I give thanks to God, for a new day and a new week and my life. I ask for wisdom to live this day, in His joy and wisdom, so I can be His type of person, and bring joy to other people.
I am contemplating scriptures from different writers, experiences and perspectives this morning and seek instruction and a deeper understanding of the ways of God, through His Holy Spirit. Firstly Jeremiah, the prophet who was often woeful, as he dealt with perverse people and delivered stern and dire messages from God to people who wanted to do away with Jeremiah and so stop the messages. How like we humans, to take no responsibility for our own actions, and instead ‘shoot this messenger’, thinking the consequences for our actions will just go away. In the end things turned out to be just as God said they would be for the people. Jeremiah was ever faithful to God, no matter the privation and rejection from his own people; may we always be faithful to God, though the ‘heavens fall’. Jeremiah 15: 15, 16 “O lord, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” Jeremiah listened to the words of God that he was asked to deliver to the nation, and he at least believed and drew direction and comfort from them, and so can we when reviled for believing and speaking Gods word to people. V 20 “………. But they will not prevail against you;” says the Lord, “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”
Though my first response to having my wrong doing or errors pointed out is often to reject the thought or message, I have often found on reflection that I am wrong and need to change; and so this can be with the instruction and challengers found in God’s word. Psalm 19: 12 – 14 “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. 13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and shall be innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” To be in right doing, with God and my fellow man, in thought and deed, for me is more precious than much material wealth. The answer, as always can be found with God and His recorded spoken word, Psalm 19: 7, 8 “The law or the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” V 10 “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” This is truly so, when we assimilate Gods word into the mind and very person, as is the taking in and digesting food and water is to every part of the body and its workings.
Jesus warned of those who come with a false representation of Himself and Gods word, and so rob us of His blessing and reward. May we all give heed to the words, of Jesus Christ, and be protected and nurtured by them. Matthew 24: 24, 25 “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ‘See, I have told you beforehand.’” V 17 “For as lightening comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” His coming Jesus foretells is not a quiet or secret event taking place in various parts of the world, but a very public, cataclysmic supernatural event for all to see. Makes me ponder what Satan will do to impersonate Christ, with christs and false prophets? V 30, 31 “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Thank You dear Jesus for these words and warning, to keep us from being deceived by imposters, that appear in glorious light, looking like You, but do not actually fulfil the prophecies about Your way of coming again in entirety. However our senses may be almost convinced, it is only knowledge of Your word that will save us from delusion. Please open my heart and mind to take in all your words, so they are part of me.