“If you want to come back, O Israel, you must really come back to me. You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia and not wander away from me anymore. Then you can say words like, ‘As God lives . . . ’ and have them mean something true and just and right. And the godless nations will get caught up in the blessing and find something in Israel to write home about.” (Jeremiah 4:1-2 The Message Bible)
Today’s message is specifically for you in one of three ways, at a minimum. You know my saying by now, “God always sends a specific message by a specific messenger to a specific people for a specific purpose at a specific time.” Today is no exception. For there’s a specific message for believers, those who have strayed from the Lord, a little or a lot, in spite of a revival that is taking place; a revival that calls for a long-lasting reform of our lives to take place; a revival that will save lives, save families, save communities and save a nation that is falling away from God, God’s principles, and God’s congregation, His house of worship. There’s also a message for the faithful that says, “Keep the faith! Stay where you are, in the Lord.” Finally, there is a message for those who have been seduced by secularism. For those individuals, there is an evangelizing message to counter their sinking from standing out, their shutting down their light shining character, and have swayed away from acknowledging by word and deed that God is God, and one should not put anything, anyone, or any lifestyle focus above Him. Without a need to say it, I am impelled to say it anyway: “You already know the way that the Lord is specifically talking to you this Tuesday morning. You already know the specific message that has your name on it! You already know that there are others who need to read this meditation and ascertain what God wants them to hear.” We just have to have a sense of urgency and get the message to the latter. That is our job. So, after you have read this, please pass it on! Listen! You will not be meddling in anyone’s life, rather you will be “messaging” in someone’s life. You will become a sent, specific messenger with a specific message for others. Where do you find the others? The “others” are in your personal orbit. The “others” may live in your house. The “others” may be those who have not darkened the door of the church for a long time, but you see them all the time. “The “others” may be co-workers who have not conceded that we all need God, and they are those who never reckon with this truth: “It is God who has made us and not we ourselves.” God wants to use you my friend, perhaps like He used Jeremiah in the text above, or perhaps how he wants to use you like He used the fathers from days gone by once, who sent a message to his children, a message that said, “Your father is looking to you and He wants you to come home now.”
The fathers in my childhood, as well as mothers, did not have the advantage of today’s technology that has advanced from beepers to smart phones, from colossus computers to lightweight, compact computers, from large disc to baby-finger size, external flash drives, and from smart phones to smart watches. Yet fathers and mothers got the message to us when we needed to urgently come back home. They got a message to us to get back home, somehow, to come back to the place where we would be saved from those three major enemies: Satan, the secular world, and self. They got a message to us, a message that caused you to come back to a place where your blessings were waiting for you. I personally can remember times when I was told, “Your father is looking for you! He is out in the area searching for you because he urgently wants you to come home!”
God is doing some searching today. The Father, the Heavenly Father desires that His children come home. Think about how He His special love for you, how that incomparable love caused Him to send this specific message to you this morning, and not only you. But He is sending it to others who will be blessed as they believe your testimony that starts out with the words similar to these, “As the Lord lives…” or, “As the Lord is my witness,” or “As the Lord lives, that alone is what causes me to stay close to Him and desire a closer walk with Him.” Figure out what God is specifically saying to you this morning. And then, specifically think of who else needs to hear God’s specific message on this day and forward this meditation to them via email. Be a sent messenger! Do your job! Have a great Tuesday! Have influence on someone’s life! Your father is looking for you to do the right thing as a result of what He has just spoken to you! Love you! Be blessed!
“Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.” (Hebrews 3:12-14 NLT)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King