Saturday, October 6, 2012

Knowing That I Know



10.06.12

Like 19.44 44 "...and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” NASB

There are four kinds: those who know and they know it; those who don’t know and they know it; those who know and they don’t know it; and those who don’t know and they don’t know it. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they were in the fourth category: they didn’t know and they didn’t know it.

Sometimes, actually more often than not, I think we are living in times when we don’t know and don’t know it. We have abundance in our country and yet many, many live life as if there’ll never be enough. In the US we have more Bibles than any other nation on earth and we don’t know they say at all. (Our present culture certainly reveals how godless we are…) We have some of the smartest people on earth living here and more colleges and universities; and we do the dumbest things – repeatedly! We have personal freedoms that people in no other country have ever had, and yet we continually trade them away for trinkets supplied by our leaders. Most think they cannot live without the influence and instruction of the government. Most wouldn’t make it a month if they really had to rely on themselves to exist…

Jerusalem (as representative of the Jewish nation) had been looking for a Savior for centuries and things just weren’t working out. In Jesus’ time they were occupied by Rome (and all Rome brought with it) and under Roman rule. They yearned for the good old days of Jewish Rule and influence. If only the days of King David could return! They didn’t know and they didn’t know it.

Jesus was all they ever needed and Jesus Himself said to them, “You didn’t know the time of your visitation.” They didn’t know and they didn’t know it.

Do you need a visitation from God today? Are things weird and messed up enough in your life that it will take only a visitation from God to correct them? Do you know and know it? Or are you like the Jews of old who didn’t know and didn’t know it? Times in our nation and in our land cry out for a visitation from God (although He is truly here with us – He’s just allowing us to drink from the cup of our choice in order to get our attention.)

What will only matter in our lives is this: that we know and know it. We cannot go on the way we’re going and survive (or thrive). We, unless we repent (a much maligned and misunderstood word if there ever was one), are destined for “…they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another…” – the utter collapse of our society as a whole. We don’t know the time of our visitation. We are our own destroyers…

Father, may I live to reflect a better way. May I know that I know and not be distracted by the useless and small but reflect a better way. Shine from within my life, my words, and my decisions and lifestyle that others may know that I know the time of my own visitation and may the result of that be a Holy Spirit arousal of curiosity to know why I know what I know, and Who I know. Amen.

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