Thoughts for another day

Aug. 26, 2011

Today's verse: Jer. 7:19. Am I the one they are hurting?” asks the LORD. “Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame.” (New Living Translation)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

The men God put on earth for whom He created it, found new ways to hurt Him.  From the start they always distressed the Lord.  Adam sought to be like Him and fell from Grace and was bundled on to the earth.  The ground was cursed and became unfertile; able to grow crops only after much effort.  Everything God had envisaged for man whom He loved dearly, was lost because men desired to be like God.  As one generation moved into another they found new ways to vex God.  They even denigrated Him to a position outside their sphere of devotion, even denying His existence and shifting their focus on things their hands made and on cults that emerged from their feral imaginations leading to some highly depraved practices of utter sexual decadence and disdainful behavior.  Men even seduced things made by God like the stars and the sun, and worshipped them to God's utter disgust and grief.  God in His immense love and mercy kept calling them back, but they ignored Him as do the deaf to a call. 

If you look at the annals of history, you'll learn of the sordid saga of a creation most beautiful, metamorphosing into a creation most disgusting.  Our Scripture today pertains to one such point in time in man's history, a time when a nation separated by Him for Himself, also betrayed Him and went after outrageous imaginations their minds conjured.  They gave themselves to foolishness and total decay.  God is hurt as He utters the Words of our Scripture today for He knows that when they hurt Him, they hurt themselves to their shame; and history in our Bibles show us how dreadfully they were hurled away from their land and cast aside for they had deserted God and so God had moved away from them. 

In our times too, we've moved far from God and we're depraved much more.  Erotic symbols are worshipped and gods of 'men' and things that are simply obnoxious are idolized and adored; intimacy between people of the same sex isn't considered taboo though it's an abomination unto God.  Men and women revel in unbridled immoral practices while the powerful, literally suck the blood of the weak.  Ah, when God looks down what does He see?  The whole world caught up in vile thoughts of their immorally fertile minds and mind you, God is still asking, 'AM I the One they're hurting…?'