Sound Familiar?

Well we're in a new month, and I tell ya - they just keep going by faster and faster aren't they?


Let's get back to Jeremiah 6, with today's passages being verses 18 - 13. This is Jeremiah asking the Lord to whom is he supposed to talk to about all the sin in the land.


"To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. But I am full of the wrath of the Lord, and I cannot hold it in. 'Pour it out on the children in the street and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years. Their houses will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives, when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land', declares the Lord. 'From the greatest to the least, all are greedy for grain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit'".


When I was a child, we were allowed to pray in school; the Ten Commandments were posted in our classrooms, and we didn't have the disciplinary problems that are so prevalent in schools today. We took time off for "Christmas Break" and "Easter Break", and now it's called "Winter Break" and "Spring Break", all in order to be politically correct.


Not only do we have those things taken away from our young children, but there are those who are strongly opposing the words, "one nation, under God", taken out of our pledge of allegiance; "In God We Trust" taken off our money, and the list goes on. So I ask the same question as Jeremiah did - "To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it."


Our country is making it to where God is being removed from any and everything possible, and we are told that we need to develop more tolerance, and of course, to be politically correct.


Look at the danger in our streets, which once used to be full of children playing stick ball, bike riding, playing hopscotch - it's gotten to where a mother can't even let her children play in the front yard without constant supervision, for fear of drive by shootings, drugs, and the ever-increasing number of pedaphiles in wait to lure them away.


Does it sound familiar to our situation today where in verse 12, it says, "Their houses will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives". Thousands of homes in our country are daily going into foreclosure; jobs (their fields) are being cut, with our unemployment rates at an all time high.


And finally, it says that even back then things were no different than we see today, regarding how everyone, from the least to the greatest, have become greedy. Everyone thinks they deserve the things that used to be priveledges that one earned, i.e. owing homes, going to college, climbing the ladder of success for practicing good work ethics. Now we have a man who wants to be our President, who thinks that everyone should have all these things handed to them, and of course, with the help of the government. I call that welfare!

I am a giving person, and taught my children at a young age, to give to those in need. The Bible even teaches us to do that, but nowhere in the Bible does it say that what we have worked hard for and earned honestly, should be at the hands of the government to "spread around" at their choosing!

Even some of the leaders in the churches have been delusioned by wealth and greed. We have seen the stories of those who preach "in the name of Jesus", who have become profiteers and live like shieks with their multi-million dollar homes, private jets and ultra-expensive clothes.


We see tapes of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who leads the church that Obama was a member of for over 20 years, shouting to his cheering congregation, "Not God Bless America, but God D--- America", "We live in the U S of KKK A". I find it difficult to believe Obama saying that he never heard any of this kind of preaching, if he were a member of that church for 20 years and had the Reverend as his mentor, even baptising his own children.


WAKE UP AMERICA! We are the greatest country in the world, and we need to FIGHT for our country, and rights as Christians to bring God with us, no matter where we go, or to whom we speak to.

Ask the Lord today, to guide you in his Truth and his Wisdom. Get your life and your heart, right before him.
I don't want to stand before the King of Kings, and be ashamed that I didn't do my part in standing up for Him, do you?



Janelle

Falling Away from The Lord

Monday Monday......It's a little chilly here today, but it feels good for a change!
I've been trying to get up earlier, which is not my favorite thing to do, but I have so many things to do each day, and don't want to waste one precious minute of the life the Lord has given me.
Today I continue in Jeremiah 5: 20 - 25. We see here, the power of the Lord Almighty, and he says:
"Announce this to the house of Jacob and procliam it in Judah: Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. Should you fear me?, declares the Lord. Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say to themselves, 'Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest".
This reminds me of the parable of what we all know as "The Prodigal Son", spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke 15. It was the message delivered yesterday in church, and it was focusing on the things people do that cause them to fall away from the Lord, as the son did, who demanded his inheritance early.
The first thing that causes that falling away, as we see in Jeremiah, and can see in our own lives, and the lives of others, is:

