Tuesday, October 4, 2016
“You have
invited terrors from all around, as though you were calling them to a day of
feasting. In the day of the Lord’s
anger, no one has escaped or survived. The
enemy has killed all the children whom I carried and raised.” Lamentations 2:22(NLT)
For every
child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our
faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son
of God. 1 John 5:4(NLT)
Of all the
preachers in the world whom Joel Osteen would NOT call to supply
for him when he went on vacation, Jeremiah heads the list! Jeremiah watched the devastation as Israel was
plowed-under by her enemies and laments loudly that God has forsaken them in
the day of terror; even worse, God was behind it all!
Not much prosperity
theology or feel good in that sermon!
But Jeremiah
wasn’t filling-in for a 21st century entertainer, he was speaking
for JHVH. And the message he was bringing
was that God had indeed orchestrated the devastation of Jerusalem by her
enemies because of her sinful ways(Lamentations 1:5, 8).
They had
forsaken their God and this was a nation’s wake-up call!
The two
greatest threats to any nation’s soul are riches and terror. Riches are what lead to ease and
self-indulgence; terror is what drives a nation back to pray. And a nation is really in trouble when the
powerfully-rich are leading the prayers.
I’ve been
working on a sermon called “Undecided – But Leaning”. It is an expression of lament for America in
its current political cycle. We are more
than divided, America has become so polarized around political personalities that
we fail to see our real threat. The biggest
enemy America faces is not a wobbling economy, poor education, or even terrorists
from al Qaeda or ISIS; our real enemy, like Israel of old is going to be God.
In Scripture
JHVH is described as patient(2 Peter 3:9) but you have to wonder if
we are at the end of that string. In His
kindness and forbearing ways, the loving, heavenly Father will allow His
children to step just so far away from His purposes before he snaps us back to
reality.
When terror
struck on September 11, 2001, the following week churches were filled with
praying people. Fifteen years later we
still shudder over the terror attacks, but now churches are emptying faster
than rats exit a sinking ship.
In our
political games-playing we have a candidate who wants to make America great
again, and one who wants to save us from the candidate who wants to make
America great again. The insults are
flung back and forth across the aisle and the news networks are raking in big
bucks covering the entertainment.
My question
is: Are there any left in Zion who will
bend the knee? Or are we bound for the
land of Babylon’s captivity?
For You Today
If this devotion sounded dark to you today, perhaps it
is because we are a lot closer to midnight on God’s scale, than the breaking
dawn you hear from the politicians.
True victory
over any kind of terror is a matter of faith.
Go to VIDEO
NOTES
[i]
Title Images: By Боевик
(Own work), via Wikimedia Commons & See page for author,
via Wikimedia Commons
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