Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

Randy and I have done our fair share of remodeling the homes we have purchased in our lifetime!  We actually like demolishing what was to clean, tear away the old and unusable, to redesign and rebuild for greater purposes.  But I don’t like the mess in the middle of it all!  Remodeling is not as fun as the makeover shows depict on media streams!  A huge mess is made before the beauty of the remodel plan comes to completion.  Inexperienced people don’t consider the mess and can’t handle the mess made in the remodeling and cleansing process.  My grandpa, a carpenter, always said, “You have to make a mess to make something beautiful.” 

Mess before beauty.  I think of this as I read our next episode in our continuing series of Jerusalem and Judah’s cleansing and restoration.  God’s people have turned their backs on God completely and turned their hearts toward making a complete and utter mess of their lives and the lives of their children.  They worship whatever they make.  They worship Baal along with any god that comes along.  God’s people hit rock bottom when they sacrificed their own children by burning them at the altar of the god, Molech.

To say God’s people needed a cleansing and remodel of their hearts, minds and souls is an understatement.  God is heartbroken for his children, angry at the lives they lead against Him and now will intervene by tearing down and cleansing by fire what was in order to rebuild and restore what should be.  “I will restore everything that was lost. God’s Decree.”

Jeremiah 32, The Message

Killing and Disease Are on Our Doorstep

^1-5 The Message Jeremiah received from God in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah. It was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was holding Jerusalem under siege. Jeremiah was shut up in jail in the royal palace. Zedekiah, king of Judah, had locked him up, complaining, “How dare you preach, saying, ‘God says, I’m warning you: I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will take it over. Zedekiah king of Judah will be handed over to the Chaldeans right along with the city. He will be handed over to the king of Babylon and forced to face the music. He’ll be hauled off to Babylon where he’ll stay until I deal with him. God’s Decree. Fight against the Babylonians all you want—it won’t get you anywhere.’”

^6-7 Jeremiah said, “God’s Message came to me like this: Prepare yourself! Hanamel, your uncle Shallum’s son, is on his way to see you. He is going to say, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth. You have the legal right to buy it.’

⁸ “And sure enough, just as God had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me while I was in jail and said, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for you have the legal right to keep it in the family. Buy it. Take it over.’

“That did it. I knew it was God’s Message.

^9-12 “So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I paid him seventeen silver shekels. I followed all the proper procedures: In the presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed it, and weighed out the money on the scales. Then I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy that contained the contract and its conditions and also the open copy—and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. All this took place in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, as the Jews who were at the jail that day looked on.

^13-15 “Then, in front of all of them, I told Baruch, ‘These are orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: Take these documents—both the sealed and the open deeds—and put them for safekeeping in a pottery jar. For God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Life is going to return to normal. Homes and fields and vineyards are again going to be bought in this country.”’

^16-19 “And then, having handed over the legal documents to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to God, ‘Dear God, my Master, you created earth and sky by your great power—by merely stretching out your arm! There is nothing you can’t do. You’re loyal in your steadfast love to thousands upon thousands—but you also make children live with the fallout from their parents’ sins. Great and powerful God, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, determined in purpose and relentless in following through, you see everything that men and women do and respond appropriately to the way they live, to the things they do.

^20-23 “‘You performed signs and wonders in the country of Egypt and continue to do so right into the present, right here in Israel and everywhere else, too. You’ve made a reputation for yourself that doesn’t diminish. You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders—a powerful deliverance!—by merely stretching out your arm. You gave them this land and solemnly promised to their ancestors a bountiful and fertile land. But when they entered the land and took it over, they didn’t listen to you. They didn’t do what you commanded. They wouldn’t listen to a thing you told them. And so you brought this disaster on them.

^24-25 “‘Oh, look at the siege ramps already set in place to take the city. Killing and starvation and disease are on our doorstep. The Babylonians are attacking! The Word you spoke is coming to pass—it’s daily news! And yet you, God, the Master, even though it is certain that the city will be turned over to the Babylonians, also told me, Buy the field. Pay for it in cash. And make sure there are witnesses.’”

* * *

^26-30 Then God’s Message came again to Jeremiah: “Stay alert! I am God, the God of everything living. Is there anything I can’t do? So listen to God’s Message: No doubt about it, I’m handing this city over to the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He’ll take it. The attacking Chaldeans will break through and burn the city down: All those houses whose roofs were used as altars for offerings to Baal and the worship of who knows how many other gods provoked me. It isn’t as if this were the first time they had provoked me. The people of Israel and Judah have been doing this for a long time—doing what I hate, making me angry by the way they live.” God’s Decree.

^31-35 “This city has made me angry from the day they built it, and now I’ve had my fill. I’m destroying it. I can’t stand to look any longer at the wicked lives of the people of Israel and Judah, deliberately making me angry, the whole lot of them—kings and leaders and priests and preachers, in the country and in the city. They’ve turned their backs on me—won’t even look me in the face!—even though I took great pains to teach them how to live. They refused to listen, refused to be taught. Why, they even set up obscene god and goddess statues in the Temple built in my honor—an outrageous desecration! And then they went out and built shrines to the god Baal in the valley of Hinnom, where they burned their children in sacrifice to the god Molech—I can hardly conceive of such evil!—turning the whole country into one huge act of sin.

* * *

³⁶ “But there is also this Message from me, the God of Israel, to this city of which you have said, ‘In killing and starvation and disease this city will be delivered up to the king of Babylon’:

^37-40 “‘Watch for this! I will collect them from all the countries to which I will have driven them in my anger and rage and indignation. Yes, I’ll bring them all back to this place and let them live here in peace. They will be my people, I will be their God. I’ll make them of one mind and heart, always honoring me, so that they can live good and whole lives, they and their children after them. What’s more, I’ll make a covenant with them that will last forever, a covenant to stick with them no matter what, and work for their good. I’ll fill their hearts with a deep respect for me so they’ll not even think of turning away from me.

⁴¹ “‘Oh how I’ll rejoice in them! Oh how I’ll delight in doing good things for them! Heart and soul, I’ll plant them in this country and keep them here!’

^42-44 “Yes, this is God’s Message: ‘I will certainly bring this huge catastrophe on this people, but I will also usher in a wonderful life of prosperity. I promise. Fields are going to be bought here again, yes, in this very country that you assume is going to end up desolate—gone to the dogs, unlivable, wrecked by the Babylonians. Yes, people will buy farms again, and legally, with deeds of purchase, sealed documents, proper witnesses—and right here in the territory of Benjamin, and in the area around Jerusalem, around the villages of Judah and the hill country, the Shephelah and the Negev. I will restore everything that was lost.’ God’s Decree.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We believers and the not yet believers, are still in the habit of making a mess of our lives as we live for self and follow the voices, opinions and temptations of the world led by the Prince of Darkness.  Dear friends, we could always use a “remodel” in our daily lives that turn our messes into messages of hope, forgiveness, love, and grace that repair and restore us.  This is only accomplished by Jesus who lives in us.  This is the secret to remodeling!  “And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.” Colossians 1:27 

In fact, Paul tells us we are God’s masterpiece of His creation when we allow Him to do His work in and through us, molding and shaping us like a Potter with clay, to be beautifully made with a purpose.  This is the beauty made from a mess of clay!  “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10) God knows who we are and who we will become! 

An extreme makeover is possible by embracing our transforming God!

We are constantly under construction on earth!  He is not finished with us yet—not until we see Him face to face in glory.  “So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”  (Romans 12:1-2, MSG)

Pray without ceasing!  True prayer begins with worship and focuses on the greatness of God. No matter what our problems are, God is greater; and the more we see His greatness, the less threatening our problems will become.  Constant communication with God is communion in His Presence.

Say yes to Jesus who will turn our ugly mess into something brand new and beautiful for His glory and our good. Always.

The Lord affirmed to Jeremiah that the situation wasn’t lost, for He would gather His people and bring them back to their land. The application of this Scripture for believers today is obvious: The world laughs at us for our faith and our investments in the future, but one day God will keep His promises and vindicate us before people and angels. Instead of living for the sinful pleasures of this present world, we seek the joys of the world to come. We refuse to sacrifice the eternal for the temporal. The unbelieving world may ridicule us, but ultimately God will vindicate His people.

Lord,

Thank you for remodeling my life daily.  Thank you for teaching me and not giving up on me. Thank you for turning my messes into your message of hope for others to see you glory at work!  I’m yours and I’m listening.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he’s waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!

Background of our passage from Jeremiah:

As the Jews moved into captivity in Babylon, God told them to remember the roads and set up markers along the route, for the people would use those same roads when they returned to their land.

Jeremiah pictured Judah as a silly girl, flitting from lover to lover, and now summoned to come home.  No more idol worship, flitting from sin to sin!  The sins of God’s people will be punished but “when that happens”, come home.  Come back to God on the same road you traveled away from God. 

According to the Law, a daughter who prostituted herself should have been killed, but God would do a new thing: He would welcome her home and forgive her!

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
mercies for you and for me?

Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!

Jeremiah 31, The Message

“And when that happens”—God’s Decree—
    “it will be plain as the sun at high noon:
I’ll be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel
    and they shall be my very own people.”

* * *

^2-6 This is the way God put it:

“They found grace out in the desert,
    these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
    met God out looking for them!”
God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.
    Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again,
    dear virgin Israel.
You’ll resume your singing,
    grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You’ll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
    on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit—
    oh, how you’ll enjoy those harvests!
The time’s coming when watchmen will call out
    from the hilltops of Ephraim:
‘On your feet! Let’s go to Zion,
    go to meet our God!’”

* * *

⁷ Oh yes, God says so:

“Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob!
    Announce the good news to the number-one nation!
Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say,
    ‘God has saved his people,
    saved the core of Israel.’

⁸ “Watch what comes next:

“I’ll bring my people back
    from the north country
And gather them up from the ends of the earth,
    gather those who’ve gone blind
And those who are lame and limping,
    gather pregnant women,
Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started,
    bring them all back, a huge crowd!

⁹ “Watch them come! They’ll come weeping for joy
    as I take their hands and lead them,
Lead them to fresh flowing brooks,
    lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.
Yes, it’s because I’m Israel’s Father
    and Ephraim’s my firstborn son!

^10-14 “Hear this, nations! God’s Message!
    Broadcast this all over the world!
Tell them, ‘The One who scattered Israel
    will gather them together again.
From now on he’ll keep a careful eye on them,
    like a shepherd with his flock.’
I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob;
    I’ll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.
The people will climb up Zion’s slopes shouting with joy,
    their faces beaming because of God’s bounty—
Grain and wine and oil,
    flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.
Their lives will be like a well-watered garden,
    never again left to dry up.
Young women will dance and be happy,
    young men and old men will join in.
I’ll convert their weeping into laughter,
    lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.
I’ll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day
    and that my people have more than enough.’” God’s Decree.

* * *

^15-17 Again, God’s Message:

“Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah,
    wild and bitter weeping.
It’s Rachel weeping for her children,
    Rachel refusing all solace.
Her children are gone,
    gone—long gone into exile.”
But God says, “Stop your incessant weeping,
    hold back your tears.
Collect wages from your grief work.” God’s Decree.
    “They’ll be coming back home!
There’s hope for your children.” God’s Decree.

^18-19 “I’ve heard the contrition of Ephraim.
    Yes, I’ve heard it clearly, saying,
‘You trained me well.
    You broke me, a wild yearling horse, to the saddle.
Now put me, trained and obedient, to use.
    You are my God.
After those years of running loose, I repented.
    After you trained me to obedience,
I was ashamed of my past, my wild, unruly past.
    Humiliated, I beat on my chest.
Will I ever live this down?’

²⁰ “Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son,
    my child in whom I take pleasure!
Every time I mention his name,
    my heart bursts with longing for him!
Everything in me cries out for him.
    Softly and tenderly I wait for him.” God’s Decree.

^21-22 “Set up signposts to mark your trip home.
    Get a good map.
Study the road conditions.
    The road out is the road back.
Come back, dear virgin Israel,
    come back to your hometowns.
How long will you flit here and there, indecisive?
    How long before you make up your fickle mind?
God will create a new thing in this land:
    A transformed woman will embrace the transforming God!”

* * *

^23-24 A Message from Israel’s God-of-the-Angel-Armies: “When I’ve turned everything around and brought my people back, the old expressions will be heard on the streets: ‘God bless you!’ . . . ‘O True Home!’ . . . ‘O Holy Mountain!’ All Judah’s people, whether in town or country, will get along just fine with each other.

²⁵     I’ll refresh tired bodies;
    I’ll restore tired souls.

²⁶ Just then I woke up and looked around—what a pleasant and satisfying sleep!

* * *

^27-28 “Be ready. The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“when I will plant people and animals in Israel and Judah, just as a farmer plants seed. And in the same way that earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and demolished, so now I am sticking with them as they start over, building and planting.

²⁹ “When that time comes you won’t hear the old proverb anymore,

        Parents ate the green apples,
        their children got the stomachache.

³⁰ “No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, you’re the one who gets sick.

* * *

^31-32 “That’s right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It won’t be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master.” God’s Decree.

^33-34 “This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” God’s Decree.

If This Ordered Cosmos Ever Fell to Pieces

³⁵ God’s Message, from the God who lights up the day with sun and
    brightens the night with moon and stars,
Who whips the ocean into a billowy froth,
    whose name is God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

³⁶ “If this ordered cosmos ever fell to pieces,
    fell into chaos before me”—God’s Decree—
“Then and only then might Israel fall apart
    and disappear as a nation before me.”

* * *

³⁷ God’s Message:

“If the skies could be measured with a yardstick
    and the earth explored to its core,
Then and only then would I turn my back on Israel,
    disgusted with all they’ve done.” God’s Decree.

* * *

^38-40 “The time is coming”—it’s God’s Decree—“when God’s city will be rebuilt, rebuilt all the way from the Citadel of Hanamel to the Corner Gate. The master plan will extend west to Gareb Hill and then around to Goath. The whole valley to the south where incinerated corpses are dumped—a death valley if there ever was one!—and all the terraced fields out to the Brook Kidron on the east as far north as the Horse Gate will be consecrated to me as a holy place.

“This city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Warren Wiersbe writes, “Any plan for the betterment of human society that ignores the sin problem is destined to fail. Merely changing the environment isn’t enough, for the heart of every problem is the problem of the heart. God must change the hearts of people so that they want to love Him and do His will. That’s why He announced a new covenant to replace the old covenant under which the Israelites had lived since the days of Moses, a covenant that could direct their conduct but not change their character.”

Israel’s history is punctuated with several covenant renewals that brought temporary blessing but didn’t change the hearts of the people.  The new covenant isn’t just another renewal of the old covenant that God gave at Sinai; it’s new in every way. The new covenant is inward so that God’s law is written on hearts and not on stone tablets. The emphasis is personal rather than national, with each person putting faith in the Lord and receiving a “new heart” and with it a new disposition toward godliness.

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
passing from you and from me;
shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
coming for you and for me.

Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!

Jesus is the new covenant announced!  The basis for the new covenant is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross (See the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  What began here in Israel’s return from captivity back to God led to the forgiveness of sins for all people!  ANYONE who puts faith in Jesus Christ shares in this new covenant!  This is the experience of being born again into the family of God (John 3:1–21).  All sins forgiven, once and for all.

O for the wonderful love he has promised,
promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, he has mercy and pardon,
pardon for you and for me.

Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!

The same road you took away from God is the same road back. 

Turn around, come home.

Believe and be transformed by embracing a transforming God!

“I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” God’s Decree.

Lord,

I believe.  I’ve come home.  I repent.  Transform me. 

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

Have you had a time when you thought, this is it, I will not survive this, this will be the end of me?

Maybe that time is right now.  As I read about God’s people who left Him to worship idols and live ungodly lives, it is amazing that God didn’t just wipe them off the planet.  But then I recall God’s promise to Noah as he departed the ark after the Big Flood, “I won’t flood the earth again.”  But God did intervene and discipline His people, not to get rid of all His people, but to punish them for turning away from Him.  He allowed the enemy to enslave them.  God is angry because of His great love for His people.  They left Him and His best for them.  God made a “clean sweep” of the evil that had ravaged His people and their promised land. 

Dear friends, when we read the whole Bible carefully, we can readily see that His Word is about our Creator who simply wants us to love Him back.  Read that again and hold that thought.

We complicate our lives with our turning from Him to the world.  We turn from that simplicity of loving God back to complicating our lives by going our own way, thinking we can do better, living unguided by an all-knowing God.  We even think we can avoid the enemy by ourselves while leaving God’s powerful protection.  “I want it all, I want it now” becomes our battle cry.  But then we quickly become easy prey for God’s enemy who encourages us to leave God completely for that is the enemy’s goal.  What we once thought was perverted becomes pleasing to the eyes in spiraling acceptance, leading us down a hole that is hard to crawl out of and recover.  Worship of God is replaced with worship of self-made idols and superstitions. We fall for anything and are distracted by everything not of God. 

Love is lost.  Hope is gone. When life falls completely apart, cries of panic rise to the heavens for help.  And God hears.  God turns things around but only when His people humble themselves and turn back to Him.

“And that’s it: You’ll be my very own people; I’ll be your very own God.” 

Truth in a nutshell.

Jeremiah 30, The Message

Don’t Despair, Israel

^1-2 This is the Message Jeremiah received from God: “God’s Message, the God of Israel: ‘Write everything I tell you in a book.

³ “‘Look. The time is coming when I will turn everything around for my people, both Israel and Judah. I, God, say so. I’ll bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors, and they’ll take up ownership again.’”

⁴ This is the way God put it to Israel and Judah:

^5-7 “God’s Message:

“‘Cries of panic are being heard.
    The peace has been shattered.
Ask around! Look around!
    Can men bear babies?
So why do I see all these he-men
    holding their bellies like women in labor,
Faces contorted,
    pale as death?
The blackest of days,
    no day like it ever!
A time of deep trouble for Jacob—
    but he’ll come out of it alive.

^8-9 “‘And then I’ll enter the darkness.
    I’ll break the yoke from their necks,
Cut them loose from the harness.
    No more slave labor to foreigners!
They’ll serve their God
    and the David-King I’ll establish for them.

^10-11 “‘So fear no more, Jacob, dear servant.
    Don’t despair, Israel.
Look up! I’ll save you out of faraway places,
    I’ll bring your children back from exile.
Jacob will come back and find life good,
    safe and secure.
I’ll be with you. I’ll save you.
    I’ll finish off all the godless nations
Among which I’ve scattered you,
    but I won’t finish you off.
I’ll punish you, but fairly.
    I won’t send you off with just a slap on the wrist.’

^12-15 “This is God’s Message:

“‘You’re a burned-out case,
    as good as dead.
Everyone has given up on you.
    You’re hopeless.
All your fair-weather friends have skipped town
    without giving you a second thought.
But I delivered the knockout blow,
    a punishment you will never forget,
Because of the enormity of your guilt,
    the endless list of your sins.
So why all this self-pity, licking your wounds?
    You deserve all this, and more.
Because of the enormity of your guilt,
    the endless list of your sins,
I’ve done all this to you.

^16-17 “‘Everyone who hurt you will be hurt;
    your enemies will end up as slaves.
Your plunderers will be plundered;
    your looters will become loot.
As for you, I’ll come with healing,
    curing the incurable,
Because they all gave up on you
    and dismissed you as hopeless—
    that good-for-nothing Zion.’

^18-21 “Again, God’s Message:

“‘I’ll turn things around for Jacob.
    I’ll compassionately come in and rebuild homes.
The town will be rebuilt on its old foundations;
    the mansions will be splendid again.
Thanksgivings will pour out of the windows;
    laughter will spill through the doors.
Things will get better and better.
    Depression days are over.
They’ll thrive, they’ll flourish.
    The days of contempt will be over.
They’ll look forward to having children again,
    to being a community in which I take pride.
I’ll punish anyone who hurts them,
    and their prince will come from their own ranks.
One of their own people shall be their leader.
    Their ruler will come from their own ranks.
I’ll grant him free and easy access to me.
    Would anyone dare to do that on his own,
    to enter my presence uninvited?’ God’s Decree.

²² “‘And that’s it: You’ll be my very own people,
    I’ll be your very own God.’”

^23-24 Look out! God’s hurricane is let loose,
    his hurricane blast,
Spinning the heads of the wicked like dust devils!
    God’s raging anger won’t let up
Until he’s made a clean sweep
    completing the job he began.
When the job’s done
    you’ll see it’s been well done.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

To summarize Jeremiah’s prophecy: The people of Judah and Jerusalem would experience terrible trials at the hands of the Babylonians. They would end up wearing the Gentile yoke, bearing the wounds caused by their sins and having endured the storm of God’s wrath. But God would eventually deliver them, breaking the yoke, healing the wounds, and bringing peace after the storm. The “line of David” is preserved so that the Savior of the world is born into the world to become our redeemer.

Our response to live a simple but committed life of loving God back:

• Worship God alone. 
• Love God back with all our hearts, minds and souls.
• Love others like He loves us—without conditions with mercy and grace.  “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19)
• Believe that God loves each one of us and sent His Son to save us.  Then live a redeemed life!
• Be still and know God by daily letting go of our grasp on the world.

Lord,

Thank you for loving me, turning life around for me. I am not who I once was before you came into my life.  Continue to transform my life to be all you created me to be.

In Jesus Name, Amen

When we are at wits end, hope dissipates quickly in various degrees and ways depending on the person, what or whom they believe, and how desperate the situation becomes.  How should we handle depressing situations without losing hope? That is the question to answer when God’s plan “not to harm but to prosper” seems out of reach.

No matter what is happening to us, around us and against us, Jeremiah reminds God’s people to accept it from the hand of God and let God have His way. He knows what He is doing as we as what others who don’t believe are thinking and doing.  Hanging our feelings on our sleeves while sitting around weeping does no good, although that may be a temporary normal reaction to tragedy. One of the first steps in turning tragedy into triumph is to accept the situation courageously and put ourselves into the hands of a loving God, who makes no mistakes.  “I know the plans I have for you…”

The exiles had lost everything but their lives and what few possessions they could carry with them to Babylon. They had lost their freedom and were now captives. They had been taken from their homes and had lost their means of making a living. They were separated from relatives and friends, some of whom may have perished in the long march from Jerusalem to Babylon. No matter how they looked at it, the situation seemed hopeless. 

How would this affect you and your family?

Jeremiah 29, The Message

Plans to Give You the Future You Hope For

^1-2 This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem, including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen.

³ The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:

⁴ This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:

⁵ “Build houses and make yourselves at home.

“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.

⁶ “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.

⁷ “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.

“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”

^8-9 Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!

^10-11 This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

¹² “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

^13-14 “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

^15-19 “But for right now, because you’ve taken up with these new-fangled prophets who set themselves up as ‘Babylonian specialists,’ spreading the word ‘God sent them just for us!’ God is setting the record straight: As for the king still sitting on David’s throne and all the people left in Jerusalem who didn’t go into exile with you, they’re facing bad times. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, ‘Watch this! Catastrophe is on the way: war, hunger, disease! They’re a barrel of rotten apples. I’ll rid the country of them through war and hunger and disease. The whole world is going to hold its nose at the smell, shut its eyes at the horrible sight. They’ll end up in slum ghettos because they wouldn’t listen to a thing I said when I sent my servant-prophets preaching tirelessly and urgently. No, they wouldn’t listen to a word I said.’” God’s Decree.

^20-23 “And you—you exiles whom I sent out of Jerusalem to Babylon—listen to God’s Message to you. As far as Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are concerned, the ‘Babylonian specialists’ who are preaching lies in my name, I will turn them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will kill them while you watch. The exiles from Judah will take what they see at the execution and use it as a curse: ‘God fry you to a crisp like the king of Babylon fried Zedekiah and Ahab in the fire!’ Those two men, sex predators and prophet-impostors, got what they deserved. They pulled every woman they got their hands on into bed—their neighbors’ wives, no less—and preached lies claiming it was my Message. I never sent those men. I’ve never had anything to do with them.” God’s Decree.

“They won’t get away with a thing. I’ve witnessed it all.”

^24-26 And this is the Message for Shemaiah the Nehelamite: “God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says: You took it on yourself to send letters to all the people in Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and the company of priests. In your letter you told Zephaniah that God set you up as priest replacing priest Jehoiadah. He’s put you in charge of God’s Temple and made you responsible for locking up any crazy fellow off the street who takes it into his head to be a prophet.

^27-28 “So why haven’t you done anything about muzzling Jeremiah of Anathoth, who’s going around posing as a prophet? He’s gone so far as to write to us in Babylon, ‘It’s going to be a long exile, so build houses and make yourselves at home. Plant gardens and prepare Babylonian recipes.’”

²⁹ The priest Zephaniah read that letter to the prophet Jeremiah.

* * *

^30-32 Then God told Jeremiah, “Send this Message to the exiles. Tell them what God says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Shemaiah is preaching lies to you. I didn’t send him. He is seducing you into believing lies. So this is God’s verdict: I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. He’s going to end up with nothing and no one. No one from his family will be around to see any of the good that I am going to do for my people because he has preached rebellion against me.” God’s Decree.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The false prophets had convinced the people that the stay in Babylon would be brief; so, they did not need to settle down and try to resume a normal life. But Jeremiah told them just the opposite. Since they would be there for seventy years, they would have plenty of time to build houses and set up homes. It was important that the exiles have families so that people would be available to return to Judea when the captivity ended.

Dear friends, think about it!  This small Jewish remnant was holding in their hands the future of God’s great plan of salvation, so they must obey Him, be fruitful, and multiply.  We must consistently pray for discernment in seemingly hopeless situations against the false hope from lying, self-motivated prophets.  Trust God.  Seek Him first and always.  Listen to Him.  HE knows the plans HE has for us…

To indulge in false hope is to miss what God has planned for us.

True hope is based on the revealed Word of God, not on the dream messages of self-appointed prophets. God had given His people a gracious promise to deliver them, and He would keep His promise. God makes His plans for His people, and they are good plans that ultimately bring hope and peace. His people have no reason, therefore, to be afraid or discouraged.

In every situation, God’s people have the responsibility to seek the Lord, pray, and ask Him to fulfill His promises, for the Word and prayer go together (See Acts 6:4). The purpose of discipline from God is that we might seek the Lord, confess our sins, and draw near to Him and learn from our mistakes (See Hebrews 12:5–13).

According to Jeremiah 29:14, these promises reach beyond the Jews captive in Babylon and include all of Israel throughout the world. Jeremiah was looking ahead…to the coming Messiah to the end of the age when Israel will be regathered to meet their Messiah and enter their kingdom (Isaiah 10:20—12:6).

God’s plan for us?  Jesus.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Jesus came to bring hope, peace along with salvation.  Jesus is Truth.  Jesus is our Hope.  Jesus is God’s Plan for us.

God’s plan for us is not as complicated as we try to make it as we muddy the waters with our own spin and opinions, desires and wishes.  Relax.  Lay down our will and listen to His Plan.  Pray the prayer of the fully committed who ask God what HE wants for their lives and then follow HIS plan.

Oh friends, look again at what God promises to His people after their captivity and exile is over:

“I’ll show up and care for you…”

“I’ll bring you back home…”

“I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”

“When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.”

“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.”

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” 

When I lose hope, I have to ask myself, how serious am I?  Do I really believe what God says is really real? The answer is the measure of our Hope and assurance that God is real and does what He promises. 

We sing songs of hope but do we walk in Hope?  Do our lives display Hope in our demeanor?  Jesus came to set the captives free from the punishment for their own sins.  WE are the captives!  Jesus delivers us from the bondage of sin that we tied ourselves up in of our own making.  He forgives, sends us on our way to “go and sin no more” for that is not the life for us any longer.  He gives us the Help of His Holy Spirit with our Hope so we will follow His plan to grow in His ways of love, grace, and mercy for others.  The New Covenant with God is saying yes to Jesus.

Jesus’ promises to us are the same as God’s promises stated above—

“I’ll show up, bring you home where you belong with me. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.”  Read the gospels and you will see the same message.

So…how serious are we?  What life does to us depends largely on what life finds in us. If we seek the Lord and want His best, then circumstances will build us and prepare us for what He has planned. If we rebel or if we look for quick and easy shortcuts, then our circumstances will destroy us and rob us of the future God wants us to enjoy. The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. God’s thoughts and plans concerning us come from His heart and lead to His peace. Why look for substitutes?

Lord,

You are the Potter, I am the clay.  Mold me and shape me to be all you created me to be.  I believe.  I repent of all my sins.  I trust in your Plan to save me, care for me now while giving me a future with you forever.  You are my Hope.  Make my desires match your desires for me.

In Jesus Name, Amen

My little brother had a nickname given to him by my dad.  “Yeah-but” was the name because no matter what was said, my brother was driven to dispute it, twist it, or exaggerate as he presented his case against the statement.  I remember my toddler brother advanced from the “why stage” of always asking questions about everything to his “yeah, but…” stage of communication that lasted throughout his teen years. 

As a young adult he tried to dignify his statements by beginning each rebuttal with, “Well, actually…”  We all loved him through those stages and remembered that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” with this human habit.  Yes, we all see it.  Yes, we all do it from time to time.

Jeremiah as prophet is confronted by a “yeah-but” prophet who comes along to dispute the words God has given to Jeremiah.  Hananiah confronts him right in the Temple for all to hear.  Well, that’s awkward to say the least!  So, if two prophets give opposite messages and say the words are from God, who do we believe?  We believe the prophet whose words happened exactly as God said.  No yeah-but’s about it!

“We’ll wait and see. If it happens, it happens—and then we’ll know that God sent him.”

Jeremiah 28, The Message

From a Wooden to an Iron Yoke

^1-2 Later that same year (it was in the fifth month of King Zedekiah’s fourth year) Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from Gibeon, confronted Jeremiah in the Temple of God in front of the priests and all the people who were there. Hananiah said:

^2-4 “This Message is straight from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: ‘I will most certainly break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Before two years are out I’ll have all the furnishings of God’s Temple back here, all the things that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon plundered and hauled off to Babylon. I’ll also bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the exiles who were taken off to Babylon.’ God’s Decree. ‘Yes, I will break the king of Babylon’s yoke. You’ll no longer be in harness to him.’”

^5-9 Prophet Jeremiah stood up to prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people who were in God’s Temple that day. Prophet Jeremiah said, “Wonderful! Would that it were true—that God would validate your preaching by bringing the Temple furnishings and all the exiles back from Babylon. But listen to me, listen closely. Listen to what I tell both you and all the people here today: The old prophets, the ones before our time, preached judgment against many countries and kingdoms, warning of war and disaster and plague. So any prophet who preaches that everything is just fine and there’s nothing to worry about stands out like a sore thumb. We’ll wait and see. If it happens, it happens—and then we’ll know that God sent him.”

^10-11 At that, Hananiah grabbed the yoke from Jeremiah’s shoulders and smashed it. And then he addressed the people: “This is God’s Message: In just this way I will smash the yoke of the king of Babylon and get him off the neck of all the nations—and within two years.”

Jeremiah walked out.

^12-14 Later, sometime after Hananiah had smashed the yoke from off his shoulders, Jeremiah received this Message from God: “Go back to Hananiah and tell him, ‘This is God’s Message: You smashed the wooden yoke-bars; now you’ve got iron yoke-bars. This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s own God: I’ve put an iron yoke on all these nations. They’re harnessed to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They’ll do just what he tells them. Why, I’m even putting him in charge of the wild animals.’”

