~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Jeremiah 14:11-16:15 ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:9-3:13
Psalm 80:1-19 ~ Proverbs 25:1-5
Old Testament - Today in Jeremiah 15:16, we read - “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” What does this verse mean to you? Can you eat God’s words? Can they feed you? Spiritually? Are you being fed by God’s Word through the One Year Bible daily readings? Are God’s words your joy and your heart’s delight? Are you making it a practice to memorize scripture? Would this practice help you in making God’s words your joy and heart’s delight? What does it mean to bear God’s name? Is God’s name written on your heart? How else are you being fed by God, in addition to his Word? Are you being fed by attending and investing in a church each week? Do you think that church, the body of Christ, can spiritually feed you? Is there any reason to refuse this spiritual food?
Today in Jeremiah chapter 15 we read about Judah's inevitable doom. Verses 1 and 2 tell us - "Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn't help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight! And if they say to you, `But where can we go?' tell them, `This is what the LORD says: Those who are destined for death, to death; those who are destined for war, to war; those who are destined for famine, to famine; those who are destined for captivity, to captivity.'"
In Jeremiah chapter 16 God forbids Jeremiah to marry or to go to feasts and parties in Judah, as we read in verses 8 & 9 - "And do not go to their feasts and parties. Do not eat and drink with them at all. For the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: In your own lifetime, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in this land. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard."
New Testament - The First Thessalonians readings today are nice. I found chapter 2 verse 18 to be an interesting verse: "We wanted very much to come, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. " I think this is an important reminder that Satan can indeed prevent good work from taking place in our lives. Through prayer, reading the Word, and obedience we can avoid some attacks. But, they will still come while we are in this world. I would just encourage you to keep in mind that Satan is real. Don't dwell on this, but realize it is true. And that by growing your relationship with Jesus & God, I do believe great protection can come over you - but keep in mind that even a person as close to the Lord as Paul was prevented from doing some things he wanted to do by Satan. How is your prayer life today? Do you pray to God to protect you and keep you from Satan and all his tricks and lies and temptations? Let us be prayer warriors for not only ourselves, but also for others in our lives! Do you consider yourself to be a prayer warrior? Would you like to be a prayer warrior? What is stopping you from being a prayer warrior? All it takes is prayer...
Psalms - Psalm 80 verse 19 today is powerful - "Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God Almighty. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved." I like that opening - "turn us again to you God." I don't believe that God turns himself away from us - but that we do indeed turn ourselves away from God. And like the Psalmist, maybe sometimes we literally need to pray that God will turn us back toward him. I kind of come up with the imagery of us sometimes being like pouty kids with our arms folded and our backs toward God - and God is looking at us lovingly - all we simply need to do is turn our face toward God and his grace will heal that pout and whatever is troubling us immediately... If you need to, will you turn yourself again toward God?
Proverbs - Interesting Proverbs chapter 25 verses 4 & 5 - "Remove the dross from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith. Remove the wicked from the king's court, and his reign will be made secure by justice." I believe dross is some sort of impurity that is in silver when it is heated up. Actually, I just looked it up in the dictionary and dross means: "impurity: worthless or dangerous material that should be removed; "there were impurities in the water"" or "[n. DRAHSS] Something that is useless or worthless is dross. This noun refers to the less-than-desirable parts of something. Near synonyms include: refuse, rubbish, and impurity. Another more specific use of the word dross describes the scum or slag thrown off from metals in the process of melting them. It traces back to the Old English dros, which corresponds to the Middle Dutch droes and the Germanic dros. All of these are words for dregs (less than desirable parts)." So, this proverb is also saying the wicked in the king's court is an impurity that must be removed for a secure reign with justice. This makes sense in a governmental sense. You don't want crooks on the cabinet. But, I think this also works well in our own personal lives. Sin is a dross - an impurity - in our life that must be removed so that we will be of use to the "silversmith" - God or Jesus in this case. Do you have dross / sin in your life? Will you allow God to remove the dross - the impurity - from your life through the work of his expert Silversmith, Jesus? Let Jesus remove the dross from your life. Jesus is the only one who truly can.
What verses or insights stand out to you in today's readings? Please post up in the Comments section below!
Grace,
Mike
Jeremiah 15:16
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.”
Jeremiah 15:1, 2
"Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn't help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight! And if they say to you, `But where can we go?' tell them, `This is what the LORD says: Those who are destined for death, to death; those who are destined for war, to war; those who are destined for famine, to famine; those who are destined for captivity, to captivity.'"
We are all “…weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit].” (Romans 8:3, Amplified). No matter what name is it called, in any culture, all people know about this tendency and temptation to “go it alone and do what I want to do when I want—and no one can tell me otherwise.”
Romans 8 (Amplified)
7
That is because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot.
8
So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.
God’s answer is the Word. This verse from James has become one of my favorite verses—and yet not so favorite because it slaps and challenges the flesh. Though it does not initially “feel good”, it brings life!
James 1 (Amplified)
21
So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.
****
It is easy to forget the Word…if we let ourselves. It is easy to forget that God is holy. We desperately want to be pleasing to the Creator, and yet we do not want to change.
The human heart is easily deceived without regular, daily doses of the Word.
Change, in God’s way, is good! For without change, there is no growth.
The people in Judah became deceived by pleasure and apparently simply focusing on the fact that “God is good, His Mercy endures forever.” THANK GOD FOR THAT!
But, so-called “Mercy” that convinces people to not repent is not true mercy or true wisdom.
This reminds me of Martin Luther’s comment on Galatians 1:4. That he might deliver us from this present evil world.
“As long as a person is in the world he cannot by his own efforts rid himself of sin, because the world is bent upon evil. The people of the world are the slaves of the devil. If we are not in the Kingdom of Christ, it is certain we belong to the kingdom of Satan and we are pressed into his service with every talent we possess.
