Opening Pleas: The Drought.
The Lord gives this poem of pleading to Jeremiah as a revelation. He is hearing the future cries of the beseiged city. He is hearing the spiritual condition of hearts that waste their days on idolatry...
v.10
The LORD isn't hearing their pleas. Could you imagine being Jeremiah and hearing the Lord speak in v.11, saying, "Do not pray for the well-being of these people." Incredible...
We think of God's patience as never running out. But here it does. These people were only concerned with saving their skins... But that's true of many of us. We aren't in love with God, we're just sorry for ourselves...
God show mercy to us, granting us "Godly Sorrow".
How frightening it is to think of God not accepting a prayer because of the heart motivation!
v.17-22
This lament sounds truly repentant. I love it. I speak it from my heart right now, over the church in our nation... we are surely on the edge of judgment for all the good we leave undone, and the evil we "amen"... Seriously. We're supposed to be living the WAY--an incredible, revolutionary, jubilee Life...
Remember Jesus? The incredible Man? Wonderful Counselor? Remember what He did? Remember what they who followed Him devoted themselves to? But the American church has few pockets of this revolutionary culture of Jesus... Where it is, it seldom lasts. Marginalized, starved out, confused, misled, deceived, the disciples of Jesus are often subverted to ineffectiveness by the predominant religious forms
It is sad that many who are in the place of leading God's people, like the prophets and priests of Jeremiah's Judah, depend on craftiness and human wisdom, instead of the Power of God...
Jeremiah lived in a time of false prophets... Judgment came on them all... even he wasn't "unscathed". How do we expect to fare, comparing the magnitude of the Church's wickedness, apathy, and idolatry (greed) with that of the Little Nation of Judah?
Thursday, September 28, 2006
A Clarification
Dearest Fellow Followers,
This blog has been created to be part of a more-than-year-long journey through the book of Jeremiah. if you would go back and start contributing comments (they are moderated, so they'll show up the next day), it will help others who read...
In our Meeting Times, we have a list of Scriptures that emerge each week for daily study, as a community. Very few avail themselves of this, but those who do are helpful to others and productive in their sharing...
This blog is another tool for Bible Study that will help us to all grow, together... Before I do Chapter 14, I want you to know that this isn't about me, or you, but about us ALL. When you spend time in Study, what you are absorbing may well be for your neighbor's benefit.
Peace be with your spirit.
This blog has been created to be part of a more-than-year-long journey through the book of Jeremiah. if you would go back and start contributing comments (they are moderated, so they'll show up the next day), it will help others who read...
In our Meeting Times, we have a list of Scriptures that emerge each week for daily study, as a community. Very few avail themselves of this, but those who do are helpful to others and productive in their sharing...
This blog is another tool for Bible Study that will help us to all grow, together... Before I do Chapter 14, I want you to know that this isn't about me, or you, but about us ALL. When you spend time in Study, what you are absorbing may well be for your neighbor's benefit.
Peace be with your spirit.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Jeremiah 13
LINEN BELT
After the last chapter, we're reeling from God's harshness in judgment of his unfaithful people. Now he's promising to ruin the pride of his disobedient people...
He uses a belt to show us how close to him they were...
Reminds us of John the Baptist. "Go buy some underwear. Wear it around. Now Bury it. Now dig it up and preach about it!" But people listened to John the Baptist. Jeremiah was hated and ignored.
v.11 They were to be a people for His renown and praise and honor.
Main accusation: they have not LISTENED...
The Word of the Lord: Heb. "DeVaR"--has a sense of substance in the Hebrew. It is often translated as "thing", or even "deed". In the NT, we have an even deeper insight, as "The Word" is personal-Jesus, God Himself. He is the Word
in Revelation, adn in John 1
And the word "Listen"--SHeMa'-- means a LOT of things: Hear, pay attention, obey, observe...
So not obeying the word is very personal to God...
WINESKIN
WARNING AND CALL TO REPENTANCE
ALLIES
CAN THE LEOPARD CHANGE HIS SPOTS?
ADULTERY AND PROSTITUTION EXPOSED
After the last chapter, we're reeling from God's harshness in judgment of his unfaithful people. Now he's promising to ruin the pride of his disobedient people...
He uses a belt to show us how close to him they were...
Reminds us of John the Baptist. "Go buy some underwear. Wear it around. Now Bury it. Now dig it up and preach about it!" But people listened to John the Baptist. Jeremiah was hated and ignored.
v.11 They were to be a people for His renown and praise and honor.
Main accusation: they have not LISTENED...
The Word of the Lord: Heb. "DeVaR"--has a sense of substance in the Hebrew. It is often translated as "thing", or even "deed". In the NT, we have an even deeper insight, as "The Word" is personal-Jesus, God Himself. He is the Word
in Revelation, adn in John 1
And the word "Listen"--SHeMa'-- means a LOT of things: Hear, pay attention, obey, observe...
So not obeying the word is very personal to God...
WINESKIN
WARNING AND CALL TO REPENTANCE
ALLIES
CAN THE LEOPARD CHANGE HIS SPOTS?
ADULTERY AND PROSTITUTION EXPOSED
Monday, September 11, 2006
Jeremiah 12
We're well beyond this chapter, but I'm going to try to bring this blog up to speed. The importance of this book of Scripture to a proper understanding of the Church in our times has been refreshed to my heart...
Setup:
Jeremiah is one of the Priests of Anathoth. I beleive that's in Benjamin. His family is priesthood. Very significant.
They have spoken against him in Ch. 11:21, telling him to stop speaking in the Name, or THEY would kill him.
So here we are in Jeremiah's "Prayer Debrief" with God. He cries out to God, God responds, and the prophet is set back on track, prophesying the doom of Judah, it's restoration, and the judgment of the nations that will be used to do it...
So he's back on track by the end of the chapter, and on to Linen Underwear in the next chapter.
But in this Chapter there are some notables:
vs 1-4: Jeremiah dares to complain to God about the prospering of the wicked. This reminds me of psalm 73.
vs 5-6: God speaks to Jeremiah's personal situation and his heart for his own family of priests at Anathoth. He is telling J to give up on these scamps. Sound bitter? That's God talking there... amazing. How unamerican-esque.
vs 7: God has Abandoned, Deserted, and given over to enemies!
A LION AND A CORPSE:
vs 8: God's people are likened prophetically to a Roaring Lion--one that dares to roar at God himself.
How does roaring at god look? How did they do it? Look at the preceding chapters. Look at how they threatened Jeremiah--his own family roared at him.
Look at Elisha, when bears ate the young men who mocked him. the prophets represented God among the people back then, and to say what they said to Jeremiah (and believe me, the non-family members of his day were no kinder) was to "roar" against God...
vs 9: My bible (Holman Xian Standard) translates this word as "hyena" and gives me the whole "unclear" thing in the bottom margin. NIV has "speckled bird of prey" Is it possible that the thing that the birds are circling is a corpse? a cadaver? a dead animal in the desert? Wild animals are called to devour, so whether or not my translation idea is so, she's gonna be dead and devoured.
A DESOLATE VINEYARD:
vs 10-11: Likened to a vineyard, destroyed by it's own "shepherds". This is all about the high priced that unfaithful leaders will pay on the day of judgment for leading unfaithfully. Destroying the fruit bearing vines, trampling the land... they have turned the church into a wasteland..
This land mourns. So do so many in the church who languish without a taste of the living water. Their teachers are bent on feeding them crumbs, while a feast awaits them in Jesus. That feast at the cost of influence, power, position, wealth, stability... John 3 tells us that those who are of the Spirit will be like the wind--no more knowing where we're going.
INVADING ARMIES:
vs 12: a vision of an army, spilling over the craggy lands of the desert...
WHEAT AND THORNS:
vs 13: The Lord is angry over this harvest failure. He gave good seed (the Word) and we have produced an evil crop with it. Do you know when the Word is being misused by leaders? mis-sown? Do you sense it? Can you tell? I pray so, since it's going on all over the place... Many are enforcing a status quo, or building a following, or their own justification by the way they teach and lead. Does your vineyard's leader collect anointed, holy saints? Or busybodies? Or lazybones? Or impure sinful, unrepentant compromisers? Look carefully at what people are changing into in your community. Look at the direction of repentance and renewal that is present in your community. Test the Spirits. Examine the fruit of the prophets and teachers who are active among you...
