THE LONELY CITY
Today’s Reading: Lamentations 1-2
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
There are many covered stone streets in the Old City of Jerusalem. In this picture, one orthodox Jew walks up an incline. Imagine Jeremiah, who was left behind in Jerusalem, after most of the people were taken captive to Babylon.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verses: Lamentations 2:11
My eyes fail with tears,
My heart is troubled;
My bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.
According to the dictionary, a “lament” is a poem expressing passionate grief or sorrow. “Lamentations” is such a poem. Each chapter in this book contains 22 stanzas, but chapter three has 66 (22×3). Each stanza begins with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew 22-letter alphabet. Jeremiah’s prophecies came true, and he had every right to say, “I told you so!” He not only knew the Word of God, he knew the heart of God! Here in chapters 1 & 2, Jeremiah cannot stop weeping. Can we hear the weeping in the voice of Jesus when He said of Jerusalem the words found in Matthew 23:34-37. Jesus ministered in person in Jerusalem, as did Jeremiah. Shortly before the next great destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus is recorded saying the words of Matthew 24:6-14.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I pray for the same heart of compassion and grief as was evident in Jeremiah and in Jesus. Grant me, I ask, the strength to bear a burden of intercession for my country and its great cities, towns, villages and country areas. Increase my capacity to care for people who are all very precious and of infinite value to You. I pray in the Name of the One who cared more than anyone else for people, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
The photo below shows the street lights of Burlington, the lights on the Burlington Skyway Bridge over the entrance to the Hamilton Harbour. The light is reflected off the snow and ice. The harbour is frozen over and the ships are docked at the wharfs for the winter. In the distance are the lights of the city of Hamilton. Fire is visible coming from the huge chimneys at the steel plants, Stelco and Dofasco. For a time I served as a pastor of a Hamilton congregation. Often early in the morning I would walk to the brow of the escarpment which overlooks Hamilton from the opposite direction from where this picture is taken. There I would pray over the needs of these cities, sometimes weeping as I cried out to God for His mercy and salvation to come to many more people. I am committed to prayer and to experiencing a greater manifestation of the caring heart of Jesus than ever before.
Yours for a heartfelt concern for people everywhere!
David
God bless you David, I am richly blessed by your blogs. I’m praying -believing for a healing miracle for you this day. I hope you will soon be well enough to make the trip to Lakeland soon.I look forward to seeing you and Norma-Jean.
Love you much
Bob
Thank you, David, for your Words of Wisdom and your Heart of God. You are a beautiful, bright and shining Light in this world that is so often covered in darkness.
Through you, and your Readers, flows God’s Living Water.
Amen!! Yes thank you David!!
Amen, sister Laurie, amen!
HE did it all….Because of His Great Love for us!! Thank you Jesus!!
David, Lamentations is filled with pain, tears & sadness at the sight of God’s judgment leaving Jerusalem desolate. How different things could have been if they had only listen to God’s pleadings and warnings through Jeremiah. Over and over again, God spoke and they did not listen till disaster hit. Without dwelling on the negative, one cannot help but feel the same kind of pain, sorrow and sadness as we see our western countries turning away from the foundations faith that built these countries, leaving a spiritual vacuum to be filled by everything but the Name of Jesus; and, at the same time, the raw evil in so many parts of the world where the value of life is minimized as lives are snuffed out in most inhumane ways and so many Christians are targeted, persecuted and and martyred – one cannot help but feel in these past years there is an unleashing of evil. I can truly say, I wrote down and prayed your prayer…to share in ‘the burden of the Lord’ in prayers of intercession… asking God to intervene again in so many areas of our world. This is not something we can drum up – but I think “the burden of the Lord” is something the Lord lays upon us. In saying all this, do we really know what we are asking for when we pray these kinds of prayers. Yet, I pray again, that the Lord lay upon my spirit, the ministry intercessory prayer as God pours out his Spirit through my life and through all of us who love the Lord. “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me, Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.”
Oh, yes, Pastor Samuel! A powerful prayer and favourite hymn, which I am having great difficulty finding a link to:
“Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me,
Mold me, fill me,
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.”
