The Day History Changed Forever

Oh what love God showed to each one of us on this day - He became flesh and willingly gave his life and endured such suffering, beyond what any of us can comprehend, so that we might be reconciled to Him and have the hope of being with Him for all eternity!

Thank you Jesus, for so great a love - for taking the punishment for my sin, so that I may live a life here, filled with the presence of your Holy Spirit, and when it's my time to leave this earth, KNOW without a doubt, that I will live in your wonderful presence for time without end.

May each of you have a blessed Good Friday, and let your hearts ponder all that the Lord did for us on this day.

Janelle

The Atonement for Our Country

Today I was looking for a scripture that I was going to share about inward beauty, and in looking for it, the Lord directed me into a U-turn to another scripture that I think needs to be said to all, and it is found in Colossians 2:8.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ".
Our eyes as a country need to be set on God, and not on man. Our eyes need to be set on the grace and atonement for everyone through the blood of Jesus, not on the election of a black man, to try to right the wrongs of the past in our country.
I never tippy toe around the issues that I feel strongly about, and I'm sure not going to start now!
The world's principles, which is mentioned in this passage, haven't seem to do too much for our country, as we have followed it's principles and now stand in the greatest economic downfall of our time. Lawyers, bail outs and a liberal congress cannot better ourselves as a nation, but as it says in 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 wicked ways, THEN will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land".
That's the only answer for our country, and the only LOGICAL answer, in my opinion. Man's solutions have failed us, and it's time to turn this country back to it's Judeo Christian principles it was founded on.
And I'll stand on this soapbox til Jesus comes if I have to, and NOT apologize for it!

Amen, Lord

Happy Friday!

Yesterday's passage in Jeremiah 11 ended with Jeremiah saying, "Amen, Lord". That's something we should say, no matter what the Lord asks of us. The word Amen can be translated to "So Be It". No questions, no hesitations, just "Amen, Lord".

Today's verses are 6 - 11 : "The Lord said to me, ' Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; "Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, ' Obey me'.

But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep".

Then the Lord said to me, ' There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ' I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them'".

I read on a dear friend's blog, a prayer by Reverend Billy Graham, read by his daughter on the CBS Morning Show on Thanksgiving Day this year. What I love about Billy Graham is that he boldly proclaims the gospel without EVER sugar coating it, and I think he nailed this right on the head about our country and the sins we have given way to. I thought it fit in very well with all that we've been reading and studying in Jeremiah, and how the people of Israel had fallen into the sins of their forefathers.

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.Search us, oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen.”As families gather for the holiday, please remember there is no reason to have a holiday called Thanksgiving unless there is Someone to thank.Thanks to God and Jesus Christ His Son for all the blessings on our fair land".



Pray for our nation, and that we not only see our sin, but that "we, his people, who are called by His name, will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways, THEN He will hear from Heaven and will forgive our sin and will heal our land". II Chronicles 7: 14



"AMEN, LORD".



Have a blessed Friday...

Janelle

Staying Humble Before the Lord

I'm going to finish up chapter 10 of Jeremiah today. It covers quite a few verses, and it's the reaction of Jeremiah to the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem, and is spoken in the language of the Nomads.
10: 19 - 25 - "Woe to me because of my injury! My would is incurable! Yes, I said to myself, 'This is my sickness, and I must endure it. My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped. My sons are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter. The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.
Listen! The report is coming - a great commotion from the land of the north! It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals.
I know Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me Lord, but only with justice - not in your anger, lest your reduce me to nothing. Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland'".
The reference to the shepherds is to the leaders of the nation, who were responsible for the calamity. We commonly refer to pastors in our day as "shepherds", and the church's congregations to the "flock". We too, have seen how some in this position in recent years have misled many people. Look back to the late 1970's, at how Jim Jones deceived so many people into believing the misguided teachings that brought them all to their death. He had put himself over these people as a false messiah, and although he used scripture in his teachings, he took them out of context and used them for his advantage and hunger for power and control over them.
We have seen others since, who were well known in the religious arena, who let greed enter their hearts and brought them down, as well as their ministries. This brought a lot of spiritual dysfunction and emotional hurt to those who had so faithfully given to their ministries, only to find out they too had been duped.
We need to pray for our pastors, evangelists and missionaries. They are held in high accountability to the Lord for the calling on their lives to reach out to the lost. I believe that Satan throws more temptations at them, so he can destroy not only them and their ministry, but cause it to have an adverse affect on the lost who these people are trying to reach, causing them to stay lost and without the desire to come to know the Lord as their savior.
We have seen in Jeremiah, where pride, selfishness and greed were the downfall of the nations, and look around - you can see it in our world today as well.
We need to re-read verse verse 23 where Jeremiah says, "I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps". That's what each of us needs to remember; that we need to turn to God daily, for his direction for our life. He has the perfect plan for us, and when we go about our day without taking the time to talk to him and read his word to find what his will for us is; trying to walk through life on our own, that's when we find ourselves in the midst of trials and upheavals that we've gotten ourselves into by our own pride and stubborness.
I close with this passage from James 4 that gives us the cure for sin: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Greive and mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up".

