by Frank Paul
The cloak of immunity from hell that Americans inexplicably think they have draped over them is naivety at best, pure stupidity at worse. Today not only are we abandoning God and Jesus, but we are also rewriting their laws and commandments to fit current cultural thinking. Pretty sure that’s been tried in the past numerous times and has been met with utter disaster and death. Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament during 685 – 616 B.C., emphasizes the destiny of every man is determined by his conformity or lack of conformity to God and His plan; and as of now, our destiny seems to be a rapid slide downward. Sounds too similar to the Bible thumpers of old; fine, I’ll listen to any other explanation someone has to put forth, but all I see is a Satan-induced influence that is undermining our society at all levels on a daily basis. Since truth is eternal and not bound by time, should we not heed the prophet’s advice from the past and correct our behavior before it is too late. And yes, there is a “too late” that we must come face to face with, whether we care to entertain that thought or not. As it has been said in the past, “Your life will intersect with the cross sooner or later, one way or the other – either on your way up, or on your way down.” The prophets of old had a direct link to God; the same God that wants all His children today to listen to Him. Would it be so bad to put away our false gods? Okay, so maybe we don’t idolize golden calves, but have we replaced the calves with lust, money, selfishness, et cetera. Do we care for the poor and the widowed, as the Lord’s Son Jesus instructed us? I think not. Have we turned our attention to Facebook and Twitter more than reading the Bible? I think so.
If you were to read Jeremiah, you would feel this prophet’s pain and angst in trying to reach out to his fellow citizens as he was ignored time and time again. “For I have spoken to Jerusalem and Judah, and they heard me not. They are lost in their iniquities and have forgotten the Lord; the same Lord that led them out of the land of Egypt when they were in bondage.” Oh, how Jeremiah cried and begged God’s people to return to Him, to put away all their false gods and come back to the one who created them. The pain and heartache Jeremiah felt as his words, the words which the Lord instructed him to say, fell upon deaf ears. Who were these ridiculously stubborn people who refused to listen to Jeremiah. They were acting like spoiled children.
Are we today in 2023 not behaving similarly. Jeremiah is gone, but his words are still with us, and they need to be heeded. In Jeremiah 12:17 God says, “but if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation.” Somehow today we have come to the conclusion that God doesn’t really mean what He says, and that is another Satan-induced lie. Ever wonder why we don’t listen; it’s simply easier not to, so that we can continue in our God-absent lives with no thought of eternity. I know, it sounds harsh, but there are enough candy-coated words being bantered about today. Sometimes a slap in the face might be what’s needed, unpleasant as it may be to think about.
Perhaps my appeal to you comes from my own sense of mortality now more so than ever. Yesterday I returned home from a funeral service for an acquaintance that I had known for 50 years, his wife for 40 years, and his kids for 30 years, and now he is gone. Luckily it wasn’t “too late” for him because he was a man of deep faith in Jesus; but what about you? Do you want to reach your end and start scrambling about on how to change your behavior and figure out where you’ll spend eternity. You need to start now. The Lord does not want us to suffer in hell; He even said it himself in Jeremiah 3:22 – 23, “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.” God is the Lord of mercy and compassion; and if you think about it, that is really, really nice, since we don’t exactly live our lives in tune with His commandments.
Maybe it’s that word “commandments” that irks us so much. We don’t like to be commanded on what to do or how to behave because we think “we’ve got this.” Well, you don’t. No one wants to think about hell because it’s scary and final; yet we can all fantasize about how wonderful heaven is; but there is a hell and it’s just as real as heaven, and you do not want to end up there. We plan for our finances, our relationships. We care more for our dogs and cats than we do for our souls, yet our souls will live on. Somewhere. God had even addressed this concern 2600 years ago when He said in Jeremiah 12:10,” Pastors have destroyed my vineyard.” And Jeremiah pleaded with us again in 22:29 when he said, “O earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord.”
My acquaintance that passed on recently was a reformed alcoholic; clean for 25 years, yet often he said he still took it one day at a time. We can do the same with “cleaning up” our souls; one day at a time. It is a “must” thought, not a “maybe” thought. We must today think about where our soul is going to spend eternity. Kindness feels good, giving to others feels good, demonstrating compassion to others feels good; and there’s a reason for that: we have God’s love in us since we were created in His likeness. Let us not keep that “good guy” buried inside; bring him out and let him breathe and let’s give some thought and attention to our souls and our soul’s destiny; it certainly couldn’t hurt.
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