O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:1

Well, our special American holiday, Thanksgiving, is not far away. I expect for most families there will be a special meal. Many will have the traditional roast turkey and pumpkin pie. But things will not be normal. There is a pandemic, you know . Some families will tragically have empty chairs at their table. Some of those empty chairs represent loved ones taken by the deadly pestilence. Others are where family members who cannot come to Thanksgiving dinner for fear of catching or spreading that awful disease, would normally sit.

These things are sorrowful and saddening. They are distressing and hard. For many, no matter how good Thanksgiving dinner is, it will be covered by a hovering gloom.

Is it possible to give God thanks in such a state as this? Can you praise God when danger is all around?

Well, being thankful to God is a matter of faith, so that if one believes in God there’s always something to be thankful for. And, if nothing else, it is the hopeful expectation of God’s doing a new and blessed thing in days ahead.

Contemplating the destruction of the beloved city of his people, Jerusalem, Jeremiah, moved by his faith in God, in the midst of personal and national sorrow, says: It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him (Lamentations 3:22-24).

Jeremiah got it. Even in the worst of times, if you trust God, the LORD is your portion and you can hope in Him. You can trust God because He sent his son, Jesus. Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead. The Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ life into our lives. Yes, you can hope in God.

Thank you, O LORD!

 A Word For Modern Nations

…Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation: and a house divided against a house falleth. Luke 11:17

 

A Devotional Thought From 2 Chronicles 7:13, 14

In God’s answer to Solomon’s great prayer dedicating the glorious Temple he built to God, God said, among other things: If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  

This was a principal given to God’s people in ancient times that has great relevance for today if applied by the peoples of the nations of the world. Take my own land for example, we are in the midst of a pestilence (Covid 19), our land in some places is being devoured (looted, destroyed and burned), and we are not experiencing the cool calming rain of civil discourse that allows the nation to discuss and deal with the issues of the day. Needless to say, but I will say it anyway, these are not good things for our people and our land.

Do we want our nation restored to being a great place for all people? A place were we can live safely, and raise our little ones with the confidence that others will care for them and protect them because we are part of one family of free people in this nation? A place that offers the opportunities of prosperity to all who will play fairly and work hard? A place that experiences all the wonderful blessings available when a nation is at its best?

God gives a playbook here in these verses to restore such goodness. Humble yourselves, we don’t know it all, other voices might have good ideas even if they are not our own. More importantly humble yourselves before God Who does know what is best. Pray. Get in touch with God, let Him speak to your heart with His truth and guidance. And, turn from wicked ways, from wrong doing and do right. Do you want your land restored? The people can do it by following these gracious directions. Each individual helps restore the nation by making these changes in his/her life.

Uyghur Lives Matter

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

Galatians 6:7

One of the ancient nations heard this statement from a prophet of God: For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7): for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity (Hosea 14:1).

Pray that America will not reap the whirlwind and the fall.

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs 28:13

Nebuchadnezzar was God’s judgment upon the Middles East in 587-570 B.C. Cities and villages were broken down, the soldiers and young men were killed in battle, women and children were brutally treated with no recourse, and when all was said and done the nation of Israel was virtually nonexistent for 70 years having been carried away to Babylonian captivity.

For some 40 years the prophet Jeremiah had warned that the judgment would soon fall; brutal, bloody, heartbreaking judgment from God. Jeremiah specifically prophesied God’s judgment on His people, and it happened just as God revealed it to him.

God’s people were being judged for false religion, violence in the streets, and a type of slave labor, among other things. The priests, the people, and the king were almost all complicit in one way or another.

There are people who believe America deserves judgment, especially in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. And, with all that is happening in the land these days some might wonder if what is boiling over is the judgment of God. They might even be cheering on the judgment, like the preacher some years ago who became famous for saying “Not God bless America, but…” Well you remember.

