Jeremiah 22:8-9 "People from many nations will pass by this city (Jerusalem) and will ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’ And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”
Deuteronomy 29:24-26 echo's this passage. It speaks of a similar destruction covering an entire land due to idol worship.
I am humbled in these passages, I fear the Lord because the beloved Creator is also the Jealous Destroyer. His very own people and place He promised so much glory to... Yet God devastates and crumbles them.
The concept of God being the God of "the now" is relevant here. That was then: Israel vows devotion, the Lord dwells. This is now: Israel forsakes the covenant, God brings destruction.
I think its interesting that Jerusalem isn't abandoned like a ghost town or becomes a town inhabited by invaders. Instead God brings destruction to His holy mount ruined.
I know that Jesus wept for Jerusalem upon His final entry into the city on Palm Sunday. Was Jeremiah in a similar situation? God has a love for this city, its people and its significance. Some forty years later after Jesus' death, Jerusalem was completely devastated again. Turned into a pile of rubble, so many dead. Was it because the Seed of Abraham was unimpressive to the residents? Christ, the Promise of God was among them yet ill received by a doubting Israel. The New Covenant, the everlasting one, was consummated and the people of Jerusalem in large part, dismissed it and did business as usual. Is the destruction of Jerusalem around 70 AD similar to the one Jeremiah speaks of around 586 BC because of who we are as children so short of the glory God has?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Jeremiah 17: 9-10
Jeremiah 17:9-10. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 'I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.'”
This might be the third most famous quote in Jeremiah. (Only Jer 29:11, and Jer 31:31-34 tend out-shine this one). Some popular secular mantras come in great conflict with God's Word here. We're told to "follow your heart" or "Listen to your heart" "what you feel in your heart correct." This is an popular illusion (lie) that our hearts a good, truthful and contain our destiny. However, Jeremiah clearly warns us here: the heart is deceitful and beyond cure, this is fact, not debatable according to this passage.
Here are a summation of the truths found in Jer 17:9.
1. The natural state of everyone's heart is deceitful, permanently.
2. There is no cure: for all our lives we manage a deceitful heart.
3. No human can understand the heart (implied by rhetorical question).
4. The heart is the strongest agent of deception. Above all things: move over idols, addictions and spirits. After Satan, the biggest deceiver is our own heart.
So my heart cannot be cured (permanently fixed) from deception -no matter how godly, how holy, or how much God uses me. There remains an agent present in my heart, able to deceive me until the day I die.
Similarly, the sin-nature (originating from Adam and Eve act of sin) inhabits permanently as well. No matter how many days since spiritual new birth in Christ, my heart still has the potential to be bent towards doing sin. I will never live cured (without a trace deceit) -but Jesus Christ can manage my deceit-disease, He can lodge His Spirit in my heart, and grow me from all afflictions of deceit.
In living, we must seek a pure heart or accept a deceitful one.
I think the spiritual disciplines in my faith life help me commit to seeking a pure heart. Praying for a pure heart must be done daily. Worship often, read Scripture daily, sing hymns, fast etc... A preacher once told me that inside of me are two dogs. The dog of a godly nature and the dog of a sin nature. They are fighting and barking at each other daily. They both are stuck in me, the only thing I can do is feed them. I choose the portions and the quality of the food: as I feed one, the other grows weaker and quiet. -I much choose to make all of my life into food for the godly dog, that his bark would be greater and louder and more frequent. Again this doesn't point to a cured state, rather a trained and conditioned Christ-centered heart being sanctified.
Now in verse ten Jeremiah states that only God can search and know our hearts. So even though no human can understand the heart, God knows it (which is a step beyond understanding it). Thankfully God gives, blesses, and delights in looking at the heart set on purity(verse 10). The implication here is that somewhere, somehow our heart of deceitfulness becomes able to earn a reward from God for good "conduct and deserving deeds."
There is no confidence/truth in thinking that our hearts are the safest operating center to receive orders from. Emotion and feelings are insulators to the content of the heart and that isn't a good thing. We must anchor ourselves on the Rock of our Salvation, our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Faith that is anchored on this eternal truth is deeper then our feelings, and emotions and truer to the Living God. Let us be rewarded by God for seeking a pure heart and inviting Christ's indwelling Spirit.
