Tuesday, July 22,
2014, 12:40 p.m. – the Lord Jesus put the song in mind, “Give Thanks.” Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Jeremiah 17:1-14
(NIV).
Our Sin
“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.
Even
their children remember
their altars and Asherah poles
beside
the spreading trees
and on the high hills.
My
mountain in the land
and your wealth and all your treasures
I
will give away as plunder,
together with your high places,
because of sin throughout your country.
Through
your own fault you will lose
the inheritance I gave you.
I
will enslave you to your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for
you have kindled my anger,
and it will burn forever.”
The nation of Israel, though not all who are Jews by birth, has
rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Lord. They were thus cut off from
the vine and are no longer the children of God. They are not God’s chosen
people. They do not worship the God of Abraham. They are of Hagar, the slave
woman, separated from the God they claim to worship, and no longer bound for
heaven for eternity. Although they may be physical descendants of Abraham, they
are not the children of promise. Only those who believe in Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Messiah are the children of promise and have the hope of
eternity with God in heaven. Yet, they can be grafted back into the vine
through belief in Jesus Christ, so there is still hope for them. [See Ro.
9:6b-8; Ro. 11; Gal. 3:26-29; Gal. 4:22-31; Eph. 2:14-18]
We read in the Bible that all have sinned and come up short
of attaining God’s glory (See Ro. 3:23). Not one of us is righteous. All of us
have gone astray. Because of Adam’s sin, the whole human race is born with a
sin nature. We are without hope and without God. And, we are destined to spend
eternity without God in eternal punishment, apart from the saving grace of
Jesus Christ via his death on the cross for our sins, and apart from faith in
him.
Who do you trust?
This
is what the Lord says:
“Cursed
is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That
person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They
will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
All throughout scripture we, as God’s chosen people, are
warned against putting our trust in humans or in the gods of this world over
and above our trust in God, so to some extent this is speaking to Christians.
It is a warning against putting our confidence, hope and trust in human beings
- even in ourselves - and in their talents, intelligence, wisdom, doctrines, teaching,
thinking, reasoning, giftedness, positions of power or authority or privilege, social
status, religious popularity, scheming, charm, charisma, and likability; and/or
in their appearances of sincerity, honesty and/or seeming personal holiness, but
especially with regard to trusting them over and above or in place of our trust
in God as our only God. When we trust in man, and in man’s ways, and in man’s
thinking and reasoning above our trust in God and in his word, this is a form
of idolatry and/or spiritual adultery. So, it hurts our relationships and our
fellowship with our Lord, and it grieves the Spirit of God.
As well, when we trust in man more than or in place of trust
in God, we are behaving immaturely, fleshly and worldly, which is not pleasing
to God, because he died to set us free from all that. As well, such attitudes
and behaviors hinder our fellowship with him and our testimonies for him and
for his gospel, and it hinders our relationships and fellowship with fellow
believers, too. It also makes us much more vulnerable to deception and to
straying from our pure devotion to our Lord and to forsaking him as our “first
love.” We cannot be bond-servants of Christ if we are devoted to men and to
pleasing humans instead. It is the Lord whom we are to serve, not men. Jesus
Christ died so that we would no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave
himself up for us (See 2 Co. 5:15). When we look to humankind for wisdom,
knowledge, understanding, teaching, instruction, guidance, support, help, and strength
in place of looking to God/Jesus, we run the risk of falling back into old
patterns of sinful behavior, living for the lusts of humans instead of for the
will of God.
[See: 1 Co. 2:1-5; 1 Co. 3:1-9, 18-23; 1 Co. 7:23; Gal. 1:10; Gal. 2:12; Eph.
4:14-16; Eph. 6:5-8; Col.
2:8, 20-23; Col. 3:23-24; 1 Thess. 2:3-8; 1 Pet. 4:1-5; & 2 Pet.
3:17-18.]
“But
blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They
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.”
Happy
and fulfilled are we who put our trust in the Lord as our only source for
salvation, hope, healing and fulfillment. Our confidence should be in him
alone. Some of the blessings or fruit of such trust are that we are saved from
our sins, delivered out of bondage to sinful lifestyles, are transformed in
heart and mind of the Spirit of God, are given new lives in Christ, and by the
Spirit we are able to walk in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. We do not
live in fear, we are at peace, we are confident in the sovereignty of God and
in his plan and purpose for our lives, and we know and believe that God is all
powerful and that he is absolutely in control over whatever comes into our
lives. So we are able to rest in him, believing him to work out everything in
our lives according to his will and purpose, for his glory, and for our good.
As well, we have peace and understanding concerning what is true and what is
not true, because we put our trust in the Word of Truth, which teaches us truth
and which teaches us, too, how to discern error, i.e. what is false. So, we
should be free from deception and from falling prey to men’s wicked schemes.
Deceitful Hearts
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 each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”
We must guard ourselves against deceit by immersing
ourselves in Christ and in his word instead of in the culture around us. We
must be in the practice of inquiring of our Lord, listening to him speak, and
obeying what he says, rather than in following after the ways of this world. I
know that when I used to spend a great deal of time watching TV that I was
easily duped; easily persuaded by what I saw and heard. I know, too, that when
I was involved in church planting that I was fairly easy to convince that I
must do all these certain things to attract the world to the church, and to
believe that if I just followed man’s methods that it would bring in people
into our fellowship and to Christ. It didn’t.
Then, the Lord Jesus began to open my eyes. He helped me to
see so many areas where I had believed what was false, and where I needed to
believe what is true. The less time I spent taking in the ways and thinking of
this world, and the more time I spent with him at his feet, the more I began to
see the lies I had believed. Then God began opening my heart and mind up to the
truth of his word. I think we are more vulnerable to being deceived and even to
deceive ourselves, particularly in today’s culture, when we begin to put God second
to TV, movies, games, the internet, music, social media sites, internet discussion
sites, or to anything else we give precedent to in our lives which might
distract us away from Christ, or which might lead us to follow the ways of the
world instead of to follow Christ and his ways.
A Glorious Throne
A
glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary.
Lord,
you are the hope of Israel;
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those
who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the Lord,
the spring of living water.
Heal
me, Lord, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise.
While we were still dead in our sins, Jesus Christ died on
the cross for us, taking upon himself the sins of the entire world. He put our
sins to death with him on the cross, and he overcame them through his
resurrection. He died for our sins so that we could be delivered from the
penalty of sin – eternal damnation and eternal separation from God – so we
could be set free from slavery to sin, and so we could be free to walk in
Christ’s righteousness and holiness – all in the power and the working of the
Spirit within us. We receive this great gift of salvation from sin when we
enter into relationship with Jesus Christ by faith in him.
When we come to faith in Christ, we die with Christ to the
sin which once enslaved us, and we are transformed in heart and mind of the
Spirit of God away from sin and to obedience to Jesus Christ and to his
teachings and instructions; and we are given new lives in Christ, “created to
be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This is true grace, because it
delivers us, not only from the penalty of sin, but from our slavery to sin, and
it sets us free to walk daily in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. Amen! I
am so thankful for God’s amazing grace! [See: Ro. 6-8; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:17-24;
Tit. 2:11-14; & 1 Jn. 1-5.]
Give Thanks / Don
Moen / Henry Smith
Give thanks with a
grateful heart
Give thanks to the
Holy One
Give thanks because
He's given Jesus Christ, His Son
And now let the weak
say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say,
"I am rich
Because of what the
Lord has done for us"
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