Rambling

Today I'm going to ramble around. I don't want to lay a guilt trip on myself, but I see I had 17 posts in Feb, 14 in March, 9 in April, 5 in May, 0 in June until now. There is a pattern to again take note of. I start enthusiastically and when my enthusiasm fades, so does my effort. Hmmm.

Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!

This was yesterday's sermon. And I need God to do more than I ask or imagine because my asking and imagining fizzles out. It is a comfort to know that God has provided for that. Yet I don't want to use God's 'more' as an excuse to live 'less'. Kurt reminded us that this more-ness of God should enable us to live large, to risk and to expect and to be amazed at God's work. That's what I want to do.

Kvelling on God's reconciling work

Aaron preached on Ephesians 2:11-17, and I looked back to my April entry and saw that I also studied it before I started backtracking. The challenge of this passage is not the conceptual understanding -- I don't find the concept of unity between Jew and Gentile (or interracial reconcilation in general) difficult at all, nor to I find it hard to see that our way of salvation is the same, both through the blood of Jesus. The challenge of this passage for me is more emotional: Paul is laying out God's exciting purpose, and I don't really feel that excited. God made great sacrifice to bring Jew and Gentile together to create one people, and I tend to treat it in a blase manner.

I regret (but tend to accept) the cultural divisions that exist in the church today. I find that I don't really lament or grieve them, nor do I get that super-excited over the vision that God has, except when I'm sitting in church and someone else preaches about it or it is the theme of the worship or singing. Then I 'feel' it -- but day-to-day I tend to forget all about it as my personal daily concerns supercede everything else.

To Paul, though, it is front and center. God's vision for creating a unified purpose IS his personal daily concern!

I am reminded of Dr. Goldenhersch, at HSSC, teaching us the meaning of the word 'kvell', and kvelling on her children and grandchildren. Maybe I should be kvelling on God's vision for his people.

Merriam-Webster definition for kvell
Pronunciation: \ˈkvel\
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: Yiddish kveln to be delighted, from Middle High German quellen to well, gush, swell
Date: circa 1952
: to be extraordinarily proud : rejoice


This is what Paul does all through Ephesians so far. He kvells constantly on the wonderful will and work of God.

Ephesians 2: 6-10 Sermon notes from Steve's sermon

Last week: (same passage) How bad it was, how good we now have it.

This week: Works -- Is it the right thing to do to really work at anything? Are grace and works really opposite? What is the relationship between them?

There's a time to let go of works and there's a time to embrace works. This passage helps us figure this out.

We are saved by grace, not by works. (v8) This lets us know there's no place to boast. God helps us -- NOT "God helps those who help themselves". All of salvation by faith is a gift. Our salvation is not meritorious. Faith is an instrument that God gives us that allows us access to this salvation he has made available.

What are we supposed to do with faith? First, we need to let go of works. Take inventory again and often -- do we hope to make ourselves presentable to God by our accomplishments, so we can say "in God's eyes I'm okay"? That's like slapping on a coat of paint over rotted walls. If we're hiding behind works, we should let go of them. God is the only one that can restore us.

We need to receive and cherish this gift of salvation -- use it, talk about it, etc. -- not put it up on a shelf somewhere. Look to grace instead of works when it comes to our salvation.

Yet there is a time to embrace works. We are created for good works. Works involve exertion. Works that bring God glory. We are called to 'stay in the game'. Works were prepared in advance for us to do. We can't do good works in our own power, but must do them in union with Christ, which means to be in the word of God to make sure we are continuing to learn about Jesus and be guided by him.

Look at our works as stemming from the grace we've been given, and issuing forth from that grace. There's a real purpose behind grace, and it involves being his handiwork made for good works. Let go of works when you find you're trying to hide behind them, but embrace works when you have received the gift of the gracious giver who is behind them.

Ephesians to the family

Does anyone besides me write out paraphrases of passages directed to themselves to try to figure out what they really mean? Here is one I started -- don't know if I'll ever finish it -- but I envisioned saying what Paul says to the Ephesians to my own family...

Gail Havens, a follower of Jesus who is a wife, mother, crafter, and educator by the will of God,

To the Havens saints, also followers of Jesus.

I (and Paul) wish you grace and peace the Father and the Lord Jesus.

I give praises to God for the way he has blessed all of us spiritually. He actually chose us to be forgiven through the work of Jesus way before we were born. He planned to adopt us into his family because he wanted to -- it would give him pleasure and it would show him off as a God who forgives freely because he loves his son Jesus. All because of Jesus' work on the cross, we have been snatched back from eternal seperation from God and forgiven for all our sins. When God lavishes forgiveness on us, don't think he doesn't know how bad we really are -- he has complete wisdom and understanding of us. As each of us was brought to him and made a profession of faith, we saw his purpose at work in our life, which is part of the Great Purpose -- to bring EVERYTHING and EVERYONE together under the rule of Jesus.

The Apostles followed Jesus, just like God planned beforehand that they would, to give glory to Jesus. Then, later, we also were included as followers of Jesus when we heard and accepted the truth that sending Jesus was God's plan to forgive our sins. At that time, God marked each of us with the Holy Spirit, who will keep on reminding us of God until the time comes that we're actually face to face with him in his kingdom.

Paul (and I) never stop thanking God for his work in each of your lives. I hope and pray that you keep on following Jesus...

The enemies and the great reversal

The sermon this week focused just on the first six verses of chapter 2, and I am only writing today about the first three:

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

I was dead in my transgressions before I became a Christian. I was by nature an object of wrath. This is strange to think about in the context of the fact that we baptise infants and claim God's promises for our children at this young age. Is William, at 4 months old, a dead object of wrath (and, at the same time, a precious and loved child of God)? How can that be? The question I really don't want to ask is "If this precious baby died without having become a believer, would he go to heaven?" How can you say he's a dead object of wrath, and also maintain that God would bring him home to heaven? Or, what if I had been hit by a car and died a month before I accepted Christ back in 1969? What would have happened to me?

It makes no sense except for the glorious fact of God's sovereignty over the world, from the smallest child to the largest movements of nations. God protects the eternal life of ALL his children and brings them home to him at the time he has ordained. Even though we believers go through a time of being 'dead' as we become responsible for our actions and have not yet embraced Christ for ourselves, I think that even that time of deadness does not occur outside of the circle of God's providence, and is not our final state according to God's plan and promise. God's will and power supercede the possiblity of one of his own being lost. In other words, those people don't die until God says so. This is perfectly in sync with the FACT that 'the church is not peripheral to the world, but the world is peripheral to the church' (this phrase quoted from the sermon). God IS the final power. God's plan to make a people for himself IS the real reality and purpose within the stream of life, and all events need to be understood in relation to this reality. We need not fear that God will mess it up.

Backtracking

Ephesians 1:19-23

18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The sermon Sunday made it definitely worth going back to this passage.

Some nuggests from the sermon:
-Overall theme of Ephesians: Cosmic Reconciliation
-The church is the most significant and beautiful place in the world. Christ has been exalted to the supreme place in the universe, and what's going on in the church is the heart of the action.
-The church is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church.

