~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Jeremiah 44:24-47:7 ~ 2 Timothy 2:22-3:17
Psalm 94:1-23 ~ Proverbs 26:6-8
Old Testament - Jeremiah 44:28 stood out to me in today's readings - ""Only a small number will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt." This verse reminds me that God is continuing to preserve the line - the house of David. God will destroy most of the Israelites in Egypt for their unfaithfulness & idol worship, but he will preserve a remnant. Seems we see this over and over in the Bible - even Noah & the flood comes to mind, pre-David of course. Verses 29 and 30 in this chapter continue - "And this is the proof I give you, says the LORD, that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here: I will turn Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I, the LORD, have spoken!" Based on these verses, below is an image of Pharaoh-Hophra taken prisoner in the war with Amasis -
Jeremiah 45 is a short chapter. Baruch is the person who has basically written this book of Jeremiah. He was Jeremiah's secretary and wrote down everything. However, apparently being secretary for a prophet is a high stress job too. Baruch is sounding a bit burdened in this chapter... To which God gives him words of comfort, along with a brief warning in verse 5 - "Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don't do it!" Are we seeking great things for ourselves? Should we do it.... ? Whom should we be seeking great things for? Why do we seek great things for our own selves? Why do we sometimes even walk over others to try to prove our "greatness".... ? Think God likes to see this type of behavior from us?
Jeremiah chapter 46 starts about 6 chapters of prophecies against various nations. Starting with Egypt in 46 and Philistine in 47 today. Reading some of the verses in these 2 chapters today remind me of the Lord of the Rings movies.... a nice reminder of how our modern culture influences our imaginations, eh... :) In chapter 46 verses 3 through 5 today we read - ""Buckle on your armor and advance into battle! Harness the horses, and prepare to mount them. Put on your helmets, sharpen your spears, and prepare your armor. But look! The Egyptian army flees in terror. The bravest of its fighting men run without a backward glance. They are terrorized at every turn, says the LORD."
New Testament - 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 22 hits hard today - "Run from anything that stimulates youthful lust. " Notice that first word - Run. Flee. Go the other way. U-turn. Don't hang around. Run. Do you run from things that stimulate lust in your life? Do you really Run? How fast?
Verse 22 continues on with some encouraging words - "Follow anything that makes you want to do right. Pursue faith and love and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts." I like that - pursue faith. Pursue love. Pursue peace. And - "enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts." I do pray you have some relationships like this in your life? They can provide you such great rest & rejuvenation. A small group in your church may be a great way to find these types of relationships if you don't have them currently. Community can be messy & tough & scary at times - but it's so worth it! Please pursue community with other believers. And please do continue to have relationships with others who may not be believers in your life too. Be cautious in that sometimes those old relationships can bring us down / pull us back to old habits if we are not careful. That is why we most definitely also need to have a community of those who call on the Lord in our lives as well. In community, let us pursue faith! Pursue love! Pursue peace!
2 Timothy 3:1-5 are 5 powerful verses that deserve to be meditated upon by each of us - "You should also know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. You must stay away from people like that." How do these teachings of Paul resonate with you? Do you see parallels in today's modern world with these teachings? Are there some people in your life today that you should literally stay away from?
Okay, and then verses 16 and 17 just make One Year Bible bloggers like myself smile.... :) - "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do." Do you believe these verses to be true? Do you believe that Scripture is inspired by God? And useful to teach us what is true? And make us realize what is wrong in our lives? Is God's Word fully equipping you for every good thing God wants you to do?
Psalms - Psalm 94 verse 14 is fantastic today - "The LORD will not reject his people; he will not abandon his own special possession." I love this thought - that God will not reject us. He will not abandon us. We are his own special possession. Do you believe that you are God's own special possession?
Bible.org has a wonderful commentary on Psalm 94 titled "The Psalmist Speaks When Society Sins" at this link.
Proverbs - Proverbs 26 verse 7 is powerful for us to consider - "In the mouth of a fool, a proverb becomes as limp as a paralyzed leg." This makes me realize that sometimes the messenger can be as important as the message... If we are messengers in some sort of way for God - by how we live our lives, love others, serve others, etc. - how are we doing? Are we worthy messengers? Or are we diluting the message in some ways? Ultimately God's Word and message will proceed forward with or without us. But it's obviously such a blessing for us to be part of God's message - participating in God's process of redeeming the world. Let us pray we are good messengers for God in our lives today!
What verses or insights stand out to you in today's readings? Please post up in the Comments section below!
Grace,
Mike
I just want to leave these thoughts with you, which sparked my desire to delight in and love the Lord. Then, from that place, obey from the spirit/Spirit.
Every situation in your life is about who you are becoming in Jesus.
You need to replace that “victim mindset”. “I am having a horrible time, but I am not a victim!” “I am not!” “I am not!”
“The word of the Lord to you is, ‘You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.’ ”
There is no end to His Goodness! There is no end to it. There is no end to His Kindness! He is relentless.
Commitment is who you are regardless of circumstances. Commitment is Who God is for you regardless of your circumstances! When you get that, it is like the doorway is thrown wide (open) into intimacy.
What is the one thing that stops me [from] being intimate with God? Me! My perception of myself. How I see myself in Jesus. He is not concerned about that. “I put you in Christ. You are acceptable. You are accepted in the Beloved.”
The reality is tough times are your biggest shortcut into the Presence of God. Take it!
Because if you are waiting for something good to happen so you can love Jesus deeply, you are going to walk the long way around.
See, the nature of God is the key to my life and my current dilemma.
The key to my life is not to get the right answer.
The key to my life and my current dilemma is to understand who God is for me now in what I am going through.
My question is,
“What is it You want to be for me—in my stupidity, in my lunacy, in my sin, in my ungraciousness. What is it You want to be for me now that You could not be at any other time?”
Because that is His gift to you.
I have to swap one mindset for another.
Vance
Posted by: Vance Brown | October 24, 2005 at 06:00 AM
From Jeremiah 45: It's human nature especially in the work world to seek great things for yourself at the sake of stepping on others. I believe the Christian way would be to do things as Christ would do and see that He loves us all the same. Don't things work out smoothly when participants, players, co-workers etc.. see themselves as part of a team working for the good of all rather than their own individual selfish interests.
2 Timothy: Says run from everything that stimulates youthfull lust. This really speaks volumns to some of us from the baby boomer generation, who have learned many or our life's lessons as my dad would say "from the school of hard knocks" No wonder the youth of today have such a struggle,look at who their role models are.
In chapter 3:1-5 the comment made about the youth of today being resentful of other people, parents and authority figures is very obvious to me and quite an eye opener.
Verse 22 says, enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts and pursue faith. Those folks are getter harder and harder to find and most peoples lives are so over booked and busy that they don't have time for others let alone their own families. And the comment that was made about old relationships, I feel that God is still working on those people and I still want to show them Christian love and be an example of Christ to them. If we gave up on them I don't feel that would be right, but I see your point about how they can drag you down to their level and sin.
The Proverbs verse mentions messengers for God. I feel their is a fine line between assoiciating with sinners so we can be good witnesses and give them the message of to stay in our comfort zones with those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. It puts in you in somewhat of a delimma.
Posted by: Laura Jones | October 24, 2005 at 11:51 AM