Ask Where the Good Way Is

Jeremiah 6:16-19 NIV

“This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look;

    ask for the ancient paths,

ask where the good way is, and walk in it,

    and you will find rest for your souls.

    But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

I appointed watchmen over you and said,

    ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’

    But you said, ‘We will not listen.’

Therefore hear, you nations;

    you who are witnesses,

    observe what will happen to them.

Hear, you earth:

    I am bringing disaster on this people,

    the fruit of their schemes,

because they have not listened to my words

    and have rejected my law.”

A few years ago my husband and I took a trip to California with my in-laws. And while we were waiting on our flight, I had to use the restroom. So, I walked to the restroom, but when I came back out of the restroom, I could not remember which way to go. I could not remember how I got there, and  there were about 4 or 5 different directions I could head, and I am directionally challenged. 

I was lost! And it used to be that whenever I got lost I would cry, and that is what I did. But then I prayed, and I asked the Lord to show me which way to go, and he led me to retrace my steps, and then I was able to find my way back to where I had been. And so as I was reading this passage this morning about standing at the crossroads and looking for the right path, this came back to my memory.

For these people were lost, but they were lost, not by accident, but deliberately, because they would not listen to the Lord. And, perhaps, they weren’t really paying attention to how they got to where they were, either, so they didn’t recall the right way to go. But it was because they closed their ears to the Lord, and the Word of God was an offense to them. It was not the joy of their hearts and lives.

Now, one of the reasons they were lost was because they believed the lies, and some of them taught the lies, because they were greedy for gain. And so they practiced deceit. They did not take serious the people’s sin wounds but they just covered over the wounds as though they were not serious. And they comforted them with lies, and in their sins, and they did not teach that they must turn from their sins and now walk in obedience to the Lord.

And so it is today, at least here in America it is. And the reason they need to ask for the ancient paths is because they have rejected the ancient paths. They have rejected the idea that they must die to sin and live to God, and that daily they must die to sin and walk in obedience to the Lord. And we are not talking Old Covenant here, either. We are talking New Covenant. If we do not die to sin and obey our Lord, we do not have eternal life in him.

So, if you have lost your way, and if you are walking in sin, and you are not taking God and his word seriously, the counsel here is to stop, look, and listen. And ask to be shown the ways of righteousness and holiness and obedience to our Lord, and then walk in them, in truth. And then you will find rest for your souls. But so many professers of faith in Jesus Christ today are also saying, “We will not walk in them,” for they still want their sin.

And even though the Lord is sending forth his messengers with the truth of the gospel, although we are few in number, so many professers of faith in Christ will not listen, and so they just ignore the messages, and they ignore the warnings, for they have been brainwashed into believing that the lies are the truth, and that the truth is the lie. And this is because they are listening to those who say, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

So, what do the Scriptures teach about those who reject the Word of the Lord, and who choose their own paths, and who walk in the ways of the flesh, and not in the ways of the Spirit? God will judge them, and they will not have eternal life with God, no matter what their lips have professed. For they refused to bow the knee to Christ and to submit to his will and to leave their sinful practices to now follow the Lord in obedience. Don’t be one of them.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296