Lamentations 2 - No More Killing

The wall has been torn down (vs 8).  God's children willfully turned their backs on Him and He has withdrawn His right hand from the approach of their enemy. (vs 3) The enemy has overtaken them at the LORD's hand. There is nothing, no One, to protect them.

And... what is their response? They cry! They blame God!

“Look, Lord, and consider:
    Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed    
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?" (vs 20 NIV)

That women should eat their offspring, is this God's fault? That a government would use chemical weapons on their own people or anyone; that a government should invade the airspace of another and target those we suspect (key word - suspect) are our enemies with drones; that a court should find guilty and put to death an innocent man; that a parent could murder his/her own children; is this God's fault? Maybe, we should consider that because we would disrespect His creation with such atrocities against one another that God might withhold His hand of protection from us. Maybe, we should quit blaming God for what we do in His name and take a little responsibility for not caring for those things in this world that God has given us.

Yes, lament, grieve, the losses. But, we need to put an end to blaming God for the consequences of our own actions and inactions. We need to be able to stand up and confess our sins that we might receive forgiveness purchased for us (for all) through the blood of Jesus Christ, our LORD; otherwise His death has been in vain.

No more killing.... “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27)

God's Peace - Pr. J

Isaiah 18 - Woe or Blessing

"Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers." (Isa 18:1 NIV)

Woes sometimes have the effect of bringing us around to the Worship of God.

Over the years, I've noticed that some Christians, when confronted with trouble in their lives, tend to stay away from public worship of God. I'm thinking this might be because they are embarrassed that they have not been able to control their lives in a manner that is Christ-like. They don't want others to know that they have slipped up, they have sinned. There's a little problem with this and that is that they think that they have been saved by their good works. They think that they are or were good because they had been able to keep up the appearance of morality by their own inner strength. The glory was not God's, but theirs. Consequently, because they thought their good character was attributed to themselves, so was their fall, and they are embarrassed by their fall. They failed or so they think. Hopefully, they will come to understand that the LORD can use these failures to open our eyes so that we see the way to return to Him.

Others, when their sins begin to cause them stressful living, decide that it is God's fault that their lives are spiraling downhill. They cannot acknowledge that maybe they have chosen to follow another path that the LORD would not have them follow through the wilderness. Again, the LORD can use these times of woe so that we will seek the light and turn from the path of darkness that we have been following.

Either way, both of these are symptoms of an underlying issue - a control issue. It is really hard to relinquish our whole lives into the hands of Almighty God. But, when we do, something marvelous happens, by the power of the Spirit of Christ, we will become more Christ-like. We will desire to Worship the LORD.  It needs to be understood that worship of God is not a good work credited to you. It is a natural outpouring of the love that we have for the one who first loved us.

Whoever, these tall, smooth skinned people who live between the rivers are that God sends this warning of woe to, many of them end up worshipping the LORD Almighty.

"At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty." (Isa 18:7)

Woes can be turned to blessings. Let us rejoice for God for the gifts that God has given us. Let us give all glory to God "for in him we live and move and have our being." (Act 17:28)

God's Peace - Pr. J