Study from God’s Word… Jeremiah, Chapters 37 – 38 … Passage for Reflection: Jeremiah 38: 22 … NIV All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah [i.e., King Zedekiah] will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: " 'They misled you and overcame you — those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.'
My Journal for Today: Reading Chapters 37 & 38 of Jeremiah’s Book in the OT, we read of an interesting interaction between Zedekiah, the King of Judah at the time of the Babylonian siege, and the Prophet Jeremiah. A lot of political intrigue was going on at the time; and the people, especially the officials of the King’s court had trouble believing in and buying into God’s word, through Jeremiah, that only the people who surrendered to Babylon would live to remain alive and be loyal to the one, true God. And one could understand their reluctance to this prophetic paradox. Here, supposedly, was God’s Prophet saying that God’s chosen people of the covenant, the followers of the God of the universe, must surrender to a pagan people, the Babylonians in order to save themselves. And King Zedekiah, though showing some respect to Jeremiah, with at least a marginal belief in God, just couldn’t take the prophesies from Jeremiah. And his quandary was evident as he had Jeremiah taken captive, under house arrest, yet he kept coming back to Jeremiah, asking for what God was saying to him. He just didn’t know what to believe.
Ever been there; … when things are really confusing; and you’re getting conflicting advice, some of which just doesn’t make sense? And like King Zedekiah in today’s text, you just don’t know whom to turn to or whom to believe. And that is why we have such an advantage, being New Covenant believers, over the people of Jeremiah’s day. We don’t have to seek out select Prophets, who are blessed by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. No, we have, through our faith in the fulfillment of all of the OT Prophets, Jesus Christ, the very Holy Spirit Who guided Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Joel, and all of the OT prophets. And we also have God’s declared and final word as part of His New Covenant, sealed forever by the blood of God’s Son, Jesus, … the very Messiah prophesied by Jeremiah and others.
But like Zedekiah, we can hear the truth (or in the case of reading God’s word); but then we must, like King Zedekiah, receive and believe the truth enough to obediently follow the direction of God’s word. Zedekiah had only a marginal faith in the truth of God’s word from Jeremiah; and he paid dearly – with his life – for his very human denial and lack of willingness to surrender to God’s proclaimed truth.
How about you, my friend? Are you willing to get God’s truth deeply into your consciousness, to listen to God’s proclamations of purpose (for example, read and meditate on Isaiah 55: 11 and 2nd Tim. 3: 16-17]; and then, after knowing what God’s word say, are we willing to do what Jesus commanded of His disciples, … i.e., to willingly set aside self and follow Him (see a verse you should have memorized, Luke 9: 23)? Because if you’re not willing to selflessly surrender to God’s truth from His word, you will only have your self and others from Satan’s world to influence your direction; and the outcomes of that WILL BE horrible.
Enough from this pitiful teacher! What will be my choice (or yours) … to know God’s truth and to follow His word, or to languish in the proclamations of those who only have selfish motives to share with us?
Our choice!
My Prayer for Today: LORD, I choose Your word and the direction You provide to me as I get to know you more and more and more. Amen
Showing posts with label deny self. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deny self. Show all posts
Friday, August 27, 2010
2010 – August 27 – What Do You Trust?
Study from God’s Word… Jeremiah, Chapters 37 – 38 … Passage for Reflection: Jeremiah 38: 22 … NIV All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah [i.e., King Zedekiah] will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: " 'They misled you and overcame you — those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.'
