November 14, 2011
He says, "I will soon hand over the city..." Jeremiah what I told you is going to happen, IS going to happen. And the reason it IS going to happen is because the people have done the things I said were wrong since their youth. They worshiped the things they built instead of worshiping me. Instead of turning towards me and listening to me and following my commands, they turned their back to me and refused to listen or follow my commands. I tried Jeremiah. I tried over and over again, "But they wouldn't listen or learn." They replaced me with themselves. But Jeremiah, you have one thing wrong. You are saying it is because of war, hunger, and terrible diseases that the city will be handed over. That's not why, Jeremiah. It's not their circumstances, it's not that at all. It isn't the consequences of the battle. It's not that either. It wasn't chance Jeremiah. It was ME. I forced them out "because I was furious and very angry with them." It wasn't happenstance Jeremiah. It was ME.
The God who brings punishment is also a God of forgiveness and hope. "I will bring them back... they may live in safety... (they) will be my people and I will be their God." "I will make them truly want to be one people with one goal. They will truly want to worship me all their lives, for their own good and for the good of their children after them." I will never leave or turn from them again. "I will make everything as good for them as it once was."
What a promise. What a way to live!
Tomorrow I get to write about Jeremiah 33. But before I write about Jeremiah 33, I want to share about some thoughts that have been running through my mind.
I have been behind on everything for many years. My office responsibilities for our business, the joint project we began with my sister and brother-in-law, our responsibilities at church, watching grandchildren and visiting our daughter in AZ and OH, assisting elderly parents, assisting my husband's brother through his cancer treatments... and the list continues. Our responsibilities can become overwhelming. Yet, somehow I feel like I am the most caught up I have been in many years. I still have a few things I need to do, but for the most part everything feels under control. I'm even planning on making the personalized Christmas stockings for everyone. I've had the material since 2006 and there has been no time to even think about making them before now.
So, what is going on? Why does everything seem to be coming together? I told Mom last night that maybe the lawsuit was ready to heat back up. I said the same thing to my husband last night while talking together in bed. But then a new thought entered my mind. Maybe God was helping me to get everything under control so He could prepare me/us for what He wants us to do next. That was a totally new thought, yet it made complete sense. You can't be ready to move forward with whatever God is preparing you for if you are bogged down with the past. The thought of what God could be preparing us/me for is humbling, scary, and exciting all at the same time. Yesterday, one of my Sunday School girls from years ago, asked me if I would be willing to share the story of Jane with some of the students at her college. I told her I was ready and willing to tell God's story at any time or place.
Her question ran through my mind as I started to think maybe God is ready to move us into what He wants us to do next. Those thoughts brought me to my knees—literally. I got out of bed and headed up to the loft. There in the very room where most of these journal entries have been written, I knelt down and surrendered my life to God's will—again.
We have done nothing to protect our assets. Our faith and trust is entirely in the LORD. He either shows up or we fail. Either the truth is exposed and we are freed, or their lies are allowed to prevail and we lose everything.
The words of an old hymn is running through my mind.
Addendum:7/16/15 ~ How interesting to be recording this entry now. It's July 2015, and I have to ask the same question as I originally asked in November 2011. "So, what is going on? Why does everything seem to be coming together?"
A lot has happened in the four years since I originally asked that question. My husband's brother passed away; last year we moved my husband's parents to an Assisted living Facility and then later a nursing home; my husband and I cleaned out their home of 65+ years by ourselves; and we are now handling all their personal affairs. Our responsibilities were overwhelming at times and very time consuming, but once again in spite of all of that, and in spite of how busy we are with our business, church, and family matters, I am once again completely caught up and organized. On top of being caught up with office work, my in-laws are finally settled and we just found out we will no longer be needed to teach Sunday School classes since the format has changed and they are joining the middle school classes into one big group. Twenty years of teaching—over.
Wow! Talk about being released from tremendous time constraints! So, then you really wonder, "So, what is going on? Why does everything see to be coming together?" And again, the thought came—maybe the lawsuit is going to heat back up. And once again, I came back to the same conclusion. We are not being "freed" from responsibilities and I am not caught up with my office work because we are once again going to be buried in major lawsuit junk. In the past, when the lawsuit was at its worst is when God kept us the busiest doing Kingdom work and helping others. No, that isn't why everything is falling into place. I believe God is preparing the way for our next step, the next turn in the trail, the next mountain we are to climb.
Next Entry: Jeremiah 30:1 – 33:26 (Continued)
He says, "I will soon hand over the city..." Jeremiah what I told you is going to happen, IS going to happen. And the reason it IS going to happen is because the people have done the things I said were wrong since their youth. They worshiped the things they built instead of worshiping me. Instead of turning towards me and listening to me and following my commands, they turned their back to me and refused to listen or follow my commands. I tried Jeremiah. I tried over and over again, "But they wouldn't listen or learn." They replaced me with themselves. But Jeremiah, you have one thing wrong. You are saying it is because of war, hunger, and terrible diseases that the city will be handed over. That's not why, Jeremiah. It's not their circumstances, it's not that at all. It isn't the consequences of the battle. It's not that either. It wasn't chance Jeremiah. It was ME. I forced them out "because I was furious and very angry with them." It wasn't happenstance Jeremiah. It was ME.
The God who brings punishment is also a God of forgiveness and hope. "I will bring them back... they may live in safety... (they) will be my people and I will be their God." "I will make them truly want to be one people with one goal. They will truly want to worship me all their lives, for their own good and for the good of their children after them." I will never leave or turn from them again. "I will make everything as good for them as it once was."
What a promise. What a way to live!
Tomorrow I get to write about Jeremiah 33. But before I write about Jeremiah 33, I want to share about some thoughts that have been running through my mind.
I have been behind on everything for many years. My office responsibilities for our business, the joint project we began with my sister and brother-in-law, our responsibilities at church, watching grandchildren and visiting our daughter in AZ and OH, assisting elderly parents, assisting my husband's brother through his cancer treatments... and the list continues. Our responsibilities can become overwhelming. Yet, somehow I feel like I am the most caught up I have been in many years. I still have a few things I need to do, but for the most part everything feels under control. I'm even planning on making the personalized Christmas stockings for everyone. I've had the material since 2006 and there has been no time to even think about making them before now.
So, what is going on? Why does everything seem to be coming together? I told Mom last night that maybe the lawsuit was ready to heat back up. I said the same thing to my husband last night while talking together in bed. But then a new thought entered my mind. Maybe God was helping me to get everything under control so He could prepare me/us for what He wants us to do next. That was a totally new thought, yet it made complete sense. You can't be ready to move forward with whatever God is preparing you for if you are bogged down with the past. The thought of what God could be preparing us/me for is humbling, scary, and exciting all at the same time. Yesterday, one of my Sunday School girls from years ago, asked me if I would be willing to share the story of Jane with some of the students at her college. I told her I was ready and willing to tell God's story at any time or place.
Her question ran through my mind as I started to think maybe God is ready to move us into what He wants us to do next. Those thoughts brought me to my knees—literally. I got out of bed and headed up to the loft. There in the very room where most of these journal entries have been written, I knelt down and surrendered my life to God's will—again.
LORD, I want to bring Honor and Glory to YOUR name. Whatever YOU want me to do, I WILL do it. I don't have great abilities, but I am available for YOU to use me however YOU see fit. I'll go where YOU want me to go. I'll do what YOU want me to do. My hands are open, LORD. I surrender ALL.It;s amazing to look back over our lives and see what all God has done. In man's eyes, some of what has happened would make no sense. If you look at the situation we are in, a lawsuit against us which puts our home and business at risk by seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars, the "natural" or logical thing "man" would do is to try and protect assets by transferring things to other people's name, hide things, etc. That is exactly what my sister and brother-in-law have done. But we have done none of that. In fact, we are more exposed today than we were when the lawsuit first began. Everything is on the line. We are out on the edge—totally exposed. God has now positioned us to be even more at risk now than we were when the lawsuit began. Simply amazing.
We have done nothing to protect our assets. Our faith and trust is entirely in the LORD. He either shows up or we fail. Either the truth is exposed and we are freed, or their lies are allowed to prevail and we lose everything.
The words of an old hymn is running through my mind.
"Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand."We choose to stand with our only hope being our Solid Rock.
Addendum:7/16/15 ~ How interesting to be recording this entry now. It's July 2015, and I have to ask the same question as I originally asked in November 2011. "So, what is going on? Why does everything seem to be coming together?"
A lot has happened in the four years since I originally asked that question. My husband's brother passed away; last year we moved my husband's parents to an Assisted living Facility and then later a nursing home; my husband and I cleaned out their home of 65+ years by ourselves; and we are now handling all their personal affairs. Our responsibilities were overwhelming at times and very time consuming, but once again in spite of all of that, and in spite of how busy we are with our business, church, and family matters, I am once again completely caught up and organized. On top of being caught up with office work, my in-laws are finally settled and we just found out we will no longer be needed to teach Sunday School classes since the format has changed and they are joining the middle school classes into one big group. Twenty years of teaching—over.
Wow! Talk about being released from tremendous time constraints! So, then you really wonder, "So, what is going on? Why does everything see to be coming together?" And again, the thought came—maybe the lawsuit is going to heat back up. And once again, I came back to the same conclusion. We are not being "freed" from responsibilities and I am not caught up with my office work because we are once again going to be buried in major lawsuit junk. In the past, when the lawsuit was at its worst is when God kept us the busiest doing Kingdom work and helping others. No, that isn't why everything is falling into place. I believe God is preparing the way for our next step, the next turn in the trail, the next mountain we are to climb.
*****
Somewhere during these last years, I realized a new truth that I was unaware of before. And that is that we all tend to view others through our own eyes. Simple concept, I know, but I had never really thought about it before.
If you are an honest, upright person, you believe that of others as well. That is why we would have never dreamed in a million years that my sister and brother-in-law could purposely and deceitfully set out to harm us and that they would try to manipulate situations to their advantage. Our minds just don't work that way and so it was hard to come to terms with the facts—their actions were intentional, conniving, and deliberate.
The reverse is true as well. If you are someone who takes advantage of others you assume everyone else is doing the same thing, so you try to get the "upper" hand and be in control. This is how my sister and brother-in-law responded. They said they filed this lawsuit as a defense against us afraid that we were going to go after them. Because of their trickery and underhanded methods, we would have had a legal "right," but because of our belief system we NEVER even considered it. We wanted to separate ourselves from any kind of business relationship with them, but not once did we consider any type of legal action. But because their minds think that way (because of their own choices, behaviors, and actions over many years), they assumed we would be like them, so they went on the offensive. The honest person naturally thinks well of others. The dishonest and unethical person accuses others, often of their own faults.
We "thought" we knew them. We "thought" we were like-minded in our beliefs. But the truth is, the way my sister and brother-in-law think, and the way we think and approach life, is as different as night and day.
Next Entry: Jeremiah 30:1 – 33:26 (Continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment