Tuesday Thought – May 31, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“The LORD says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.’” (Jeremiah 29:10-14)

God decreed seventy years for captivity in Babylon. God set that time before the people were defeated by Nebuchadnezer. After 70 years, God promised to bring them back home to Israel.

Captivity would be a difficult time for the people. They would be living as an oppressed people in the service of foreigners. But God’s plans did not end with their oppression. God’s plans never end with His children in pain and suffering. God’s plans always contain a future and hope. God’s plans are never designed to hurt, always designed for the ultimate good of His purposes and of His children.

That’s easy to forget in the midst of the pain. That’s why God had Jeremiah speak these words. These words should have been memorized by every Jew in Babylon and repeated daily. God would bring them home to Him and home to their own land.

This world often brings pain. In the midst of the pain, don’t forget the future and the hope. There is a promise from Jesus that we should memorize and repeat daily: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:3)

His, by Grace, Steve

Monday Thought – May 30, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“‘Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the LORD, ‘and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:23-24)

God was banishing His people to a far land. That was the word from God that Jeremiah brought to the people of Judah. And when they got there, the people would be tempted to feel that God had abandoned them, that they were too far from God for Him to notice them or for Him to do anything to help them.

That would not be true! God spoke these words before the people were taken away, so that when they were away they might remember them. The message: there is no place too far away from God. No matter how far away from God they were, God would see them and He would be ready to respond when they reached out to Him for help.

That message is still true. It’s not a far country to which people are banished, like Judah was. A sinful and wicked heart, a heart full of guilt, drives people away from God, far away. But no one is too far away from God for Him to see them. And no one is too far away from God for Him to respond when they reach out to Him for help.

Those people around you that seem to be so far away from Him, they aren’t too far. Maybe you’re the one God can use to help them reach out to Him!

His, by Grace, Steve

Friday Thought – May 27, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

In the midst of Jeremiah’s dire predictions for Judah, comes this prophecy of hope. Judah would be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar and the people of Israel would live in terror for some time. But God had not given up completely on His people. Another King is being promised who will bring hope and help to the people who will follow Him.

Of course, the prophecy of Jeremiah is about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. Note the characteristics of Him and His coming:

He will be a branch of David. And so, from the family tree of David, Jesus was born.

He would be a King. But no ordinary King. We know that His kingdom would not be of this world. It would be a heavenly kingdom -- and an eternal kingdom.

He will be known for His wisdom. This prophecy might have raised images of days gone by and the reign of Solomon, but the coming King would be far wiser than Solomon.

Justice and righteousness will characterize His kingdom. There need be no fear that He will be unfair or in any way wicked.

Salvation and safety will be His gifts.

Judah could look only into the dim future for the coming King. Rejoice that we live in His day and be patient as we await His final coronation.

His, by Grace, Steve

Thursday Thought – May 26, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“‘Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the LORD. ‘But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.’” (Jeremiah 22:15-17)

By what criteria should we judge a king? Obviously, Americans don’t live in a land with a king. Instead, we have a president, governors and other elected officials. I think the same criteria for judging their leadership would apply. What makes a leader a good leader – that’s the question?

There are ways the world judges a man’s power, position, and value. The question in Jeremiah’s day was, “How much cedar does a king have?” That is a question about a king’s material wealth, the grandeur of his palace and the other buildings by which the king is known. Wealth, titles, the ability to command others, the ability to get things done, the power of the king’s army … those are all criteria that are used to judge the success of a leader.

None of those are God’s criteria – and none should be ours when we look at the success of a leader.

“He defended the cause of the poor and needy.” That’s the criteria that Jeremiah sets forth as the criteria by which we should determine the success of a king – a leader. That is what God has called all who know Him to be doing – and that is the charge that God has given to kings and presidents and governors. Take care of those who cannot take of themselves – the defenseless, the poor, the widows, the disabled, the needy.

By that criteria – how is America doing? How are our leaders doing the job that God has called them to do? How about you and me – are we fulfilling that aspect of God’s call on our lives?

His, by Grace, Steve

Wednesday Thought – May 25, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“O Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord. He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of wicked men.” (Jeremiah 20:12-13)

Jeremiah served the Lord with his whole life. God had commissioned him to bring His message to the people of Israel. The message God asked Jeremiah to bring was not a message the people of Israel wanted to hear. They responded in ways that made Jeremiah’s life miserable. They didn’t listen to him, rejecting the counsel he brought them from the Lord. They mocked and ridiculed him. They persecuted him. Jeremiah paid a high price for doing what God wanted him to do. His life was not what he would have dreamed of when he was a young man!

