Reflection

I have been offline for several days.  In truth, our internet was knocked out late Thursday evening and remained off until late Monday afternoon.  I could imply a supernatural hand in it, but I'll not go there.  Instead, I can say emphatically  I used the opportunity as it was to hunker into Him with all diligence.

Sunday, after leaving church -- after spending time corporately praying and giving thanksgiving that regardless of the pending election, God is sovereign and wholly in charge -- I was struck with Jeremiah 5:7-9, so much so that I took up my Bible in the car riding home and opened it to these words:

“Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house. 

 “They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

“Shall I not punish these people,” declares the Lord,
“And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?"

Since reading these words, I have been silent and reverent before Him. I could give Him no answer to counter His charges against our nation.  It continues to be a most reverent time in my spirit before Him.  I grieve for this land... and it is by no means solely rooted in the elections of yesterday.

I grieve because of the choices mankind has made and continues to make on a daily basis.....choices that rise up in obstinate opposition to God.  A state of delusion suffocates the land where we believe we can say one thing and live another without consequences.  If one continues to read in Jeremiah -- God continues:

"Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches,
For they are not the Lord’s.

“For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the Lord. 

^"They have lied about the Lord
And said, “Not He;
Misfortune will not come on us,
And we will not see sword or famine."

This is God's charge concerning delusional living.  A mindset that thumbs its nose at God and declares boldly, "He won't do anything! He doesn't really even exist! We will rule ourselves!"  

I would say, "God be merciful to us" -- but in truth, short of the Cross and to no reason whatsoever within ourselves, why should He be?

We are here at this point in time.  In your own heart, you know the part you have played.  We ALL have a hand in this.  None is righteous -- no, not one.  Some in His Church fell asleep. Apathy took root and put them to sleep with a mindset "as long as it doesn't upset my plans, I don't care."   Some in His Church prostituted themselves to the world -- giving their affections and talents to whoever would take them.  Some in His Church attempted to lock themselves away in a safe bubble. They didn't want their hands or clothes to get messy from the filth of this world.  But regardless, I sense that many are groaning from deep within -- attempting with everything in them to resist panic -- saying  over and over, "God is in control -- It's okay -- God is in control."  And again -- such groanings are not wholly rooted in the election of yesterday.  Many have been saying this for a variety of "superficial reasons" -- from unemployment, to economic woes, to world wide wars -- but at the core, we know the reason; mankind senses deep within a lifting of His hand...an increasing chasm between us and His favor, His approval.

I wonder today how many see His penetrating eye that probes the heart and asks, "Why should I pardon you?"

Do you hear His heart's cry?

While He deeply desires to be Father, 

He is first and foremost and ever will be GOD.

May the heavens hear our silence today,
as God looks to and fro for our repentant hearts.