This should be our burden too

Good morning, everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in agony! Oh, the pain in my heart! My heart pounds; I cannot be silent.” Jeremiah 4:19 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “This should be our burden too”

In yesterday’s devotional we read about the great burden Paul felt for the salvation of the lost. He was tormented by the thought that people all around him were headed to hell. But it wasn’t a new thing for a minister of God to feel that way about the people around him. Even way back in the days of the Old Testament there were spokesmen for God calling out to God’s people to be reconciled with God because if they weren’t, they would face judgment and disaster. That’s precisely what every one of the Old Testament prophets were doing. Listen to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 4:19-22:

“My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in agony! Oh, the pain in my heart! My heart pounds; I cannot be silent. For you, my soul, have heard the sound of the ram’s horn – the shout of battle. Disaster after disaster is reported because the whole land is destroyed … For my people are fools; they do not know me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing what is evil, but they do not know how to do what is good.”

God never stopped calling out to the people and he never stopped sending messengers to them – messengers whose hearts were broken over the lostness of the people. Six hundred and fifty years after the time of Jeremiah, there was Paul writing Romans and weeping over the lostness of that same nation of people and still calling out to them on behalf of God to repent and be saved.

Likewise, God continues to call out to our people today. Over the course of our history, He has sent us the likes of John Wesley, Dwight Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and so many others lesser-known preachers and pastors; and He has His messengers still calling out today. As a nation we need to listen and respond to those messengers. And as Christians each of us should be as grieved over the lostness of the people around us as Jeremiah was for the Jews and as Paul was for his people.

The burden expressed by Jeremiah and Paul and so many others, is the same one that Jesus Himself had for the whole world. In Luke 19:10 He told us, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” And in John 3:17 we read, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” That is the heart of God expressed through His messengers. It is the burden they carried, and it was the mission that drove them. The same must be true of us.

I encourage you to tell someone about Jesus today. One of the most important foundational doctrines of the Christian faith is the truth that Jesus has commanded His followers to share the good news about Him: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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