Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Christophobia: Gain, Find, Know, Attain - Part 1
Christophobia: Gain, Find, Know, Attain - Part 1: "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of al..."
Lessons from Jeremiah the Prophet...
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
We have reached the end of the Book of Jeremiah. The fall of Jerusalem occurred, just as Jeremiah had predicted. Judgment had come. God suffers long and is kind, but He is not indifferent to the evil that goes on. Judgment does come...sin has consequences. The people of Judah had forsaken the living God, the fountain of living waters and carved out for themselves cisterns that could not hold water...they served the useless gods of the people around them and practiced the evil that they required....
There were so many lessons and applications for us to contemplate in the book of Jeremiah. I will not go back and review all of them, but I thought that we could look at a few.
The first is the picture we get of God's outstretched hand of mercy toward His disobedient and contrary people. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah what has struck me is our Lord's faithfulness, long suffering and mercy toward His people. Judah had rejected the word of the Lord, worshiped idols and believed the false prophets. They had walked very far from from the "old paths" where they would find rest for their souls. And yet, God pleads with His beloved people relentlessly throughout the book to come back to Him. It is such a beautiful picture to me as a mom. God warns His children to the very end...He never gives up. He so does not want them to suffer and face judgment. He yearns for them jealously and wants them with Him. When judgment does come, however, the people had no one to blame but themselves. How grieving it is when our children do not hear and go the wrong way. How difficult it is to watch knowing that trouble is ahead for them.
Another beautiful picture in Jeremiah is the prophet's faithfulness. He walked through life obeying God at every turn...despite what it looked like to those around Him...despite the lack of fruit...despite the humiliation and persecution and through it all Jeremiah was preserved and delivered by His God.
Jeremiah preached to the people for 40 years without any fruit. The results of his ministry are not what mattered to God. His heart is what mattered to God. Just as our hearts and not our results are what matters to God. I love that about God..He is so different from the world. Aside from whatever else the Spirit might accomplish through us, He also does a work in our hearts. That brings me to what I thought was the most poignant lesson in Jeremiah...the work that God accomplished in the prophet's heart.
As the prophet obeyed and communed with His God and shared in the fellowship of His suffering, he became like Jesus. Did you get that...the biggest lesson (for me) in Jeremiah is found in the transformation that occurred as he obeyed His Lord and stood on and for His word. In comparing Jesus and Jeremiah we find many similarities. They both rallied against outward religion, they both spoke the truth and were unpopular, they both wept over the city of Jerusalem, they were both men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, they both faced the rejection of their relatives and countrymen, and they both were despised and rejected by men.
Yet in all this Jeremiah was more than a conqueror through Him who loved Him. Why? Through all these things Jeremiah began to resemble his Lord...to be conformed into His image. God graciously used him to warn his beloved countrymen of the coming judgment...but the results of Jeremiah's ministry were up to God. Despite the outward failure of his ministry to the rebellious nation, Jeremiah knew Him and the fellowship of His sufferings...being conformed to His image as he daily died to himself and lived for His God's glory. This is what mattered most in the end to Jeremiah...living for the eternal and not the temporary.This girls is what is also most important in our own lives. Jeremiah is rejoicing in His Savior now...living eternally with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His rebellious countrymen are suffering eternal torment in separation from God for rejecting His word.
Philippians 3:10 That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
2nd Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Love
Mom
We have reached the end of the Book of Jeremiah. The fall of Jerusalem occurred, just as Jeremiah had predicted. Judgment had come. God suffers long and is kind, but He is not indifferent to the evil that goes on. Judgment does come...sin has consequences. The people of Judah had forsaken the living God, the fountain of living waters and carved out for themselves cisterns that could not hold water...they served the useless gods of the people around them and practiced the evil that they required....
There were so many lessons and applications for us to contemplate in the book of Jeremiah. I will not go back and review all of them, but I thought that we could look at a few.
The first is the picture we get of God's outstretched hand of mercy toward His disobedient and contrary people. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah what has struck me is our Lord's faithfulness, long suffering and mercy toward His people. Judah had rejected the word of the Lord, worshiped idols and believed the false prophets. They had walked very far from from the "old paths" where they would find rest for their souls. And yet, God pleads with His beloved people relentlessly throughout the book to come back to Him. It is such a beautiful picture to me as a mom. God warns His children to the very end...He never gives up. He so does not want them to suffer and face judgment. He yearns for them jealously and wants them with Him. When judgment does come, however, the people had no one to blame but themselves. How grieving it is when our children do not hear and go the wrong way. How difficult it is to watch knowing that trouble is ahead for them.
Another beautiful picture in Jeremiah is the prophet's faithfulness. He walked through life obeying God at every turn...despite what it looked like to those around Him...despite the lack of fruit...despite the humiliation and persecution and through it all Jeremiah was preserved and delivered by His God.
Jeremiah preached to the people for 40 years without any fruit. The results of his ministry are not what mattered to God. His heart is what mattered to God. Just as our hearts and not our results are what matters to God. I love that about God..He is so different from the world. Aside from whatever else the Spirit might accomplish through us, He also does a work in our hearts. That brings me to what I thought was the most poignant lesson in Jeremiah...the work that God accomplished in the prophet's heart.
As the prophet obeyed and communed with His God and shared in the fellowship of His suffering, he became like Jesus. Did you get that...the biggest lesson (for me) in Jeremiah is found in the transformation that occurred as he obeyed His Lord and stood on and for His word. In comparing Jesus and Jeremiah we find many similarities. They both rallied against outward religion, they both spoke the truth and were unpopular, they both wept over the city of Jerusalem, they were both men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, they both faced the rejection of their relatives and countrymen, and they both were despised and rejected by men.
Yet in all this Jeremiah was more than a conqueror through Him who loved Him. Why? Through all these things Jeremiah began to resemble his Lord...to be conformed into His image. God graciously used him to warn his beloved countrymen of the coming judgment...but the results of Jeremiah's ministry were up to God. Despite the outward failure of his ministry to the rebellious nation, Jeremiah knew Him and the fellowship of His sufferings...being conformed to His image as he daily died to himself and lived for His God's glory. This is what mattered most in the end to Jeremiah...living for the eternal and not the temporary.This girls is what is also most important in our own lives. Jeremiah is rejoicing in His Savior now...living eternally with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His rebellious countrymen are suffering eternal torment in separation from God for rejecting His word.
Philippians 3:10 That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
2nd Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Love
Mom
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