I heard someone say one time that getting older is like a rock rolling downhill, as the number gets bigger the years seem to go faster. It definitely looks like that as we are already into our second month of 2023. In February we’ll get to blessedly celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the 5th.
It is always a good idea when you are getting ready to commune with God in Christ at His table that you take a moment and consider where it is that your heart may be at right now. It is a truism of the Christian faith that we are all weak. We know the Scriptures which say that the love of Jesus is made perfect in weakness; these testimonies are a great comfort for us, and rightly so. There are few things better than being reminded of the sufficiency of the grace of our Savior. However, is merely the knowledge of these things enough for us? We talk a lot in this opening little quip to the newsletter of the advantage believer’s have given their place in the kingdom of God. Over the past year and a half we’ve been going through the book of Jeremiah on Wednesday nights. A constant theme the prophet brings to bear is the way the people of the covenant have wasted their blessing.
They’ve become like Esau, or Rehoboam.
Unwilling to see the difference between being an Israelite or an Amalekite they have taken their life and consecrated it to an idol that can neither save nor provide what it is their hearts seek. It’s painful reading, but not just in the way that it’s no fun to watch someone destroying themselves. The way our culture has become so voyeuristic in enjoying other’s personal pain is a sign of the spiritual rot that has infected American minds. The book of Proverbs tells us we are not to rejoice at the death of the wicked primarily because we know more than any what the destination is for men and women who die outside Christ, so we should be all the more merciful to those who need mercy.
All the opportunity for repentance is right there in front of the Hebrews of Jeremiah’s day, yet the refuse to see it. Why? Because they’ve fooled themselves into an over reliance on the outward forms of worship. Complacency in going through the motions is the rule of life in Judah. That has led them to ruin. The examples of this type of thing in the Old Testament are needful for us to enter into a little time of self-reflection because as we read of the events of the days gone by the Holy Spirit is keen to remind us that not much has changed unfortunately. A dead church does not appear that way long before it actually ceases to exist on the rolls of presbytery. Like a tree it can look great, but inside it is filled with decay.
What could have Judah done when it realized its situation (even though it never did)? The beautiful thing about our God is that His mercy is forever. We are never too far gone: individually, as a Church, as a denomination, to be outside the gracious call to turn back, away from reliance on things unrelated to the Lord, and recommit our lives to Him, seeking to be filled with all goodness and love in obedience to Christ.