“LORD, Make Your Face To Shine On Us Again!”

“LORD Make Your Face To Shine On Us Again!”(Lam.2:1-12).
Paul warns us through the Corinthians, “…if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”(I Cor.10:12). Earlier on he said we should learn from the past, because the past becomes our example.
The destruction of Jerusalem, the city of God is one such lesson of the past. When John the Baptist “saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduccees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham… ‘”(Mt.3:7-10).
If you study human behaviour keenly, you’ll notice that in every organization workers who think or know that they have somebody at the top as godfather behave arrogantly. They know they have the backing of the top.
This is the kind of arrogance exhibited by the children of Israel because they thought they were the favoured of God. In their arrogance and pride they even ignored to do what God expected of them. So the LORD turned his back on them and became like an enemy.
The temple became nothing to the LORD because it had become a social club. God shows no partiality. We all stand in a special relationship with him.
He is angry with individual sin, and for him the soul that sins will die. Collective sin is when a nation institutionalises sin, and worst still when the people who are called by his name officially abandom his ways and stresses officialdom at the expense of spirituality, grace and mercy!
Let us borrow from the pages of history so that we do not become victims of desolation. God can turn stones into humans as much as he can cause dry bones to live. As merciful and compassionate as he is, we should not continue to provoke his anger, so that his wrath should not fall on us.
Let us as individuals, as the church of Christ and as a nation turn to the LORD with contrite andrepentant hearts in true penitence.
He will hear us and answer us and change our situation.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we have sinned against you, but in your compassion do not allow your enemies to triumph. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.