HELL: Jeremiah was told to go back to the potter's house and purchase a pot, then take some elders and priests to the Valley of Hinnom (the OT type for HELL). God renamed Hinnom the "Valley of Slaughter" because He planned to kill them all right there, and leave their bodies to be eaten by predators (those that they didn't' kill and eat themselves!). Then, Jeremiah crashed the pot against the rocks and crushed it to powder. Judah was to be crushed and God would start over. Hell is coming, but we know the Potter will restore and rebuild.
WHEN I'M IN TROUBLE: Pashur, a priest and governor, beat Jeremiah and put him in stocks for foretelling Jerusalem's desolation. When he was released, Jeremiah renamed him. Pashur, whose name means "largeness on every side," was to become "terror on every side." He didn't know who he was messing with!
What was Jeremiah thinking while in stocks? (Jer 20:7-18) "I quit!" He couldn't decide whether God took advantage of him and lied to him, he heard wrong, or this is all part of the burden of a prophet. God said he would deliver me, and here I am in stocks! Define "deliver": It means to be kept IN time of trouble, not FROM trouble. Now he's a laughingstock. In chapter 15 God's words were "delicious" and now he wishes he had never heard God! BUT...(20:9) There is an inner tension when we want to give up and quit. There is no person we can trust with a decision like this - not one! (20:11-12) We must fight back. We can be sure that the way we see things is not the way that it really is. Only God has the whole view, beginning and end. When our minds go crazy on us, we have to rely on what God has already told us. V 13 says, "Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!" But, then we're back in the pit, wishing we'd never been born. This is us, being a spiritual schizophrenic. But during the "dark night of the soul", God comes through.
GOD'S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY: Jehoiakim was executed by Babylon, then Jehoiachin reigned for 3 months. He was taken captive to Babylon, and then his uncle Zedekioah (weak, wishy-washy) became Nebuchadnezzar's puppet king. When Nebu laid siege against Jerusalem, Zedekiah sends word to the prophet to pray. (Jer 21:1-2) "Maybe God will be His sweet, kind Self and let us go." But God moves according to His own purposes. God actually orchestrated their defeat (21:3-10)! As if that weren't enuf, God sent Jeremiah to do a face-to-face! (chap 22) There follows a 25-chapter message from God as He tells them all that has gone wrong!
RESPONSE: I've been there! I have wanted to quit things that I know God told me to do. My excuse was that maybe God didn't really tell me to do it. Maybe I just thought that God said it. Things get so tough that I must be doing something that God didn't tell me to do. It never occurs to me that maybe God is bringing me to the end of myself. God's purpose and God's will are where all His power is. Cause-and-effect have nothing to do with anything. STICK TO MY CALLING. Yes! I have felt the inner tension when I am thinking of quitting. The misery stops when I repent and go on. Stick with my assignment and be happy.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:4-28
MORE - "LIVING TO PLEASE GOD" (practical holiness): (5:4-8) Don't grow lax or indifferent in your spiritual life. Here the word "sleep" describes carnal indifference to spiritual things. If we let down our guard, we end up in darkness and chaos - which is Job's definition of "death" (Job 10:21-22). (Our definition of "death" is "alienation from God", therefore dark and chaotic.) Our "default" is not always God - it is most often ourselves. We must keep up an aggressive march forward toward God. Spiritual "sobriety" is when we don't allow our minds to speculate. "What if...." "Well, I heard...." "I think..." "I feel...." These are deadly and lead to destruction and "wrath". (5:9-11) Our escape "from" circumstances is into Christ. Therefore, whether we live or die, we remain with Him. Our circumstances can't rule us because we are beyond them. Our future is secure. We can never be separated from God. (5:12-15) Be patient in bearing the offences and injuries of others. Don't be easily riled up by someone else's behavior. Give recognition and pay attention to those who are responsible for you (pastors, teachers, elders, parents, etc.). Warn those who are disrespectful. Comfort and encourage and support those who aren't doing very well in their Christian life, whether it is from being immature, or from being under attack. Always look for ways to be good and kind to everyone. (5:16-18) God's will for us is that we be ALWAYS joyful, CONTINUALLY praying, and thankful in ALL circumstances. This will keep us from our old habits of complaining, and being negative. Sometimes we won't FEEL like it, but we do it anyway, and our feelings will catch up with us. It's not "faking it"; it is practice. Rejoicing, praying and giving thanks require us to focus on God and His goodness, greatness, and glory. This is how we enter the REST of faith, spoken of in Hebrews 3 and 4. When everything around us is "going to pot", we don't have to lose our faith or our peace or our joy. Instead, we rejoice, we pray, and we give thanks. If we focus on our circumstances, we become complainers and whiners. (5:19-28) Cooperate with God in your sanctification: Don't do things that "quench" - extinguish or smother - the Holy Spirit. Such things as bitterness and unforgiveness, disobedience, unbelief - put Him in the position of being disregarded. It is the Spirit of God Who is tasked with our transformation! "Prophesying" here is referring to whoever is speaking by the Spirit of God TO YOU. It may be the pastor in the pulpit, it could be a little child with a comment, a billboard, some show on TV - but it is a word given life by the Spirit because it pertains TO YOU. Don't disregard it as unimportant or foolish. And if something even looks bad, stay away from it! Bottom line: It is God Who is in charge of our transformation but we must cooperate with Him.
RESPONSE: I am always reminded of a Pastor who told this story: It is the middle of the night. The phone rings and it is a prostitute who got your name out of a phone book. She is going to commit suicide and wants you to come right away and help talk her out of it. What do you do? His answer? "Take your wife and go." "Abstain from the appearance of evil."
I was prophesied to by a billboard once. My husband and I were travelling by car to the Gulf Coast for a vacation. As we got further south, away from the Omaha, NE weather, we started discussing what it would be like to live down there. We both wanted to live near the beach, no more snow, no more winter coats and boots. So, we stopped at a coastal town and got job applications. As we continued toward our motel, we saw a billboard. Well, I should say this first: the week before we left for vacation, I was whining to God about having to live in Nebraska and He told me that I was a Christian, I am free to live WHEREVER I WANT! Oh wow! BUT....if I insist on doing what I want and it is outside God's will, God will allow it, but send "leanness of soul" with it.
Ps 106:14-15, (in referring to their desire for quail) "But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."
The billboard was outside a restaurant and it said: "Quail! All you can eat!" Would you call that a "word from the Lord"? We did!
PSALM 82:1-8
God is the Supreme Judge, so our appeal is always to Him first. But it is the duty of those in authority on earth to protect the weak from the strong. So what is wrong with the world? "They know nothing, they understand nothing, they walk in darkness." They walk in darkness because they have destroyed their own conscience. And so they don't administer justice and the world is unstable. These rulers will fall like everyone before them.
PROVERBS 25:7b-10
Don't be hasty about bringing action in court, without trying to settle it face-to-face first. Do not, in trying to bolster your argument, disclose anything that should be held in secret (that someone else told you). Two really good reasons for caution: (1) You could be wrong and you will be embarrassed. (2) When people find out, your reputation will be ruined, maybe for life.
RESPONSE: There is nothing worse than trying to talk to someone who is SURE they are right about something, and they aren't and can't be persuaded because their mind is darkened. I think that state is reached by the progression of "know nothing, understand nothing," and then the darkness. But how does a person become so stupid? Because they are governed by self-interest. They don't want to know about injustice, and so they can't possibly understand their responsibility. They aren't interested in the poor or the disenfranchised because it won't add to their own importance, and so they can't possibly think they have a part in making things right.
No comments:
Post a Comment