner-Master), and so he is now to be the one directing our lives and showing us who we are to be and what he has assigned for us to do. For he does have an assignment for each of us within the body of Christ which we are to fulfill (1 Corinthians 12:1-31).

 

And our lives no longer belong to us to do with them what we want. Our lives now belong to Jesus to obey him in doing whatever it is he has called us to do. So, we don’t get to decide our own future. We don’t get to choose our own path. We are now to follow Jesus in the path he has for us to travel, and this isn’t just about living holy and pure lives in obedience to our Lord. This is about fulfilling the God-given roles (body parts) our Lord had planned for our lives even before he laid the foundation of the earth.

 

And our assignments are not all going to be the same, as our gifts are not all the same, either. So, what the Lord called me to is for me specifically, though generally speaking we are all called to be sharing the gospel and being the light of the world and the salt of the earth, etc. But he called me specifically to write down what he teaches me from his word each day and then to post it on the internet, and then the Lord sends it where he wants it to go. And so I must be on call 24/7 for whenever he says to write.

 

But now your assignment might be something different, but whatever our calling is, we must do it in obedience to our Lord, faithfully, humbly, giving all the glory to God. And we must not neglect our calling from God or try to rearrange it to make it fit our own life choices. For I have been sick for about three weeks now, but the Lord did not let up on what he wanted me to do. In fact, he increased the number of writings per day. And that Scripture is in my mind which says, “Rather, let us encourage” (exhort) “each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

 

Jeremiah 1:6-8 ESV

 

“Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’ But the Lord said to me,

 

‘Do not say, “I am only a youth”;

for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,

and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

declares the Lord.’”

 

I can remember back a long time ago when I first sensed that this call of Jeremiah was to be somewhat my calling, too, only not as a prophet, but just as a woman of God doing what the Lord has called me to do. And I struggled with that, since I am a woman, and since I got so much rejection in my life whenever I did obey the Lord in saying what he gave me to say. And I can recall saying to God, probably more than once, “Why did you give me this calling and then make me a woman?”

 

And this is because I kept getting opposed a lot, not because I was doing anything wrong, but because they didn’t understand me, and they didn’t approve, and so they misjudged me and my motives. For they judged me by themselves, and I wasn’t like them, and they thought everyone was like them. And then things changed in the church, and the church at large joined forces with the world and so they altered the gospel and they marketed the church to the world using human marketing schemes.

 

And now the church at large was getting further and further away from the Lord and from his design and purpose for his people. And most “churches” became businesses run just like businesses, and now that they were marketing the church to the world they were doing things to attract the world to their gatherings, and Jesus was no longer their head, and the Scriptures were no longer their sole truth, and the gospel got so diluted that it barely resembles the gospel anymore.

 

And that is when the Lord called me to this present ministry. But he had me go through many years of rejection in order to get me ready to say “Yes!” to Jesus. And I have faced much more rejection since I accepted his call on my life in 2004. But all those years when I questioned why God was calling me this direction only to have me get rejected over and over again became clear. I needed that to get me ready to stand on the truth of God’s word if all should turn against me.

 

And this isn’t all about me. Again, if you are a child of God, our Lord has an assignment for you, too, as his body part within the body of Christ that he has specifically for you to do. And so if you don’t know what that is, or if you are struggling with what you think he might be calling you to do, spend some time with him in his word, seeking his face, asking him what he has for you to do, and then do it in his power and strength. And you will never reject giving your life fully to Jesus Christ to do his will.

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

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