The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: ‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the LORD has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.”’
“Thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the LORD. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.”’”---Jeremiah 45
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
I think this is my favorite chapter in Jeremiah! The results are not up to us...they are up to God. Expect nothing and you will not be disappointed. Do not seek great things for yourself...just obey God. I am not in control....These are such good things for me to remember. My job is just to be obedient...whatever happens as a result is up to Him.
My hope is to be set fully in Christ and I am to expect nothing here on earth but opposition, trial and trouble. I am not to seek great things for me. I am to commit myself to my God in such a way that He is magnified. He must increase, I must decrease. To live should be Christ and to die gain. Baruch was looking for glory here and that is always fleeting, unsatisfying and leaves us wanting more.
Baruch worked as Jeremiah's scribe and was threatened for this by the king. (See Jeremiah 36) Baruch was hoping for great things to come to him because of his service to God He set his hope in the wrong place and was disappointed and grieved that things weren't working out according to his plan. He forgot that God was sovereign and works things toward His purposes and not ours. Setting your expectations high in this world only increases your frustration and make whatever trials that come more difficult to handle. Surrender it all to Him. God is the source of true contentment. If the Lord is our Shepherd, we have everything we need. Don't seek things for yourself...be content with what the Lord has given you. Serve Him knowing that your sufficiency comes from Him.
Humility of mind is what is needed to live like this. Imitate Christ who humbled and subjected Himself completely to the will of His Father in Heaven. That is how it is done. Lowliness of mind esteems the other as more important. Lowliness of mind keeps us from our own wrong desires and settles our mind on what He desires. Eyes off of ourselves and what we are doing for God or what we are not getting and onto Him and the privilege we have in serving Him.
Humility protects...lowliness of mind preserves. How? When I am humble, I am not self seeking...I am looking to live for Him and His glory. His perfect will then covers me. I am under his umbrella of protection so to speak. If I have done what my Lord has called me to do and fulfilled all His desires, than despite how it looks from an earthly perspective, I have led a successful life.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep. (Psalm 127: 1-2)
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).
Love
Mom
Friday, January 28, 2011
Inexcusable O Man, Whoever You Are Who Judge
Paul continues his message to the Roman believers by completely knocking down any delusions of self-sufficiency or self-righteousness. In Christ, there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free; we are all one in Christ Jes...us. There is no partiality with God (vs. 11) and He renders to each one according to his deeds (vs. 6). A frequent source of friction in the early church (and the source of much denunciation from non-believing Jews) was the active inclusion of Gentiles into the body of Christ. For a righteous Jew, Gentiles as a whole were unclean, depraved, and generally considered to be given over to the “debased mind” Paul described in the previous chapter. They would have been smirking their approval when Paul suddenly flipped the tables around with a stunning rebuke in the first verse of chapter two: “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”
Jew and Gentile, Paul argued, are both equally guilty in the sight of the holy God. How could the Jews claim superior righteousness when they, who had the Law, had never perfectly kept it? Only one human has ever met God’s standard: Jesus Christ. So who were the real people of God and keepers of the law – the ones who bore the outward sign of circumcision and yet were inwardly unclean and depraved, or the ones who may or may not have borne the outward signs, yet whose hearts had been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and who possessed the transforming Spirit of the Living God?
The Lord is not a respecter of persons. He could care less about your pedigree, your resume, your references, or your worldly assets and successes. He could care less about your excuses, self-justifications, or so-called righteousness. All those things make no difference to Him. Likewise, your failures, your sinful past, and your utter depravity are also irrelevant. There is only one choice that matters, one choice that can either condemn you or save you: your choice about Jesus. Accept Him personally as your Lord and Savior, and you are immutably His child forever; reject Him, and you will spend eternity suffering the consequences.
“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignatio
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done, or what your heritage might be or what blood flows through your veins. You might be considered the most respectable person on planet Earth, but if you do not have Christ, you are still guilty. You might be the most monstrous criminal on planet Earth, but if you have Christ, He will present you spotless before His Father in heaven. It’s not about who we are or what we can do; it’s about who the Lord is and what He has done. Jesus paid my debt and has imputed His righteousness to my account. And His Spirit works in me, I’m changing. He gives me fruit. He’s put His law on my heart. He gives me the grace and the desire to do His will. Each day He conforms me more into the image of His Son, and I know, with absolute certainty, that none of the credit belongs to me. It’s all Him, His power, His Spirit, and His grace. And it’s all there for the asking. Give Him your heart, and He will do something with it that is exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think.
1 John 3:1-2, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
Jew and Gentile, Paul argued, are both equally guilty in the sight of the holy God. How could the Jews claim superior righteousness when they, who had the Law, had never perfectly kept it? Only one human has ever met God’s standard: Jesus Christ. So who were the real people of God and keepers of the law – the ones who bore the outward sign of circumcision and yet were inwardly unclean and depraved, or the ones who may or may not have borne the outward signs, yet whose hearts had been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and who possessed the transforming Spirit of the Living God?
The Lord is not a respecter of persons. He could care less about your pedigree, your resume, your references, or your worldly assets and successes. He could care less about your excuses, self-justifications, or so-called righteousness. All those things make no difference to Him. Likewise, your failures, your sinful past, and your utter depravity are also irrelevant. There is only one choice that matters, one choice that can either condemn you or save you: your choice about Jesus. Accept Him personally as your Lord and Savior, and you are immutably His child forever; reject Him, and you will spend eternity suffering the consequences.
“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignatio
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done, or what your heritage might be or what blood flows through your veins. You might be considered the most respectable person on planet Earth, but if you do not have Christ, you are still guilty. You might be the most monstrous criminal on planet Earth, but if you have Christ, He will present you spotless before His Father in heaven. It’s not about who we are or what we can do; it’s about who the Lord is and what He has done. Jesus paid my debt and has imputed His righteousness to my account. And His Spirit works in me, I’m changing. He gives me fruit. He’s put His law on my heart. He gives me the grace and the desire to do His will. Each day He conforms me more into the image of His Son, and I know, with absolute certainty, that none of the credit belongs to me. It’s all Him, His power, His Spirit, and His grace. And it’s all there for the asking. Give Him your heart, and He will do something with it that is exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think.
1 John 3:1-2, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
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