Posts

Satan knows how to attack.

All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?" All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: "We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!" Lamentations  2:15-16  (ESV)   "Decoration is vanity. All that men can do in the beautifying of their lives is as rottenness if the heart itself be not in a healthy condition. Add to the bitterness of self-remorse the triumphant exultation of enemies who pass by, and say whether any humiliation can be deeper or more intolerable. Where, then, is hope to be found? In heaven. The God whom we have offended must be the God who can forgive us. Do not let us seek to placate our enemies, or turn their triumphing into felicitation: we have no argument with them; not a word ought we to have to say to such mocker...
Post a Comment
Read more

God gives us real choices with real consequences.

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading. Lamentations 2:14 (ESV)   God may allow us to believe what we want, and to go where we want, and therefore get the "results" we deserve.   When I played football, and we needed to block an opposing player, we had a choice about how to do it. One method involved stopping their progress, whereas the other pushed them in the direction they were going, allowing their own momentum to keep them out of the play.   God gives us real choices with real consequences, and if we choose the wrong way, He may watch us move away from significance and allow us to experience consequences that were never meant to be.   2 Thessalonians  2:10-12  (ESV): …and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a str...
Post a Comment
Read more

The whole counsel of God.

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading. Lamentations 2:14 (ESV)   Your prophets (pastors, teachers, elders, and the like) are worthless in that they do not use what they know to hold you accountable. Their negligence has caused a disaster. Once again, we see the problem of false affirmation. Instead of confronting sin, they affirm you in your sin. Instead of a reproof, rebuke, and a challenge, they offer you kudos on the status quo.   Jeremiah also warns us about such prophets in Jeremiah 14:14: And the Lord said to me: 'The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. ' " I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds."   We need to know God's Word and make sure that t guides those to whom we choose to submit. S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clear Vision

My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom. What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you? Lamentations  2:11-13  (ESV)   Where there is no grief, there is no repentance, even though one can have grief without repentance. Great leaders are those whose hearts are broken for those they lead who have gone astray. They spend time weeping, praying, hoping, and dreaming, often in what seems like a waste of emotion.   When you see things clearly, the darkness around you seems so worthless that you wonde...
Post a Comment
Read more

Perhaps evangelism starts on our knees,

My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom. What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you? Lamentations  2:11-13  (ESV)   It is the missionary with the fountain of pity that reaches the deepest place in the native's heart. When Livingstone was found dead on his knees in the heart of Africa, his head was resting over his open Bible, and his finger was pointing to the last words he ever penned in his diary: "Oh, God, when will the open sore of the world be healed?" That was the profound pi...
Post a Comment
Read more

No Hope?

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. Lamentations 2:10 (ESV)   The wisest of God's servants are at their wits' end, or fall into despair, if they be deprived of their hope in the promise of God's assistance.   "If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." Psalm 119:92 (ESV)   God's judgments are overwhelming. Those who are and have ignored God will wish they had not, and emptiness, hopelessness, abandonment, and more will be overwhelming.   There will be no need for such a moment if today we decide to love God and love each other. These awful experiences are reserved for those who have abandoned God, and who have embraced themselves as God.   Very rarely have I seen situations where there is absolutely no hope, yet in the abandonment of God, there is none. Those who try to fin...
Post a Comment
Read more

No one needs to experience God's anger.

How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers. Lamentations 2:1-2 (ESV)   "As God is full of mercy in His long-suffering, so is His anger unappeasable when it breaks out against men for their sins." (J. Udall)   "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." Jeremiah 4:4 (ESV)   We seem to focus on God's mercy and grace, and, rightfully so; however, we often ignore His anger and its causes and results.   No one needs to experience God...
Post a Comment
Read more