When We Lose Jesus In The Temple

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Beloved believer, I challenge you to take a step back from the media and a step deeper into the Word of God and the pursuit of holiness because if you do, the level of renewed shock that will hit you over the state of our American media will be overwhelming.

It’s amazing really how quickly we can become used to sin. We just accept it. We laugh at it. We roll our eyes at it. We may even be repulsed by it… but not enough to actually change the channel, report the video, or NOT watch the movie.

We have a world that is being rocked by earthquakes, covered in volcanic ash, washed away by tsunamis, slain by blood thirsty swords, plagued by diseases, corrupted by greedy deceitful politicians, with children being orphaned, assaulted, abused, and killed through selfishness, neglect, and sex-trafficking and the front page news is actually wasting space and time to report on supposed transgendered olympians and who Miley Cyrus is locking lips with now.

Really?

The book of Jeremiah was written concerning a time with political leaders and religious leaders quite similar to our present day. Trust me. I dare you to read it and see for yourself.

In the thirty-sixth chapter of this book I read a verse that just seemed to stand out to me in flashing neon…

Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.

Jeremiah 36:24

The background of this verse is that Jeremiah had written down the warning of the Lord to the king and the people of Judah to repent and to return to the Lord. God called out to them to turn away from their idol worship, from their hypocrisy, from their preaching lies, from their greedy gain… and He let them know that if they did not He was indeed sending in the Chaldeans to destroy the city.

There were those who knew God and honored God and who were terrified at this warning and sought to bring it to the king in the hope that he would respond as his father Josiah had done and repent and return to the Lord… but Jehoikim, the present king, was not the least bit affected by the hearing of the Word of God.

As a matter of fact he sliced the scroll through with a knife and tossed it into a fire, completely unimpressed.

We might gasp at his audacity… but really… how many of us in America today, how many of us even IN THE CHURCH, are not impressed with the warning of the Word of the Lord? We read what the Scriptures say concerning sin and we do not tremble. We, like the king and his officials in the days of Jeremiah, are not afraid.

We have forgotten who God is.

We have unlimited access to gaining knowledge about Him. Thousands of studies, programs, conferences, blogs, and videos are at our fingertips. We can learn the Greek and Hebrew of the original text and the traditions of the context. We can debate theology, eschatology, psychology, apologetics, and philosophy. We have apps with Bible study tools free and easy enough for a child to use… yet we do not fear God.

We have removed Him from His throne room and made Him a classroom. He has become to so many nothing more than a topic for discussion and debate and political slant. We know His Word, some front and back, but we have no awe of Him or love for His people.

In  Luke 2:41-52 we read of the day that Mary and Joseph and their family were traveling home from the Passover Feast. They had been traveling about three days when the realized that they had lost Jesus. After they searched frantically for Him among the traveling caravan they backtracked to Jerusalem and there they found Him. He was there in the temple digging into the Scriptures. Mary and Joseph had lost Him, right where they found Him.

In 2 Kings 22:8-13 we read of the account of the reign of Josiah. Josiah was a king who chose to respond to the call of God on his heart. He first began by cleaning out the land of all the altars to false gods and then he wanted to restore the temple of God. During the restoration process the Word of God was discovered. The Book of the Law had been lost for years. The Word of God was lost right where they found it.

We live in a day where Jesus has been lost right where we found Him. He has been lost within the very churches where so many found Him. When we look at our present day and the evils that fill it, including the state of so many of our churches, the moral decline of our nation, and our own up close and personal battles, life can seem pointless and hopeless.

But what would change if you remembered who your God is and trembled at His Word?

“For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares theLord. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

Isaiah 66:2

From the days of Josiah, clean up to the present day, our God has been shouting the warning of the danger of honoring Him with our lips and not our hearts. Through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah, and others God calls out to us to love Him and love others through our deeds and our ways. 

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

It is not enough to simply know justice and righteousness and kindness, we have to DO it.

It is not just enough to say we believe in God, but we need to believe God!

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

James 2:19

Look at your own life, your own thoughts, your own choices, what would change if you trembled before the Word of God?

Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
Who have eyes but do not see;
Who have ears but do not hear.
 ‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the Lord.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and departed.

Jeremiah 5:21-23

Beloved, have you lost God right where you found Him? Have you forgotten who He is? If you have, He calls out to you today to remember. Remember who He is. Remember all that He has done. Remember.

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first…

Revelation 2:4-5

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