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Looking back at Mt.
Celo yesterday (highest peak) from the northern part of Yancey County – North
Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains
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My Meditations on Today’s Readings
(Ellipses are mine
and are used for contemplation.)
Key Words – Sovereignty
of God –Is it not from the mouth of
the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? You have founded Your
testimonies forever. Hope in the Midst of Horror – the LORD’s mercies, His compassions, His
faithfulness, The LORD is my portion, the LORD is good to those who wait for
Him, to the soul who seeks Him, the LORD remembers. Our Work as We Wait on God: search
out, examine, turn back, lift hearts and hands to God
The Message of
Lamentations – Lamentations 3, 4, 5 – (Facts:
What It Says – Summarized) Divine
Retribution: Judah was under the Mosaic covenant of blessings and
curses. God had sent prophets to warn
them to turn from their wickedness, rebellion, idolatry, but they would
not. God is true to His word – to His
covenant. The curses come. “They
ravished the women and maidens in Zion and Judah; the princes were hung up by
their hands, and elders were not respected.
Young men ground at the millstones, boys staggered under loads of
wood…Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger…The
hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children; they became
food for them.” Jeremiah’s Deep Depression
and Hopelessness: God has hedged me in so I cannot get out...He has led me and made me
walk in darkness…He has surrounded me with bitterness and woe…He has made me
desolate…He has bent His bow and set me up as a target for the arrow…YOU have
moved my soul far from peace…and I said, ‘My strength and my hope have perished
from the LORD.’” Jeremiah Lifted out of Depression into Hope: The
weeping prophet calls on God to...”Remember…my
affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. In asking God to remember, Jeremiah
himself remembers…recalls: “This I
recall to my mind…therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD’s mercies…we are not consumed…because…His compassions
fail not. They are new every
morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my
soul…therefore…I hope in Him. The
LORD is good to those…who wait for Him…to the soul…who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait
quietly for the salvation of the LORD…let him sit alone and keep silent…because
God has laid it on him…For the Lord will not cast off forever…though He causes
grief. Yet He will show compassion…according
to the multitude of His mercies…for…He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve
the children of men.” Jeremiah’s directions to
Judah: Let us search out…examine our ways…and
turn back to the LORD. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God
in heaven. We have
transgressed and rebelled. Jeremiah’s Plea to God: “Remember, O LORD, what has come upon us. Look,
and behold our reproach! You, O LORD, remain forever; our throne from
generation to generation. Why do You
forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time? Turn
us back to You, O LORD, and we
will be restored; Renew our
days as of old, unless You have utterly rejected us, and are very angry
with us! “ Principle: When in the Midst of God’s Punishing Hand:
Acknowledge, confess, repent (change/turn away from sin). Search out, examine
our ways, turn back to the Lord, praise Him, pray that he will remember, look,
and turn us back to Him, restore and renew us. Wait for Him. Seek for Him. When in the Midst of Depression: Recall…remember God’s mercies, His
compassion, your access to His throne room, your Intercessor and Mediator -
Jesus Christ - at His right Hand, His Holy Spirit’s consolation for your soul
through His Word.
The Message of the
Longest Psalm – Psalm 119:145-152 – (Facts:
What It Says – Summarized) Cry out to
God. Remember His past
faithfulness. Meditate on His Word. “I cry
out…with my whole heart…Hear me…Save me…Revive me…I cry out for help…I hope in,
I meditate on Your word…they draw near who follow after wickedness; they are
far from Your law. You are near, O
LORD…and all…Your commandments…are truth.
Concerning Your testimonies…I have known of old that You have founded
them forever.” Principle:
Our great privilege, honor and duty is intercessory prayer – for others and for
ourselves. This prayer is predicated on
the Word of God – on the revelation of His character, His plan, His purpose,
praying in His will and for His will.
David always tied his prayer to God’s Word.
The Message to
Philemon – 1-25 (Facts: What It
Says – Summarized) – The Apostle’s Request:
Paul urges Philemon to accept back…receive his runaway slave, Onesimus, who had
come to Paul while the apostle was in prison in Rome. The Reason for the Request: Philemon is urged to
do this willingly, not out of compulsion or obligation to Paul – “not even as a slave, but more than a slave –
a beloved brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” Onesimus has become a believer while in
Paul’s care and service. Paul’s Supposition: “For
perhaps he (Onesimus) departed for a
while…for this purpose…that you might receive him forever”…as a brother
in Christ. Principle:
Salvation status should transform not only the new believer but the relationship
of that believer to others in God’s kingdom.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according
to the promise.” Galatians 3:28-29
My Lessons and Applications:
Am I able to rise above thoughts of myself into a realization of or
submission to God’s purposes? Am I able
to remember God’s past faithfulness and promises for a future hope and allow that to lift me out of
despondency and depression? Do I cry out
to God with my whole heart, basing my prayers on God’s Word? Am I able to rise out of my own prejudices
and affinities to see and treat every saved soul as my brother and sister in
Christ?
I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
“Are ye able,” said the Master,“to be
crucified with Me?”
“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered,
“to the death we
follow Thee.”
Are you able to
relinquish
purple dreams of power and fame, to go down into the Garden,
or to
die a death of shame?
Are ye able,
when the anguish
racks your mind and heart with pain,
to forgive the souls who
wrong you,
who would make your striving vain?
Are ye able to remember,
when a thief lifts up his eyes,
that his
pardoned soul is worthy
of a place in paradise?
Are ye able when the shadows
close around you with the sod,
to
believe that spirit triumphs,
to commend your soul to God?
Are ye able? Still the Master
whispers
down eternity, and heroic spirits answer,
now as then in Galilee.
Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine.
Remold
them, make us, like Thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be,
a
beacon to God, to love and loyalty.
Are Ye Able? Words: Earl B. Marlatt, 1926; Music,
Harry S. Mason, 1924.
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