I lament over the issues in our world today! they are no different today as it was in the Old Testament & New Testament! Sin was abounding then and it is abounding now! I get so sorrowful but I cannot let this feeling linger! It is very unhealthy for me! I tell God how sorry I am for my sins and for those of others, I ask for HIS forgiven, I know that He forgives!
I ask HIM to help me to say the right words to someone I may meet today who is hurting or maybe they are happy for something that has happened in their life and I rejoice with them! I ask God to help me listen with a Christ like mind, just listen to others, sometimes I meet people who begin to talk and maybe I don’t agree BUT I listen, and I will say sometimes that I personally don’t agree with a certain issue in the conversation and sometimes I share that I have to ask God what HE thinks about the issue and sometimes I can make a decision or not! I thank the person for sharing and I will tell them that I will pray for them in regards to the issue and God will help! There are times when the words “I don’t believe in God” I then acknowledge those words, I tell the person that I understand how they feel, and that is their choice BUT I do tell them that God cares for them regardless He is going to work this situation out.
Often I hear stories of how parents or step-parents abused this person and he/she has no use for parents or God! I look the person right in their eyes and I tell them how sorry I am that they were hurt as children, and again, I share that God can heal their broken hearts! I tell them that I will be praying for them, I ask them their name and I write it down or if I don’t have time to ask a name, I still pray for that person, because knows who they are and about the issues in their lives!
Please pray for Dana, a wife/mom of 4 children, she has a hernia and a tumour in her stomach! Please pray the Lord will heal her, that He will remove smoking from her, also pray for her husband who is also very ill and pray that God will watch over the children and keep them safe and pray for Dana’s family to support each other!
Please pray for a young man, 19 years, that the Lord will remove smoking from also, and pray that he can deal with issues of forgiveness in his life.
I gave him an article on “3 Healing Words” I forgive you. He believes in God! BUT he is young yet, but I believe God has something good in store for him.
Again I pray a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for removing smokes/alcohol from me 20 years ago and taking my broken leg and turning it into me learning to swim! PRAISE THE LORD! He did it all for me! AMEN!
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me; Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me; melt me, mould me, fill me\, use me, Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me!
If someone says they don’t believe in God I asked them what would they do if they were standing on a cliff with someone who wants to jump off because they say they don’t belief in gravity. Would they just stand there and let the person jump because everyone is entitled to believe what they want? If they say no, and most would say no, then I ask why would they try to stop the person from jumping. Most answer because they know gravity exists, and they know if the person jumps they will kill themselves. This usually gives me the opening to say, well likewise with me, I know God exists and I cannot just walk away without trying to “save” you. Some will ask save them from what, or they might ask how I know God exists — then I tell about Jesus. I give the Gospel message–invite them to repent and give their life to Jesus. If they say no, then fine, they can choose to reject Jesus, but at least you were able to plant the seed, because debating the existence of God is a distraction, because He exists whether you believe in Him or not, the real question is do they believe what Jesus said about God and most people don’t honestly know what Jesus said about God or did, so those of us who do know if given a opening from the Holy Spirit should speak what we know, otherwise we are allowing a lot people to jump off cliffs without even attempting to stop them.
Lamentations is so poetically sad and Jeremiah’s cry for Jerusalem filled with such grief and melancholy. We pour out this cry to all who fail to know God and claim Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who lives and breathes in us! Oh, that you would come! Spirit of the Living God, we want to know you, more and more. Were hanging on every word. Come and speak to us, oh Lord! We sing to You, Lord! Blessings dearests saints!
“…the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.”
(Proverbs 11:18, NIV)
Vertical Church Band – Spirit of the Living God—WOW!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogGOlGswStA
Amen! Prayed your very moving prayer today David and pray God will use me also. Stayed all night at the hospital so am just getting to this blog. Had an opportunity to pray with a couple people. My friend has a Palestinian doctor which is interesting. Thank you Beverlee for your kind words and for the comments from others today. Feel like you David that we need to redeem the time while we are placed on this earth!