So compare our country. There is violence in the streets perpetuated in some cases by bad cops, by street criminals, by rioters (some of them rumored to be paid to destroy). In a most glaring event a one year old Brooklyn, New York boy shot to death by street thugs (a one year old sitting in the yard with his family), buildings are burning, monuments (admittedly some distasteful and deserving of removal) toppled by mobs, graffiti covers every city, looting and free booting abounds, local stores are destroyed, an attempt to change the economic system of the most prosperous nation in history is blatant, and attacks on religion, especially Christianity are perpetual. An attitude of “fear one another” rather than the Christian adage “love one another” is a melancholy on our society. It sounds like the Middle Eastern nations who faced God’s judgment carried out by Nebuchadnezzar.

For those rejoicing at this upheaval, and doing all they can to foment it, they are forgetting that in judgment on a nation everyone suffers. Black, white, people of every race and religion suffer when the nation suffers. Old men die, children cry, brutality and destruction reign and rain. Violent streets are bloodied streets and everyone is in danger. Food and medical care become precious, and sometimes unavailable to ordinary people. Cities become rubble, even the rich and powerful  fall into the crater of desolation. And… sometimes a nation under the judgment of God never returns to its former greatness.

Woe to America, to the entire nation, if she continues to self-destruct this land of gleaming alabaster cities and amber waves of grain.

I think there is still hope for U.S. When Jeremiah declared the judgment of God it was a definite prophecy, and there was nothing they could do to stop it from happening. It was a matter of God’s timing, possibly it could be delayed, but nothing would hold back the terror forever. The judgment we are facing is not the fulfillment of a specific prophecy about America, so I think that judgment can be stayed. Our nation can be saved from herself for now.

America needs to repent. Repent means to turn and go in a different direction.

For a start, bad police need to become good police. Looters and rioters must become peaceful protesters. Those acting without legal sanction should seek it. Our People need to behave lawfully so we can all be safe. Parties on all sides of our political squabbles need to work together to give opportunity to every person in our society. Christianity, and all religions, should be free to peacefully share their understandings of life and faith, and, we should all embrace life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ourselves and our neighbors. Those seeking to destroy our civilization need to commit to turning it around, not burning it down. There is more, of course, but we need to start somewhere.

Lord have mercy on America, so she can remain the land of liberty and peace for all of her people, please!

One Of The Sins For Which God’s People In Ancient Times Were Punished

Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong: that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work.

Jeremiah 22:13

God Speaking Through Jeremiah, His Prophet

At what instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck it up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.        (Jeremiah  18:7-10)

Here is a message every nation in the world should consider!

I hope it does not come to this for America.

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. (Isaiah 6:19)

Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate. (Isaiah 7:34)

Jesus’ Secret To A Peaceful Nation

And thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other greater than these.

Mark 12:30,31

A Sermon For All Nations

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 

Isaiah 55:6,7

Hear, O America,

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.  Isaiah 43:11

What’s Going On?

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Isaiah 37:17

Is what is happening in the United States today the work of righteousness? Well, the Lord says, through the prophet Isaiah, if it is the work of righteousness there will be peace. Is what we have now peace?

Isaiah says the work of righteousness will result in quietness. Is our land quiet?

Isaiah also says the work of righteousness shall be assurance. Perhaps, assurance that the nation is in God’s hand? That we are safe? That we can all work out the problems of our society?

Is what we have what peace, quietness, assurance looks like? I guess we could use the work of righteousness.

Oh, America, without a vision of what God wants us to do our people and our nation may perish.

Death and Easter

And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. Matthew 27:59, 60

There is no darkness like death, however it comes. One instant the eyes are open, the next closed. They are closed forever. Silence fills the darkness, and hope disappears. There are no expectations, praises, or aspirations in the grave. Only death, the darkness of darkness.

When Jesus died Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body as custom demanded it, took it to the cemetery, and laid it in the tomb. The fearful thing for all humanity is if you are living, without a miracle you will die, and they will lay you in the grave too.

