Lies collapse: Truth Does Not.

Facedown worship was my take-away this morning!  That joyful release requires something, though, doesn’t it?  It means that I stop holding up what I know or do as worthy.  It means I see the LORD alone as worthy.  Freedom is in this place alone. 

Song lyrics I often need to use are “Break my heart for what breaks yours, Lord.”  The readings this morning were that AND ‘rejoice my heart with what rejoices yours, Lord,’ message.  God shared with Jeremiah His deep hurt and His commitment to bear that hurt.  We don’t often think of the Sovereign God hurting, but the Old Testament tells us often of His weeping.  When our own hearts weep for the destruction of deceit in the world, we are experiencing the very pain of the Father.  It touched me to see that He expressed a desire I feel—running away.  He said he would rather be with wayfaring men—blatant criminals than masquerading godly.  Have you ever felt that way about ‘Christians?’ 

Even as I contemplate that sad reality, I realize I am not exempt from that masquerade.  Blinded by deception is the human reality.  Praise God He still heals blindness.  He said that our habitation is in the midst of deceit…but that ‘our habitations cast us out.’  Wahoo!  Lies cannot hold up.  I imagined a defiant child running away to a back yard tent—and a massive thunderstorm.  Sometimes we are so defiant; we’ll stay in that tent even as it drips all over us.  Eventually tents collapse with wind and water; that is what deceptions in life do!  Hallelujah!

 

 

The tricky part of this is that the deceptions can be pretty:  strength, wisdom, riches.  God says real glory is in knowing and understanding His delights.  He rejoices in righteousness, loving kindness and judgment.  God says His grief is that there are none stretching out His tent, setting up His curtains.  That’s because He doesn’t want us in soggy tents of our own creation.  He allows those dwellings to collapse so we can enter into the solid dwelling of His Glory.

 “How great is our God?  Sing with me, how great, how great is our God?”