Don't Limit Your Blessings

Good Sunday to all! Waine and I are in Thomaston this weekend and the weather if great so you know where my beloved is! I have been relatively busy this weekend with little cherubs that had to be admitted because of wheezing. All and all a fruitful time was spent in Thomaston. I was celebrating with my sister over all God's blessing for her and her family already in 2012! God is a good God. There is no One better. The message from both Joel Olstein and from Reverend Stanley this morning is that out blessings are only limited when we limit God. Their suggestion is that we open up our mouths very wide and except all the blessings that God has in store for us. My mouth is wide open and I am expecting great things.

I am continuing my journey in Jeremiah 19 verses 1-15, "This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you,  and say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.  So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.  In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals. I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them. Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods. Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the LORD’s temple and said to all the people, "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to My Words."  May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.

The patience of God is truly amazing. We have gone 19 chapters hearing of God's disappointment in the sinfulness of Israel. God continues to admonish Israel through Jeremiah by giving them examples; pleading with them to turn from worshipping idols and give Him their hearts. They continue in their sins and yet He sends Jeremiah out to talk with them and reason with them. He loves us that much more; that even while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS! God gave us the most precious gift ever, the life of Christ, and He did it even while we were in SIN. That's the message from both Joel Olstein and Reverend Stanley today. When we limit God's blessings in our lives because we pray only for "small things", we are then not acting like the child of the King! Now unlike the folk of the Old Testament, our success has been guaranteed by the Blood of the Lamb. We have God on "Speed Dial" because we have an Intercessor. What blocks our vision of our blessing is our sin, however God instructs us to repent of our sins constantly not so that we can gain blessings but we can see the blessing we already have and then be bold in our requests for more.

When we tentatively approach our lives, we are not reflecting the power of God. Just as the Israelites who were worshipping false Gods, we are not living in the Promise when we approach life meekly. Rebuke the evil one who would have you believe that God does not want you to have a life of abundance. Satan is the Great Deceiver. Look what happened in the Garden.

Now may the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace. Expect your blessing today.

Stephanie