Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Wednesday, June 10th: Jeremiah 15-17, Matthew 23:1-22 ~ Tammy

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Jeremiah 15-17; Matthew 23:1-22


Jeremiah 16:10b ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’

Sin is blinding.  Eventually, sin blinds us to much, we don't even notice our sin anymore.  We, like the Israelites, are grossly mistaken when we presume that God's patience in delaying judgment means that judgment will not come at all.  The Word is clear, eventually God's patience will end and judgment will come - for us, just like it did for the people of Judah, and the people of Israel before them.


Jeremiah 17:7-8  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

This passage is very similar to Psalm 1:3 
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

When we meditate on God's word and apply His wisdom, we will bear good fruit - actions and attitudes that honour and glorify God.  

This does not come naturally.....
Jeremiah 17:9-10  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

We see this in our NT passage as well - God is concerned with our heart, because what is in our hearts will inevitably flow out into the way we live our lives.  

Our goal should not be the appearance of holiness, but rather truly becoming more holy through the power of the Holy Spirit, for our good and His glory.

3 comments:

Nathan said...

In Matthew 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,[a] and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

This verse to me shows one way in which God wants us to live. We need to practice what we preach and what we represent.

Conrad said...

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

Not an uplifting verse, but it puts into perspective how careful we need to be in how we are spending our time and planting our seeds. This verse gives me the impression that the heart is easy to damage, but repairing it is a different story.

Pamela said...

How true that sin can be so blinding that we don't see it anymore. It makes me think of things left undone in a house...after awhile you don't see these things anymore because you see them daily. It only comes to your attention and you look at your house with fresh eyes (usually when it comes time to sell it!) and you begin to fix the things that need it. Maybe we need to look at our own lives with new eyes and fix them.