Good Afternoon!
Reading the accounts of Israel in the book of Jeremiah is like reading the present-day issues of America. Jeremiah was a prophet to share the news that God will not always tolerate their sin and therefore he announced the soon-coming destruction of their nation. All these threats were due to the disobedience of the Jewish people. It is a mirror image of the story that is being told today concerning our nation. All of us know that America has been traveling down the road of destruction and God is allowing it to continue. He will intervene at some point. But, as always, we need to be about His business each day.
The business of the politicians and national leaders had corrupted their nation. Sound familiar? Jeremiah takes us to another message that God gave to him to deliver to the people. The place of the highest honor to the Jews was the Temple. Over the door of the entrance to the Temple were the words, "The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord."
God was telling his people that they had a trust in the Temple more than they had a trust in Him.
"This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds, and I will allow you to live in this place.
4 Do not trust deceitful words, chanting: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
5 Instead, if you really change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,
6 if you no longer oppress the alien, the fatherless, and the widow and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves,
7 I WILL ALLOW YOU TO LIVE IN THIS PLACE, the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.
8 [But] look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.
9 "Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?
10 Then do you come and stand before Me in this house called by My name and insist: We are safe? As a result, you are free to continue doing all these detestable acts!
11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your view? Yes, I too have seen [it]." [This is]*the Lord's declaration."
Chapter 7:3-11
This is God's word to those who are disobedient to God. It's simple...Follow God and be blessed. Follow SIN and you will be a big loser!
It amazes me how patient God was to people who absolutely turned their back on Him. He continues to tell them that if they repent and turn away from their sin that He will forgive them and restore them.
I pray for the people of my nation every day! I ask God to turn our hearts back to Him and to be patient with us while bringing us back to Him. But...I see the future more clearly every day for America. It seems to me that Jeremiah could come to America and preach the same word to us that he did to the Jews. I know that some have trusted their church for spiritual security. I have asked many people in my life about their relationship with God and had responses like..."Oh, I belong to (such and such) church. Or...I'm a Baptist or a Pentecostal or (name some other religion)." Simply stated, that will not get you into God's heaven!
"For by grace are you saved by FAITH...not of yourselves!" Ephesians 2:8.
Not of your church. Not of your denomination. Not because you were born into a Christian family. Not by works...not by money...not by friends...BUT, BY FAITH ONLY!!!
Why do our churches have a desire to suppress this message? I'm an evangelist. God gave the gift of evangelism to some of His children. Why have churches STOPPED using us? What is it that frightens them about evangelists? They are not being used properly. As a result, the number of people finding Christ continues to spiral downward. I know, some pastors think they can do it all. Possibly, some have made evangelism a less important item on their ministry schedule.
I am convinced that God will demolish every excuse for evangelizing when we hear Him clearly. I know that today...yes, today...if pastors and church leaders will put a little work into hosting an evangelist who knows how to draw the net and lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and will encourage his church family to bring unbelievers to hear the Gospel that your effort will be blessed by God and your church will experience a new growth for God's kingdom and a new place of a fresh spirit in your community.
It's not too late. America needs the freshness of the moving of God in our people and our churches.
I am not desiring to sound ominous, but, God said in the following passage to go to Shiloh where I once first existed and see the destruction that I allowed there due to their unfaithfulness. God was literally telling them that the same is coming to you for leaving Me out of your Temple.
Let's do it. Let's be intentional with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and work hard and long to put the priority on evangelism and making believers out of unbelievers!
May God Bless You!
Don Betts
DBEA/campus320
DBEAWINNING.COM
TO GOD BE ALL GLORY!