Jeremiah 6:16 (New Living Translation)

This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.

The old way isn’t the relevant way. The old way isn’t the technological way. It is the ancient way as some translations quote this verse. It is the way of prayer, communion, and actually reading your Bible to know God. It is a return to the fundamental basics of loving God enough to actually spend time with Him…to love God enough to pursue a greater relationship with Him.

The young preachers of my day are guilty of not spending any time talking about such things today…but they are starting to. Just recently I was asked to review a book in which the author says that God is calling for a new reformation…and yet this reformation is not so new…The author is calling for a reformation of the great commandment to “love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” He is calling for us to go back rather than forward. If I’m being honest, all I could think about while reading this was, “He is just coming to this conclusion now in his life?”

For all of our zeal and fire in trying to evangelize the world, my generation struggles in the basics. We want to run before we walk…and we’ve become somewhat palsied because of it. That is why we lack in power and in the Spirit.

Jeremiah 6:19 (New American Standard)

Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their plans, because they have not listened to My words, and as for My law, they have rejected it also.

Look at the description of what the Lord says that the disaster will be…the fruit of their plans. That’s the truth. The other translations describe it as “the fruit of our schemes”, “the games that you are playing”, and “the fruit of your thoughts”…whatever way you want to look at it…the one thing you better come to grips with is that there is only one way…and that is God’s way. All other roads lead to destruction.

We must go back to go forward! We must return to prayer and Bible reading and get to know the God of the Bible…not the God of our imagination. We must abandon our God-less plans and pursue a life-long relationship with Jesus Christ. We must seek the ancient ways and the old ways. We must develop a closer relationship with God by depending on the great “I AM”…not some program. God is a relational being and delights to know us…He delights in loving us…He delights in doing good to us…but make no mistake about God’s plan…God’s plan is to reconcile the world to himself by transforming and conforming the world into the image of Christ. That is priority number one…because whatever isn’t conformed and transformed will be burned up in the eternal fires of hell.