Freedom Or Terror On Every Side - Jeremiah 20:3

Freedom Or Terror On Every Side - Jeremiah 20:3

In Jeremiah 19 we have a record of God bringing judgment down upon Israel. A nation given to Idolatry. Jehovah led Jeremiah to use a clay vessel and break it in front of the people as a sign of what was to come to pass for that people group. ¹ This has happened to half of the marriages in America. This could happen to America as a nation. Think of how drastic the change came to Cuba. About 12 yrs ago Alexander Noble² sat with some of my "very young" adult children at a VOM dinner in Arizona and described a lush green nation of peace that changed overnight into Castro's rulership of oppression and Christian persecution to this day.

I have given some thought to the freedom and peace that we enjoy in this country. If we loose these great blessings it will be for simular reasons that God judged Israel. Jeremiah 19:15 says "because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words." We have disobeyed the LORD in aborting millions of babies. Their blood is crying out to heaven.³ This government has instituted lotteries and mandated Casinos to operate on Indian lands for unjust revenues. Human traficing is now the worlds second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs. 80% are women and girls and up to 50% are minors. Child porn is one of the fastest growing crimes in the USA right now.

I state these things in soberness and with healthy fear, not critizism. I refuse to be overwhelmed by the evils surrounding the body of Christ in this nation, but I also will not deny them or fall asleep to what is encroaching us and the next generation. Our National debt, and for many of us, our personal debts, are only but a sign of wasteful selfish living.⁴ Are we economicly stable, or are we teatering on colapse?

Pashur, pronounced Pash - hoar was a political and religious leader in the days of Jeremiah. He was a decendent of "royality". As a priests son, he was managing not only the ministry but had authority over the judicial actions. He slapped Jeremiah in the face and had him put in stocks when the word of judgment was delivered with the sign of the broken vessel. The next day Jeremiah was brought out and he told Pashur that his name would be changed from " freedom" to "terror on every side" and that specific judgments like terror, captivity, and a bloody death would come upon him and his friends.⁵

Will America, or one of its leaders get a name change and become Magore Missaveeve? "Terror on Every Side"? Our president and other leaders need our prayers and not one more word of accusation.⁶ God told Isreal through Ezekiel that she was worse than Sodom and he stated the reasons why. Pride, fullness of bread, the abundance of idleness, and neglect of the needy.⁷ For this God saw it proper to send them into captivity. Hurricane Irene and the recent earthquake on the east coast could be Gods response to few recent decisions in our nation. Are we turning our backs on Isreal as far as military defense? Or could it be due to the fact that New York State and a few others have been defiant to his law by legalizing homosexual marriage?⁸

How then shall we live? I could go on and on with details of how Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, North Korea, and other countries have undergone great human suffering in our day. What can we do to prevent this in America? Why should I try to prevent it? If there is mercy to be shown to us, due to prayers of repentance, so be it. See 2 Chronicles 7:14 But if judgment has already begun, I want to be a realist and accept it and go on.

In the 1990's I met a brother named Boris, who wrote a book titled "A Call to the Churches In America" in which he describes radical change in his own life and for his family. After escaping communist rule in Russia they immigrated to Canada. I am not endorsing all his doctrine, but I will respect his testimony. We need to be seperated as the scripture declares. We need to cry out in interecession. We have an open line to heaven with an 800 number for wisdom and revelation of how to live in these last days.

Dear loved ones, the twin towers were a sign to us 10 years ago. America is falling before our very eyes. We are called to stand in righteousness and holiness, and be lights and salt to those around us.

The LORD says, 'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.' - Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV He also promises health and healing in that same passage if you read on. He promises an "abundance of peace and truth." if we will but cry out to him. He also makes promises of prosperity, of joy and of renown to us, his people.⁹

There are many other passages like this one that we can hold on to. Even in this chapter there are many more promises and conditions than I have time to list. But to close this, there is one more prophecy that is in verse 11. Its a conditional promise related to us calling upon the LORD.

HE WILL CAUSE THE CAPTIVES TO RETURN.

Do you know a loved one that has gone astray? Some one captive to immorality, or addictions, or just plain un belief? This promise is for you, to keep calling out.¹⁰ Then the place that is desolate will become like a shepard with a flock that has returned and has laid down¹¹, full and satisfied with salvation, and the green pastures of Gods spirit and his word. G.W.