I often live as if being a Christian is somethng that is a private option for people, sort of a sideline, not to be brought out overtly in my public or work life, or my everyday commerce. In fact I am uncomfortable when people are 'too open' about their faith at work; or I cringe and draw away. Now, there is such a thing as speaking inappropriately -- however, if what Kurt said about this passage is true, then I must remember that there is no place that the truth of Christ is not relevant and even ofprimary importance!. So -- athough every expression of my faith would not be appropriate in every situation, there is an appropriate expression of faith for every situation because Christ is over all and in all, and I am primarily a follower of Christ whether I am at work or at the store or at home. An appropriate expression may be in certain actions or in certain words, and possibly it is verbal more often than I have thought. But mainly I need to absorb the idea that the workplace is not 'over' Christ, nor are modern ideas of social or political correctness 'over' Christ. Therefore, although it makes me uncomfortable, it may actually be appropriate at times to ignore conventions and speak out. Social approbation is nothing compared to the possibility of whetting someone's appetite for Christ, and letting them know that I am someone who is willing to tell them about him. I need to be ready and willing to give an account for myself and my actions at all times, even to random people when the opportunity arises. The more I do that, the more they know that Christians are all over the place, which might be an encouragement to seek God.

Therefore....... Ephesians 2: 11-22

THEREFORE

Whenever a passage begins this way it takes twice as long to study. Because you first have to figure out what the author is following up. What was his first point, that leads to this additional conclusion?

Pauls first point, in verses 1-10, was something like this: God saved me from death totally out of his love and mercy, and now there are 'good works' that He wants me to do.

Okay, now for the therefore:

11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Well, I was all ready for a to-do list. But there wasn't one. The 'therefore' does not apply to good works, but to our identity as people saved by God's grace and mercy. There are implications of that idea for the Christians Paul was writing to in the culture of the time, in which there was apparantly hostility between Jewish and Gentile Christians. There was an idea that they needed to embrace and remember, an idea that followed from the fact that their salvation was by grace alone. Here are three main points Paul makes:

1. Remember that you as Gentiles were seperated from God and now have been brought near.
2. Gentiles and Jews are both reconciled to God in the same way, through Jesus Christ, and God has ordained peace, not hostility, between them.
3. Jews and gentiles together, on the the foundation of the apostles & prophets and the cornerstone Jesus Christ, are becoming a dwelling place for God's Spirit.

It is much easier for me to have a to-do list than a to-embody list. But, just like Pauls prayer in chapter 1, in which none of his prayers were practical day-to-day nitty-gritty requests but a prayer for the believers' relationship with their God, Paul is again concerned with relationships and attitudes and the fulfillment of the plan that God is in the process of bringing about in history -- creating a people for Himself, that will be for the praise of His glory.

Much bigger than a to-do list.

Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.

Who am I? Ephesians 2: 1-10

Well, I WAS dead...

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

But God made me alive...

4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

And now I am God's workmanship, with work to do!

10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God is working on me. God is working in me. God made me alive with Christ -- I was dead at that point and couldn't do anything. But God raised me up! Why? To display his own grace and kindness, to the praise of his glory. When all things are brought together under God, I will be there praising him along with the rest of all creation. Hallelujah!

Hope, Riches, and Power

Wow, here are three things that everybody wants -- hope, riches, and power. And Paul says that we have inherited all three! However, we don't necessarily know it or remember it, and thus his prayer:

18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Paul wants us to know the hope God has called us to. He's already talked about this hope -- this sure hope of redemption for all who are included in Christ.

Paul wants us to know the riches of God's inheritance. I guess that inheritance is our part in God's future kingdom, in which all things are brought together in worship and praise of him 'to the praise of His glory'. But there are probably present aspects of this inheritance as well that should be manifesting themselves in our lives.

Paul wants us to know God's power, and he elaborates on this power at great length. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the power he wants us to know now.

But what about:

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

.
Does Paul dare, by his prayer, to contradict these two sayings that I have agreed with many times? Are our hope, inheritance, and power so sure that we can ignore these tentative and cautious ideas that say we must have it IN HAND to be sure of it? I think Paul would say yes in this instance, and in this instance only. Our inheritance from God is sure, so sure that we SHOULD live as though it has 'hatched' and is 'in hand', despite the fact that there is much future fulfillment still to come. That is what Paul means when he prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened so that we might know the hope, etc.

There is nothing else so sure that we should depend on it in this way -- not our jobs, our bank accounts, our family or friends or spouse, our health, our abilities. And so these sayings may still be good for everyday life in this world. However, if we apply them to our hope in God, it makes us live in a lesser type of faith than God wants. It makes us hold back our confidence and boldness with a 'wait and see' attitude toward God.

Paul is not praying that we 'wait and see' -- he is praying that we 'know and act': know who we are and act accordingly.

Eph 1: 15-23 Paul's prayer

v. 17-19a I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe

.

Is this how I pray for people? No. I usually pray for the things they want: their health, a job, a family member's well-being or salvation, for some situation to work out to their advantage, etc. Not that I shouldn't be concerned or pray for these things, but Paul's concerns are of a totally different nature.

His prayer has to do with knowing God better. This involves the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, which I take to mean, at the least, being able to recognize, understand, and apply God's word. Of course they didn't have the New Testament as such when Paul was writing; in fact, God was speaking directly through Paul and others at that time so that we would eventually have this body of revelation that we can safely and surely consider to be God's word. Back then it may have meant discerning between the teaching of any several people claiming to speak for God. Today it also may mean discernment regarding the many preachers, authors, teachers that are around us. But more importantly, I think it means listening to God's word in scripture, by the power of the Spirit. And it also means measuring other teaching and interpretation of the scriptures by the yardstick of the Bible, also by the power of the Spirit.

Then he mentions three other things that he wants us to know: our hope, our riches, and His power.

Those things are for tomorrow's study.

On to Ephesians

I am so happy to have finished Jeremiah -- not that I just wanted to be done with it, but it is a marker for me to actually have stuck with the book all the way through, read it all, thought about parts of it over the course of a few months. My usual pattern is to stick with something for about 2 to 3 weeks, then it goes by the wayside. I am thanking God for helping me get all the way through Jeremiah, and taking it as evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in me. It so often doesn't feel as if God is at work changing me, so I need to take any concrete success and give God the credit. Credit where credit is due.

We've had preaching on Ephesians at church lately, so I am going to take that book as my next step. I will go section by section, according to the NIV headings, rather than by chapters. They call the first section "Blessings in Christ", and it is verses 1-14.

The first thing I noticed was the extravagent language used for what God has done for us:
-blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in christ
-in accordance with the RICHES of God's grace that he LAVISHED on us
-which he has FREELY given us

And his purpose is also extravagent and expressed in superlatives:
-to bring ALL things in heaven and on earth together...
-he works out EVERYTHING in conformity with the purpose of his will

And it is all 'to the praise of his glory'. All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea...

The sweeping comprehensiveness of God's purpose rather takes my breath away. But in the tumble of this huge wave of God's purpose for creation that is relentlessly moving toward its destination, we also see that he is aware of each individual person as part of the whole:

Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

So, rather than just feeling like 'one of the crowd' and an inconsequential cog in the wheel, I know that I am a special individual who God purposefully chose to 'include in Christ'. I am marked with the Holy Spirit and, as I said above, I need to recognize that my three months of Bible study are an indication of that, and give thanks to God for it. I've proven over and over that I can't keep going on my own. Lord, help me to keep depending on your Spirit to guide me and engage me in your word.

A Scary Statement

Jeremiah 44:27 For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed. 28 Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.

This is what God says to the Jews who ran away to Egypt expressly against the word of the Lord after they had sworn they would obey the word of the Lord. They then out-and-out said that they were going to continue to worship other gods, because when they had been worshipping other gods they had been prosperous and when they had stopped, all their troubles had begun.

The Lord's response is justified, and terrifying. I cannot imagine what it would be like to know that God is after me for harm, rather than delighting in me and wooing me for good. These people have given up any chance for hope.

