Friday, May 26, 2006

Today Jer 8

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Jeremiah 8:1-22 -
1"In that day," says the LORD, "the enemy will break open the graves of the kings and officials of Judah, and the graves of the priests, prophets, and common people. 2They will dig out their bones and spread them out on the ground before the sun, moon, and stars—the gods my people have loved, served, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up again or buried but will be scattered on the ground like dung. 3And the people of this evil nation who survive will wish to die rather than live where I will send them. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken!
Deception by False Prophets
4"Jeremiah, say to the people, 'This is what the LORD says: When people fall down, don't they get up again? When they start down the wrong road and discover their mistake, don't they turn back? 5Then why do these people keep going along their self-destructive path, refusing to turn back, even though I have warned them? 6I listen to their conversations, and what do I hear? Is anyone sorry for sin? Does anyone say, "What a terrible thing I have done"? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse rushing into battle! 7The stork knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. F18 They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know what the LORD requires of them.
8"'How can you say, "We are wise because we have the law of the LORD," when your teachers have twisted it so badly? 9These wise teachers will be shamed by exile for their sin, for they have rejected the word of the LORD. Are they so wise after all? 10I will give their wives and their farms to others. From the least to the greatest, they trick others to get what does not belong to them. Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that. 11They offer superficial treatments for my people's mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when all is war. 12Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things? No, not at all—they don't even blush! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be humbled when they are punished, says the LORD. 13I will take away their rich harvests of figs and grapes. Their fruit trees will all die. All the good things I prepared for them will soon be gone. I, the LORD, have spoken!'
14"Then the people will say, 'Why should we wait here to die? Come, let's go to the fortified cities to die there. For the LORD our God has decreed our destruction and has given us a cup of poison to drink because we sinned against the LORD. 15We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror. 16The snorting of the enemies' warhorses can be heard all the way from the land of Dan in the north! The whole land trembles at the approach of the terrible army, for it is coming to devour the land and everything in it—cities and people alike.'
17"I will send these enemy troops among you like poisonous snakes you cannot charm," says the LORD. "No matter what you do, they will bite you, and you will die."
Jeremiah Weeps for Sinful Judah
18My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken. 19Listen to the weeping of my people; it can be heard all across the land. "Has the LORD abandoned Jerusalem F19 ?" the people ask. "Is her King no longer there?" "Oh, why have they angered me with their carved idols and worthless gods?" asks the LORD.
20"The harvest is finished, and the summer is gone," the people cry, "yet we are not saved!"
21I weep for the hurt of my people. I am stunned and silent, mute with grief. 22Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?
FOOTNOTES:F18: The identification of some of these birds is uncertain. F19: Hebrew Zion.
Copyright Statement:
Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’
When one reads the word of God they must be wiling to see deeper than they see at first glance. There are some key things in these first 3 verses that indicate that the author, who himself may not know the full meaning of what he’s been led by God’s spirit to write and to reveal, is speaking about more than just men’s’ bones being strewn all over the ground.
Today I see that we all will be laid out before the Lord, before the scrutiny of His eyes. We all will pass under the spiritual eye of Almighty God, and He will examine us from the inside out, with not one hidden thing allowed to hide itself from the sight of those present.
The marrow of bones speaks of the innermost parts and issues of heart, the deepest intents, thoughts and actions.
Because of sin, men, all men, whether seemingly righteous or wicked, must stand before God in this way, an enemy, called sin-rebellion, has caused the need for this scrutiny.
Once under the light of His righteousness, only those covered by the redemptive blood of the Lamb will escape fury, fury being- eternal damnation and eternal separation from God’s awesome presence.
When one contemplates these things one must ask one’s self, am I washed, am I cleansed, by His redeeming blood? Have I been washed, stayed washed? Have I cleansed myself and others from any traces of the wrath to come? Have I freed myself from the slavery and bondage of self service and of idol worship? Do I stand clean in heart before God? Has my everyday life been all for His work to appear in my life and in as many as I can show the way?
The writer goes through some things that indicate traces of sin, not yet uprooted, not exposed willingly to the light of His scrutiny, and it is by great grace that one would be shown-scrutinized, would open themselves up to the scrutiny and light of God’s word now, before That day. How many if they can be rid of a cancer would come under an x-ray, find the cancer, get it out and live? This is the same principle when I speak of scrutiny. Better to come under the gracious scrutiny of the Most High that that of the penalty of sin.
He says we may have thought one way about things, but we MUST change our minds! Here he gives us some mind changing words to heed, make changes in, come under the light of and live.
