God Does Say "That's Enough, NO MORE!"

Jeremiah 15: 6 "You who have forsaken Me", declares the Lord, "You keep going backward so I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you: I am tired of relenting!".

There are many details of this study which have been purposefully not mentioned, here. We will be exploring those when we get to the conclusion of the broad topics.  We all know, the direction each could roll out are unending in wisdom.  We only have a few more spaces to cover, prior to excavating in one spot ;) 

Our main focus has been on finding God's intent or purpose, rather than assuming our limited knowledge is all that wise and being mislead. He promised that we could and WOULD understand this.  He also promises if we search for Him with all of our heart, mind and soul we will find Him.  Which makes sense, because if we could not find Him and His Kingdom then we would have no hope of following this verse in Matthew 6:33, 34: But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We have been looking at the grumblings of God's children, His mercy, grace, provision and protection; ultimately His faithfulness even when we are not faithful back.  We are so very 'me' sighted.  We believe that we are not supposed to be made to do without.  Most of the time God wants us to move away from things which He is attempting to sweep out of reach, but we find a bizarre sense of comfort in the things which are enemies to peace with God and His Kingdom, at times.  We paint pretty pictures to veil what we know is real and listen to the voices of others to help us mask the truth.  

I cannot find very many of God's leaders or followers who were not told to leave things of self importance.  God does this for several reasons: He needs to protect things and we need to be able to get away from what is stopping our maturation in Him.  The Israelites grumbled when they did not have creature comforts, even though they were safe.  Did rich food, alcohol and the thought of waking up to the hand of a miserable taskmaster another day really equate to better than this? 

God promised good things and a bright future with Him.  He promises us the same thing.  He also assures us that we will see good things here in this life if we will trust Him:  Yes, Jesus replied, and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.  We cannot help ourselves it seems, we are so ruled by what we crave, how others perceive us, being one of the normal or successful ones, and entitlement that we just go with the popular mindsets.  God warns us that it's enough with focusing on the life of our soul and all that dazzles us into the hands of a miserable taskmaster.  For instance, 1 Timothy 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come."

All through out our lives we have choices to make as a follower of Christ and Child of God.  Do I listen to truth, or do I follow my gut. Look at the following verses where God says to us:

• The heart is more deceitful than all else. And is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the result of his deeds. Jeremiah 17: 9,10 
•  They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:12 

Whether we are willing to be honest with anyone else, we should fear God and be honest with Him.  He has clearly told us what is to come and that we can be saved both in this life and in the life to come.  He has stressed that this life will be difficult but not to fear. We will be taking one last step in this prior to breaking off chunks for deeper study.  I will close out with:

The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it.  Jeremiah 23: 20, 21 

Are you willing....He has done everything else? WILL you lay down your hardness, your ungodliness, your greed, your resentment and many other "little" things (in the sight of an unholy world) and simply go the "right way"?  Mind you, it will be very abnormal to others but it is the normal way we were created to go!.

Think about it, His beloved child, in Christ,

Kisses,

Candace

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.....Until You Shake No More.

How Long......How Much Longer.....I can't hold on much longer!

Have you ever felt like this?  Have you recently felt like this?  Are you feeling like this?

We all do at some point or another.   Days are tough at times and those around us can make us shake to our very core due to their callous natures.  When you feel as if you must run away in order to not fall apart, I pray this will encourage you as it has me from time to time.

Hebrews 12: 1-4, 26-29

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people;^c then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.  For our God is a devouring fire.

When I read " let us strip off every weight that slows us down", I picture the Dior Ja'dore advertisement.  Charlese Theron was walking down a dark hallway, her silhouette in an evening gown as she moves closer she is taking off her jewelry and casting is off then her clothing etc.  We drape ourselves in the things of this world, from thoughts to physical things.  We hoard them, cling to them, fight for them.....why???  

Do you recall Abram and Lot's story?  They cold not stay together the bible says; their possessions were so great that the land could not support them.  Not only their "stuff" but the people it took to upkeep everything they had amassed.   Their herders and all the others among them, even Abram and Lot were quarreling.   Think about how this imbalance must grieve God so much that He trembles.  Think about how shaky we all become when things are stressed.  

In light of all this consider the verses from Hebrews again: When God spoke from Mt Sinai His voice shook the earth.  When we become afraid, we run and hide; sometimes physically, sometimes emotionally.  We go through many things in this life and they shake us.  We must learn to trust in God and believe in Jesus Christ in order that when we shake we do not depend on our own worthiness - at some point we will be put to a test which we will not be able to under-gird.     ^{He will speak again, and everything will shake.  Only those of us who are standing totally dependent on His worthiness will be left standing.  Everything else will have a very great fall.  But then....we will never shake again, it will eternally finished!}

^{Check out Proverbs, the wisdom there is unshakably clear on this subject.  My prayers for us all is that we stop running away from the things which God is putting in our path to get us to cast off some useless things, and that we stick around and cast them off as He points them out.}

With Love,

Kisses,

Candace

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