10This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares theLord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:10-13)
Thoughts: I have talked to many lately who are giving up hope for the church in America and especially the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The reasons for giving up hope is plethora. 1) The numbers: over 350 churches have left in the last two years- 480 in the last three and a church bureaucrat predicts another 300 more. The church has last over half its membership since reunion in 1983 (from 3.5 million to 1.7 million). 2) The average age of the church is now 67. Not a good portend for 10 or 20 years from now. 3) In the midst of this the church has released itself from the mooring of scripture and confessions as authority (shown by the recent AI and BO change to say marriage is between "two people" instead of between a man and a woman). The argument is that it is the right thing- though it goes against scripture (which our own Book of Order says is the ONLY rule/standard of faith and practice); the argument is that the church will draw the secular in because it is more secular- but this historically has never worked. The deepest desire of all is not simply acceptance but salvation. It would be too easy to say what the Steward of Gondor said in "The Two Towers" in the face of a huge army, "There's no hope. Abandon your posts. Flee for your lives." But dawn comes at the darkest and coldest part of the night.
God spoke through Jeremiah the prophet to the exiles when he said, "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah had said before that God would punish the people of God for their sin, but now he gives them hope. But the people had to turn to God and away from their sin. This is what we are missing. There is a spirit of haughtiness in the church- even though the church is decreasing, languishing, not growing, and in effect- in exile. Jeremiah did not give up on the people of God Elijah did not give up on the people of God. God always leaves a remnant, and uses the shoot coming from the stump to make a difference.
Prayer: Lord, give your church hope found in you and in repentance. May our branch of the church, find hope and a future in you.
As we believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; so do we most constantly believe that from the beginning there has been, now is, and to the end of the world shall be, a kirk: that is to say, a company and multitude of men chosen of God, who rightly worship and embrace him, by true faith in Christ Jesus,(Scots Confession 16)- God does not leave this world without a witness.
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