How do you respond when people do not respond well to you? Not everyone responds well to us – that’s always true when we represent the Lord. Some people just ignore us and don’t want to hear what we say about the Lord. Others mock and ridicule us. They say we “need a crutch” or that we are religious fanatics. For some, the response gets even more negative. Our faith may cost us our jobs, our friends, it could even cost our lives. There are places around the world where people respond to the message of the Gospel by persecuting and killing the messengers!

How do you respond when people do not respond well to you?

Jeremiah responded by turning the situation over to the Lord. In other words, he didn’t respond. He didn’t fight back. He didn’t try to defend himself. He didn’t strike out to hurt those who were hurting him. He asked the Lord to be his defender. He asked the Lord to provide whatever response was needed. Instead of striking back at those who hurt him, he turned in praise to the Lord!

Now that’s a powerful example for us!

His, by Grace, Steve

Tuesday Thought – May 24, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. I hear many whispering, ‘Terror on every side! Report him! Let’s report him!’ All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.’ But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.” (Jeremiah 20:7-11)

The message God gave Jeremiah to preach was a difficult one. It was not one that the people wanted to hear. When Jeremiah preached it, the people turned against him.

Being faithful to God’s message is not always easy. In fact, it rarely is. God’s message is judgment upon sin. God’s message is to turn away from the wickedness that overtakes us so easily. People don’t often want to hear that!

So, why share God’s message with others? Jeremiah had no choice. It is what God had called him to do. The message of God burned in Jeremiah’s heart like a fire. He could not keep it in.

God calls us to the sharing of His message, too. We have no choice. It is what God has called us to do. When we fully grasp it, it burns like a fire in our heart, too. It must be shared with those around us.

When we share it, God will be with us. He will not abandon us. Like a mighty warrior, He will be with us. In the end, He will win, and those with Him will win, too!

His, by Grace, Steve

Monday Thought – May 23, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD’s temple. The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, ‘The LORD’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. For this is what the LORD says: “I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends.”’” (Jeremiah 20:1-4)

It’s always interesting to see the Lord give new names to people to reflect something about them or their future. Abram became Abraham. Sarai became Sarah. Jacob became Israel. Cephas became Peter. Those are just a few examples. Jeremiah provides another one: the priest Pashhur became Magor-Missabib.

Pashhur sounds unusual enough, but Magor-Missabib is really strange. It means “terror on every side.” That doesn’t prophesy a very good future for Pashhur! The new name God selected says a great deal about Pashhur’s character.

Have you ever wondered what name God would give you to describe your character? It’s an interesting exercise. As you review your life, what character traits seem most dominant to you? If God gave you a name to reflect those traits would you be proud of it or ashamed of it?

What changes do you need to make in order to be called by the kind of name you would be pleased with?

His, by Grace, Steve

Friday Thought – May 20, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Go to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’ So I went to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. The pot he was shaping from clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. The word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’” (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

Israel was like clay in the hands of the Potter. God wanted to mold them into what He wanted and use them for what He wanted to use them for. Israel wasn’t always willing. It seems as though Israel wasn’t often willing! They had their own ideas about what they wanted to do. They didn’t want anyone else to shape them, not even the Lord. They went their own way and suffered the consequences.

God still desires to use His children in the way He chooses and make them what He desires them to be. Some He molds to be preachers, some He molds to be singers, some He molds to be administrators and some He molds to be servers. Some He wants to use to show how to handle success with faith. Some He wants to use to show how to handle failure with faith. Some He wants to use in health. Some He wants to use in sickness. Some He wants to use through a long life. Some He wants to use in a few short years of life. Each is important to God because each accomplishes a piece that fits His plan.

Sometimes I don’t like the way God wants to use me. Sometimes I don’t like the molding process He takes me through to make me what He wants me to be. But -- He is the Potter and I am the clay!

His, by Grace, Steve

Thursday Thought – May 19, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.’” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

The question is: where will we put our trust?

We can trust in our own intelligence, our own abilities, our own efforts. God will allow us to trust in those things. But that is a very short-sighted choice. It may get us what we think we want out of life: wealth, success, pleasure, fame, security. But it will ultimately leave us empty and dry.

Or we can choose to trust in the Lord. In that choice alone is ultimate satisfaction. It is that choice which leads to a security that cannot be altered by what happens in this world. It is that choice which does not experience terror when things turn sour in this life.

Jesus taught the same principle: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

So, where will we put our trust?

