Please Join Me In Prayer

Only God can turn the storm off, or turn it in a new direction…

I don’t believe that I have ever asked for people to join me in prayer for such a need. I believe we failed three years ago. We failed to pray as the storm was approaching, and failed to pray as needs were or were not seen and established.

We must pray for our Lord and God to either change the path of the storm into a less populated area, sparing human life, and where there will be less property damage, or for Him to cause the storm to dissapate. I know many of the people are leaving as the fear of the past seems to be coming back at them.

Let’s pray for God’s will for the city of New Orleans, and other coastal towns and cities, and the people who are in the path of Gustave. Our God is a good, gracious, and loving God. Let’s pray, and may the path of our prayers into the throne room of God cause the storm of fear to cease first of all, then the winds, rains, and damages of the storm Gustave be limited by God’s own hand.

Father be glorified in the storm and the storms that will come. Glorify Your Son Jesus through the prayers of Your people. Amen.

Will you join me in the next few crucial hours of this approaching storm. With the voices of the redeemed pleading God’s mercy, His will be done, God can turn it off, or redirect its path.

-Tim A. Blankenship

Sorrow of Heart

We have all at one time or another, and maybe more times than not experienced SORROW OF HEART. What have we experience this for? Our financial condition? Our health? The health of a friend or relative? A family problem or situation, etc.? Have we ever really experienced SORROW OF HEART for the spiritual conditon of our nation, our family, or friends? Probably not as often as we should have.

Jeremiah experienced sorrow for his people. They had drifted away from God and in some things, just flat out rejected God, His Word, His prophets, and His law. They had decided that the Law of God was a reproach to them (See chapter 6). Have you ever heard anyone say something like this, "If it taste good, looks good, smells good, sounds good or feels good; its wrong". That is really just a snide comment against God and His Word. God spells out clearly in His Word what is right and what is wrong, and these are based on His right and wrong. There are some things which are right or wrong in their time and place. For example; God has decreed that the "Marriage bed is undefiled" (Hebrews 13:4), so the right time for the marriage act is with one's spouse following the wedding, and it is right and good. It is wrong, however, to assume the marriage bed without the benefit of marriage - one man and one woman; that too is clearly defined by Scriptures.

The only reason the word of God could be a "reproach" is because one wants to live their life free of any boundaries. You and yours and everyone around you will be the ones your actions will affect.

Hear the words of the prophet:

"For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." Jeremiah 4:22 (NKJV)

When people begin departing from the LORD after they have received the knowledge of Him, their path is always downward. They may have a great education, a great job, a marvelous house in which to live. They may have all that is necessary for living in this life, but without God, they are perishing.

The prophet is grieved by the condition of the people's hearts. God is grieved by the condition of the people's hearts and lives. God even says, "My people are foolish..." How can anyone who has ever truly known God depart from God, never return? They are educated but not in God. God goes on and says, "They are silly children...". God sees those who believe and trust Him as His children, and we are; however, we are silly children when we choose to do our own thing, and get away from our Father.

The prophet Hosea said,

"Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." Hosea 4:1 (KJV)

The prophet Hosea continues,

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Hosea 4:6 (KJV)

Is it any wonder that people turn away from the LORD when they do not care to read, study, and apply His Word to their lives? The writer of Proverbs wrote, "Where there is no vision the people perish" Proverbs 29:18, or as the NKJV records it, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law." When the Word of God grows cold in your life, so will your love for God, righteousness, and holiness.

People who refuse God, His Word, and His revelation are "wise to do evil", should we all not rather be wise to do that which is good and godly; and that is doing all that we do for the glory of the LORD. Personal attention, or popularity, or power, and/or prestige is out of the picture when all we are seeking is the glory of the LORD.

Being wise to do good will end a whole lot of mess in relationships. Families, churches, communities, countries, and the world will be a better place when the glory of the LORD is everyone's goal.