This might be the third most famous quote in Jeremiah. (Only Jer 29:11, and Jer 31:31-34 tend out-shine this one). Some popular secular mantras come in great conflict with God's Word here. We're told to "follow your heart" or "Listen to your heart" "what you feel in your heart correct." This is an popular illusion (lie) that our hearts a good, truthful and contain our destiny. However, Jeremiah clearly warns us here: the heart is deceitful and beyond cure, this is fact, not debatable according to this passage.
Here are a summation of the truths found in Jer 17:9.
1. The natural state of everyone's heart is deceitful, permanently.
2. There is no cure: for all our lives we manage a deceitful heart.
3. No human can understand the heart (implied by rhetorical question).
4. The heart is the strongest agent of deception. Above all things: move over idols, addictions and spirits. After Satan, the biggest deceiver is our own heart.
So my heart cannot be cured (permanently fixed) from deception -no matter how godly, how holy, or how much God uses me. There remains an agent present in my heart, able to deceive me until the day I die.
Similarly, the sin-nature (originating from Adam and Eve act of sin) inhabits permanently as well. No matter how many days since spiritual new birth in Christ, my heart still has the potential to be bent towards doing sin. I will never live cured (without a trace deceit) -but Jesus Christ can manage my deceit-disease, He can lodge His Spirit in my heart, and grow me from all afflictions of deceit.
In living, we must seek a pure heart or accept a deceitful one.
I think the spiritual disciplines in my faith life help me commit to seeking a pure heart. Praying for a pure heart must be done daily. Worship often, read Scripture daily, sing hymns, fast etc... A preacher once told me that inside of me are two dogs. The dog of a godly nature and the dog of a sin nature. They are fighting and barking at each other daily. They both are stuck in me, the only thing I can do is feed them. I choose the portions and the quality of the food: as I feed one, the other grows weaker and quiet. -I much choose to make all of my life into food for the godly dog, that his bark would be greater and louder and more frequent. Again this doesn't point to a cured state, rather a trained and conditioned Christ-centered heart being sanctified.
Now in verse ten Jeremiah states that only God can search and know our hearts. So even though no human can understand the heart, God knows it (which is a step beyond understanding it). Thankfully God gives, blesses, and delights in looking at the heart set on purity(verse 10). The implication here is that somewhere, somehow our heart of deceitfulness becomes able to earn a reward from God for good "conduct and deserving deeds."
There is no confidence/truth in thinking that our hearts are the safest operating center to receive orders from. Emotion and feelings are insulators to the content of the heart and that isn't a good thing. We must anchor ourselves on the Rock of our Salvation, our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Faith that is anchored on this eternal truth is deeper then our feelings, and emotions and truer to the Living God. Let us be rewarded by God for seeking a pure heart and inviting Christ's indwelling Spirit.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Jeremiah 15:17-18
Jeremiah 15:17-18. "I (Jeremiah) never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails."
Jeremiah expresses frustrations in his conversation with God here. God had chosen him as His prophet, Jeremiah delighted in getting to know God's Word and suffered willingly for a long time because there was joy in his heart. However, for some time now as things started to unravel for Judah and the false prophets were talking about a god who is coming to save Judah and Israel again. Jeremiah in contrast, speaks about captivity, famine, swords, and death.
So Jeremiah is emotional and expressing to God verses 17 and 18. In 17 Jeremiah talks about his obedience to God's call and what sacrifices he made. He is enduring much rejection and affliction from others. His heart starts to rebel against God. In 18 Jeremiah says his wound is too big for God to heal... and that God is a mirage, a fake not reliable to refresh. So God being a "Spring of living water" (in chapter 2 verse 13) has now become a "deceptive brook."
Under affliction of spiritual doubt, Jeremiah temperamentally lashed out at God because Judah has abandoned his prophesying. Yet God is good to reply to Jeremiah amid his sinning. In Jer 15:19 God asks for Jeremiah to repent and return to Him. His words have become "worthless" and "not noble". God makes Jeremiah see that it is for Judah to return to him and not him to conform to Judah. After this instruction and insight, God gracefully reassures the prophet that He is with him in Verse 20.
