One Year Bible - October 5, 2010

JEREMIAH 4:19 - 6:14                                                                                                       
MY BOWELS! MY BOWELS! (Don't you just love King James English?)  Jeremiah is in agony as he experiences "the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil 3:10).  God's heart is broken at being abandoned by His wife (Judah).  "My people are foolish", and behaving like spoiled children, but note that they are still "MY people".   They are sinning and won't be persuaded to repent. They are miserable but won't take the only way out!   Their destruction will be sudden (without warning) and total.   There won't be an opportunity to repent then - it will be too late!  The fight took place at the borders for many years, but ended up from house-to-house, on the inside!  The whole place became a wilderness because of "God's fierce anger".  God will not help them.   They are helpless.   So, they make themselves look as good as they can to their enemies (like harlots).   But "thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life."  Addictions and obsessions turn against us after awhile.  They are governed by a law of diminishing returns and don't make us happy any more.  They are killing us.

ONE HONEST MAN: You won't find him in Jerusalem in the time of trouble! (He won't be in a "dishonest", counterfeit church.)  When we forsake the claims of Truth, we turn ourselves over to thugs.   And they have "refused to accept correction" and "hardened" their heart to Truth.   Rich and poor alike are "whores" - forsaken God to take up with substitutes. How can God forgive them for this?

LIONS, WOLVES & LEOPARDS: They will be ravaged without mercy.  If you forsake God, then you will be someone else's slave.  They deserve their punishment and correction.  They THINK they are getting away with their rebellion.  They say "Peace, peace, when there is no peace."  They don't believe what God spoke to Jeremiah, and have lost their fear of God.   The enemy will tear down their walls - they will be vulnerable.  The enemy  will "eat up the harvest" - leaving famine in their wake, which is the "reward" of hypocrites.

"Why is God doing this to me?" (5:19)  (5:21)They are spiritually deaf and blind - they are calloused toward God and like it that way.  (5:22)They have lost their fear of God - which means they believe they live without consequences.  (5:23-24)They are stubborn and rebellious. (They live by the "mind of the flesh" - which is hatred toward God, Rom 8:7) and are unrestrained.
(5:25) Their sins and iniquities have PREVENTED the good things of God.   (5:26) They have become spiteful and malicious. (5:27) They are deceitful and treacherous. (5:28-29) They are powerful and corrupt. (5:30-31) Their leaders are misleading them with counterfeits, and the people want it that way. God's judgment is necessary. They've made it so.

HOW JUDGMENT COMES:  (6:1) They will have to shift for themselves. God won't help them. (6:2-5) The attacks by the enemy will be vicious and when we feel most vulnerable (kicking us while we are down). (6:6-7) They had brought this on themselves. (6:8) The only way to prevent judgment is to repent and return to God. (6:9-17) Restates the above, only now Jeremiah is MAD (v.11)!

RESPONSE: Same song. Second verse.  I think that people got accustomed to hearing Jeremiah spout off and just wrote him off as a cuckoo.  They weren't listening to him anymore because they didn't agree with what he was saying.  They would rather listen to some politician tell them what they wanted to hear.  Then, when they are finally destroyed, they will be surprised. When God holds off judgment, it is so more people have time to repent.  That doesn't mean that judgment isn't coming!  And it doesn't mean that well-meaning, sanctified, good-living Christians won't suffer.  We go down with the ship!  That's real love, tho' - we don't abandon our stations just because we don't like what's happening.  We stay and fight.  Believers became slaves too - look at Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, etc.

COLOSSIANS 1:21-27                                                                                                 
ALIENATED BY IGNORANCE:  Sometimes something you don't know can kill you.   In our "former" condition, we were alienated from God - and that made us His enemies, "hostile" toward God.  Our sinful minds are manifested by "evil deeds".

PURPOSE OF RECONCILIATION:  "Yet now...."  He has reconciled us "in order to present us..." "HOLY, BLAMELESS, BEYOND REPROACH".  And our Christian walk ought to manifest this, just like our sinful minds manifested evil deeds.  "IF you continue in the faith..." continuing in the faith is the test of the reality of our conversion.  If you are, indeed, reconciled, then your faith will continue.

A MINISTER OF THE MYSTERY:  There are some "woo-woo" people in the church who are always looking for mysterious or secret knowledge of the heavenlies.  Well, here it is:  Christ lives in all Christians: Jew and Gentile.  The indwelling of the Messiah and its accompanying glory are incorporated into God's purpose for us to be an expression  of God's glory.  Christ's suffering is still a mystery to parts of the world, and as such, Paul is making sure that that suffering is known and understood and accepted.  Because the happiest people in the world are those who know the mystery of Christ in them the hope of glory, satisfying their deep longings.

RESPONSE:  When we really SEE and understand what God has done, our hearts should be grateful.  I can feel my spirit jumping up and down, and if I could, I would turn a cartwheel.  I will get one of my grandchildren to take care of that right now, then I'll feel better!

PSALM 77:1-20                                                                                                                   
STOPPING THE SLIDE INTO UNBELIEF: When God doesn't answer our prayers when and how we think He should, our emotions can carry us away into unbelief.  Delay is a test of our faith in God.  If we continue to focus on our problems, God gets pushed to the periphery and then our emotions can make us stupid.  We can slow the momentum of trying to live without God with praise and thanksgiving.  We "meditate" on God's goodness and God's greatness and God's glory - definition:  "to mutter, to talk out loud to our own heart, self-talk".   What we decide to tell our hearts will make or break us.   Going through this kind of test forces growth and weans us from living by our feelings.   God is sovereign over human events, and whatever has made me afraid is, in turn, afraid of God.   My inability to understand how God is working is no sign that He is not at work.   I just can't see His footprints. (v.19)   He is actually leading me THRU the trial, not around it, and underneath are the care, concern and watchfulness of the Shepherd.

PROVERBS 24:23-25                                                                                                 
When you are in a position to deal with evil, and are swayed instead by your own agenda, eventually "the people" will get rid of you, if God doesn't do it sooner.