Planted by Water

I have a dilemma - the list of things that have jumped out at me from the Jeremiah chapters concerning the things that God is restoring to his people, is getting bigger. And my task list for today is continually getting bigger and has left me with little time for blogging. So I will just note down a couple and come up with some more tomorrow.

• ‘I will be the God of all the clans of Israel’  (Jeremiah 31:1) - I believe that Jesus is returning for one united church - a unity that will not be either institutional/man-made, or mystical/theoretical. It will be real, genuine, relational and spiritual unity. It will not be a church distorted either by denominational divisions or weak, wishy-washy, ecumenical notions of unity. But sadly the ‘Restorationist’ churches have seen far too many splits and splinterings; we have still to see God lead us into the unity among ‘all the clans.’ Hasten the day!
• Everlasting love (31:3) - one of the most precious things that God has re-emphasised again to his church is his wonderful grace. The Christian life is not about what we do for God but about what he has done for us! And, in the words of Philip Yancey, ‘there is nothing we can do do to make God love us less, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us more.’ So many of us have come into the wonderful rest and freedom from knowing that we don’t have to strive to make God love us! God loves us! God is for us! God delights to bless us! Hallelujah! Excuse me while a dance around while!!