In my life, God has allowed me the trial of facing debt. Up until now, I have tried to ignore it. However, this enslavement has been heavy on my thoughts provoking worry and anxiety. This condition of living, this enslavement has stumbled my walk with the Lord. I don't see God as He really is: sovereign in allowing this debt to shape me. God is saying "Trust me." and I'm like "but this... but that -get this monkey off my back."
So what I did in response to the severity of my debt was to launch into a fast. I was desperate for God to show up and I was desperate for some action. So I forced this sacrifice upon me without preparation. The next morning I skipped all food and went to work. Instantly I was afflicted with a down-cast irritability so severe it was apparent on my face. People didn't approaching me, friends were asking if I was ok. My stomach was in knots and a pounding headache was hitting me hard. Suddenly I remember this passage of Scripture I read that morning, and how Jeremiah was wrong. -Totally incorrect in approaching God and belittling Him and casting doubt upon God instead of trust.
I decided that my fast was a "sacrifice" ahead of "giving my heart" to God about this. Like Jeremiah I felt God asking me to repent from my thinking/doubt/panic. God showed me that I needed His grace more than my own understanding or doing a fast. He was asking me to trust him and before fasting. So in remembering this passage, at my first break I ate some food and had some coffee. All the physical blockage was lifted and I was a joyful servant at work. People looked at me strangely, but I praise God because He used Scripture to talk me into the way He would have me go.
Jeremiah expresses frustrations in his conversation with God here. God had chosen him as His prophet, Jeremiah delighted in getting to know God's Word and suffered willingly for a long time because there was joy in his heart. However, for some time now as things started to unravel for Judah and the false prophets were talking about a god who is coming to save Judah and Israel again. Jeremiah in contrast, speaks about captivity, famine, swords, and death.
So Jeremiah is emotional and expressing to God verses 17 and 18. In 17 Jeremiah talks about his obedience to God's call and what sacrifices he made. He is enduring much rejection and affliction from others. His heart starts to rebel against God. In 18 Jeremiah says his wound is too big for God to heal... and that God is a mirage, a fake not reliable to refresh. So God being a "Spring of living water" (in chapter 2 verse 13) has now become a "deceptive brook."
Under affliction of spiritual doubt, Jeremiah temperamentally lashed out at God because Judah has abandoned his prophesying. Yet God is good to reply to Jeremiah amid his sinning. In Jer 15:19 God asks for Jeremiah to repent and return to Him. His words have become "worthless" and "not noble". God makes Jeremiah see that it is for Judah to return to him and not him to conform to Judah. After this instruction and insight, God gracefully reassures the prophet that He is with him in Verse 20.
In my life, God has allowed me the trial of facing debt. Up until now, I have tried to ignore it. However, this enslavement has been heavy on my thoughts provoking worry and anxiety. This condition of living, this enslavement has stumbled my walk with the Lord. I don't see God as He really is: sovereign in allowing this debt to shape me. God is saying "Trust me." and I'm like "but this... but that -get this monkey off my back."
So what I did in response to the severity of my debt was to launch into a fast. I was desperate for God to show up and I was desperate for some action. So I forced this sacrifice upon me without preparation. The next morning I skipped all food and went to work. Instantly I was afflicted with a down-cast irritability so severe it was apparent on my face. People didn't approaching me, friends were asking if I was ok. My stomach was in knots and a pounding headache was hitting me hard. Suddenly I remember this passage of Scripture I read that morning, and how Jeremiah was wrong. -Totally incorrect in approaching God and belittling Him and casting doubt upon God instead of trust.
I decided that my fast was a "sacrifice" ahead of "giving my heart" to God about this. Like Jeremiah I felt God asking me to repent from my thinking/doubt/panic. God showed me that I needed His grace more than my own understanding or doing a fast. He was asking me to trust him and before fasting. So in remembering this passage, at my first break I ate some food and had some coffee. All the physical blockage was lifted and I was a joyful servant at work. People looked at me strangely, but I praise God because He used Scripture to talk me into the way He would have me go.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Jeremiah 12:7-8
Jeremiah 12:7-8“I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her."