^15-16 So prophet Jeremiah told prophet Hananiah, “Hold it, Hananiah! God never sent you. You’ve talked the whole country into believing a pack of lies! And so God says, ‘You claim to be sent? I’ll send you all right—right off the face of the earth! Before the year is out, you’ll be dead because you instigated sedition against God.’”

¹⁷ Prophet Hananiah died that very year, in the seventh month.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

A true prophet can spot a phony prophet.  God gives His spokesperson the gift of discernment when it comes to speaking for Him. Jeremiah’s response to Hananiah’s message was “Amen! The LORD do so; the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied.” How are we to interpret this reply? Certainly not as agreement with what the false prophet had said, because Jeremiah knew better. Perhaps we might paraphrase Jeremiah’s words, “You wish!  I wish that the Lord would do what you have said! This would make me very happy!” But Jeremiah knew that Hananiah’s prophecy of peace wouldn’t be fulfilled. 

Wait and see.  Although prophets are holy, set apart, for God’s work, they are also human.  We do not see what God sees as He looks at our hearts.  There will always be those who dispute what we are confident God said to us in all areas of our lives that are dedicated to His service.  So, sometimes we must “wait and see” if certain “prophets” are telling the truth or not.  There will be signs in their behaviors, but most of all, if what they say does not happen, then the answer is clear—the prophet if not of God.  False prophets create messages to gain approval, manipulate emotions, seek popularity, and insist on material gain. Run from them!

Abide in God/Jesus/Holy Spirit as He promises to abide in us.  The message to Hananiah was both national and personal. As far as the nation was concerned, because they had followed his deceptive counsel, an iron yoke would replace the wooden yoke. The nations would not escape; Nebuchadnezzar would enslave them. This always happens—when we reject the light yoke of God’s will, we end up wearing a heavier yoke of our own making.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” –Jesus  (John 15:4)

Lord,

Going our own way, disputing what you say, trying to gloss over the truth or avoiding your Truth altogether never goes well for us.  May we see Truth, live Truth, and tell Truth by Your Holy Spirit working in and through us so others will know Truth—YOU!  I trust you, Jesus.  Guide me.  Speak to my heart for I am listening.  I love you with all that is in me.  I give all I am to you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  (John 14:6)

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey…

God loves us.  He loves us and wants to give us the blessings of his growing character in each one of His created.  God’s ways are always for our benefit.  So, why do we turn our backs on him?  Why, even for a minute, day. or week, do we think our way is better?  Our way is based on limited knowledge.  God’s way is based on infinite knowledge.

Jeremiah 27, The Message

Harness Yourselves Up to the Yoke

^1-4 Early in the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah received this Message from God: “Make a harness and a yoke and then harness yourself up. Send a message to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. Send it through their ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to see Zedekiah king of Judah. Give them this charge to take back to their masters: ‘This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. Tell your masters:

^5-8 “‘I’m the one who made the earth, man and woman, and all the animals in the world. I did it on my own without asking anyone’s help and I hand it out to whomever I will. Here and now I give all these lands over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have made even the wild animals subject to him. All nations will be under him, then his son, and then his grandson. Then his country’s time will be up and the tables will be turned: Babylon will be the underdog servant. But until then, any nation or kingdom that won’t submit to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon must take the yoke of the king of Babylon and harness up. I’ll punish that nation with war and starvation and disease until I’ve got them where I want them.

^9-11 “‘So don’t for a minute listen to all your prophets and spiritualists and fortunetellers, who claim to know the future and who tell you not to give in to the king of Babylon. They’re handing you a line of lies, barefaced lies, that will end up putting you in exile far from home. I myself will drive you out of your lands, and that’ll be the end of you. But the nation that accepts the yoke of the king of Babylon and does what he says, I’ll let that nation stay right where it is, minding its own business.’”

^12-15 Then I gave this same message to Zedekiah king of Judah: “Harness yourself up to the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people. Live a long life! Why choose to get killed or starve to death or get sick and die, which is what God has threatened to any nation that won’t throw its lot in with Babylon? Don’t listen to the prophets who are telling you not to submit to the king of Babylon. They’re telling you lies, preaching lies. God’s Word on this is, ‘I didn’t send those prophets, but they keep preaching lies, claiming I sent them. If you listen to them, I’ll end up driving you out of here and that will be the end of you, both you and the lying prophets.’”

^16-22 And finally I spoke to the priests and the people at large: “This is God’s Message: Don’t listen to the preaching of the prophets who keep telling you, ‘Trust us: The furnishings, plundered from God’s Temple, are going to be returned from Babylon any day now.’ That’s a lie. Don’t listen to them. Submit to the king of Babylon and live a long life. Why do something that will destroy this city and leave it a heap of rubble? If they are real prophets and have a Message from God, let them come to God-of-the-Angel-Armies in prayer so that the furnishings that are still left in God’s Temple, the king’s palace, and Jerusalem aren’t also lost to Babylon. That’s because God-of-the-Angel-Armies has already spoken about the Temple furnishings that remain—the pillars, the great bronze basin, the stands, and all the other bowls and chalices that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he took Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim off to Babylonian exile along with all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. He said that the furnishings left behind in the Temple of God and in the royal palace and in Jerusalem will be taken off to Babylon and stay there until, in God’s words, ‘I take the matter up again and bring them back where they belong.’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

A yoke speaks of submission, and that is the message Jeremiah was trying to get across for God to God’s people.  I have learned that submission to God is actually the best way to relieve stress by relinquishing the pressures of independence, thinking life is all up to us to solve!  Oh, dear friends, we are not that powerful!  We are not responsible for all that this world throws at us!  And we need help to get out of the messes we make of our lives!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” –Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30)

Our immediate response is to trust and obey, for there IS no other way…to be free from the yoke we place on ourselves to achieve on our own by our own devices.  Instead take on the yoke that Jesus gives that is a much better fit, then go His way.  You will see, like I have, that His yoke (way) is indeed lighter because of His power working in and through us.  Life isn’t easy, so why make it harder by going our own way with limited power, wisdom and direction?

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies
But His smile quickly drives it away
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear
Can abide while we trust and obey

Oh, Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey

What these politicians Jeremiah was talking to needed was not clever strategy but submission to Babylon. Submission goes a long way to learning, growing, and maturing in God’s ways.  A true leader is a learner.  One who learns to submit to God is one to be trusted.

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go
Never fear, only trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey

(Songwriter: Barry Collecutt)

God is love.  Love drives out fear.  Submit to God.  Believe in Jesus, repent and be saved now and for eternity.  Abide in Him as He abides in us.  Apart from God life we can do nothing of significance.  With God all things are possible.  God always keeps these promises. 

Trust and obey.

Lord, God of all,

I submit to you.  I trust you, dear Jesus.  Speak to my heart for I am listening.  I am yours.

In Jesus Name, Amen

No one, including me, likes to be told they are not thinking correctly and what they are doing is completely wrong.  Our first thought is rebellion.  “You don’t tell me what I don’t know.”  To make radical, life or death changes requires submission to an unchanging God of love who wants His best for our lives.  Why do we fight against His best?  Why do we rebel against the One who loves us most?

This chapter should be studied in connection with chapter 7, because they both deal with Jeremiah’s courageous sermon given in the temple. The sermon is summarized in 7:3–7, and note the emphasis on hearing the Word of God (see 25:3–7). Jeremiah preached exactly what God commanded him to preach and didn’t alter the message in order to please the people. The false prophets preached what the people wanted to hear, but Jeremiah preached what the people needed to hear. 

All of God’s prophets had one thing in common: they spoke only what God said.  Truth was told at all costs.  God’s prophets’ lives were threatened with death with every word spoken.  Why?  Truth hurts until truth heals.

Jeremiah 26, The Message

Change the Way You’re Living

At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this Message came from God to Jeremiah:

^2-3 “God’s Message: Stand in the court of God’s Temple and preach to the people who come from all over Judah to worship in God’s Temple. Say everything I tell you to say to them. Don’t hold anything back. Just maybe they’ll listen and turn back from their bad lives. Then I’ll reconsider the disaster that I’m planning to bring on them because of their evil behavior.