Have a blessed Wednesday................Janelle

What Is Your Treasure?

I've got my Christmas music playing in the background, and it is a lot of the "oldies" from my childhood, which brings back such warm memories of the wonder of the Christmas season. I loved growing up when things were more simple and the focus was more on the real meaning of Christmas and the gift of love that the Lord sent us in the form of a little baby. Today we hear of stampedes in the stores and violence when people are in a mad rush to get the newest electronic gadgets and such. How sad, that our society has put such emphasis on material things in an effort to satisfy the emptiness in their lives.
It was no different in Jeremiah's time - people had lost their relationship with the Lord, and had chosen to replace it with counterfeit gods.
Today in Jeremiah 10, we continue to see the Lord expose to Jeremiah, the falsehood of idolatry that the people were following, compared to the wisdom, understanding and knowledge of the one true God.
Jeremiah 10: 11 - 18: "Tell them this: These gods, who did not make the heavens and earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens. But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from its his storehouses.
Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have no breath in them. They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the tribe of his inheritance - the Lord Almighty is his name.
Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege. For this is what the Lord says: 'At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured'".
Where is your heart? We are told by Jesus in Matthew 6: 19 - 21: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also".
Today, I ask you to search your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to show you the things that you have put in importance over your relationship with the Lord. He can and will remove the things that have been a hindrance in your spiritual walk, and replace them with a hunger for the intimate relationship with the only Savior, Christ Jesus.

Blessings to you and yours...
Janelle

The Folly of Idolatry

I hope everyone had a blessed day of Thanks yesterday, and that you got to enjoy time with family and friends.

Today I start into the 10th Chapter of Jeremiah. Verses 1 - 16 speak of the folly of idolatry, but I'm only going to cover verses 1 - 5 today.
"Hear what the Lord says to you, O house of Israel. This is what the Lord says: ' Do not learn the ways of the nations, or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them.

For the customs of the people are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.

Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk.

Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good'".



We will see over the next few verses, how there is a threefold contrast (1) Heathen worship attached great importance to the sun, moon and stars, though God is the one who made the heavens (2) man-made idols have to be stabilized, but God even controls the nations (3) idols are senseless, without intellectual capacity, because they are inanimate, but the living God designed and created all things.

These signs mentioned in verse 2 could be a reference to things such as eclipses, comets or conjunction of planets.

I encourage you to read Romans Chapter 1: 18 - 32, where Paul covers the depths of the sin that man has and will continue to fall to, and the consequences of it. The verse that goes right along with today's verses from Jeremiah, is verse 25 - "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised, Amen".

I think you will find in reading Paul's writing, that you will see many things that he wrote about in about 57-58 AD, that we see even more so today. These things are regarding the acts of society that once were looked on as the sin that they truly are, but are now looked on as "normal" and acceptable by our politcally correct world.

I pray that your knowledge of our Lord, and the truth of his word, would penetrate your heart today.

Janelle

Cleansing of Our Hearts

As the Lord speaks to Jeremiah in chapter 9, it only deepens the sadness and sorrow for his people in Judea and Jerusalem. He must've been totally exhausted much of the time, from his intense weeping for these people. It shows to me, that his heart was as the heart of God - he had a real love for the people, and wanted so badly for them to turn their hearts back to the Lord.

Today's verses are 10 -16 - where the Lord continues to outline the coming events to the land and of it's people.

"I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untraveled and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone.

'I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there. What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

The Lord said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them. Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them".