1And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. - Jeremiah 19:11 KJV

2Brief description of Alexanders life http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,950073,00.html

3Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. "So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. - Genesis 4:9-11 NKJV

4"And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. - Luke 15:13 NASB

5And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib. For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. - Jeremiah 20:3-4 KJV

6Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. - 1 Timothy 2:1-2 NKJV

Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" - Jude 1:8-9 NKJV

7"You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways. "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. - Ezekiel 16:47-49 NKJV

8If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. - Leviticus 20:13 KJV

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; - Romans 1:24-28 NKJV

9"Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.' - Jeremiah 33:3, 9 NKJV

10Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. "Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' "And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 'yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' " Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. "And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" - Luke 18:1-8 NKJV

11'the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: "Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His mercy endures forever"--and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,' says the LORD. "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be a dwelling place of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. - Jeremiah 33:11-12 NKJV

Ready For Every Good Work

"Ready For Every Good Work" 2 Timothy 2:21

This fall we tore out the carpet of our Living room. Not only was it worn, but we had never used a rental cleaning machine on it during the last 2 yrs that we have lived here. All the 100+ times we vacuumed over the warm brown fuzz were not enough. I knew that this was not the best living condition for us, or any of our grandchildren to be playing on. We knew that down under the surface there was some things that not even a steam cleaning would take out. Under the carpet was a foam pad. Under the pad was a few layers of dirt. After we set all the furniture out in the front yard and rolled up the first 2 layers and swept all the dirt up, a once beautiful linoleum was revealed. We took up 3 layers of different patterns of this vinyl flooring with 1950's newspapers being the final barrier above the worn, torn, and diesel stained red fir floor. For 20 some years the original owners probably lived on the medium to poor quality, untreated wood floor with hopes of having a "new look some day." Layer after layer were installed to keep the "new look". Now we were going back to the "rustic look" and it took hours and hours of sanding to get this floor ready for normal use. Gideon did most of the work. I researched the products, rented the tools and helped with the corners and the edges. It was worth all the cleaning and elbow grease we put into an area of our house that is ready for good use.

Paul used a similar analogy of the floor removal that I just described. He described the various vessels that a great house would have in it. Some of clay, some of wood. Others of gold or silver. Some of these need to be need to cleansed out, if we are going to be useful to our Master, Jesus.

2Timothy 2:21 ESV says, "Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work."

As a follower of Jesus I have a choice to cleanse out of my life the sins and iniquities that he has called me to depart from. If I want to be useful to him, and ready for every good work this is a necessary exercise. Confession is a good start. Daily choices, and habit changes have to happen or change is not really change. Change of mind that brings about a change of action is what it means to repent.

"We sow our thoughts and reap our actions. We sow our actions and reap our habits. We sow our habits and reap our character. We sow our character, and we reap our destiny."

As a follower of Jesus, I have a responsibility to not take our Gods name in vain. To me this means that if I am going to call myself a Christian, and profess to know God, I am commanded not to deny him in my conduct. I always used to think of this command relating to swearing curse words that included one of Gods' names. The application that I just shared with you may be obscure, but a true moral principle. Don't do any thing in Jesus name that does not honor and glorify him. Don't let it be for nothing. Don't run the race 3/4 of the way and quit. These are the some of the things that I am hearing. "Pursue peace with all men" but also holiness or I won't see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

How do we find a proper balance for this as we live out our faith? Over a decade ago I marched our whole family out of the middle of a worship service. The church we were visiting was playing the music a little louder than I liked it. What we were accustomed to in our "home birth, home school, home church" environment was hymns and Maranatha scripture songs. I felt not only compromised myself listening to these secular style love songs to Jesus, but I sensed that I needed to lead my family away from its exposure. Another time I was in a service at a church camp where a group of young adults were trying to share a few special songs. The sound equipment kept cutting out. I gave a loud cry, "God doesn't want this rock music in his house!" Then I stormed out. While attending a similar outdoor meeting with the same church group, a singer who is now a nationally known music artist, came with a visiting youth group. The artist who was at that time barely a teenager, stood up to share his talent in the rough. His special was a hip-hop style played with a custom made stringed instrument. The lyrics were rhyming rap lines. That time I did not round up all my young adult children from their various seats in the crowd. Right in the middle of song, I marched out, and left the service. I did not give ear to the lyrics, because of the music style, and the location of the situation. If it would have been on the street or in a home I would have had more tolerance for the music talent trying to be shared. I would have had more patience to hear out the faith of this young man. My preconception of "how it should be" in an organized church service, or what kind of worship our Father desires was very narrow.

Over the centuries the church as whole has seen a lot of changes. Eventually I experienced enough change in myself that my judgments and reactions have changed in relation to the way things are done or the way that other people are. Especially when it comes to worship.

I've changed. For those who know me now, its obvious when one hears what music I play myself or what you would find us listening to in our house. What happened? When did this change occur or where did it start? I have to ask myself that question as I write this article. I am sorry to leaving you hanging, but I am going to leave off writing this and call this part "A" and follow up this with a sequel. The answers to questions above will be explained in detail and testimony the next time I get share another "Soul Food" article.