Yet we still see mercy, along with vindication, in the next verse. There will be a remnant, although it will be 'very few'. God never gives up totally; he is still teaching those few that He IS the one true God, and that His word WILL stand. I guess that, without a remnant, there's no one to know the whole story and to see the story as the working of his hand and to bow before Him in response. The other nations may look at the situation and say that the God of Israel failed -- but the remnant knows better.

Here we go again: Jeremiah 42-43

The same pattern we saw during Zedekiah's reign (who started to free the slaves, then enslaved them again) and Jehoikim (who burned up the scroll upon which God's word was written) emerges again in these chapters. Now we hear it from the army officers and the people left in Judah (Jeremiah 42):

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God...

And their real response to God's word?(Jeremiah 43)
1 When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them- 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, "You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'You must not go to Egypt to settle there.' 3 But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, [a] so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon."
4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD's command to stay in the land of Judah.


These people continue to behave in the same pattern as their culture and role models. They seem to know nothing about trusting and obeying God -- but they know plenty about giving lip service to obedience, and then deciding on their own what God is or isn't telling them.

Why would they not behave that way? After all, they have been chasing false gods. And this behavior is fine if your god's are false -- if they are made up by you, then you CAN decide what they are saying. And the god can't do anything about it.

What they don't realize is that, when you're dealing with the Lord -- the one true God -- it is totally different. HE is REAL. He really has a will, and expresses it, and has the power to carry it out. And, when you disobey or ignore it, HE really does follow through with consequences.

False gods are so easy. So easy, and so powerless. So pleasant, and so worthless. So easy to get along with, and so impotent.

Once again, we see that it all comes down to this: Am I going to follow the Lord, the One True God, or not? Woe to the one who does not. But, Lord, I need help.

To quote the words of our Good Friday prelude:
Oh Savior of the world,
Who by thy cross and passion hast redeemed us,
Save us and help us we humbly beseech thee.
Save us and help us, oh Savior of the world.

Lord, have mercy on me. Save me and help me, oh savior of the world.

Jeremiah 40-41

Don't really get any great significance out of these two chapters. Nebuchadnezzar appointed someone to oversee Judah, but someone else kills him and then flees to Egypt for fear of Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah doesn't really play any role. The people left in Judah are joined by other Jews from surrounding country, who presumably hear that they can join in getting a great harvest from all the lands that have been vacated by those brought into exile.

God's will marches on.

Jeremiah 39: It finally happens

In Chapter 38, Jeremiah is thrown into a cistern by people who hate him for what he is saying, then rescued by the King. King Zedekiah again hears all of Jeremiah's prophecies, but he ignores them and swears Jeremiah to secrecy about their conversation. The king then keeps Jeremiah safe but imprisoned in his courtyard, and that is where Jeremiah is when the events he has been prophesying finally come about.

King Z was governed by fear. He was afraid to obey Jeremiah because of the possibility of being handed over to the Jews who had already gone over to the Babylonians. And when Nebuchadnezzar broke through the wall, his reaction was to try to run away. He was not only a coward, but it seems he was concerned only with himself.

I cannot imagine the horror King Z must have felt when Nebuchadnezzar broke through the city wall; when he and his officials were captured; when his children were put to death before him; when he was blinded and shackled; when he learned of the destruction of the palace, the houses, the walls of Jerusalem. All that Jeremiah said came to pass. After all that selfish fear, did King Zedekiah finally feel remorse for disobeying God, I wonder? It was said clearly, King Z heard it clearly, he rejected it, and now he has the misfortune of being left alive to know of his responsibility in the whole thing, and that he could have saved many people and much property if he had obeyed God.

Look at this piece of mercy found in Jeremiah 39:
10 But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

And look at the compassion the Lord shows to Jeremiah:
11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: 12 "Take him and look after him; don't harm him but do for him whatever he asks." 13 So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers of the king of Babylon 14 sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard. They turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.

How did Nebuchadnezzar know about Jeremiah, I wonder? Was it from Jews who had gone over to the Babylonians, or from spies he had in Jerusalem, or some other source? In any case, I am glad to see the Jeremiah is rewarded in this way for his dificult obedience to the Lord. May I be so faithful to God's word and will as was Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 37 Please pray for me!

1 Zedekiah son of Josiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he reigned in place of Jehoiachin [a] son of Jehoiakim. 2 Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

3 King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: "Please pray to the LORD our God for us."


COMMENT:

Typical person, Zedekiah. He doesn't pay any attention to the words the Lord spoke through Jeremiah, but yet he wants Jeremiah to pray for him. Does he even believe in God really, or is he just hedging his bets? This is another stellar example of human nature. We want God's favor, but we don't want to pay attention to God's words. We want the 'good stuff', but we want it all for free, with no obligation or effort on our own part.

TANGENT:

Now, I might think "Well, salvation IS free!

Eph 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Yes it is a gift, and God made it that way because earning it is impossible since the wages of sin are death. We will never deserve salvation because of our own righteous actions, because we are already stained by sin.

However --- there is nevertheless an obligation involved. Our obligation is not to our sinful self, but to the Lord who has saved us.

Romans 8:12-14 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Following God, putting to death the misdeeds of the body, shows -- AFTER the fact, AFTER being saved -- that we ARE saved. This does not entail perfection, but it does entail gradual changes toward obeying God in some areas of our lives.

Why, then, is it that Christians often don't seem like they are better people than anyone else? Some non-Christian people seem more 'good' than some Christians I know. I think this may be because we don't realize the depths of our sinfulness, and we don't start to discover the depths of our sinfulness until we start trying to follow Christ and we are in the process of sanctification. And as we discover the depth of our sinfulness, we discover in parallel the depth of the God's mercy. The phrase "The more I know, the more I realize how much I don't know" comes to mind here. As I start to learn what following Christ means, the contrast between what God created me to be and what I am in my day-to-day actions and attitudes becomes more and more stark. The more I try, the more I fail. I am thrown again into despair and awareness of my extreme need for Christ alone. I again bow at the foot of the cross. Gradually, Jesus makes the fruits of the spirit develop in my life but, apace with that 'progress' is my awareness of the depth of my sinfulness so that I will continue to be dependent on Him rather that stray into thinking that I can now live a godly life on my own, in my own power.

BACK TO ZEDEKIAH:

God isn't fooled. God does not relent. God does insist that we bow down to him and honor him and recognize that he is the one true God. Jeremiah lets Zedekiah know that the Babylonians will be back, and Zedekiah tosses him in the dungeon. Guess he didn't like that answer.

Neither do we, sometimes.

Jeremiah 36: Burning up the scroll

22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.


27 After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 28 "Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.


32 So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.


COMMENTS:

What parts of my life are like burning up the scroll? When I hear or read God's word and refuse to heed it, it is essentially burning it up -- putting it out of my mind, ignoring it, rejecting it. Are there areas in which I am doing this?

God simply has Jeremiah write another one. He also intensifies and reaffirms the consequences that the Jehoiakim will experience as a result of his willful ingore-ance of God's word. God will not be thwarted.

Serve God

Jeremiah 35

Serve God. It is as simple as that.

Some people do what they are told to do, and others ignore it. But it's clear that we are to serve God, and that God pays attention to whether we are doing so or not.

Jer. 33
14 " 'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

15 " 'In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.

16 In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it [c] will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.'

17 For this is what the LORD says: 'David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 nor will the priests, who are Levites, ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.' "

19 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 20 "This is what the LORD says: 'If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.