God was about to scatter the Jews, leaving their own land desolate. They had defiled their land by their constant sin and rebellion, and it seems to me that the Lord was doing a purging and cleansing of everything, so he could later bring it back to what he intended it to be - a place of worship to Him.
The Lord does this within our hearts - his Holy Spirit shows us our sin, and brings us to a place where it can be purged and cleansed, making it a pure place of worship of our Lord. When we feel the conviction of sin, it is best if we act on it immediately with a repentant heart. We don't want our hearts to become cold and hard towards the Lord, which can and does happen when one continues to ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It puts a wedge in our relationship to the Lord and makes us spiritually stagnant. Jeremiah's people had gotten to that stagnant place, and we have seen, and will continue to see what will come of them because of it.

Everytime there is a hard lesson speaking of the judgment of God, I battle Satan 's little imps about posting this on my blog; I get this sense of "you don't want to post more of that, do you? People will quit reading your blog and they get tired of hearing about God's judgment."

It's then that I know I MUST keep going, because to not point out that there are consequences of sin, would be for me to disobey the Lord in sharing what He is telling me, and fall into the trap of listening to and obeying the voices of darkness.

Our world has become a place where this generation is coddled, and taught that to speak of things like sin and judgment, could cause injury to one's self esteem. It's pride at it's best - and the author of that sin was thrown from Heaven because of his pride. He was and is egotistic, and has deceived our world into the same mindset.

People are hungry for answers, and the world tells them things that tickle their ears, in order to bring about peace. For those of us who are Christians, we know that this "tickling of the ears" benefits no one, and that the "peace" that is so often promised in order to keep rioting from breaking loose, is a false sense of peace.

I will not attempt to "tickle the ears" of anyone. I have been called to teach straight from God's word, and at times his word has to point out sin, if we want to be freed from it.

Ask the Lord to show you places in your heart that are in need of his purging.
Psalm 51 is a psalm of David, after his sin of adultery with Bathsheba. He came to a place of knowing his need to repent and be forgiven by the Lord. Let this be our prayer for ourselves today.
"Have mercy on me O God,
according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me".

This psalm goes on for several more verses, and I hope you will read it in its entirety.
Let today be the day that we all say, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me".

Refinement by God

Whewww...I had a ton of things I had to get done first thing this morning, and it feels good to finally have a chance to sit down and read God's word and let him speak to my heart.

I continue on in the 9th chapter of Jeremiah. We read in the first few chapters, how Jeremiah's heart was broken, due to the hard heartedness and sin of his people, and the knowledge that God was about to bring judgment on them for all of that.

Today's passages are verses 4 - 9

"Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer.

Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.

You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me", declares the Lord.

Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty says: "See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit. With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. Should I not punish them for this?", declares the Lord. "Should I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"



In verse 4, where it speaks of every brother is a deceiver, this is a pun on the Hebrew meaning of the name Jacob, which means "supplanter" or "one who deceives". Everyone has a Jacob in their life.

The Lord says that he will test and refine his people, to bring them to a place of repentance. He continues to do that today - those of us who are believers in Christ don't forego testing and refining; the Lord wants us to be a spotless bride for Christ, when he returns for us. He has to prune and purge the things from us that keep us at a distance from him.

I spoke not long ago about how a silversmith can tell when the product is pure and finished; he holds it up, and when he sees his reflection in it, he knows it's ready and complete.

That's how the Lord is with us - he refines us as a silversmith does, wanting others to see His reflection when they look at our lives. He was saddened that his people had a hypocritical walk in life - they would bless thier neighbors while in thier presence, but in their hearts, they thought otherwise.

God wants us to be "real" - to live our daily lives like we present ourselves in church on Sundays. He sees our hearts and knows our motives, and it's those motives that aren't pure, those motives that are self-serving, that he wants to get rid of.

Who do people see when they look at you? Are they able to see Jesus in you? Were you to die today, would the funeral home be filled with people who were able to say, "He/she loved God, and it was evident in his/her life".

That's my life's desire - to reflect Jesus to others - to have some kind of impact on someone's life; pointing them to the cross, and to the feet of Jesus.

Have a blessed day!
Janelle

A Heart of Intercession

Good Saturday Morning! It's cold here in FL this morning; only in the mid 30's! It sure does wake one up to go out on the porch to have coffee, and that crisp air hit one in the face!
I start on Chapter 9 of Jeremiah this morning, and we see even further, why Jeremiah was referred to as the Weeping Prophet.
9: 1 - 3" Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep all day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.
'They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies. It is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me', declares the Lord."

