The goodness and severity of God

Am currently reading the book of Jeremiah, and today stopped to linger at Chapters 14 and 15, where God tells Jeremiah not to intercede for Judah because He will not relent.

 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. ¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

God goes on to say in Jeremiah 15, that because the people have persistently rejected Him, He is "weary of relenting".

You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting (Jeremiah 15:6)

I've paused here because these two chapters have made me rethink my notion of God - whether my view of Him is a biblical view or a Santa Claus view. I've always known of course that God is a God of justice and mercy. But these chapters reminded me today that we cannot presume on the mercy of God forever. Even more sobering, it reminded me today that there is a point of no return, a point where God intends to bring forth judgement, and no intercession, no pleading, will change His mind.

We really need to consider the goodness and severity of God, and hold this in a tension. He is "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). But He is also "a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5), and holy and righteous.

God cannot let sin go unpunished, but He has graciously made a way - by sending Jesus, His son, to bear our punishment in our stead. We need to repent though of our wicked ways, ask God for forgiveness, and made Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

We don't know how long this window of opportunity for repentence will be. We cannot presume upon God that His patience towards us will last forever. May we respond to Him, and keep our hearts tender towards Him.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)

The Stand (Hillsong)

Lovely song! Especially love the words, "So what could I say, And what could I do, But offer this heart O God, completely to you..."

In the Secret (Chris Tomlin)

The prayer of my heart is to know Jesus more... which makes this song so precious! Sing it like a prayer to Him. Oh Lord, I want to know you more... I want to hear your voice... I want to see your face..."But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 9:24)

In the Secret

In the secret, in the quiet place
In the stillness You are there.
In the secret, in the quiet hour I wait,
Only for You,'cause I want to know You more;

I want to know You,
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more.
I want to touch You,
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more.

I am reaching for the highest goal,
then I might receive the prize.
Pressing onward, pushing every hindrance aside,
Out of my way, 'cause I want to know you more

Digging into the word, and expository preaching

"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16)

The Lord has been speaking to me about being "trained in righteouness", which I understand to mean knowing the Word of God.  I firmly believe that this is one of the prerequisites of growing in the prophetic. To me, the preciousness of the prophetic is the value of the rhema word, the word in season, but rhema words are from the logos word, the whole counsel of God.

In this day, there is also so much "mixture" / "syncretism" in the teaching out there, especially in the Charismatic. Truth is mixed with error, wheat with tares. Those of us who move in the Spirit must be especially cognizant of the importance of being schooled in truth, to be like Bereans, because those who worship God must "worship in spirit and truth". We need to be anchored in the Word because in the last days, deception will increase, and it will be subtle.

In Matthew 24, when Jesus speaks of the End Times, he says one of the signs will be that "false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect".

We need to be careful about this because God has warned "my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6)

So I am praying for the discipline to dig in and to really know the Word of God, not just topically, but in its context. To be trained in a way so I can "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15).

On this note, I really appreciate expository preaching, in which the Word is taught chapter by chapter, so it is not taken out of context/ distorted to suit one's whim. There are not many good expository teachers I know - since many preachers teach topically - but here are three who are excellent, and whose material is freely available on the Internet - David Pawson, Lance Lambert and Singapore's own Aw Swee Eng :)

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (2 Tim 2:15)

Our God (Aaron Schweinberg)

Stumbled upon Aaron Schweinberg accidentally while buying Christian music from the itunes store. Really like his voice and his piano playing! What incredible anointed worship :)

Friendship with God (Bill Johnson)

I love this preaching by Bill Johnson. Servants are task-oriented, friends/ lovers know the heart of God, and do out of relationship.

The end of this sermon also packs a punch. It reminds us that whatever gifting God has put in us, without the Spirit of God on it, we won't get very far...

Says Bill: "I don't care if you can sing, if you can lead, if you can preach, doesn't matter what you can do, you're a businessman, a schoolteacher, doesn't make any difference to me. That gift is like a sail on a boat, it's useless without wind.

We need the breath of God on who he's made us to be. There has to be the supernatural element with whatever it is that God has given us to do. The breath of the Almighty God is what empowers that which we can do. The horse is prepared for the day of battle but the victory belongs to the Lord.

We take that which is natural, we get everything in order, we've done what we know to do in the natural, then we anticipate the breath of God to come to make that which is natural, supernatural, and then we give Him all the glory for it. And then just be thankful that he let us be in the room."

Wow. Awesome preaching!

We Wait For You (Shekinah Glory)