Comment:
Here are the wonderful promises that we so cling to today, the promises we see fulfilled in Jesus. He is on the throne of the house of Israel, and he also consistently offers his sacrifice in front of the Lord for our forgiveness. And the illustration of God's covenant with the day and night tells us how rock-solid is God's commitment to this plan.

Jeremiah 34
8 The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. 9 Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. 10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. 11 But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

Comment: This little story is dishearteningly like me. Sigh. Thank God for his provision of forgiveness, because people haven't changed. Our only help is in his provision for mercy.

The Big Time Out -- Jeremiah 32

The period of exile makes me think of a great big time out for the people of God. They are behaving inappropriately and ungratefully and disobediently, not appreciating the Lord and the favor he has bestowed on him. So -- they must be removed from the situation in order to get their priorities straight. They will be made to long for the God and the land that they now take for granted and so abuse. Then, when they have ordered their minds and repented of their sins, they will be welcomed back to live a life that gives to God the worship and obedience that is due him and that will make them happy and prosperous in their lives.

A succinct description of the whole scenario is found in this chapter, as the Lord speaks to Jeremiah to explain why he had him buy a field:

(the Lord speaking)
33 They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. 34 They set up their abominable idols in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. 35 They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters [c] to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.

37 I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

42 "This is what the LORD says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.



The phrase "they turned their backs on me and not their faces" is a great summary, and great description of what our position before God can be. It makes me think of Adam and Eve, hiding and unable to 'face' God after they sinned. It makes me think of Vic standing and turning his back when John Meyer stood at the pulpit talking about the need for abortion. It is a strong statement to turn your back on someone, and that is what Israel and Judah have done.

God desires to see our faces, not our backs. He desires also 'singleness of heart and action' and for us to 'fear' him for our own good and the good of our children.

Jeremiah 31

This is an amazing chapter, so joyful and full of relief after the constant chastisement, wrath and grief of the earlier parts of the book. As I read it, I both take it at face value and wonder what the deeper meanings are, in terms of the cultural context in which it is written. The 'new covenant' is the covenant of Jesus' sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins and the giving of the Holy Spirit to teach us and remind us of the Word. That seems pretty plain. But there are other things I wonder about, and a few sections that I will comment on here.

FIRST: The following passage is so energetic and visual, I want to make a song out of it.

4 I will build you up again
and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.
Again you will take up your tambourines
and go out to dance with the joyful.

10 "Hear the word of the LORD, O nations;
proclaim it in distant coastlands:
'He who scattered Israel will gather them
and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.'

(Song idea: Hear the word of the Lord, O nations
Tell it to distant lands, O nations:
He who scattered will gather his people,
Watch over them like a shepherd.
Dance! I will build you up again!
Dance! You'll be rebuilt, O Israel!
Dance! Take up your tam-bor-ine and
Go out to dance with the joyful..
(tune: very rhythmic and similar to What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor)


SECOND: I have been mulling over the horrific number of abortions and the existence of frozen embryos in today's world, ever since I read the earlier passage where God chastises Israel for sacrificing their children to false gods. Again I think about this, as I read the following passage. Who are the children that the Lord is referring to here? What is Ramah? I have always applied this passage to the slaughter of infants when Moses and Jesus were babies, although I suppose that the 'face value' of the passage is the sacrificed infants and those that died while Israel was in exile. And -- could it have yet another application, in reference to our modern infanticide? In any case, God tells 'Rachel' to stop weeping. Her work will be rewarded. The children will return from the land of the enemy to their own land. It is hard to get my head around the significance of return to the land, but I know it was huge in that culture. But obviously those exact children did not return from exile with their families. So it must have a symbolic meaning of some sort. Is it correct to read it with this meaning?: God will take care of those children, they do still exist and will in fact be a part of the coming Kingdom. There is no further need to mourn for them -- just repent and continue in your repentance, and you will be rewarded by being with those precious children once again.

15 This is what the LORD says:
"A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because her children are no more."

16 This is what the LORD says:
"Restrain your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,"
declares the LORD.
"They will return from the land of the enemy.

17 So there is hope for your future,"
declares the LORD.
"Your children will return to their own land.


THIRD: What does the second half of this verse refer to? The footnote gives alternates of 'will go about seeking' or 'will protect', but none of the options seem to mean very much to me. Could it possibly refer to Mary giving birth to the Savior?
22 How long will you wander,
O unfaithful daughter?
The LORD will create a new thing on earth—
a woman will surround [b] a man."


FOURTH: I've always wondered what exactly is the substance of the idea that God will 'put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts', and 'they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest'. Surely it doesn't mean we no longer need the Bible to tell us about God, because God has given a general revelation to all people... So what exactly does this mean? Has it already happened? Will in happen in the future, when Jesus returns? Is this what it is like in heaven, or is there some current phenomena that this refers to? After all, the new covenant is now in place. Did this come about when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, and does it occur when each person becomes a believer and the HS enters them?

31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.

32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to [d] them, [e] "
declares the LORD.

33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

Jeremiah 30

3 The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity [a] and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess,' says the LORD."

8 " 'In that day,' declares the LORD Almighty,
'I will break the yoke off their necks
and will tear off their bonds;
no longer will foreigners enslave them.
9 Instead, they will serve the LORD their God
and David their king,
whom I will raise up for them.

11 I am with you and will save you,'
declares the LORD.
'Though I completely destroy all the nations
among which I scatter you,
I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you but only with justice;
I will not let you go entirely unpunished.'

24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
until he fully accomplishes
the purposes of his heart.
In days to come
you will understand this.

I know that I love the 'restoration' and 'forgiveness' passages in the Bible and shy away from the 'fierce anger' wrathful ones. But God is both. I can't choose one or the other. Here is a passage that combines both -- that really shows God's anger and wrath toward his unfaithful people but yet reiterates his commitment, his compassion, his commitment to fully accomplish 'the purposes of his heart.' And it ends "In days to come you will understand this." Lord, give me the beginnings of understanding now. I want to have a full picture of you so that I will rejoice in your forgiveness and mercy, but not presume upon it by continuing in sin. I want to see you as my heavenly father who is approachable through Jesus Christ, but I want to remember that you are wholly other, just and righteous, awesome in your glory, fearsome in your righteous wrath, demanding of complete loyalty. I am aware that I take any opportunity to cut myself slack by making excuses. You do not do this. Your mercy is not the same thing as excusing my sin -- your mercy paid for my sin in the most costly of ways, and I should abhor the thought that I would go on sinning after receiving your costly mercy.

Jeremiah 29

I guess at this point some of the things Jeremiah has prophecied have come true: Some people have gone into exile, some have stayed in Judah. God reiterates, through Jeremiah, that those who stayed in Judah will be in dire straights, but tells those in exile to basically settle down there and make a life for themselves for the next 70 years, until the time comes that He restores them back to Judah. Then comes one of those passages we hear all the time, and that sounds so good to our ears, and that we want to apply to ourselves as well as to this long-ago situation:

10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. [b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Alongside this comforting promise, the Lord also uses Jeremiah to again chastise and foretell doom to false prophets. Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shamaiah are all three made aware of the punishment in store for them because they have claimed to proclaim God's words falsly.

Back to the healing thing and possible parrallels between healing gifts and gifts of prophecy and whether they are part of the way God is working today: I think I feel safe sticking to the Bible and its words, which I am convinced are from the Lord, rather than looking around for anything more spectacular today. Certainly anything that happens needs to be measured against the Bible. Lord, if you choose to heal someone you certainly can and will, and we can certainly pray for it. However, to say that it is your will that someone we pray for be healed seems really presumptuous to me.

I wonder what Peter V is thinking these days about the seminar?

Now, back to those wonderful words in verses 10-14, about God's plans to prosper his people. I need to especially pay attention to verse 13: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Lord, help my heart to be wholly drawn to you, wholly seeking you.

Another thought to note: Kurt talked about predestination on Sunday, and one thing he said was that the election of believers was set before the world began. This led me in a somewhat roundabout way to some additional thoughts about the whole abortion issue and trying to understand how predestination fits into the picture of all these many babies that never see the light of day on earth. God's will is so funny and clever -- because at the same time that a horrible sin is being perpetrated on these babies, and the perpetators of that sin ( not only the abortionists but our culture and society) will reap the just punishment for their actions, God is also delighting in every little human that comes into existence for even a split second. And the baby that is miscarried or aborted escapes the suffering of this life and goes directly home to his Father in heaven to delight him and bring him joy without having to suffer the struggles of the battle against sin or embrace the joys of life. Does that sound boring to us? Going to be with God without ever living? Well, Kurt said that whatever we like to do the very most is just a shadow of the enjoyment of living with God -- so these babies are most fortunate of all, while those who act against them are least fortunate and destined for the terrible wrath of God unless they repent of their sins. But the babies? We don't have to worry about them -- God is fully caring for them, his plan is to prosper and not harm them, they have entered a future that we here on earth long for every day.

Jeremiah 27-28

27:
Every nation gets handed over to Babylon. If the nations go along with this, then they get to stay on their own land during the occupancy. If not, they get removed. Then, at a later time, Babylon gets its comeuppance and becomes subjugated to the other nations. Also, the holy things from the temple will be taken from Jerusalem, but God is already planning for their eventual restoration.

How can Udo Middelman say that God doesn't determine/control the flow of history in view of this passage, I wonder?

28:
Claiming that God says something that he really doesn't is a big deal to God. Enough to kill Hananiah after he made these false prophecies. I've heard people occasionally say something about having a word of prophecy, although I can't think of a specific instance and I have not taken them seriously anyway. But God certainly takes Hananiah seriously here. What Hananiah has done is an affront to God as well as a disservice to God's people, and God acts.

Lord, this whole area of supernatural gifts such as healing or prophecy has me confused and wondering. How do you work in the world today? Do you do spectacular healings? Do you send prophets? Some say we should rule these things out because the era of such things has past. Is that correct, or is that placing limitations on you? What am I to make of the claims of Cynthia Harris, that she clearly believes and says she approached with a critical eye? And Phyllis saying she has her sense of smell back? I am a doubting Thomas, and you had the chance to convince me a few weekends ago but didn't... Is generalizing from healing gifts to prophetic gifts and visa versa even legitimate? Should I expect anything that appoies to one to apply to the other, or am I just mushing everything together.

Maybe Vic can recommend a book on the subject.

All Mixed Up - Jeremiah 26

ONE WOULD THINK it would be the priests and prophets that would have enough discernment to see that Jeremiah was from God and/or enough humility to engage in reform and repentance in order to avoid destruction. We expect our religious leaders to be more spiritually attuned to God, to be discerning, to understand what is in our best interests. And, at this point, Jeremiah was even still offering a way out of the doom he was predicting:

"Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done."

Nevertheless, getting rid of him seemed to the prophets and priests to be in their best interest. It also was according to the precedent they had set with the prophet Uriah, whom they had killed. Letting Jeremiah continue would mean that they had erred with Uriah, which was perhaps an error they did not wish to admit. Unfortunately for them, both Uriah and Jeremiah were speaking the true words of the Lord.

Thankfully the officials and people respond to Jeremiah's defense of himself and prevent him from being killed:

12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."

So we have prophets and priests versus officials and people. In this case, the officials and people are the ones who are able to think back to Micah and the relenting of the Lord after the people repented, a more relevent precedent than the self-serving precedent of the prophets' and priests' own wicked actions against Uriah.

How, Lord, can we know what our own motives are? How can we know when we are listening to you and when we are not? How can we know when our religious leaders are listening to you and when they are not? I struggle to know whether I am being honest with myself and about myself. Are my worst thoughts/fears about myself always the truest ones?

Jeremiah 25

On and on it goes -- 23 years worth of prophesying to Judah without their repentance -- and Jeremiah announces the cup of destruction to all the nations, to take place after the 70 years of exile that Judah will experience.

I guess this is all history that has happened already.

Is it fair to look at today's worldwide crises, and also see the Lord's judgement in them? To notice that today's people and cultures commit the same sins of idolotry and the slaughter of children, and to expect an outcome that is similarly an irrevocable judgement of God? Why pray against the outcome -- rather, we should pray and work against the sin that is the cause of this outcome. I don't claim that this prophecy is in any way specifically directed to 21st century US and world, but it does tell us and remind us of what God cares about. He wants our hearts to belong to him, He wants our worship to be directed toward him and him only, He wants us to live righteous and just lives, and he wants us to care for our children.

Jeremiah 23

Well, finally I get to some of the 'nuggets' people mention from Jeremiah...

5 "The days are coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will raise up to David [a] a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.

6 In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.

A prediction of the coming Messiah, again from the line of David -- and God shows his tenderness to Israel again, confirming that the relationship is still in place despite all the discipline and consequences that the leaders and people must bear for their unfaithfulness to God.

29 "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

And this is a verse we used in Son Dance the first year -- one of the verses of "It's God's Word" is based on the idea of God's word being like a hammer, and Kurt has used the illustration at other times as well. God's word purifies. God's word breaks lies into pieces. This verse comes in the context of the Lord chastising and condemning prophets who lie and make false claims about his word:

36 But you must not mention 'the oracle of the LORD ' again, because every man's own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God, the LORD Almighty, our God.

The Lord will defend his word.

This brings me to an opportunity to think about the Prayer for Healing conference last weekend. It is a puzzler to me, and I really don't want to do what these false prophets did (take words of men and claim that they are the word of God). I don't wnat to see more than was really there in the events of the weekend and the stories Cynthia told about healing in India and USA that she has witnessed. But I don't want to discount or dismiss anything that might be your work, Lord. I guess that's the question I am asking: Are you doing something important here that we should pay attention to and receive as your work consistent with your word, or is this an instance of getting more excited about the gift than the giver, an out-of-focus view of what you are really doing in our lives, and a path that will just lead us away from the work you have called us to at Grace & Peace, making us tend to focus on ourselves, our wants/'gimmes', and feel discourageda about our unhealed ills rather than asking "Lord, how are you using this circumstance in my life to help me love you and others? How are you 'working all things togehter for good'?"

Points about the conference:
1. Cynthia is convinced. Cynthia seems to have scrutinized a number of healings carefully, participated in them, and come away believing that they are authentic. Her experiences with her mom and her self, coupled with things she's seen in her travels, have firmly convinced her that spectacular miraculous healings still happen today.
2. Cynthia presented anecdotes, not evidence. There were no 'before-and-after' pictures of significant healings -- spinal cords straightened, eyeballs changed, tumors gone. No doctor's reports and documentation. We did not see evidence ourselves, we simply heard Cynthia's story.
3. Nothing convincing happened at the conference to demonstrate this phenomenon. We prayed a lot, and there is the possibility that the one boy and Phyllis had some positive effect, but no clear proof as of yet. And numerous people were prayed for with no discernable healing, which is not to say the prayers went unanswered or unheard but that God has other things in mind for us.

