September 4

Wow is this day full of hope and promise! First, the King had to bring pressure – a threat – to have the statue worshipped. Why? Because it deserved no worship! It had done nothing! At the end of this historic event, the God of the 3 Hebrews proved He deserved worship. Nebuchadnezzar will learn this lesson again, but for now he again uses threats to curb any person from speaking against Jehovah. God doesn’t need His help! “

How much faith did the Hebrews 3 have? They said, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of god you have set up.” I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like perfect faith – full assurance! There is an “if” in there. This spoke to me. There were so confident and resolute about the Lord, but they threw in an “if”. Will God only honor perfect faith? Here the 3 Hebrews have great faith and great conviction but they allow for themselves to not be rescued. (In this life) There is a key in this though – it is the fact that they stayed true to their conviction about only worshipping God and the fact that they were ready to die for it. That is perfect FAITH!

September 3

After telling of Egypt’s horrible judgment, God reveals His heart for the people of the earth. “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, rather that they turn from their wicked ways.” There is the heart of God. It goes on to talk about not relying on your “old” righteousness, but to continue to walk “in” righteousness.

For people under the new covenant I think that the old righteousness is the things we do and the new righteousness is the things that Christ has done, and what He continues to do in us! He is renewing me every day in HIS righteousness and that is what I am trusting in. The minute I trust in what I can do, my rightness, I fall into a trap! In fact there are a few traps associated with this. (Self-righteousness, pride, the curse of the law…)

God, I must look to you and not to me! I must see myself through the blood of Jesus. For me Lord, I must release myself from condemnation, the trap of the law, when I think I don’t measure up. I DON’T measure up! You measure up – hide me in you!

September 2

Have you heard the saying, “as long as I have breath in me…”? Evidently God can do things without breath. Ezekiel is prophesying about Israel and their return to the land, but God is saying to me, is there anything too hard for me? There are many other lessons from the valley of dry bones that are wonderful, including the power that he works through the prophet’s words, but for me it is, is anything impossible for me? Sometimes when things are dead and gone, (relationships, opportunities, financial prosperity) I think, “well that will never happen now”. But that is not so! These were bones with no flesh and no breath and when prophesied to, they rose to life. When God wants something raised up that is dead, or seemingly dead – it will come to life and as we read on, will prosper again!

September 1

This was a great passage! What hope! What promise! That we would have a new heart, and God’s Spirit to MOVE us to obey! Yes! I need His moving!

Yet for me as a shepherd I couldn’t stop thinking about what good shepherds are supposed to do. God was asking the shepherds of the people if it wasn’t enough for them to be supplied for? They evidently were making it miserable on people and prosperous for themselves. Here in this rebuke is found my job description. As I read it I asked myself if that is what my life is about. I think it is. A good shepherd is one who takes care of the flock as well as himself. He strengthens the weak and heals the sick, bound up and injured, he goes after the strays and searches for the lost. He rules, but he does it with gentleness and love. The good shepherd gives them rest, he helps them to find it and administrates justice.

Oh God, make me like you. Help me to be a good shepherd and do what it takes. I am moved to do just those things but so many flaws hinder me. Cleanse me, purge me, strengthen me and give me wisdom to administrate this office.

August 31

God again gives ANOTHER chance for the people who haven’t been destroyed to live in prosperity, but the word of Jeremiah falls on deaf ears and they trust in Egypt. These people are dense and bordering on dumb. What are they thinking? Well, they are thinking logically – at least according to their logic. When we were doing this, (idol worship), everything was fine, so we need to do it again. They had no spiritual sense!

I can’t say that I have been there, but it does seem in my life that the Word of God has come to me and I have neglected it for the “logical option”. I have noticed in my life that God constantly puts before me, reasonable choices and His choice which is unreasonable to me. Only in His will is found abundance and life, even if the land has been raped by another and is still under their control! God offers me prosperity in a land that is taken over by an enemy IF I’m directed by His Word.

August 30

Lamentations 3:22-25 (NIV)
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

In the middle of the worst circumstance one could ever face, this is what the prophet (most likely Jeremiah) says. There is always hope with God. Tomorrow is another day with the Lord and it brings a new opportunity for triumph, release and even the circumstances changing.

Verse 24 says; “I say to myself”. I always find it interesting when that happens in scripture. It is as if there needs to be a declaration to oneself to either convince, (because of what the eyes are seeing or the soul is enduring) or it is meant to produce a change of spiritual climate in the area around you. Either way it is what I was talking about on Sunday and here see again as something I should take note of. I must speak to reign, even if it is over my own feelings.

August 28

Out of all of Israel and all of Judah, the record talks about one man. No doubt there were others, but here in Jeremiah is Obed-Melech. The prophet receives a word for one man in the midst of all this is going on – one man. He then tells this man that he won’t be taken captive nor will he be killed in the siege. The reason – because Obed-Melech trusts the Lord.

What hope, what promise, what a wonder! It really is amazing that God would single out one person for is mighty and famous prophet to speak to. He wanted to ease His mind and quench His anxiety, but I think it went further than that. This man had a destiny to fulfill and he was going to be an example for millions that would come after him. This is what you get when you trust in God – saving.

