I have been attending a noon time Bible Study for several years now. The past several months we have been studying the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah can be a very hard book to read. Kind of depressing. As we have gone through this book, however, I have found some things my mind has been drawn to. Throughout this book it is evident the sins of Israel were many and caused much heartache. Sounds kind of familiar doesn't it. Going through this book one thing has struck me most. Jeremiah and God had many discussions. There were times throughout the book where the people were behaving so badly that God said to Jeremiah don't even pray for these people, don't offer up petitions on their behalf and don't plead with me for I won't listen. I can't even imagine such great anger on God's behalf. The thing, though, that struck me even more was that though these people were sinning greatly, some even plotting to kill Jeremiah and even after God told him not to, Jeremiah continued to petition God for these people. His heart was broken for these lost people. Over and over Jeremiah went to the Lord on their behalf.

Today our pastor was preaching from Luke and my eyes fell on a sub title which read, "Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem." As Jesus' enemies were plotting to kill Him he was weeping over them and their sins.

All of these things made me think about myself. When was the last time I wept over those who are lost? How many times have I petitioned God for those in my family, my circle of influence, my friends and my coworkers who are not living in a right relationship with Him. How long since I wept over those in my Sunday school class and church that I know need a restored relationship with God. Some of those are far from God. I prayed today that God would break my heart for those who are lost and far from Him.

I watched a clip that was on another blog, I believe it was on YouTube, about a man who was an atheist and he asked the question, How much do you have to hate someone not to tell someone about God and warn them about Hell? Not an exact quote, but the essence of the quote. Wow, what a question. It should definitely make us search our hearts.

I want to love people enough that I am truly concerned about their souls. Concerned enough to weep for them. Concerned enough to petition God over and over on their behalf. Concerned enough to tell them that yes there is a Heaven and Hell, yes there is consquences for our sins, yes there is a lot of bad in this world, but yes there is a God who loved them enough to send His one and only son to die on the cross for them. Concerned enough to help them find the way to a true relationship with this God who loves them.

I know this is long and maybe not too profound to many, but just wanted to share what God has been speaking to my heart. Lessons, I hope, I am learning. Just maybe someone else needs a little reminder too that we need to have a broken heart for the lost in order to make any kind of impact on them.

Side Sermons from God

Once again while my Pastor was preaching God was giving me a side sermon. Our Pastor had read Psalm 119:9-16. My mind stopped at verse 10. As I read that verse, over & over, I started thinking about it. The verse, in NKJV, reads, "With my whole heart I have sought You."

As I thought about this verse, I had to ask my self when was the last time I sought the Lord with my whole heart. I know I read my Bible and pray. I am a "good" Christian. However, I have to ask myself was it the Lord that I sought after with my whole heart or was it the things that he could do for me or give me. You know, things like health, wealth and all the blessings we know that God is able to give. How long has it been that I have just sought God just to be with him. I have to answer it has been awhile.

Another verse that made me stop and think was not included in my Pastor's passage, but just down a few verses. It is verse 20. "My soul breaks with longing for Your judgements at all times." There have been some things I've been praying about and I have been seeking God's will on them, however, I must admit I have also been letting God know that I could advise Him on how He could accomplish it in a way that would make me happy. Do I really long for his judgement in these things. His judgement is always best. We all know that right? So why do we tend to pray for something and then proceed to tell God what the best way to answer is? Do I really want His will or do I just want to be able to say, "Well, I prayed for God's will, so this must be it."? Praying for God's will (judgement) in a matter has to be without strings. Either we truly want God's will or we truly want our will. Believe it or not, God does not need our help in figuring out His will for our lives. He has a plan and we need to realize that His way is always better than our way. Easy? No, but as we grow in Him it gets easier to truly say "Your will, not mine be done."

God is Good...All the time

We've all heard the little ditty "God is Good....All the time and All the time...God is Good. It seems like this is said all the time and after awhile it just becomes a habit. We tend to do it just because the Pastor or whoever is up front gets it started. There are times I think here we go again. Another thing I catch myself rolling my eyes at is when I hear the song leader give the page for the prayer song before the pastoral prayer. At our church the one that is sung most frequently is God is so Good. After awhile we begin to sing this song without even thinking about it because we "do it all the time."



Well, today on my way home from work both these things came to me. When I went to work this morning it was snowing lightly. As the morning progressed, the snow kept coming. When I came out of work to go home (I'm still on 1/2 days from surgery) I had to clean off several inches of snow that had fallen throughout the morning. I hate to drive in bad weather, but drove home. It took me about 30 minutes to get from Bryan to Montpelier. At any rate when I hit the city limits I just said out loud "Thank you Lord." After I said it I felt like I had to clarify what I said. Sometimes we say "Thank you Lord." without really thinking. I said I really do mean thank you. Then tears came because I really did mean it. I have been driving back and forth to Bryan to work for approximately 19 years and not once have I hit a deer, which is a feat in itself, I have never been in an accident due to my error or someone elses and I have never slid off the road due to ice or snow. I take the same route every day and at times I've come close. If I had been a minute sooner or a few minutes later, I could have been in a couple very serious accidents, but I have always missed them. So as I thanked God the little ditty came to my mind. God is good....all the time and all the time...God is good. God is so good. He protects us when we are not even aware of it. I think we sometimes forget how good God is because we tend to get into a routine. Sometimes we need to stop saying things or stop singing things just for the sake of doing it and take time to look at the words and to really think about our lives and see the things that God does for us so we can say it with conviction and not just because.

Is God's Word Relevant For Us Today?

I have had people ask me this question and I am sure I have asked this question at times. What answer do we give? Any "good" Christian would answer yes. It is easy to say yes. It is sometimes harder to give the questioner examples right off the top of your head. Well, last night at our women's Bible study I was able to give a definite example of just how relevant God's Word is in our day to day lives.

Earlier in the day I had received an email from a family member and she wrote to me about a long standing issue in our family. This issue has gone on for close to 10 years or so. In the past it has been easy to get into a full blown "discussion" regarding this issue. She made some comments that I could have easily responded to, but decided and told her I would only respond the the questions that were pertinent to me and would not respond to the other issue she brought up. I told her that I would pray as I have been doing that God would work out a miracle in the situations that she had mentioned.

Well, I had studied my lesson for the Bible study a week ago, but as we went over it last night, one of the verses stood out to me and was very relevant for this particular situation. the verse was 2 Timothy 2:23, "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." It is very easy to get caught up in arguments. Of course both parties are sure they are right, but is it really that important. Is being right worth strained relationships? I must say that I believe that if I were completely honest most arguments would fall under "foolish and stupid."

Is God's Word relevant to us today? I believe if we just read God's Word for the sake of reading it (it's the right thing to do), we may feel like we really didn't get anything out of the reading. However, if we pray for God's guidance and read His Word intentionally, truly wanting to see what God has for us regarding how to really live a Holy life, we will find His Word to be very relevant for us today.