I feel very cautious about the whole thing. My fears are enlightened a bit by this little exerpt from an article posted by Evelyn Tomlinson on her facebook page:

"Even good things can unbalance our loyalties, especially good causes. We can get so caught up in, say, pro-life activities that our loyalty shifts from Christ to the cause. Or we can put our hope in a political party or ideology and loyalty to that overrides our loyalty to Christ. We can even convince ourselves that they are one and the same."

I'm not saying that Cynthia or anyone else has shifted their loyalty -- but I think that it is a danger I want to be aware of as the interest in healing prayer continues to simmer at church, and as I continue to consider these things. It would be so easy to get the cart before the horse. Some people's misery runs so deep and their hope for healing is so fearfully gained.

No relenting -- Jeremiah 22

God is relentless here in his expressions of judgement. Of course, Jehoakin has been relentless in his injustice and lack of mercy, his wrongful use of people for his own gain, his worship of false Gods. God will not let up on the one who does not turn to him or obey.

It is 'him who is exiled' that has God's sympathy, because they will die there and will not return to the land.

10 Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss;
rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled,
because he will never return
nor see his native land again.

29 O land, land, land,
hear the word of the LORD!

This is a strange verse. I don't understand quite whether this particular land is significant in and of itself, or whether it is the best/most fruitful land around, or whether its significance to God is purely the result of the covenantal connection between God, Israel, and this particualar place. But there's no doubting that everybody over there wants this land, and seems to 'get' the fact that it is very significant.

Jeremiah 21

Funny how easily I can relate to Zedekiah and the prophets he sent to inquire of Jeremiah. They don't want to change. They just want to be spared the consequences of their actions. They want God to come to their defense and perform wonders for them, but they don't want to follow him day-to-day, changing their ways and administering justice.

I also would like God to act on my behalf without having to change any of my ways.

They must have gulped in shock at the words Jeremiah spoke back to them, telling them that God was not going to relent and let them off the hook:

"I have determined to do this city harm and not good"
"I am against you, Jerusalem"
"I will punish you as your deeds deserve"

Still, God provides an 'out', a way of life: go out of the city and surrender. In their case, they must surrender to their enemies in order to live. They must humble themselves to the events that God has proclaimed and is bringing about -- the conquest of Judah at the hands of Babylon, a result of their own sin -- and in doing so they will save their lives and still be the people of God, although they will be in exile from their land.

What is my way out and how is it similar to theirs? It is Jesus, the lamb of God sacrificed for my sins. He comes as an enemy of the world of sin and death in which I live. I must surrender -- surrender to Jesus, humble myself to receive his forgiveness. I then receive a new home, and this present home becomes my exile. I live in this world of sin as an exile waiting to go home to the new Jerusalem, my true home.

Possessed by God

Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah spends a whole day in stocks because of his prophecying of doom -- and he comes out of it doing more of the same, continuing to announce the destruction that the Lord is going to bring on Judah using the nation of Babylon,even to the point of changing the name of the priest to 'terror on every side' as an illustration. Then he complains to the Lord that the Lord has trapped him in this role which causes him to be ridiculed and mocked, and you see how difficult it is for Jeremiah, what a weight and stress it is to be doing this task, how much he wants to escape and yet how much he is urged on by his own inner compulsion and calling to continue to do the work of the Lord.

8 Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.

9 But if I say, "I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,"
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.

And


18 Why did I ever come out of the womb
to see trouble and sorrow
and to end my days in shame?


It is not always pleasant -- or perhaps it is not even usually pleasant -- to do the work of the Lord. Jeremiah is speaking the words that God has given him, and it is thankless, miserable, agonizing, isolating. Yet he persists. He persists because he must; God has put it in him to do it.

I think there is a similarity between this experience of Jeremiah and in how Vic felt during this whole bad scene of the past couple years at church, when he has been the lone voice being pressured to change his mind about what he thought was true and right. And in the aftermath (it may even be wrong to use the word aftermath yet), Vic is profoundly effected and discouraged. And I am aware that I have begun operating shallowly with regard to the whole thing. I want to feel like it's over, so I want to act like it's over, to expect that Vic now just needs to get up and walk, so to speak. In my impatience that things aren't 'back to normal' at church, I have been less of a support to Vic and more reserved and surface-y with him than I should be. God, thank you for showing me this.

'Back to normal' is not the goal. 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done' is.

Funny how I was criticizing the content of our prayers at prayer meeting yesterday. I can liken my desire for so-called normalcy with Vic at church to our prayers at prayer meeting about the economic downturn. We want what we want. We want our own comfort, and that is more at the forefront of our mind than the real issues of sin involved with our nation. We find it uncomfortable to look deeper -- at the real issues -- and we just want things to be back to the way we like it.

Lord, help me to re-engage with what is truly going on here. What are you doing? What are you continuing to do? Is Vic's assurance of salvation, which we are meeting to pray about, the only issue that we should be praying about or are there other issues that are really the ones that should be of concern?

Breaking a pot at Jopheth Jeremiah 19

This chapter has really gotten me thinking.

God has been castigating the children of Israel for idolotry throughout this book of Jeremiah, but here he focuses in on the practice of infant sacrifice that was connected with this idolotry. Topheth -- 'the fireplace' -- was a place where children were cast into the fire. And as a result of this practice, which has stemmed directly out of their idolotry, Jeremiah is instructed to break a clay pot into irreparable pieces, and proclaim to Israel that God will do the same to her because of her evil practices.

I think of our prayers for our country last night at prayer group and recently at church, and they mainly have to do with the alleviation of the economic downturn. In other words, we pray out of our fears for our own selves, and ask God to help us and provide for us. (And we are so used to having much more than 'daily bread', that we are essentially asking God to keep on letting us live in the lap of luxury and we feel as if we are only asking for what is our due.)

I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for ourselves and present our cares to God, but the economic downturn and it's effect on us seems small when I look at the book of Jeremiah and God's concerns. He does not want us to worship other Gods. He does not want us to kill babies. Those are his concerns. And these offenses are such that, in righteous anger, he is justified in destroying the people and their way of life, sending them into extreme suffering in exile, turning his face from them, allowing them to feel the horror of their seperation from God until they turn again to him and reject the false worship and evil practices that go along with it. Not until then will God save a remnant of them.

Should we not be praying that we and our countrymen would return to the Lord, and that any adverse circumstances we find ourselves in would move us in that direction? Should we not be mourning the slaughter of babies in our country and our world, and the false Gods that are worshipped all around us? Should we not be more concerned with these things than with our economic woes? And as, at times, we pray for the Lord's quick return, should we not be cowering at the thought of the just wrath of God at our country's idolotry and practices of infanticide? Our suffering as a nation is nothing compared with the punishment we deserve as a nation.

more on Jeremiah 17:5-10

Yesterday I noticed how God judges us -- from the inside out. I didn't think to relate this to the question about areas I have control over for the Step Study tonight. I didn't write down that I usually have control over my actions -- not always, but usually; and especially with people outside the family -- but that I do not have control of my thought life. I think mean things, sick things, angry things, hateful things, critical things, disinterested things -- all the while acting kindly toward a person. I also try to reject these thoughts, as they are not good and I know it. In fact, my kind actions are at least partially an effort to suppress and reject this sin. However, I rarely confess this sin, either to God or to the person. I am trying to deal with sin in my own way by burying it or ignoring it, rather than deal with it in God's way by admitting and confessing it, asking for forgiveness, and looking for the Spirit to give me a new thought life.

The other reason I am coming back to this passage is because of verses 5-8.