It is difficult sometimes to believe that God pays attention to me, one guy out of billions! Over the years it has been much easier to believe, yet this story touched me today of God’s ability to distinguish those who trust Him. Doesn’t it say that he is looking everywhere for people whose hearts are fully His? God sees me, He saves me, He loves me. That brings a smile to my face.

Thank you Papa for not forgetting about me. Thank you for my reward of salvation – to the next life and in this life. I will not forget you!

August 27

An unlikely hero, King Zedekiah delivered Jeremiah not once but twice! So they guy who wouldn’t listen is now inquiring of the prophet and saving his life. Hmmmm…..

Sometimes I feel like giving up on people. I have brought them along, given them encouragement, spoken my council, but it has more times than not fallen on deaf ears. I watch them make bad choice after bad choice and I shake my head in frustration. Then, just when I think that they are becoming a lost cause, something happens in their life and they come back to God. For some it is a short stay, but for others if finally takes – or they finally take hold of God and won’t let go. It never ceases to amaze me how patient the Father is with people, and with me. I can’t look to people and think they will make the right decision, but I can look to my Father in heaven and know that when He is on the case, when He is on the mission, all things are possible. I must not stop hoping that those I have invested in will come back after they have rebuffed me and all the words I have given them. I must never give up on people.

August 26

I can’t help but get real today. I am tired of reading about judgment. Israel and Judah are under God’s judgment for good reason, and now Tyre especially is being wiped out because they are taking advantage of God’s people when they are down and out. There is a lesson in that but my soul is crying out for some encouragement! How about some good news! It dawned on me – 2 things really – first God was setting His people up and the people of the whole earth up for the coming of Messiah! Even Babylon will be in great need, everyone will! Everyone needs a Savior and the stage is being set for just that, not to mention that over and over it has said through all the proclamations of judgment that God will be exalted in all this and the whole earth will know of Him.

The second thing I received is how thirsty my soul is for the good news! I crave the blessing of God and I want it for others too! All of this judgment and wrath is having an effect on me, it is making me hungry for the promises of God.

August 25

Don’t gloat! There is a verse in Proverbs about not gloating over your enemies falling and I bet you Egypt and the others were bummed that they took advantage of Israel and Judah when they were being punished by God. God is so righteous, He so perfect, there is no toleration of so many things, yet even these prophecies took years to come to fruition. I can’t help but think if they repented and blessed that the judgment may have been averted.

For me, I am not going to gloat over anyone. Gloating is really a form of pride and God resists the proud. We teach our kids to shake hands after a loss or after a win because it is good sportsmanship. We should pity those who are struck by God because of the harm they inflict on us. Honestly, I like to at least flash a look to say, I told you so, but there is no room for that as a Kingdom Priest.

August 24

All I have to say to today’s reading is – thank God Jesus is coming! Whew! Thank God Jesus has come and saved me from all the judgment and wrath. The Messiah would change everything for the people of Israel and He has changed everything for me. I will never be under God’s wrath! I am under His favor forever. It sure was nice to read about some hope today!

August 23

Sometimes your faith is weakened because of the struggle that you are in and you see no way out. You have been wanting to help God be God, but have refrained and it has gotten you nowhere. Yet what is the choice? Try to help God out?

There is a timely verse today for me, “I will satisfy the priests with abundance.” I need to believe that word is for me. It takes faith to believe it when you see what I see, but what is the alternative – worry, anxiety and fear! Dr. John read a great scripture yesterday and it was for me. The message was that his praise needed to be on my lips for me to survive without worry, anxiety and fear. Is this too real for this blog? Isn’t that your choice too? Trust, praise and faith or worry, anxiety and fear?

Lord I reach out today and grab your word. I confess it and stand on it – I need it! Defeat my enemies and crush my adversaries! Restore my joy because I know that joy is my end.

August 21

Today is summed up by saying, "Papa, I don't understand". I said the same thing as I watched my pop struggle for every breath for a couple of days. I could get more graphic but the reality in my soul was, "I don't understand", just take him home Papa!" I don't understand things like this, but I do know that God does and my pop and Ezekiel's wife (most likely for Ezekiel's wife), are in heaven.

Sometimes things come from the hand of God that we don't like. Especially cups of suffering. The question to me is will I take it from the hand of God. Dare I say I will? God, I am yours and want to be unafraid of all things - who else to I have to place my life in, to put my trust in? Only you.

August 20

Wow! That was a graphic story with some stinging rebuke! You can really see God's hurt heart in all of this. For me, I saw the depth of the betrayal that God was feeling and it ceased to be about doing wrong things (which is was about as well), but it was God's heart that had had enough. He had put up with all that He could.

It was interesting that He gave them to their lovers. Isn't that just like my Papa. He lets me have what I am after to persuade me to never want it again. It is this very reason God is judging His people - to bring them back - to get them to repent so they won't prostitute themselves anymore. I think I trust in my own strength too much and rely on it as if it is going to get me through. I don't think I have quite prostituted myself, but I have seen God give me over to what happens when I do it in my own strength. Honestly, I am thankful for that - it is a correction that I need.

Lord may I receive it NOW and not later. I want to plant good seed and not seed that will grow up to choke out what I want so desperately, to trust you with everything. Love you Papa.