Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Jeremiah Chapters 4-6

4:2 - If we try every day to reflect the character of God into the world - truth, justice, righteousness - people will literally see God through our lives and the world will be blessed. God will be honored. So we must understand that we strive to live righteously, not to save ourselves - we can't do that...we can't earn forgiveness...it is freely given. We live righteously because of the love that God has poured out on us...we want to worship Him and bring God the glory in this world.

4:18 - The people of Jerusalem are living through the consequences of their choices and actions. God is allowing them to experience the pain and the suffering that their choices bring so that they might return to Him. That is always the motivation of God's judgment...to bring redemption...to bring the people back to Him.

4:22 - Unfortunately, I feel like this sometimes...like I am better at being "evil" - better at being selfish. There are times when I feel like the struggle is for me to do right and the wrong just comes more easily. Tim Davis sent me an e-mail with this story in it recently: One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. "One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, honesty, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." I think the struggle for righteous or unrighteous living is won by whichever nature within me I am feeding.

5:3 - God brings punishment to provide a path for redemption and repentance, but unfortunately some refuse to accept it. Some people are so hard-headed that they continue in their sinfulness despite the consequences. You can only hope they get the message before they have to be brought to rock-bottom.

5:19 - The people invited the invasion of foreign armies upon themselves - they chose to reject God and worship foreign "gods" in the land that God had given them and Jeremiah tells them that they will becomes slaves to in those foreign lands they so want to be like. When we invite evil into our life, thinking we have the freedom to choose whatever we want, that evil has a way of becoming our master and destroying any freedom we had.

5:30-31 - "Appalling/Horrible" - these are the words used by Jeremiah to describe an environment where religious leaders are focused on what THEY want instead of focusing on what God wants. As a church leader myself, I must be very careful to try to remove my own motives from the leadership equation. I need to be asking, "What is God's plan for my ministry?"

6:19 - The only thing that comes from rejecting the Word of God is disaster. When we reject God we welcome hell into the earth and into our lives.

6:20 - Very important point here: it isn't the sacrifices themselves that God wants. What does He care about incense or animal blood? God wants His people to live is a state of worship...He wants His people to be humble before their God...He wants His people to glorify His name by living righteous lives in the world.

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