We see Jeremiah mourning for his people, and weeping for them, much like Jesus did over Jerusalem when he was in the Garden praying and interceding for them, prior to his crucifixion.
They both knew the glory and the blessings of following the Lord, and both knew the oncoming sorrow of separation from the Lord, for the unrepentant sins.
We too, should have a heart for those who are lost; and make ourselves available to the calling of The Holy Spirit, to be a witness of God's love and grace through Christ Jesus.
I pray that I would strive more, to have a heart for intercession.

Have a blessed day!

Janelle

The Voice of Truth

Chapter 8: 14 - 17 starts off with the people finally seeming to realize that thier sin has brought the coming judgments down on them.
"Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there!
For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.
We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror.
The snorting of the enemy's horses is heard from Dan; at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the cry and all who live there.
'See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,' declares the Lord'".

The people of Judea and Jerusalem have come to understand that there are consequences of sin. They confess they believed all those false promises of peace from the leaders of their land; promises from those who were leading them further and further into their sinful activities.
The Babylonians were compared to venomous snakes - something that the Lord actually had sent among his people before, when they had gone back to their sinful ways. I'm sure that they were aware of this, from the passing of the tales of their forefathers that had come out of Egypt. At that time, the Lord told Moses in Numbers 21: 8 - 9 - "The Lord said to Moses, 'Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived".
Only the people who looked at the bronze snake on the pole and believed God, lived. This is an illustration of Christ's death on the cross, and the necessity of a personal faith for salvation.

Psalm 58, written by David, also speaks of venomous snakes; his comparison being that of how the words of the judges and leaders of his time, had abused their power to mislead the children of God. This seems to be what the people of Jeremiah's time allowed to happen as well, and now they were about to reap the consequences of their blindly following their misguided teachings.
58: 1-4 - "Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge uprightly among men? No, in your heart you devise injustice and your hands mete out violence in the earth. Even from birth, the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies. Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skilled the enchanter may be".
The words of the wicked rulers were so convincing to the people, that they were deaf to the appeals of God to turn away from them, and turn back to God with repentant hearts.

Do you see a pattern here?

• The people who followed Moses out of Egypt to the promised land of God, rebelled against God by following false gods and the words of the wicked who wanted to have power over them.
• The people in David's time were also being misled by unjust judges and rulers; deaf to the call of the Lord for them to repent.
• The people in Jeremiah's time were now in the same situation; they too had fallen prey to the false teachings and false promises of those who were in authority over them.
• Are we repeating history here ourselves? God has surely blessed our nation since it's foundation in 1776, but how much longer will he continue to do so, when so many are trusting in any and everything but him; choosing to follow their own desires, and putting their trust in the words and promises of peace and prosperity from those who are now in authority, as well as the ones about to come to the seats of authority in our land. I repeat that it is our duty as Christian believers, to pray for our leaders; pray for them to seek Godly wisdom to lead our country. Pray that they will justly deal with those who have abused their power in the large corporations, which has brought us to this current state of economic disaster.

I urge to you to pray as I do, that my ears, my heart will be open to hear the word and direction from the Lord; that my eyes will seek him out in his word, enabling me to discern truth. We need to pray that our country will wake up from this spiritual stagnation caused by the deceptive ways of the world; to be alert to the words of truth that our Lord Jesus spoke to us, and follow the direction and leading of His Holy Spirit, to a place of repentence, forgiveness, and restoration.

On my playlist, there is a song called, "The Voice of Truth", by Casting Crowns. I hope you will find it on here and take a listen - it will give you encouragement, strength and hope in our Lord.

