The Holy One calls to me this morning. America, the land that I love has become like a foreign land to me as corrupt leaders have taken up and seemed to have stolen the highest offices in government. Not unknown to Adonai and never outside His Sovereign "permissive will", they have brought chaos and changes to our land alien to our guiding principles and values. Thereby symbolically fulfilling the description of us living life in a land of exile on our earthly journey, far from the good (but not perfect) land we have experienced in the recent past. His words to me this morning, challenge me to seek His purpose in what He has allowed:
"I have given you a taste of ungodly government. Understand My purpose and pray for your land of exile".
For the Christian whose heart is fixed on Eternity, this land (whether good or bad) is not our home. No matter where we pitch our "tent" here on earth, we are just passing through. When things are difficult it just serves to remind us of the bottom-line truth: we are created for and promised a homeland beond our wildest imagination.
The Lord calls me to read it again and apply its directive to life today.
Jeremiah 29: 4-7: "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all of those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in numbers there and do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city (land) to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers so will you."
Tucked into this message is a picture of God's world view and His purpose in the world: His people, carried by Him into a land not their own with a commission and a command to live and prosper there. A quick read of the text brings a revelation of God's Will for us in this temporal life experience.
God moves His people into foreign places (whether neighborhood, communities or really foreign lands) to represent Him to the world around us. We lose His perspective when we wall ourselves off and isolate to live out all our "doomsday-prepper" scenarios. We may not be as "radicalized" as some but the walls between us are as fixed as the barbed wire around the compound.
What gets defeated in the practice of judgement and isolation is the Heavenly war for souls; those precious to the One who gave all men the breath of life, and the One who died that all may live in the Eternal Presence of Holiness.
There is great news for us as believers within the "Great News" for the world at large. The "Great News" for the world is that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, JESUS, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM (as the Son of God, what He did for us through His death and what He made available for us through His resurrection) WILL NOT PERISH but WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.
Within that great news of eternal life is the promise of His presence in the temporal world as well. God can and will make a distinction in the lives of His people. (Malachi 3:18) But may we never lose sight of His reason: That the world will see Him in us, and desire to join the family and community of believers in the one true God and His Son Jesus.
This is not about a bank account or all the "fixins" of a gilded life. The Gospel must be as true here as it is in 3rd world countries, just relative to our surroundings.
I pray for peace so that in each trial that WILL come, others might come to know His peace through my life and example. I pray for prosperity so that as I am taken care of by my Lord, others will come to know the security of His provisions through my life and example.
There is always an opportunity to pray for our land of exile. Opportunities abound in the land of exile to represent Christ to the world around us. The question to each one of us who "know" the Lord is: "Will we take them?"
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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