Jeremiah 18:11-12
“11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil
against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his
evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after
our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”
I will first note that we know the Lord is speaking directly
to “ the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” in this context.
But we also know these things are an example for us today also.
It seems almost every day we see or hear in the news media
of some event or an issue that 10-20 years ago we would have never dreamed we
would see in our live time. Yet here we are.
Like the people in Jeremiah's day, we, in this country have
seen a downward spiral in morality that is gaining speed as it falls. The push
over the past 50 or so years to rid our public venues of anything to do with
God and/or His Son was not the beginning as many say today. Put rather the
teaching of ungodly values and life styles by the entertainment industry, I
believe may have been the beginning. The movie and TV moguls from the very
beginning have pushed the envelope on sensuality in their productions. Even in
the early days of moving pictures their main audience was the bars and pubs and
back room speak easy of the early 1900s.
But even before moving pictures, plays and dramas and operas
and traveling stage acts were known by most Christians to be full of ungodly
people with very little to no godly morals. And most Christians in those days
shunned those types of people and places. But, like Israel and Judah, God's
people have followed the enemy of God. They have followed the way of the world
and love to have it so. False teachers and false preachers have crept in
unawares and lead the people astray. But only because they tickled the ears of
the people and the people loved it.
Like the people of the Lord mentioned in the verses above,
God's people today have been told the truth. How many do we know who say they
read the Bible daily or they say they read the Bible through in a year? But
where is the evidence that they have paid attention to what they have read? How
many we know who have set in church for years but never listened to the words
being taught?
What about ourselves? Are we guilty of the same? Can we
truly say we have not followed the world in some areas of our lives? And, yes,
I said “areas”, plural! Are we the witness for Christ for those around us like
we should be?
O child of God, it is we who have failed our Lord. We must
remember it is us who are His people and not the people of the world. It is us
who is to set the example for, not only each other, but also to the world. Or
Lord gave us a nation in which we have more freedoms than any other nation in
the history of the world has had and we have squandered it and laid it to
waste. God's own people, as in Israel and Judah in the Old Testament, have
forsaken our Lord and His commandments for the idols and false gods of the
world. By doing so we have given over what our Lord gave us as a sacrifice to
the devil himself.
The imagination of the evil hearts of man have taken the
opportunity and ran with it all the way to the bank. We are seeing a repeating
of history. As in the days of Noah and as in the days of Lot. These days are
here.
We are now in a battle to try and save what little is left
of what once was in this land. Do we fight or do we lay down and take the beating?
Christian, put on the Whole Armour of God!!! Ready for the
battle to come!!! Until our Lord's return, we are commanded to fight the good
fight. Pray without ceasing. Follow Christ our Great Captain into the battle.
Forsake the ways of the world and follow Christ at all cost!!!
Praise ye the Lord!!!