Blessings,

Janelle

The Deception of the People

Continuing in Jeremiah 8: 4-9, The Lord is speaking to Jeremiah and telling him what to say to the people.
"Say to them, ' This is what the Lord says: "When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, ' What have I done?' Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord.
How can you say, 'We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord', when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have"?
The same question is prevalent for us today - why do people turn away, and refuse to return to the foundations given to us by the Lord?
Our society has become unrepentant for the multitudes of sins that are condoned in our country; everyone seems to have the attitude of "do whatever feels right to you".
The Lord says that even the birds follow their instincts put into them in order to survive, but the people behave unnaturally towards him. He has put within each one of us, a spiritual void that only He can fulfill. Men and women go off on so many rabbit trails, chasing after "stuff" and man-made methods of finding "peace"; they try all the religions of the world, in search of one that will "tickle thier ears" and make them feel good about themselves; religions void of any message of sin, one's need for a savior, and repentance. They will try anything but the only way to fill that spiritual void, and that is going to the Lord and accepting his gift of salvation found only in Jesus.
This passage also is the first place in the Bible where the scribes are mentioned as a professional class. They were the leaders of their time; they governed the people, much like our elected politicians govern us. The people then knew there were laws of God laid out for them, but they chose to follow the direction of "the lying pen of the scribes". I compare this to how the foundations laid our in our Constitution, by our forefathers seeking God's direction for our country, being overturned by a new generation of people who we label as the "far left liberal", wanting to change portions of our Constitution, and pacify entities such as the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and others who have no regard for the Lord, or his statutes. They say that to follow the things that were originally penned, are now passe, close-minded, and not practical for our current society. They are a strong force, and have deceieved many into following right along with their self-serving agendas. I'll repeat what the Lord said in verse 9 - "Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?"
It also says that the "wisdom" of these lying scribes will bring them shame, and that they will be dismayed and trapped.
Seems to me that the problems we face with our economy can be traced back to the leaders we have in Congress, having no oversight on the institutions that have brought us to this place of financial turmoil. They took advantage of the system, and now we all are paying the price of their greed and ill business practices. We now see our country put to shame, dismayed, and trapped because of the actions of those who have had their own interests put above the best interests of the people they are supposed to be leading.
We as believers, are called to pray for those who are in authority over us; to pray that they seek the wisdom and direction of the Lord. He tells us in 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 wicked ways, THEN will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land".
I have been praying that all during the election process here, and will continue to pray that for our country and our leaders. The heathen aren't going to be on their knees seeking God for his blessings on our country - it's up to those of us who call ourselves the Children of God, to stand in the gap and sincerely pray for our leaders and our country.

What Do You Follow?

Good Monday Morning! Brrrrrrr...it's only in the 40s here, and we folks in Florida just aren't used to cold weather!

Today I start in Chapter 8 of Jeremiah, and it begins with God referring back to what he said in the last part of Chapter 7 - the total destruction of the people of Judea and Jerusalem. He continues to point out specifics of their sins, and today it speaks of the sin of following after the stars of the skies.

8:1-3 "At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground. Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the Lord".

The Lord allowed desecration of their graves, which was common practice in warfare in those days. It was an insult to the conquered people, and sometimes it was done to uncover any thing of value that might have been buried with them.

He is very clear in these passages that the worship of anything other than himself, will suffer the consequences of that sin. He specifically points out the worship of the stars and moon - astrology.

There are many places in the Bible where he says we are not to follow or worship the stars; we are not to seek them for direction, but there are many - even people in the church- who talk about what "sign" they are. Even looking at a horoscope, which might seem innocent, is forbidden by God. It opens the door to getting into the habit of reading it, which then becomes a form of worship.

If you want direction in your life - seek God. He will lead you down the path that he has for you; a path that ends in eternal life with him in Heaven. He will be with you on that path, when there are obstacles of life in the way, and will get you through them. None of the stars in Heaven can do that - they are created objects, and have no life in them; they have no means of guiding one's life.
What do you follow? The Great Shepherd, Jesus, says, "My sheep follow me and they know my voice". Do you know His voice, and are you following him, or do you wander through life aimlessly, following any and everything but him?

God Never Changes

Good Sunday Morning! We woke up to some chilly temps today, and are about to head out to church shortly.

Today's passage in Jeremiah 7 picks up from The Lord telling Jeremiah that the children of God were not following his commands given to their forefathers when he brought them out of Egypt; that they'd become stiff-necked and extremely evil.

Today's passage is 7: 27-34, which wraps up this chapter.

"When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore say to them, ' This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire - something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of the bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate".

Back in Jeremiah's day, a sign of mourning was to cut one's hair off, and also to put ashes on oneself. God was telling them they should be in mourning, for their sins had cut them off from His grace and mercy.

