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| Headed up Scenic Highway 80 S to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a fall foliage drive yesterday – the Mt. Celo Church route |
My Meditations on Today’s Readings
(Ellipses are mine and are used for contemplation.)
Fighting the Current – Jeremiah 27 and 28 (Facts: What It Says – Summarized) Have you ever fought
against corrupt leadership, against the current movement headed to destruction, stood
as a whistle blower, as a harbinger of doom?
This was Jeremiah's mission from God.
Once again, the LORD uses him as an object lesson for the crashing nation of
Judah. “Thus say the LORD to me: ‘Make for yourselves bonds and yokes, and put
them on your neck, and send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites
Tyre, and Sidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel – thus you shall say to your masters: ‘I have made the earth, the man
and the beast…by My great power…and by My outstretched arm…and have given it to
whom it seemed proper to Me.” God’s Judgment:
Judah will surrender and go into bondage to Babylon or die. This will last 70 years, but it will allow
the people to stay in the land. Response of the People. The prophet Hananiah
lies. He tells the people that the yoke
of Babylon will be broken, that they will not be in bondage. He then breaks the yoke on Jeremiah’s
neck. Jeremiah’s
response: “As for the prophet who
prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet
will be known as one whom the LORD has truly
sent…Thus says the LORD, ‘You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have
made in their place yokes of iron.’ Hear
now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. Therefore, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I
will cast you from the face of the earth.
This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against
the LORD.’ So Hananiah the prophet
died the same year in the seventh month. “ Principle: God’s Word
must be proclaimed. Many will deny it,
mock it, and refute it. We wait for the
Word of God to be accomplished, to establish Its own truth. The Word of God is
self-authenticating.
The Soul That Yearns for God’s Truth, for His Word – Psalm 119:33-40 – (Facts: What It
Says – Summarized) Have you
cried this out to God in complete surrender?
What the psalmist is asking God to do:
1) Teach me 2) Give me understanding 3) Make me walk in the
path 4) Incline my heart 5) Turn away my eyes from looking at
worthless things 5) Revive me (x 2) 6) Establish Your word to
Your servant. 7) Turn away my
reproach, which I dread. What the psalmist
craves from God: 1) Your statutes 2) Your law 3) Your commandments 4)
Your testimonies 5) Your way 6) Your judgments 7) Your precepts 8) Your
righteousness. What
the psalmist vows to God: 1) I
will keep it to the end 2) I will delight in it 3) I will incline my heart to
it and not to covetousness 4) I am devoted to fearing You. 5) I long for it. Principle:
The servant/psalmist wants God above all, and he knows that this knowledge
comes from God’s Word taught to him through the Holy Spirit.
Prayers for Those Truthfully Taking the Word to the
World – 2 Thessalonians 3 (Facts: What It Says – Summarized) Paul’s Prayer
Request: That…1) the word of the Lord may run swiftly 2) be glorified
(as it is in the church of Thessalonica) 3) that he and his team might be
delivered from…unreasonable…and wicked men…for not all have the faith.” Paul’s Final
Exhortations to the Believers at Thessalonica: 1) Withdraw
from…every brother…who walks disorderly. 2) Follow
our example…do not eat anyone’s bread free of charge…work with labor…toil night
and day…to not be a burden to any of the brethren. “If anyone will not work, neither
shall he eat. For we hear that there are
some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are
busybodies. Now those who are such we
command… and exhort…through our Lord Jesus Christ…that they work…in
quietness…and eat their own bread.”
3) Do not weary in doing good. 4) If
anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep
company with him, that he may be ashamed.
Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Principle: It is our duty and honor to pray for all
saints as they minister the gospel to the world, to care for ourselves when
possible so as not to burden other believers, to care for those in need who can't care for themselves, to seek the restoration of all
believers who veer from the truth of God’s Word. This may mean withdrawing from that brother
or sister.
My Lessons and Applications: Hypocrisy…in any form…is one of the most reprehensible flaws in human nature, and
from these years of reading through the Bible, I know God abhors it. Tied up in that one word is so much of what
engenders God’s wrath and judgment – the lies, deception, pride, self-aggrandizement,
worshipping of self and desiring the approval of man rather than God - that are
behind that one word. God speaks to this
throughout the Old and New Testaments – especially
spiritual hypocrisy. The lying prophet in today's OT reading brings doom on many in the nation. Paul has addressed this same evil in his letters we have studied. Note that this was spiritual hypocrisy, in the the place of worship. Is it still? Have you
known a “professing” believer standing behind a façade of Christianity and
family values while committing adultery, divorcing the wife or husband since
youth on grounds other than NT grounds for divorce, or abusing or oppressing
the spouse verbally, financially, or any other way? What about the “Christian” leaders in
media? Are they truly obeying God’s
Word, glorifying Him, following Him or merely using Christianity as a platform
for a political agenda or for financial gain?
What about Christians who demonize certain sins such as homosexuality,
but turn a blind eye to adultery or a host of other sins that exact the same
punishment in the Bible as homosexuality? How did Jesus react to this? He called them on it to their faces – in the
temple when using it for monetary gain, when stoning a woman for adultery, when
loading down believers with “traditions of men” that had nothing to do with God
and that they themselves did not keep.
He did not mince words, “You hypocrites,
brood of vipers, white-washed tombs, fools, blind guides.” Paul tells us to move away from these people,
to not have fellowship with them. How
does the church today deal with this problem of hypocrisy, whether in the
pulpit, in the leadership or in the laity?
How do I? How do I deal with it
in myself? “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Here are a few of the
verses that tell what the Bible has to say about hypocrisy: Job
8:13, Job 27:8, Psalm 50:16-17, Psalm 101:7, Proverbs 11:9, Ezekiel 14:7-8,
Matthew 6:24, Matthew 23 (the chapter); Luke 6, 41, Luke 12:1-2, James 1: 8…and
since we are studying Jeremiah –Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear
falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,
and then come and stand before
Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do
all these abominations? Jeremiah 7:9-10
Paul’s Prayer for the Thessalonian
Believer and for You and Me
May the Lord
direct your hearts into the love of God…and into the patience of Christ…Now
may…the Lord of peace…Himself…give…you…peace always…in every way. The Lord be with you all.
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