2010 – July 27 – Losing a Sense of the Serious

Study from God’s Word… Jeremiah 5: 14 – 6: 30 … Passage for Reflection: Jeremiah 6: 13 – 14 … NIV 13 "From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. 14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.

Second Passage for Review: Jeremiah 8: 10 - 11 … NIV 10 Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. 11 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace.

My Journal for Today: How many times do we need to hear it? Today’s passage was repeated almost word for word to God’s people from God through Jeremiah in two separate chapters of the book by Jeremiah’s name; but the people weren’t hearing, especially the leaders. They just wouldn’t take God seriously. >>> Advance the times forward to now! Sound familiar?

Dr. Smith closes his devotional with the pointed and pertinent self evaluation question: ”Just how seriously do I address my own scandal and vice?” In other words, “Am I taking my sinfulness seriously?” Do I keep short accounts on my sin? Am I vigilant, day by day by day, to have a plan to avoid my own flesh and deceitful heart (we call it a “Battle Plan” in the ministry I lead); and this is something against which we’re going to read Jeremiah also railing later in his prophesies, in Jer. 17: 9, that we have a deceit-ridden and desperately wicked heart against which we must attend continuously.

Why is it that we have to be reminded of our lack of vigilance by “911” type disasters? And God, in Jeremiah’s time, was having to use a sweeping captivity by Babylon to wake His people up to their lack of seriousness to sin and their unwillingness to hear their God through Jeremiah (and other Prophets).

Have you heard (or read of) anyone today clamoring, “Wake up, America!!” Of course, you have; and some of you take it seriously; but when I read passages like the one today, I see America being a modern-day version of what was going on in Israel and Judah in Jeremiah’s day; and when I read what the Apostle Paul wrote about in a later time (see Romans 1: 18 – 32 - linked), it’s like I’m reading of our own culture; and God simply cannot – and will not – stand by and let this blasé attitude about sin in our culture transpire without the Lord’s ire being raise to a point where His wrath must be expressed. And all one can say to this would be my prayer today.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, have mercy on us! Amen