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Habakkuk 1:5 - "Look among the nations and watch — Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. NKJV
God says, "Be utterly astounded!" The Hebrew word could also be interpreted "Be amazed, or be astonished". What are we to be astounded, amazed or astonished by? The answer is a work of God? Wow! How familiar does that sound? God is doing a work that blows our mind.
Of all God's works which one really blows your mind? Would your question be about the creation of earth, or birth of humans, animals, stars, planets or galaxies? Would it be about how He developed the human body (the eyes, ears, brain, heart, and spirit, etc)? What "work of God" would you want Him to speak about and enlighten you?
God has ordained that the Chaldeans/Babylonians were His instrument to exercise judgment upon Judah. In case you don't know why God is doing this it is because of Judah worshipping the Chaldean's gods aka Baal and others. Hab. 1:6-7 - For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves…." This is more than Habakkuk can handle. He basically says to God, You can't do this. You can't use the Chaldeans/Babylonians for they are wicked, very wicked. Your eyes are too pure to watch the atrocities they will commit. He is not wrong that they are wicked and even God says they are terrible, dreadful and arrogant people. He then asks God a question we have probably all wondered about at one time or another: Hab 1:13 - Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? God why do you let wicked, evil people devour the righteous? I don't understand. Why don't You get involved and put a stop to this unrighteousness. I speak only for myself when I honestly admit I have asked God this same type of question that is being asked by the prophet Habakkuk. God what are you doing? Why haven't You stopped this nonsense that is going on in the world?
However, because He uses the wicked doesn't mean we have to participate in their wickedness. It is still up to Christians to be the light of the world. In Isaiah the Lord asked a question "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" The prophet Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send me." If we don't like God using the wicked then the best thing we can do is live a righteous life and ask the LORD to send us. The best way I know to defeat evil is to convert them. Have you seen the Lord working through you lately? Think About These: God does things His way because His way is always right. You have no idea how many people God wants to influence through you. John 11:40 - Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" Are you seeing the Glory of God today? Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word
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Gen. 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
If you take a basic Theology class one of the characteristics of God that you will learn is that it is in His nature to create. So His nature hasn't changed because it can't change. Therefore, I believe God is still creating things.
In other words, the world or universe has been made "from nothing or ex nihilo".
I am sure we can agree that God has really done an amazing job of creating things "from nothing". Imagine what He could create using us? I always find it very interesting when talking to certain Christians when they share their life stories. Some people just turned their lives over to God early on and said, Here I am Lord use me. This reminds me of Isaiah who said it this way: Isa 6:8 - Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah was saying go ahead Lord and use me. Take this man and create something out of him for Your service. What could God create with you today, this week, this month or this year? When David prayed he asked God to create a clean heart within him. Are you in need of God creating a clean heart within you? Ps 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God, God says in Isaiah and the book of Revelation that He is going to create a new heavens and a new earth. I hope that all who read my Pump Ups will get to enter into the new heavens and earth that God is going to create in the future. Isa 65:17-18 - For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. 18 "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;… Think About These: Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next. Heaven is a state of thankfulness for having received what we didn't deserve, and for not receiving what we did deserve. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Jere. 26:8-11 - When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You must die! "Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant'?
….Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, "A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing." NASU
I can say without a doubt that Jeremiah was a man of God and he discovered that serving God brought with it some very painful situations. He was a Prophet of God, called to be a prophet before he was even born. Jere. 1:4-5 - Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." NASU I can guarantee you that he didn't believe his life was a piece of cake because he was a servant of God.
You obey God and the end result is suffering for you. This is what happened in Jeremiah's life. The very people Jeremiah was sent to help were the ones that wanted him dead. The people the prophets were sent to help would be the ones who either made their life very miserable or they killed them. Here is a conversation Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees about killing the prophets sent by God - (Mt 23:30-31 - 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." NASU) Jeremiah was an obedient man of God, but it caused him a lot of grief. You may be a servant of God today and have lots of grief. If you do, don't let your thoughts get you to doubt your calling. Don't be led down the path that God must not care about you or He certainly would not allow this suffering in your life. He called Jeremiah and told him exactly what to preach and who to preach this message too. Jeremiah did exactly as he was told and he was hated by the priests and the false prophets. Their hatred was so great they wanted him to be killed.
