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| Light in the Midst of Darkness – Carolina Blue over the Blue Ridge Mountains – near Mt. Celo Church |
My Meditations on Today’s Readings
(Ellipses are mine
and are used for contemplation.)
But You Have Not
Listened – Jeremiah 25 and 26 (Facts:
What It Says – Summarized) The problem:
Five times Jeremiah reiterates God’s same message in these chapters: “In these 10 years in which the word of the
LORD has come to me, I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but
you have not listened.” The solution: Listen, repent and heed the word of God. “1) Repent
now…everyone…of his evil way…and his evil doings. 2) Dwell
in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.
3) Do not go after other gods to serve
them and worship them. 4) Do not
provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not harm you. The people’s
response: They refuse to listen. Yet…you
have not listened to Me, says the LORD.” God’s response: Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard
My words, behold, I will send…nations against this land….and will utterly
destroy them.”’ Gladness and mirth will be replaced with
desolation and astonishment for 70 years.
“So I will bring on that land all
My words which I have pronounced against it, all that I written in this book,
which Jeremiah has prophesied…concerning…all nations: A moment of grace:
God sends Jeremiah
into the LORD’s house to speak once more to the “professing” believers. “Thus
says the LORD: ‘Stand in the court of the LORD’s house and speak to all the
cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house…all…the words that I
command you to speak to them…Do not diminish a word. Perhaps…everyone will listen…and turn
from his evil way…that…I may relent…concerning the calamity…which I purpose to
bring on them because of the evil of their doings.”’ The response of the worshippers to God’s grace: The priests, the prophets, and all the
people seized Jeremiah and threatened to kill him for his message of doom. “And all the people were gathered against
Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.” Jeremiah’s response: “Do with me as seems good
and proper to you…but know for certain…that if you put me to death, you will
surely bring innocent blood on yourselves…on this city…and on its
inhabitants…for truly…the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words
in…your….hearing.” Jeremiah is spared at this point. Principle: The people knowingly
choose unrighteousness over repeated warnings from God’s Word, from his
prophets, from consequences of their sins.
The corruption has become so complete that even what should be the
holiest - the LORD’s house of worshippers - seek to kill God’s
messenger rather than accept God’s message.
Out of Depression - The Transforming
Power of God’s Word –
Psalm 119:25-32 (Facts: What It Says
– Summarized) The psalmist’s state: “My soul clings to the dust…my soul
melts from heaviness. The psalmist’s pleas to God: 1) Revive
me…according to Your Word 2) Teach me…Your statues. 3) Make me understand…the way of Your precepts. 3) Strengthen me…according to Your word.
4) Remove
from me…the way of lying. 4) Grant
me…Your law graciously. The
follow-through tasks of the seeking psalmist: 1) I
have declared…my ways, and You have answered me. (This was stated as necessary in our OT
reading above: acknowledgment of sins, repentance, and a declaration, a turning
to follow God.) 2) So shall I meditate…on
Your wonderful works. (Not just a
reading…but a meditation…on God, on how He works, which reveals His character.) 3) I have chosen…the way of truth.
(A choice must be made: believing the lie or taking the way of truth, of God’s
word.) 4) Your judgments…I have laid
before me. (What we lay before us will determine our thoughts, our
actions, the paths of our lives. Do we
permeate our minds with what the world says is important or what God says is
important?) Principle: God’s Word and communion with Him through His
Spirit within us – are inseparable for the believer. He speaks to us through His Word, and
we are encouraged to pray it back to Him for guidance, direction, comfort,
consolation and “renewed hope and fresh
strength” Quote from Dr. Charles Stanley commentary, pg. 1268 Life Principles Daily Bible.
The Great Apostasy / Believing the Lie or
Loving the Truth – 2 Thessalonians (Facts:
What It Says – Summarized) The Apostle
Paul’s warning to the church at Thessalonica: concerning the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ: “Let no one deceive you…by any means…for…that
Day will not come…unless…the falling away comes first…and the man of sin is
revealed…the son of perdition…who opposes…and exalts himself…above all that I
called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits…as God…in the temple of
God…showing himself…that he is God. And
now you know what is restraining…that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness…is already at
work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the
brightness of His coming.” The man of perdition: 1) The coming of the lawless one is according to the works of Satan,
2) with all power, signs, and lying
wonders, and with all unrighteous deception 3) among those who perish 4) because…they
did not receive the love of the truth…that…they might be saved. 5) And
for this reason…God will send them…strong delusion 6) that…they should believe the lie 7) that they all…may be condemned…who did not believe the truth 8) but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The “possessing” believer: 1) God…from the beginning…chose you…for salvation 2) through sanctification…by the Spirit 3) and belief in the truth 3) to which He called you… by our gospel
4) for the obtaining…of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Our clarion call as true believers: “Stand fast.”
Principle: The NT
keeps refocusing us on God’s Sovereign Plan with reminders of His truth as
opposed to the evil lies and deception of Satan, and exhortations of what we are to be now…in the midst of the
lawlessness of the world, until Jesus’ Second Coming.
My Lessons and
Applications: Mankind is divided
into two groups: the reprobate and the
saved. While we are still in the midst
of the age of grace and still taking the gospel to the world - according to the
Great Commission - until Christ’s return; we see the same condition of the human
heart through the millennia. There are those – “from every
tongue, tribe and nation” – who believe the Word of God - and those who
“believe the lie, the strong delusion and who have pleasure in unrighteousness”
– who seek to kill the message and, often, the messenger, of truth and
grace. The unbelieving world will often
hate, mock, ridicule and attempt to destroy us as we speak God’s truth. The Bible and the lives of the saints teach
this very clearly. Still, our task is to
speak that truth, and leave the consequences with God. It is His message to a dying world, and we
are His messengers. Will we be as the
“professing but not possessing” believers in the LORD’s house during Jeremiah’s
mission…like the temple worshippers during Jesus’ mission…like the religious leaders
during the apostles’ mission? What is
the reaction of the world today…the church today…to God’s Word? Am I fulfilling my mandated mission with the
gospel…regardless of the world’s…or the church’s response? (Dr. Charles Stanley commentary, pg. 1268 of the Life Principles Daily Bible: “The time is coming when the majority of
the church will abandon sound doctrine and will instead endorse whatever
teaching seems popular at the moment.
The way to combat such an error now is to stick close to Jesus.”)
Paul’s Prayer for Us as Believers
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ…Himself…and our God and
Father…who has loved us…and given us…everlasting consolation…and good hope…by
grace…comfort your hearts…and establish you…in every…good word…and work.
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