One Year Bible - October 14, 2010

JEREMIAH 23:21 - 25:38                                                                                                      

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE UNDER JUDGMENT:  Accept God's hand of judgment as the very best hope for you. TWO BASKETS OF FIGS: One good, one rotten.  The good figs will go into slavery in Babylon.  Once they are cured of idolatry, they will come back to the Lord.  If you are not enslaved to Babylon, and stay in the land, you are a rotten fig - good for nothing, and destroyed.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS - SEVENTY YEARS: They had lived in the land 490 years, that would be 70 Sabbaths that they had failed to let the land lay dormant and rest.   So, now the land would get all 70 years at once, while they were in Babylon as slaves.

CLEANSING:  This takes place in ever-widening circles, beginning with Judah (25:29-32). When you see God judging little things in your life, be assured that everyone around you is going through the same thing! It will finally turn into a big storm encompassing all your life. It just builds and builds. But it begins in the House of the Lord (individually) (1 Pet 4:7).

RESPONSE:   They didn't have much to choose from: cleansing or certain death.  Either way would be difficult.  It appears that sinning doesn't have a very good payoff.  "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23).  And for sure, if you belong to God (are not a rotten fig), you WILL be cleansed and it will feel confining (slave-like).    All sin is deceptive.  We can't "handle" any of it.

Whenever I feel vengeful and want God to judge my "enemies", He always lets me know that judgment begins in "the House of the Lord" - and that's me.  I will be judged first - then my enemies.  That makes me soften my approach. Then I pray He will withhold judgment and bless them.  I want mercy for myself.

2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-17                                                                                               
PREPARING FOR BATTLE AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS: How do we prepare ourselves against the powers of darkness? What is our best defense AND offense? Why do some people do better than others at not being IMPACTED by evil?   We must NEVER allow our circumstances to IMPACT us - to come inside, to do other than remain external.

(1.) 2Th 1: Persecution and tribulation are opportunities for God to be manifested and glorified in us.  "Patience and faith" are what it takes to go thru these things.  We don't escape, we can't go around, we can rebuke it away, or insulate ourselve from trouble.  Our "patience and faith" are expressed by instructing our hearts to "believe and trust God, that He is manificent and in charge, God is faithful and full or mercy, He will show us what He expects from us, etc." 

(2) 2Th 2:"Stand fast" (hold onto) for the Truth of the Gospel.  This means to take your stand for", "do not give way or compromise" the Truth.  The "Mystery of iniquity" is that we can be deceived and are our own worst enemy.   You see, unrighteousness always leads to self-deception.  And then we believe "the lie".  The original language suggests that this is speaking of a particular lie.  And that lie is that Life is man-centered.  When we get into that lifestyle, then we start assigning degrees to sin.  We think some sins aren't important - "no big deal".  We are deceived.  When we walk in any sin, we are walking in UN-truth, UN-reality.  When we cling to Truth, we won't be led away by selfishness and self-interest.

Who is "the son of perdition" ?  He sums up all the antichristian thought, reasonings, logic, feelings and opinions.  He believes things that are "contrary to sound doctrine" (1Ti 1:10).  He is also called "the man of sin". (2:3)  He manifests the real nature of sin to usurp God's throne and God's authority in our lives.  He is the "carnal mind".   (Rom 8:7) HOW DO WE KNOW?  Because the word "Temple" is the Greek: "naos" which refers to the Most Holy Place, the spiritual sanctuary - and after the Book of Acts, NEVER REFERS TO A PHYSICAL BUILDING.  It's root word, (naio) means "to dwell".  God's dwelling-place is the human heart.  The "son of perdition" mentioned in the Bible, Judas (John 17:12), is a metapho for how our hearts can betray Jesus because of willful ignorance or selfishness.  The "Retrainer" is the spirit of antichrist who suppresses the Truth.  When Truth is revealed to me, God swallows up the "restrainer" - my own carnal mind-set. 

RESPONSE:  In what way does holding to the Truth prepare me to confront the powers of darkness?  For one thing, Truth is the "belt" that all other weapons hang from (Eph 6:14).  Satan is the great deceiver and all sin leads to deception - it says that deceived people "perish".  "Holding to the Truth" means that we live what we say we believe.  Truth does not shift around - it is not relative - it is absolute.  Living that way gives us integrity and emotional stability.  We are less vulnerable to demonic attack.  Knowing the Truth keeps us from being deceived and hopefully, from deceiving ouselves.  A changed life is the best defense and offence against the devil!

PSALM 84:1-12                                                                                                                     
LIVING BY THE LIFE OF GOD:  When God comes into our lives, He fills us with His "dunamis" - His inherent "life-force".  By faith, we live from His Presence in us. 
(1) There is inner beauty created by His Presence (see also Job 26:13).  He created a compelling hunger for more and more of Himself and gives us a joyful vitality.  "At Thine altars" we are content and find rest. 

(2) The secret of our strength and usefulness:  Our strength comes from being "in Him" - it is an impenetrable hardness that comes from our lives and His life being mingled.  Our tears of affliction and repentance become a well of supply in the hands of the Holy Spirit.  Moving AWAY from God, people grow weaker and weaker and die.  But we move TOWARD God, getting stronger and stronger - able to "man up" - be courageous and bold.  Our strength comes from being fully satisfied by the life of God in us.  As we learn to satisfy our thirst in Him, we become stronger and stronger, no matter what gets thrown at us!

(3) The secret of Life:  (9-12) God gives bountiful gifts of being our "shield", satisfying our hungry hearts, giving us "grace and glory", whatever "good thing" we need or want.  Life with God is incomparably better than anything else.  Life with God is inexhaustibly complete.  Life with God is empowering (blessed). 

PROVERBS 25:15                                                                                                             
Long patience and a soft voice will break through hardhearted people.  And being short on patience and too passionate escalates the situation.  That much I know.