1. Living out shameless self-interest - the prodigal son wanted to live his own life, and get his inheritance early, so he could "do his own thing". He would have gotten this inheritance when his father passed away, because of the way the Hebrew law was written, but his demanding it early, leads to his state of mind in reason #2(Luke 15:12)
2. Considering God dead - he was in fact, telling his father that he was dead in his eyes, by wanting what was his before the appropriate time. (Luke 15:12) When we don't allow God in our lives, to guide us and be Lord, we are in effect, acting is if he were dead. That's what he was saying to his people in Jeremiah - their sinful behavior and selfish attitudes, caused them to act as though God didn't exist.
3. Filling yourself with temporary pleasure - Just as the children of God in the passage from Jeremiah, the Prodigal, and many people today - there is a "squandering of wealth and wild living"(Luke 15:13). The world is developing more and more the mindset of, "you are in control of your life and have the power to make it what you want - do your own thing - live out your pleasures". There is a void in our hearts that God puts there at our creation, and HE is the only thing that can fill that void. We try to substitute many "things" to satisfy our fleshly wants and needs, but after awhile, they too become mundane.
4. Refusing to acknowledge need - we've been reading how the children of God in the passages from Jeremiah, kept getting further and further away from their dependence on God; seeking out false gods and pagan activities. In the story of the Prodigal, it says in (Luke 15:14), "After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need". So he'd been living his life as HE wanted, not thinking of the future, and he found himself in a place that so many find themselves in today. Our whole economic system in the USA, and now across the world, is in dire danger because of the "squandering" of money.
5. Trying to fix your own life - Oh I think we have all been in this situation at one time or another, and God tries to show us, by letting circumstances get tough at times, that we cannot do this on our own. (Luke 15:15) says:"So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs". Oh now to a Jew, there is nothing lower than pigs, and to get to the place in your life to where that's the only option you have......that's what we call nowdays, "beneath the layer of scum". And our lives can get to that point if we continue to live our lives with our self-interest, acting as though God doesn't exist, searching for "things" that will fill the void we feel, failing to acknowledge our need for God to lead us, we've tried to fix it on our own - we end up just like the people of Judah, and The Prodigal Son - destitute, alone and "living among pigs".
6. Finding cheap substitutes for God - Jeremiah was told to go to the people and tell them that their lives were going to be judged because of their sin, and their lack of faith or devotion to the Lord, who had taken their fathers out of bondage in Egypt, and brought them to The Promised Land. They sought other gods, and lived selfishly, ending up in the hands of the enemy. (Luke 15:16) says: "He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything". He was to the point of wanting to fill his physical needs with the leftover slop from the pigs, but all those who had befriended him when he was out "partying and squandering his wealth with wild living", had all disappeared.

So is the way of the world now - there are so many who are wandering around lost and destitute - who might have even been raised in the church, and know the Word of God, but have decided to stray from that in search of a life they think will be better if they can just manage it themselves.

I know in my own life, I was the preacher's kid - in church everytime the door opened, had memorized large portions of the Bible - walked the aisle to get saved - got baptised - got involved in the youth group and went to camps. I left home the day after I graduated high school at the young age of 17, and church wasn't so important anymore - I was "free" to do my own thing; I lived life just like the Prodigal did - partying, spending what little money I had on things that brought me temporary pleasure - and I felt very alone. The Lord got my attention, when on July 26, 1979, I was in the office of Dr. Pedro Diaz- Borden, and he smiled when he told me that I was going to be having my first child in a few months. I knew I couldn't raise a child in the atmosphere I'd been living in - I was now responsible for another life; a life inside me, and soon to be in the world.

God got my attention in a good way, but sometimes we get so out of touch with the Lord, and so rebellious in our lives, that He has to allow things not so pleasant to occur, to point us the "way back home".

If you've found yourself in this situation - the Father is waiting with open arms, for you to come home to Him.

