*GOD* ALMIGHTY WAS, IS, and EVERMORE SHALL BE; EVERYTHING exists through HIM, and FOR HIM! HE IS PREEMINENT OVER ALL & EVERYTHING, and point blank it IS ALL ABOUT HIM...
HE IS LOVE, therefore, it is ALSO ALL ABOUT LOVE, which like HIM, has no beginning, no end, and holds ALL & EVERYTHING TOGETHER according TO HIS WILL & PLAN...
WE have been CREATED BY *GOD* IN LOVE for GREAT reason and PURPOSE, though we take this selfishly, twisting our role IN HIS WILL towards our own gain, in which case, gain will become loss...
THE LORD OF ALL CREATION LOVES us SO deeply that HE came as CHRIST JESUS to SHOW us what we have such a difficult time taking to the heart, and soul, and to SAVE us from ourselves, and HIS enemy who IMAGINES power OVER us by binding us to our wrongs, and the Earthly doom of death! THE LORD IS LORD EVEN OVER death, and yet, the free will which HE HAS given to humanity, sees TOO many chained to it, as they selfishly, and arrogantly ignore HIM, HIS WILL, HIS WAYS, HIS WORD TO revel in their allotted time, and fulfill the desires within their hearts...
There is a tendency to ignore HIS WORD, which WAS WRITTEN FOR our BENEFIT, that we might TURN TO HIM in our allotted time, and BE LED through this valley of deception, lies, falsehoods, and which IS slated to be destroyed eternally, but which is full of the kind of enticements which appeal to the human SO much a great number have NEVER known THE LORD *GOD*, except in passing...
Because of the age-long refusal of HIM, the world is corrupt, troubled, and teeming with woes, and sorrows of every kind, as LOVE HIMSELF HAS been tossed aside in favour of what pleases the body, the mind, the emotions, the senses of the lost, and HIS enemy just adds coals to the fires, which one day, THE DAY OF THE LORD, WILL see a great travesty of TOO many humans being bound TO said fires eternally!!!
DESPITE all this, THE LORD *GOD* ALMIGHTY, since then TO this very day, STANDS IN LOVE, and GRACE, and MERCY, letting ALL KNOW IF they should decide to TURN TO HIM, HE WILL BE their LORD, and they HIS people...
It is NEVER too late for THE LORD *GOD* IS JUST, GRACIOUS, and MERCIFUL; it IS HIS nature, and HIS WILL!!!
1+++“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD,
“Who execute a plan, but not Mine,
And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin;
2+++Who proceed down to Egypt
Without consulting Me,
To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh
And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3+++“Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame
And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.
4+++“For their princes are at Zoan
And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.
5+++“Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,
Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”
6+++The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev.
Through a land of distress and anguish,
From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent,
They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys
And their treasures on camels’ humps,
To a people who cannot profit them;
7+++Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty.
Therefore, I have called her
“Rahab who has been exterminated.”
8+++Now go, write it on a tablet before them
And inscribe it on a scroll,
That it may serve in the time to come
As a witness forever.
9+++For this is a rebellious people, false sons,
Sons who refuse to listen
To the instruction of the LORD;
10+++Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;
And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,
Speak to us pleasant words,
Prophesy illusions.
11+++“Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,
Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12+++Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Since you have rejected this word
And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,
13+++Therefore this iniquity will be to you
Like a breach about to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,
14+++Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,
So ruthlessly shattered
That a sherd will not be found among its pieces
To take fire from a hearth
Or to scoop water from a cistern.”
15+++For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,
16+++And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,”
Therefore you shall flee!
“And we will ride on swift horses,”
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
17+++One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;
You will flee at the threat of five,
Until you are left as a flag on a mountain top
And as a signal on a hill.
18+++Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.
Nor can we avoid the dreadful consequences of adding sin to sin, but by making the righteousness of Christ our refuge, and seeking for the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
Men have always been prone to lean to their own understandings, but this will end in their shame and misery. They would not trust in God. They took much pains to gain the Egyptians. The riches so spent turned to a bad account. See what dangers men run into who forsake God to follow their carnal confidences.
The Creator is the Rock of ages, the creature a broken reed; we cannot expect too little from man, or too much from God. Our strength is to sit still, in humble dependence upon God and his goodness, and quiet submission to his will.
The Jews were the only professing people God then had in the world, yet many among them were rebellious. They had the light, but they loved darkness rather.
The prophets checked them in their sinful pursuits, so that they could not proceed without fear; this they took amiss. But faithful ministers will not be driven from seeking to awaken sinners. God is the Holy One of Israel, and so they shall find him. They did not like to hear of his holy commandments and his hatred of sin; they desired that they might no more be reminded of these things.
But as they despised the word of God, their sins undermined their safety. Their state would be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Let us return from our evil ways, and settle in the way of duty; that is the way to be saved. Would we be strengthened, it must be in quietness and in confidence, keeping peace in our own minds, and relying upon God. They think themselves wiser than God; but the project by which they thought to save themselves was their ruin. Only here and there one shall escape, as a warning to others. If men will not repent, turn to God, and seek happiness in his favour and service, their desires will but hasten their ruin. Those who make God alone their confidence, will have comfort. God ever waits to be gracious to all that come to him by faith in Christ, and happy are those who wait for him.
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