The bottom line answer needs to shared now, in case I don't live to type in all the that I have scratched on my notes for this subject. What happened was I faced the fact that I failed miserably to win the hearts of my young adult children. I may have been winning some battles, but I was definitely loosing the war. The enemy was my own flesh, not a style of music. The tempter had trapped me into condemning myself in the way that i was judging. The vessel that I was being, did not point them to Christ, or attract these precious ones that I love the most to be connected with his love. It might have been my private faith, obedience, or heart felt love for God at the time. But it did not bear good fruit in the end. God declares that he can work it all together for good, and I believe that there are ways that he is redeeming what I have ruined in my own life.

The few "righteous" acts that I testified about above...along with a dozen other incidents that occurred in Mexico, Southern Oregon, and a few other places in between; may have been some good conservative food ( see John 4:34 ) but it was served on wood, hay, and stubble platters ( 2 Timothy 2:20 and 1 Cor 3:12-14 ) My heart attitudes of pride, criticism, and desire for selfish comforts of being surrounded by others who were just as like minded as myself were the dis honorable vessels that Paul wrote about.

The good work that I missed out on doing, was the call to be an intercessor for those I was among or in difference of opinion with.

May our Lord Jesus, by the Spirits power, cleanse us and help us to do our part in cleaning out of our own house any thing that dis-honors our Master. We have a great hope. As His property you have a great and noble destiny.

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10 ESV

There is a bright future of good works to be fulfilled in and through us, despite any past or present circumstances, true? My vision is fixed on the finish line ahead of me. I see 10- 20 years of life ahead. Each day the faithfulness in the small things will matter. Each day, until final day, there will be a work or two that I need to be ready for. Peace to all who read this. Blessings to you, in Jesus our Savior and Lord. G.W.

Are You Finished With Judging? John 8:9

Are You Finished With Judging? John 8:9

“...being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. “ John 8:9

I have often wondered why the eldest left first. In recent years I have have observed a pride among the young single men in the church. A blinding pride. The young adults have learned to judge. Their parents have faults and have hurt them. They see injustices in the world, but how many have realized their own shortcomings? As elders, we should be all the more humble, realizing Gods mercy over us for so many years. Being aware of so many of our own faults, we should learn to not judge, lest we we be judged also. Matt 7:1 Whatever measure or standard we use on others will be used on us, true? If so, why judge at all? We are only condemning ourselves when we point the finger. Jesus said, “ I judge no man.” John 8:15 In another place it is written, “ The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son. So if Our Father is not judging, and Jesus is not condemning any one, why do we pass judgment on others?

This is the enemies plot to trap us into condemning ourselves. This is the temptation to not help another person. Most of the time, judging a person will not help. Let me give an example. I worked in the woods falling timber with a wise man, Dale Norling. We worked on the buddy system falling timber for a large company run by a compassionate man who would, at times, hire “low rents” and drug addicts to run his equipment. Dale showed me an example of imparting truth and wisdom to these young men just by asking questions. Out there hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment could be damaged, and our lives could be hazarded every day by operator error. Rather than yell at them “Hey, you could get killed doing that!, or its gonna break if you keep doing that.” He would ask them questions, several questions, to make a point about their attitude, wrong conduct, or to offer a better way to operate the equipment. As I noticed his way, and complimented him, he said, “ If they can't get it and figure out the answer for themselves it won't do any good to tell them what to do.”

This is true in parenting. At a toddlers age, you just command them, “don't touch the hot burner!” With a teenager, coaching not command is more appropriate. With young adults, and especially my married and grown children, counsel, when asked for, is the most common way of bringing a correction or insight to one that may be bringing harm to themselves or others.
There is a time for discipline, and correction and consequences must come if parents love their children. I tried to make it clear that the spankings were only correction for getting off the path, not condemnation and punishment.

Employers and legal authorities all have the responsibility to uphold the standards and civil laws and pass sentences and fines on those who break them. In the church there will be times that determination has to be made when some one has crossed moral lines and we need to expel them from the assembly. This is a grave and sober decision that elders and Pastors must make, for the health of the body. Amputation is a severe trauma to a body, but often necessary or a life will be lost. We must consider the parameters of 1 Corinthians 5 and follow what is written in the whole cannon of scripture. Jesus could have said, “Yep, the law says stone her, but lets get the man here also, and any and everyone else that we know that deserves this sentence.” If he could not have differed these teachers of the law, and the stoning would have occurred , Jerusalem would have been cleansed of one adulterer. In pardoning her, and extorting her to sin no more, how many more lives may have been saved by her living testimony?

May we practice discernment, even in our own life, if there is any thing infectious to the body of Christ. Not only sexual immorality needs to be cleansed but greed, drunkenness, idolatry, rebellion, and swindling. How many of us need cleansing in one of these areas? May God give us grace to keep his church clean. Paul said, “ I don't even judge myself, but I let the Lord judge me.” Start with me Lord. You are the only law giver and judge. You are able to save and destroy. James 4:12 Give us grace to quit judging and be occupied with interceding with you for others. Hebrew 7:25 G.W.