Judah was performing acts that even the heathens didn't do; sacrificing their children. He reminds them that sacrificing their children was not only something he didn't command them to do, but it wouldn't even enter His mind to do such a thing. Well folks, the Bible says in Hebrews 13:8 - "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever". Seeing that Jesus IS God, that He is the ONLY Son of God; giving him equality and the same power as the Father, there is no way that he would accept any argument offered to him today for the sacrificing of children to the hands of abortionists. The children who are aborted are being forced to suffer for the sins of the men and women who have made the choice to have sex either outside of marriage, or even within a marriage, and choose to end the unborn's life instead of giving it the life instilled by our Heavenly Father.
Just as the people of Judea and Jerusalem were to pay the consequences of this wretched sin, so will those in our present day have to one day face the Lord, and answer to their sin of the murder and sacrificing of these unborn babies, because they have been deemed an inconvenient interruption in the lifestyle of the parent(s). They sacrifice the life of a child, so they can go about in their sinful lifestyles, and sadly, many feel no guilt about it whatsoever.
If and when the Spirit of God is removed from a place, we see in the final verses of chapter 7, that the joy once heard in the land will be gone, and eventually the place will become desolate.
I pray for our country, as well as the other countries throughout this world, who have adapted this evil mind-set, that children are inconvenient interruptions in one's life, and can be easily disposed of. God will one day bring down his judgement on such behavior.
Have a blessed Sunday, and seek the Lord while He may be found.

A Downward Spiral

I have been asking the Lord how to pray for our country. My heart has been so heavy, seeing how people are getting more and more violent; more and more humanist - wanting to remove God from everything; more and more outward publicly in their displays of all kinds of sexual goings on.
I was telling one of my sisters the other day, how I'm thankful that my dear Mamaws have already gone to Heaven, because if they saw just the advertising on TV, they would be in complete shock because they were raised that there were some things that one just doesn't speak about publicly.

We have had many cities who once displayed Nativity scenes on the lawns of city halls, libraries, etc., who have been taken to court and have had to remove them, because non-believers say they are offended, and don't want their children exposed to such things. Yet I don't hear about or see anyone standing up against the non-believers who have now taken out advertising on city buses not only nationwide, but worldwide.

I understand now, why Jeremiah was referred to as "The Weeping Prophet" - I too, have cried over the people of our great nation, and know that there will come a time when God's judgment will come.

My study today is from Jeremiah 7:14-20 -

"Therefore, what I did to Shiloh, I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave you and your fathers. I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.

So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. But am I the one they are provoking? declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?

Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched".


The people were now including their children in their sinful behavior, making them go to gather wood in order to make cakes for the "Queen of Heaven". Who is this queen, you ask? It was a Babylonian goddess, Ishtar. Studies say that the cakes were probably made in her image.

When the law was given to the Israelites, the Lord spoke to them about how to raise their children. This is what he said in Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 9 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your house".

They knew that the Lord had spoken these words, as Jewish tradition was handed down from one generation to the other. They turned from teaching their children as the Lord had instructed them to do, and were now incorporating them in their wicked ways.

Now in our present time, we have ungodly people who have become teachers in our schools, who want us to teach our children and grandchildren, that homosexuality is "normal" and should be tolerated. Anyone objecting to this is called close-minded, bigots, haters.

From what I've seen on the news lately, with the law not being passed to allow gay couples to marry, it's not the Christians who are acting out in hate or getting violent; it's these very people who preach "tolerance" and "acceptance" who are displaying such behavior.

My heart is heavy; I see my country in a downward spiral at an ever-increasing rate of speed. I see these new signs with Barack Obama's picture and the word "hope" above it. Sorry - he is not my hope. My HOPE is in the Lord Jesus, the ONLY one who can save us.

As I told a dear friend last night - the very last sentence of the Bible says this, "He who testifies to these things(Jesus) says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen."

And So It Continues............

So this is the newest campaign by athiests - Just in time for Christmas!

"And now stop worrying, and enjoy your life"??????????????????

Another ad that's on buses from NYC to London and China also say, "Just be good, for goodness' sake".....

And we wonder why our world is in the condition it's in? The removal of God from any and everything is at an ever increasing rate of speed - and in my opinion, it's a downward spiral.....

Now I know even more so, why the Lord has taken me through the book of Jeremiah.......

