SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/23/2014
11:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Jeremiah’s Message was Dangerous PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah 1:17-19
Message of the
verses: “In today’s SD we will be
looking at the last three verses of the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah.
The City, Pillar, & Wall: God will protect His Servant (Jeremiah
1:17-19): “17 “Now, gird up your loins
and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before
them, or I will dismay you before them. 18 “Now behold, I have made you today
as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the
whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the
people of the land. 19 “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome
you, for I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD.”
The Lord tells Jeremiah to “gird up your loins.” We have to understand the dress in that day
was a lot different than it is today for the men would wear robes and when they
had to go some place in a hurry they would have to pull together the looseness
of the robes they were wearing so that they would be able to run without having
the robe in the way. What the Lord was
saying to him was you have to get ready for action. We might say that we have to “roll up our sleeves
in a figurative way of speaking to say that we have to get ready to go to work
on something. This would also mean that
Jeremiah had to get his mind ready for the work that the Lord had called him to
do.
The Lord again tells Jeremiah that he should not be
frightened, for He had told him the same in verse eight: “"Do not be afraid of them, For I am
with you to deliver you," declares the LORD.’” God promises Jeremiah that he would care for
him.
Jeremiah accepts the task from the Lord, a talk that
would be both difficult and fulfilling as we will see as we continue our study
in this book. If we look at human
standards then Jeremiah’s life and ministry would be a complete failure, but we
cannot look at it in human standards, for it must be measured by the Lord. When we are called by the Lord to do
something we are accountable to Him, and there may be many times when we think
that we are in the wrong place. What the
Lord calls us to do He will see us through if we are faithful to Him, and we
will see that Jeremiah was indeed faithful to Him.
We close this section with a couple of quotes of which
the first one is one the Warren Wiersbe quotes in his commentary from the book “Walden” written by Henry David
Thoreau: “If a man does not keep pace
with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Le him step to the music which he hears
however measured or far away.”
The next quote is four our Lord Jesus Christ who said “If
anyone desire to came after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me…For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses
his own soul?” (Matthew 16:24, 26)
Dr
Wiersbe then asks this penetrating question:
“In light of that sobering question, what decision will you make? Will
you conform to the crowd or carry the cross?”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: We know which way
that Jeremiah chose to go. I desire to
go that way too even though I know that it will cause difficulties in my
earthly life, difficulties in following this way too.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to keep me on the right path
in serving Him even though at times it is hard.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Jael” (Judges 4:18-21).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Which two of the Gospels were
written by men who had been with Paul on some of his missionary journeys?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/23/2014 12:06 PM
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