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Showing posts with label Jeremiah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeremiah. Show all posts

28 November, 2012

Charles Spurgeon Evening Devotional


Jeremiah 32:17  "Ah Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." 

At the very time when the Chaldeans surrounded Jerusalem, and when the sword, famine and pestilence had desolated the land, Jeremiah was commanded by God to purchase a field, and have the deed of transfer legally sealed and witnessed. This was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence could not justify it, for it was buying with scarcely a probability that the person purchasing could ever enjoy the possession. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had bidden him, for well he knew that God will be justified of all his children. He reasoned thus: "Ah, Lord God! thou canst make this plot of ground of use to me; thou canst rid this land of these oppressors; thou canst make me yet sit under my vine and my fig-tree in the heritage which I have bought; for thou didst make the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for thee." This gave a majesty to the early saints, that they dared to do at God's command things which carnal reason would condemn. Whether it be a Noah who is to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who is to offer up his only son, or a Moses who is to despise the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who is to besiege Jericho seven days, using no weapons but the blasts of rams' horns, they all act upon God's command, contrary to the dictates of carnal reason; and the Lord gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith. Would to God we had in the religion of these modern times a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. If we would venture more upon the naked promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. Let Jeremiah's place of confidence be ours-nothing is too hard for the God that created the heavens and the earth.

19 November, 2012

Revenge



Read Jeremiah 20:1-6
Jeremiah and Pashhur
When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple. The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.a For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. I will hand over to their enemies all the wealth of this city—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.  And you, Pashur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”

I find Jeremiah chapter  20, heart breaking. There is also something about him in his painful trials and complaints to God that reminds me of David.  He hashed it out with God, then in the end he always ends up saying something like you are my God, I trust in you and I put it all in your hand to do according to your will. Jeremiah was depressed and hurting because of the nature of his ministry. He prophesized exactly what God told him to, he was beaten by the priest Pashur, the son of Immer who was the chief priest of the temple of the Lord. Immer actually served under David’s reign. Pashur, was a priest so he and Jeremiah were basically in the same boat. So, if anything, his job would have been to look after Jeremiah’s well being.  Instead, he humiliated Jeremiah to discourage him from such prophesy.

As a priest , pashur also had a hard heart and did not take heed to Jeremiah’s word which was from the Lord Himself. Instead, he had him beaten, put in prison and in stock which is an instrument of torture. From what we read, Jeremiah never said a word, he submitted to the humiliation and the injustice. This is the beauty of serving a just and divine God.   As Christian, God made it clear to us that we have no right to retaliate. It is more so when we are walking in His will and someone else decides to make an example of us to feed their ego and accomplish their own goals.

The plan that God had there for Pashur was definitely not good news and no one in the right mind would want to be in his shoes after God made such personal plans for Pashur who dealt treacherously and heartlessly with His servant Jeremiah. We see in this passage that  judgement came swift. God reassured Jeremiah right away. Unfortunately, most of the time things do not happen that fast. We deal with people who hurt us on purpose and for their own gain. While we have no idea how long it will take God to deal with them, we have to resist putting our own little vengeance machine in action.

I know what I am saying is not easy and personally, there were times in my life where people hurt me so deep inside just because I was there, and because I tend to be an easy prey. On several occasions I wished that God could send a bolt of lightning right then and there, to avenge me. As I get deeper in Him, I learned to live my life through Him, I realized God Himself deal with me with mercy and patience. Through His grace, I did not get what I deserve so now, instead of wishing a bolt of lightning after those who hurt me for their own pleasure I learn to pray for them. I refuse to give in to the need for revenge and instead I keep on praying until my prayer becomes a sincere desire for my offender to have an encounter with God. I learn to pray for healing for myself so that Satan does not gain a foothold in my relationship with Him.  While it will never be an easy choice to take the high roads, but as Christians, God does not give us a choice and Christ was our example all throughout His life on earth until the last moment. We simply cannot be above the Master.

PRAYER:  Father your Word instructs us not to seek for revenge and we should leave it to you. It is not always easy Savior. Nevertheless, your Word should prevail if we say we belong to you. So daddy, I pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ would learn to glorify you when they are hurt and humiliated by others just because they have the power to do so. I pray that we all as a community, your church and your people would learn to trust your judgement is divine and timely. So instead of focusing on the pain and those who offend us, I pray we learn to turn our hearts to you and look to you to defend us, because your Word will not come back void to you.