My Journal for Today: Reading Chapters 37 & 38 of Jeremiah’s Book in the OT, we read of an interesting interaction between Zedekiah, the King of Judah at the time of the Babylonian siege, and the Prophet Jeremiah. A lot of political intrigue was going on at the time; and the people, especially the officials of the King’s court had trouble believing in and buying into God’s word, through Jeremiah, that only the people who surrendered to Babylon would live to remain alive and be loyal to the one, true God. And one could understand their reluctance to this prophetic paradox. Here, supposedly, was God’s Prophet saying that God’s chosen people of the covenant, the followers of the God of the universe, must surrender to a pagan people, the Babylonians in order to save themselves. And King Zedekiah, though showing some respect to Jeremiah, with at least a marginal belief in God, just couldn’t take the prophesies from Jeremiah. And his quandary was evident as he had Jeremiah taken captive, under house arrest, yet he kept coming back to Jeremiah, asking for what God was saying to him. He just didn’t know what to believe.
Ever been there; … when things are really confusing; and you’re getting conflicting advice, some of which just doesn’t make sense? And like King Zedekiah in today’s text, you just don’t know whom to turn to or whom to believe. And that is why we have such an advantage, being New Covenant believers, over the people of Jeremiah’s day. We don’t have to seek out select Prophets, who are blessed by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. No, we have, through our faith in the fulfillment of all of the OT Prophets, Jesus Christ, the very Holy Spirit Who guided Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Joel, and all of the OT prophets. And we also have God’s declared and final word as part of His New Covenant, sealed forever by the blood of God’s Son, Jesus, … the very Messiah prophesied by Jeremiah and others.
But like Zedekiah, we can hear the truth (or in the case of reading God’s word); but then we must, like King Zedekiah, receive and believe the truth enough to obediently follow the direction of God’s word. Zedekiah had only a marginal faith in the truth of God’s word from Jeremiah; and he paid dearly – with his life – for his very human denial and lack of willingness to surrender to God’s proclaimed truth.
How about you, my friend? Are you willing to get God’s truth deeply into your consciousness, to listen to God’s proclamations of purpose (for example, read and meditate on Isaiah 55: 11 and 2nd Tim. 3: 16-17]; and then, after knowing what God’s word say, are we willing to do what Jesus commanded of His disciples, … i.e., to willingly set aside self and follow Him (see a verse you should have memorized, Luke 9: 23)? Because if you’re not willing to selflessly surrender to God’s truth from His word, you will only have your self and others from Satan’s world to influence your direction; and the outcomes of that WILL BE horrible.
Enough from this pitiful teacher! What will be my choice (or yours) … to know God’s truth and to follow His word, or to languish in the proclamations of those who only have selfish motives to share with us?
Our choice!
My Prayer for Today: LORD, I choose Your word and the direction You provide to me as I get to know you more and more and more. Amen
My Journal for Today: Reading Chapters 37 & 38 of Jeremiah’s Book in the OT, we read of an interesting interaction between Zedekiah, the King of Judah at the time of the Babylonian siege, and the Prophet Jeremiah. A lot of political intrigue was going on at the time; and the people, especially the officials of the King’s court had trouble believing in and buying into God’s word, through Jeremiah, that only the people who surrendered to Babylon would live to remain alive and be loyal to the one, true God. And one could understand their reluctance to this prophetic paradox. Here, supposedly, was God’s Prophet saying that God’s chosen people of the covenant, the followers of the God of the universe, must surrender to a pagan people, the Babylonians in order to save themselves. And King Zedekiah, though showing some respect to Jeremiah, with at least a marginal belief in God, just couldn’t take the prophesies from Jeremiah. And his quandary was evident as he had Jeremiah taken captive, under house arrest, yet he kept coming back to Jeremiah, asking for what God was saying to him. He just didn’t know what to believe.
Ever been there; … when things are really confusing; and you’re getting conflicting advice, some of which just doesn’t make sense? And like King Zedekiah in today’s text, you just don’t know whom to turn to or whom to believe. And that is why we have such an advantage, being New Covenant believers, over the people of Jeremiah’s day. We don’t have to seek out select Prophets, who are blessed by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. No, we have, through our faith in the fulfillment of all of the OT Prophets, Jesus Christ, the very Holy Spirit Who guided Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Joel, and all of the OT prophets. And we also have God’s declared and final word as part of His New Covenant, sealed forever by the blood of God’s Son, Jesus, … the very Messiah prophesied by Jeremiah and others.
But like Zedekiah, we can hear the truth (or in the case of reading God’s word); but then we must, like King Zedekiah, receive and believe the truth enough to obediently follow the direction of God’s word. Zedekiah had only a marginal faith in the truth of God’s word from Jeremiah; and he paid dearly – with his life – for his very human denial and lack of willingness to surrender to God’s proclaimed truth.
How about you, my friend? Are you willing to get God’s truth deeply into your consciousness, to listen to God’s proclamations of purpose (for example, read and meditate on Isaiah 55: 11 and 2nd Tim. 3: 16-17]; and then, after knowing what God’s word say, are we willing to do what Jesus commanded of His disciples, … i.e., to willingly set aside self and follow Him (see a verse you should have memorized, Luke 9: 23)? Because if you’re not willing to selflessly surrender to God’s truth from His word, you will only have your self and others from Satan’s world to influence your direction; and the outcomes of that WILL BE horrible.
Enough from this pitiful teacher! What will be my choice (or yours) … to know God’s truth and to follow His word, or to languish in the proclamations of those who only have selfish motives to share with us?
Our choice!
My Prayer for Today: LORD, I choose Your word and the direction You provide to me as I get to know you more and more and more. Amen
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
2010 – June 15 – Grave Humor
Study from God’s Word… 2 Kgs 12: 21b, 14: 1-2 [2 Chron 24: 27b; 25: 1]; 2 Kgs 14: 3-6 [2 Chron 25: 2-4]; 2 Kgs 13: 20-21; 2 Kgs 12: 22-25; 2 Chron 25: 5-10; 2 Kgs 14: 7 [2 Chron 25: 11-12]; 2 Chron 25: 13-16; 2 Kgs 14: 8-14 [2 Chron 25: 17: 24]; 2 Kgs 13: 12-13, 14: 15-16; 2 Kgs 14: 16b, 23-24 … Passage for Reflection: 2nd Kings 13: 20 - 21 … NIV 20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
My Journal for Today: If you, as I have been doing, read through the books of 2nd Kings and/or 2nd Chronicles, you have to be impressed by the running and continuing disobedience of God’s chosen people, … yes, even their stupidity. These Jewish people who had been divided into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern tribe of Judah ever so repeatedly because subject to idolatry and the influences of the pagans surrounding them. And even with all of this, God is so long-suffering, giving His children prophets to speak against their disobedience, warning them of what is to come if they remain fixed in their disobedience; and also giving them many opportunities to repent.
And in the midst of all this serious political intrigue and warfare with Israel fighting their neighboring rivals and each other, in today’s text, highlighted by Dr. Smith’s devotional, God gives His people (and future readers of Scripture) a joke for the ages, … what Dr. Smith calls, “Grave Humor.” And don’tcha just love the pun!
Have you ever noted in God’s word that God has a sense of humor? Yes, occasionally our Lord, through history, as chronicled in His word, expresses a powerful truth in an incredibly humorous bit of history, getting a powerful point across in almost an absurd way. I remember how God used a donkey to convey a truth to Balaam in Numbers 22; and today’s passage is somewhat like that as well. I had read this passage from 2 Kings 13 in past Bible studies; but until today I had totally missed God’s punch-line here to His people; but God’s sense of humor certainly resonates with me today.
Think about it. Paganized Israelites, maybe just trying to escape the wrath of pagan warriors while burying a friend, throw their friend’s body in Elisha’s crypt where his bones rested; and then we read their friend came to life when that body touched the bones of Elisha. How cool is that?! And can you just image what those men felt like when they witnessed this absurd, but true, resurrection event?
