Greetings to you…my fellow-travelers on the way to Jerusalem…in the precious, holy, and powerful name of Jesus Christ – THE Risen Savior! Well – this isn’t the warm spring day I was expecting BUT it is still the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it! I trust that you had a good weekend and Monday with an awareness of God’s “wrap-around presence” encouraging you with hope and well-being. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to respond to your concerns and desires as you take delight in being His child…may He bless your family and friends and give you opportunity to share your faith with them.
This morning I am dealing with mixed emotions and repenting before God. On Sunday, God surrounded our worship gathering as He inhabited the praises of His people. I was able to share a few thoughts about coming out of the pandemic–a kind of captivity, based on what God through His prophets shared with the people of God coming out of captivity. By the way I had not noticed before that the Bible speaks about captives and captivity over four hundred times. There were a few particular pointers God gave to His people through the prophets: Expect to feel mixed emotions…life is not the same as it was – we have changed and our world has changed ; Extract the lessons you have learned so that you can apply them to a new “normal” ; Evaluate everything before simply picking up where you left off, before resuming ; Engage with this new “normal” slowly, don’t be in a hurry – God has a “plan” and a “timetable”.
However, at our Monday prayer time…we lost our focus and spent too much time complaining, sharing our opinions, and being affected by what has been and is happening around us…the end result was we forgot to pray, we forgot to let God have His place. I recall how God spoke to His people…Yes,, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. – Jeremiah 29:8-9 NIV….Yes, believe it or not, this is the Message from GOD-of-the-Angel Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They are a bunch of liars preaching lies–and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” GOD’s Decree! – Jeremiah 29:8-9 The Message.
So, first – I thank God for Sunday and second – I repented for Monday.