Tuesday, July 06, 2010, 7:36 a.m. – I woke this morning with this song in mind:
Christ Returneth / H. L. Turner / James McGranahan
It may be at morn, when the day is awaking,
When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking
That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory
To receive from the world "His own."
It may be at midday, it may be at twilight,
It may be, perchance, that the blackness of midnight
Will burst into light in the blaze of His glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."
Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying,
No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying.
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 50 (selected verses):
My Understanding: The Bible says that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17). When it says “all” it means the old and the new testaments are still alive (God-breathed) and are still useful, meaning that we can still learn from them and we can still make application of them to today within the framework of the entire Bible and within the framework of Jesus’ work of grace in saving us from our sins and of freeing us from the bondage of sin and of giving us the hope of eternal life. So, even though this was written at a specific time in history to a particular group of people about precise events that would take place in their lives, still, based upon scripture as a whole (including the book of Revelation) and what we know of God and of the teachings with regard to these last days, there are many parallels between what God’s people were up against during the time of this writing and our time today.
I quoted the verses that in particularly stood out to me as I read the passage for my quiet time with the Lord this morning. The first verse that really jumped out at me was verse 6, so that is where I began – “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains… and forgot their own resting place.”
There are two kinds of shepherds that I see – one is our church leaders and one is our government leaders, though certainly the leaders of our families also bear responsibility here. In the church I see that the shepherds of the people have gone astray themselves and have followed after false gods and are followers of man and man’s methods and man’s philosophies, so they are going to lead their people the same place they have gone. They are, thus, leading their people to become followers of men rather than true followers of God Almighty, so they in essence are leading them astray, though they may not see it as such since this change has been so slow (gradual) and so subtle that it has just become accepted as the way to do church these days.
I see that there are many parallels, too, between how the government is leading their people astray and how church leaders are leading their people astray. The word “unity” has become a “buzz word” in today’s church and today’s government in the USA. What they mean by unity, though, is not the same thing that God meant by unity. This unity has to do with following man’s leadership, men’s teachings, man’s visions and purpose for the church and for the nation, etc. And, anyone who does not fit with that “unity” of purpose is ostracized and maybe even killed because they don’t play it the “company way,” i.e. “Whatever the company tells me, that’s ok. Whatever the company tells me, that I’ll do. Whatever the company thinks, I think so, too.” This is the “unity” in the church and this is the “unity” in our nation and government.
The passage said the sheep then wander on the mountains. The commentary that I read suggested this had to do with mountains of idolatry, so our church leaders and our government leaders are leading the sheep astray so that the sheep are now wandering after other gods besides the Lord their one true God. So, they have forgotten their true resting place, i.e. their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So, our enemies thus feel justified in coming against us because they can see, though many of us cannot or will not see that we, as a church and as a nation, have forsaken the Lord, our true pasture.
So, God is going to bring an alliance of nations against us. The Lord keeps showing me that word “alliance”, which I believe is this Global order that our government keeps referring to that has now come and is now taking over the world and that ultimately will culminate into the Beast of Revelation who will force everyone to bow to him and to his authority, and the sad thing about it is that the church and its shepherds have paved the way for this.
V. 24 states that God set a trap for Babylon, which I believe God is applying to America today, and we were caught in it before we knew it. We were found and captured because we, as a nation and as a people of God in this nation have opposed the Lord and his work and his purposes by compromising with the world and by following after other gods that our hands have made and by refusing to see our sin and refusing to repent of our sin. This didn’t just happen overnight. This has been a slow process of our enemy of desensitizing us to sin via TV, the media, movies, games, music, and even church services and programs that have united with the world and with the world’s philosophies. Even our government leaders have been slowly but surely working to numb our minds and to get us so engrossed in entertaining ourselves (like in the days of Noah) to where the enemy could set up siege works against us (like in the Gulf of Mexico) and we wouldn’t even notice before it is too late.
Then, the passage says that the Lord has opened his arsenal against us because he has work to do in our nation (as applied to America). I believe this is very true and that it is happening right now right under our noses and we don’t even notice because we are so arrogant and so prideful and we are so duped into thinking that nothing bad can happen to us. Yet, the Lord is doing this and will continue to do this because he is taking vengeance for the sake of his temple (the Body of Christ); the church. It is just like when Jesus cleansed the temple early on in his earthly ministry. God is cleansing his church in America.
Yet, there is encouragement and there is hope in all of this. God’s purpose in judgment is that his sheep are brought back to a right relationship with Almighty God and with His Son, Jesus Christ. When the people of God are humbled by this judgment, they will be brought back and their guilt will be no more because God will forgive their sin and he will heal them.
