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.