Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. Jeremiah 23:1-3 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jer.23.1-3.KJV
I saw this on Facebook and it seems to be needed today.
This should wake us up. One day, a man went to visit a church, He got there early, parked his car and got out. Another car pulled up near the driver got out and said, ” I always park there! You took my place!” The visitor went inside for Sunday School, found an empty seat and sat down A young lady from the church approached him and stated, “That’s my seat! You took my place!” The visitor was some……………what distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing. After Sunday School, the visitor went into the sanctuary and sat down. Another member walked up to him and said, “That’s where I always sit! You took my place!” The visitor was even more troubled by this treatment, but still He said nothing. Later as the congregation was praying for Christ to dwell among them, the visitor stood up, and his appearance began to change. Horrible scars became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and called out, “What happened to you?” The visitor replied, as his hat became a crown of thorns, and a tear fell from his eye, “I took your place..” Once you read this, say a prayer.. That’s all you have to do. There is nothing attached. This is so powerful. Just re-post if you want to, and maybe, just maybe, we can get the world to start thinking of WHO took our place!!!..
God gives us His grace. We, as Christians, have been touched by God through grace and it is because of His grace that we can be saved through faith in Jesus. God does this because He wants a relationship with us, which is why He created us in the first place. He doesn’t want us to mindlessly follow Him but to want to follow Him and love Him. That’s why we have been given the gift of choice. Although many of us choose to be stubborn and follow our own ways rather than His.
This is why there are so many religions. We create our version of “god” so that we can relate to him and still enjoy our own ideas of living a happy life. The problem with this is that the “god” that we create is a false god and it cannot help us in any way at all. God can help us in every way that we need. He is our Creator and Redeemer! God loves us and cares for us better than we know ourselves. When you are praying to God, Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you are speaking to your Creator and Redeemer who formed you in the womb. He knew you even before you were born.
These “gods” that we create in our minds, even if it is based upon our idea of Who God is, are false gods and are not real. People may say that they don’t practice idolatry but when you hear someone say, “my god would never send someone to hell”, that is exactly what they are doing! They have created a god that they can understand and who will allow them to be themselves without having to worry about “commandments” and going to church.
God gives us grace through faith in Jesus Christ and it is because of this that we can come to Him and know Him and be known by Him. It is not because of anything that we have done or any amount of attendance of services. We cannot be good enough to earn our salvation because it was paid for by Jesus for us. It is a gift from God the Father to each of us who will believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation. Period.
There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.
Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels.
But scholars and Rabbis have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds or aspirated consonants. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing.
YH (inhale): WH (exhale).
So with a baby’s first cry, his first breath, speaks the name of God.
A deep sigh calls His name – or a groan or gasp that is too heavy for mere words.
Even an atheist would speak His name, unaware that their very breath is giving constant acknowledgment to God.
Likewise, a person leaves this earth with their last breath, when God’s name is no longer filling their lungs.
So when I can’t utter anything else, is my cry calling out His name?
Being alive means I speak His name constantly.
So, is it heard the loudest when I’m the quietest?
In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs.
In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst.
In fear, we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down.
When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage.
When I think about it, breathing is giving him praise. Even in the hardest moments!
This is so beautiful and fills me with emotion every time I grasp the thought. God chose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak, every moment we’re alive.
All of us, always, everywhere.
Waking, sleeping, breathing, with the name of God on our lips.
– Unknown Author
This showed up in my feed on Facebook and I had to share it.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8:44 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.8.44.KJV
Whether you believe he is real or not doesn’t matter. What does matter is how you react to the temptation that you will be subjected to. Life is a journey through temptation. From eating candy as a child to buying things that you don’t need as an adult. Everything around us is trying to tempt us to do something or buy something, especially today. Our entire culture and our society are based around all of us being consumers of something. Whether it is food or clothing or books or electronics, we are supposed to consume.
God never intended for us to be consumers. We, as humans made in His image, are supposed to be the stewards of Earth and its resources. We’ve dropped the ball on that I believe. God loves each of us but He doesn’t like the sinful things that we do. We need to get back to Him and back to being the people that He intended but that is going to take a revival on a huge scale and it may not happen until Jesus comes to rule the Earth for one thousand years. Seek Him while there is time to do so. Don’t put it off because none of us are guaranteed even tomorrow.
The Living Message of Christ 