Contextually this is part of the response God gives when Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper and the people of Judah suffer condemnation (Verse 1-2).
So God announces in verses 7 and 8 that He hates His own creation and more specifically His own people that He set apart ever since the Abrahamic covenant. To me here, God is telling Jeremiah: nations of unbelievers will subdue you and enslave you all for their own benefit because Judah remains disobedient. Simply put: the wicked prosper because God's people are disobedient... The goodness, the prosperity, the favor and the blessing are all foregone by Israel.
Why then does the prosperity surface among the enemies, the heathen? How is gifting ungodly people productive to bring repentance to Judah and Israel? Wouldn't that make God's people interested in the things of the heathen culture instead?
I think in verse 8 there is a sensitivity to the character of God in relation to His creation that I don't pick up on often. God says His inheritance was like a lion in the forest "roaring against me." To me this illustration recalls a tipping-point that happened to my mom. I grew up without a father so my pride and anger were often out of control. At about 13 years old I told my mother I hated her. I told her I would beat her that next time she tried to discipline me. She wept, one of the only times I ever saw her cry in my life. My mother never imagined she could be treated with so much hate by her son because of the love she continuously poured out.
So God the Creator is heart broken by Judah and illustrates it as a lion roaring back at Him. His free-willed creation provokes God to hate His creation. When the angel who became Satan rebelled in heaven God must have condemned him like He did to unrepentant Judah.
It is a great loss to God to see His own inheritance disown Him. I think also about the Judgment Seat and how hard it must be for Jesus to hand down condemnation on the ones He created. At times I even wonder why does God -in His all knowing, allow people to be born and never come to faith in Christ? I understand that we have free will and God desires a relationship with us... But from God's pre-destined, all knowing perspective: how could He create a people knowing full well that they will disobey and have eternity in hell from the day they are born?
Ultimately that doesn't matter to me because I do not know who is and isn't in the Book of Life. So I must love all with faith that God can save each of them. Jesus is mighty to save. Afterall, I never planned on being a Christian, but God revealed himself to me in the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection.
Contextually this is part of the response God gives when Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper and the people of Judah suffer condemnation (Verse 1-2).
So God announces in verses 7 and 8 that He hates His own creation and more specifically His own people that He set apart ever since the Abrahamic covenant. To me here, God is telling Jeremiah: nations of unbelievers will subdue you and enslave you all for their own benefit because Judah remains disobedient. Simply put: the wicked prosper because God's people are disobedient... The goodness, the prosperity, the favor and the blessing are all foregone by Israel.
Why then does the prosperity surface among the enemies, the heathen? How is gifting ungodly people productive to bring repentance to Judah and Israel? Wouldn't that make God's people interested in the things of the heathen culture instead?
I think in verse 8 there is a sensitivity to the character of God in relation to His creation that I don't pick up on often. God says His inheritance was like a lion in the forest "roaring against me." To me this illustration recalls a tipping-point that happened to my mom. I grew up without a father so my pride and anger were often out of control. At about 13 years old I told my mother I hated her. I told her I would beat her that next time she tried to discipline me. She wept, one of the only times I ever saw her cry in my life. My mother never imagined she could be treated with so much hate by her son because of the love she continuously poured out.
So God the Creator is heart broken by Judah and illustrates it as a lion roaring back at Him. His free-willed creation provokes God to hate His creation. When the angel who became Satan rebelled in heaven God must have condemned him like He did to unrepentant Judah.
It is a great loss to God to see His own inheritance disown Him. I think also about the Judgment Seat and how hard it must be for Jesus to hand down condemnation on the ones He created. At times I even wonder why does God -in His all knowing, allow people to be born and never come to faith in Christ? I understand that we have free will and God desires a relationship with us... But from God's pre-destined, all knowing perspective: how could He create a people knowing full well that they will disobey and have eternity in hell from the day they are born?
Ultimately that doesn't matter to me because I do not know who is and isn't in the Book of Life. So I must love all with faith that God can save each of them. Jesus is mighty to save. Afterall, I never planned on being a Christian, but God revealed himself to me in the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Jeremiah 10:23
Jeremiah 10:23 "LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps."
Psalms 37:23 "The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him;"
Proverbs 20:24 "A person’s steps are directed by the LORD.How then can anyone understand their own way?"
Proverbs 16:9 "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps."
I have difficulty understanding how God's steps in my day to day life add up to His will. This passage of Jeremiah (and the cross references) make it seem that pre-destiny is at hand. Certainly from God's perspective everything is pre-destined. However, I'm not God -I'm adopted into His family. I haven't clearly known God's steps, or followed His ways. I see God's steps are in motion in Scripture. As a born again believer I'm told: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me (Matt 16:24).'" Everyday I forfeit this life to Jesus, so that Jesus would be alive in me.
I surrender my pride, my own plans for the future and trust, and walk by faith. Ultimately it becomes a gainful act, God comes into my life and shows me His "steps".
God made firm my steps once I committed to Him that I wanted to quit smoking. He faithfully has "strengthened my steps" and He gave me the victory over the odds of quitting cigarettes. His guidance of my steps has set me on a victorious path away from smoking for nearly five years.
Somewhere between Jer 29:11 where God declares that He knows the plan for our life (big picture) and Jer 10:23 God directing my steps (choice by choice). I get filled with thinking: "What about the filler: week to week, month to month, injustice after injustice..." I suggest (have found)that faith is the filler: dependence on Jesus. Trust, devotion to Jesus, service, humility, (fruits of the Spirit), that becomes the substance/filler between the God's steps for us and God's plan for us!
Back in the day: Buddhism, art school, drugs, drinking, Satan, the American Dream, free will, peer pressure and caring what others think, were steps I chose to succeed by. They all fought against me, feeding on my lack of self control.
Much of the deception of Satan in my life was believing that I was the center of the universe. "I create my own destiny." I was never told the wisdom of Pr 16:9 "They (my steps)are established by God." Proverbs 20:24 "steps are directed by God." Ps37:23 "strengthened, (firm) by God".
Surrendering to God's steps in my life is proving to be hard. I need therapy from the Holy Spirit to undo these lies I lived by: "do what makes you happy." Or "do what you love." I never gave God His due sovereignty. I never asked Him to "Establish, direct, and strengthen my steps."
In Christ Jesus I have been adopted into the family of God. This was done by having faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. I invited Him to be Lord of my life forever. Scripture says, He became "a ransom for many (me!)." This gift of salvation has an implication: that life is not to be lived out for yourself anymore. God's steps for our lives is to deny ourselves and trust Jesus... one step at a time.
Psalms 37:23 "The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him;"
Proverbs 20:24 "A person’s steps are directed by the LORD.How then can anyone understand their own way?"
Proverbs 16:9 "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps."
I have difficulty understanding how God's steps in my day to day life add up to His will. This passage of Jeremiah (and the cross references) make it seem that pre-destiny is at hand. Certainly from God's perspective everything is pre-destined. However, I'm not God -I'm adopted into His family. I haven't clearly known God's steps, or followed His ways. I see God's steps are in motion in Scripture. As a born again believer I'm told: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me (Matt 16:24).'" Everyday I forfeit this life to Jesus, so that Jesus would be alive in me.
I surrender my pride, my own plans for the future and trust, and walk by faith. Ultimately it becomes a gainful act, God comes into my life and shows me His "steps".
God made firm my steps once I committed to Him that I wanted to quit smoking. He faithfully has "strengthened my steps" and He gave me the victory over the odds of quitting cigarettes. His guidance of my steps has set me on a victorious path away from smoking for nearly five years.
Somewhere between Jer 29:11 where God declares that He knows the plan for our life (big picture) and Jer 10:23 God directing my steps (choice by choice). I get filled with thinking: "What about the filler: week to week, month to month, injustice after injustice..." I suggest (have found)that faith is the filler: dependence on Jesus. Trust, devotion to Jesus, service, humility, (fruits of the Spirit), that becomes the substance/filler between the God's steps for us and God's plan for us!
Back in the day: Buddhism, art school, drugs, drinking, Satan, the American Dream, free will, peer pressure and caring what others think, were steps I chose to succeed by. They all fought against me, feeding on my lack of self control.
Much of the deception of Satan in my life was believing that I was the center of the universe. "I create my own destiny." I was never told the wisdom of Pr 16:9 "They (my steps)are established by God." Proverbs 20:24 "steps are directed by God." Ps37:23 "strengthened, (firm) by God".
Surrendering to God's steps in my life is proving to be hard. I need therapy from the Holy Spirit to undo these lies I lived by: "do what makes you happy." Or "do what you love." I never gave God His due sovereignty. I never asked Him to "Establish, direct, and strengthen my steps."
In Christ Jesus I have been adopted into the family of God. This was done by having faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. I invited Him to be Lord of my life forever. Scripture says, He became "a ransom for many (me!)." This gift of salvation has an implication: that life is not to be lived out for yourself anymore. God's steps for our lives is to deny ourselves and trust Jesus... one step at a time.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Jeremiah 9:23-24
Jeremiah 9:23-24: "Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD." -(NASB)
People used to tell me: "find what you're good at, what you love, and go with it..." That led me astray... it was like the wise boasting in wisdom, or the strong boasting in strength or the wealthy in wealth. Yes, God gave those things to people but only that God would be sought after and glorified -not so that we could acquire something that resembles pride, materialism and the American Dream.
God is the centrality of life, the very perfect focus. In seeking to know God we are living out our supreme goal as people: to know, worship and give God the glory. God wants to delight in us.
Well here God (never changing) tells us how to please Him within the Old Covenant parameters, Jr9:23-24 serves as a "tell-all" for how to cause delight in the Lord. All this revolves around proper boasting.
I usually see boasting as prideful and egotistical because it shows-off of one's excellence and therefore centering the acclaim and reactions for self-glorification. But here God suggests a pride-less boasting, one that reflects your own understanding and knowing of God. -That exalts the Lord.
It makes me think of the pro athletes that are so engrossed in their sport that their performance is their identity. Athletes boast excellence by breaking records, and consistently performing well in their sport. They are no longer able to disassociate themselves from the sport. Whether its verbal boasting or boasting through defeating the competitor, God is righteously jealous of that boasting. God desires for us to understand and know Him more than any top athlete can boast in their sport.
Notice that God doesn't describe "knowing Him" as memorizing the ten commandments, or the Book of Romans (though I'm sure that would be a blessing). Knowing God (in this passage) is about knowing God's agenda for His lovingkindness, His justice and His righteousness. So how can we boastfully come to know the justice, righteousness and lovingkindness of God. Its found in Jesus, in Scripture and in prayerfully asking. Its in the knowing to be full of the knowledge of who God is. Desiring to know Truth which comes only through God. And then we can boast and delight in obeying Him because we understand God's way...
Paul talks about boasting in similarly: "But, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.' For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends (2Cor 10:17-18)."
People used to tell me: "find what you're good at, what you love, and go with it..." That led me astray... it was like the wise boasting in wisdom, or the strong boasting in strength or the wealthy in wealth. Yes, God gave those things to people but only that God would be sought after and glorified -not so that we could acquire something that resembles pride, materialism and the American Dream.
God is the centrality of life, the very perfect focus. In seeking to know God we are living out our supreme goal as people: to know, worship and give God the glory. God wants to delight in us.
Well here God (never changing) tells us how to please Him within the Old Covenant parameters, Jr9:23-24 serves as a "tell-all" for how to cause delight in the Lord. All this revolves around proper boasting.
I usually see boasting as prideful and egotistical because it shows-off of one's excellence and therefore centering the acclaim and reactions for self-glorification. But here God suggests a pride-less boasting, one that reflects your own understanding and knowing of God. -That exalts the Lord.
It makes me think of the pro athletes that are so engrossed in their sport that their performance is their identity. Athletes boast excellence by breaking records, and consistently performing well in their sport. They are no longer able to disassociate themselves from the sport. Whether its verbal boasting or boasting through defeating the competitor, God is righteously jealous of that boasting. God desires for us to understand and know Him more than any top athlete can boast in their sport.
