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Today is Monday August 16, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Jeremiah, chapters 7-10. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this link onto your browser: http://www.imfollowingjesus.com/bible-august-16

Today's Message: The False Church

As I was reading the chapters for today something hit me, God would rather see a desolate country than one full of wickedness. It must be pretty gruesome in His sight if He would rather see nothing than watch those whom He made in His own image destroying themselves. It is sad to see what we are doing to our nations, people will constantly question God and wonder why He allows so much pain and suffering in the world. What people do not realize is that God is not the one causing our destruction, the people are. God is just warning everyone what they are going to be doing and the result of it. Think about it. If you had a husband or wife that was unfaithful, would you continue to welcome them with open arms every time they came back from their affair? Of course not, you would be jealous, angry, hurt, and ashamed, especially when you found out that everyone else knew about it all along. God made us and every person who rejects Him or even worse acts like they know Him, is going to face His wrath. As Christians, we need to be prepared, God's judgment is only beginning, just like He warned Jerusalem of their fall He is warning all of us, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;” - I Peter 1:13.

You know, the culprit to all this destruction is, self, the word self is defined as that which is essential to an individual, in other words, the ego. When people start desiring things that only benefit themselves, that is when the ego kicks in and forgive the expression, all hell breaks loose. Satan feeds off of the ego, the more people he can get to focus on themselves the happier he gets. You know why? He is the master of deception. The more people he can deceive the more people end up in hell. He can care less what happens to the people God created in His own image, he wants to see the greed, the violence, the diseases, and destruction of the world. In today's chapters God is warning the false church as well as the people who continue to ignore the warnings that judgment is coming. “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these....Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.” - Jeremiah 7:3-8, 16-20. Pay attention to these verses here, God is talking about the Catholic church as well. Yes, the Catholic church is deceiving the people. They view Mary as the queen of heaven, this is false.

I grew up Catholic, but never understood much about the religion, I never took catechism so I was not allowed to go up the the altar and receive communion or do much of anything in the church. My mother taught me some things, since she had gone to a Catholic school, but since she was divorced she was not allowed to do much of anything either. When she found out that many of the things she had been taught were lies it saddened her, even now it does because she realizes that some of her family may not be in heaven. She encourages herself be saying, they all have their last rights before they die so they might be in heaven. Curious, I looked up the information on last rights and found something disturbing, while they do communion and confess some sin to the priest, the person does not actually talk to Jesus and ask to be saved. They are being deceived into thinking that if they confess some sin and do communion there is the hope of eternal life. The truth is unless they asked Jesus to save them there is no hope of eternal life. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:10. And this is what God is talking about, not only with the Catholic church, but all false churches.

A lot of people are going to defend their false churches and God's warnings as they did in Jerusalem when Jeremiah tried to warn them. The people considered Jeremiah's preaching far too narrow-minded, so they would not tolerate this prophet of God. Through Jeremiah, God continues, “How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.” - Jeremiah 8:8-10. God is asking them how can they be wise in His Word when their scribes (transcribers) have changed the meaning of them. The vain pen is those whom have changed the meaning of God's Word by re-writing the Scriptures. This is seen in all those books trying to explain the Bible, e.g. the Sunday Missal, the Book of Mormon, New World Translation, etc. All wisdom comes from God and those who reject the very Word of God by reading substitutions are being foolish. It's time to get rid of that substitute trash that is used as a replacement of the True Word of God and get used to thinking for yourself from His Holy Word, that is where true wisdom comes from. Now do not mistake a sermon or Bible study as a substitution for God's Word, these are guides to help you understand, not a replacement, one still needs to read His Word to know Him personally.

Incidentally, if one does not know Christ, he will never truly understand the Word of God, it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can understand His Word and the only way to receive the Holy Spirit is by accepting Christ as your Savior. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” - Acts 2:38. By the way, do not be deceived, once you are saved, it is eternal and no one can tell you that you do not have eternal life. It is forever no know matter how many times a person sins. Praise God! There is hope for all, before Paul was the great evangelist that he was, he was against Christians and even would have them killed, but God can get anyone to repent and turn to Him. Praise God!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and have a great week.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version.
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