Take the talents of wisdom and integrity. Without Christ, wisdom is double foolishness and integrity double sin, because they not
a. only fail to perceive the wisdom and righteousness of Christ,
b. but hinder and blaspheme the salvation of Christ.
Paul justly calls it the evil or wicked world, for when the world is at its best the world is at its worst.
The grossest vices are small faults in comparison with the wisdom and righteousness of the world. These prevent men from accepting the Gospel of the righteousness of Christ.
The white devil of spiritual sin is far more dangerous than the black devil of carnal sin because the wiser, the better men are without Christ, the more they are likely to ignore and oppose the Gospel.”
Vance
Posted by: Vance Brown | October 10, 2005 at 05:58 AM
I like this..,
It gives me hope:
"Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved."
God, can and does turn us.
For me, judgement like in the passage with Jeremiah has had absolutely no effect really in my life.
I, like many others, know my personal sins too well and like Paul so long ago do in fact "want to do good". But in me there seems to dwell no good thing.
Except in the verse;
Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
How shall I be saved?
Turning? Like the hebrew says about repentance which is to turn...?
If I do it, it seems I am able to easily turn again away from God as easily as I turned to him...,
But. When my Father in Heaven opens the clouds of my heart and shines upon me.....
When my soul is opened to his touch after some horrific sin,
I..., am turned by his love.
In fact often I am dropped more by his forgiveness to my knees, than all the joys I have been so freely spoiled with in knowing Him.
And is my point to sin more that I may be tenderized to his sensitivity to my real need? (Love)
No.
In fact it is my point how personal this is...Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Only God can and does turn us and chooses the means...
For me it is Love, others it may be Fear. Some it may be judgement.
I thank God he can cause me to "turn away" from my sin and embrace Him as he already knows I hate the fact that though I am His, I am still a Sinner.
My great hope is that in death and union to him...one day... " we shall be saved."
Saved from ever having to turn again or be turned.
Till then...I still need to turn and to be turned and I really trust his turning me more than I do my own.
Posted by: Michael Stone | October 10, 2005 at 11:36 AM
Jeremiah 14:11-16:15
For many, this section of Jeremiah is particularly hard to grasp and take in. Within these chapters, for the third time (Jer 14:11—the two previous times: Jer 7:16; 11:14) he is told not to pray for the people, God’s people, and despite that command, Jeremiah still continues interceding and making excuses for Jerusalem and it’s people. A conversation ensues with God finally telling Jeremiah to repent, to return to Him.
I wonder if we ever think of God’s men, His prophets as committing sin? Disobeying the voice of the Lord, a clear-cut command despite what our feelings tell us, is a sin. To repent is to turn, as Michael Stone has so elegantly stated.
From the Amplified:
[Jeremiah said] O Lord, You know and understand; [earnestly] remember me and visit me and avenge me on my persecutors. Take me not away [from joy or from life itself] in Your long-suffering [to my enemies]; know that for Your sake I suffer and bear reproach. Your words were found, and I ate them; and Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of those who make merry, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because Your [powerful] hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain?
Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God's faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you--not you to [the people]. And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord. And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.
(Jer 15:15-21 AMP)
A rhetorical question: Can we really change the mind of God? If God has decreed something to happen, can we really stall Him, convince Him to change His Mind?
I Thessalonians 2:9-3:13
I wonder if Paul’s message to the church at Thessalonica was delivered with anointed words that burned into the hearts of those listening. I have had people, strangers, that walked up to me or who I had, for a better word, a divine appointment with and the words they spoke to me burned in my heart as “Truth,” latter to be confirmed by the Word.
In the book of Job, Job makes a statement that I have pondered for years,
Is it not the task of the ear to discriminate between [wise and unwise] words, just as the mouth distinguishes [between desirable and undesirable] food? (Job 12:11 AMP)
Paul states in the first chapter of the Book of Romans (1:19-25) that the world, the unbelievers have exchanged the truth for a lie. In order to exchange one thing for another, one-must be in possession of, have within one’s hand the thing they are exchanging.
I believe everyone knows Truth when they here it. Our rebellious nature causes us to reject that which we know to be the truth. I pray that we be as honorable as this church was in receiving the Words of Life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May we also be as honorable and noble as the people of Berea (Acts 17:11-12) who searched the scriptures to see if what Paul preached was confirmed by the Word.
Psalm 80:1-19
4
O LORD God Almighty,
how long will you be angry and reject our prayers?
5
You have fed us with sorrow
and made us drink tears by the bucketful.
6
You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations.
Our enemies treat us as a joke.
7
Turn us again to yourself, O God Almighty.
Make your face shine down upon us.
Only then will we be saved.
Today’s reading in Psalms fits in well with our Jeremiah passage. The image I see is of a child who has been placed in the corner for disciple crying out to his mother, How Long? How many more minutes until the punishment is over.
Proverbs 25:1-5
2 It is God's privilege to conceal things and the king's privilege to discover them.
The above Proverb reminds me of a tee shirt I had that I absolutely loved and subsequently wore out.
E=mc2 Created by God Discovered by Einstein. I miss that shirt. It was a real conversation piece.
Hmm, Mike, that dross taken from the silver always requires a heating up of the metal and it is a very slow process. At each rise in the temperature, the dross rises to the top and is then skimmed off. The process continues until there is no longer any dross rising to the top. Sometimes we find ourselves on the “hot” seat not because we have done anything wrong in particular, we are just having our dross removed.
Sometimes, no, most of the time, the sins we think we don’t have surfaces when the “heat is on.”
Grace and peace,
Ramona
Posted by: Ramona | October 10, 2005 at 05:40 PM