18/10/2023 - THE FORGOTTEN MESSAGE

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For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,    John 3.11

Among all the lessons given by the Lord, one is about loving our brothers in Christ, but we have not been doing this. We need to become aware that failing to heed the Master’s commands can prevent us from living in God’s presence. To love means to know the promises of a brother and join him in agreement, so that he can overcome the oppositions that want to bring him down!

Christ teaches us the Truth, so that we will no longer be servants of the devil, but it is sad to recognize the moments when we do not act correctly. Now, we have been given the power to bind and loose on Earth whatever is needed (Matthew 18.18), so we have no excuse for not working for the deliverance of the unwary from the prison of sin. Loving one another means helping the brethren to receive complete victory, when facing serious problems with some temptation!

Every practitioner of the Word must prepare himself, so as not to fall into the traps of hell. This happened to those in Samaria, who did not pay enough attention to the Scriptures. The defeat came soon after the division of the Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam, the man authorized by the prophet Ahijah to make the separation of the house of David, felt weak to prevent the people from going to the celebrations in Jerusalem. To keep them from going, he created two golden calves and declared that these idols were their deliverers from Egypt!

Judah, the southern kingdom, also went astray and suffered 70 years of captivity in Babylon. What a shame! This is how the Lord expressed Himself through Jeremiah: Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. (Jeremiah 3.8). Even as she witnessed the decline of Samaria, Judah did not amend!

God’s people had in David the example to overcome impending difficulties, but because they didn’t act correctly, they were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, who became their lord, and they saw him destroy the temple of the Most High. The same fate awaits those who do not seek the Lord and prefer to live in the mire of iniquity. It is very important to meditate on the Word, day and night, in order to deliver the lost. God is our Refuge and our Fortress. Seek Him and be free!

Seventy years were thrown away for lack of biblical knowledge. What humiliation! The people of Judah suffered. The young Israelites who did not serve God helped the Babylonian king to stay at the head of the kingdom, and this monarch dominated the people who were the exclusive property of the Lord (1 Peter 2.9). It is difficult to understand children of God giving in to temptations, acting without any scruple. Surely, some Babylonian king will come for them!

How will you proceed from now on? Will you love the Lord as you should? Has the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, dominated your life? Will you love your brothers in Christ, as the Word of the Lord commands, or will you treat them as mere little brothers? From the very beginning, Jesus’ message says to love one another, but has this been true in us?

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares