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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“The Lord Almighty has sworn by Himself: I will surely fill
you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph
over you.”
“He made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His
wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. When He thunders,
the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the
earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his
storehouses. He who is the Portion of
Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, including the
people of His inheritance—the Lord Almighty is His name.”
Jeremiah 51:14-16, 19
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
We all sin.
It’s an unfortunate part of our human condition, a flaw in
our DNA that traces back to the first man and woman who ever procreated, Adam
and Eve.
Yes, we are all afflicted but that doesn’t give us license
to sin, particularly when we do it in plain sight of the Lord who hates sin and
doesn’t miss a single thing that we do. Perhaps it would be good if mankind had
a deterrent in place which could serve to keep him or her in check at the
critical moment when they had to choose between doing what is right or wrong. Maybe
they should remember who they are up against.
Thank goodness the Lord was thinking just this when He
provided the words found in today’s scripture passage from Jeremiah 51. Look
again at His words here:
“The Lord Almighty
has sworn by Himself: I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of
locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”
“He made the earth by
His power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His
understanding. When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes
clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and
brings out the wind from his storehouses. He who is the Portion of
Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, including the
people of His inheritance—the Lord Almighty is His name.” Jeremiah 51:14-16, 19
So who is this God we so often decide to challenge by not
turning away from sin?
Our verses for today provide a snapshot, highlighting the
following magnificence and prominence of the Lord God Almighty:
1. He possesses the power to create anything.
“He made the earth by
His power.”
Ask yourself this:
“Who do you know who has the power to form a planet with
their hands?”
Then ask yourself a second question, “Who would want to
anger someone with that kind of power?”
Perhaps these questions alone would make us think twice
before deciding to sin against the Lord who is the “Maker of all things”. He holds
so much power that just a tiny fraction of it could wipe any of us out. We
stand no chance against His might and so we would be well served to not test
Him.
2. He possesses unmatched wisdom.
“He founded the world
by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.”
How many times do people think they are outsmarting the Lord
through trying to hide their sin. They often decide to commit their transgressions in
secret, thinking the Lord will have no knowledge of it but the truth of the
matter is there are no boundaries around God’s understanding. None.
Thus, we never get away with anything under the watchful eye
of a Lord who knows everything.
Why do we even try?
3. He can leverage anything He has created to do His
bidding.
“When He thunders,
the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the
earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his
storehouses.”
When the judgment of the Lord is written about in the
scriptures, we often see it depicted as a storm coming on His people.
So what do you find in a storm? Isn’t it thunder and
lightning and rain?
Now think about the Lord in heaven seeing someone sin and
choosing to cast down a lightning bolt to strike them down.
Don’t think it couldn’t happen. Don’t think it hasn’t
happened.
As for rains that turn into destructive forces, go back to
the days of Noah and ask yourself how devastating rain can be when it is
allowed to fall until the earth is filled with water. Had it not been for the
ark, all mankind would have been wiped off the face of the planet and sin with
it. But the Lord did not wish for that to happen and so He told Noah to build
the ark that would hold him, his family, and a whole menagerie of animals.
There are indeed forces of nature we don’t want to have
leveraged against us and so we had better refrain from sinning or we can face
the Lord doing just that.
So who is this Lord we are up against, the Lord who despises
every sin that is committed?
We’re up against a Lord who holds the power to create which
means He also holds the power to destroy.
We’re up against a Lord who knows everything. Nothing is
beyond His sight and understanding.
And we’re up against a Lord who can leverage all the forces
of nature against any of us on demand.
There is certainly a lot more in the Bible about who the
Lord is and why we had better not opt to attract His judgment but I think we
all should get the point.
For when we comprehend who the Lord is and respect all that
He can do, then and only then will we have the right disincentive to keep us
from sin, the sin He hates, the sin that led Him to sacrifice His only Son so
we could have a chance to live.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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