Three Questions

 Jeremiah 15:5-10

When you open the Bible and read what is the intent of your heart; is it to gain understanding and knowledge, is it for insight on how to address those with whom you come in contact?  Do you look at the words as words designed by a Father who loves you and wants most of all for you to believe that He only wants your best, and with the intention of applying it to your life?  If so, these three questions are being asked to all of us who fall short of a walk of dependence on our Lord.  We, like the people of Jeremiah’s time, make choices to run our lives, to sin willfully, and to look to the little gods of this world for our hope and we find ourselves out of fellowship with the Father.  How will you answer these three questions: “Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?”  Now it’s ok removing Jerusalem and personalizing it. “Who will show sympathy toward you?”  I am willing to bet the farm it is not going to happen from your so-called friends in the world.  “Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?”  There is only One who has given His Son, His only Son to buy you out of the control of sin, and the Father said to them and us: “You have left Me.”  This is the Lord’s declaration. 

But then the Father shares how we have left Him; “You have turned your back, so I have stretched out My hand against you and destroyed you.  I am tired of showing compassion.  I scattered them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land.  I made them childless; I destroyed My people.  They would not turn from their ways.  I made their widows more numerous than the sand of the seas.  I brought a destroyer at noon against the mother of young men.  I suddenly released on her agitation and terrors.  The mother of seven grew faint; she breathed her last breath.  Her sun set while it was still day; she was ashamed and humiliated.  The rest of them I will give over to the sword in the presence of their enemies.”

The Father has never left us, but we have often parked Him on the shelf of our life to chase after those little gods.   And our prayer is, please give us the grace to come home to confess, as did Solomon, life without God is futile, and King Solomon found that even pleasure without God is empty.  Now when God used the metaphor of a winnowing fork to toss the nation of Judah, it implies His resolve was not destruction but that a faithful remnant would be spared.

God’s ways are not our ways, and His calling on Jeremiah was to tell a people and the leadership truth they would not listen to and even put his life in danger.  He gets angry with the people that he loves and also with the God who he obeys.  It seems that Jeremiah often wishes that he had not been born.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

One man can change the Course

 Jeremiah 15:1-4

How the life of one man can change the course of a people and a nation that is the story told in these verses.  Often we have heard a pastor say that sin will always take us deeper than we had any intention of going and now that is being made clear in the life of one evil king named Manasseh.  A timeline helps me as I look for understanding in the Scriptures.  So let’s begin with King Hezekiah 715-686 B.C. and His son Manasseh’s time line was 687–642 B.C. This is the account found in 2 Kings 21:1-9 of his age at the beginning of his reign, and the sins of this evil king.

“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon, his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave to their fathers if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.”

As you read Jeremiah 15:1-3 you will see God’s judgments; those destined for death; those intended for the sword; those destined for a famine; and those destined for captivity, and if given a choice there would be no takers.  But therein lies a paradox, you and I choose to sin, in doing so we choose judgment and not blessings.

So the life of one corrupt leader and the agreement of the people to follow that leadership began cancer, and it was many years later that the people were called into account.  As a follower of Jesus Christ each day we choose God’s blessing or His curses as did the people of Jeremiah’s day, and the question will be asked; what will you choose?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The Shepherd does what is best for us

November 26, 2016

 Jeremiah 14:17-22

God refers to Judah as the virgin daughter of His people; she was watched over and kept from the pagan nations and their gods.  One who has been protected in a Christ-centered home and leaves that protection for what the world offers will be in a similar situation.  And like Judah, they have influence over others and the Father brings about discipline and often it seems harsh, but it is done out of love to return that one so that they and others are not lost forever.  I read that shepherds would often break the leg of a lamb that would not stay with the flock.  Now that may sound harsh, but it is not done to harm but to protect, for a young sheep has no ability to protect itself, only the shepherd can do so.  After breaking the leg, the shepherd would reset it and put wood splints and carry it and care for it, and after the lamb was well, it always wanted to be with the shepherd.

Often, you and I are like a lamb that has a mindset that we need no protection, we will graze where we like, and we look to the world’s pagan gods, and for a season they give us pleasure, and yet the Father’s love is too great to allow us to be destroyed. What seems harsh we will someday look back on as a loving kindness.  But we much like Judah must come to a place of confession where we cry out to our God.

