And Rend your Heart...the Wayfarer 6/3/14

And Rend your Heart

  6/3/14

“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of evil.”

(Joel 2:12 & 13)

As the days pass, continually revealing the corruption of various governments, and agencies of those governments, that were initially intended to be benign and productive for the people they were set up to serve, indignant words are spoken, empty promises made, soon to be forgotten by those making them, and hoped to be forgotten by those to whom they are made.

Shows of purported anger are made in hopes that there will be no recognition of the fact that what has been ignored by them and known by them from the beginning, and encouraged by both lack of action and apathetic lack of leadership are used to attempt to show a commonality with the ones whose true anger has been there all along… denied to continue the policies that enrich those in power, and denied to assure the continuity of  that enrichment so that still other empty promises may not be seen in the light of day.

There is always a great show of “rending of garments” made by those who make no apology, admit no wrongdoing of their own, and who fear only the exposure of the falsity of their “garment rending”.

Blame is assigned to others, shifted to minions incapable of defending themselves from the power wielded by the ones on whom the blame and blemish truly rests.

Crimes against those supposed to be served are covered with denial of those crimes, delay of those committing them being exposed for what they are in hopes that death will claim those wronged and that the dirt will once again be swept under the rug, allowing the powerful to retain and abuse their power all the more.

Repentance is a word foreign to both the leaders and the led committing those crimes.

Hearts remain hardened and unrepentant for anything other than the possibility of exposure of what they are.

Instead of turning to God, they turn farther from Him. Any consideration of grace or mercy is belittled and laughed at; any anger is ignored while the very kindness given is also denied the source from which it derives.

As this occurs, it is not only the nations and leadership that attempt to make a mockery of God, His mercy, His kindness and benevolence toward His children, but those being led join wholeheartedly in the propagation of the lies and deceit replacing any true righteousness that would require repentance and admission of the failures of themselves as well as those they taint with those lies and deceit.

Hearts remain firmly fixed on illegitimate gain, and illicit actions to attain that gain so desired by both the leaders and the led.

Just as in the days that Joel was given prophecy to salvage the nation and people of Israel, just as his cries went unheeded by that leadership then, so too do nations and their peoples continue on a path of destruction they need not be on.

“Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

let the priests , the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?”

(Joel 2: 14-17)

Just as in the time of Joel, the time has come once again to remind all of the possibility of having God to bless and to sanctify all who are willing.

The trumpet is sounding loudly all about us; the call has been issued to the elders. The importance of teaching the children has been once again sounded for all to hear, as they are being led off to a slaughterhouse with the lies and deceit of the ungodly.

Time has come to gather the people, God’s people together once again reminding them that they are God’s people, not their own or the possessions of their installed powers.

It is time for the priests and ministers to be the priests and ministers they were called by God to be. It is time for them to put off the teachings and guise of righteousness assumed for monetary gain or fame or whatever earthly thing they seek in place of serving the purpose intended of them by God.

The heathen have gathered and are already asking the question of where our God is.

Instead of the ready and complete answer of right here among and with us, those professing to be God’s people join in with the same question, never trusting that He alone is in control, and that He alone will be honored and served despite the replacements being offered in His place by so many.

“Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”

(Micah 3:9-12)

God is not and will not BE mocked! The time is upon us to make the choice that decides the direction to be taken, not only by individuals and nations, but to be taken by an entire world created by and for God alone.

That choice has already been made, for most, the final chapter has been written for all.

There is no longer a place for go along to get along.

Once more I state, either you is or either you aint!

Both Joel and Micah offered hope to their people.

Hope is offered also to GOD’S people today. That hope is attained only through being God’s people, not just making the claim and turning back to the same proclivities that created this mess to begin with.

That hope is not to be given through any prophet, as it was from these two old timers, only to be reiterated as it has been given BY JESUS!

That hope cannot begin nor can it even be perceived without having first heard and acceded to the simple but complex message preached throughout His ministry:

“Repent: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

That hope will not be fulfilled by the promises of politicians, or the feel good philosophies taught and preached so widely, but may come only after that repentance of also accepting and acceding to the single commandment left us, following through on the commission given us to teach what He taught, and to remind any willing to accept it of the promised salvation for those who truly believe and endure.

It is time to remember the words of another old prophet who said:

“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts that your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55:6-9)

Instead of seeking the “rewards, and compensations” of this world honoring the thoughts and ways of the men leading that are incapable of anything less than corruption  and vile abomination, it is time to see the thoughts and ways given us by Jesus for what they are.. the promise of hope that can only begin if you rend your heart instead of the garments rended only for show that offer only whitewash on sepulchres that still are only the receptacle of dead and decaying flesh and bone.

There is a soul within that flesh and bone, while air is still breathed, choice is available, while air is still breathed, and the promise is given to the living of continuing to live, with the alternative promise of what is to come if death is chosen in its place.

It is far better to rend a heart and live than to rend garments and collect the money only to find how worthless it is at the judgment.

“And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

(Revelation 22:12&12)

I close once more, still only the simple sinner saved by grace through faith in the one that is that Alpha and Omega, my Lord and savior Christ Jesus, still the living Son of God, still offering that promise of hope to all.

I remain also the soldier sounding the alarm as the gates are attacked from without and within calling all into the preordained battle that rages daily for the souls of those still breathing.

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer