Month: August 2022

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Doubter or Believer?

doubt or believe

Jer. 43-46 From Genesis to Revelation, we read over and over, in one form or another, that our God can be trusted because, unlike men who change their minds or vacillate, God never does. The clearest example: Num. 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen?”

Therefore, when the people came to Jeremiah to ask for a word from the Lord, he complied, but when they heard the word, they claimed he was lying. When people don’t listen to what they want to hear, they often do as these Judahites did. People are untrustworthy, unlike God, who is. Also, they add to God’s Word, so it is palatable. God is not amused. He tells Jeremiah that these people are stubborn and rebellious—even when they see the evidence of truth. So how’s that working for them?

Why are we so slow to believe? Jesus said the same thing to the two on the road to Emmaus: “You foolish people—how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [Luke 24:25]

Today do I believe all that the Word of God says, or do I try to change it to fit what I want, not what God wants for me?

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Faithful or Stubborn?

will we believe and obey

Jer 40-42 What God said would happen happened. The Babylonians took over Jerusalem and carted off its people. God graciously opens the heart of Nebuchadnezzar and allows the prophet Jeremiah to go free. He is given two choices, go to Babylon and live with Nebuzaradan or return to his people. “He stayed there to live among the people who had been left in the land of Judah.” [Jer 40:6] Jeremiah loved his people so much that he was willing to suffer in a land of devastation rather than go to Babylon and live there in relative peace. So how do we decide what to do? 

Once back there, we find that the people still have stubborn hearts. They ask Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord what to do next and end their request with “what He says, we will do.” That is reminiscent of the Israelites before Moses in the book of Numbers. But, as then, so now, when they hear what God says, they say, that cannot be! Jeremiah, you lie! We are going to Egypt. Before, they wandered for forty years, and the disobedient died in the wilderness. Now they will die in Egypt —just as God said.

God places choices before us as well, and we must decide. We don’t have a Jeremiah to inquire before the Lord for us, but we do have His Word. Will we listen? Will we obey? Indeed we are stubborn people. Peter learned this lesson: “His divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness.” [2Pet 1:3] How about us? OR-—

Do we need to do another lap around the wilderness to learn? Will we believe and obey?

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How’s fear working for you?

how's fear working for yo?

Jer. 37-39 Our arch-enemy wants us to fail and not just fail but fail BIG TIME! His biggest tool is fear. He knows that if we fear God, we can be conquerors, but if he can change that to fear of men, he has won, and we have lost. Take King Zedekiah, a prime example of Prov 29:25 “The fear of man is a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted.” Zedekiah lived by fear. He sent for Jeremiah in secret to know what God had planned. Jeremiah told him to yield to the Babylonians, but Zedekiah’s fear overruled him, and he sought to escape through a tunnel at night. He chose not to do as Jeremiah said, and the fruit of his fear came to pass. The Babylonians found Zedekiah; Nebuchadnezzar killed his sons, took his eyes and bound him, and sent him packing to a Babylonian prison.

God has his way of proving His Word is true. Zedekiah is a sad tale of what happens when we yield to fear. 

So, here’s our question: How did Zedekiah’s fear work for him? How does that fear work for us?  

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Handling the Word of God

The Word

Jer 33-36 In the time of King Josiah, the word of the Lord was found and read. He tore his clothes and ordered that the false images be torn down, and they return to God’s ways. God honored Josiah, and his reign was one of peace. King Jehoiakim also heard the word of the Lord read, but he dishonored it by burning it paragraph by paragraph. God told Jeremiah that because he did that, he would die an ignoble death and have no descendants to sit on the throne. In the book of Galatians, Paul writes that God will not be mocked. People will reap what they sow. [Gal 6:7]

How do I handle God’s Word, especially when the Spirit speaks? Do I do as the king when I read something that pricks my heart but gloss over it, or do I do as Thomas Jefferson and cut out those passages I don’t like? Today men say those words were for another time, but God’s Word will never return void. [Is 55:11]

May we honor God’s Word and remember that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. [Matt 6:21]May we be like Josiah or Mary, who “treasured up all these words, pondering them in her heart what they might mean.” [Luke 2:19]

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There’s a New Day Comin’

There's a new day coming

Jer 30-32 In 1933, a song was published that must have encouraged our nation coming out of the Great Depression. It was called “A New Day is Coming.” Jeremiah was “singing” that tune long before this to the children of Israel as they sat waiting and watching the Babylonians build siege ramps outside the city walls. They were asking, can anything good come out of this? Jeremiah repeated the words of God: “…is there anything too hard for me?  “I am the Lord, the God of all humankind. There is, indeed, nothing too difficult for me.” [Jer 32:27] If I could create this world out of nothing, I can surely bring you back and replenish this land and My people. As the sun rises and sets, my Word will never pass away. [Matt 24:35] What I have said, I will do. [Is 38:7]

Why does He do that? It is because He has “loved you with an everlasting love. That is why [He] has continued to be faithful to you [Je 31:3] and because He is Father, and that’s what fathers do. [Jer 31:9]

Keep looking up; a new day is coming!

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True or False Prophets

test the spirits

Jeremiah 27-29 Back in Moses’ time, the people asked Moses how to tell and discern if a man speaking “for God” was really ‘from God.’ So Moses gave them a guideline. If what they say will happen happens, he is a true prophet, but if what he says does not happen, he is false and should not be feared. (Deut 18:21-22) Sounds so simple but is it that simple?

Today we have some who predict that our future will be rosy and comforting, but the signs on the horizon predict otherwise. How can we tell if what we hear is right or not? We must take all who speak and then ask God for clarification, just as James said: “if any man is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God. [James 1:5]. The same tests apply today as they did back in the time of Moses. Watch, listen and pray for discernment. Study the scriptures, and do as the Apostle John said; ‘test the spirits’ to see if they are from God. [1Jn 4:1] But how do we do that practically?  What we hear should not contradict what God has said before and must confirm what scripture teaches “every time!” Listen to their claims. Are they just telling me and you, the listeners, what we want to hear like Hananiah did in Jeremiah’s time, or is it a message to prepare us to repent so God can fulfill His purpose? [Jer 29:11]

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How to be discerning

Listen, look then determine

Jer 21-23 Today we hear many voices. They sound right, legitimate, and pleasant, but are they? One of the challenges we face and the people in Jeremiah’s day faced is discerning whether the messages were from God or not. They had to, and we have to sift between what is true and false. The only difference between the time of Jeremiah and now is that we have the completed Word of God, 🙂 which is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. [2Tim 3:16] The Apostle John’s advice to his flock was to ‘test the spirits to see if they are of God.’ [1Jn 4:1] Ask: Has what he has said in the past come true? Has his life been exemplary?

Long ago, people mostly listened and had to determine if the speaker came from God or not. So God gave them three ways: (1) prophets to speak for God to the people; (2) priests to speak for the people to God and (3) a king to help them adhere to the covenant.

Today, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who speaks to us through the completed Word of God. Therefore, we must know the Word to discern and to do that, we must “store up His Words in our heart” [Ps 119:11] which means we must make every effort to memorize it. It is our reasonable service, as Paul said. [Rom 12:1]

Today as you listen to the many preaching, speaking, and writing, be sure to apply James 1:5 “if deficient in wisdom, ask God.”

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Strength for the Battle

two trees picture the believing and unbelieving

Jer. 17-20; Psalm 1 In God’s garden, there are two trees. One is strong and produces fruit in its season. The other is barren and produces no fruit. The former are the trees with a robust root system because they drink from the living water. [Jn 7:38] The latter is a tree planted away from the stream and pictures the unbelieving of our world.

The psalmist and Jeremiah saw the barren trees and heard their scoffing. Like today, these trees said, I don’t need the living water; I am ok here in the field; what you believe is ok for you but not for me. They stand and watch and scoff; the tree by the river is strong now, but watch when the storms come. We will be strong, and he will falter. Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, the barren trees are spiritually blind. Jesus told them, you avidly study, thinking you have eternal life, but you miss the greatest gift of all; the very presence of the Messiah standing before you. [Jn 5:39]

At seeing all of this, Jeremiah is ready to throw in the towel, except for one thing; God’s message was like a fire locked up inside of him, and he needed to release it.

There will always be the scoundrels and scoffers who plot and slander. But, he who chooses to meditate on God derives the strength to face another day and another spiritual battle. [Ps 119:23]

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Mom and God agree!

climb that mountain

Jer 13-15 Do you have the valley days? Those are the days when you think you are all alone or facing what no one has ever faced before. That was Jeremiah. Jeremiah talked to himself; yep, Mom is always right! I start arguments, and I quarrel with others. or for us, I am all alone here, God. 🙁 But, God said: Jeremiah: “You must repent of such words and thoughts!” [Jer. 15:19] We, God and Mom, also know that you have a choice when you are in the valley; you can stay there or start climbing.

So as Jeremiah starts his climb and with each step, he mumbles:  “Lord, you know how I suffer…but “As your words came to me, I drank them in, and they filled my heart with joy and happiness because I belong to you” [Jer. 15:15] And the Lord heard and answered: “I will make you strong! Others may attack you, but I am with you, and I will rescue you.” [Jer 15:20] Mom and God were right, I kept climbing, and soon the mountaintop was just another step away. 🙂

You may be in the valley like Jeremiah, but you don’t have to stay there. You can climb that mountain, or you can stay in the valley. What will you choose? Where are you today? How can we pray for you?

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All will die but…

Death is our destiny

Jer 9-12 Are you prepared?

Like Asaph of Psalm 73, Jeremiah looks at the world in which he lives and sees two kinds of people. First, some talk the talk, but their lives reveal that they are false. Then some talk the talk and are the blessed men of Psalm 1. Asaph, Job, and Jeremiah had the same question. Why does God allow the pharisaical men to go on their merry way with nary a problem, but we who are obeying face problems? Beloved, remember the psalmist saying; look about you; the wicked are like the chaff which the wind drives away. [Ps 1]They are here today and gone tomorrow.

Jesus told a parable about poor, pious but suffering Lazarus and a rich man in Luke 16:19-28. Upon dying, Lazarus found himself in Paradise. The rich unbelieving man also died but ended up in Torments begging for someone to go and tell his brothers not to come there. They ignorantly follow their father’s way but not the Father’s way. [Jer. 9:13] Abraham said: they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, but the rich man said; they need someone from the dead to go and tell. Jesus was that risen man, but instead, the world boasts, I have power, I have wealth, and it is enough. Beloved, will those get you to the right place upon death?    

Are you prepared to face your destiny?   

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