Knowing About God vs. Knowing God

I didn't understand at first why the Lord wanted me to do a study in Jeremiah and post it on my blog, but with each day, I'm seeing more and more as to why He directed me to do so.
I'm still reeling from the links I blogged late yesterday afternoon, showing how violent radicals are on the attack towards Christians, for standing up for what they believe in. I hear from the far left liberals that everyone should be free to express themselves, then usually find that it means you're free to express your beliefs until they disagree with their views. Sounds like a double standard to me.
Back to Jeremiah 7: 9-13, where the Lord is exposing the sin and hypocrisy of his people who want to walk the fence and to "pick and choose" which laws of God and which words of God they want to apply in their lives. It just does NOT work that way, folks. If you are a believer, then you believe the entire Bible, and know that God put every word in there for our benefit. PERIOD.
7:9-13 - "Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe" - safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching, says the Lord. Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dewlling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer".
Are you aware that Baal was the god whom children were sacrificed to? Are you aware that parents would throw their living children into furnaces, in offerings to Baal? And while they were commiting these murders, they still called themselves the children of God, and would still go to the temple to "worship" the one True God, Jehovah. Do you see how this is no different than what we witness in our modern society today? No, we don't hear of people throwing thier children into furnaces, but we do hear of children who have been aborted, being thrown into garbage cans, while they are still living after the attempts to abort them. We do have many who call themselves believers who fully support abortion, and I call it what it is - MURDER.
We hear more and more how children have been murdered by their own parents, who have gone over the edge. There are so many of these things happening over the past few years, that it would take me days to list them all.
The Lord tells us in today's passage, that "I've been watching". Don't think for a minute that anything escapes his knowing; and what He sees happening in our worldwide society is greiving his Holy Spirit.
The end of today's passage shows us how the Lord plead over and over again with his people to listen to him, but they didn't. He tried calling out to them to save them, but they didn't answer.
I'm sure if you've ever been to church and the altar call is given at the end of the service, opening the invitation to receive Christ as Lord, that at some point or another, you have felt God calling to you- pulling at your heart to receive him. Did you take his invitation and make his Only Son Jesus, the Lord of your life? Have you continued to go to church all your life, singing all the hymns, following along in the Bible, and learned all about God, yet never answered his intimate call to your heart?
Knowing about God, and knowing God are two different things. He desires a close and personal relationship with each of us, and today he is again pleading with you to accept his invitation into his family.

Christian's Attacked by Gay Community

To go along with what I blogged on earlier today.....need I say more?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80743

This is a story of a church in Michigan, who was attacked during service by radicals.....

This next link is from Palm Springs, CA, where gay protestors were at City Hall, and were being violent and verbally abusive to an elderly lady who is against gay marriage, and carried a cross with her, which was trampled by the angry crowd.

http://gatorgop.blogspot.com/2008/11/crazy-lefties-attack-old-lady-at-no-on.html

What has our world come to?

Separated Unto God

Today I continue in Jeremiah 7: 5 - 8. The Lord has given the people of Judea and Jerusalem warnings about the dangers of blindly following those charasmatic leaders with their deceptive words. He was basically telling them that one can't "walk the fence" - you're either for God, or you're against him; there's no middle ground. Jesus said in Matthew 12: 30, "He who is not with me is against, me and he who does not gather with me, scatters".
Jeremiah 7: 5 - 8:"If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless".
We all as a nation, need to remember how our forefathers sought the wisdom and direction of the Lord when they founded this great nation of the United States of America, and wrote our Constitution to reflect that.
We endanger ourselves as a nation when we seek to change the laws that go against the very nature of God; and yes, I am speaking of things such as abortion, the definition of marriage, and other "social" issues.
I don't see the Lord giving his stamp of approval on murdering babies by the millions, for all the reasons that the Pro Choice people give. The Lord is the creator of LIFE, and says "Thou shall not murder". Jesus told us, "Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that you might have LIFE, and more abundantly". The Lord also says in Hebrews 13:4 - "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer, and all the sexually immoral". ANY sex, whether it's straight or homosexual, outside the bonds of marriage that God has defined, is sin.
There were churches in Jeremiah's day that allowed the congregation to sacrifice their children to Baal, who condoned all kinds of sexual practices, and idol worship. We still to this day, have churches who promote racisim and hostility towards our nation; some churches who brush off the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that the destruction of those cities weren't because they were openly practicing homosexuality. We have many who sit in the pews weekly, who agree with the liberal left in their stance on abortion and "gay rights".
The Lord was telling the people of Judea and Jeremiah, as he is telling us today, that we can't be lukewarm pew sitters - we are all sinners - one sin is as great as another; but we are called to be holy and separated to God, as was our Lord Jesus. He wasn't afraid to stand up to those at the temple who were making it a place of any and everything but worship. As believers, we can't sit around with our heads in the sand, and not speak up about the way our country has fallen away from the Lord.
Leviticus 11:44 says, "I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy". What this means is that as believers, we are to be separated to God and from all that is unclean".
Again I ask you to keep your eyes, ears and heart open to the voice of God. Listen to what those who are put in places of leadership in our country are saying what direction we should go as a nation. Weigh their words and actions against the Word of God. We are called to pray for those in authority over us, whether we cast our vote for them or not. God puts people in places for his purposes, and calls us to pray for them to lead us.

