Jeremiah 51:6 (KJV) Fleeing Babylon

Jeremiah 51:6 (KJV)

Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

 

If Babylon is viewed as typical of the world, I see many applications. I think of Revelation and the warning to Babylon found there; Mystery Babylon is certainly a figure of the one-world system, encompassing its economy, government, and religion. With her, we are referring to all those things of the world that people hold dear.

 

I also think of Lot and his family in Sodom and Gomorrah. They were so attached to that wicked place that, despite acknowledging its wickedness, they didn’t want to leave, even when aware of the impending judgment.

 

'Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul.'

 

I do not believe the Bible teaches that a Christian can lose their salvation. However, I do believe that there is an attachment to the things of the world that can hinder a soul from being biblically saved. Christianity, if anything, is a denial of this world and of the love of it.

 

It’s a choice, really:

 

- The wealth of the world or Christ

- The comforts of the world or Christ

- The philosophies of the world or Christ

- The religions of the world or Christ

 

To come to Christ is to flee out of the midst of the world.

 

#FleeFromBabylon #ChooseChristOverWorldlyWealth #SeekSalvationNotWorldlyComforts #EscapeWorldlyAttachments #FleeToChrist

Fleeing Babylon: Lessons on Worldly Attachments and Salvation.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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Jeremiah 51:6 (KJV) Fleeing Babylon

Jeremiah 50:34 (KJV) Divine Justice

Jeremiah 50:34 (KJV)

Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

 

It is significant, I am sure, that Jeremiah was in Egypt when he delivered this prophecy. Babylon treated him kindly when they took Jerusalem. I wonder if they would have been as kind had this message been delivered earlier.

 

One must remember that, even though Babylon was chosen by the Lord to be the rod that smote Judah, Babylon was a wicked and worldly nation. God gave them grace in men like Daniel and the three Hebrews, but they were expected to repent and turn to God just as everyone else was. Israel became proud, believing that God couldn’t help but bless them. Babylon became proud believing they didn’t need God to bless them. Pride must be cast down either way.

 

If I was of the mind to do it, I could list many of the names of those who the Lord has used to discipline and mold me. In some cases, those people were good men who meant and did well. Sometimes they were proud men who either felt like God would ignore their actions or else could not do anything about their actions.

 

As believers, if we know we belong to the Lord, then we must know that our Redeemer is strong. Those whom God uses to mold us may seem to have gotten away with whatever they’ve done. They haven’t. God will plead our cause in His day.

 

Just look to Christ. God will visit in the appropriate time. Our only responsibility is to stay safely leaning upon the Lord.

 

#JeremiahInEgypt #BabylonsGrace #PrideBeforeFall #DivineMolding #LeanOnTheLord

Divine Justice: The Strength of Our Redeemer

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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Jeremiah 50:34 (KJV) Divine Justice

Jeremiah 48:14 (KJV) Prideful Defiance

Jeremiah 48:14 (KJV)

How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?

 

It is becoming increasingly clear to me how the anti-Christ will gather an army against Jesus Christ, as described in Revelation nineteen. Those lost souls, deceived by the corruptions of their minds and led by the organized attacks of atheist spokesmen, take no time to investigate the case for God. They choose to villainize those who follow and speak of God and grow angry at the insinuations they are accountable to God.

 

Like Moab, their pride has led them to believe they are stronger than God. I think it’s because they believe, or rather, hope He does not exist.

 

The idea that a God they do not believe exists could hold them accountable is abominable in their minds. Their hatred for such a concept creates in them a skewed view of the God of the Bible. Their pride leads them to believe they do not need God. Their pride leads them to believe they have the power to judge the Word of God. Their pride will lead them to believe that, when they finally stand before God, they will have the strength to contend against Him.

 

As to the judgments described in the Bible, Robert Hawker says it, “…hardly needs further confirmation. God’s foes must be accounted with, and destruction must overtake all the workers of iniquity.”

 

Pride will never defeat God. Humility realizes it does not have to try.

 

#PrideVsHumility #GodsJudgment #AccountableToGod #AntiChristSpirit #BiblicalProphecy

Prideful Defiance: The Arrogance of Atheism

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Jeremiah 48:14 (KJV) Prideful Defiance

Jeremiah 44:4 (KJV) Test of Faith

Jeremiah 44:4 (KJV)

Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.

 

I’m picturing Jeremiah as a “lame duck” preacher.

 

His ministry in Jerusalem, from the eyes of men, would have appeared to have failed. 

·       Jerusalem had fallen. 

·       The Temple had been destroyed. 

·       The wealth had been stolen. 

·     The royals and those with lands, possessions, or influence had been carried away. 

·   No one had heeded the Word of God as Jeremiah had preached it.