There is a day coming...
CONDEMNATION OF THE NEIGHBORING NATIONS:
Now God condemns the nations who have been harassing Israel. They're all going to be destroyed. he promises the reestablishment of Israel, though. Do you know any Ammonites? Moabites? But the 'Yisra'elim are still here...
Yet there is hope to the nation that will obey the Lord, too... If they will learn the ways of Israel. This fits as a prophetic reference to the ingrafting of the Gentiles, doesn't it? Another reference to the New Covenant, as well as a historical promise to the nations of that day...
PLEASE COMMENT AND SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON...
Setup:
Jeremiah is one of the Priests of Anathoth. I beleive that's in Benjamin. His family is priesthood. Very significant.
They have spoken against him in Ch. 11:21, telling him to stop speaking in the Name, or THEY would kill him.
So here we are in Jeremiah's "Prayer Debrief" with God. He cries out to God, God responds, and the prophet is set back on track, prophesying the doom of Judah, it's restoration, and the judgment of the nations that will be used to do it...
So he's back on track by the end of the chapter, and on to Linen Underwear in the next chapter.
But in this Chapter there are some notables:
vs 1-4: Jeremiah dares to complain to God about the prospering of the wicked. This reminds me of psalm 73.
vs 5-6: God speaks to Jeremiah's personal situation and his heart for his own family of priests at Anathoth. He is telling J to give up on these scamps. Sound bitter? That's God talking there... amazing. How unamerican-esque.
vs 7: God has Abandoned, Deserted, and given over to enemies!
A LION AND A CORPSE:
vs 8: God's people are likened prophetically to a Roaring Lion--one that dares to roar at God himself.
How does roaring at god look? How did they do it? Look at the preceding chapters. Look at how they threatened Jeremiah--his own family roared at him.
Look at Elisha, when bears ate the young men who mocked him. the prophets represented God among the people back then, and to say what they said to Jeremiah (and believe me, the non-family members of his day were no kinder) was to "roar" against God...
vs 9: My bible (Holman Xian Standard) translates this word as "hyena" and gives me the whole "unclear" thing in the bottom margin. NIV has "speckled bird of prey" Is it possible that the thing that the birds are circling is a corpse? a cadaver? a dead animal in the desert? Wild animals are called to devour, so whether or not my translation idea is so, she's gonna be dead and devoured.
A DESOLATE VINEYARD:
vs 10-11: Likened to a vineyard, destroyed by it's own "shepherds". This is all about the high priced that unfaithful leaders will pay on the day of judgment for leading unfaithfully. Destroying the fruit bearing vines, trampling the land... they have turned the church into a wasteland..
This land mourns. So do so many in the church who languish without a taste of the living water. Their teachers are bent on feeding them crumbs, while a feast awaits them in Jesus. That feast at the cost of influence, power, position, wealth, stability... John 3 tells us that those who are of the Spirit will be like the wind--no more knowing where we're going.
INVADING ARMIES:
vs 12: a vision of an army, spilling over the craggy lands of the desert...
WHEAT AND THORNS:
vs 13: The Lord is angry over this harvest failure. He gave good seed (the Word) and we have produced an evil crop with it. Do you know when the Word is being misused by leaders? mis-sown? Do you sense it? Can you tell? I pray so, since it's going on all over the place... Many are enforcing a status quo, or building a following, or their own justification by the way they teach and lead. Does your vineyard's leader collect anointed, holy saints? Or busybodies? Or lazybones? Or impure sinful, unrepentant compromisers? Look carefully at what people are changing into in your community. Look at the direction of repentance and renewal that is present in your community. Test the Spirits. Examine the fruit of the prophets and teachers who are active among you...
There is a day coming...
CONDEMNATION OF THE NEIGHBORING NATIONS:
Now God condemns the nations who have been harassing Israel. They're all going to be destroyed. he promises the reestablishment of Israel, though. Do you know any Ammonites? Moabites? But the 'Yisra'elim are still here...
Yet there is hope to the nation that will obey the Lord, too... If they will learn the ways of Israel. This fits as a prophetic reference to the ingrafting of the Gentiles, doesn't it? Another reference to the New Covenant, as well as a historical promise to the nations of that day...
PLEASE COMMENT AND SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON...
Blog Purpose Restated
The purpose of this blog is INTERACTION within our community, shared with the public, around texts that are of prophetic import to the Body in this Country.
The fact that we're like nine months into it without much of that isn't a problem. I can trust that we're okay. BUT PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR INSIGHTS. Please leave encouraging and edifying words to help strengthen each other.
Leave questions for discussion.
All comments are moderated, so there won't be any "comment wars" here. You are safe.
The fact that we're like nine months into it without much of that isn't a problem. I can trust that we're okay. BUT PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR INSIGHTS. Please leave encouraging and edifying words to help strengthen each other.
Leave questions for discussion.
All comments are moderated, so there won't be any "comment wars" here. You are safe.
pick up again September 2006
We're going to press through with this study in Jeremiah. There's an important message that We're part of in this study, and it has a significance that will be seen in retrospect, very clearly. I think that there's an aspect of "why are we slogging through this?"
We are continuing to slog through this at a snail's pace, because in years to come, we'll look back on these days as a generation very similar to the Judah that Jeremiah prophesied to. There is a LOT on the way in this nation that some will use to accuse sinners. Remember that it's the Church that is the object of God's affection and discipline, first. We are the Bride of Christ. He is loving us in these days and we will shine.
We are continuing to slog through this at a snail's pace, because in years to come, we'll look back on these days as a generation very similar to the Judah that Jeremiah prophesied to. There is a LOT on the way in this nation that some will use to accuse sinners. Remember that it's the Church that is the object of God's affection and discipline, first. We are the Bride of Christ. He is loving us in these days and we will shine.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Jeremiah 11
Last night we looked at the chapter where Jeremiah speaks of being a lamb for the slaughter... the chapter where God tells Jeremiah to stop praying for his people... where a Plot arises against the Lord, and against Jeremiah. The chapter where Jeremiah's own clan tells him that they'll kill him if he continues to prophesy in the Name...
Jeremiah Ten, Again
We came back to Jeremiah Ten, last tuesday, with a bunch of guests at the table... It was a great study. We bounced from the verse about expert Idol makers, to a discussion of "expertness" that led us to an examination of Wisdom.
There is worldly wisdom.
There is godly wisdom.
We checked them out, and saw how the wisdom of the world is often used to "dress idols". The study ran from about 7pm to 11pm... Greetings to Mike and Emily (thanks for helping in the kitchen).
You need to know that I preached against the UFC this week. We should talk...
Peace to johntheGodhiker who brought Mike and Emily. You enrich our study with your intensity. gogogogogo!
JP, Zach, Chris, Lawless... all of you who sat at the table... Blessings!
There is worldly wisdom.
There is godly wisdom.
We checked them out, and saw how the wisdom of the world is often used to "dress idols". The study ran from about 7pm to 11pm... Greetings to Mike and Emily (thanks for helping in the kitchen).
You need to know that I preached against the UFC this week. We should talk...
Peace to johntheGodhiker who brought Mike and Emily. You enrich our study with your intensity. gogogogogo!
JP, Zach, Chris, Lawless... all of you who sat at the table... Blessings!
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Chapter 9
Last night we tackled Jeremiah 9. Chris, Aaron, Smitty, Zach, Danielmatt...LEw... were all part of the night...
We saw in this chapter how the God who will do "whatever it takes" had reached the end of the line with His people... He was now forced by their persistence in evil, to destroy their cities, culture, families, even kill many of them in the Babylonian Captivity...
In this book, God is giving his last set of warnings before sending the nation off for 70 years of captivity...
Here are Key verses from the chapter, and other references to them that we discussed:
Jer. 9:1--is this JEremiah talking, or God?
*Matt. 23:37-39
*John 11:35
*Gethsemane when JEsus wept and groaned in the garden...
Jer. 9:9
*God is yearning for other options, but must punish
*see Sodom and Gomorrha in Genesis 18-20. Read it thoroughly...Jer. 9:16-21
*See Zechariah 12:10-13:2
*this is us, here. We must learn to weep...to be poor in Spirit before the God who is calling us to complete holiness of love...
Jer. 9:7 The Crucible
*a discussion of how metal is refined through melting and skimming, which reduces it's apparent greatness and size.
*a discussion of how a plow tip, or sword is fashioned into usefulness through heating, flattening (pounding), folding, cooling, heating, flattening, folding, cooling... again and again in trials and disciplines...
*Ecclesiastes 3--this is a part of theseasons of life for a disciple of Christ....
*Romans 5--this is for glory and perseverance and hope...
*this is from the God who will do "whatever it takes" to get us lined up with him..
Jer. 9:27 and fllowing
*Ezekiel 16:49--the sin of Sodom...
*Micah 6:8
*Isaiah 58
*Luke 14
the only way to overcome the greed that led judah and jerusalem into this judgment is by sharing and giving our table and our lives to the cause of the poor among us... by abiding in the vine of Christ, bearing it's fruit... applying our faith to cry out to the Father to grant us the works of the Cross-life...
not by deciding what to do and what sounds good and just doing it... many go astray by takign their zeal too seriously... we must learn to wait and pray... in that waiting and praying, God will reveal our works...
Read John 3, especially the end verses
read ephesians 2, especially 7-11
think of phillipians 1 where it says He is faithful to complete the work
Think of Titus where it says to be eager for good works
think of Timothy and faith working itself out in love...
this is the goal of our teaching! Mercy!
We saw in this chapter how the God who will do "whatever it takes" had reached the end of the line with His people... He was now forced by their persistence in evil, to destroy their cities, culture, families, even kill many of them in the Babylonian Captivity...
In this book, God is giving his last set of warnings before sending the nation off for 70 years of captivity...
Here are Key verses from the chapter, and other references to them that we discussed:
Jer. 9:1--is this JEremiah talking, or God?
*Matt. 23:37-39
*John 11:35
*Gethsemane when JEsus wept and groaned in the garden...
Jer. 9:9
*God is yearning for other options, but must punish
*see Sodom and Gomorrha in Genesis 18-20. Read it thoroughly...Jer. 9:16-21
*See Zechariah 12:10-13:2
*this is us, here. We must learn to weep...to be poor in Spirit before the God who is calling us to complete holiness of love...
Jer. 9:7 The Crucible
*a discussion of how metal is refined through melting and skimming, which reduces it's apparent greatness and size.
*a discussion of how a plow tip, or sword is fashioned into usefulness through heating, flattening (pounding), folding, cooling, heating, flattening, folding, cooling... again and again in trials and disciplines...
*Ecclesiastes 3--this is a part of theseasons of life for a disciple of Christ....
*Romans 5--this is for glory and perseverance and hope...
*this is from the God who will do "whatever it takes" to get us lined up with him..
Jer. 9:27 and fllowing
*Ezekiel 16:49--the sin of Sodom...
*Micah 6:8
*Isaiah 58
*Luke 14
the only way to overcome the greed that led judah and jerusalem into this judgment is by sharing and giving our table and our lives to the cause of the poor among us... by abiding in the vine of Christ, bearing it's fruit... applying our faith to cry out to the Father to grant us the works of the Cross-life...
not by deciding what to do and what sounds good and just doing it... many go astray by takign their zeal too seriously... we must learn to wait and pray... in that waiting and praying, God will reveal our works...
Read John 3, especially the end verses
read ephesians 2, especially 7-11
think of phillipians 1 where it says He is faithful to complete the work
Think of Titus where it says to be eager for good works
think of Timothy and faith working itself out in love...
this is the goal of our teaching! Mercy!
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Bible Study Happenings/Chapter 9
we haven't put time into a chapter of Jeremiah in a while, now. Two tuesdays ago we stopped studying it for prayer... then the next tiem was a work day on the newsletter...
but now, we'll be getting back on track... we'll hit Chapter 9 this week. I'll be commentign on it from Ireland, no less. Incredible.