Judah has a bigger problem, they know who God is, but they forgot who they were and now they fall back on God, you must remember who you are, God is not the problem.  There is a song we often sing in church, and it goes something like this: “So remember Your people, Remember Your children, Remember Your promise, Oh God, ” and that is a similar message sent to God by the people of sinful Judah.  It is not God who forgets His people, or His promises and once we acknowledge that fact and confess Dear Father your grace is entirely undeserved, we can then agree with the rest of the song; “Your grace is enough, Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me.”

Yes, Judah agreed with God they were the problem, but they are not broken in spirit as a nation.  In fact, they came up with three reasons why God needed to fix things back in the old days, reminds me of so many who want to go back to the way it was in the U.S.A. after WW II.  First, it was God’s name they now were concerned with, but only after they had brought shame on it before the pagan nations.  Next, it was His throne in Jerusalem, and then the covenant He had made with them, the one that they broke, God has never broken a promise!

And then Jeremiah comes back to the rain, and a clear understanding that only God can bring rain, He is not required to do so, and the little gods they and we worship cannot bring rain, and yet we often run to them.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Is God in total agreement with you?

Jeremiah 14:13-16

My pastor said something close to this:  When we believe that our life and message are on target and God is in total agreement with it, we have become the god to whom we are praying.  He is not a God of the conservatives any more than He is a God of the liberals, God is not a Republican or Democrat, He is the all knowing and all seeing God who is pure and holy in all His ways.  He will judge the U.S.A. in the same way He has judged all nations who have turned to their own desires.

But I found it of interest that it was the prophets who came to the people and said do not listen to Jeremiah because his message is harsh and mean spirited, and you do understand that we are a special people, God’s people and He will never allow harm to come on Judah.  

Now listen to the conversation between God and Jeremiah; “Then I said: “Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them— their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.”

It is no different than in our day when men of the cloth, the clergy stand in a place of authority and tell their congregation that God did not really mean what He stated in Scripture.  If you want to look at the list, it is long, but it begins when a false teacher does not teach the whole counsel of the Scripture.  When they say stupid things like, “I will only build you up I will never talk about sin, we will be a positive church with a message that only builds up. “  I have one message for any who attend that congregation, run Forest, run. 

What the apostles have written and left for the church a wise person will ponder on.  And when Jesus, the only Son of the living God speaks a wise person will treasure it in their heart.  The Holy Spirit by the pen of the apostle Paul is talking to you and those false teachers in Romans 3:23-26. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”  We are all a mess, but God, those are beautiful words, and the “but God” is His mercy and grace to sinners like you and me.  The Holy Spirit shows us the hope we have in Christ Jesus, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)  And what a message of God’s mercy, love, and grace in Romans 10:9-10; “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.”

It matters not what name you go by if you are in a church that is not teaching the whole counsel of the Scripture, “Run fast and keep running till you find a man who is fearful of God and not of man.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

What is a person to do?

 Jeremiah 14:1-12

What is a person to do when the wisdom of that generation is exposed to be foolishness when the Lord speaks these words to His messenger: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence.”  (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

Who is the Lord speaking about, is it not the people of Judah?  The envoy is the prophet, Jeremiah.  The timeline is between 626 B.C. and 586 B.C.  I’m not sure those of us who had the city turn off the water in our neighborhood for maintenance and we are without water for half a day, have any understanding of what is happening in the nation of Judah.  The well is dry, the cisterns are empty, the rain has not come for months, and there is no water to be found in the land.  Not only are the people and the livestock dying of thirst, but also all of the wildlife.

When an individual or nation come to grips with their act of rebellion or the reason disaster has come, they, like Judah have come to this point they begin with a confession to the god they trust in, to whom they have rebelled.  But Judah is different they confess to “Yahweh” the God they know, the God who they have entered into a Covenant with, the God who has called them His chosen people.  They come with full disclosure; we have sinned and broken your commands, but now in this judgment, they are concerned that God’s name will be brought low in the minds of the people of the earth.  So they are asking God to act for the sake of His reputation and honor.  They are telling God that He is treating them the same as a traveler who is passing through the land, as a foreigner. 

