Jeremiah 5

5 1-2 “Patrol Jerusalem’s streets.
    Look around. Take note.
Search the market squares.
    See if you can find one man, one woman,
A single soul who does what is right
    and tries to live a true life.
    I want to forgive that person.”
        God’s Decree.
“But if all they do is say, ‘As sure as God lives . . .’
    they’re nothing but a bunch of liars.”

Kind of a downer chapter really.  I didn't find any great nuggets.  I just took away don't pretend or just give lip service to your faith in God--he will see right through it.  In fact, other people will see through it too.  Something about not being genuine, people sniff it out.  Of course for God there is no need to sniff it out--he sees it plain as day.

knut

Jeremiah 4

4 “If you, Israel, will return,
    then return to me,”
declares the Lord.
“If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
    and no longer go astray,

I was struggling to find anything in this chapter, so I went back to what we wrote last time.  I got nothing that time either so I'm consistent.  But you shared something you had heard at church, if you are feeling distant from God check yourself, you must realize you are the one that moved.

It says it right here at the beginning.  Return to me indicates there was an action to leave him.  Leaving him is all the other stuff we put in our lives that doesn't matter.

Well at 11:55am yesterday the message that shook me to my core came into Facebook Messenger.  Life can change in an instant as evidenced by Scott's diagnosis.  Personally I need to reset, yet again, on what is really important.  I seem to have to re-learn this lesson over and over.

I pray for Shelly to be strong in support of Scott.  I pray for Zac and Alex who need their Dad, God be with them keep them safe and ease their fear.  I pray for Scott--please heal him completely here on earth and let him feel your presence through this journey.

Give Todd and me unique ideas of how we can show Scott and his family we love them and that maybe in some small way we can lighten their load or lift their spirits.

Amen.

knut

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.

No big take for me today, in fact had to read it multiple times to get anything for some reason.  I was just thinking how lucky we are that God is so forgiving.  I can understand as children of God how He as our Father can forgive even the worst sins against him--I can imagine my tolerance would be high for that as well.  But the though of forgiving my wife if she had done as described in this chapter??  I don't think I could, I'd be moving along.  Be he describes Israel in that manner and ultimately is willing to forgive--which is crazy to me but I am glad.  I'm thankful for his ability to forgive if I am willing to genuinely acknowledge my failures against him. 

knut

Jeremiah 2

13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

This chapter is filled with God's pain and frustration.  Examples over and over of how frustrated he is with us.  He gives us freedom to choose but almost seems shocked at the choices people made in spite of all he had done for them.  It seems to be compounded by not only do we not engage with him but in fact we do things to replace him. 

It seems really silly when I read what people had done after he has done so much for them--how could their memories be so short.  But then I look at myself and think--but don't I do the same?  He has bless my entire life, yet how often do I just skip through a day without a conversation with Him?  Hopefully I don't go a step further and try to replace Him, but perhaps I do that too.

So steps that I must learn, re-learn and continue to work on my entire life including right now today is to remember all He has done for me.  Talk to him everyday.  If I do this I am unlikely to go a step further and  replace him with my own leaky cistern.

knut

Jeremiah 1

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

I just love this verse.  It gives me comfort.  It tells me that I'm a creation of God from the beginning to the end.  He is with me.....and he has a plan for me.

I love it!
It makes me feel connected.

tp

Isaiah 66

24 24“And then they’ll go out and look at what happened
    to those who rebelled against me. Corpses!
Maggots endlessly eating away on them,
    an endless supply of fuel for fires.
Everyone who sees what’s happened
    and smells the stench retches.”

I pulled this, not because it gave me a great epiphany.  But, because this is a strange way to end a book of the magnitude of Isaiah.  Don't you think?  Usually there is a cadence to these books that ends with a resounding, rah, rah type encouraging end.  This is very different.  The entire chapter feels a little negative.  And then it ends with this.

On the bright side, all of the "people are scum" talk in this chapter is the ultimate realization that we can't do it alone.  And our best efforts aren't even close to justifying our salvation.  Due to his love and his greatness....we have an option.  

That is something that should be celebrated.

tp

Isaiah 64-65

1-7 “I’ve made myself available
    to those who haven’t bothered to ask.
I’m here, ready to be found
    by those who haven’t bothered to look.
I kept saying ‘I’m here, I’m right here’
    to a nation that ignored me.
I reached out day after day
    to a people who turned their backs on me,
People who make wrong turns,
    who insist on doing things their own way.

My take today is a tough one.  I haven't told you everything that has been happening in our little home.....but, it is tough.  Its serious and things sometimes feel completely out of control.  The tough part for me is that I'm screaming to God to show up.  Max has asked God to show up.....and yet I don't really see it or feel it.  I know Max doesn't.  He is really angry with God.  

So, I read this and think.....hmmm. 

Perhaps when I look back on this time of life, I will see God's presence more clearly than I do now.  I suppose the right thing to do is keep asking for his help, even if I don't feel like I'm getting satisfaction.  At least that way I'm relying on him, but not tying my reliance on the outcome.

lots to think about 

tp

Isaiah 61-63

63
14-19
Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?
    Why did you make us cold and stubborn
    so that we no longer worshiped you in awe?

I kept going today until something grabbed me.....and almost at the end of 63, there it was.  
This spells out the frustration I feel .  I understand the notion of freewill.  But, once I make the decision to follow him and see the world through his eyes....I want it to be easy.  I don't want to have to fight everyday for it.  I don't want o be this stubborn.  

But, I am.
And today, I will fight the fight once again.

tp

Isaiah 59-60

60:22 The least of you will become a thousand,
    the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
    in its time I will do this swiftly.”

Probably rushing through this too quickly today, I wasn't getting any particular takeaway.  But in the very last sentence I do get the reminder of its on his timeline.  As I was reading I just kept thinking when??  It will be in an instance, everything will change.  It will be in His instance.  Be ready.  I think about that for my kids---be ready.

knut

Isaiah 56-58

58:13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
    and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
    God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
    making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
    Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
    Yes! God says so!


I don't think I pause on the Sabbath to say this is God's day.  Sure we go to church and have a couple hours that have a focus on God.  While I do feel I make a day of rest and it isn't completely business as usual I also can't say I make it God's holy day as a celebration.  For society as a whole it also feels like we continue to slip further away from having any time focused on God let alone an entire day.  Will we feast on the inheritance of Jacob?

knut

Isaiah 54-55

55 “Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.

In this election year this sounds like the ultimate socialist campaign message, right up Bernie's alley.  lol.

But seriously, God does give us the ultimate gift of eternal life for free.  There is a huge cost, the ultimate in human cost.  But as we learn later in the human timeline Jesus covered that cost for us.  In God's timeline all was already known even as these words were documented hundreds of years before humans would observe Jesus paying our debt for us. 

Our timing is good to be going through Isaiah now as Easter nears.

knut