Good morning to all on this beautiful Sunday morning. Waine and I are safely back from Jamaica and are enjoying a relaxing weekend at home. We have news to celebrate. Little Kenzo Maciel joined our family on September 14. Mother Michele and father Marco are fine and the baby is great! He is a perfect combination of Marco and Michele. He joins Kofi, Kai and Hailie as the great grandchild of Emorrie and Hisako. He was well worth the wait. We are all very happy! Congratulations to my sister Velma. I am sure she is going to spend a lot of time spoiling Kenzo!! We couldn't be happier for her.
I am continuing my journey in Jeremiah 34 verses 1 - 22, "While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon. Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, master!” I myself make this promise, declares the Lord. Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah. The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again. Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.” Amen and may God add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.
God keeps His promises! In the entire book of Jeremiah is about WARNINGS. God continues to warns this disobedient tribe of Judah to turn from their idol worship and turn back to Him. In every walk of their life God admonishes them to turn away from their sin and turn back to Him. The Jews of Judah continue to promise and then break their promise to God. Such is the nature of sin and working in the flesh. There are folk that think that if they "strive" to live a good life; be moral and upright; not purposefully harming anyone; obeying the laws of the land--that this is good enough. What these moral people fail to understand is that we live not just in a physical world where morality is important, we live in a spiritual world where repentance and obedience to Gos'a Word is important. God is concerned about what you are going to do in eternity--will you spend eternity with Him or without Him which is why He sent His Son Jesus to ensure that we didn't have to rely on our good intentions. These Jews of Judah had good intentions and were weak. I am sure when they freed their indentured slaves all was well for a while until they had to scrub their own floors, cook their own meals and mind their own children. Instead of relying on the Grace of God to see them through they took matters back into their own hands to solve their own problems. Their disobedience sealed their fate. As Christians, we are living in the Grace and Mercy of God through Christ. God's Promise is fulfilled through Christ and unlike Zedekiah we are protected against the calamity that Satan creates because of the Promise of Christ. God's Promises are as real today as they were with Zedekiah. If we are going to live we must submit ourselves to God through Christ. We are to free ourselves from the bondage of sin and accept the Promise that comes through confessing that Christ is Lord. This is the message of the Ages. This is the message we are commanded to spread, not when it is convenient but our profession of faith is what we are commanded to do at all times. This dying, confused, sin-sick world needs to hear the Good News. The only protection we have is our obedience to God. He is coming again--that is a Promise. When He comes for His Church will you be ready? Will the people you work with daily be ready? Will your family be ready? Who do you know that will be left behind? The choice, just like with Zedekiah, is yours to either spread the Good News or not. Why not keep your Promise to God.
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. Amen.
Stephanie
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