“I tell you … There is a Danger in Missing the Message!”
By: Lou Yeboah
As unpopular as it may be, it behooves us to take heed to the message. You see, despite the fact that the people mocked Jeremiah and God because it seemed that Jeremiah brought nothing but God’s sad news of condemnation. This sad news was the truth. Jeremiah may have been tempted to leave out the parts that would turn his audience against him, would sound too harsh, or would make him sound like a traitor. But by God’s command, he was not to delete parts of God’s message to suit himself, his audience, or the circumstances in which he found himself. [Jeremiah 26:2]. I tell you, there is a danger in missing the message!
Early in the reign of Jehoiakim/son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord. “This is what the Lord says: Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. Say to them, “This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again [though you have not listen], then I will make your house like Shiloh and your city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth…” Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. [Jeremiah 26:1-6; 13]
I tell you God is still merciful and patient, and will always give warning to His people before He performs His mighty acts. Know that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. [2 Peter 3:3-5]… God is not slack! We must under that! He will perform His good work, and will bring His word to pass! And He says that He does not want any of us to perish, but that we should all come to repentance! God’s Word is full of warning for His people, if we will only heed.
In [Matthew 24:32-35] Jesus said that when we see world events now occurring, we are to know that this end is very near. Yet of the day and hour we cannot know. Yet when it strikes it will strike suddenly, unexpectedly, like a trap that springs shut on a hapless rat without warning. So the message today for God’s people and nations, is to Wake up! Be reminded and become aware of these things which will soon affect every single one of us! Time will not just “continue on” the way it has, so says the Bible. But before all this happens, and even as it begins to happen, God is faithful, and His Word says that someone will see [Ezekiel 33:3] the sword coming upon the land, and this someone is commanded to give warning or indeed lose his own life also!
Listen, God invited Noah and his family aboard the ark with the words, “Enter the ark.” [Genesis 7:1]. That’s His invitation to you today. God has not yet closed the door of salvation. At the end of the Bible, after warning of the judgment to come, God’s final appeal is, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” [Revelation 22:17]. But lest you put it off, the Bible goes on in the next to the last verse to warn, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly” [Revelation 22:20].
I tell you, Jesus is coming to judge the earth; He invites you to come aboard before He comes to close the door. Come to Christ now! A call of mercy before judgment! Jesus said in [Genesis 6], “My spirit shall not always strive with man…. Will you heed the warning?
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eight person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.” [2 Peter 2:4-6] do you see what the Lord is telling us here. It is a warning to us that we should not follow in their footsteps by practicing the same sins, Otherwise, we will be destroyed too when Jesus returns. “I tell you… There is a Danger in Missing the Message!”
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life…..” [Deuteronomy 30:19]
