"Our ABBA Is Not Temporary" - 05/29/17 - Jeremiah 51-52

"He burned the Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down." (52:13)



There are a few FB groups I belong to where persons post pictures of places, things that have been abandoned.  Whenever seeing such places I instantly think about all the memories, good and bad, that filled to the brim all that is now empty. 

After reading today's verses, I looked up at the ceiling fan spinning on its slow cycle and thought about how quickly the decay of nature, if allowed to run its course, would stop the fan, rot the ceilings out and it would most likely end up on the ruined floors. 

There are times when I am in town working and think about it is only boards, drywall, etc. keeping persons within those walls, separated from the world outside.  Often times the homes are sitting only the width of a room apart.  How quickly we can easily feel safe and secure in those walls we call our home. 

This morning as I read about the destruction of The Temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, the taking of many lives, and some being taken as slaves to a foreign land, I kept thinking how many of them had probably felt invincible within the walls of the city gates.  The beautiful walls of The Temple.  The walls of their homes. 

It would only take a moment for our world to be destroyed as we know it. 

Today we recognize and give thanks for all the men and women, their families who have sacrificed for the freedoms we embrace living in America.  Instantly there are persons within my family whom I know firsthand came back changed from their experiences of the wars they fought in.  No longer were they innocent young boys.  I can think of those I know who have been in the trenches and still, there is a haunted look within the center of their eyes they try to keep hidden from the world. 

War was not in our ABBA's original design of this world. 

Free choice was though and He knew we would need a Savior from the Spiritual Warfare going on about us until our Savior comes again, because we would choose sin over Him during different times in our lives.  He knew we would need The Ultimate Sacrifice and gave His only Begotten Son for us. 

For us.   

 So coming away from reading this morning, He asked me, "What are you working for?" "What are you sacrificing for?". 

The things of this world, which shall be destroyed or The Kingdom Come, which is for Eternity.

 

In a way only He could do, when we become less in working for Him, we are filled up completely. With Him. Much as He did as a cloud in the Temple.

But when you are working for self or stuff - the void is never filled.

I ask you - what are you working hard for?

"The harder you work at this empty life, the less you are."(51:58)