His, by Grace, Steve

Wednesday Thought – May 18, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

Jeremiah said, “When your words came I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers, I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation.” (Jeremiah 15:16-17)

Jeremiah got pleasure from the Lord and His Word. God’s Word wasn’t available to Jeremiah in the same way it is available to us. It is so easy for us to pick the Word up off our desk or bookshelf and read and meditate upon it. The Jews had the scrolls that contained the books of the Old Testament that had been written to that point in history, but they were kept in the Temple and used by the priests. The people had little access to them except through what the priests read for them.

But Jeremiah had another source for God’s Word: God spoke directly to him. When God spoke, Jeremiah listened. He took what God spoke and ate it, he made it a part of himself. He meditated on it and followed it. In doing that he found great joy.

That was a choice Jeremiah made. Others took their joy in the things of the world, but Jeremiah took his joy in the things of the Lord. It was a choice to sit apart from the world rather than join and be a partaker of the pleasures that were available.

Although the Word of God is more easily available to us than it was to Jeremiah, do we take advantage of it and take it in and make it a part of ourselves? OR do we leave it sitting on the table or gathering dust on the bookshelf and rarely lift it up to read?

When we read, is it duty and drudgery or is it joy and delight? What does our response to God’s Word say about our hearts?

Where do you take your pleasure? What choice have you made?

His, by Grace, Steve

Tuesday Thought – May 17, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“I said, ‘Ah, Sovereign Lord, the prophets keep telling them, “You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.”’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries, and the delusions of their own minds.’” (Jeremiah 14:13-14)

We all like to hear good news. We want to hear messages about peace and prosperity. When economic times are tough, we listen for the economists who will tell us the good times are just around the corner. We like hearing that terrorism is under control, that safety has returned. We like hearing predictions of good things to come for us and those around us. So did Israel in Jeremiah’s day.

Jeremiah told them that judgment was around the corner. He told them that God was angry and His patience had run out. The people didn’t want to listen to him. They mocked him and abused him and turned away from him.

Other prophets told Israel what they wanted to hear. They reminded them that they were God’s special people. They told them that God would rescue them from danger and protect them from attacks – like He had done in the past. The people listened to them. They were rewarded with popularity and praise and prosperity for themselves.

The problem was that Jeremiah was speaking truth and those who prophesied good times ahead were lying!

Which would you prefer to hear – good news that is a lie or hard news that is true?

“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

His, by Grace, Steve

Monday Thought – May 16, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.” (Jeremiah 12:1-2)

Jeremiah’s question was an honest one. Why do the wicked prosper? Where is the justice in that? Like Jeremiah, you and I have seen the righteous go through great pain and suffering. And, like Jeremiah, we have seen the wicked be successful beyond their wildest dreams. How can the lives of those who do not follow God be so comfortable?

If I can paraphrase the answer God gave to Jeremiah’s question, it would be this: “Trust Me, I know what I’m doing.”

The pain the righteous endure is making them stronger, enabling them to endure what lies ahead in life. The pain the righteous endure develops their character and conforms them to the likeness of Jesus.

The comfort that the wicked enjoy is but temporary. Justice awaits, it will come in its due time.

Trusting God is what it boils down to.

His, by Grace, Steve

Friday Thought – May 13, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

God’s messenger does not always have good news to bring. Sometimes God’s message is a word of warning or even an announcement of judgment. That’s the word that Jeremiah brought to the people of Judah. God’s patience with them had run out. It was time for judgment.

God had instructed them to obey Him. That was His consistent message from the very beginning of His relationship with the people of Israel. God told Jeremiah, “From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey me.’ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts.” (Jeremiah 11:7-8)

Instead of obedience, the people of Judah chose disobedience. They continued to worship God in the ceremonies that He had given them, but they also worshiped false gods in clear disobedience to God’s commands. “You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.” (Jeremiah 11:13)

Because of their disobedience, God told Jeremiah to announce the coming of judgment. In response, instead of repenting, the people of Judah turned against the messenger! They plotted to kill him thinking that if you get rid of the messenger then his message will not come true.

God protected Jeremiah from death, but not from all the pain of the opposition that there was to his message and to him. God’s messengers must sometimes bring bad news and sometimes bear the hatred and opposition of those who do not want to hear that message! God’s message is not just about peace and blessing and health and prosperity. It’s about truth. And sometimes the truth is hard to hear!

His, by Grace, Steve

Thursday Thought – May 12, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me, LORD, but only with justice -- not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.” (Jeremiah 10:23-24)

This is Jeremiah’s prayer. He’s not asking that God make his life happy and prosperous and comfortable. He’s not asking that God make his dreams come true and fulfill all his desires. He’s not asking that life would go well for him at all. Rather, he’s acknowledging that his life is not his own, it belongs to God. When we really understand life, we know that we are God’s to use as He chooses.

God can choose to put us in positions of great power and great wealth and great influence. He doesn’t do that for our enjoyment, but to accomplish what He desires to accomplish through us and in us. Are you allowing God to use you in the way He wants to in the places in which He has put you?

God can choose to put us in positions of little power and little wealth and little influence, too. He doesn’t do that to make us miserable. He does it for the same reason as positions that are opposite -- to accomplish what He desires to accomplish through us and in us. Will you allow God to use you and mold you through places of pain, as well as places of pleasure?

Jeremiah also recognized his own ability to stray from the path the Lord had set for him. He asked for God’s correction. That’s a brave and trusting request. Are you willing to make that request of the Lord? You can trust God to correct you with gentleness and justice.

His, by Grace, Steve

Wednesday Thought – May 11, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.” (Jeremiah 10:6-7)

It’s hard for me to understand people who don’t worship and follow the Lord. It has to be that they just don’t understand Him. Something or someone has blinded them to the truth about who the Lord is and what He is like. There is none like Him!

None other can compare to God’s love. His love is perfect. He loves us when we are unlovely. He loves us sacrificially, giving at great cost to Himself. He loves us just like we are, we don’t have to make ourselves better before He’ll love us. Yet, He loves us so much that He won’t allow us to stay the way we are. He wants us to achieve all that is possible for us, promising to conform us to the image of His own Son.

None other can compare to God’s power. He can heal the sick -- illness has no power over Him. He can raise the dead -- even an enemy as fierce and feared as death is powerless before Him. He can overpower nature – in fact, He created nature and it bows to do His bidding. Name a power and God is more powerful -- beyond compare!

None other can compare to God’s wisdom. God is so incredibly wise that He can allow man free will and yet move His creation according to His sovereign plan. Every scheme that Satan devises against Him and His will has already been thwarted before it is even considered by the enemy. God is never surprised by what happens and never wonders what to do next.

Perfect love -- perfect power -- perfect wisdom -- there is none like Him!

His, by Grace, Steve

Tuesday Thought – May 10, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh -- Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’” (Jeremiah 9:25-26)

The Jews rarely had a problem with doing the outward things that God commanded them to do. They circumcised their young boys. They made the required sacrifices at the Temple. They attended the holy feasts. They refrained from work on the Sabbath. They followed the Law in its exacting details. They were proud of being God’s special people and were willing to do the things that marked them as such.

Their frequent problem, however, was that they just went through the outward motions. Frequently, their hearts were not right with God. They weren’t in a love relationship with God, they just did what He said because it made them special. What they did was often about them, and not about God!

Jeremiah compared that attitude -- which he called being uncircumcised in heart -- with the heathen nations that didn’t know God at all and didn’t even try to follow Him. God’s punishment would come upon all of them.

The heathen nations were not irreligious, they just didn’t know the Lord God. From them we learn that God does not honor religion -- He only honors a relationship with Him.

Israel knew God, they just didn’t love Him. From them we learn that God isn’t interested in outward religious form, not even outward religious form that is connected to Him! God is interested in the heart. He is pleased, not with those who go through the motions, but with those who love Him!

His, by Grace, Steve

Monday Thought – May 9, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

Jeremiah receives a prophecy from the Lord condemning the people of Judah for their wicked conduct. It’s a long prophecy, consuming several chapters. The Lord was angry with His people. They were ignoring Him, turning to other gods, and disregarding His commands and directions for them. All the while they went about their business thinking nothing was wrong, content that they were “right” with God because they were of the right ancestry!

In the midst of the condemnation the Lord speaks through Jeremiah there is a verse that stands out to me as so applicable to our own culture.

God says, “Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.” (Jeremiah 8:12)

They do not even know how to blush! How true that is of the majority in our world. People talk openly about things that past generations would not even have whispered about. We watch on TV and in the movies, things that would have embarrassed past generations and yet they are commonplace in our day.

Has sin become so commonplace and so accepted in your own life that you have forgotten how to blush?

His, by Grace, Steve

Friday Thought – May 6, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

There are two striking contrasts between two passages in Jeremiah, the first from Jeremiah 5 and the second from Jeremiah 6.

“A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:20-31)

“I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’” (Jeremiah 6:17)

The first contrast is in the quality of the message provided “from God” to the people. One group consists of prophets who lie and priests who lead from their own will. The other group consists of watchmen the Lord has provided who speak His message of warning.

The second contrast is in the response of the people. To the first group, they respond with approval. To the second group, they respond with rejection.

There are always people willing to spout what people want to hear and claim that it is from God. They do so for their own gain. They like the popularity and fortune they reap from such preaching.