Notice that God doesn't describe "knowing Him" as memorizing the ten commandments, or the Book of Romans (though I'm sure that would be a blessing). Knowing God (in this passage) is about knowing God's agenda for His lovingkindness, His justice and His righteousness. So how can we boastfully come to know the justice, righteousness and lovingkindness of God. Its found in Jesus, in Scripture and in prayerfully asking. Its in the knowing to be full of the knowledge of who God is. Desiring to know Truth which comes only through God. And then we can boast and delight in obeying Him because we understand God's way...
Paul talks about boasting in similarly: "But, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.' For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends (2Cor 10:17-18)."
Monday, October 3, 2011
Jeremiah 8:18- 9:6
In Jeremiah 9:3-6 God illustrates why Judah ripe for exile and judgment. God reveals that Judah was:
V3: Filled with lies instead of faithfulness.
-Judah goes from one evil to another without consideration of God.
V4: No one can be trusted: brothers deceive and friends slander.
V5: No one tells the truth. They taught their tongue to speak lies.
-Judah is worn out from doing wrong.
V6: They live in a world of deception, and in there they refuse to know the Lord.
This is not unlike the conditions that exist today.
So now we can see how hard it must have been to be this God-fearing upright prophet speaking Truth in a world where Truth isn't spoken. Jeremiah has the heart and head for God and so he reacts severely to Judah's despondency/condition. Its documented earlier at the end of chapter 8, verses 18-22.
Here's Jeremiah reaction to Judah's rebellions:
V18: My heart is sick... Joy has flown.
V19: provoked to anger.
V20: (according to my study bible) Verse 20 is an expression meaning that Jeremiah watched all opportunities for Judah's correction pass them by.
V21: Jeremiah is broke by the brokenness..."I mourn, horror has a hold of me."
Even into the start of Chapter 9 Jeremiah speaks of weeping day and night of over the slain Judeans. And most convicting of all Jeremiah says he would abandon them if he had the chance.
This is the reaction of a godly man surrounded by unbelief. There is a contempt but more so a mourning, a weeping for the state of his culture, and the individuals in it. Also there is a commitment to stay despite his personal desire to leave. Jeremiah stays perhaps because he knew it was God's plan for him.
Where is my sick heart for the lost? Am I so numb, acclimated to horrors of godlessness holding my culture? Do I engage my world and present chances for godly acts? Am I plotting to abandon people who need God for a home of peace and rest? Am I angry or indifferent to the unbelief of friends and family? If I am angry what are productive ways to deal with that? I must remain non-condemning to those that sin and spark anger. I know all to well how sinful I am...
V3: Filled with lies instead of faithfulness.
-Judah goes from one evil to another without consideration of God.
V4: No one can be trusted: brothers deceive and friends slander.
V5: No one tells the truth. They taught their tongue to speak lies.
-Judah is worn out from doing wrong.
V6: They live in a world of deception, and in there they refuse to know the Lord.
This is not unlike the conditions that exist today.
So now we can see how hard it must have been to be this God-fearing upright prophet speaking Truth in a world where Truth isn't spoken. Jeremiah has the heart and head for God and so he reacts severely to Judah's despondency/condition. Its documented earlier at the end of chapter 8, verses 18-22.
Here's Jeremiah reaction to Judah's rebellions:
V18: My heart is sick... Joy has flown.
V19: provoked to anger.
V20: (according to my study bible) Verse 20 is an expression meaning that Jeremiah watched all opportunities for Judah's correction pass them by.
V21: Jeremiah is broke by the brokenness..."I mourn, horror has a hold of me."
Even into the start of Chapter 9 Jeremiah speaks of weeping day and night of over the slain Judeans. And most convicting of all Jeremiah says he would abandon them if he had the chance.
This is the reaction of a godly man surrounded by unbelief. There is a contempt but more so a mourning, a weeping for the state of his culture, and the individuals in it. Also there is a commitment to stay despite his personal desire to leave. Jeremiah stays perhaps because he knew it was God's plan for him.
Where is my sick heart for the lost? Am I so numb, acclimated to horrors of godlessness holding my culture? Do I engage my world and present chances for godly acts? Am I plotting to abandon people who need God for a home of peace and rest? Am I angry or indifferent to the unbelief of friends and family? If I am angry what are productive ways to deal with that? I must remain non-condemning to those that sin and spark anger. I know all to well how sinful I am...
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