^4-6 “Say to them, ‘This is God’s Message: If you refuse to listen to me and live by my teaching that I’ve revealed so plainly to you, and if you continue to refuse to listen to my servants the prophets that I tirelessly keep on sending to you—but you’ve never listened! Why would you start now?—then I’ll make this Temple a pile of ruins like Shiloh, and I’ll make this city nothing but a bad joke worldwide.’”

^7-9 Everybody there—priests, prophets, and people—heard Jeremiah preaching this Message in the Temple of God. When Jeremiah had finished his sermon, saying everything God had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and people all grabbed him, yelling, “Death! You’re going to die for this! How dare you preach—and using God’s name!—saying that this Temple will become a heap of rubble like Shiloh and this city be wiped out without a soul left in it!”

All the people mobbed Jeremiah right in the Temple itself.

* * *

¹⁰ Officials from the royal court of Judah were told of this. They left the palace immediately and came to God’s Temple to investigate. They held court on the spot, at the New Gate entrance to God’s Temple.

¹¹ The prophets and priests spoke first, addressing the officials, but also the people: “Death to this man! He deserves nothing less than death! He has preached against this city—you’ve heard the evidence with your own ears.”

^12-13 Jeremiah spoke next, publicly addressing the officials before the crowd: “God sent me to preach against both this Temple and city everything that’s been reported to you. So do something about it! Change the way you’re living, change your behavior. Listen obediently to the Message of your God. Maybe God will reconsider the disaster he has threatened.

^14-15 “As for me, I’m at your mercy—do whatever you think is best. But take warning: If you kill me, you’re killing an innocent man, and you and the city and the people in it will be liable. I didn’t say any of this on my own. God sent me and told me what to say. You’ve been listening to God speak, not Jeremiah.”

¹⁶ The court officials, backed by the people, then handed down their ruling to the priests and prophets: “Acquittal. No death sentence for this man. He has spoken to us with the authority of our God.”

^17-18 Then some of the respected leaders stood up and addressed the crowd: “In the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, Micah of Moresheth preached to the people of Judah this sermon: This is God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ Message for you:

“‘Because of people like you,
    Zion will be turned back into farmland,
Jerusalem end up as a pile of rubble,
    and instead of the Temple on the mountain,
    a few scraggly scrub pines.’

¹⁹ “Did King Hezekiah or anyone else in Judah kill Micah of Moresheth because of that sermon? Didn’t Hezekiah honor him and pray for mercy from God? And then didn’t God call off the disaster he had threatened?

“Friends, we’re at the brink of bringing a terrible calamity upon ourselves.”

* * *

^20-23 (At another time there had been a man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, who had preached similarly in the name of God. He preached against this same city and country just as Jeremiah did. When King Jehoiakim and his royal court heard his sermon, they determined to kill him. Uriah, afraid for his life, went into hiding in Egypt. King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor with a posse of men after him. They brought him back from Egypt and presented him to the king. And the king had him killed. They dumped his body unceremoniously outside the city.

²⁴ But in Jeremiah’s case, Ahikam son of Shaphan stepped forward and took his side, preventing the mob from lynching him.)

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Stand for Truth.  Even when life gets dicey and hard, keep standing for Truth.  King Jehoiakim had executed Uriah the prophet after he told God’s Truth and then fled to Egypt. In contrast, Jeremiah had stayed in the land of Judah and even had ministered in the most prominent places of the temple! 

Speak the Truth prompted by God and His God’s love within us.  “…speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”  Ephesians 4:15

Stand in the Gap.  God sent people of influence to stand in the gap for Jeremiah.  God does that until His truth is told, considered, and understood with hearts ready to obey.  Look for those who believe to stand in the gap for you.  Stand in the gap with those who speak Truth.

Need help to stand?  Here are some of my favorite “stand firm” scriptures…

Ephesians 6:11
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

Ephesians 6:13
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

1 Peter 5:9
“But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

1 Corinthians 15:58
“Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

Philippians 1:27
“Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”

1 Corinthians 16:13
“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”

Philippians 4:1
“Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.”

Lord,

I know that you are greater still than our real enemy, the prince of darkness, that you threw out of heaven.  As you commanded us to “go and teach;” help us to be bold as Peter, brave like Jeremiah, full of wisdom like Paul as we stand for Truth, while living your Truth for the world to see.  Help us to stand with others telling your Truth.  Show the world that you live in us, though not perfect, we are perfectly forgiven and free to love like you.  Yes, may you be seen in me, dear Jesus.  May your glory be seen in me.

In Jesus Name, Amen

When our grandkids were younger, we loved to go a wonderful orchard in September to fill baskets with all kinds of varieties of apples.  This farm was meticulous and scientific at growing trees that produced beautiful, picture-perfect apples.  We tramped through rows and rows to spot and pick the best.  Of course, the best ones were higher in the tree and took more work to reach and grab.  Our grandson looked at the apples that had fallen from the tree to the ground by the elements of weather or other pickers.  As a little boy at the time, his first thought was “this is easier, I’ll just get the ones on the ground.”  Until, he picked one up and saw that it was rotten to the core.  It looked good on one side but the other side was caved in with smelly rot.  His reaction was normal, “Yucky, we don’t want those in our baskets!”  “Gross!”

Yeah, no one likes rotten apples.

Jeremiah 24, The Message

Two Baskets of Figs

24 ^1-2 God showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple of God. This was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem into exile in Babylon, along with the leaders of Judah, the craftsmen, and the skilled laborers. In one basket the figs were of the finest quality, ripe and ready to eat. In the other basket the figs were rotten, so rotten they couldn’t be eaten.

³ God said to me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

“Figs,” I said. “Excellent figs of the finest quality, and also rotten figs, so rotten they can’t be eaten.”

^4-6 Then God told me, “This is the Message from the God of Israel: The exiles from here that I’ve sent off to the land of the Babylonians are like the good figs, and I’ll make sure they get good treatment. I’ll keep my eye on them so that their lives are good, and I’ll bring them back to this land. I’ll build them up, not tear them down; I’ll plant them, not uproot them.

⁷ “And I’ll give them a heart to know me, God. They’ll be my people and I’ll be their God, for they’ll have returned to me with all their hearts.

^8-10 “But like the rotten figs, so rotten they can’t be eaten, is Zedekiah king of Judah. Rotten figs—that’s how I’ll treat him and his leaders, along with the survivors here and those down in Egypt. I’ll make them something that the whole world will look on as disgusting—repugnant outcasts, their names used as curse words wherever in the world I drive them. And I’ll make sure they die like flies—from war, starvation, disease, whatever—until the land I once gave to them and their ancestors is completely rid of them.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

According to Warren Wiersbe, Bible Scholar, and Commentator:

“In 597 B.C., the Babylonians deported King Jehoiachin along with many of the nobles and key citizens, leaving only the poorer people to work the land (2 Kin. 24:14–16). This signaled the beginning of the end for Judah, so, no doubt, Jeremiah was greatly distressed.”

What do you do with rotten figs? You reject them and throw them away! What do you do with tasty, good figs? You preserve them and enjoy them! God promised to care for the exiles, work in their hearts, and one day bring them back to their land. Jeremiah even wrote a letter to the exiles, telling them to live peaceably in the land and seek the Lord with all their hearts. (See Jeremiah 29, our favorite passage of all time!.)

In times of captivity, no matter how discouraging the circumstances may be, God doesn’t desert His faithful remnant. Rotten to the core “figs” are scattered and destroyed, but true believers find God faithful to meet their needs and accomplish His great plans.

Just like we didn’t fill our baskets with rotten apples, mixing them in with the good apples to stink up our homes, God didn’t allow the rotten to the core leaders to continue bringing decay to His people.  The people (good figs) who returned to the land after the captivity were by no means perfect, but they had learned to trust the true and living God and not to worship idols. If the captivity did nothing else, it purged the Jewish people of idolatry caused by the rot of sin.