There are also always God’s spokesmen. These are the preachers are willing to say what is right, no matter what the cost to them.

There have always been people who respond to the wrong message. In fact, usually it’s the majority that responds to the wrong message, the one that really is not from God.

The real question is: to which kind of preachers are you willing to listen!

His, by Grace, Steve

Thursday Thought – May 5, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: ‘Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done -- burn with no one to quench it.’” (Jeremiah 4:3-4)

The people of Judah had unplowed ground in their lives. Those are the places in which a person has hardened himself to what the Lord wants to do in that area of his life. He’s unwilling to allow the Lord to work because it’s painful, or perhaps because he knows it would mean giving up something in which he finds pleasure.

Many people have unplowed ground in their lives. Probably you and I do now. It may be an area of sin that we are harboring, unwilling to acknowledge it to the Lord because that would mean we would have to change. It might be some area of service the Lord is calling us to that we are steadfastly refusing to consider. It might be a person God is asking us to talk to about Him and we are unwilling because of fear, pride, or any other reason.

Unplowed ground can’t produce fruit. Seed can’t even be planted in it. The soil can’t be penetrated without a plow. And the plow remains under our control. God won’t plow the hard places for us. And God won’t force us to plow them, either. If they are going to be opened to the Lord’s work, it will require our cooperation.

This is what the Lord says, “Break up the unplowed ground.”

His, by Grace, Steve

Wednesday Thought – May 4, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will not be angry forever.’” (Jeremiah 3:12)

“‘Return, faithless people,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I am your husband. I will choose you.’” (Jeremiah 3:14)

“Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” (Jeremiah 3:22)

If the history of Israel teaches us anything it teaches us that God will always take His people back. Israel was faithless time and again, sometimes for short periods and sometimes for very long periods. Each time they turned back to the Lord He was waiting to receive them.

God is the merciful forgiver. There is no sin of which we can repent that God will not forgive. There is no time of wandering from which we wish to return that God will not accept us back. He longs to forgive, longs to show His mercy. He waits only for us to turn back.

God is the faithful husband, waiting for His unfaithful wife to come back to Him. His love never grows cold. His hope never plays out.

God is the eternal healer. There is no case of backsliding that He cannot cure, if we but take a small step back toward Him. He can light a fire in the coldest heart. He can cure the deepest backsliding.

His, by Grace, Steve

Tuesday Thought – May 3, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

People seek satisfaction from a thousand different places. They give themselves fully to something hoping that it will fill up the empty places in their lives. But after the newness of the endeavor wears thin they recognize that the emptiness is still there.

God compares all of those other things that people give themselves to “broken cisterns.” They look good in the beginning, but there are small, sometimes unseen, cracks through which the water seeps leaving the cisterns empty. All of those other things are man-made and all of them are ultimately worthless.

Money and sex and drugs and fame and possessions and the thousand other man-made cisterns leave people empty. There is only one water source that truly holds water. The Lord Himself is the spring of living water. He, alone, brings satisfaction and fulfillment. He is the spring of living water that never runs dry, that constantly and eternally fills even the deepest thirsts and the deepest empty places of our lives.

Why in the world do we glance longingly at those other cisterns?

Look instead to Jesus. He is the well of Living Water that will truly and eternally satisfy!

His, by Grace, Steve

Monday Thought – May 2, 2016

Good Morning Friends,

“‘Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land – against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 1:18-19)

God was telling Jeremiah that everyone would be against him. The government would be against him – the kings and officials. The religious leaders would be against him. Even the general people of the land would be against him. Jeremiah was being called by God to stand alone.

That’s a tough assignment. It’s an assignment that I wouldn’t choose if it was up to me to choose. I’m sure it’s an assignment that Jeremiah wouldn’t have chosen either. But that assignment was God’s choice for Jeremiah. He needed someone for the task – and Jeremiah’s heart was right and God chose him. Jeremiah was faithful to the assignment God gave to him. When everyone else turned against him, Jeremiah still stood strong for the Lord.

And here’s why Jeremiah was able to do that – he wasn’t really alone! “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you.” That was God’s promise. God was faithful to that promise. He allowed everyone else to abandon Him and to abandon Jeremiah. He allowed Jeremiah to be abused and mistreated. But He did not leave Jeremiah alone … and He would not allow Jeremiah to be destroyed.

No matter how many people turned against Jeremiah. No matter how hard the task he was assigned grew to be. God never abandoned Jeremiah and God saw him through to the end.

That was God’s promise to Jeremiah. That is God’s promise to us. He may ask us to do an assignment that seems impossibly hard – but He will never leave us alone and He will never allow us to be destroyed.

His, by Grace, Steve