By: Rev. Juha Ketola, ICEJ International Director - Fri, 30 Jan 2015
(All day) +0100
Hey Good Buddies: On
several of our trips to Israel we were blessed to visit the Christian Embassy
in Jerusalem and rub elbows with some folks that are blessed to have a handle
on what is really happening in the Middle East and, especially in their own
country. Since those visits we have
stayed in close touch with the Embassy by receiving frequent messages
pertaining to pertinent things that are happening.
This morning this message came through and, as I read it, I
felt you should also have the opportunity to read it. I believe it is a very clear overview, in a
few words, of what is truly coming down in their back yards. Due to the length of the article I have cut
it in half and will send part today and the rest tomorrow. I would strongly recommend that you take the
time to run down all the Scriptures and get a handle on what the writer is
truly saying to us.
For many years I confess I very seldom ran down the
Scriptures that were highlighted in articles which I read and then one day I
did and was saddened by what I have been missing all these years. Hey good buddies, be advised that the airways
are filled with rhetoric that is the opinion of religious gurus who think that
know what God is saying through His word.
There is only One true source – The Word. I feel this article is important, because Ketola
bases all of his remarks on the Word, the literal Word.
Now, he has done the leg work, the research and the writing
for you and invested hours of his time to put it together. All you have to do is take advantage of his
work, (I read the article, followed every Scripture and even did some cross
referencing and it took less than an hour).
With that preliminary challenge, shut off the electronics
and get your mind in gear and dig in:
The ICEJ Prayer
Initiative
Throughout time and
history, nations and individuals influence God’s hand as He forms their lives
and destinies in His created world. Their choices determine their experience
while journeying through this life, as well as where they will end up after
their last breath has been breathed on earth. The response from the heart
towards the Lord our God determines the future – both in time and eternity.
We are now in the year
2016 and, in the light of God’s Word, we want to evaluate, discuss and see what
lies ahead for us as nations. This will equip us to pray according to the will
of God and He will hear us (1 John 5:14-15).
Molding a vessel
The word of the Lord came
to the prophet Jeremiah to go down to the Potter’s House, since there He would
open Jeremiah’s ears and cause him to hear a timely word from God’s throne
(Jeremiah 18). So the prophet entered the house and began watching the potter
making vessels out of clay. If a vessel became marred while the potter was
working at the wheel, he began again and turned it into another shape, however
the potter saw good and fit.
Then the word of the Lord
came to Jeremiah: “O house of Israel,
can I not do with you as this potter?” God was reminding Jeremiah of His
sovereignty: As Creator, He alone has absolute power over human beings who are
His creation. He shapes us as He wishes and He is not accountable to us. This
overwhelming sovereignty of God to be able to form and shape individuals and
nations is our hope here on earth!
“It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who
shows mercy” (Rom.9:16). We don’t rely on our own works, but can rest
securely at the center of His good will. In other words, even when we are weak
and sinful, we simply turn to Him who is sovereign and respond to Him in faith
– it is fully within His grasp to take an impossible situation and make life
well again.
The gracious and awesome
God
Even the nations, their
corporate life and destiny can change and be renewed. As the Lord continued
speaking with Jeremiah in the Potter’s house, He reveals His principles and
ways of dealing with the nations. The heart’s response towards God plays a
major role in how, or for what purpose, the vessel in the hand of the divine
Potter finally and eventually will end up. (Jer. 18:7-10). We are told how
obedience to God’s truth will produce blessing and how disobedience to His
voice will bring judgment and destruction.
Through the prophet’s
word, God was warning the people that without repentance and turning from their
evil ways as a nation, judgment would soon befall them. He also said, however,
that with one turn of the hand and the wheel He could alter the shape of the clay,
make it anew to completely transform their impending judgment into a wonderful
blessing (Jer. 18:7-8).
Unfortunately, the people did not repent and disaster came in 586
BC when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed the Jerusalem Temple and took
the people into exile. When we see any nation with an unrepentant heart and
rampant evil, this example should remind us to warn the people, offer the
message of repentance and point to hope.
Thanks to Prophet
Jeremiah we know how to pray for a nation in danger of impending judgment. The question, will the people of America who
are called by His name do so?
Blessings,
Gramps
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