5 This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

I look at verse 5 and realize that it describes me. I've always had trouble understanding the phrases 'in the flesh' and 'in the spirit', because we would not even be here if not for the spirit breathing life into us, so there is always a mix of spirit and flesh, and to act only in the flesh isn't even possible. Yet, this verse made me think in a new way: depending on flesh for my strength may mean depending on OTHER men (i.e. the opinion of my family, the feedback/positive strokes I get occupied with, the way I want people to think of me). I live with the opinion of my parents, my husband, my kids, my employer, my coworkers, and my friends as the scale by which I measure my life. I get a fair bit of positive feedback from them, and yet it never feels like enough to satisfy. And this is a parched place, a place that dries you out with trying and never receiving enough attention, a place that deludes you and places a barrier between you and God. You "don't see prosperity when it comes" -- could I take this to mean that I don't appreciate anything of what these relationships are in reality, because I am so preoccupied with getting my strength and affirmation from them and being disappointed? And that this attitude of mine places a smokescreen between me and God, so that I also cut myself off from the blessings of 'the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him'? I miss out on all that is described in verse 8 -- no fear, wholeness, no worries, fruitfulness.

It seems very logical for the thoughts in verse 9 to come next:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17: 5-10

This is what the Lord says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."

This is interesting to me: The Lord searches our HEART and examines our MIND (not our actions) to reward a man according to his CONDUCT/DEEDS... We can see men's deeds and judge them in a way; we see actions that seem good or evil, righteous or unrighteous, helpful or unhelpful to us. But when God judges our deeds and conduct, he judges it from the inside out and sees it all: the motivations, the hopes, the manipulations, etc. It is a falsehood to think that our heart and mind are not part of our conduct.

How does God judge me when I struggle to act kindly despite anger in my heart? I sometimes feel proud of controlling my actions and want to act as if that is 'good enough'. It is probably better for me to act kindly than to blast someone with my raw emotion. Yet, what God really wants is for me to also deal with my evil heart, and bring my sinful feelings to Him, and perhaps there are ways also to learn to bring them into the relationship involved in a healthy way.

I have a lot to learn.

Useless and shameful people

Jeremiah 12 & 13

Honesty here -- I am beginning to feel repelled by all the constant hammering away at the people, both God's chosen people and the other nations. The vivid images in chapter 13, of a soiled useless belt and a woman with her skirts pulled up over her head for all to see her shame make me feel a little sick. God is saying, and asking Jeremiah to say, some very ugly things here. If someone said these things today, I'd probably accuse them of using gratuitious sexual images.

So, God, why do you do this? Why do you speak in this most hurtful and demeaning of language? If I go back to your character -- that you are a faithful God, that you keep your promises, that you love your people, that you will not be mocked but will defend your glory, that you are a jealous God who expects the worship of your people -- it seems that you must have really been at the end of your rope here in trying to get your people to pay any attention at all to you. So you became very graphic.

I guess part of my aggravation is about the fact that these images of unfaithfulness are always female. I don't really know how these images would have hit the minds of the people of that ancient culture, but I know that they are making me feel a little sick and repulsed as a woman. Sexuality is confusing enough as it is, and so easily perverted, that I am really annoyed by the image of Judah as a prostitute or a mare neighing in heat. Was that culture more earthy and able to get meaning from these images without just weirding people out? Was prostitution very common then and done because of inappropriate sexual desire on the part of the women rather than financial need? I doubt it. Yes, I know you are extending the image of Israel as your bride. But why always use a female example, rather than an example of a randy man chasing skirts? If you were speaking to us today, would you use this same image or would you perhaps use an internet porn example? This is another example of how your ways are not my ways, and I often do not understand your ways.

I wonder if the existence of visual media, which is part of our culture but was not such a part of theirs, is effecting my reaction to this passage?

You answer Jeremiah when he asks why the wicked nations continue to prosper, saying that later they will also get their own come-uppance. You also hold out this ray of hope:

Jeremiah 12:15-17 "But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. And if they swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the Lord lives' -- even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal -- then they will be estabished among my people. But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it," declares the Lord.

I'm sure glad you throw this thought in there every so often -- that you will establish or re-establish people in relationship with you if they turn to you. I need to hear this over and over as I struggle.

Judgement and Protection

PART ONE: Jeremiah 11
Two definite parts to this chapter: God states clearly what his complaint is against Judah (the breaking of the Mosaic covenant). God gave them the land as promised, but they strayed from Him. They followed other gods, especially Baal, and the Lord intends to leave them to those gods. Natural consequences will take effect. He will let them cry out to Baal when destruction is upon them and see Baal's powerlessness. It is Judah's worship of Baal, this direct violation of the covenant, that has caused God to decree disaster for them.

Then Jeremiah tells about how God revealed to him a plot on his life. God says he will completely destroy the plotters, along with their families, and without leaving even a remnant. Let these passages serve as a warning to me, who has received goodness and blessing when I have not deserved it, who worries that I will be 'found out', but at the same time behaves as if God won't notice my sins: God knows, and God cares, and God will not be mocked.

PART TWO: Step Study thoughts
The Step Study is not exactly a Bible study. It is a commitment to a group of women to go through the 'steps' together to gain greater understanding of oneself and the experiences that have formed one's image of God, so that that image can be corrected, God can be better known, and change can take place in behaviors in which our motivations tend to be hidden from us. Each step is based on biblical principles.

I think I will do this. I will be forced to look at my sins full on, and hopefully turn some behaviors and relationships over to the Lord in a deeper way than I have. I will have the opportunity to spend time with sisters in Christ and get to know them on a deep level, which I have been lacking since the kids were young and I spent a lot of time with other women.

The first lesson topic is denial. I guess that's the first step. The scriptures Judy gave me are:
2 Peter 2:19 They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity -- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
Psalm 146: 7-8 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.
Psalm 107: 13-14 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.
1 John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him and decxlare to you: God is liht; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Jeremiah 30:17 'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,' declares the Lord, 'because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.'

Three part entry

PART ONE
Jeremiah 10 -- A description of idols and thier powerlessness, contrasted with God's reality and power.
Verse 10: But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.

And later, Jeremiah prays:
Verse 23 -- I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me, Lord, but only with justice -- not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.

Comment: Jeremiah desires God's justice but fears God's anger. My tendency is to fear God's justice as well, because I know that if simple justice were to reign, I would be justly put to death for my sin. It seems like God's justice would reduce me to nothing as well. But I need to remember that God's faithfulness to the enduring covenant is part of the justice -- so that Jeremiah trusts that God will not abandon his promises but will deal with injustice and wrongdoing in the context of that enduring covenant in which Israel is still God's people, despite the needed consequences and refining that they must go through in order to return to God.

PART TWO
I am thinking about attending the women's step study, but wonder if I have to have an identified 'recovery issue' in order to do so or if I can just go because I really want to be study the word with other women, be honest with you, God, and pursue my relationship with you more faithfully. But I also wonder if I do have an 'issue', and if that issue might be my craving for attention, respect, and admiration.

PART THREE
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Somepoints from today's sermon:
-Being merciful is easier said than done.
-Mercy is not just clemency. It is also kindness and compassion.
-"obtain mercy" is active voice -- better expressed 'they shall be mercied by God'.
--In the future we will receive a return on the mercy we have given. God is abounding in mercy.
-Take the words of Christ seriously: forego retaliation, turn the other cheek, pray for those who persecute us, go the extra mile, etc.
-God wants us to experience an expanded mercy -- by making the unexpected merciful response simply to reflect God's abounding mercy
--Keirkegard: Mercy has converted more souls than zeal or eloquence or learning or all those combined.

