Let me remind all of you who are of age that it is election day, and you should do your civic and religious duty and vote. Elections have a huge impact on what direction our world goes. It's a good thing! Ok, so lets get to the study!
Today I'm going to start by giving you the GN because I want to describe a little about what is going on. I just got this brand new Archaeological Study Bible, now I'm not much on archaeology (I had to turn to the front of the Bible just to see how to spell it) but it has some great information in it that I believe you will enjoy and that will help us in our study of Jeremiah!
GN-Jeremiah 6:13-"From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are al frauds."
GN-Jeremiah 6:19-"Listen, all the earth! I will bring disaster on my people. It is the fruit of their own schemes, because they refuse to listen to me. They have rejected my word.
GN-Jeremiah 6:27-"Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals, that you may determine the quality of my people."
GN-Jeremiah 6:30-"I will label them rejected silver, for I, the Lord am discarding them."
Here in chapter 6 God is telling us exactly what he see's in Jerusalem, He says that the city is so corrupt that He will have to destroy it. Again let us not forget that just a chapter ago God said that if there was even one honest person in the town He would not destroy it, but as we know that did not happen.
I believe it's important for us to see that even the people who were deticated to God's service where not living for God (see v. 13) even the priests had fallen into dispicable practices. I also believe it's important for us to note that this whole destruction is not God' fault (see v. 19) it is the fruit of not listening to God. In v. 27 God lets Jeremiah know that he (Jeremiah) would determine the quality of the people that where there. v.27 if they don't live up to God's standards then He will label them rejected silver.
What a lesson for us today as we often ask the age old question "why did God do that?" when maybe we should be asking what action did we do to bring about these circumstances. I'm sure that after the destruction and Jerusalem starting being attacked that the people probably stood around and wonder why God had not protected them, but God lets us know that it was "the fruit or their actions" that brought the destruction about.
The other thing that really stood out to me is the type of man that Jeremiah must have been. God puts him in charge of going out and determing the quality of the people that must have been extremely difficult for Jeremiah to tell people that they way that they were living would ultimately cause them death.
Wow, is this getting intense or what! I hope that you will take each lesson that I present here or not lesson but just thoughts and you will take God's word and read it for yourself and see what God is asking you to do today.
IN HIM <><
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Jeremiah 3-5
Let me start by saying I hope that everyone enjoyed worshipping together and I pray for those who were unable to attend a service yesturday, that everything is ok! Let me just say that when I write it is for more than just the people of Lake Christian Church (LCC) in Palmyra, VA. I believe and know that the God you and I servce is much larger than the small towns or even the big cities that you and I live in. So it's my prayer that this journal will somehow make a difference in your life, because it makes a huge difference in mine.
Jeremiah 3-5
God is revealing to Jeremiah the impending destruction that He is sending on Israel and Judah. It's cool to me how God uses some illustration to describe what is going on and what will happen as God is writing this he knows that on Monday, November 5 that I would be reading this and need some help understanding exactly what is going on so He used illustrations that I would understand to convey exactly what has happen and how faw Israel and Judah have fallen away from Him. God is cool!!
As I was reading about this I learned a little bit more about what exactly was going on. You see there were two different kingdoms of Israel at this time. Israel which was the northern kingdom and Judah which was the southern kingdom. God is wondering why don't the people of Judah get what is going on and turn back to God. Judah had just watched Israel fall to the Assyrians. God had allowed the Assyrians to overtake Israel because Israel had turned their backs on God, now Judah is doing the exact same thing and yet they are failing to turn back to God. Sometimes people just don't get it. Then I think about us, as people living today we have it even worse and we have watched (in the Bible) all of the kingdoms fall because they turned their backs on God yet we continue as a people and a nation to do the same things. God must get frustrated!
GN--Jeremiah 5:1--"Run up and down every street in Jerusalem, says the Lord. Look high and low; search throughout the city! If you can find even one just and honest person, I will not destroy the city."
Let me close with this. Many times people will say how can the God of the Bible be a loving God when He destroyed entire cities. To answer this just look at Jeremiah 5:1 God would have spared the entire city if he could have found one honest person, not a hundred, or a thousand, and God wanted was one person. I believe that this is also a lesson to us that God doesn't need the biggest and best, he just needs the committed!
Will you be committed in your walk today!
Jeremiah 3-5
God is revealing to Jeremiah the impending destruction that He is sending on Israel and Judah. It's cool to me how God uses some illustration to describe what is going on and what will happen as God is writing this he knows that on Monday, November 5 that I would be reading this and need some help understanding exactly what is going on so He used illustrations that I would understand to convey exactly what has happen and how faw Israel and Judah have fallen away from Him. God is cool!!
As I was reading about this I learned a little bit more about what exactly was going on. You see there were two different kingdoms of Israel at this time. Israel which was the northern kingdom and Judah which was the southern kingdom. God is wondering why don't the people of Judah get what is going on and turn back to God. Judah had just watched Israel fall to the Assyrians. God had allowed the Assyrians to overtake Israel because Israel had turned their backs on God, now Judah is doing the exact same thing and yet they are failing to turn back to God. Sometimes people just don't get it. Then I think about us, as people living today we have it even worse and we have watched (in the Bible) all of the kingdoms fall because they turned their backs on God yet we continue as a people and a nation to do the same things. God must get frustrated!
GN--Jeremiah 5:1--"Run up and down every street in Jerusalem, says the Lord. Look high and low; search throughout the city! If you can find even one just and honest person, I will not destroy the city."
Let me close with this. Many times people will say how can the God of the Bible be a loving God when He destroyed entire cities. To answer this just look at Jeremiah 5:1 God would have spared the entire city if he could have found one honest person, not a hundred, or a thousand, and God wanted was one person. I believe that this is also a lesson to us that God doesn't need the biggest and best, he just needs the committed!
Will you be committed in your walk today!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Jeremiah 1 & 2
Ok, here is the new start! I hope that not only my students will find this helpful and challenging but that others will be able to grow in Christ from this blog. So here goes nothing. WOW what a challenge! Ok I don't have a specific amount of scripture that I have to read each day I just read until I find five or six things that stand out to me ("golden nuggets"--thanks Dean Trune). As I go through this if you see "GN" that means that what comes next I thought was a golden nugget!
Today I read Jeremiah 1 & 2
Jeremiah is a preist in the day of Kind Zedekiah. Jeremiah lived in a time when the society around him was falling apart. When I say "it was falling apart" I mean socailly, economically, pollitically, and spiritually. Jeremiah has been sent to share the message of repentence. Repentance is something that we talk about a lot at Church but I believe that a lot of "church people" do not have a firm grasp of what repentance is. One of my Bible college professors taught me that repentace is a change in mind that leads to a change in action. So this would mean that if you truly repent from something that you don't go and do that again. I believe that we get sorry and repentence confused in out lives. I can remember sitting in music class at Roanoke Bible College when a group of students were acting up, which Professor Bondurant does not tollerate; (and I have come to appreciate that) she yelled at the students and they said they were sorry but Professor made it clear when she responded that she did not want them to be sorry but wanted them to repent. Ok, enough rambling.
GN-Jeremiah 1:5"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
GN-Jeremiah 1:6-7 "O Sovereign Lord, I said, I can't speak for you! I'm too young! The Lord replied, Don't say I'm too young for you must go wherever I send you and say what ever I tell you."
GN- Jeremiah 2:27-29 "To an image carved from a piece of wood they say, 'You are my father.' To an idol chiseld from a blcok of stone they say, 'You are my mother.' They turn their back s on me, but in times of trouble they cry out to me 'Come and save us!' But why not call on these gods you have made? When trouble comes, let them save you if they can! For you have as many gods as there are towns in Judah. Why do you accuse me of doing wrong? You are the ones who have rebelled, says the LORD."
*All scripture from the "New Living Translation"*
If you can't read these few verses and not see the world in which we live today, somethings wrong, that's why these are the golden nuggets for today! Well I must go, my prayer is that you and I will realize that God made you and I special and we all have a job to do no matter what age we are but first we must repent and turn to God.
IN HIM <><
Today I read Jeremiah 1 & 2
Jeremiah is a preist in the day of Kind Zedekiah. Jeremiah lived in a time when the society around him was falling apart. When I say "it was falling apart" I mean socailly, economically, pollitically, and spiritually. Jeremiah has been sent to share the message of repentence. Repentance is something that we talk about a lot at Church but I believe that a lot of "church people" do not have a firm grasp of what repentance is. One of my Bible college professors taught me that repentace is a change in mind that leads to a change in action. So this would mean that if you truly repent from something that you don't go and do that again. I believe that we get sorry and repentence confused in out lives. I can remember sitting in music class at Roanoke Bible College when a group of students were acting up, which Professor Bondurant does not tollerate; (and I have come to appreciate that) she yelled at the students and they said they were sorry but Professor made it clear when she responded that she did not want them to be sorry but wanted them to repent. Ok, enough rambling.
GN-Jeremiah 1:5"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
GN-Jeremiah 1:6-7 "O Sovereign Lord, I said, I can't speak for you! I'm too young! The Lord replied, Don't say I'm too young for you must go wherever I send you and say what ever I tell you."
GN- Jeremiah 2:27-29 "To an image carved from a piece of wood they say, 'You are my father.' To an idol chiseld from a blcok of stone they say, 'You are my mother.' They turn their back s on me, but in times of trouble they cry out to me 'Come and save us!' But why not call on these gods you have made? When trouble comes, let them save you if they can! For you have as many gods as there are towns in Judah. Why do you accuse me of doing wrong? You are the ones who have rebelled, says the LORD."
*All scripture from the "New Living Translation"*
If you can't read these few verses and not see the world in which we live today, somethings wrong, that's why these are the golden nuggets for today! Well I must go, my prayer is that you and I will realize that God made you and I special and we all have a job to do no matter what age we are but first we must repent and turn to God.
IN HIM <><
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