My people love to have it so
This week I was reading Jeremiah. In Chapter 5, the Lord speaks against his own people because 1) they do not relate correctly to him and 2) they do not take care of the poor and needy. Who is responsible for this rebellion in the sight of God?
An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? (Jeremiah 5:30-31 ESV)
It appears that God holds the prophets, the priests, and the people themselves responsible for their rebellion.
Some may say that the church today rightly relates to God – although they would probably only say that about those who agree with them. But few would suggest that the church is taking caring of the poor and needy. Who will God hold responsible for this rebellion?
I think our wealth within the “church” turns most of the poor off. What I mean is this. Yeah we may throw a bone or two, but when it gets down to really loving them and serving them we say no. We don’t want them in the more intimate parts of our worship and as I wrote before would be turned off if a homeless man who hadn’t bathed in a week came into our main worship service.
But more honestly I had an opportunity to talk with some cats and they pointed to a huge multi-million dollar church and said “those people never come over here, and man I don’t need to go to one of those big churches to be accpeted by God, do I?” I have struggled with this for a while Alan. My stuggle is this, bro, we have about 70-80% of all income going towards, overhead and building upkeep. I may be short on some of these multi-million dollar churhces with plasma screens, state of the art sound systems, beautiful landscaping and the like. We are now the temple of the living God why does it seem like we are competing to rebuild Solomons?