17 October, 2012

Prayer is a Way of Life


DEVOTION

Read Jeremiah 14: 10-12
 "This is what the Lord says about this people:“They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.” Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”
 The Jews loved the fact that they were God's chosen ones but they treated Him as if He was the one who needed them. They never quite grasp the magnitude of being chosen by God. There was never an indication of being grateful for having been chosen. If they understood what they had in Him, they would have acted differently and stop doing things that were displeasing to Him. God had enough of their lack of reverence, their wickedness, their ungrateful hearts, and their love for new idols with no self-control. Jeremiah knew the only way to root out his people harden hearts and their callous consciences was through prayers, yet he was told by God to stop praying for them. There was nothing that God wanted from them anymore. This time was different He wanted to hold their sins against them. He wanted to remember how much they did not want Him.‒ Imagine the pain of our God's heart, His heart was grieving!
 Most of us do not realize God's attitude with the Jews has not changed with us Christians. We go on with God with our defiant attitude, we sin left, right and centre because we take Him for granted and expect Him to forgive us. A lot of us corner Him by taking our salvation for granted and thinking that God cannot lie so basically there is nothing He can do to us. We are so self-righteous, full of unbelief we ignore His Words and we are filled with hypocrisy. We entertain unforgiving spirits, we give more importance to the things of this world than we attached to God. We give Him lip service during worship time and we feel He should be satisfied with those bread crumbs we hand Him. Some of us would not even consider examining ourselves. We choose lifestyle pleasing to us, and as for idols we have them coming out of our ears. Most of these things that I mentioned are attitudes and motives of the heart. Yet, the Bible is full or verses where we are warned about hindrances to our prayers and verses that tells us who God listen to. Two of them on the top of my head would be Proverbs 28:9 it says: "one who turns away his ears from hearing the law, even his prayers is an abomination" and Proverbs 15:29 says: "The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous".
 My dear brothers and sisters, prayer is not something we do when all else fails. You see, prayer is a way of life. Would you consider asking God to teach you how to cultivate a righteous life with Him. A life where He is the Master and you walk according to His leading alone. A life where the pain of brokenness is of no importance if at the end of it you find His heart. Keep your heart open, get rid of all your reservations about Him because if you do not want all of Him by any means and any road He leads, it simply means you are not in love with Him enough and you are not desperate to find Him. Go to Him, know for sure that at the end of it, you will find the pearl of great price which is the heart of God the father. I have been through it, and it is painful, but I would do it all over again because of the treasure I found in the triune God.
  
PRAYER: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
In His Agape Love & Service, 
M. J. Andre






12 October, 2012

INADEQUATE FOR THE TASK GOD CALLS YOU TO?




DEVOTION

Read Jeremiah 1:6-8

Jeremiah knew he was ill-equipped for the job he was called for. He knew his lack of boldness, authority, communication, his youth and lack of knowledge would cause him to be despised by the very people he was called to serve.

When God calls us to deal with giants, it is always scary. It is one thing to experience Him, having intimate knowledge of Him and being able to communicate so closely with Him. But, it is dreadful to know that He is expecting you to go out there and tell people of Him exactly in the way you know Him. Not only you have your inadequacy to deal with, but you also feel like a fool. You already know in the scheme of things you are such a small potato. You already know people are not interested in the guy who stands alone with a message that no one wants to hear. So, yes you dread the day when you have to take your unpopular message out there and having to say things outloud to other people.

People who are truly called by Him for tasks that are completely above their capabilities—which is usually the case with God, He would not have it any other way— have one thing in common, they are always scared to go forward. The first reaction is to say no to Him, not because you want to be disobedient but simply because you feel He could find someone else to do a much better job for Him. You feel as if you would be a waste of time and He could get much more done through someone else better suited. Strangely, you are thinking in your mind that somehow He misses out on your lack of qualifications. Although when you come to your senses, all you can do is laugh about it for thinking there was something He did not know. The fear always comes from reacting in the flesh, it comes from lack of trusting Him. It also comes from the fact that you know, because you do not measure up you will be rejected, thus in your mind, you can taste the rejection, the mockery etc.

We should never let our sense of insufficiency get in the way. Once we mourn the pain of accepting the challenge, we must resolve to say yes to Him. The key here is that God is not looking for people who are capable of doing the job; instead He wants to use the weak things of the world. When we think we can do a good job for Him, than we are useless to Him because we are already too full of ourselves and there is no room for Him to manoeuvre. By contrast, when we know our worthlessness, He is able to use us because we are emptied of self, we recognize our limitations and our needs of Him as such He is allowed to move freely within us, and walk with us every step of the way to assure success of the ministry entrusted to us.  Do not ever allow your anxiety for who you are gets in the way. Know that He is sufficient for the journey ahead of you. We can always bank on His presence to lead us through.

PRAYER : Almighty father, I pray Savior that we learn to be grateful people to you in all that we are. I pray that we learn to avail ourselves to you knowing that the fruit of our obedience would glorify you. Teach us Master, how to become solely devoted to your service and teach us what we need to remain attentive to our calling. Praises and glory to You Savior. Amen!



