Jeremiah 5

Jeremiah 5:31 NIV
The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?


As I read through the chater it feels like hopeless and endless disobedience against God.  I felt very discoonected from it.  I was wsimply reading the history of someone else, the rich the poor the leaders everyone of this time were making poor choices and living with complete disregard for God's instruction.


Then in one simply sentence it all turned very personal, what wold I do.  I'm not sure that was the intent but that was how I took it.  I have choices to make everday, do I follow God's instruction form me or not.  Pretty simple.  I can kid others but both He and Iknow the truth.


Knut

Jeremiah 4

⁸ So put on sackcloth,
lament and wail,

I've read this many times, along our path thru the word.  Isn't it strange.  Its almost as if you can't REALLY be upset....unless you put on a scrap rag, and scream in the street.  This concept seems really strange.

Intermixed in this message of doom and gloom of both God's anger toward Israel and the conqueror to the north is a messgae of grace.  The chapter refers to the fact that if they would put away their sin and their idols and repent to God....God would be there for them.

I heard an interesting quote this week at church.  "If you are feeling that God is very distant from you...you need to realize that only one of you moved."

peace out

Jeremiah 3

12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever. 7 times the word return shows up in this passage and at least 3 times in a statement by God of return to me and I will take care of you. So no matter how badly we have behaved towards God or how frequently we have disobeyed He is telling us to return--come back to him and he will be there for us. This is not to say we should abuse this quality of him, but I do take it that we should know that he is there for us no matter how badly we have screwd up and he wants us to return to him so he can care for us. knut

Missed Opportunity

I read Jer 3 today but felt compelled to write about my real life experience that relates back to Jer 1. I am ashamed to say I missed a golden opportunity to be bold and stand up to them and say whatever He commands me, only 1 day after reading Jeremiah 1. I was at Jeff Stealy's shop Wednesday night dropping off parts. My friend Johnny and I spent 4 hours talking to each other. Everything from race car parts to our wives and kids. He is someone that uses the f word so much our other racer friends sometimes call him f-ing Johnny. He has a lot of deep thoughts that others don't know about. He certainly loves family and thinks hard about raising his kids, but I don't think most people would know how deep he is because he can come off brash because he has very stron opinions and lets them flow out so easily. Most people don't ever get past this to get to know him. Then we got talking about Jeff, my friend Johnny was extremely close to him. He said I've thought way too much about it, but it wasn't immediately clear to me what he was talking about because were talking about eating healthy and avoiding cancer. Then it became clear he was talking about death. Johnny and I are good friends but he is someone I would not imagine believes in God but I really didn't know or don't know where he stands. Our conversation was all mixed up around death and stuff going on in the world. Then he said out of the blue I've studied religions and Christianity is the only one that has anything good. Christians are supposed to turn the other cheek. There was my opening, he was not talking about salvation he was talking about there is a good social merit to Christianity even if its not really true simply because it is good rules to live by. I heard and saw my moment, but I effectively pannicked. I certainly agreed with him that its a good way to live...but I didn't go where i was supposed to. I didn't tell him I believe its more than a good set of rules but the path to erternal life. I didn't share my story. the moment slipped away and we moved into more race car talking again. 1 day after being told to be bold, I blew it. Pray that I will have another opportunity with him and that I would be bold not a chicken. What was I afraid of? Normally I could see why I'd chicken out, Johnny doesn't seem like he would be open to the conversation and in fact seems like he might attack...but not on that night he opened the door and I just stood outside it. weak. knut

Jeremiah 2

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?

 

 

⁹ “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the Lord.

 

its like ground-hogs day.  Over and over again.  We stray from focus.  I love God's question here. In most cases you could find a reason why you are turning away from something.  But, in this case.....its pure stupidity and selfishness.  There is no fault in God, and no reason can be given to turn away from him....other than we think we can be our own God.  How dumb does that sound?  As I write it, I can't believe I still struggle with being my own God on a daily basis.

 

I can't imagine his level of patience...just to deal with us.

He's amazing.

Amazing Grace

 

Jeremiah 1

17 “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them....19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. So in this case the Lord was telling Jeremiah to have confidence against the nations from the north that would be coming presumably to attack Jerusalem and he tells him to get yourself ready and that he would be with him so don't worry. While we may not be under any physical attack, we do have the constant attack of our society on our beliefs and values. We can get ourselves ready by continuing to study his word and deepen our faith that He is always with us. If we have that faith there is nothing we need to worry about and infact we need to be bold in His name and share our faith and He will take care of the rest. Interesting too that he tells Jeremiah if you are terrified...I will terrify you before them, so I'm thinking go bold or go home. I think I have some work to do in being bold. knut

Mark 16

This chapter is HUGE for obvious reasons.  But, I want to focus on something a little bit different here.  This is the start of a monumental transformation of the disciples themselves.  The went from being a group of dudes, who wouldn't even acknowledge knowing Jesus before his death, to a group that is huddled somewhere, laying low.....grieving and completely freightened about their future......to what we will see happen next. 
There is no other explanation for their complete empowerment, and boldness than that they FINALLY got it, and they were inspired by the Creator and his Son to change the world.  Jesus came and was exactly what we needed.  It could have stopped there.  But, it didn't, in part, due to the relentless work, and sacrifice by these same dudes that are right now huddled and paralyzed by fear.