What happens when God has had it with a nation, with people who are His chosen and yet they are not thankful, nor are they willing to put away the little gods they have run to.  I believe verse 10 has the answer: “Thus says the Lord to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account.”  It is big trouble because God cannot be swayed by our ritual and not only is there no water in the land and the sword, famine, and plagues have been released by God to this rebellious people.

My prayer is that the people, the chosen, the body of Christ, His church will hear the words of verses 10-12.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The more they prospered

 Hosea

Introduction

 “The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.” (Hosea 1:1)

Any good study Bible will give an introduction to the book of the Bible you are studying so you would be wise to look there for a more in-depth introduction to the book of Hosea.  But the first verse gives insight into the span of Hosea’s ministry, and it was about 750-710, so shall we go there?  Uzziah was king of the Southern Kingdom 792-753, and He ruled over Judah.  Jotham also ruled the Southern Kingdom and his timeline was around 750-732.  Next was Ahaz who ruled the Southern Kingdom from 735-716.  And last, we have Hezekiah as king of the Southern Kingdom from 716-686.

In the Northern Kingdom you have King Jeroboam II, who ruled over Israel and for a time he co-reigned with his father Jehoash from 793-782 B.C. then by himself until 753 B.C.  Forty-one years he reigned over the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Israel was very prosperous.  It is worth stating that during his reign the following people were prophets, Hosea, Joel, Jonah and Amos, and all of them condemned the materialism and evil of the elite of their day.  The more they prospered, the farther they moved from the God they knew, to little gods.  Note: Can you see a similarity in our culture?

The ministry of God is much deeper waters than anyone can fathom, and do you recall the prophet Isaiah stated in chapter 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Do you recall God’s instruction to the prophet Isaiah, “at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet." And he did so, going naked and barefoot.  And the LORD said, "Even as my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.” (Isaiah 20:2-4)

When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, it seems much better than being naked for three years that is if you read past one word, marry a whore.  The story of this marriage is a picture of broken promises and seeking other gods, like pleasure, possessions, power, and prominence with no regard for the love, grace, and forgiveness of our loving Father.

From the Back Porch,

 Bob Rice

How can this be happening to me?

 Jeremiah 13:18-27

 It is hard for me to get my mind around what God is commanding Jeremiah to do, he is to go to the king and his queen mother and confront them about the sin in their life and the way they are leading the nation into sin.  It required me first to understand that if God commands it, He will open the doors for it to happen.  Now let us say God spoke to any well-known pastor or priest and told them to talk with the President of the United States of America, it matters not the message they are not endangered of being put into jail or killed.  But in Jeremiah’s time that was a common thing, the king had full authority to put just about anyone in prison or have him killed.

The king at this time was 18 years old Jehoiachin, and his mother was Nehushta, and he ruled for three months.  It is clear that they were not open to the message of Jeremiah and had no fear of God.  But King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has already captured the cities south of Judah, Negev was first, but he would soon conquer all of Judah.  And Jeremiah reminded them; they are the Shepherds who mislead His people.

I bet you have ask this question; “How can this be happening to me?” I also have and so did the king and queen mother and God’s mouthpiece spoke words they were not open to: “it is the greatness of your iniquity.”  God is going to expose the darkness and bring it to light, and He uses terms like; “that your skirts are lifted up, and you suffer violence.”  It is not a good thing to fall into the hands of an angry God, and yet sin is like drug addiction, a person keeps going back for the high until they become its captive.  They are going to be slaves, and a slave has no rights, and they will be used in sexual ways, and they will run after the Canaanite gods.

I always remind the guy I see in the mirror to examine first myself and pray for self first, and a great prayer is in Psalm 19:12-13, “Who can discern his errors?  Declare me innocent from hidden faults.  Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.”  A follower of Jesus would be wise in recalling 1 Peter 4:17, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Pride takes one Captive

November 20, 2016

Jeremiah 13:15-17

  

“Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord has spoken.  Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.  But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears because the Lord's flock has been taken captive.”

