Taking Ownership of what is Taught

Jeremiah 33:1-3

“The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard: “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

I have no doubt I’ve heard this sermon many times in my 74 years that we have been apart of hearing teaching, and I bet it is the same with many of you.  But listening to a sermon or sitting in class where the subject is being discussed and taking ownership of it are very different things.  Neither you nor I would ever get on a plane that we believed would not reach its destination.  We would not enter a business deal with a person who we knew would not fulfill the commitment they promised, would we? 

Most of us have made statements like; God is good, all the time, God is a promise keeper, all the time, God cannot lie, God is faithful, yet often our prayers are not in keeping with these words.  Does that trouble you as much as it does me, at the writing of this paper to grasp that I’m not close to being the person Jeremiah was?

Jeremiah is in the prison of the king of Judah, and it seems all is lost, for God has spoken to Jeremiah about what He in His anger against the sins of His people is going to do, and it is all coming to a head.  We are not being imprisoned by the king's guards, but have we been taken captive by the culture we live in?  Do we have no understanding of the impossibility of keeping one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom of our Christ? 

When we come to the understanding of our need, yes we all have needs; we want a quick fix that is our culture.  But it's not going to happen for we are a double-minded people; we have no hunger or thirst for the righteousness that requires us to stop trying to appease a Holy God with our foolish efforts.  Jesus is clear in Matthew 5:6, first we come to an understanding that we have broken lives and take our broken life to the LORD and leave it for Him to fix.  That’s a first step, agreement with the Father that we are broken, and the world's super glue does not work.  Ask for a God-given hunger and thirst for righteousness, and receive what Jesus has promised, the peace only He can give.

It is my understanding that is what God is asking His children to do; “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice