Jeremiah, the weeping prophet

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity^[and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the Lord.”.....Jeremiah 30

Today is the first time that I have seen this: Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.....This is exactly what I do, writing everything down. And I have loads of notebooks.

Have you ever had the experience of finding yourself in the Word of God? It is such a great feeling of validation. I remember the first time that happened to me, was in the book of Ezekiel, many years ago. It almost seemed as if someone had been looking into my life and written those things down......in other words: someone was reading my mail??

Or how about this: You are sitting in church service and it feels as if the pastor surely has been looking into your life from somewhere. He knows everything going on in your life. Almost every word he says is about what you have experienced.?

Yes, that is God speaking.  He can see everything, knows everything and uses people, especially pastors to speak to us. It makes me feel very connected to God and in the end this is what our hearts are looking for - being connected to God without borders.

The tribes of Israel and Judah where somewhat disconnected from God at the time when God spoke this passage to Jeremiah. They had been disobedient and God had sent them into captivity.

Really, who wants to experience that. It so happens, most of us are at some point.
When we are restored to God by the blood of Jesus, we still have to go through a process of sanctification. Often it happens to be what some call a "dessert experience". It can be a dry season in our lives. Meant to produce a close relationship between us and  God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Paul in the New Testament, on his way to Damascus had this kind of experience. After getting to know Jesus on the road Paul was travelling (then he still was named Saul) Jesus blinded him physically. Now, not being distracted by seeing with his physical eyes, Paul learned to see Jesus with his spiritual eyes. This has produced total obedience to Jesus and Paul was, as I understand it, the most passionate and radical follower of Christ.

In my own life, I have experienced a very long season of dry and hard roads. But I can honestly say, it has opened my spiritual eyes and understanding of a relationship with Christ, which I could NEVER have established without it.
While going through trials, pain and suffering nobody really in their mind wants to say: Thank you God for this horrible experience. But you see, there is something called GRACE which is a marvelous gift of God......well this is a subject for another time.

My prayer today: Father, surround us with Your grace in times of dry roads. Bring us out of the desert by You love and kindness.

Auf Wiedersehen......so long, until next time brothers and sisters. May your road today be fruitful and blessed.