There are some things you just cannot make-up especially when you are reading the Bible. When God gave me this assignment October 2021, I welcomed it with open heart. At this writing it is October 9, 2022. I am fast approaching a year of taking on this assignment. I knew that God wanted to show me some things. Graciously, I have also realized that God really wanted me to get to know Him more in a deeper way. He knew he had my attention. He knew he had my heart. He knew I knew He does not like sin because of what it does to us. Sin is destructive in our lives. However, I believe God wanted to impress upon me the deep, deep seriousness of sin and its impact on our lives.
I believe when God sees our hearts, he knows those hearts that are bent towards Him. Conversely, God knows those hearts that are not. It is often said when we see in the Bible repetitive words that Jesus or God repeats, it means we really need to take notice of what He is saying. It has importance and significance. It is not something to brush or pass by. We need to stop and take stock of what God is saying.
Words have meaning. In my journey of reading some of these words that we see repeated often are, “Truly, truly and Verily, verily: spoken often by Jesus. We read them often in the New Testament. However, I am reading the Old Testament. I have seen the patterns of the children of Israel constantly turning their back on God. Moreover, I am reading Ezekiel 16 and verse 23 quickly caught my attention because I had NEVER seen, “…woe, woo unto thee, saith the Lord God.” KJV. That gave me pause and I realized I needed to write about this.
I thought about our lives. God loved Israel, but they lived defeated lives. They had blessings and times of peace. Invariably, throughout the Old Testament they called wrath into their lives because of their disobedience. They were not living an abundant, victorious life God wanted them to have. He wanted Adam and Eve to have it. Tragically, they took their eyes off God. Unfortunately, they paid attention to Satan and struggled after that. Again, there is nothing new under the sun/Son. This is relevant today. We have a choice to embrace the abundant, victorious life God has promised us through Jesus Christ. Or, we can choose to keep our eyes on Satan’s distractions in the world and culture and experience the woe, woes of life. Love & Blessings!