JEREMIAH 16:16 - 18:23
WORSE THAN YOUR FATHERS: No one can blame their parents for the path they choose. These people took what their parents had done, and spiraled downward from there. They "inherited lies", embroidered on them, and now trust in vain things (empty, worthless, impotent). Their evil is so deeply entrenched, that God will cause them to experience His power when He topples it all. Nothing short of His judgment is going to break them loose.
THE SECRET OF LIFE: There are only two ways to do anything: God's way and the wrong way. The wrong way is to "trust in man" and you will be "cursed". (17:5-6) Your life will dry up and shrivel. Nothing temporary has any value or worth. God's way is to "trust in the Lord" (17:7-8) and be "blessed". To be "blessed" is to be "empowered". When everyone else is giving up, you stay strong because you have a hidden reservoir (you are "watered").
MISERY EXPLAINED: Why? Why am I so miserable? Why is everything always so hard? (17:9) Because your heart has two things wrong with it: It is desperately corrupt. It has a fatal disease and cannot be cured. There is only one way to cure what ails you - death. Your heart is deceitful above all else and so you have a poisoned well. Don't just paint the pump! (hiding the poison that is in your heart) There is no hope for man without God.
HOW CAN I RUN MY OWN LIFE? If my heart is diseased and is hiding its poison, then how does God expect me to run my life? (17:10) God will allow you to manifest what is in your heart so that you can see it for yourself. It's like that game, "Whack-a-mole" - stuff just pops out, and you whack it with Truth. (v.11-12) Your well will produce water according to its nature. (James 3:10-11) You discover that you can't trust natural wisdom or natural goodness (like the partridge). BUT...(17:12) Here is where you will find answers: "the glorious throne...our sanctuary". Authority and Life. God is the Source of both.
SABBATH REST: This is the picture of the "rest of faith" - trust in God. Keep your circumstances on the outside, and YOU enter into your sanctuary of rest. And when everything dries up, you will be "watered" (17:19-27). Our hope is in God.
THE POTTER'S HOUSE: We are the clay being shaped. We have no choice. Our only decision is to cooperate with God or to harden ourselves against Him. The potter is God. He shapes His vessels according to His "eternal purpose". (In Jeremiah's case, he understood the clay to be Judah, the nation, being shaped to fulfill God's purpose.) The pressure and the "letting up" are to mold the clay, forcing it UP into the shape God's wants. When it yields, God sighs, and when it needs more pressure, God does what He has to.
GOING AGAINST NATURE: (18:12-15) Judah responds with stubbornness. Even snow melts in the sun, and even water runs in the meltdown. It would be contrary to nature otherwise. But, "my people have forgotten Me". Instead of repenting, Judah decides to kill the messenger. So, what does God do? He smashes the clay down to a lump and starts again.
RESPONSE: What is it going to take to get us to repent? We can come easy, or we can come hard. In a way, that's good - God doesn't give up on us. On the other hand, when we try to live independent of God, we are miserable. All the apples in our basket rot until we pull God out of the periphery of our lives and get Him into the center of our focus again. We must orient our lives around God. Anything else is wasted effort and a wasted life.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-5:3
LIVING TO PLEASE GOD (Practical holiness): The opposite would be living to please ourselves. A life that pleases God is "sanctified". "This is the will of God." "Sanctification" is re-orienting your life around God and to form a new way of living by the Life of Jesus within. We form a new series of habits that become our NEW "normal". When we make it a new habit to always go to God about everything, we will begin to change. This comes about through growth and maturity of the New Creature, and the weakening and death of the Old Nature. So sanctification is two-sided: the growth and maturity of the "new man", and the weakening and killing of the "old man".
PRACTICALITIES: Abstain from sexual immorality (Gr. word "porneia"). Sexual immorality is also called "uncleanness" (4:7) and included all sorts of behavior, thoughts, and speech. "Possess your vessel" means "control yourself!". When we belong to God, our bodies are not ours to use however we choose. Sexual immorality "defrauds" (takes advantage of, oversteps personal boundaries), because without a marriage covenant in place, you are just exploiting one another. Rom 13:8-10 says it puts you in the position of "owing" the other person.
Mind your own business: (4:9-12) To really love one another, we have to necessarily stop being self-involved and self-serving, without getting into someone else's "business". This is "leading a quiet life" - one that is unhurried, not anxious, not obnoxious; just powerful and unnoticed. "Minding our own business" means to quit criticizing and DO SOMETHING. Oftentimes we use criticism as a form of "participation" . Instead, "work with your hands". When we are busy doing what we are supposed to do, we don't have time to mind someone else's business!
