"They turned their backs to me and not their faces"

"My People have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns,

broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Jeremiah 2:13

Have you not brought this on yourselves

by forsaking the Lord your God

when he led you in the way?

Jeremiah 2:17

Your wickedness will punish you;

your backsliding will rebuke you.

Consider then and realize how evil and bitter

it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God

and have no awe of me,

declares the Lord,

the Lord almighty.

Jeremiah 2:19

As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,

so the house of Israel is disgraced- they,

their kings and their officials, their priests

and their prophets.

They say to wood, 'you are my father,'

and to stone, 'You gave me birth.'

They have turned their backs to me

and not their faces;

yet when they are in trouble, they say,

'Come and save us!'

Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?

Let them come if they can save you

when you are in trouble!

For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.

Why do you bring charges against me?

You have all rebelled against me,"

declares the Lord

Jeremiah 2:26-29

Most people when they read about

how Israel turned their backs on God, probably think..."Oh..those stupid...stupid..israelites"

After all, we read it over and over again in the Old Testament.

God blesses Israel, Israel loves God,Israel turns to other gods

and forsakes the true God, God punishes Israel.

How could they easily forget all God had done for them?

how freakin stupid can they be?

I use to think the same thing

until I asked myself one simple question..

"How freaking stupid can I be."

I am just like everyone else, I'm far from being perfect.

I think we might want to take the image out of our

heads of bowing down to a little hand

carved Idol, sure we don't do that...

However don't you think putting anything above God..

your car...your phone...games..tv..ect ect..

don't you think that would be considered an "idol"?

You can't honestly tell me you haven't put God

aside for something else,

and anything we put before/above God.. is essentially our God.

Our God is a jealous God..He wants to be first in our life.

Don't get it twisted either...I'm not saying you can't

enjoy the things you have/want but putting them first in your

life is not the way to go, if you want to please God that is.

In a nut shell Israel became to proud,

they thought they could take care of themselves,

and they thought they didn't need God.

They thought they could ignore his commands,

ignore how sinful they have been, worship foreign gods,

and still worship the one true God.

When God said, "they turned their backs on me,

but not their faces"

He's saying they stopped listening to what he wanted,

and started doing what they wanted to do

essentially putting God up on a shelf and only taking

him down when they thought they needed him.

You see, they didn't stop "worshipping God"

They just turned him into a ritual,

just a little song an dance.

they ignored what God commanded,

what God wanted for them.

You can't live in sin and do whatever you want to do

and expect to be a vessel for God.

We are suppose to live for God not for ourselves.

Israel wanted to fit in with everyone else..

they wanted to do what everyone else was doing

and still be blessed by God,

and it doesn't work like that.

are you telling me people don't do that today?

"Christians" today are so much better then the israelites were?

If anything we are even more stupid, we

have the very word of God in our own hands, and we read

"They turned their backs on me but not their faces"

and we do the exact same thing!

It seems as generations pass the more the word of God changes,

and it's not that the word itself actually changes,

it's that the "followers of God"

twist words and meanings around to fit their own desires

or they just completely ignore something the bible says is wrong,

and then say

"oh well..I'll do what I want...Jesus forgave me i'm good"

If you think I'm nuts just look at my freakin generation,

sex out of wedlock use to be a shock, it actually use

to be looked down upon, and now it's a shock if you

haven't had sex by the time your 18.

Divorced use to be shocking,

now it's shocking if you have parents

that are still together.

Adultery use to be shocking..

Being gay use to be considered wrong,

and they use to hide in the closet...

but now they are proud and in your face with it,

and you are looked down upon if you consider it

immoral like the bible itself says it is.

My generation is a generation not shocked by anything..

the moral code flew out the window a longtime ago,

what's right for you is right for you, and anyone who thinks/

says different is "out of touch" a "hypocrite". Instead

of those that choose to live in sin being called out,

and told they are in the wrong, those who go against

the grain are the ones in the wrong. After all..

It says in our own bibles do not judge...

