March 9, 2010

Today as we gathered to pray with the Pastors for our region, the Lord quickened a word from the book of Jeremiah to me. We were asking the Lord to forgive us for bringing him Cain’s offering. An offering of “the sweat of man” instead of the “life blood of a living sacrifice given to God.”

In the days of Jeremiah, Israel brought much sin into the city of God. There were those who sold idols, prostitutes, and all types of lewd behavior accepted within her gates. The temple worship went on day after day, but never were the people instructed to live a holy life before the Lord. I believe, and I can’t prove this, that they began to see their condition of heart as acceptable before God. I believe they came to the conclusion like so many in the Body of Christ have come to, “I am a sinner saved by grace.”

That is a very true statement, but it had become an excuse for allowing their sinfulness to remain in the city of God and the house of God. I believe that the people of Jeremiah’s day believed they were serving the Lord with sincerity and that they had what I see in much of the church today, “I’m OK and your OK mentality.” I am saved, I am a Jew, and that is all I need to be right with God.

The people of Jeremiah’s day were going through the motions of “Judaism.” It became a form with no substance with it. People did their religious duty by brining sin offerings and all the offerings required by the laws and their traditions, but never truly gave God what He wanted. He wanted their entire life and heart in a deep intimate relationship with Him.

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