The goal is to have integrity with "outsiders" (non-believers). Non-believers need to know that we genuinely care, and that we don't need to be noticed. Our lifestyle should not draw criticism because of being UNholy. Our lifestyle should not draw criticism because we have "co-dependent" behaviors: are emotionally NEEDY, panic when things go wrong, give up when we meet hindrances, are critical and unloving, form unclean relationships that benefit us in some way.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM: At the end of each chapter in 1 Thessalonians, the "coming of the Lord" is mentioned. WHY? The overall theme of 1 Thessalonians is definitely NOT about "end times", or even about death and resurrection. Also NOTE: It doesn't say that we are GOING, but that He is COMING. This letter, probably Paul's first, is actually to help these young believers to know "How to Live for God", especially when they were being persecuted and jailed by the Jews (because they were Gentiles and because they weren't even converting to Judaism!) The effect of the "coming of the Lord" should be holy living, new values, sanctification, the fear of God, hope beyond death. And so, in this letter about living holy in an UNholy world, the "coming of the Lord" gives us COURAGE.
RESURRECTION, NOT RAPTURE: (4:13-18) refers to the dead as being "asleep". THIS DOES NOT REFER TO "SOUL SLEEP". Dan 12:2 tells us they "sleep in the dust of the earth" , so they aren't just taking a nap! The metaphor "sleep" is used because a person does not cease to exist when the body sleeps, and just so, a person does not cease to exist when his body dies either! When Lazarus, Jesus' friend, died, in John 11:11 Jesus said he was "sleeping". In fact, his body had already begun to decompose and it "stinketh". 2 Cor 5:1 says that our earthly body will "dissolve" (destroyed, come to nothing, disintegrate), but ALL of Scripture says that we DO NOT CEASE TO EXIST WHEN WE DIE. Ecc 12:7 says that "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Paul reiterates that in 2 Cor 5:6-9 where he declares that "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:" and "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." Add to that, Philippians 1:23 where he said that when he died he would be "with Christ". In fact, when our bodies die, return to the dust, EVERYONE goes on living, either with Christ in heaven, or in hell (Dan 12:2; Rev 20:12-15).
"THE DAY OF THE LORD": When it talks of coming "as a thief in the night", it doesn't mean SNEAKY, because just 3 verses earlier it says there will be trumpets and shouting, and John 5:28 says it will wake the dead. The thief comes unannounced - suddenly, unexpectedly. It is with "sudden destruction". In other places, it is described as "great and terrible". But in ALL accounts, "the day of the Lord" was brought on by our own sin, it was local, inescapable, and not always the same identical event in history. It was so-named because it identified the day when the Lord intervened in judgment and vengeance. So what is the occasion referred to here? I believe that the occasion is referred to back in 2:14-16 as "the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." : the destruction of the Jews, their Temple, and their glorious city, the earthly Jerusalem. At the same time, the elect (believers in Jesus), the martyrs and those who suffered wrongly will be avenged and proven to be the real sons of God - the true Temple of the Holy Spirit, and the heavenly Jerusalem.
PERSONALLY, this refers to our own "day of the Lord" when our rebellion is shown up for what it really is, and the fear of God comes on us. It is our SALVATION DAY! Thank God for it! It is a day that comes on us unexpectedly and unannounced. We don't escape, and either repent or harden our hearts.
RESPONSE: The fact of our resurrection to eternity either with Jesus Christ or in hell, is only one motivator for holy living. Our true motivation is the love of God and wanting to please Him. We have been CALLED to live holy, to manifest God's glory to the earth. Making new habits takes time, though, and it takes a renewing of the mind (Eph 4:23). In fact, Rom 12:21 says (Amp), "Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good." This means we must form a NEW habit to REPLACE the OLD habit. It is not possible to "break" habits. Try it sometime! BUT, habits are not who we are. They are not an inherent part of us. So they can be REPLACED! We replace complaining and criticism with THANKS! Thanks to God first, and then appreciation for others. We replace uncleanness with WORSHIP of God for His goodness and greatness, becoming accustomed to filling our great hunger with Him and with His benefits. We could go on and on, but you get the picture. Over time, the Holy Spirit will talk to us about what needs to be "crowded out" with godliness. We focus on Jesus and what He is doing - not on our sin and failure.
PSALM 81:1-16
PROVERBS 25:6-7
Self-denial and humility is the life of the servant of God. Jesus gave up His rights, reputation, and dignity (Philippians 2) to live among us. We must do the same if we want to successfully manifest God to the fallen world.
RESPONSE: One humbling experience that stands out in my mind whenever I read these verses is this: Our church (about 30 years ago, not where we live at this time) was having "special meetings" with a great speaker. My husband and I got there real early and sat in our accustomed seats. Granted, they were in the fourth row, on the center aisle. Just before the meeting started, a couple we didn't know, walked up the aisle to where we were sitting and told us that we had to move because they wanted our seats! They then proceeded to tell us "who they were". When our pastor saw what was happening, he was very embarrassed because of the other couple, and asked us to please let them have our seats. I found out later that the woman had a local "Christian" radio program and felt she deserved to be honored with a front seat. But I have never forgotten her behavior that night. I committed to NEVER act like that - - - - no matter how famous I get! (ha-ha)
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