Tuesday, February 17, 2015

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

This morning I began to read the book of Lamentations. Here are the two verses that caught my eye:
How lonely sits the cityThat was full of people!She has become like a widowWho was once great among the nations!She who was a princess among the [a]provincesHas become a forced laborer! She weeps bitterly in the nightAnd her tears are on her cheeks;She has none to comfort herAmong all her lovers.All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;They have become her enemies.Lamentations 1:1-2 NASB
This passage is written about Jerusalem and the destruction that Jeremiah foretold would come as a result of idol worship and not honoring the Lord. As I read the passage, I too wept because Jerusalem and America are so similar.  When David led Israel and they worshiped the Lord and honored His name, the Lord made Israel great. The nations of the earth gave her honor. She was a princess among the provinces. 

But when Israel chose to forsake the Lord by not honoring Him, by turning away to worship other things, the Lord allowed Babylon to invade her. Verse seven and ten tell us that the enemy stretched out his hand over all her "precious things."

How tragic to see America fall from greatness because she has chosen to worship other gods and to not honor God as the one true and living God that made her great.

Right now, however, you and I have a choice to make.  God sees even the choice of one faithful follower, and that obedience is a powerful influence on His movement. Si turn aside today and honor Him with your time. Make the choice to give Him the honor of the One True and Living God. In the famous words of  Joel,
Who knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God? Joel 2:14 NASB

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Are you an obedient son or daughter? Or are you just a big talker?

Jeremiah 35 tells of an interesting family: The Rechabites. Their father had asked them not to drink wine and to their credit,  they had obeyed. So when the Lord was looking for a word picture of obedience, He asked Jeremiah to do an odd thing.  "Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers and give them wine to drink."

That seems like a terrible thing for the Lord to request. Take some teetotalers and ask them to drink? However, the Lord is so sure of their obedience, that He knows how they will respond, even when it is a prophet requesting them to take a sip. This is what He needs to communicate with Judah His displeasure at their disobedience. He tells the rebellious people who are supposed to be His children, "Hey--even the Rechabites obey their father, but You, who are supposed to be my children, are NOT obeying My Words." (My loose paraphrase.)

This is in strong contrast with another incident in Jeremiah chapter 42. The remnant, which has been left in Israel after Jerusalem has been invaded, asks Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord what they should do next.

"Please, let our petition come before you and pray for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as you own eyes now see us, that the Lord your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the think that we should do." Jer. 42:2b-3

So here is a group of people saying, "Ask God what we should do next and we'll do it." They even go on in verse 6 to say this:
"Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God."

They seem so sincere in what they are saying, but if you read on you will see that they have no intention of really following through on all their big talk. Jeremiah tells them in verses 20 and 21:
For you have only deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the Lord our God and whatever the Lord our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.' So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the Lord your God, even in whatever He has sent me to tell you."

As it turns out, they completely disobey Jeremiah's instructions to stay in the land and defiantly declare that they are going to continue burning incense to the Queen of Heaven, who they say has blessed them. See chapter 44, verses 15-17.

My friend, Jenny asked me to pray for her regarding the Lord's next big request of her life.  She said, "I've already told Him YES.  I just don't know what it is that He will ask." Wow! Oh to have that kind of obedience that we are already telling God, "YES" before He even gives us the instructions.

So what kind of example will you be to God's people?  Will you be like the Rechabites and my friend Jenny, stellar examples of obedience? Or just a lot of hot air, declaring you will obey when you really have no intention of following through?

You might want to think through the last few things the Lord has asked you to do already.  Have you followed through?