God loves everyone right? so how dare we

stand up for what God himself said is wrong...

How dare we profess what we believe in..

How dare we even open our mouth...right?

What is my point in all this?

The more the world around us becomes corrupt,

the more the times change, and things that are wrong are

accepted...it seems the voice of the christians faith

becomes silent.

As I've stated about sex out of wedlock and so on,

there are plenty of "Christians" who have no problem with that.

There's "Christians" who support gay marriage and abortion

ect ect...don't think it's insane or far off that pretty soon

being gay and a "Christian" will be as normal

as not being gay and a "Christian"..

and again please don't get it twisted, I'm not saying God doesn't

love gay people or he doesn't love you because you

had sex out of wedlock or blah blah blah..

God loves the sinner but not the sin, and

what I'm trying to get across is not about Gods love.

It's about the "christians" or the people who say they are

christians who choose to continue doing

whatever they want and they think it's ok....

and for those who don't take a stand against what is wrong.

If you don't want to stand up for God and his word,

all because you don't want to be persecuted...

how in the hell can you call yourself a faithful servant..

We all have a choice, and it's either we choose to please

God or we choose to please ourselves and really that's all it

comes down to. You can't please yourself and then say "I please God"..

and thats putting it simply.

Now the israelites would struggle,

maybe they lost a battle or maybe

they were going through a famine or whatever, the point is

they would live how they wanted to live, and be surprised

when good things wouldn't come from it.

They would ask God "why have you forsaken us"

but in reality, it was they.. who chose to forsake God.

It was they... who chose to please themselves

to conform to the world around them,

to worship other gods and live/enjoy their sins...

It would be like( and this is extreme but follow me)

if I, who claims to be a "good upstanding citizen" went out and killed

some random person, and then when I get thrown in prison

ask everyone "Why have you thrown me in prison"...

When if I was a true upstanding citizen,

I would know why I was their,

and I would ask for forgiveness and

accept the punishment that was justly do to me for

committing the crime.

OR

saying I'm a "christian" and then I decide

to go sleep with a prostitute,

then I just so happen to get aids, and then I ask God

"Why have you given me aids" when he didn't tell me to

go sleep with a prostitute...I chose to do that, I have

only myself to blame...just like the israelites only had

themselves to blame.

I'll leave you with what James White had to say about Mr.Obama's

speech, it's 43 minutes long...but I urge you to listen..

because just as Israel did, you will see just how far

America has fallen..

†..Confidence in Christ..†

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress,

I will never be shaken.

Psalm 62:1-2

There is so much negative in this world, it seems we

are constantly battling just to keep are heads above water.

Too many distractions, too much fear and stress placed upon us.

I'm sick of the media hype and fear, it's disgusting really...

and just turning on the local news with their fake smiles,

and negative news reports, one right after the other.

It all just makes it so clear why so many people

are so stressed out, and search for things to cope.

The truth is we shouldn't worry..

what exactly do we have to "fear" or "worry" about?

I mean seriously, I know it's not easy at times,

but think about it..

God has a plan right? everything happens for a reason right?

God knows all and sees all correct?

You don't think anything that happens in this world shocks him do you?

like he didn't see it coming?

I'm not saying be oblivious, and think everything is all

unicorns and rainbows when obviously it's not...

but wake up! God is our rock..never will he leave us or forsake us

when struggles come,what does worrying and stressing help?

If only we can see past the(pardon my french) "shit storm"

and realize if we just put our trust and faith in God,

everything will work out for the better.

Most of us have no problem being confident in our faith

when things are going great, but you see... that is not when you prove

your faith. You prove your faith when everything is going all wrong, like Job.

I urge anyone who reads this...have confidence in the Lord your God

at all times! He created you the complex being that you are, and

the entire universe, surely nothing you are going through

is to big for HIM! (or to small mind you)

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God,

you will receive what he has promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36

I would also like to share these videos from an amazing man of God

named Nick Vujicic, He has the faith and passions for Christ each and

everyone of us should have.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give

you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come

and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all

your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Gods Chosen People

So I'm feeling the need to explain the symbol on the main page

of Rev22-12.com, the cross in the middle of the star.

<---------------------------------

Now the star, that is the star of David, a symbol or

rather one of the symbols of the Jewish faith,

and the symbol that is on the Israeli flag. It's not a pentagram..

or some kind of satanist symbol with a cross in the middle.

A pentagram is 5 sided and points downward, and is usually

used in occult/satanist rituals.

So you may be asking yourself...why? what's with the use

of a Jewish symbol? First let me say I have nothing

but respect for the Jewish faith and culture, after all

they are Gods chosen people. I don't think I'm alone there either,

because there're plenty of "Christians" who support Israel and

the Jewish people.

However, there are those who twist words around

in the bible, and there are those who just believe that God

essentially has given up on the Jews and now those who follow

Christ are his "chosen people".

I don't know about you, but I don't view God, nor does his word

make him out to be somebody who gives up on anyone.

The Jewish people are still his chosen people, and Israel

is still their homeland. Yes the Jewish faith was and is

based around doing works to earn Gods grace, it's based

around following the law, and they don't believe Jesus was/is

the messiah. There are those who actually do recognize

Jesus as the messiah however, and there is a lot of

them finding Christ to this very day,

and we must pray that more do.

God's not going to give up on them, why should we?

In the end when it comes down to it we are worshipping

the same God, God didn't change from

the old testament to the new

he is was and always will be the same.

Just because we know Christ,

that doesn't make us better then anyone, and just because

they are Gods chosen people doesn't make them better either.

The message remains the same...God loved us all equally and

He gave of HIMSELF so every single one of us could spend

eternity with him! so sin could not dominate our lives!

First for the Jew, then for the gentile. I didn't just come up with that, no!

it's in your bibles!

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God

for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the jew,

then for the Gentile(or Greek, meaning anyone not Jewish)."

Romans 1:16

Don't get it twisted, I'm not saying Jewish people

are better or are more deserving of Gods grace,

just as we are not more deserving then they.

I think Paul was trying to say that the word of God

came first to the Jew, God chose the Jewish people to work through, they received the word and what was to come

before the Gentile. The Old Testament is proof of that,

as God took the Israelites/Jews under his wing,

He chose Abraham and his line to be his people..

for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession

Deuteronomy 14:2

Did God choose them because they were better?

Did God choose them because they were deserving?

No...God chose them because he chose them..

they are not deserving, just as we are not deserving.

The Jewish people received Gods word, that being the Old

Testament, they were the care takers, they were the

first to be told a messiah would come.

The Old Testament isn't just a bunch of mumbo jumbo

that doesn't matter anymore, It is the foundation

of our FAITH. The Law isn't a nice thought to follow,

that God just put together, Just because Jesus saved us

from our sins, Just because we are not under Law but

saved by Grace doesn't mean we ignore the Law.

For if it wasn't for the Law we wouldn't know what sin was,

If there was no Law, there would be no sin, hence

no transgressions and we wouldn't need salvation

through Jesus Christ.

You see, I believe far to many people today look at Gods Law,

look at the Old Testament as a nice "sentiment"..

to many people, because of their personal view of

the New Testament, they think everything is sunshine

and lollypops. They think God is love, and don't get it twisted

of course he is Love, but that's not all he is.

Too many people do whatever they want and they ignore

their sins and transgressions and just simply say

"I'm saved by Jesus...and all I need is Jesus,

he saved me from my sins"

and he did! Amen! but that doesn't freely give us the right

to continue living in sin! Going back to the Jew,

they may be blinded in thinking they can earn Gods grace,

and that they can follow the Law, but Christians

are blinded in thinking they don't freakin need the Law!

Together we can learn from each-other about

Faith,Love, and most of all GOD.

In closing the symbol of the Cross and Star of David..

It's about a unity with our Jewish brother and sisters,

It's about love for our ONE God.

It's about standing side by side and learning from one another

It's about standing up for those who get kicked around,

and it's about standing up for Israel.