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Devotional
Weekly Bible Devotion By Books
June 12-17, 2023
Enter the Presence of the Lord
(All) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
(M)now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
(W)This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
(M)for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(W)and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
(All) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Romans 1:7a, 3: 21-24)
Confession
O holy and righteous Lord, we are often so self-righteous and yet we did not realize that the self-righteousness was indeed a sin. Your word helps us to see how far our hearts are from you indeed. O, Lord, we are truly sorry. We are righteous by your grace and work on the cross. We need help. Help us be humble before you. Help us to grow in your grace to reflect your maturity. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Scripture Reading
Jeremiah 17:1, 9; 33:31-33
17: 1, 9 “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
33: 31-33“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
Thoughts to share : O, Lord, Deliver Us from Our Inability to Do Good.
The book of Jerimiah is another jumbo book. It includes 52 chapters. It covers Jerimiah’s 40 years of prophecy career. The whole book was dominated with the wrath of God. One can be shocking and grieving most of the time while reading this book.
Jerimiah is known as a prophet of tears. He was born into a difficult time period. Judah was ruled under a series of mindless and unstable kings and under the constant threats of neighboring powers Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Then Jerimiah was given a difficult mission for the Lord: going to preach “pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant”. Furthermore, his mission was to a people who would not receive his message at all. Finally, he personally saw and experienced through the great wrath he prophesized with entire Judah kingdom and people. In the process, being a servant of God, he inherited God’s emotion toward his people. He was often in God’s sorrow, sadness, cry, pain, disappointment, indignation, frustration, and grief. On the other hand, being a human, he was in trembling, in panic, in heartbrokenness, in terror for the depth and width of heavy wrath upon the nation. Then he had to face the suspicion, hostility, conflicts from the people who heard his prophecies. Jerimiah had a tough life! Could he not be a prophet of tears? The only comfort which he could get was in the promise of God: I am with you to deliver you.
The book reveals that once a godly people has become entirely deaf to the word of God by Jerimiah’s time. Especially, those in power, in wealth, and in position would not, and could not be the examples of doing kindness, justice, and righteousness. Where were the godly ones? Where did the faithful ones go? As the power empires swept through the land, the ways of these powers became fashion on their paths. People were so comfortable with strange and foreign gods and goddesses. They looked their Lord as none. They did not listen to his voice. They did not to submit to him. They did not walk in his ways. Their hearts were stubborn to him.
God’s response to such a stubborn and willful people was wrath. The wrath of God in this book was terrible. Babylon was raised up to execute his wrath - pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow. The city of God, Jerusalem was destroyed. Street signs and building signs were changed. The Temple, the spiritual center of Israelites, and everything in it were profaned and set on fire. The palaces and all wealthy houses were burned down to the ground. The holy people were killed or taken in chain into foreign land and were ridiculed by the foreign soldiers. The holy land became a war zone. God’s response for their plea was zero tolerance. He held back his mighty hands. He only remembered their iniquity and punished their sins. The price of the sins was death. They were cast off from the promised land.
Amid the wrath of God, the book of Jerimiah gave a diagnosis of all these miserable mess. The root cause was in the heart condition of humans. The natural condition of the heart was “deceitful” above all things. And the worse thing was in that such a condition was beyond understanding and cure. The book also revealed a solution to save this wretched heart. The Lord announced that a new era would come. A new solution for our heart problem will come. We all will have a new heart to follow God’s ways.
To our generation who live in prosperity and peace, it is hard to understand and imagine what the wrath of God is like. The Book of Jerimiah gives us a picture of the wrath of God. The children of God should be awakened to heed God’s holiness, his voice and his ways. Sins have a price to pay at present time and in the future. Seeing through the wrath of God, we realize how precious the grace of the Gospel in Jesus Christ is. Being forgiven from the wrath of God is the greatest gift which Jesus gave us. Accepting Jesus is not for accepting a religion. It is for our own eternal destination and the peace and life in our life journey here.
Prayer suggestions
Wrath of God is a difficult subject. We would rather avoid this topic. But, there is a wisdom and salvation in understanding it. Thanks to Jesus Christ, he has rescued us from the wrath of God. Moreover, he can cleanse us from sins in His blood. He promised us to have a pure heart. So we will see him and be led into the blessings of God. Do you care about God’s voice and his ways? Do you walk in his ways? Let us have a self-reflection and get right with God again. Let our hearts be purified in Him.
O, Lord of salvation, thank you for your understanding of how hard it is to get out our sins in our hearts on our own efforts. We praise that you have sent Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to us. We are forgiven. We are rescued from your wrath once for all. We are continually in your grace of salvation. Please remind us of your voice and your ways. Search our hearts. Examine our minds. We desire to be your children, to be the light and salt in our world. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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