 

The Babylonians, out of kindness to Jeremiah I think, had left him alone. But that meant Jeremiah was left with the unwanted - those Nebuchadnezzar saw no value in capturing and caring for. It’s not that Jeremiah didn’t preach to them, but they were not the ones who decided whether Judah would hear and heed his message. These were the “undesirables.” Jeremiah tried to preach to them, but they would not obey. Worse, they caught Jeremiah and forced him to go to Egypt with them. The thing God specifically told them not to do.

 

Jeremiah found himself in Egypt, but he never gave up God’s call. These backslidden, stiff-necked, rebellious riffraff began worshipping the idols of Egypt. Jeremiah, in the name of the Lord, pled with them, “do not this abominable thing that I hate.”

 

A man of God proves his worth to the Lord when he continues to preach even when it’s obvious his audience has impeached his voice.

 

#JeremiahsStruggle #LameDuckPreacher #FaithfulToTheEnd #UndesirableMinistry #HeedingGodsCall

Test of Faith: Standing Firm in the Midst of Rejection

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

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Jeremiah 44:4 (KJV) Test of Faith

Jeremiah 42:19 (KJV) Faithful Preaching

Jeremiah 42:19 (KJV)

The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

 

Imagine the tension and stress Jeremiah must have experienced. His task was to see to it that a stiff-necked people had been warned, admonished to obey the Lord. God knew they would not obey, and He told Jeremiah they would not obey.

Here we find the preacher, speaking the Word of the Lord to tell them they had been admonished that day. The Hebrew word means something like duplicated. In other words, they had heard this message again and again.

 

“Know for certain - you’ve been reminded. You’ve been warned.”

 

Sometimes the best we can do, the most we can do, is tell people what God said one more time. In the face of stubbornness and resistance, our duty remains to faithfully proclaim the truth, even if it falls on deaf ears.

 

#JeremiahsTask #StiffNeckedPeople #AdmonishToObey #RemindedAndWarned #PreachingGodsWord

Faithful Preaching: A Relentless Message

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Mark 7:6 (KJV) The Deity Debate

Jeremiah 38:19 (KJV) Weak Leadership

Jeremiah 38:19 (KJV)

And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.

 

Hard times call for strong leaders. Zedekiah wasn’t one of them. 

Jeremiah 38:5 (KJV)

Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do anything against you.

·       He was afraid of the Chaldeans.

·       He was afraid of the Jews who were not afraid of the Chaldeans.

·       He was afraid of the Jews who had surrendered to the Chaldeans.

·       He was afraid of what they had done to Jeremiah.

·       He was afraid to stand up for Jeremiah.

 

It’s never right to do the wrong thing when you know it’s the wrong thing, but in Zedekiah’s situation, any decision would have been better than no decision. The wrong choice would have been to fight Babylon. It’s not a good outcome. It would have cost him and his sons their lives on a field of valor.

 

Zedekiah ended up watching his children slain and then having his eyes poked out.

 

Death would have been better.

 

Had he feared the Lord more than men, the right choice, Zedekiah would have surrendered to Babylon, spared his country, and saved the lives of his children.

 

Fear of God can make a soul strong, decisive, and capable of making the hard choices necessary to lead others safely in difficult times.

 

#FearfulLeadership #ZedekiahsDilemma #HardChoices #StrengthInFearOfGod #LeadershipInDifficultTimes

Weak Leadership: The Tragic Consequences of the Fear of Man

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Jeremiah 38:19 (KJV) Weak Leadership

Jeremiah 37:10 (KJV) Trusting God in All Things

Jeremiah 37:10 (KJV)

For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

 

I've been contemplating this thought: "There are very few true atheists. There may be far fewer true believers." I don't believe there are any true atheists because it is impossible to know for sure that God does not exist. I think, in reality, they are merely agnostics. But from what I've witnessed in forty-seven years of my faith and the forty years of my ministry, professing believers tend to be quite reluctant to trust God for immediate or major (albeit temporal) things. It's concerning that a person would claim to trust God for the most important matter anyone will ever face—their eternal destiny but demonstrate a nearly complete lack of faith for the little things of these seventy-some years we dwell in this body.

 

Notice what God says to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He had warned them that it was His will they surrender to Babylon, that it was His will they experience this time of chastening. God then told Jerusalem, "Even if you defeat the Babylonian army so that there is none of them left but some wounded soldiers, I will still cause them to rise up against you and destroy this city."

 

God is. God often uses people both to reward and to judge. But God is the One at work. He can save by many or by few. He can defeat by many or by few. The fact is the many or the few is of little consequence - because God is.

 

Believing God means trusting God.

 

#FaithOverFear #TrustingGodDaily #BelieveInGodsPlan #FaithInEveryDetail #GodIsInControl

Trusting God in All Things: Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Uncertainty of Human Belief Systems

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Jeremiah 37:10 (KJV) Trusting God in All Things