Weekly Devotional: Gems From Pastor Jim 11/4/2019

by Jim Hughes

Jer. 2:13 For my people have done two evil things. They have forsaken me---the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

God is charging the Israelites with two things here: they have forsaken Him and they have built their lives on things that have no value at all for their souls. We need to look at ourselves as well and ask ourselves if God might say the same thing about us.

Have we forsaken God? Obviously, we can declare that most people have. We cannot go anywhere outside the church without facing unholy people. But, what about inside the church, can we be accused of forsaking the Lord? Have you or I forsaken the Lord? Let us pause for a moment and take a serious look at our lives.

Are we living out God’s Word as we should? God makes it clear that we are to live holy lives before man, lives that are characterized by godliness and not sin. How much sin do we allow to creep into our hearts? We don’t always know it when sin creeps in, but most of the time we do. We are not as careful as we should be about letting sin influence what we do, say, and fill up our minds with. When we are careless about sin we are in a sense forsaking the Lord. We are not standing guard over our souls like He expects us to. We are not keeping Him the first love of our lives. If we love Him, we will obey Him.

Are we keeping the Lord the primary focus of our lives? Does our love for Him determine how we live? Do we love people or things more than we love the Lord? If such is the case, we have forsaken Him.

Are we building our lives that have no soul value? The Living Water cannot be contained by the soul that is not made of eternal material. Living for the things of the world prevents the soul from holding onto eternal life. No matter what it is, the only thing that will keep God in our hearts is our faith in Him. A life that is not faith built and faith led will not see God. We must understand this. Living for anything other than the Lord is a one way ticket to Hell. If Jesus is not your Savior and Lord, you are not going to make it to heaven.

Examine your soul today. Is it cracked? Is it keeping Christ in? Is it full to overflowing? Or, is it running dry? Ask the Lord to repair your damaged soul. Confess your sins and let Him remove them from you so that you can live a life that is full of Him and pleases God.

About the Author:

Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.

C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one's self from such failures.

I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn't broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.