So read up on chapter 9 and start dropping comments here... Just click the title of this blog to pull up the chapter on Biblegateway.com
but now, we'll be getting back on track... we'll hit Chapter 9 this week. I'll be commentign on it from Ireland, no less. Incredible.
So read up on chapter 9 and start dropping comments here... Just click the title of this blog to pull up the chapter on Biblegateway.com
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Chapter 8
We have spent solidly 2 weeks in Chapter 8, now... At this point, we've had our men's group meeting on Tuesday nights take over this track of study...
Looking at the Book to this point, we're getting the point that Judah and Jerusalem, and the people had all gotten into this cruddy false religion. Society was ripping apart at the seams, within the community of believers. Disobedience and neglect of the commandments had given way to cults of sex and death, oppression of the poor, immorality... you get it...
At the same time, the "Professional Religious Community" was lathering the people with all kinds of false comforts! They twisted the meaning of the Scriptures and created "another Gospel" to keep people from seeing the truth.
Jeremiah was a voice crying out for people to RECOGNIZE the days they were in. The only hope for anyone in judah in those days was to SURRENDER to the judgment of Yahweh, and go over to the Babylonians... That was a very unwelcome message to just about everyone...
We are constantly looking at Isaiah, who prophesied the coming of Messiah, the rebuilding of the nation after the deportation, and the call to justice... Isaiah's prophecies help us understand a lot about where to turn with Jeremiah's cry...
Is. 28:10-17 were a big part of our study, as we looked at how false religion in Judah included lots of rules, but didn't stop immorality...
1 Kings 17 and the Story of Elijah on Mount Carmel showed us the extent to which false cults of sex and death take root in a nation with bad leadership. How much more true in the church?
We talked about how the church in america is riddled with just the same kind of denial, immorality, and rule-keeping religion that Jeremiah preached against...
We spent a chunk of time praying for those among us who struggle with the seduction of such falsehood. The most time was spent praying for Lew...
God have Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!
Looking at the Book to this point, we're getting the point that Judah and Jerusalem, and the people had all gotten into this cruddy false religion. Society was ripping apart at the seams, within the community of believers. Disobedience and neglect of the commandments had given way to cults of sex and death, oppression of the poor, immorality... you get it...
At the same time, the "Professional Religious Community" was lathering the people with all kinds of false comforts! They twisted the meaning of the Scriptures and created "another Gospel" to keep people from seeing the truth.
Jeremiah was a voice crying out for people to RECOGNIZE the days they were in. The only hope for anyone in judah in those days was to SURRENDER to the judgment of Yahweh, and go over to the Babylonians... That was a very unwelcome message to just about everyone...
We are constantly looking at Isaiah, who prophesied the coming of Messiah, the rebuilding of the nation after the deportation, and the call to justice... Isaiah's prophecies help us understand a lot about where to turn with Jeremiah's cry...
Is. 28:10-17 were a big part of our study, as we looked at how false religion in Judah included lots of rules, but didn't stop immorality...
1 Kings 17 and the Story of Elijah on Mount Carmel showed us the extent to which false cults of sex and death take root in a nation with bad leadership. How much more true in the church?
We talked about how the church in america is riddled with just the same kind of denial, immorality, and rule-keeping religion that Jeremiah preached against...
We spent a chunk of time praying for those among us who struggle with the seduction of such falsehood. The most time was spent praying for Lew...
God have Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!
Friday, January 06, 2006
Chapter Seven
It's been a few weeks since we met for Study together. Since we started, we've moved the study to the Chase House from the Sidewinder Cafe. I've also stopped drinking coffee--an interesting experience to say the least. Those of you who know me will know how extreme a move that is for me... It's just that i can't justify the expense, and don't want to wait for the medical field to finally announce that coffee's as deadly as cigarettes. Whatever
Anyway, here we are in Ch. 7. Just click on the title to this entry to pull up the passage. It's a neat little thing that I can do on Blogger.
Comment away! I'll lay down some more thoughts on this during the week.
Anyway, here we are in Ch. 7. Just click on the title to this entry to pull up the passage. It's a neat little thing that I can do on Blogger.
Comment away! I'll lay down some more thoughts on this during the week.
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