August 22 ... Jeremiah 35 - 37 "The Slightest Twinge of Conscience"
God is emptying me of myself...enjoying ministry success more than my relationship with God. May it never be. When ministry is taken away, what does it do to my desires? Do I have to have ministry success to be happy in life? Is that what will bring me joy? Absolutely not. And no one can take away my relationship with my LORD. This prophet, Jeremiah, enjoyed his relationship with God way more than any ministry success. No clanging cymbal here. Willing to be a voice. Willing to be jailed. Willing to be emptied. Willing to speak the truth in love.
Jeremiah 36:10 Baruch took the scroll to the Temple and read out publicly the words of Jeremiah. The response of the government officials: You and Jeremiah need to go into hiding. Jer 36:23 With startling arrogance, the King read a portion of the scroll and would cut it off with his pocketknife and toss it into the fire, followed by reading a little more than tossing the scroll again into the flames until it was extinguished. Jer 36:24 The King and his officials never showed "the slightest twinge of conscience." What a scary face. What a scary place.
You know, you've never seen your face before. Listen to those He has placed directly in your path. Let them read your face and listen to the truth. What is chaff is blown away. Does my face show the slightest twinge of conscience?
I have an opportunity today to minister to someone about a sin I haven't fully worked through. Forgiveness is a tricky sin. When I think I've repented never to return, some piece of it creeps in again. Lord, give me words, without hypocrisy, conscience and loving words to help, or take away the opportunity. Purify me of anger and fill me with Your Words.
ReplyDeleteJeremiah has spunk-still asks the same questions after "a long time" in a cistern jail. His first words out were the same as his message from God when he entered. God gave him his strength. Do we hold fast to truth when it's hard? Guaranteed: There will be a test.
Think interesting that Beth Moore's Liv.Proof Live last weekend was taken from Jeremiah titled "Eat,Pray,Love"..from blog of someone who attended:"She picked out scriptures that helped us remember Eat, Pray, Love.She spoke alot about brokenness, deserts, idols and pretence.God wants to meet us in our brokenness so that we can heal and be a witness for him.God wants to come to the deserts in our lives and plow up the land.A desert is anyplace that we don’t allow God access.Idols will cause us tons of trouble. This statement was huge,”we become what we follow, we will be like the idols we follow” so what are you becoming? God wants us to stop pretending. How we worship, live, serve and love. Stop pretending! Be real, be free and be who Christ called you to be."
ReplyDeleteBev..today may these words encourage you..I dont know what you are going thru..but praise JESUS HE does:
Be patient. God knows what He's doing. God knows what's best for us. He can see the end result. We can't. All those problems,heartaches,difficulties and delays -all the things that make us ask "why" one day will all be clear in the light of God's love. But for now, we are learning to trust GOD.
Blessings friends of God,
Donna Hazelwood
Annette, I'm sitting here with an opportunity to reach out one more time to my husband. I don't want to. I admit that to all of you. I'm angry. I'm hurt. I have no reason to believe he will listen. (Just like the king cutting the scroll with a pocketknife.)
ReplyDeleteBut I sense God pressing me with this one last opportunity to reach out to his calloused heart and tell him I love him. I want him to come home.
Lord, Jeremiah was so faithful to Your Message. He was humiliated by these blind and deaf people. I feel the same way. I don't understand what I am going through and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is going through things that just don't make any sense.
I want to be faithful to You. I want to be compassionate, like You. I want to be faithful to my marriage, but I can't do this all by myself.
Lord, give me words, without hypocrisy, conscience and loving words to help, or take away the opportunity. Purify me of anger and fill me with Your words.
i am one of little faith, little love and little hope right now. be my BIG GOD in this situation. Open my husband's eyes and ears to Your drawing him, Your Spirit moving in him, Your desire working in him. Remove the fog over him spiritually. I bow to You, God. I serve You, God. I will, for You, God. And for the one I pledged my undying love for with my vow before You. Is anything too hard for You, God? Make him whole. Plow and harvest, God. I sow in tears, may I reap sheaves of joy. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Deborah, your heart has been through so much--I know that place of anger and hurt that says "I don't want to. I'm tired. And I flat don't have it in me." I pray for you this afternoon to be able to say I can't, but, Lord, You can. And if You can use me, here I am.