“The destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of Judah were not accidents; they were appointments, for God was in control. Now the land would enjoy its Sabbaths, and the people exiled in Babylon would have time to repent and seek the Lord. In far off Babylon, God the Potter would remake His people, and they would return to the land chastened and cleansed.”  –Warren Wierbe

What are we filling our souls with today?  What do we see?  Rotting fruit or good fruit?  (Galatians 5)

ONE LAST THOUGHT…

Can one bad apple spoil the whole bunch?  Why, yes it can!  No one knows for sure how or when this phrase got its start. It does have some basis in science, though. When apples begin to decay, they emit gases. If the rotting apple is mixed in with a group of other apples, the good apples can absorb these gases and begin to rot, too.

How do our behaviors influence others seeking something better for their lives? 

How do we help others find and follow Jesus while following Him ourselves?

Lord,

You came to earth to seek and to save lost people.  While here on earth you taught us who God is and how to please God, the Father.  God is love.  We cannot really love without knowing you.  This love drives all other behaviors stemming from your grow character in us.  Begin with your love.  Help us to know you more so we love more deeply like you love us.  You are the Potter; I am the clay.  Remold and shape me into all you want me to be.

In Jesus Name, Amen

As playful kids, we would tease each other.  But when the teasing crossed the line, the next words from our mouths were, “okay, you’re going down.”  At that point the playful teasing became physical. 

We can just take so much until we can take it any longer, right? 

Slander, lies, abusive and perverted behaviors of the “uncalled and unauthorized prophets” of Jeremiah’s day have crossed the line with God. Their “everything will turn out fine” sermons thoroughly broke His heart for His people.  Don’t stop the partying, it’s all good, said the shepherd-leaders who butchered truth and scatter God’s sheep.  God intervenes and responds with “You’re going down.”

Jeremiah 23, The Message

An Authentic David-Branch

^1-4 “Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!” God’s Decree. “So here is what I, God, Israel’s God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: ‘You’ve scattered my sheep. You’ve driven them off. You haven’t kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I’m keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behavior. I’ll take over and gather what’s left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I’ve driven them. I’ll bring them back where they belong, and they’ll recover and flourish. I’ll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them. They won’t live in fear or panic anymore. All the lost sheep rounded up!’ God’s Decree.

^5-6 “Time’s coming”—God’s Decree—
    “when I’ll establish a truly righteous David-Branch,
A ruler who knows how to rule justly.
    He’ll make sure of justice and keep people united.
In his time Judah will be secure again
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name they’ll give him:
    ‘God-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.’

^7-8 “So watch for this. The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“when no one will say, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,’ but, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the descendants of Israel back from the north country and from the other countries where he’d driven them, so that they can live on their own good earth.’”

The “Everything Will Turn Out Fine” Sermon

⁹ My head is reeling,
    my limbs are limp,
I’m staggering like a drunk,
    seeing double from too much wine—
And all because of God,
    because of his holy words.

^10-12 Now for what God says regarding the lying prophets:

“Can you believe it? A country teeming with adulterers!
    faithless, promiscuous idolater-adulterers!
They’re a curse on the land.
    The land’s a wasteland.
Their unfaithfulness
    is turning the country into a cesspool,
Prophets and priests devoted to desecration.
    They have nothing to do with me as their God.
My very own Temple, mind you—
    mud-spattered with their crimes.” God’s Decree.
“But they won’t get by with it.
    They’ll find themselves on a slippery slope,
Careening into the darkness,
    somersaulting into the pitch-black dark.
I’ll make them pay for their crimes.
    It will be the Year of Doom.” God’s Decree.

* * *

^13-14 “Over in Samaria I saw prophets
    acting like silly fools—shocking!
They preached using that no-god Baal for a text,
    messing with the minds of my people.
And the Jerusalem prophets are even worse—horrible!—
    sex-driven, living a lie,
Subsidizing a culture of wickedness,
    and never giving it a second thought.
They’re as bad as those wretches in old Sodom,
    the degenerates of old Gomorrah.”

¹⁵ So here’s the Message to the prophets from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“I’ll cook them a supper of maggoty meat
    with after-dinner drinks of strychnine.
The Jerusalem prophets are behind all this.
    They’re the cause of the godlessness polluting this country.”

* * *

^16-17 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Don’t listen to the sermons of the prophets.
    It’s all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies.
They make it all up.
    Not a word they speak comes from me.
They preach their ‘Everything Will Turn Out Fine’ sermon
    to congregations with no taste for God,
Their ‘Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You’ sermon
    to people who are set in their own ways.

^18-20 “Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true God?
    bothered to take in what I have to say?
    listened to and then lived out my Word?
Look out! God’s hurricane will be let loose—
    my hurricane blast,
Spinning the heads of the wicked like tops!
    God’s raging anger won’t let up
Until I’ve made a clean sweep,
    completing the job I began.
When the job’s done,
    you’ll see that it’s been well done.

Quit the “God Told Me This” Kind of Talk

^21-22 “I never sent these prophets,
    but they ran anyway.
I never spoke to them,
    but they preached away.
If they’d have bothered to sit down and meet with me,
    they’d have preached my Message to my people.
They’d have gotten them back on the right track,
    gotten them out of their evil ruts.

* * *

^23-24 “Am I not a God near at hand”—God’s Decree—
    “and not a God far off?
Can anyone hide out in a corner
    where I can’t see him?”
        God’s Decree.
“Am I not present everywhere,
    whether seen or unseen?”
        God’s Decree.

* * *

^25-27 “I know what they’re saying, all these prophets who preach lies using me as their text, saying ‘I had this dream! I had this dream!’ How long do I have to put up with this? Do these prophets give two cents about me as they preach their lies and spew out their grandiose delusions? They swap dreams with one another, feed on each other’s delusive dreams, trying to distract my people from me just as their ancestors were distracted by the no-god Baal.

^28-29 “You prophets who do nothing but dream—
    go ahead and tell your silly dreams.
But you prophets who have a message from me—
    tell it truly and faithfully.
What does straw have in common with wheat?
    Nothing else is like God’s Decree.
Isn’t my Message like fire?” God’s Decree.
    “Isn’t it like a sledgehammer busting a rock?

^30-31 “I’ve had it with the ‘prophets’ who get all their sermons secondhand from each other. Yes, I’ve had it with them. They make up stuff and then pretend it’s a real sermon.

³² “Oh yes, I’ve had it with the prophets who preach the lies they dream up, spreading them all over the country, ruining the lives of my people with their cheap and reckless lies.

“I never sent these prophets, never authorized a single one of them. They do nothing for this people—nothing!” God’s Decree.

³³ “And anyone, including prophets and priests, who asks, ‘What’s God got to say about all this, what’s troubling him?’ tell him, ‘You, you’re the trouble, and I’m getting rid of you.’” God’s Decree.

³⁴ “And if anyone, including prophets and priests, goes around saying glibly ‘God’s Message! God’s Message!’ I’ll punish him and his family.

^35-36 “Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as ‘How do we understand God in this?’ But don’t go around pretending to know it all, saying ‘God told me this . . . God told me that. . . . ’ I don’t want to hear it anymore. Only the person I authorize speaks for me. Otherwise, my Message gets twisted, the Message of the living God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^37-38 “You can ask the prophets, ‘How did God answer you? What did he tell you?’ But don’t pretend that you know all the answers yourselves and talk like you know it all. I’m telling you: Quit the ‘God told me this . . . God told me that . . . ’ kind of talk.

^39-40 “Are you paying attention? You’d better, because I’m about to take you in hand and throw you to the ground, you and this entire city that I gave to your ancestors. I’ve had it with the lot of you. You’re never going to live this down. You’re going down in history as a disgrace.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

1. Don’t mess with God.  Only write or speak what HE tells us. No opinions necessary.  “Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as How do we understand God in this?”  God’s Word says it all.  His Holy Spirit teaches us to understand what God is saying to us through His Word when we ask.
2. We do not know it all.  We never will.  We can’t handle all that God knows.  He gives us what we need, when we need it, so we can grow and mature at each step of understanding. 
3. “So, watch for this. The time’s coming”!  God would call His people from the nations of the world, bring them together in their land, purge them, and then send them their promised Messiah. No matter how dark the day may be, God sends the light of hope through His promises. The godly remnant in Judah must have been encouraged when they heard Jeremiah’s words, and the promises must have sustained them during the difficult days of the captivity.

