Thursday, February 23, 2017

Your Private World



 Jeremiah 7:8-15

What kind of world do you live in?  I’m talking about your private world the one that only you believe is private.   Now President Trump’s private world turns out to not be so private, and an act of 11 years earlier became very public.  You are thinking he is running for the highest office in the land and sure people are going to expose him for political reasons, and that would be true.  But let me share a truth, not one thing in your private world is private, you have a vast audience of evil and good watching your every move, and they cannot read your mind, but God can, so even your thoughts are not private.

As we journey into Jeremiah 7:8-15 you get a snapshot of a nation who believed God was not involved in their private world.  Verse 8-10 give us this insight; “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?

Stop, please stop and learn, for we are a people of deceptive words, our media is full of deceitful messages, the ads on radio and T.V. are designed to make one desire or feel fear, they are deceiving.  Often the message coming from preachers is unreliable and even worse it is false, based on human thoughts that are not in agreement with the Scriptures.  Many in all offices of government are at best phony, pretending to work for the good, and it is all about personal gain and power.  And what about you, are you reliable or just a pretender when it comes to your private life?

Moving on to verses 11-14, what happen at Shiloh, by Wayne Blank; “While the Israelites remained faithful and obedient to The Lord, they lived peacefully and perfectly secure. Over time, however, they became careless and disobedient in their relationship with Him. They became complacent, taking far too much for granted. They assumed that The Lord would protect and put up with them no matter what they did. A big mistake in their time - or ours.”  You can read the account in 1 Samuel chapter 4, they lost the Ark in battle with the Philistines and 34,000 men were lost, plus Eli and his two sons.

One must ask, has the denomination you refer to as the church, become evil, have you conformed to a world standard and are playing a game called church?  Do you hold to what Scripture teaches, or have you let someone else tell you what it said?  Verses 11-14, “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.”

Is this the epitaph that God is writing in your life?  “And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.” 

From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice

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