DIVINE PERSISTENCE…I am grateful that God is willing to reach for our attention more than once. Where would we be if we got only one chance to get it right. But thankfully, that’s not the way He is. He brings His truth over and over and over again. In fact, one of the modern theologians calls the Holy Spirit ‘the hound of heaven’, because He is so persistent in His search for people. The name is actually catching on…others are now using it too. There is a very interesting story in the old testament about the prophet Jeremiah writing a word from God on a parchment and sending it to the king. That was the way God instructed and warned people in those days. The king however was perturbed by what he read and responded in an ugly way…
“Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire…until the whole scroll was burned up.” ~Jer. 36:23
I guess it’s safe to say that the king didn’t want to hear that particular word from God. What’s intriguing is God’s response to the kings protest. Four verses later it reads…
“The Lord gave Jeremiah another message. He said, ‘get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned.” ~Jer. 36:27
Isn’t that hilarious. The Lord just kept coming. It’s true today too. Truth just keeps coming! You can curse it, you can burn it, you can run from it, you can even outlaw it, it just keeps coming! Suppressive efforts ultimately fail! In our life-time we’ve witnessed the end of Mao’s cultural revolution, the iron curtain and the Berlin wall. All were bastions of secularism…determined to suppress the gospel message. All are now gone! This gospel must truly be important…His Divine Persistence isn’t showing up again and again for nothing. ~Verlon
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According to the World Health Organization, hunger is the gravest single threat to the world's public health.[1] The WHO also states that malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.[1] According to the FAO, starvation currently affects more than one billion people or 1 of 6 people. [2]
ReplyDeleteThere is a story in Luke:14:12 "When thou makest a dinner or supper, call not thy friends, nor thy bretheren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors;"
Luke 14:13 "But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: They cannot recompense thee: For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection."(KJ)
These are words of Christ himself....There is another story where the apostles ask Christ why a Good God can let befall disasters upon man...(a collapse at a construction site killed some good men)...The question is not what God, but what man has done with what God has given with, and is enough for all? Is it not? I am Proud, not with pride, but with Grace..To be part of a group of Christians that have given 200 meals this week past to those that Christ has directed..Recompense monetarily not forth coming too...Were it possible to get 5 billion to give enough to feed the other 1 billion there would be no hunger...I see this not as God's fault, but ours......20 million die annually....We are a church of 100 feeding twice our number per week...Were it I wish all of mankind could do the same...Thank You for your Devine Persistence