11 October, 2012

GOD'S CALL FOR SERVICE





DEVOTION

Read Jeremiah Chapters 1:1-5


Jeremiah was born in the city of Anathoth in the country of Benjamin and His father was Hilkiah. You will find that Hilkiah was the high priest who found the book of the Law and passed it on to King Josiah.(2 Kings 22)  As we read Jeremiah Chapter 1, it seems like we are given information at the beginning of chapter 1 that looks more like data to the average reader. But, nothing God put in the Bible is useless no matter how trivial it might appear to our non-spiritual eyes. His appointment shows that nothing takes God by surprise. While the Israelites were given to sin, saturated by idols and ultimate corruption, cruelty, rebellion, contempt of God's Word etc for years, God was preparing someone in the background in the person of Jeremiah. He was set apart before he was even born, to be this incredible prophet of his nation. He was hesitant because of the daunting task he was called to, but God reassured Him that there was no need to be scared of them because He would always be with him.

Jeremiah started at a very young age he did not have time to derail from God’s plan for him. Unfortunately not all of us can claim to be that fortunate. Sometimes, our lives start derailing right from home through parents making choices for us that are not necessarily conducive to God’s plan. Sometimes we blow it on our own, and we continue making poor choices that lead us further and further away from Him. But, God's goodness is immeasurable. He waits for us patiently, and sometimes He takes matters into His hands and for lack of a better word, He hits us with a four by four (through trials) to get our attention.

One thing that I learned from God that has never changed. Like the prophet Jeremiah, the Scriptures shows that God appoints His ministers from their mother’s wombs (Isaiah 49:1, Galatians 1:15). Not one of us is born by accident and He has a plan and purpose for each of us, which He is willing to unfold to us if only we are willing to trust Him and wait while learning to heed to His Word.

No matter what you are going through, learn to be patient. Trust that He has a plan for you and if your heart is set on Him, there is no need to go ahead of Him by fear you might have missed something. In His own time, He will divulge more to you.

PRAY: God help me to learn to wait for you and move forward with you only according to your will in my life, May I learn to remain loyal to you no matter where the road leads and may I always walk in your way!

In His Love & Service, 
M. J. Andre





05 October, 2012

LEARN TO GROW SPIRITUALLY IN HIM IN SPITE OF OTHERS



DEVOTION
Jeremiah 15:10.
Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

Some people call Jeremiah crying baby, I guess it is the lack of understanding what it means to be truly called by God. While He is training you there is also a call in your soul to leave the self behind. You do not leave the self behind without humiliation to your soul and the pain of standing alone. You also have to learn to wait for God on God and in God. There is desolation in the soul that is felt on the outside.

When He is having His way with your soul in order to use you as an empty vessel, you will groan under the heavy burden of carrying His Word out there so other people might be revived. You groan for the spiritual blindness of the people around you, in the Church and in the world. Even though you experience Him up close and personal but the time span He talks to you is so far in between. We have examples in the Bible, people like David we can see that at times, in his psalms, he was going on with no spiritual strength at all. The same situation with Paul, God had to send His angels on three occasions to comfort him. Therefore, it is hard to hang onto what you know for sure is His faithfulness to you, His love and grace that has been innumerable while the sorrow of your mind being tried, your heart being pierced, and you are trying to avoid Satan’s fiery darts all at the same time.

When you think about how young Jeremiah was, his lack of experience and the weight of his mission on his shoulders, it makes sense that he had a hard time. Through the process, while God was using Him to help and warn his people, He also refined this young man. The hatred Jeremiah had to endure from his people, the persecution, trials and hardships; all would take its toll on a weary soul. I have no doubt that at times, Jeremiah wished he could convince his people that he was telling the truth and he would have killed two birds with the same stone. First they would change their ways and they would stop hating him for disturbing their comfort zone. But, such is this life. When you are walking close with God, you have to come to a point where you know that you know what you know and that is sufficient to continue in spite of how other people feel about you. Whether you are able to convince others so they would join you in walking in the light is not the priority. Nor being vindicated in this life. You have to know for yourself that God already knew the outcome and using you in this manner serve a purpose that is higher that what you can comprehend.

While Jeremiah was feeling overwhelmed by what his ministry had brought his way, God kept applying pressure on Jeremiah and his people. God cares how we answer to Him when we get overwhelmed by our burden. The challenge for us is to remain in the Spirit so we do not have to be crushed in our soul because in our weakness, He is strong. So we learn to depend on Him for our need moment by moment.

PRAY
My God and my Savior, teach us to always find our strength in you and leave behind the need to please others and be accepted by them. You Yourself was misunderstood, rejected, ridiculed, tortured and killed. All of it was for our own good. So teach us to learn to live in this world and make it solely about you like You did with Your Father.

In His Love & Service, 
M. J