I mean do you have any enemies like Jeremiah? They want you dead and have a plan to end your life. The answer to that question for most of us would be "No". When I read what Jeremiah was going through I laugh now at what I had to endure in the ministry. I had people lie about me, misquote me, and God forbid the false accusations about my motives. Hello! Could you imagine me sitting down with Jeremiah and telling him how hard my ministry was? I can actually see this person who I visualize as Jeremiah rolling on the ground laughing. When he stops laughing he says to me, "Really, that is all that was done to you? They didn't try to kill you at anytime? Jere. 38:10 - Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies." NASU They were literally trying to kill this man of God. Why? He was doing what God had asked him to do.
Think About This: As long as your conscience is your friend, don't be concerned about your enemies. 47 years ago today (2/2/75) I was baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of my sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you have not been baptized as an adult please make this a priority in your life and as always I am always here to help you accomplish this act of obedience to God's Word. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word John 4:23-24 - "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." NASU
You will notice they never ever quote a book chapter and verse after that statement. When you look at the passage above you will see it doesn't say, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him can do it any way they want." That is not even close to what God says. God's Word says, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him MUST worship in spirit and truth."
In Exodus 24:1-2 - Then He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. 2 "Moses alone, however, shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him." God was informing Moses there was a correct way to worship Him and an incorrect way. If any of those other men would have tried to follow Moses and worship God by being closer to Him they would have physically died.
'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'" As you can see there were some who were worshipping God, but Jesus states that their type of worship was in VAIN. Their worship was totally useless, empty, void of meaning, and it served no purpose other than making God angry. Jesus went so far as to call them hypocrites and He confirmed what Isaiah had said about them around 750 years earlier when Isaiah said, "…But in vain do they worship me…" Brothers and sisters, let me encourage you to worship God in "spirit and in truth." Don't think for a moment you can worship God any way you want and it will be okay. That is simply foolishness to anyone who has ever read their Bible. John 17:17 - "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." In order to worship God in Spirit and in Truth as John has informed us, we will need to spend time reading His Word. What I have found many times is people read and believe other books about the Bible rather than reading and believing the Bible. You and I are responsible for reading the Word of God, praying to God, asking Him to help us understand, and discovering the true meaning of those verses. I pray you will know God is seeking you because you are seeking Him in spirit and in truth, and His Word is the Truth. I hope you are reading God's Word and growing closer to Him each day. Think About This: Truth Angers Those It Doesn't Fully Convince. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God’s Word Jere. 26:8-11 - When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You must die!" Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant'…. Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, "A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing." NASU
I can say without a doubt that Jeremiah was a man of God and he discovered that serving God brought with it some very painful situations. He was a Prophet of God, called to be a prophet before he was even born. Jere. 1:4-5 -Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." NASU I can guarantee you that he didn't believe his life was a piece of cake because he was a servant of God.
You obey God and the end result is suffering for you. This is what happened in Jeremiah's life. The very people Jeremiah was sent to help were the ones that wanted him dead. The people the prophets were sent to help would be the ones who either made their life very miserable or they killed them. Here is a conversation Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees about killing the prophets sent by God - (Mt 23:30-31 - 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." NASU) Jeremiah was obedient to God, and it caused him a lot of grief. You may be a servant of God today and have lots of grief. If you do, don't let your thoughts get you to doubt your calling. Don't be led down the path that God must not care about you or He certainly would not allow this suffering in your life. He called Jeremiah and told him exactly what to preach and who to preach this message too. Jeremiah did exactly as he was told and he was hated by the priests and the false prophets. Their hatred was so great they wanted him to be killed.
I mean do you have any enemies like Jeremiah? They want you dead and have a plan to end your life. The answer to that question for most of us would be "No". When I read what Jeremiah was going through I laugh now at what I had to endure in the ministry. I had people lie about me, misquote me, and God forbid the false accusations about my motives. Hello! Could you imagine me sitting down with Jeremiah and telling him how hard my ministry was? I can actually see this person who I visualize as Jeremiah rolling on the ground laughing. When he stops laughing he says to me, "Really, that is all that was done to you? They didn't try to kill you at anytime? Jere. 38:10 - Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies." NASU They were literally trying to kill this man of God. Why? He was doing what God had asked him to do.
You may not receive any rewards here on earth, but the rewards God promises us in heaven will make us forget about all the suffering we have endured while here on earth. Think On This: As long as your conscience is your friend, don't be concerned about your enemies. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word |
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