The Voice of Truth

Happy Veteran's Day, and a big Thank You to all who have and are serving our great country!

Today I start into the 7th Chapter of Jeremiah. 1 - 4: "This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ' Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message': Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: ' Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!"".
God calls each of us to go and proclaim his word, and sometimes I wrestle with God in the messages he speaks to me and wants me to share. His words to us can sometimes be hard, and many turn away when you speak of repentance, judgement of sin and its consequences.
I'm sorry, but I'm not here to tippy toe around the Gospel; I can't water down what God wants to say, just so some don't get offended.
He says in Hebrews 4:12-13: "For the word of God is alive and active; sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing is all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account".
We have to take God at his word, and accept God's word into our hearts, so that he can make us into the men and women he's created us to be. There are times when we do feel his word as a sword; cutting into us and exposing sin that he wants to free us from.
This is where the verses from Jeremiah come into play. He warns us to not follow deceptive words. The people in Judah and Jerusalem were doing so, by going to the temple and acting as though they were going to worship, but they were following false teachings and false gods.
We have many in history who have led people by deceptive words and actions: Hitler, Stalin, Castro, and false Messiahs such as Jim Jones, who wooed people with his own version of the Gospel, then leading them to their deaths as those who came to rescue them approached. All these "leaders" told the people what they wanted to hear, when they wanted to hear it. They blindly followed them because they were mesmerized by them. Empty promises of better days, but only if you followed what they were proclaiming.
We hear many today with that same message, and God is pleading with us to open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to His Truth. We won't recognize false teachings if we don't know the Word of God in order to be able to discern what's right and wrong; Truth or false misleadings.
Take what you hear and let the light of God shine on it - ask Him to give you a spirit of discernment, and to be able to boldly share with others, His Word.
There's a song on my playlist called, "The Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns, and I hope you'll listen to that today.

Refined by Fire

Well it's another Monday morning, which means I have my usual grocery shopping, laundry and vacuuming up all the tumbleweeds from Luk Luk, then hopefully getting in some sewing later on.
I'm back to finish up the 6th chapter of Jeremiah 6: 22-30 - " This is what the Lord says: 'Look, an army is coming from the land of the north, a great nation is being stirred up from the ends of the earth. They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, O Daughter of Zion.' We have heard reports about them, and our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor. Do not go out to the fields or walk on the roads, for the enemy has a sword, and there is terror on every side. O my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing, as for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. ' I have made you a tester of metals and my people are ore, that you may observe and test their ways. They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. They are called rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them".
The invaders that is spoken of in this passage are the Babylonians. Today, we would call them Iraqis. They were fierce people, and great in number.
With all the pleadings to the people to repent; all the warnings of the judgements to come, should they not repent, had no affect on them whatsoever. They are likened to ore - the dross left after silver has been put through the fire.
When we are put through the fire of life's trials, we should come out stronger and more able to be used by the Lord. Proverbs 25:4 says "Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith".
Do you how a silversmith can tell that the silver he is working with is pure and ready to be made into something beautiful? He holds it up and when he sees his own reflection, it's ready. That's exactly how it is with the Lord - he tests us and allows trials and situations to happen in our lives that aren't always pleasant - we feel like we're in the fire - but we should REJOICE in our tests and trials, because the Lord is making us into something beautiful - something that reflects His image to the world.
In these trials we go through, our sin is going to be exposed, and we need to allow the Lord to cleanse us and purge them from us. The whole process should bring us to a place of repentance; ready to go and do the work and the will of our Father.
Let us not be dross - worthless and hardened towards the Lord; let us desire to be refined silver - a beautiful reflection of the Lord Jesus, in this evil and Godless world we live in.

Janelle