Some things I jotted down as I read through Jeremiah 12-16:

In Jeremiah 12, Jeremiah has one perspective, that the wicked are prospering, God on the other hand has the perspective they have not prospered at His hand but due to the invitation submitted through the wicked acts of the people of God. In other words, they through their actions have embraced the wicked people along with the wickedness and unlike God wicked ways are not a kind a master.

But at the end of Jeremiah 12 God shows us that He will rid the land of the wicked, but He will also uproot Judah from her wicked ways and hopefully as a nation they will appreciate this and return unto God!

In Jeremiah 13 I wrote down something that is not a Biblical point at all, but it made me chuckle and I had to make note of it…I recently read an article that asked, “What is the true value of the belt?” and the premise of this short article was questioning does the belt really hold up our pants or do we hold up the belt. I feel that in this live action drama that God asks Jeremiah to be a part of in Jeremiah 13 we get the answer,

“For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’” -Jer. 13:11a

There you go a fashion answer in the Bible, we hold up the belts…no wonder I still have a hard time with my pants sliding even though I wear a belt 🙂

On a more serious note in Jeremiah 13 verse 17,

But if you will not listen to it,
My soul will sob in secret for such pride;
And my eyes will bitterly weep
And flow down with tears,
Because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.

I love the heart of Jeremiah. Oh that each of us would have that same depth of compassion for the lost when they go through trials and consequences even though when we know they are deserving of such trials and consequences. Jeremiah knew these people were wrong and yet he sobbed, he wept, the tears flowed down! That is the true heart of a pastor!

In Jeremiah 14 I found it interesting that God does not lay all the blame or consequences at the feet of the false prophets. They are teaching the people error, but God in verse 16 states that the people who listen to this error will also suffer the same consequences. Why? In other places in scripture God seems to show mercy on the people because they were led falsely astray and did not know better…why here the same consequences. I wonder if it could be because these people also had Jeremiah. They had the full opportunity to know truth and embrace truth. Maybe because of their history they knew right and wrong yet they followed after error.

I believe here the Bible is teaching…

We will not only be held accountable for what we know and did not follow, but what we could have known had we simply listened or accepted the opportunities of truth we’d been given.

So those are the notes I jotted down on these chapters. What were some of the notes God gave to you?

Tomorrow’s Reading: Mark 9 & 10

I read verses 2-5a of Job 29,

“Oh that I were as in months gone by,
As in the days when God watched over me;
3 When His lamp shone over my head,
And by His light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in the prime of my days,
When the friendship of God was over my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me,”

and I immediately thought, “Oh how the heart of God must have hurt over this sentiment of Job.” Then as I continued reading my mind went back to that thought and I began to wonder, “Does the heart of God spend a lot of time worrying about what we think or is that a component of our sinful nature that the Lord does not possess?”

I mean is God worried from an emotional position that Job misunderstands Him? Or is it only to the degree that such a misunderstanding would lead Job to sin that God’s heart would be concerned?

It seems to me like it would be the latter rather than the former but I can’t say with absolute certainty.

I also thought when I read that passage as I have through much of Job, “Wow God sure sees faithfulness different than we define it in the church.” Such a statement as Job’s in most our modern churches would have all the people worried for this individuals eternal salvation.

Interesting…

Tomorrow’s Reading (I’m 6 days behind): Jeremiah 12-16

It is interesting what comes to our minds as we read the Bible and how different thoughts and convictions hit us today I read these verse in the midst of my devotional time,

“O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your dwelling places.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.” -Psalm 43:3, 4

And my heart began to praise God that He has given us music as an expression of response to Him, His truth, His light, His love! The Psalms of course are a collection of songs, so of course David would use song often to respond to the Lord, but throughout the Bible a natural and God given response to the moving of the Divine is through song. Consider this moment from the New Testament,

“After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” -Matthew 26:30

This text follows the story of the Last Supper–what we call Communion–at the end of this gathering, this time with Jesus…they sang a song. To the secular mind that is completely random and weird, but to the believer it should be one of the most natural components of our relationship with Jesus.

Which is one of the reasons why I find it so sad that so many people show-up to church after the music has finished and leave before the music resumes. Why would people rob themselves of this gift, this natural spiritual gift of expression God has given to His children. David said in response to the light of the Lord and the truth of the Lord he would go to the altar (the church) of God and celebrate with music.

Maybe this struck me this morning in a special way because when I woke at sunrise today my heart was anxious for the presence of God and the reminder of His love and so I stuck in my headphones and listened to the following song,

There are many leadership lessons and just good life lessons in this reading, but the one that spoke to my heart most of all, as it so often has in the past is the story of Saul in the cave and David refusing to end his life.