To understand this you need a little basic theology. Death, according to God’s word, is the result of sin. Everybody has sinned, and without forgiveness of sin death is their future.

Somehow sin must be forgiven if death darkness is to be defeated. When Jesus died for us he carried the penalty for our sin, and all who trust in him as their forgiver of sins are forgiven, and ultimately death cannot keep you in the grave. That is…

That is if it didn’t keep him in the grave! So here’s the Easter story. The women who were followers of Jesus went to the tomb to finish the burial process, and mourn. And they met an angel, who said, Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said, Come and see the place where the Lord lay. Matthew 28:5, 6.

He had been laid in the tomb. A rock had been rolled in front of the mouth of the tomb. Now the rock was rolled away, come and see where he was laid. He’s not laying there anymore. He is risen from the dead. Jesus put death in the darkness, and those who know him by believing in him, in the light.

A Verse for Times of Dread - Psalm 9:10

 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou. LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

A Devotional Thought From 2 Chronicles And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 2 Chronicles 36:15 It was a bad time in history for the ancient people of God. A good king, a man of faith, had died, and he was followed in quick succession by three bad kings. And, the religious leaders and people of the land were involved in religious evil as well. In response God sent messengers to them, prophets, preachers, obviously to speak up and call them out for their sins. “What you are doing is wrong. Turn from your sins. Change your dreadful behaviors.” People don’t like to hear such preaching. Some repent, but many rebel against it. Many attack the preacher of righteousness. “Don’t tell us what we can and cannot do. How intolerant. Speaking against sin is the real sin. Let us alone.” They consider it an intrusion on their lives. God wouldn’t call what we do a sin. But notice what the verse (2 Chronicles36:15) says. God did this, He sent His preachers of righteousness, “because he had compassion on his people.” God knew that they were headed for a cliff, for judgment, and because He had compassion, because He loved them, He sent the prophets to call them out of sin. Here’s how they reacted. 2 Chronicles 36:16: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Rejecting righteousness, and choosing sin, is a foolish choice.

A Devotional Thought From 2 Chronicles And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him. And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD. With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkims, and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 12:1-4 Two salient ideas are central to this piece of history. 1. When Rehoboam had established and strengthened his government, he and his people “forsook the law of the LORD.” They stopped obeying God’s rules. They chose to do things that were wrong. We don’t know if they justified their sins as modern people do, by saying something like; “That’s not my truth. My truth says there’s nothing wrong with what I am doing.” 2. The result of their turning from God’s truth was that one of the powerful nations of that period in history came against them in war. The scriptures note here in verse 2 Shishak, the enemy king, came “because” Rehoboam and his people “had transgressed against the LORD.” Rehoboam’s government capitulated. They lost cities, surrendered to be subjects of Shishak, and gave up their treasures and riches (12:4,9). God’s prophet made this declaration about the situation; “Thus saith the LORD, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore I have left you in the hand of Shishak” (12:5). Here is a clear example of a nation that brought trouble on itself because it turned from God’s truth.

A Devotional Thought from Hebrews And it is appointed unto men once to die… Hebrews 9:27 When a world-wide famous sports figure, or other rich and famous person dies, through no fault of their own; an accident, a dread disease, an unexplained phenomenon, the news is broadcast far and wide on T.V., radio, the internet, social and print media. People are shocked that someone of that stature has been lost to the world, especially when they die young. Human tendency is to think that someone in that privileged position in life, with every resource available to him/her does not need to fear untimely termination of life . But such well known people who die are teaching us something we all could have learned from the Bible. “It is appointed unto men (mankind, humanity as a whole) once to die…” Everybody dies! Sooner or later everybody dies (with the exception of certain people described in the Bible who will have an equivalent but different experience) everybody dies. What Then? That statement and question is a good reason to turn to God’s Word, the Bible, and find out what God says about it.