O Lord Jesus, how long, how long
Ere we shout the glad song,
Christ returneth! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.
Christ Returneth / H. L. Turner / James McGranahan
It may be at morn, when the day is awaking,
When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking
That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory
To receive from the world "His own."
It may be at midday, it may be at twilight,
It may be, perchance, that the blackness of midnight
Will burst into light in the blaze of His glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."
Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying,
No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying.
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 50 (selected verses):
My Understanding: The Bible says that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17). When it says “all” it means the old and the new testaments are still alive (God-breathed) and are still useful, meaning that we can still learn from them and we can still make application of them to today within the framework of the entire Bible and within the framework of Jesus’ work of grace in saving us from our sins and of freeing us from the bondage of sin and of giving us the hope of eternal life. So, even though this was written at a specific time in history to a particular group of people about precise events that would take place in their lives, still, based upon scripture as a whole (including the book of Revelation) and what we know of God and of the teachings with regard to these last days, there are many parallels between what God’s people were up against during the time of this writing and our time today.
I quoted the verses that in particularly stood out to me as I read the passage for my quiet time with the Lord this morning. The first verse that really jumped out at me was verse 6, so that is where I began – “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains… and forgot their own resting place.”
There are two kinds of shepherds that I see – one is our church leaders and one is our government leaders, though certainly the leaders of our families also bear responsibility here. In the church I see that the shepherds of the people have gone astray themselves and have followed after false gods and are followers of man and man’s methods and man’s philosophies, so they are going to lead their people the same place they have gone. They are, thus, leading their people to become followers of men rather than true followers of God Almighty, so they in essence are leading them astray, though they may not see it as such since this change has been so slow (gradual) and so subtle that it has just become accepted as the way to do church these days.
I see that there are many parallels, too, between how the government is leading their people astray and how church leaders are leading their people astray. The word “unity” has become a “buzz word” in today’s church and today’s government in the USA. What they mean by unity, though, is not the same thing that God meant by unity. This unity has to do with following man’s leadership, men’s teachings, man’s visions and purpose for the church and for the nation, etc. And, anyone who does not fit with that “unity” of purpose is ostracized and maybe even killed because they don’t play it the “company way,” i.e. “Whatever the company tells me, that’s ok. Whatever the company tells me, that I’ll do. Whatever the company thinks, I think so, too.” This is the “unity” in the church and this is the “unity” in our nation and government.
The passage said the sheep then wander on the mountains. The commentary that I read suggested this had to do with mountains of idolatry, so our church leaders and our government leaders are leading the sheep astray so that the sheep are now wandering after other gods besides the Lord their one true God. So, they have forgotten their true resting place, i.e. their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So, our enemies thus feel justified in coming against us because they can see, though many of us cannot or will not see that we, as a church and as a nation, have forsaken the Lord, our true pasture.
So, God is going to bring an alliance of nations against us. The Lord keeps showing me that word “alliance”, which I believe is this Global order that our government keeps referring to that has now come and is now taking over the world and that ultimately will culminate into the Beast of Revelation who will force everyone to bow to him and to his authority, and the sad thing about it is that the church and its shepherds have paved the way for this.
V. 24 states that God set a trap for Babylon, which I believe God is applying to America today, and we were caught in it before we knew it. We were found and captured because we, as a nation and as a people of God in this nation have opposed the Lord and his work and his purposes by compromising with the world and by following after other gods that our hands have made and by refusing to see our sin and refusing to repent of our sin. This didn’t just happen overnight. This has been a slow process of our enemy of desensitizing us to sin via TV, the media, movies, games, music, and even church services and programs that have united with the world and with the world’s philosophies. Even our government leaders have been slowly but surely working to numb our minds and to get us so engrossed in entertaining ourselves (like in the days of Noah) to where the enemy could set up siege works against us (like in the Gulf of Mexico) and we wouldn’t even notice before it is too late.
Then, the passage says that the Lord has opened his arsenal against us because he has work to do in our nation (as applied to America). I believe this is very true and that it is happening right now right under our noses and we don’t even notice because we are so arrogant and so prideful and we are so duped into thinking that nothing bad can happen to us. Yet, the Lord is doing this and will continue to do this because he is taking vengeance for the sake of his temple (the Body of Christ); the church. It is just like when Jesus cleansed the temple early on in his earthly ministry. God is cleansing his church in America.
Yet, there is encouragement and there is hope in all of this. God’s purpose in judgment is that his sheep are brought back to a right relationship with Almighty God and with His Son, Jesus Christ. When the people of God are humbled by this judgment, they will be brought back and their guilt will be no more because God will forgive their sin and he will heal them.
O Lord Jesus, how long, how long
Ere we shout the glad song,
Christ returneth! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.