ReplyDeleteGod will make what you bring to the table enough. Bless you all this day as you walk through your desert wilderness whatever it looks like. It's in those very places, He meets us and we find sweet healing and grace.
My opportunity this afternoon became a chance for me to remember His goodness, His faiathfulness--that same Grace that brought me to a place to use that pain and bring comfort to another who looked just like me about 25 years ago. And I testified she'd live. I was living proof. I testified to hope. She was broken and I was her example of healing, of possibility. Not perfect but authentic. And I think it was good enough. Maybe she'll sleep tonight.
Stay in Him. He's our only safe place.
Thank you for praying for me, Annette. I am so glad you shared with your "slave" and allowed God to give her a little more freedom (Jeremiah 34).
ReplyDeleteIn my case, Jeremiah makes it easy to just write a note and put it in the mail. No one will put me in a dungeon or in stocks. I just have to swallow my pride. Which is hard.
I watched City of Angels today. That movie touched a place in my heart for my husband.
He was an angel sent from God to help me through a very hard time in my life. And now, I feel God desires for me to do the same for him in an area he needs soul healing. I don't see things happening right now. But I believe that God is meeting my husband in a place of deep spiritual healing. It is a very hard place. I want to be there for him, like he was for me. But he won't let me. I have given this all to God, knowing He is the only one who can be there for my husband.
Setting a slave free. I'm wondering if that was what Jeremiah was talking about yesterday. I'm praying for him, I'm keeping the hope alive. I'm trying to remain in Christ and not lose my hope for us.
This book has helped.
From Dr. Crabb:
"I (God) rescued him (Jeremiah) from faithless unbelief, from hopeless despair, and from unloving self-obsession. And now My Son has made it possible for you to live a life of
abundant though severely tested faith,
abundant though seriously challenged hope,
and abundant though painfully sacrificial love.
That is the good news I bring from Me to you in this letter."
My response:
"God, I believe, help my unbelief.
I hope, help my hopelessness.
I love, help my lack of love."
Page 124 from 66 Love Letters.
Powerful in my need today.
I'm not sure I can make it through Lamentations, either, Dr. Crabb. Help me, Jesus.
Deborah, your words invite me to go to deep places in my own heart where I feel betrayed and "let go" and write a letter. You are calling us forward. You are standing not in your pain, but in your own stuff and asking God to move you to love. Praying for you tonight for ears to hear Him calling you in the wilderness---HE is coming out to meet you tonight. Love you so much! Bev
ReplyDeleteI cannot get Jer 31: 2-3 off my mind since we read it... I think I am calling to him and HE is already coming out to meet me in my wilderness. Hos 2:14 - allured to a wilderness only to find it is Him there! With an Open Door!
ReplyDeleteAnnette, I LOVE what you wrote about Jeremiah's words out being the same as his words coming in. Ooooh.
ReplyDeleteBev,
ReplyDeleteI understand about the feeling of betrayal. The pain is very cutting and the wound always pierces deeply. Sometimes mortally wounding us. It becomes self-inflicted when we let our wounds be healed with bitterness, rage and unforgiveness. Christ is the Balm in Gilead. His mercy and His love and His grace is what heals me in the deepest places.
I am I so thankful for this book. And for your care over us. I'm learning so much here with all of my string of pearls. It is an oasis of faith lived outloud. You amaze me, Bev. I am so praying for you and you husband. I can't really see a happy ending with rose-colored glasses, but I do see that you two will be used by God to fulfill His plan. The disciples...all of them...went the road of suffering just like Jesus did.
I read this and just cried. It's from "gotquestions" and it's the history of how Andrew, Peter's brother and Christ's disciple, died:
"Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers, they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: “I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.” He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died."
Can I call myself a Christian if I wouldn't follow Him as faithfully as these disciples? It is a costly faith once you've experienced Him.