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The Church Could Use a Good Dose of Vaseline Lip Therapy

by Tina Leonard  
12/05/2006 / Bible Studies

Jeremiah Chapter 7 vs. 9-11

"Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say we are delivered to do all these abominations?"


For the last couple of weeks, I have been studying a lot in Jeremiah. I love reading in the book of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. There is so much information that we can use and compare to things going on in our world today, God flabbergasts me with His Word.

In Jeremiah chapter 40 vs.2-4 the Captain of the guard took Jeremiah and pronounced to him that the Lord thy God had spoken evil upon this place and had brought unto the people as He had said, because they had sinned against God and had not obeyed His voice, therefore wrath came upon them in the consequences of their sin. The Captain of the Guard (Nebuzar-adan) whose name means "Fruits, Prophecies and/or judgment" came to Jeremiah to tell him that this thing had come upon the people because of their disobedience. He then tells Jeremiah, "Now behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand." Jeremiah was a prophet to the body of Christ, and a prophetic judgment came upon the people that he mourned for because of their lack of concern of the importance of being faithful unto God. Now Nebeuzar-Adan told Jeremiah that he would look after him if he followed him into Babylon if it seemed well to follow him, but he said "forbear" meaning wait till you know for certain you are going where you are led and not where you want. He tells him that all the land is before him that wherever it seem well for him to go, and wherever it be convenient for him to go there. In other words, be patient in your decision making of where you are to step next, however as long as you stay faithful to God, all the land is before you. He has a place He wants you to go with Him, but if you choose another place, it is still before you and He will still bless you. God said wherever you walk you will take blessing with you. Are you faithful to Him to receive that blessing?

There were two that Jeremiah went to Gedaliah "meaning Yahweh=great", Ahikam, "meaning brother of support or helper". He went with them and dwelt in Mizpah (vs.6)

Mizpah "meaning=look out or watch tower). Isn't it funny how Yahweh is in reference to Jesus and Ahikam is that of support or helper which is what the Holy Spirit is unto us, and shouldn't we as Christians be dwelling on the watch tower on the look out to warn those who are being misled by watered down doctrine and false teachers? Regardless of how people look at us are we not supposed to stand up and look out with the help of our Father in Heaven using wisdom and discernment to test the spirits by that of which all is taught?

In vs. 13 Johanan (Meaning God is merciful) tries to warn Gedaliah what Ishmael (meaning God will hear) was going to do to them and asked that they let him kill him privately but they would not let him. Later after the warning, it was too late but the people did not even know that Gedaliah had been slain until after two days of his death. (41:4). You see many times God is merciful and He hears our prays when we have repented of our sins that we so often commit. He hears our prayers and our cries, but grace is not there so that we may abound and many times we wonder why we still must suffer consequences after we have repented. What we don't recognize is that many times we don't repent until we are already walking in our consequence, so even though God is merciful, and forgiving we must realize that on that second day, when we experience his mercy, sin has already killed a certain area of our life. That is where the restoration from God is applied to our hearts. It's best to heed the warning from the Word of God and stay faithful to His mercy so that the wages that come from sin, we don't have to face.

Now in 41: it mentions four men who were concerned about Gedaliah, they came from "Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria" which means (The shoulder of God is great; watch) Ishmael misled them and slew them and casted them into the pit. (41:7).

God wants us not to be ignorant to the wiles of the devil, for if the devil can mislead us he will, that is why God says, "my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge). We must be aware of our surroundings, and our teachings. We cannot believe everything that is preached and taught from pulpits, we have to line it up with the Word. If it doesn't line up with the Word it is a lie.

Now I want to skip back to Jeremiah 14 vs. 2-7

"Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee."

Now the Word says here that Judah "mourns" and Judah means praise. A little further you see where they sent little ones for water. Many churches today, including those operated by younger Pastor are expecting young Christians to be able to bring fresh water. Many young men who are teaching in churches today have not gone through the proper growth process that the Bible encourages before going off and teaching others. So they return void of proper teaching and understanding because they have been placed in a position to try to stir others up emotionally and lack the humbleness and love of others which causes many of them to go back to their friends in the world. "THE GROUND IS CHAPT".

The ground represents the foundation of the body, which here says was chapt. Meaning cracked, because of a drought that was caused by lack of the fresh flow of water. The plowmen - the workers - the Pastor and Teachers, Apostles, Evangelists and Prophets were ashamed and covered their heads. The hind, those who are hungry for feed (New Christians or others who were unsaved) forsook it because there was no grass. The church today has a field that lost souls have forsaken because there is nothing there to feed them what they so hunger for. Instead it seems we have a generation of recycled saints going from one drought to another because the older generation of judgmental, hypocritical church folk are looking for a young lad to pour out an emotional high for those who have no foundation to feel good in their flesh. When they need to be on their face repenting.

The mercy and grace of God is there as long as "My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and I will heal their land."

We must test the spirits and not be ignorant of discerning such false teachers. God wants a generation of ministers to begin to not only acknowledge His righteousness but begin to walk after it by sharing the truth of the Gospel with others free of charge. I find it a sad day when a Pastor who is already "Materialistically well off" wants to charge 150.00 for a sermon series of 6 CD's. I mean give me a break. If they sell it for 20-30 dollars they are still going to make a huge profit and still have money to put into furthering the Gospel. Not only that but if a man is truly of God, he will trust in God to provide and lead others to give unto the ministry as He sees fit. I personally support three ministries outside of my regular tithe because I have confidence in the Word that those men share, and I know they are about the truth of the Gospel. God is our provider!

However, when they begin to use their counsel as a money changing outlet, they have turned the house of God into a den of thieves, and as Jeremiah 14:14 says, "They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart."

If Pastors are sharing a message to massage the sin in peoples lives and only teaching a "God of love" they are going to stand before God with the blood of many children on their hands. (Ezekiel 3:20: Ezekiel 33:6: ) If a person is placed in a position "by God" to lead others onto that straight and narrow, they must teach a God of Love, Mercy and Grace, but also share and teach with them the consequences of sin and disobedience to the Word of God. He is just in His judgment and we will all stand in front of the Judgment seat of God and give an account. I would that our eyes be as Jeremiah (14:17) says "Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grevious blow."

Innocent youth born into the body of Christ are being torn away by the true teachings of Christ, led away by emotional highs and watered down milk. It's time we recognize it's not about quantity it's about quality. It's nice to have a church of 10,000 people. But how many of those people are truly living a sanctified life?

Will we continue to stand in the house of God and live a life of sin without transformation or repentance? We need to realize what revival is all about. Revival is not a time for the "saints" to get fired up and stirred up and jump around and shout and walk right back out into a world and not lead a single soul unto the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Revival is about bringing people into the knowledge of Christ and leading souls to the cross of repentance. Revival starts within' the heart of a true Christian and never ends. It's not something that comes around once or twice a year. Revival is a lifestyle ~ It's like fire shelled up in my bones..my mouth shall never cease sharing the love of Christ with others because that is who I am. Who are you?

My name is Tina Leonard. I have been writing my entire life, but it wasn't until I accepted Christ in 1998 that I began to write for the edification of the body and to bring the rightful Glory to His Kingdom. Feel free to visit my website at www.myspace.com/christisking2.

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