-Tim A. Blankenship

Rebellions Consequences

The prophet hears and knows that judgment is coming. His heart is for his people, for God's people. One of the sad things about God's judgment that many find unjust is that the "innocent" suffer the consequences along with the "guilty". Think of the flood of Noah's day; there were babies who had never sinned, though they were born sinners, like all of us; yet these died in the flood. Another point is the faith of Caleb and Joshua when they had viewed the Promised Land their faith said, "God is able. Let's take the land". The unbelieving said, "There are giants in the land" and the majority ruled. Then Caleb and Joshua suffered the punishment along with the unbelieving. They too wandered in the wilderness for forty years.

One of the things you and I can learn from that is; our sins do not just hurt us, they affect others too.

Jeremiah writes:

O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims affliction from Mount Ephraim: 'Make mention to the nations, Yes, proclaim against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country and raise their voice against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field they are against her all around. Because she has been rebellious against Me,' says the LORD. 'Your ways and your doings have procured these things for you. This is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches your heart.' Jeremiah 4:15-18 (NKJV)

Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21), and it was obvious to the prophet Jeremiah, that the heart of the people of the Southern kingdom of Judah was in the same condition as that of the Northern kingdom when the armies of king Nebuchadnezzar came swooping down with the speed of the leopard upon them, carrying them away captive. This is what the prophet saw happening to Judah as well.

We must know that a divided heart is a sinful, rebellious, self-absorbed, godless heart. The lips which proclaim a faith in God while giving allegiance to things; material gain, family, government dependence, self dependence, etc.; is a full hypocrite, pretentious, and gives no allegiance to God, who alone deserves our undivided faith, and allegiance. There will be occasions when the genuine believer will doubt, fear, and not believe; however they do not dwell there for long. The heart of the genuine believer will come back to the place of faith, return to the Lord and glorify His name, glory and grace.

The voice coming from Dan and from Ephraim are the events which has happened to them concerning their judgment. They have been conquered because their evil hearts. Jerusalem and all of Judah cannot continue to live in sin and rebellion against God, thinking we have the temple, it is God's temple, He won't allow anything happen to His temple. Such arrogance and pride is doomed to fall. Thinking; "I am a child of God, therefore God will not cause the judgment that falls on the immoral unbeliever, to fall on me" is a dreadfully deceptive notion.

Hear the voices that come from others. The Christians who are imprisoned because of their crimes against another, they are paying for their sins. Christians who have disease because of a sinful lifestyle they once lived; which could have been prior to or following salvation. There are consequences to sin; for the Christian and the non-Christian.

Because of rebellion and a continued refusal to repent these judgments are coming on the children of God. The wickedness of the heart is known by the All-Knowing God. He will not hold guiltless those who are guilty. The sin of the guilty will also fall on the guiltless and the innocent.

Why is it that there are some people who think, "Well, it is my sin, my action, I will take responsibility for it," by going ahead and doing it, and say, "It won't hurt anyone but me". My how deceived we can become when we get into sinful living. Our sins affect everyone around us. Even the "innocent" pay for our sins.

The sin of the heart is a bitter thing. The heart is where we gain the capacity of love, mercy and grace. It is the place we hold those things and people who are dear to us. The heart given to God holds Him dearest, closest, and trust solely in Him for life, living and eternity. The heart given to God loves all that is godly and good. Loves all there is to know about God, His Son Jesus Christ. If you do not know His Son and love Him; you do not know God and/or love Him (John 5:22-23; 8:42).

How is your heart today? Is there any pretention or hypocrisy which is directing your heart away from God? Is there desire in your heart turning you away from God, redirecting the main focus to something, someone other than God and His Son? Jesus also said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34). When your heart is full of evil thoughts, and imaginations it will be speaking and doing and thinking those evil deeds. When your heart is full of God will you not be speaking the things of God? Most certainly.

Fill your heart with God, and God will come out in your speech and your life. Even when you end up in the judgment of God due to the sins of others, you will still grow in faith, love and knowledge and wisdom.

-Tim A. Blankenship