"Return to the Lord your God." Where we first found salvation is where we’ll find it again—at the foot of Christ’s cross, confessing our sins. God wants us to obey His voice in everything He commands us, and we must do this with all our heart and soul, and then our captivity will end.

Often, depression

and deep misery are lifted as soon as we turn away from our idols and bow in obedience before the living God. We can return to being citizens of Zion, and that quickly. Lord, turn our captivity!

There was never a more tragic figure than Judas. No one has sunk so deeply into divine wrath as the man who lived so close to our Lord. What a warning this is to all who openly profess faith and enjoy great privileges! The same sun that ripens the wheat

also ripens the hemlock. A person may be hardened in sin by the same external influences that perfect others in holiness.