BE PREPARED!
BE PREPARED!
Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? —Jeremiah 7:8-11
Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. —Jeremiah 7:26-27
But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord. —Jeremiah 8:7
Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? —Jeremiah 9:7
There comes a point when our Lord acts to refine and test His people… His people. In the context above His people were not living any different than the world. They may have had some “religious” language, but there were no godly actions backing up their words. They were doing the same things that those who do not know the Lord do— “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?” They were making a mockery over those things that were sacred. They were not listening to the Lord “but stiffened their neck.” These people would not listen or answer God’s servant who had been sent to them. These people mentioned above may have “religious” language, but they did “not know the requirements of the Lord.” This refinement and testing would come upon them because of their sin.
So, what is the state of His people in the United States? Is there any difference between them and the world? What sets them apart from the world— anything? Are they listening to deceptive words? Are they listening to the Lord? Are they going after other gods? Do they speak the Lord’s name but going on doing abominable things? Have the gathering places of those who speak His Name “become a den of robbers in Your eyes?”
What keeps our Lord from refining and testing His Church in the United States as He did His people in Jeremiah’s day? We can blame the culture—- “For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17). But judgment starts with His people… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_gBpvihKcQ Let us seek to be faithful to Him!
Dear Father please help us to learn and repent of those things that are displeasing to You. May this be so in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. So be it.