I find Jeremiah such a painful book to read. Not that the other prophetic books are fun, or anything like that, but somehow in Jeremiah's writings I feel like we get not only the message from God and HIS disappointment and anger at Israel's disbelief and spiritual rebellion, but Jeremiah's personal grief over the condition of his people. Moving through the book, his tone becomes more and more frantic as he recognizes the imminent destruction of the last bastion of hope for God's people in the Promised Land, the Holy City of Jerusalem. And then, of course, his Lamentations, written after the fall of Jerusalem, are just heart-wrenching.
But focusing on today, Chapter 7 finds him reminding the people that God destroyed Shiloh, the resting place of the tabernacle that the Israelites had carried with them ever since the second year of their desert wanderings, and that He will just as easily destroy Solomon's temple in Jerusalem if they don't return to Him. Jeremiah tries to get them to understand their relationship with God has nothing to do with their place of worship, but with their heart of worship. He tries to help them see that obeying the letter of the law was never God's intent; God wanted them to see His heart behind all the rules for living and worshipping that He prescribed them so that they would know Him and understand Him and love Him, and desire to live for Him.
I find it interesting exactly how many times we see in the Old Testament that yes, there were all kinds of rules and customs God gave His people and expected them to live by, but it was never His intent that adherence to those rules would take the place of loving Him. They were merely to be the RESULT of loving Him. Which, of course, they still are. But sadly, the Israelites as a people just never really caught on.
The tail end of Chapter 7 has Jeremiah describing some horrific details of the devastation to come, and Chapter 8 basically continues in that vein. And then, just in case there was a chance we were under the impression Jeremiah had an easy life despite his incredibly unpopular message, we see another attempt on his life in chapter 26. Clearly, he isn't the only guy who believes the way he does and he's got a few friends, but they seem very few and far between.
Then we move over to the very last chapter of the book of Acts and there were a few things that stood out for me. First of all, like we saw yesterday, Paul, Luke, and 274 other people have been through a GRUELING two weeks, and they find themselves FINALLY on dry ground again. Only it's raining and cold still; the serious winter storm isn't quite over yet. The people of Malta are incredibly hospitable and build a massive bonfire (it must have been if it was suitable for warming that large a crowd!), and what's Paul doing? This starving, cold, dripping wet prisoner is gathering kindling and firewood. He's been giving advice to the ship's captain and the military overseer ~ he's clearly a leader ~ and yet he's not above doing the gruntwork with everyone else. He willingly gets his hands dirty (and, as a result, snake-bitten) to help. Paul is an excellent example of the kind of godly leadership that people willingly submit to.
Finally, after a few months with the friendly people of Malta, Paul's dream of reaching Rome is realized. He probably didn't dream of arriving in chains or having to spend two years under house arrest, but hey, he's in Rome and he's preaching his heart out. Starting on day THREE! Man, how many YEARS do we waste practicing passive "friendship evangelism"?? How many years are we friends with people, never actually talking about our relationship with Jesus Christ and how it's central to our lives, expecting that somehow our lifestyle will inspire them to approach us? Can you imagine how much SLOWER the early Church would have grown if Paul had adopted that method?!
It's easy to make excuses and say Paul had something we don't, but that's just an excuse. Other than his extraordinary calling, we have exactly the same power at our own disposal right this very moment. In fact, we have even more resources at our disposal than he did because we now have the entire written Word of God that we can easily carry around in our pockets and purses. He didn't.
I don't know about you, but this kinda makes one a little ashamed of our personal evangelistic efforts thus far, doesn't it? But hopefully, it does more than shame us, and inspires us, too. Enough to start being at least a LITTLE more vocal about our faith. Maybe even stand up and shout it!
The books of Acts ends rather abruptly, like it never got finished, and some believe there are missing chapters. But since the book is about the beginnings and then the growth and expansion of the Body of Christ on earth, technically, the story IS unfinished. Until the end of human history, you and I, together with believers from around the globe, from every generation, write more chapters every day! Isn't that an incredible thought?!
What an incredible privilege!!
Tomorrow's reading: Jeremiah 9-10,14; Colossians 1
3 comments:
Great post, Tammi. You make some excellent points. I don't think God could have made it much more clear in the Old OR New Testament that what he really desires is relationship, not religion. Jeremiah's anguish over his people really stood out to me today, too.
Thought of you recently as I am considering buying a book about gratitude by Nancy Leigh Demoss (who you introduced me to!). Life circumstances have sucked the joy and gratitude out of my life and I really need God (and others?) to fill me up!
"it was never His intent that adherence to those rules would take the place of loving Him. They were merely to be the RESULT of loving Him." Yes, yes, yes! Relationship not religion/sacrifice/offerings. Relationship! And this relationship, this love will result in holy and righteous living as we gradually become more and more like Him.
"how many YEARS do we waste practicing passive "friendship evangelism"?? How many years are we friends with people, never actually talking about our relationship with Jesus Christ and how it's central to our lives, expecting that somehow our lifestyle will inspire them to approach us?"
I think this is a serious issue in American/Canadian churches today. We have been sold on the passive friendship evangelism approach because it's so easy, we don't have to step out in faith, we don't have to risk being mocked for our beliefs, we don't have to worry about what to say.
It reminds me of the slogan "Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words" and the fact that so many of us (I'd say the majority, in fact) use that as an excuse not to say anything. When the fact of the matter is that yes, we need to live out our faith. But they still will not KNOW unless we TELL them. Which involves opening our mouths and just saying it. It is absolutely necessary to use words - we just better be living lives that back our words up!
Obviously this is not to say that we go on an all-out evangelizing spree without caring about relationship. Obviously Jesus cared very much about relationship. But we (and by we, I mean I) have used that as an excuse not to have to actually say anything or risk anything.
The problem for me is that I just don't even know what to say, how to say it, how to bring it up, any of that stuff. I need to take a course. Seriously, if someone knows of a course, I'd take it.
Great post Tammi.
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