Thought of the Day !!

Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the Lord says:

“O Israel, my faithless people,

    come home to me again,

for I am merciful.

    I will not be angry with you forever.

Only acknowledge your guilt.

    Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God

and committed adultery against him

    by worshiping idols under every green tree.

Confess that you refused to listen to my voice.

    I, the Lord, have spoken!

                   Jeremiah 3:12-13 (NLT)

Jeremiah is told to give this message to Israel, but as I read it today I saw the same message for us here in America.  So many of us have lost our way.  People who were brought to church as children have turned elsewhere in adulthood to find meaning and purpose. Many have sought these things in other gods such as drugs or gangs.  Others have sought the gods of power or more and more money.  Still others seek the pleasures of multiples sexual partners.  There are many more “gods” in our culture that we can seek on a daily basis.

Israel sought the gods of their neighbors.  At times they even went as far as sacrificing children to the god of Molech.  How far they had fallen from the one true God.  And how far we have fallen from the same one true God when we seek our life’s purposes elsewhere.

BUT…if we will listen to Jeremiah’s message there is hope.  God says that he won’t be angry forever if they (we) will only acknowledge their (our) guilt and in essence turn back to Him.  What we have now that they did not have then is the sacrifice of God’s Son for the forgiveness of sins.  We know now that if we will change from the ways that are contrary to God’s will for us that all will be forgiven. 

Maybe you have not placed your whole life in pursuit of some other god.  Maybe there are, however, some gods in your life that are trying to make their way up the ladder in your list of priorities.  Seek those out today and ask God to give you the strength to put them down and to find your complete meaning and purpose and joy in Him.

In the love of Christ,

greg