One Nation Under God

One Nation Under God is a phrase used in our pledge of allegiance that has strong meaning to it, but it has been challenged in the courts of our country by those who don't believe.
Today's passage in Jeremiah 1: 7 - 13 speaks of the nation of Israel, who were and are still God's chosen people. Yesterday I spoke about how they rebelled, and how we have also found ourselves "in the wilderness" and rebelled in our own ways too. There are always consequences to rebellion, and that is what the Lord was telling Jeremiah to tell the nation.
These verses are the Lord speaking.
"I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. The priests did not ask, ' Where is the Lord'. Those who deal with the law did not know me, and the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols. Therefore I bring charges against you again, declares the Lord. And I will bring charges against your children's children. Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation ever changed its gods? ( Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appaled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns - broken cisterns that cannot hold water".
In verse 8 it refers to the priests and leaders who rebelled against God. It is translated to mean that the ones in authority, those who led the people, led the way to apostasy. Sound familiar? Have we not seen this very thing in our own country? We have many who are in public office, and even those who are leaders of great churches and denominations who would rather be "politically correct" than to follow the laws and morals of our Lord.
In verse 11 the Lord asks, "Has a nation ever changed its gods?(Yet they are not gods at all)."
Our great nation seems to have fallen into this - the outrage of one athiest woman led to prayer being taken out of our schools; now we have others of like mind as she, who demand that "In God We Trust" be taken off our currency, and also "One Nation Under God" to be removed from our pledge of allegiance.
We are guilty of forsaking God, the only true source of living water, and are seeing Him replaced by "broken cisterns" - false ideologies and morals that are abominations to him.
I pray that our nation would realize its sin and repent. Again I go back to the verse from II Chronicles 7:14 - "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land".
Now is the time for us believers to make our voices be heard! We need to be on our knees praying for our country and its leaders, both those in political office, and those who are leaders in our churches. We need to pray that they will do exactly what God asks us to do in that verse, otherwise we can expect to reap the consequences of our nations sins.

Janelle

Listening to our Parents

As always, I read a chapter of Proverbs each morning, and with it being the first of May, today's focus in on the theme and purpose of the book. Proverbs is a great book to seek God's wisdom for our daily lives.
The passage I'm focusing in on today Ch. 1: 8 - 9
"Listen my son to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They will be a garland of grace to your head and a chain to adorn your neck".
In the original Hebrew text, the word "listen" means to listen with a view of obedience.

As I've said before, my daddy was a Southern Baptist preacher. Out of all the things I remember the most that he said to me it was this: " Baby girl, when you think that life can't get any worse, when it seems like your whole world is falling apart, go read the book of Job". Being the daddy's girl I was, if he said it - I believed it, so I was listening to my father's instruction, and have been in situations in my adult life where I did think my whole world was falling apart, and that I couldn't go on another day. Reading the book of Job and seeing that what I was facing was nowhere near the trials Job went through, and how God was there with him throughout it all, has been that "garland of grace" referred to in verse 8.
My mother read Bible stories to us all and we heard her singing hymns on a daily basis while doing her housework. She made sure we were in Sunday School, revivals, and Vacation Bible School until we were old enough to leave home. There were so many times, especially when I was a teenager, that church was the last place I wanted to be.
I was "the prodigal daughter" - I rebelled when I left home and went my own way, not attending church, not practicing what I'd been taught, and when I was in my early twenties and faced a situation that I knew that only the Lord could get me out of, I called out to him and He turned was right there with his arms wide open to save me and put me back on the right path.
No parent is perfect; we all as children think we can do it better and in our own way, and the Lord allows us to wander off the path of wisdom, and is always there for us when we reach that point in the road where it ends up at the edge of a steep cliff, and we have nowhere else to turn but to Him. He tells us in the book of Romans that: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved".
As a parent of two adult children, I pray that some of the teachings I gave them as children will help them as face life's trials, and then when they begin families of their own. I pray that they will draw on the same strength and wisdom of the Lord that I have, and will pass this on to their children as well.
I hope your day is filled with the grace and blessings of the Lord.....

Janelle