It is good to reflect on God's mercy alongside reading Jeremiah with all God's expressions of hurt and anger and descriptions of the coming doom, sorrow, and desolation for Israel. God is both just and merciful. And we are urged toward both justice (righteousness) and mercy in the beatitudes.

The circumcised heart

This is Friday's reading, which I never commented upon and then I skipped Saturday. The Lord continues to list his people's sins, focusing on dishonesty and deceit and forsaking of the law, and then mourns over the desolation of the land that is the consequence of this behavior. Then he says:

Jeremiah 9:23-24
This is what the Lord says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord.

Then he finishes off by reiterating that the day of punishment is coming for those who are circumcised 'only in the flesh' and are 'uncircumcised in heart' like Israel.

God does not want any fakery. He sees right through it, straight to the heart of man. He is angered when our actions are evil, for those actions come out of an evil heart. He is also angered when our actions are fake, 'good' on the outside but coming from an evil, uncircumcised heart. God wants our hearts to be circumcised, to be devoted to understanding and knowing Him. From a circumcised heart will spring righteous actions and kindness and justice. My concern needs to be my heart. I am usually much more concerned with what shows than with what is in my heart, although the two are very intertwined. I try to act rightly even when my heart is NOT in the 'right place', and I think I have viewed that as a good thing. I'm thinking now that, if said right action, done despite evil in my heart, represents a struggle to resist evil and a desire to have my heart changed, then perhaps it is good. But if the right action is simply a way to hide my evil and boast in my own 'wisdom' or 'strength', then the net result is probably more harm than good, worse than if I had been honestly evil and born the consequences. The real lesson I am taking from this is that I should make every effort to deal with my heart in all circumstances. That is the thing that concerns God. He wants the source to be sound, then there is no worry about the actions. I need to concern myself more and more with my heart, which means simply listening to God's word and letting it reveal myself to me as it also reveals God to me. Then I will know and understand God, which is what the Lord says is of greater value than wisdom, strength, or riches.

Love hurts

Jeremiah 8:4
Say to them, 'This is what the Lord says: When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? Why then have these peope turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

Jeremiah 8:18 -- 9:2
(J)O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?

(G)Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?

(J)The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.

Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers.



God is gravely hurt and driven to rebuke and anger and punishment by the unfaithfulness of his people, whom He loves. Jeremiah also loves this people, and is announcing God's word to them, and is hurt as they do not respond and he sees what is coming upon them because of it. He pleads for them, he pleads with them, he hurts for them, and he also wants to flee from the pain of it all. This is what I was thinking about yesterday -- the pain of loving people -- and how happy we are when that love is returned, and how deeply it hurts when our loved ones lash out at us. It makes me want to stop loving. It makes me want to get away, and yet I don't want to get away at all because I care. We bear a lot of pain because of love. And it feels miserable. I am very aware of my own misery when this happens. Perhaps I need to translate this into being aware of how I make God feel when I ignore him or rebel.

Trusting in the temple

Jeremiah 7: 3-7a
This is what the Lord Almight, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justy.... then I will let you live in this place.

Jeremiah 7:14
Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers.

It is hard to relate to the passages that so emphasize physical destruction of land and property and being thrust out of the land, as in the destruction of Shiloh and the many threats of physical destruction and exile that God makes here. Just like I am not accustomed to seeing the Holy Spirit miraculously heal people in today's world and culture, I am unused to the kind of physical destruction at God's hand that He keeps having Jeremiah announce. My experience with God seems more intangible than this -- more of the spirit/emotions/thoughts/beliefs/attitudes than of the body/church building/dwelling place/animal sacrifice variety. The physical things of my life have been very stable. Unemployment has so far been more of a blip than a destruction, although we are waiting on the Lord right now to see if this will still be true. I have also lived with incredible physical health and safety, not only me but most of my family and friends (not without loss, but always there was time for healing and usually the belief that those I've lost are now with the Lord). My struggles in day-to-day obedience have been all about being Christ-like in relationships, having communication with God regularly in the Word and prayer, and figuring out how to respond in obedience. What was it like for the Israelites each day? The same? Did they have seeming physical security, despite ignoring God for a long time, which led to their lack of response to Jeremiah and God's warnings of destruction? Lord, I hope I am listening to you and that I will obey you.

Jeremiah 7: 22-24
"For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward."

I relate to that last sentence. I have slipped subtly and silently backward for a number of years and, Lord, I do not want to keep on slipping. I want to obey you, as you command.

I need help

Jeremiah 6:10
To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me?
Their ears are closed so they cannot hear.
The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

Jeremiah 6:16-19
This is what the Lord says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said,'We will not walk in it'. I appointed watchmen over you and said 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.'
Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.

How do I apply such passages to my life? In what ways should I be identifying with Israel? Lord, I have found no pleasure in your word -- have mercy on me, and help me to find the good way and walk in it, as you command. Israel did not listen to your words and rejected your law. They became hardened rebels (v. 28) and you rejected them. Save me from that fate. Have mercy.

A false feeling of invincibility

Jeremiah 5
v 12-15
They have lied about the Lord; they said, "He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine. the prophets are but wind and the word is not in them; so let what they say be done to them."
Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty says:
"Because the people have spoken these words, I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes..."

My life has been so fortunate that it is easy to think no harm will ever come to me. I have always been loved, clothed, and fed. I have had many opportunities, and have usually succeeded at them at least to a degree. My parents are proud of me and pleased with me. I get strokes from employers and coworkers, and in ministry at church. So I take all this positive feedback in -- and I put it next to the private and personal knowledge of my sin which is seldom noticed or mentioned -- and it starts to feel like I will never get 'caught' in my sin. No one knows my secret pride. No one knows my evil, hateful thoughts or lack of spiritual growth. I have my over-indulgences in food and fiction, and no one calls me on it. I have learned to apologize for my overt sins against others, and I am sincere and people usually forgive me.

Two things result from this:
1. I am prone to think, like Israel, God will do nothing. No harm will come to me.
2. At the same time, solitary awareness of my private sins, alongside my decent public image, make me all that much more prone to keep them private so as not to tarnish my image. I do not want to share these inner struggles or even admit them to myself, yet I feel shame over them. The longer I successfully hide, the harder it is to think that someone will 'find out who I really am' and their image of me will be shot to pieces.
3. When I do think about sharing my inner struggles, my evil and self-centered mind jumps to devising ways to share them that will also boost my public image -- i.e. "Isn't it wonderful how transparent she is? How much she wants to grow in the Lord?" -- and I imagine how much attention or respect I might get out of it.

I can understand why God cannot find any who deal honestly and seek the truth (v1) and why there is no basis in Israel or Judah's or my behavior on which to base forgiveness.

Any forgiveness given to me is entirely a result of God's merciful heart. I have no merit whatsoever.

Confession used in church today

Mighty God,
I humble myself for faculties misused, opportunities neglected, words ill-advised.
I repent of my folly and inconsiderate ways, my broken resolutions, untrue service, my backsliding steps, my vain thoughts.
O bury my sins in the ocean of Jesus' blood and let no evil result from my fretful temper, unseemly behavior, provoking pettiness.

Cement my oneness with my blessed Lord, that faith may adhere to him immovably,
that love may entwine itself round him more tightly,
that his Spirit may pervade every fiber of my being.
Then send me out to make him known to my fellow-men.
--from "Humility in Service" in The Valley of Vision