.... Dear people of God, I was literally in tears as I prepared this message today. Looking out at the Body of Christ, and especially at the leadership- not with a critical eye, but with an aching heart- I am weeping with the prophet Jeremiah, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the Spring of Living Water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13).
I pray as I give this message that it is received by believers as their hearts are reaching out to Christ in the most sincere way, that they- WE- all of us together- would seek nothing but His Own Heart at this very moment...
In the passage here, God's heart is grieved as He watches His own people seeking after other things than Himself. He knows that only HE is the true spring of living water. He created man with an unquenchable need for Him, and we were designed in a way that we require Him ultimately and Him alone. He knew that nothing of our own devises would ever satisfy the genuine longing that He put in our heart for Him, yet here He is, watching His beloved children attempt do just that...
Now Jeremiah, as you know, was called 'the weeping prophet' because he could actually feel the pain in God's heart for His wayward people, as he was constantly calling them back to Him. It was a very deep, intimate calling that Jeremiah had. It was also very intense and painful, but it was God's call on his life, and he was faithful in it throughout his life. "They have forsaken Me, the Spring of Living Water, and have dug THEIR OWN cisterns- BROKEN cisterns that CANNOT hold water".
What was a cistern for? For holding water! What can you do with a broken one? Leaving God and going our own way, even in 'small areas' in our life, will always prove to be a 'broken cistern'- always!.....
I have watched as some of Christan ity's leaders today- people who probably started out with a passion for Christ and Him alone, falling prey to the 'good life', the 'comfortable life', the 'way of least resistance', or the 'prosperous' life.
They got a taste of the gold, and slowly began to go after it, then they began to run after it, then to crave it. They have forgotten their Lord, though they use His name all day long! They have dug their own cisterns, and all the while God's heart grieves for them! Look at Israel throughout the old testament- starting with God's promise, then bragging that "we will do all that the Lord our God has told us!", then falling away and following their own devises- again and again and again. Turning their backs on the very One who would gladly have given them all their heart's desires if they would only seek Him... yet their God would bring them back every time, many times through extreme pain and suffering....
I'll tell you that today's new believers are being cheated! How will they grow in grace? How will they stay passionate about their Savior when God's 'leaders' have gone their own way? Where is the proclamation of the cross? Why won't God's ministers preach Christ as He is, not as we would have Him? How will the Savior's wonderful Presence ever come forth, when His preachers are more interested in manufacturing their own cheap imitation of it? Who are they fooling?
Beloved, the world TODAY needs to see Jesus! Not our own impression or imitation of Him, but HIM! He is here, and He is here now! Covet His Presence in your life, and covet to have the grace to show Him to others. Only He can heal this lost world. Look only to Him.
1 Thessalonians 1:5-7
"For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia." ...
What a beautiful clip of scripture this is! Once again Paul is telling his converts plainly, honestly, and humbly, that he had, from the beginning, presented the gospel to them as it is always meant to be presented- 'not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost'.
Now, 'in power' and 'in the Holy Ghost' are really the same thing. The Holy Spirit always comes to us 'in power', be it for salvation, comfort, Word of Wisdom or Knowledge, rebuke or whatever- because He is, as are the Son and the Father, Almighty God.
Paul also adds, 'and in much assurance'. This assurance that he speaks about comes from the knowledge that the Spirit of God is backing them up, as He always will as we faithfully and accurately give out His Word. Paul also presented the Word 'in much assurance' because, as we've seen in previous studies, he had received his commission from Christ Himself, and he KNEW the gospel!
He wasn't presenting worldly programs, graphs, charts, schemes or promises of health and wealth. Remember, back when Christ apperhended Paul's life on the road to Damascus, the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, hadn't revealed Himself to Paul as an idea or a philosophy or as a system of do's and don't's- He simply revealed Himself, and that is exactly what this lost world desperately needs this very hour- the pure revelation of Christ!
The Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us, and He wants us to know and realize the state that we are in (all of us, as individuals helplessly lost in sin) so that we will cry out to Him and receive both ;forgiveness of all our sins, and from that moment on- uninterrupted- eternal life.....
Paul also mentions the way he had behaved before them, and how as a result they became followers of him, and of the Lord, and 'receiving the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost', they actually became examples to other believers.
Beloved, this is contagious Christianity! Nothing less than the Holy Ghost backed preaching and presenting the resurrected Savior will do. Paul knew this, and his followers knew it..... May the worldwide body of Christ in this hour also know it.
En Agape,
pastor Jim Ewing
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