pomegranatesandchains

Received 9/14/2021 – Blessing or Cursing…

Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement – begins the evening of September 15 and ends in the evening of September 16, 2021. What if this were the last Yom Kippur? Treat this one as though it were because our future depends on it.

Atonement, let’s look at it from the kid’s definition…making up for an offense or injury. So during the 24 hour period of Yom Kippur God has appointed a time for people and nations to make up for offenses. If you are one of God’s people, we should be making up for our offenses to God every day, but most assuredly on this appointed day. I beg you…please take this seriously. In Deuteronomy 28 the Bible details what triggers and happens to His people during the blessings but also what triggers and happens to His people when they are cursed.

Blessing of the land and His people: Deuteronomy 28:1-2 “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”

Cursing of the land and His people: Deuteronomy 28:15, 45 “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: 45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee”

Seems the key is to LISTEN and OBEY the voice of your creator.

Yom Kippur is an appointed time for repentance and forgiveness of sins. As a Christ-follower and member of His eternal kingdom, I beg you to bow before God, the creator. Humble yourself, and most importantly your heart, by putting away selfish pride. Ask God for the forgiveness of your sins but also for the sins of this nation. If you take the time to read this one chapter in Deuteronomy 28 you should quickly come to realize the sins of this nation and the individual sins of God’s people have consequences. If you read this chapter and cannot understand why we need to ask for forgiveness, then you are not seeking after the God I know, love, and follow.

He who has an ear, let him hear – seven times this is said in the book of Revelation (NKJV). By now it should be clear to you…the ONLY way to reverse the judgment for sins, corporate or individual, is repentance. Nineveh (Jonah 3) was an extremely rebellious nation. God sent His prophet Jonah to preach repentance to the nation and its people before passing judgment. “The people of Nineveh believed God (listened), proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth (humbled themselves), from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

As individuals and as a nation, we must go from cursing to blessing. The first step is LISTENING, followed by going before the Lord, Jesus Christ, humbling ourselves, and asking for forgiveness. God looks at the heart, if we have made God the Lord and Master of our lives – truly – He will forgive us our sins and restore blessing. He who has an ear, let him hear.

Source: He who has an ear, let him hear – 1King