Be not proud, why, what happens to an arrogant person, a proud people, and a proud nation?  So I looked up men who are now leaders or have been in leadership to see how they used the word “Proud” and if they were in agreement with Jeremiah.  First was our President Donald Trump, “We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.”  And then I looked at a quote from Ronald Reagan; “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.”  What about Douglas MacArthur; “Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.”  And shall we end with a man whose life span was 26 years on planet earth born in 1795 and died in 1821 his name was John Keats, a poet?   And this was his thoughts on the word in question: “I will give you a definition of a proud man: he is a man who has neither vanity nor wisdom one filled with hatreds cannot be vain, neither can he be wise.”

Now I believe it would be advisable to see quotes from the Bible, what has God said about being proud: Jeremiah 9:23-24. “Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”  How about James 4:6, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Now shall we look at the Proverbs 11:2, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” And 1Corinthians 13:4-7, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

One commentator said Judah was high-minded and haughty and would not heed God’s directives, does that bring to mind your nation?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A Nation deficient in Vitamin "N"

Jeremiah 13:12-14

“You shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Every jar shall be filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, declares the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.’”

It all begins with a couple; a man and a woman that enters into a marriage covenant and they have children and the Scriptures are clear that they are to teach and discipline their children in the ways of the Lord.  Some do, but history tells us that most do not, and it is the dad who drops the ball and believes the lie that they are wise enough to find their own truth. Yet that same dad will teach that child the dangers of going into the deep water before learning to swim or not to play with fire because it can bring harm to the child and others. 

Yesterday, I watched a video on the need for giving a child the “N” vitamin and being a person who is a partaker of vitamins I was wondering how I missed that one.  Vitamin “N” is the “NO” vitamin, no that is not okay for you, no you cannot have that at this time in your life, no but if you want it earn the money to buy it, we do not have funds for that.

American children have a vast deficiency of vitamin “N” and are some of the unhappiest, mean spirited children who have never earned money or worked for anything and they have a controlling mindset of we deserve with no regards for anyone else.  And what does that look like when the vitamin “N” child graduates from college and goes out into the world they are not equipped for; anger, frustration, and defeat?  Many will turn to drugs and others to sex or become alcoholics and what does that nation experience?

In that, they have little or a wrong understanding of God, they see Him not as a Father who gave His Son, His only Son to redeem them and buy them out of a life controlled by sin.  But as one they disdain because they see Him as that Vitamin “N” they were not exposed to and hate that word.

The jars are a metaphor in the Scripture above and the meaning was the people were the jars that should be filled with wine.  Everyone from the leaders to the poorest would be filled with drunkenness, for they like our children wanted not one thing to do with the vitamin “N”.  They wanted to be the captain of their own ship, they did not want a moral authority, and God got a gut full of them and announced that He was going to smash these jars.

My dad always said, “A word to the wise is sufficient”!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Rebelling against God leads to Danger

Jeremiah 12:5-17

It is not clear if God is referring to Jeremiah’s family, the false prophets or the horses soon to be coming from Babylon with warriors on them.  Give thought to how this relates to your life, the busy pace, the demands of work, of family, of the culture, and in times of peace, what happens when there is no jobs, sickness, and death?

Do not forget this is God responding to Jeremiah’s complaint, and God reminds him that Judah His inheritance and the love of His life is going to be turned over to His enemies.  God is allowing this to happen because of their rebellion not once, but often, and should this not bring to our minds and heart that we also are that kind of people?

When God speaks these words in verses 10-11, about the shepherds destroying His vineyard, the shepherds were the priests and the leaders of Judah and one must ask how did they become destroyers?  They became full of self, and they believed their press, in sports, it is always the down fall of a team, in business, it removes the competitive edge, and in the church, it brings about our plans with no need to seek the mind of Christ.  Leadership always comes with responsibility, and it requires the leaders to seek counsel, to search for wisdom and understanding, and that leaves little room for self.

It is a dangerous thing for people or a nation to rebel against a Holy God, and yet both Judah and Israel have a habit of doing so.  God’s time does not fit our time, nor does His thoughts ours, but in keeping with His will He says that it is time for His people to come back home.  For His enemies to be uprooted and in the same manner as Judah but if they looked to the Lord and taught His ways they also will be restored; now that is far from our understanding.  Have we so quickly forgotten that one of our Father’s attributes is compassion?  We like that God shows compassion, but what happens to a people or nation who will not?  “But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the Lord.” 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Do You Not understand Grace?