Do you get the joke? Do you get what God is saying through this event, the news of which likely spread like wildfire through God’s people? God was saying that mankind must die to himself and be raised again by being cast into the tomb of God’s holiest. I don’t think I have to tell you where that imagery is headed prophetically, do I? As Smith often asks a personalize challenge question at the end of his devotional entries, he writes, ”If I want to overcome death, am I willing to jump into an open tomb for that to happen?” And that, my friend, is no joke!! No, it’s deadly (or rather, livingly) serious!
God was saying to his people with His incredibly picturesque sense of humor, that His people must die to themselves and follow Him into the grave, carrying their sins with them, and following their Savior so that they could be raised eternally as was that dead body who came into contact with the bones of Elisha. Is that not an incredible prophetic picture of what Jesus said to His disciples, as quoted by Matthew, Mark, and Luke when Jesus said to them, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross (daily), and follow Me… ?”
And I can only hope you’ve joined me by following our Lord into and out of His empty tomb, carrying in those daily – and deadly - sins, and being raised again unto life eternal through belief in the reason for our Lord’s death on that cross to save any who would follow Him.
My Prayer for Today: Oh, Lord, what a picture; and I hope all who read here get Your joke. Amen
My Journal for Today: If you, as I have been doing, read through the books of 2nd Kings and/or 2nd Chronicles, you have to be impressed by the running and continuing disobedience of God’s chosen people, … yes, even their stupidity. These Jewish people who had been divided into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern tribe of Judah ever so repeatedly because subject to idolatry and the influences of the pagans surrounding them. And even with all of this, God is so long-suffering, giving His children prophets to speak against their disobedience, warning them of what is to come if they remain fixed in their disobedience; and also giving them many opportunities to repent.
And in the midst of all this serious political intrigue and warfare with Israel fighting their neighboring rivals and each other, in today’s text, highlighted by Dr. Smith’s devotional, God gives His people (and future readers of Scripture) a joke for the ages, … what Dr. Smith calls, “Grave Humor.” And don’tcha just love the pun!
Have you ever noted in God’s word that God has a sense of humor? Yes, occasionally our Lord, through history, as chronicled in His word, expresses a powerful truth in an incredibly humorous bit of history, getting a powerful point across in almost an absurd way. I remember how God used a donkey to convey a truth to Balaam in Numbers 22; and today’s passage is somewhat like that as well. I had read this passage from 2 Kings 13 in past Bible studies; but until today I had totally missed God’s punch-line here to His people; but God’s sense of humor certainly resonates with me today.
Think about it. Paganized Israelites, maybe just trying to escape the wrath of pagan warriors while burying a friend, throw their friend’s body in Elisha’s crypt where his bones rested; and then we read their friend came to life when that body touched the bones of Elisha. How cool is that?! And can you just image what those men felt like when they witnessed this absurd, but true, resurrection event?
Do you get the joke? Do you get what God is saying through this event, the news of which likely spread like wildfire through God’s people? God was saying that mankind must die to himself and be raised again by being cast into the tomb of God’s holiest. I don’t think I have to tell you where that imagery is headed prophetically, do I? As Smith often asks a personalize challenge question at the end of his devotional entries, he writes, ”If I want to overcome death, am I willing to jump into an open tomb for that to happen?” And that, my friend, is no joke!! No, it’s deadly (or rather, livingly) serious!
God was saying to his people with His incredibly picturesque sense of humor, that His people must die to themselves and follow Him into the grave, carrying their sins with them, and following their Savior so that they could be raised eternally as was that dead body who came into contact with the bones of Elisha. Is that not an incredible prophetic picture of what Jesus said to His disciples, as quoted by Matthew, Mark, and Luke when Jesus said to them, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross (daily), and follow Me… ?”
And I can only hope you’ve joined me by following our Lord into and out of His empty tomb, carrying in those daily – and deadly - sins, and being raised again unto life eternal through belief in the reason for our Lord’s death on that cross to save any who would follow Him.
My Prayer for Today: Oh, Lord, what a picture; and I hope all who read here get Your joke. Amen
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