It’s Easter week and I’m feeling grief, heaviness, and repentance. SO grateful for Jesus’ sacrifice and redemption—but there’s more…
Earlier this week I felt led to Mark 4. I didn’t make it past verse 2. Then I was moved to Matthew7.
Matthew 7:28-29 says, “the people were astonished at His doctrine (G1322): for He taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes”.
Jesus had a doctrine. He set Sadducees straight in Matthew 22, and demons in Mark 1:27. When the people saw they said, “with authority He commands unclean spirits and they obey Him!”
Demons obeyed Him. I couldn’t help but ask, “Why don’t we?”
After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, He began to set some things straight. Turning over tables He proclaimed, “My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves”. Later He cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit. He challenged the Pharisees, told parables of who will, and will not, make it into His Kingdom and He told of His return.
I then felt directed to Jeremiah 7. There are too many things to take note of individually, so I’m placing the entire chapter here for convenience:
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.’
5 For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.
12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
33 And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.”
These things are written for our example. (See 1 Corinthians 10) But sometimes they read like what we witness in our churches today!
As I was pondering the words written, I heard Matthew 15:8: “This people draw nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
“LORD, Forgive!!”, was my immediate response.
Then The Lord instructed me to write:
“The functions of the American church are corrupt at their foundation. How can someone build, and not collapse, when the corners are unfit, unsure, and corrupt?
I AM the Chief Cornerstone, yet they place freedom, prosperity, and free grace to commit fraud and treason there. They lie and soothe by manipulation those who are weak and blind. Trust Me, I KNOW who are Mine and I WILL lead, guide, and protect from ultimate ruin those whose hearts are set toward Me, yet deceived. But those who from their very beginning see “church” as a business model, whose fame makes them rich with goods and notoriety alone will suffer the loss of ALL things in the end. Do not be persuaded by their shiny offerings of fellowship—RUN from them! Their destruction will come suddenly and without repent.
I AM The LORD, The King, your Most Holy Redeemer. Draw nigh unto Me and I WILL draw nigh unto you and your house. Keep Me FIRST in ALL things. Avoid conflict when in your power to do so—otherwise I WILL justify. Heed the warnings, save to mind ALL that is good and HOLD FAST to My Hand. I AM coming and reward is coming with Me to ALL according to MY TRUTH, not their imaginations. Thus saith The LORD on High, Jesus, The Christ. AMEN.”
To everyone who reads this: Please see the Truth laid out in Jesus’ final days on the earth. We hear chapters 26, 27, 28 of Matthew every Easter. This year, PLEASE take time to read chapters 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and ponder what Jesus was saying on the first Easter week, His Easter week, so long ago in Jerusalem. It STILL applies today.
LET’S BE ALL HE PAID FOR US TO BE, IN HIM!!