 

 Jeremiah 12:1-4

I’m willing to bet the farm that you, like me, have had this thought, and yet unlike Jeremiah we may not have voiced them to God.  “Righteous are you, O Lord,
when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you.  Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all who are treacherous thrive?  You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart.  But you, O Lord, know me; you see me and test my heart toward you.  Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.  How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither?  For the evil of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away because they said, “He will not see our latter end.”

Jeremiah in some ways is a lot like me, and maybe you, in that he has an understanding that God is righteous, He is pure, God is good and merciful.  Jeremiah complains because he also understands that God is also all knowing and all seeing and so why is He allowing these wicked people to prosper?  Have you ever given thought to, “If I were God” and then fill in the blank as to what you would do to mankind?  Just one big problem, you are not, and your heart is not close to the heart of God.  Would you have sent your Son, your only Son into the world that you being God knew before sending him he would be rejected and killed?  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

Do you recall that the wicked are the ones who have God in their mouths but far from their hearts?  Maybe a recall might help, go with me to Jeremiah 4:22, “For my people are fools; they do not know Me.  They are foolish children, without understanding.  They are skilled in doing what is evil, but they do not know how to do what is good.”  We should never forget that judgment always begins with the people of God; these were His chosen, and also, so is His Church.  So the wicked are not far from us we may look at them each day in the mirror, for in that I often want to nuke a people that God so loved that He gave His Son for shows how evil I am.  

And when I’m still and the noise has stopped a small voice speaks to my heart, Bob, I love those people so much, that I’ve done for them what I’ve done for you; do you not understand grace?  It is at that moment that I must confess that I’m ignorant, foolish, and spoke words that were far from the heart of God, far from mercy, far from the grace that was shown to me.   And I confess, as did the Psalmist; “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

--

Do you marvel at the wisdom of our God?

 Jeremiah 11:18-23

Do you marvel at the wisdom of our God?  I hope so for it is the “But God” moments in one's life that have such an impact, but I also believe one can easily miss them in this busy life.  On Monday’s at 6:30am, if you want to see me it’s going to be at Cross Roads coffee shop on Hwy 46 in New Braunfels, Texas.  It is my time with Paul who teaches the adult class Jan and I attend on Sundays, it is a time I look forward to and this morning was sure no exception to the rule.  After a few minutes of conversation, I said, you did not answer the question I ask in class, and it came from Philippians 1:29-30. “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”  My question was “how do you define suffering”; for I’m sure that in the American Church we know little of what Paul the apostle is referring to.  Paul is in prison; Paul has been beaten, he has been stoned, not by bad drugs but with rocks, he also had been ostracized by the Jewish leadership and branded a traitor, now that is suffering!  

Jeremiah is encountering a plot or scheme against him, he tells us in verses 18, that the Lord made it known to him and in verse 19, Jeremiah is referring to himself as a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.  They did not like the message and they were ready to remove him from the living, but God had other plans, and Jeremiah did not engage his enemy, no he sought in prayer the power of his God, the one who had given him the message that has set the people against him.

But not just any people, it was family and friends, people he had known and grown up with in his hometown of Anathoth.  These people believed that Jeremiah had brought disgrace on them, and they saw him as a friend to their enemy the people of Babylon.  Do you recall the words Jesus spoke to the twelve when he sent them out in Matthew 10:19-22, “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for My names sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  And in verses 34-39, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

That is not the talk the Sunday name it and claim it group wants to hear, but it is the words of our Creator, the I AM, the only one whose voice has authority.  It was true in Jeremiah time, and it is true today, now I’m not sure about if we will suffer as Paul did, but this I’m sure of, we will suffer.  So run to Jesus who not only can protect you but will also give you the courage “to lose what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose.”

From the Back Porch

Bob Rice

Are you a covenant breaker?

Jeremiah 11:9-17

Are you a covenant breaker?  Many of us are who show up at church on Sunday, and yet we do not understand, or we do not believe that our Father in heaven cares.  That is wrong to the bone and it’s misguided and it is dangerous!  That is where Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem find themselves.  God was watching then and now and these are His words to Jeremiah; “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.”