What could he do with us if we could get to the same point of faith?

peace out.
have a great weekend

Mark 15

38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

I don't recall if we have discussed this but I know we have read together in the Old Testament about the structure of the temple with details included like the dimensions and the curtain separating the temple's most holy area from the other side.

Here have that curtain being torn at the moment of Jesus death.  He is the living curtain and he died his life torn apart for us to take away that separation from God, giving us all access to him by covering our sins.  While I can't recall all the details I am enjoying the fact that we have covered enough ground that connections between Old and New Testament are starting to jump out at me more now than ever before.  I pray we can continue to grow and internalize more and more of his word in our hearts and minds.  It really is a perfectly plan documented right in front of us.  


here is a link to some discussion on the topic--

http://www.gotquestions.org/temple-veil-torn.html

and a comment on the top to bottom significance --The second is that the curtain was torn from top to bottom, as opposed to from bottom to top. This indicates that the curtain was not ripped by man but by God.

knut

Mark 14

52 he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

Reading the events leading up to Jesus capture and ultimate Crucifixion the one little verse seemed way out of place.  I'm not sure I ever noticed it before, so I Googled it and found volumes of writings on it.  It always amazes me how people can write pages about a passage as short as 7 words.  Sometimes I'm skeptical because its just someones opinion and if God wanted to tell us 7 pages of stuff he could have just put it in there rather than speaking in code.

But this time I found one write up that I thought made some sense, here is an excerpt:

So what we see in the strange story of this naked young man is actually something quite remarkable. Just as Adam and Eve fled from God after they sinned in the Garden of Eden, this young man runs away from the Son of God in the Garden of Gethsemane.

How often do we find ourselves in this situation? It’s easy to follow Jesus when things are going well for us and when it’s popular to do so. But if we run away from Jesus when trouble comes, we find that we are naked, in disgrace.

- See more at: http://crossconnection.hopetv.org/the-naked-man#sthash.ogIFtHxI.dpuf

http://crossconnection.hopetv.org/the-naked-man

Whether this is accurate or not, I still thought the question is a fair one.  Do I believe in Jesus all the time or just when things are running smoothly?  My actions will tell regardless of my words written here, but I pray that is in all situations.


knut

Mark 13

Here he goes covering tons of ground again in a single chapter.

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert[e]! You do not know when that time will come.

I don't have any major point, but I do recall as I was new in my faith as a teenager that I was often thinking about what if today was the day Jesus returned.  I can't say I really spend much time thinking like that currently.  I think I was more worried than excited for some reason back then.  But what if He did come back today?  Would I be proud of what I was doing or saying at that moment?  Are the things going on in my life the right things to even be worried about?  what if today is our last day on earth as we know it, what would I do different?  Well it could be so I should do...

knut

Mark 12

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[f] 31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”

This is one of my favorite verses in all of th bible.  Its so simple.  I think what Jesus was doing here, was really breaking down all the rules and traditions of the jewish leaders of the day.  If you do, these 2 things......you'll be in pretty good shape.

peace.
have a great weekend

Mark 11

I'm struck by how much ground is covered in each chapter here.  Especially after reading thru some of the plodding style of the Old Testament, this seems to move way too fast for me.  I want more detail, and more explanation of what's happening.  I was particularly interested in the story of the fig tree.  This one seems odd to me, and there must be something really important there, but I'm not grasping it.

I found this:

Verse 13

[13] And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

For it was not a season of figs — It was net (as we say) a good year for figs; at least not for that early sort, which alone was ripe so soon in the spring. If we render the words, It was not the season of figs, that is, the time of gathering them in, it may mean, The season was not yet: and so (inclosing the words in a parenthesis, And coming to it, he found nothing but leaves) it may refer to the former part of the sentence, and may be considered as the reason of Christ's going to see whether there were any figs on this tree. Some who also read that clause in a parenthesis, translate the hollowing words, for where he was, it was the season of figs. And it is certain, this meaning of the words suits best with the great design of the parable, which was to reprove the Jewish Church for its unfruitfulness at that very season, when fruit might best be expected from them.

Its the last line that I think is the meaning.  But, it doesn't seem to fit that he would say, "no one will ever eat fruit from you again......seems harsh, and not like a Savior that is all about grace and forgiveness.

How's that?
I jump in with lots of questions......and not many answers