His discipline in love to recover His people

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ไธญๆ–‡

A year ago, nobody would have believed that one single event would bring all of humankind together to question and reevaluate our modern life. But suddenly, everything changed on a scale that no human being could control. The current world crises have led the human race to search for answers and look for salvation. ๐€๐œ๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งโ€”๐ฐ๐ก๐ž๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐œ๐ก๐š๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐œ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐œ๐ž๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅโ€”๐ข๐ฌ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฐ๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐š ๐ฆ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ฌ ๐›๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ก๐ข๐œ๐ก ๐†๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ ๐š๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž. In the past, Godโ€™s economy and heartโ€™s desire may have felt very abstract, the Bible seemingly unreal and remote. But while most people are sleeping, drunk, or numb to whatโ€™s going on today, this situation is not a surprise to those of us who know the signs of the times from the Bible. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ข๐œ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐›๐ž๐ญ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ง ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐›๐š๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐š๐ง๐๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐œ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐จ๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญโ€”๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ž ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐†๐จ๐โ€™๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐ก๐š๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐›๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐›๐š๐œ๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐‡๐ข๐ฆ. This is His pattern as shown in the Bible, specifically foreshadowed in the history of the Israelites in the book of Jeremiah. 

At that time, the children of Israel were in an unfaithful, resistant and shameful condition: โ€œ…they went far away from Me and walked after vanity and became vainโ€ฆโ€ (Jer. 2:5). And thus God brought famine, war and destruction to both their land and their cities. Some may wonder what kind of God would use such an evil nation as Babylon to chastise and to discipline His people. But through all of the discipline in the book of Jeremiah, we see Godโ€™s intentionโ€”His heartโ€”for His people. The state of God’s chosen people had become so off and so hopeless that Jeremiah wept over their condition (9:1).๐–๐ž ๐ฆ๐š๐ฒ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ž ๐†๐จ๐ ๐œ๐ซ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ก๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ž๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ˆ๐ฌ๐ซ๐š๐ž๐ฅ, ๐›๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž ๐๐จ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ž ๐ก๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐ž๐ง ๐ข๐ง ๐‰๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐š๐กโ€™๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ . The Lord arranged the outward situation to expose the condition of His people and to restore them back to their rightful position, chastising them and ultimately judging the nations: โ€œI am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you; yet I will not make a full end of you, but ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘๐‘ก ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’โ€ฆโ€ (46:28).

The Lord uses the outward world circumstances to turn His people back to Him under His righteousness. He tells us, โ€œOnly acknowledge Your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Jehovah your God…and have not listened to My voice, declares Jehovah. Return, O apostate children…โ€ (3:13-14). His dealing with usโ€”the exposure and the chastisementโ€”is to bring us back to the proper standing to receive His all-sufficient supply. God loves us in His righteousness; that love, which includes His judgment, always brings us back to the right ground. He cannot ignore our sinful condition. It is for this reason that the Lord chastised Israel for her idolatry and independence. The chastisement is not punishment for punishmentโ€™s sake; through it, we have a way to confess so that we can be restored out of our own stubbornness, shields, camouflage, and dignity (Jer. 38:21-24) to return to Him and that right position with Him as our righteousness. Godโ€™s love brings us back to righteousness, and we can never have His love without that very specific standard of His righteousness; it is the shortest route back to Him. 

๐‰๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐š๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐‰๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐š๐ก, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐š๐œ๐ก ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฌ. He wants us to know Him and to be restored to Him. Oftentimes, our daily life reveals that we still are in favor of our own belief system, our own way of working, our own way of serving the Lord, and our own lifestyle. And despite the hardships that come to us, many of us still, for the moment, choose to stay in a life of comfort and convenience. This condition makes us hard, unapproachable, and unbroken because we still think we are good in Godโ€™s eyes. Yet, through very specific circumstances, the Lord in His righteousness shows us clearly where we deviated: we have turned away from Him as our source to pursue our own way to live and to be satisfied. Jeremiah 2:13 says, โ€œFor My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water.โ€ We try to produce our own water sourceโ€”our own little, self-produced system of supplyโ€”to become self-sustaining. The Lord, in His wisdom, makes those systems run dry. In the same way today, He is arranging many circumstancesโ€”our personal life, our families, the brothers and sisters, and even the nations and world situationโ€”so that we may rely on and manifest Christ rather than ourselves. Only when these situations cause us to repent and turn from our self-reliance do we find the true fountain of living waters. 

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐๐ž๐ฆ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐›๐ฎ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐†๐จ๐โ€™๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐ค๐ง๐จ๐ฐ ๐‡๐ข๐ฆ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐ž ๐›๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ฐ๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐œ๐ž, ๐ฐ๐ก๐ข๐œ๐ก ๐ข๐ฌ ๐‚๐ก๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ ๐š๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ข๐ง๐ก๐ž๐š๐. This is a very tangible moment in time for us to say, โ€œWe do know God, we do recognize His chastisement and His judgment. We know His love and His righteousness.โ€ We have the faculty and capacity inside of us to know Godโ€”that is our spirit. The clarity to see, the purity to turn, and the boldness to live well come only from our spirit. When we turn, we find ourselves joined to a noble band of believers, His true overcomers, in the midst of the fallen world; we are in His triumph and redeemed by His love into His righteousness. As His people, we are clear: there is no more struggle, no more fear, no more searching elsewhere for our satisfaction and supply. It is time for us to take Him as our only source and enjoy the freedom to live absolutely unto Him as a testimony for His ultimate goal in this age. 

(๐ด๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘“๐‘’๐‘™๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘“๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘š ๐‘Ž ๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘œ๐‘› 07/10/2020, ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘Ÿ.) 

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