 

It seems that what was happening was a revolt, it was a wide or general conspiracy against King Josiah’s call to reform and to turn back to God.  It was not a rebellion in a political action, but a revolt against God’s leadership and of the little gods that they were worshipping.  Tomorrow if your pastor stood and preached against your little gods, like wealth, the desire for more, or your time spent playing golf, or not being with your wife and family, or your selfishness in retirement to do as you please with no regard for the time and money that the Father has entrusted to you; you might be conspiring against Him.  I’m also fearful that I can see your little gods but I am blind to my own, and I pray that when they are exposed you and I will repent and turn back to the only true God.

Once again God gives this command to Jeremiah; “Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? The Lord once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest, he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”

Can you imagine God telling you, do not pray for America any longer, they have gone too far, it’s now too late, that should frighten the hell out of you?  Judah is God’s beloved, and her sins can no longer be overlooked by a Holy God and like a son or daughter whose privileges have been removed so has Judah’s.  Often God used a metaphor, as when He calls Judah “a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.”  Now that olive tree is going to be destroyed, and that does not bring joy to Jeremiah or to God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A Forgetful People

 Jeremiah 11:1-8

As I was reading these verses my mind went back to the 25th Anniversary of Focus on the Family where Doctor Dobson had asked a Rabbi to speak and I do not recall his name, but I will never forget what he said; “When the promised children of God came out of Egypt only 20% of them believed in a living God.”

Some say over 2 million people came out of Egypt on that day and they experienced God’s power, as they went the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of fire so that they would have light.  Think of it this way, it’s wilderness or desert, it is hot by day but God brings cool clouds and it is cold in the evening, but He is providing heat in the pillar of fire.  Then they get to the Red Sea, now anyone in their right mind should have seen this as a wow when God parted the sea and they walked on dry land.   Give thought to 2 million plus people crossing and they watched the army of Egypt come into the Red Sea and before reaching the other side the waters came crashing down on them and they all died. 

I’m betting you are lock-step with God if you have experienced this, just like they were for maybe a few days, but they had the attitude of many of my sales managers, God, what have you done for me today, I no longer remember yesterday?

And yet God did send them bread from heaven, and water from a rock and even defeated their enemies in battle, and He called Moses to remind the people of all that He had done since bringing them out of Egypt.  He gave these words to Moses to share with the people: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” 

The timeline for the Exodus is the early part of 1480 B.C. and Jeremiah’s time line is 640 B.C. that is around 840 years later and God is still on message about His conversation with Moses and if they want blessings they will obey the covenant given by the Lord at Sinai.  Yes, it is the same today, obedience brings blessing and disobedience brings curses.

It seems both then and now a wise person would desire to follow the Lord, to choose to obey, to look to Jesus as the author and provider of their faith.  But history tells a very different story, we, like them, are foolish and we chase after the little gods, like sports, careers, entertainment, wealth, fun, even family before God, and by doing so we choose curses and not blessings.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A very personal prayer

 Jeremiah 10:17-25

God is telling the people of Judah to gather up their stuff, for they are under siege and they are going to be carried off to places they do not know and languages they have not learned.  And Jeremiah did not get the title “the weeping prophet” for any reason but that he is grieving over what the sins of his people have done to them.

Jeremiah also understands that those he calls the shepherds, and he is referring to the leaders that are stupid.  Ezekiel 34 gives a picture of an evil shepherd that would allow the flock to be scattered.  In verses 11-16 we have God as the good Shepherd who will gather up His flock and care for them.

In verse 22, we have the Babylonian army showing up and the destruction of Judah as if it is only fit for a jackals den.  This prayer of Jeremiah’s is one each of us must have at some point in life; listen to verses 23-25, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.  Correct me, O Lord, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.”

A very personal prayer but also a prayer for Judah, but Jeremiah does not desire God to do to him or his nation what it deserved.  Jeremiah knew that if God judged them in anger, they would have no hope, but if injustice maybe God would show mercy and grace.  But Jeremiah is also asking the Father to destroy those who have attacked and destroyed Judah. 

Jesus has told us in Proverbs 24:17-20,  “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.  Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice