The Simple Life

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...

Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall. Lamentations 1:7 (ESV)   "What would the nightingale care if the toad despised her singing! She would still sing on, and leave the cold toad to his dank shadows. And what care I for the sneers of men who grovel upon earth? I will sing on in the ear and bosom of God." ( H. W. Beecher. )   Those who are confused often make fun of those who are clear-thinking. As misery loves company, the confused, too, love company. Those who think clearly are in grave danger if they continually look to the confused for affirmation. Confused people act confused, and do whatever they must to normalize their confusion, making chaos normal.   God is the source of peace and order, not confusion. We crave peace, security, and significance, all ...

From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer. Lamentations 1:6 (ESV)   "We do our utmost to protect great buildings from fire and tempest, and yet all the time those buildings are liable to another peril not less severe—the subtle decay of the very framework of the structure itself. The tissue of the wood silently and mysteriously deteriorates, and calamity as dire as a conflagration is precipitated. The whole of the magnificent roofing of the church of St. Paul in Rome had to be taken out at enormous expense because of the dry rot. Scientific men, by microscopic and chemical methods, have investigated the causes of this premature decay, and after patient search they have discovered not only the fungi which destroy the wood tissue, but also the spore that acts as the seed of the fungus. So this obscure, malign vegetation goes on in the heart of the wood, destroying the ...