The Simple Life

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...

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...

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...

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...

Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away. Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. "O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!" The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised." Lamentations 1:8-11 (ESV)   Our sin keeps us from any good thing by fostering false expectations, hope, and security. When our expectations are obviously unfulfilled and our hope and security all come tumbling down, we experience something we were never meant to experience — total failure.   Sin may fee...

Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away. Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. "O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!" The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised." Lamentations 1:8-11 (ESV)   "The emphatic word is 'therefore.’ It rings with sad and solemn cadence through the most mournful of all the books of the Bible. It is the epitaph of the nation to which once the conquest of the world was possible, but whose persistent resistance to the will of God s...