“This is the name they’ll give him: God-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.” 

We call Him Jesus—Savior and Lord of our lives!

We have choices.  We can go down in history in disgrace or go up with hope to hear God say, “well done, good and faithful servant”.  I choose God, how about you?

Lord,

I love you because you first loved me.  I choose you because you chose me.  Help me to speak only what you say in a spirit of love for you and each other.  May we help each other follow you in truth.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Walking with God is hard enough but walking away from God is to be avoided at all costs!  Walking away from God leads to all kinds of messes that become almost impossible to “clean up in aisle seven.” Almost.  I am a bit amazed by messes of our own making.  Think about it.  We wonder why we are in a mess without asking God why the mess has escalated.  We go about life on our own, happily singing “I Did It My Way,” and wonder why our world, as we know it and controlled, it is suddenly crumbling. 

We ask why our children are turning against us as they grow older as they seek activities of self that are self-soothing to them—just like we modeled in front of them with our behaviors.  We worry over finances that have seemed to run amuck with our spending more than we make because maybe along the way we thought, “I deserve this”, so I’ll buy it anyway—on credit.  Maybe we turned our eyes from what was precious to us to an enticing affair with someone who “understands more” what we are going through. Maybe as God’s leaders, the accolades from successful ministry made our pride swell to the point of being unresponsive to the needs of His people—or to God. 

Messes come in all sizes and shapes—just like humans.

The prophet Jeremiah went personally to the palace to deliver God’s message about the mess God’s people have made of their lives. Their sins are out of control.  Their messes beyond repair because they still refuse to come back to God.  Zedekiah was sitting on David’s throne, in David’s house of cedar (See 2 Samuel), benefiting from the covenant God had made with David, and yet the king wasn’t serving the Lord as David had served Him. Jeremiah repeated what he had preached before (yesterday’s passage, Jeremiah 21) with passion, warning, and judgement from God. It was time for the king and his nobles to obey God’s law and execute justice in the land. They were exploiting the poor and needy, shedding innocent blood, and refusing to repent and turn to God.

God’s leaders chose to stay in their mess.

Jeremiah 22, The Message

Walking Out on the Covenant of God

22 ^1-3 God’s orders: “Go to the royal palace and deliver this Message. Say, ‘Listen to what God says, O King of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you and your officials and all the people who go in and out of these palace gates. This is God’s Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don’t take advantage of the homeless, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!

^4-5 “‘If you obey these commands, then kings who follow in the line of David will continue to go in and out of these palace gates mounted on horses and riding in chariots—they and their officials and the citizens of Judah. But if you don’t obey these commands, then I swear—God’s Decree!—this palace will end up a heap of rubble.’”

* * *

^6-7 This is God’s verdict on Judah’s royal palace:

“I number you among my favorite places—
    like the lovely hills of Gilead,
    like the soaring peaks of Lebanon.
Yet I swear I’ll turn you into a wasteland,
    as empty as a ghost town.
I’ll hire a demolition crew,
    well-equipped with sledgehammers and wrecking bars,
Pound the country to a pulp
    and burn it all up.

^8-9 “Travelers from all over will come through here and say to one another, ‘Why would God do such a thing to this wonderful city?’ They’ll be told, ‘Because they walked out on the covenant of their God, took up with other gods and worshiped them.’”

Building a Fine House but Destroying Lives

¹⁰ Don’t weep over dead King Josiah.
    Don’t waste your tears.
Weep for his exiled son:
    He’s gone for good.
    He’ll never see home again.

^11-12 For this is God’s Word on Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah: “He’s gone from here, gone for good. He’ll die in the place they’ve taken him to. He’ll never see home again.”

* * *

^13-17 “Doom to him who builds palaces but bullies people,
    who makes a fine house but destroys lives,
Who cheats his workers
    and won’t pay them for their work,
Who says, ‘I’ll build me an elaborate mansion
    with spacious rooms and fancy windows.
I’ll bring in rare and expensive woods
    and the latest in interior decor.’
So, that makes you a king—
    living in a fancy palace?
Your father got along just fine, didn’t he?
    He did what was right and treated people fairly,
And things went well with him.
    He stuck up for the down-and-out,
And things went well for Judah.
    Isn’t this what it means to know me?”
        God’s Decree!
“But you’re blind and brainless.
    All you think about is yourself,
Taking advantage of the weak,
    bulldozing your way, bullying victims.”

^18-19 This is God’s epitaph on Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
    “Doom to this man!
Nobody will shed tears over him,
    ‘Poor, poor brother!’
Nobody will shed tears over him,
    ‘Poor, poor master!’
They’ll give him a donkey’s funeral,
    drag him out of the city and dump him.

You’ve Made a Total Mess of Your Life

^20-23 “People of Jerusalem, climb a Lebanon peak and weep,
    climb a Bashan mountain and wail,
Climb the Abarim ridge and cry—
    you’ve made a total mess of your life.
I spoke to you when everything was going your way.
    You said, ‘I’m not interested.’
You’ve been that way as long as I’ve known you,
    never listened to a thing I said.
All your leaders will be blown away,
    all your friends end up in exile,
And you’ll find yourself in the gutter,
    disgraced by your evil life.
You big-city people thought you were so important,
    thought you were ‘king of the mountain’!
You’re soon going to be doubled up in pain,
    pain worse than the pangs of childbirth.

* * *

^24-26 “As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—“even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I’d pull you off and give you to those who are out to kill you, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, and then throw you, both you and your mother, into a foreign country, far from your place of birth. There you’ll both die.

²⁷ “You’ll be homesick, desperately homesick, but you’ll never get home again.”

^28-30 Is Jehoiachin a leaky bucket,
    a rusted-out pail good for nothing?
Why else would he be thrown away, he and his children,
    thrown away to a foreign place?
O land, land, land,
    listen to God’s Message!
This is God’s verdict:
“Write this man off as if he were childless,
    a man who will never amount to anything.
Nothing will ever come of his life.
    He’s the end of the line, the last of the kings.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The nation was decaying and dying while the king was admiring his palace—the spacious rooms, the large windows, and the decorated cedar paneled walls. Jehoiakim wasn’t much different from some modern politicians who profit from dishonest gain while ignoring the cries of the poor and needy.  The “house” built on the legacy of King David, a “man after God’s heart”, became a house of self-seeking sin with no mercy or justice.  Their enemy will be sent to take them away all because they refused to turn back to God.  They walked away from God’s covenant, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”  They walked away from under the wings of His protection. No God, no hope.

Turning from God to follow self-driven, opposite of God behaviors, will never go well for anyone.  God will allow the rebellious to live with the consequences, without hope, without His help until we turn back to God.  God, who loves us first and best and knows exactly what we need when we need it, intervenes right in the middle of our messes when we turn our hearts back to Him.  He moves on our behalf when we surrender to Him.  He is always at work.

Got a mess?  In a mess?  There is Hope for us, the rebellious, the mess-makers of this world!  God sent His One and Only Son to become the Way-Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Jesus Christ, to save us from ourselves and the messes we have created.  Jesus took our punishment for our sins.  He has paid the price that we owe.  Debt is paid in full.  How relieving those words are to hear from a mess-maker, right?

The question is this, “Do I really believe God sent His Son to do this for me?”

Believe, repent of the mess, look up and be filled with Hope who is the person of Jesus Christ.  Allow His Holy Spirit to transform your mess into a message of testimony, giving Him all the glory for the transformation.  Leave self-will for God’s will.  Jesus changes everything.

Or am I choosing to stay in my mess? That is a choice we must make.  But know this, messes can be cleaned up.  There is no mess that is so big that God cannot clean up.  Know also, that we can do nothing without Him in the cleaning process.  We can do all things with Him, guided by Him. 

But, answer honestly before diving into this new life of Hope with change, “Do I really believe what God says is really real?  If the answer is yes, then let the adventure begin!  

Lord,

I believe.  I surrender to You and Your best for me.  Clean me up and make me holy, set apart, ready to follow you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen