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God's Love For His Own

A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

Good Morning!

There were times, when I was a boy, that I had to test the waters and I would do something that had less than perfect results. For example, if I ever talked back to my mother, I knew I was in for punishment from my father. In fact, there was nothing that I could do to receive a harsher punishment than to treat my mother disrespectfully. My father was a pastor and sometimes I would make a wrong decision while with my friends at church. Two statements that always haunted me were: "Wait until you get home and I'll deal with you" from my father or "Wait until I tell your father" from my mother. Both statements had the same results...a bad "whoopin' followed by a grounding.  

 

NOTE: For any liberal aggressive who may be reading this...I deserved the "whoopin" and I always knew my father loved me more than I could ever hope. A good ole "whoopin" never hurt anyone. It was his love for me that influenced me to be a  Bible-believing child of God. His love for me is what influenced me to love people as I do. He influenced me to give to others as He has given to me. 

 

Back to the point of this story. When you read the messages from God in the book of Jeremiah you cannot miss the love that God has for His children...His appointed people in Israel. But, when they had made decisions that caused them to abandon God and walk in unrepented sin and even adopt other gods as their own...it was time for God, their heavenly Father, to bring on the punishment. Jeremiah's message was to those rebellious children. It's like he's saying, "Wait until you get home!"   They had been caught red-handed and their Father was at His limit with patience.  

There is one thing that I never doubted about my father. When he told me that he will deal with me when we got home...he NEVER forgot. Oh yes, there were times that I prayed that God would erase it from his mind and he would forget about it by the time we got home, but, he never did!

God also will not forget what His children have done. History records the fall of the children of Israel and what God had told them came true. 

 

Jeremiah was a faithful child of God who loved his country tremendously. But, they had gone after sin so much that God could not allow them to continue without consequences. It had gotten so bad that at one time God told Jeremiah to stop praying for them.

"As for you, do not pray for these people. 

Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, 

and do NOT beg Me for I will not listen to you."  7:16

 

You see how much Jeremiah loves his country. Obviously, he was praying for them. He was even crying for them and asking God to spare them.  

But, one thing remains. These people are God's people. They are His chosen people. He loves them and His love never leaves them.

They fell in approximately 586 BC and never became an autonomous, self-governing nation again until 1948 AD. Jerusalem, their holy city and capitol did not return to them until 1967 AD. This is an example of God's great patience and His great love for Israel.  

We can read from history that other nations have lost their nationhood and have never returned. When America falls...it will never return. I am praying for America every day. I am praying for the people who live in our country every day. As God has taught us through His love for Israel I love my country. I want the best for America. I desire that we will be a nation that honors God and becomes a great vehicle to bring people throughout our nation and world to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  

 

I know, it looks like it will never come. With our elected government leaders, it looks like it will be a further descent in the coming years. You know as well as I that ungodliness does not produce godliness. Sometimes I think we need to oust every politician in Washington and start over. But, I realize that we would simply be replacing sinful people with more sinful people. 

It becomes more obvious that this world is not our home. Politics had nothing to do with our home eternally. Remember Lot...Abraham's nephew? When they divided the land and each took their part...the Bible tells us that Lot build his houses while Abraham pitched his tent. Why? Because Lot made this world his final home but Abraham knew his home was waiting for him in heaven! Abraham was just passing through here to get there!

 

What are your plans? Do you live as though this place is your final home? Or, are you storing up your treasures in heaven while living here knowing that your final destination is there and not here.

 

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May God Bless You!

Don Betts

DBEA/campus320

 

DBEAWINNING.COM

TO GOD BE ALL GLORY!

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