David knew the moment Saul died that he would be crowned king of Israel. He knew that he would no longer have to be a nomad, running from shadow to shadow to spare his own life. Yet David would not move ahead of God. This is perhaps one of the hardest disciplines in all of life and leadership, to know what the inevitable outcome of a situation is and yet have the patience to allow God to bring about that outcome in HIS time.

David’s restraint would have been impressive even if he didn’t know he was to be king, simply the self-control to not destroy his enemy and bring freedom to his life, but that he did so knowing there was great reward on the other side and that reward was God’s ultimate will, this is truly a miracle only achieved through a consecrated heart.

David again showed the same patience of waiting on the Lord in the story of Nabal and Abigail. This time though he demonstrated another gift of leadership, he was not going to show that patience, but he was willing to receive counsel. He didn’t care that the counsel came from a woman or from an unknown source, potentially even a biased source (his enemies wife), what mattered to him was the counsel. He recognized the counsel was right and true and that was enough to heed it.

Both great lessons that eventually led to God’s willing being accomplished in God’s time!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalms 42-44

I know that I am several days behind in my blogging. I am going to use some down time I will have in the evenings next week to catch-up. Thank you for your patience…and remember the ultimate goal is not reading this blog every day, but reading our Bible’s every day!

Exodus 5-8

I was thinking on these plagues spoken of in Exodus 5-8 and I wrote this notation in the margins in relation to chapter 5 verses 1-23.

“Just prior to deliverance difficulties will increase for God’s people.”

The persecution that the Israelites experienced just prior to their deliverance from Egypt will, though not in the same manner, be experienced by God’s people in the last days of earths history just prior to our deliverance.

It was not until the plague of flies when the Lord said,

“I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur.”’” -Exodus 8:23

Does this mean that the plagues of blood water and frogs effected both God’s people and the Egyptians?

Among the Egyptians there were believers in the midst of all these plagues we discover this truth,

“The one among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses;” -Exodus 9:20

In the ninth plague–darkness–I see a beautiful metaphor for God’s people as this world comes to an end. Just as there was physical darkness in Egypt there will be great spiritual darkness at the end of time. But may the following be said of our homes…

“They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.” -Exodus 10:23

Let us worship the God of that light as we enter into the Sabbath!

Tomorrow’s Reading: 1 Samuel 21-25

I am pleased to announce that our church board, in support for our renewed focus on evangelism, has approved a plan to develop a full media ministry here at the Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church.

On February 22, 2016, our church board heard presentations by Spencerville members, Brad Thorp (Hope Channel) Andre Brink (Adventist Review), and Dan Weber (NAD Communications). Brad and Andre shared a variety of media ministry opportunities that would expand the reach of Spencerville Church, both locally and globally. Whether it’s through the 20 million DirectTV subscribers that receive Hope Channel in the United States, the 10 million Roku users, or the billions of individuals that visit YouTube daily, Spencerville Church could impact all of these with high-quality, Christ-centered media.

Not only would this ministry reach out, it will also reach in, sharing God’s love with specific groups within our own church family via live-streaming. As an example, we currently have more than thirty homebound members unable to worship with us in person on a weekly basis. We also have members who have moved away but still think of Spencerville as their home church. And we regularly hear of church family members that are sick or traveling, but would like to join us for worship on Sabbath. Possibly members who’ve become disconnected would consider coming back after first reconnecting with us in this way. We could serve all these groups more effectively through the portals of media.

Dan Weber, who is serving as chair of our Media Ministry Committee, then presented a $300,000 media ministry plan whereby we would successfully accomplish a media installation without negatively impacting the beautiful aesthetic of the Spencerville Church sanctuary. The board approved the plan without objection (details are available upon request.).

The cost may surprise you. But God began to provide before we even had a plan. Two individuals, a homebound member and a non-member who loves our church, separately and without prompting have contributed just under 45 percent of the total funds needed.

I am asking you to consider what you can give toward the remaining $167,000. Think of the broad impact that our media presence could have on people’s lives. Jesus will be brought to millions by a simple click on a phone, tablet, iPad, or computer. We desire a positive, Gospel-led media program for our members, our community, and for the world. Would you be willing to sacrifice something extra this month in order to give toward our media ministry project?

If your answer is “yes I can” then just click on this link and follow the instructions.

I thank you in advance for being a part of Spencerville Church’s media ministry vision, and for partnering with us to use every resource at our disposal to make Jesus better known and better loved.

Chad