God has given each of us, saved and unsaved, the ability to be forgiven the debt of sin. It is called repentance. When one repents, he turns away from the offensive behavior, he changes, his desire changes, his activity changes. When it changes in one area it does not mean every area is clean. When another area comes under the light, that area also must be repented of. Repentance is a lifestyle we live before the Lord, if He is our Lord.
If He our the Lord He can tell us of anything that needs to change, show us how to change by the power of His spirit, and expect us to change. If we are our own rulers He can hardly tell us anything to change, because we will do as we please. This is what will be opened up on That Day. Was the area an area revealed or ignored, or was it not yet revealed? If revealed and repented of or not yet known to repent of, in grace it was covered by the Lordship of Christ.
If one lives under the Lordship of Christ, anything that is revealed can be changed by Christ’s’ strength. If under one’s own lordship, the things that need change are left to my own strength and my own ability to do so, and I find I come up short in my ability to conform to the revelation of the need for change.
Repentance and my desire to change, is normal kingdom living. There’s nothing abnormal about it. It is kingdom living before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jeremiah, says, “Why has this lifestyle not been embraced?” “Why would there be no change among those who call the Lord their Lord?” or has pride exalted us as our own lords whom we continually obey? So much that we only hear our own loud voices inside of our moral heads speaking, while not being able to hear the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit? Lack of response to God in the way of repentance shows one has become numb, hardhearted, and pride is king.
If we do not see this time, any time, as a serious time, where there is only so much time left to come under the light of the word of God, we must clean the muck off of the lens, take the corks out of the ears, before time runs out.
We wonder why we are not blessed, why things are so hard, we wonder why and the answer lies before us, we are strengthened by whom we serve, we are helped by the one whom we obey. Blessing or curse is released to us in the sowing and reaping principle, unless we repent. Repentance is Not once for all, to repent is to live.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts He was raised from the dead we will be saved”. That word “confess” means to adhere to, stick with. Stick with what? He is Lord- of me. He tells me what to do and I do it. He is Lord, always in my life, not one time for trails sake. If so, then a trail it was, but it did not “stick”. One must live and live and live this way, so that on That day it will be very clearly shown who lorded over me enough to cover all of my sin and make me whole, wash me clean enough to stand under the light of scrutiny as He steps forth for me and says, “That one is Mine!”
As long as we are alive there is still hope to stand before Him, clean. Some have given up, thinking they cannot attain, and they cannot, alone. They’ve served themselves long enough and should be tired and run back to Him in whom strength is found, not go the other way. They must not realize the mess that will put them in. rebellion, no matter how firm it stands will not stand in That day. They wonder why an enemy has come to steal, why children are taken as slaves of sin. Turn and Run into the arms of Love (and obedience is the greatest expression of the loved).
Anyone who is saved, we all as ministers, must tell the people they are in sin, time to stop the candy coating, but is it too late for the people to hear? Maybe, for some, but not when ones obey and hope in God. Repentance redeems all. Even redeems the time.
Anyone who thinks, “Ahh I’ve already sinned, may as well whoop it up”, has been entangled in a web of doom and darkness. There’s no need to ask why, they’ve made their choices.
The prophet is saying, “Do we care?” Do we care about that, or about our own lives and provision and what is up for us today, or can we get over that stuff long enough to see another’s need, spiritual need, and meet it, heal it, live truth by example? Can we who are righteous, or are “supposed” to be righteous, stop for a moment and come under scrutiny, honestly asking the Lord for examination and to purposely repent and change our own lives that we’d have a life to lead others, to show others the way to healing?
The tragedy is, I’ve told people about the life I do not live. We’ve told people to live when we’ve only been dying. We’ve told them to receive healing, when we won’t. We’ve said this is the way, pointing it out, but not leading them to it, by showing them how. Can we change? Can we repent? YES, we can. Can we be healed? Absolutely, and when we are, when we do, we will heal.
In our church we are hearing an alarm to go and gather the harvest this summer. God is saying Now is the time. We could heed that call or disregard that call. Heeding would mean we need to prepare to go out and harvest. We’d need our tools in hand. We’d have to believe there is a harvest to be had. We’d have to change clothes and change our lives for the sake of the lost, that they could be found through us. If we don’t hear the call as serious, we won’t change, we won’t prepare (by changing), we won’t go fishing, harvesting, whatever. We won’t go out and purchase a tool, with our life’s blood. Our actions will show our faith and at summer’s end He will see us as we are, with Him in this or not with Him in this.
Today is the day to choose life, that we and our seed may live. The harvest is ready, workers few, pray the Lord of the harvest to force out and thrust out laborers into His harvest fields! He is Lord of the harvest (of souls). If He’s our Lord, we are harvesters!


Daily Repetitive Verses:

Isaiah 58:12
– in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.