Tag: sinners

  • In God We Trusted – 5

    In God We Trusted – 5

    The political ‘spin’ has been spun.

    The gradual fall is begun.

    How? lament the People…

    Why? In God we trusted.

    “Lamentations” was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX), and conveys the idea of “loud cries.” The Hebrew exclamation ekah (“How,”which expresses “dismay”), used in 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. However, the rabbis began early to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations” (cf. Jer. 7:29).

    Lamentations 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

    5 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
    2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
    3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.

    Minor-Prophets-Timeline

     Before their cry of How? …while they were yet falling…

    Hosea 14: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
    for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
    2 Take with you words
    and return to the Lord…

    solomons jerusalem

     Micah 6:12 Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
    13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.

    Isaiah 58: “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
    lift up your voice like a trumpet;
    declare to my people their transgression,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
    2 Yet they seek me daily
    and delight to know my ways,
    as if they were a nation that did righteousness
    and did not forsake the judgment of their God

    Zephaniah 3CapLightningNight_sm

    Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    the oppressing city!
    2 She listens to no voice;
    she accepts no correction.
    She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

    margaret-bourke-white-sculpted-frieze-reads-justice-the-guardian-of-liberty-at-entrance-of-the-supreme-court-building

    3 Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
    her judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.

    iou

    Habakkuk 2: “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
    for how long?—
    and loads himself with pledges!”
    7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.

    Obadiah

    The Day of the Lord Is Near

    15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
    As you have done, it shall be done to you;
    your deeds shall return on your own head.

    seige of jerusalem

    Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
    16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!

    19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
    20 Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
    21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old—
    22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

    Remember Israel? Remember Judah? Remember the Nations? Remember Rome?

    Remember Great Britain? Remember America?

    Do the Nations and Empires and Peoples remember God?

    Are we not a falling people in the hands of an angry God (as Jonathan Edwards once warned)?

    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

    Enfield, Connecticut
    July 8, 1741

    Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

    In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. — The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

    [READ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]

    Will it be blessing? Or will we reap curse?

    For once, in God we Trusted.

  • Were you once a ‘friend’ of Jesus?

    Were you once a ‘friend’ of Jesus?

    What would Jesus say about you?

    Do you witness HIS NAME?

    A long time ago the lyrics of a couple of wonderful songs by Paul Simon seemed nonsensical to me, yet the soothing sounds settled my thoughts into a place of silence – a tranquility of inaction in a chaotic world.

    Suppose Jesus Christ, Lord and King, wanted someone to witness for HIM online.  Would it be you?

    And if so, do you suppose that Jesus Christ would want you to remain SILENT? (Shouldn’t you at least have a comment about Jesus?)

    Take in just a little of the Paul Simon lyric from so many years past:

    Hello darkness, my old friend
    I’ve come to talk with you again …

    There is NO darkness in Christ Jesus. HE calls us to the Light.

    Yet hear the warning of Simon’s lyric:

    People talking without speaking
    People hearing without listening
    People writing songs that voices never share
    And no one dared
    Disturb the sound of silence

    “Fools”, said I, “You do not know
    Silence like a cancer grows

    *The Sound of Silence – Paul Simon 1964

    SILENCE about sin…

    Silence about the Savior of your soul…

    A cancer… a cancer of silence about Christ Jesus, in these last days.

    So where is your voice?  What is your Christian Social Witness?

    Are you yet silent?

    Where are your comments?  Can we have a conversation… can we talk of Jesus if you remain silent?

    And if you dare share any scripture in our community of Christians, why not also share your Christian Social Witness with others.

    I know it seems out of place to think of Jesus, a King awaiting His Day of triumphal return to give any thought of you; but JESUS LOVES YOU.

    Our Lord, who suffered for you on the cross so that you might live is waiting for you to say something — anything – a thank you, or I know Him — JESUS wants your witness to Him.

    Dear sister in the Lord, must Jesus plea once more for you:

    Remember me to one who lives there
    She once was a true love of mine.

    {Scarborough Fair Lyrics – by Paul Simon}

    Dear brother or sister in the Lord,

    Just because Jesus loves your friends and your family does not mean that you should keep silent about Him.

    Praise His Holy Name!

    As much as great lyricists like Paul Simon may speak to us, no music in Christ’s ears is more joyous than your song of witness that HE IS and He loves you.  Jesus is our friend. SHARE HIM with the world – the ones who dwell in our old friend, darkness.

    Our silence for Jesus breaks His heart.  What is your witness? Jesus is a friend of sinners.