I feel that God’s Day of Judgment is close and I consider that
day, in a way, to be a good thing. The reason why I say this is because every one of us
will see our true worth; worthy of God to throw us all away into the great
garbage dump of heaven, if there was such a place. But, we will also see God’s
great compassion for us and His tender mercies. This is how I see it:
When that day comes, I, and you, will see some sort of
punishment that we feel is justifiable and befitting us; annihilation,
beaten, hung on a cross. But Jesus has already taken that punishment, for me, for us all. He took
that punishment Himself, in our place. This is why the Bible says that every
knee will bow; we will have such great adoration for Father God and His only
begotten Son, Jesus (Yeshua <- His Hebrew name.) This has been God’s plan;
let us continue in our sins, our wickedness so that we can see that our ways
without Him is worthless. God knows how much punishment is needed for each one
of us so that we will be changed permanently, after all He is the Great Creator, All Knowing, All Powerful, and Everywhere Present God.
Each day that you and I have left in this life we can ask
God for help so that when that day comes, we won’t be ashamed, or as ashamed.
Lamentations
3 New American Standard Bible
(NASB)
Jeremiah Shares Israel’s
Affliction
3 I am
the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven
me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3 Surely against
me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
4 He has caused
my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged
and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
6 In dark places
He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
7 He has walled
me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my [a]chain heavy.
8 Even when I
cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked
my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me
like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11 He has
turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He bent His
bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.
13 He made the [b]arrows of His quiver
To enter into my [c]inward parts.
14 I have
become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking song all the day.
15 He has filled
me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
16 He has broken
my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
17 My soul has
been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten [d]happiness.
18 So I say,
“My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the Lord.”
Hope of Relief in God’s
Mercy
19 Remember my
affliction and my [e]wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
20 Surely my
soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
21 This I
recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses [f]indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
23 They
are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the [g]person who seeks Him.
26 It is
good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is
good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit
alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
29 Let him [h]put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.
30 Let him give
his cheek to [i]the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.
31 For the Lord
will not reject forever,
32 For if He
causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
33 For He does
not afflict [j]willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.
34 To crush
under His feet
All the prisoners of the [k]land,
35 To [l]deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,
36 To [m]defraud a man in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not [n]approve.
37 Who is [o]there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it
not from the mouth of the Most High
That [p]both good and ill go forth?
39 Why
should any living [q]mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint [r]in view of his sins?
40 Let us examine
and probe our ways,
And let us return to the Lord.
41 We lift up
our heart [s]and hands
Toward God in heaven;
42 We have transgressed
and rebelled,
You have not pardoned.
43 You have
covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.
44 You have covered
Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have
made us mere offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46 All our
enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Panic and
pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48 My [t]eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my
people.
49 My eyes pour
down unceasingly,
Without stopping,
50 Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.
51 My eyes
bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies without
cause
Hunted me down like a bird;
53 They have
silenced [u]me in the pit
And have [v]placed a stone on me.
54 Waters
flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on
Your name, O Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.
56 You have heard
my voice,
“Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for
relief,
From my cry for help.”
57 You drew
near when I called on You;
You said, “Do not fear!”
58 O Lord, You have
pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.
60 You have
seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.
61 You have
heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me.
62 The lips of
my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
63 Look on
their sitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.
64 You will recompense
them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
65 You will
give them [w]hardness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.
66 You will pursue
them in anger and destroy them
