Author: Ben Bourland

“Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.” Jeremiah 15:19 -> me: Passage today was Jeremiah 15:10-22.  All I can say is wow!  I spent a good portion of the day dwelling on and then writing up a whole devotional focused on verses 19-22.  Sooooo good! I will post that devotional once I can get it transcribed from my notebook.  🙂  My main takeaway from today was that God reaffirms His call on Jeremiah’s life.  Jeremiah laments about his fear of God leaving him but God brings him comfort; not by solving his problems but by reiterating His calling and protection over him.  God reminds Jeremiah that He will not leave Jeremiah’s side.  When you have a calling on your life by the One True God (we all do if we are genuine believers), we have God’s promise that He is right there with us. He may not solve our problems or get us out of the sticky situation we are in, but He does promise to give us the strength to persevere to the end.

“You have rejected me, declares the LORD; you keep going backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you— I am weary of relenting.” Jeremiah 15:6 -> me: My reading today was Jeremiah 15:1-9…Here we see an Old Testament example of church discipline played out.  When the Jews continued in their rejection of the Lord, continued their backsliding, and refused to change their ways; they are released to an existence without the intervening hand of God.  He even says “Send them from My presence, Let them go!”.  This scares me for those that continue in habitual sin where church discipline is required.  The removal of God’s hand from your life allows the evil one an open door to further deceive and destroy.  Super scary.  Jeremiah does speak of hope for the Jews but only in the context of recognizing sin and guilt.  My life application takeaway from today is to keep this ‘removal of God’s hand’ in mind when the church is pushed to exercise church discipline.  The weight church leadership bears in the execution of this process is heavy (the entire process is structured to bring the wayward soul back into reconciliation with God and the church body) is heavy and should be done with reverence and prayer seeking first, then executing God’s will according to His word.

“We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us. Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.” Jeremiah 14:20-22 [ESV] -> me: Through my passage today – Judah (through Jeremiah) makes their pleas heard to the Lord.  They were asking things like “why are You like a stranger in the land?” and “are You like a traveler who only stays for a night?”.  God’s response sears right through their cries; He reminds them that their wickedness and worship of false gods has shown Him that they no longer see Him as their Sovereign Savior.  God discerns the heart.  Jeremiah did his best to speak on behalf of his people but the Lord will not be moved by empty/shallow petitions.  In the QT verses today – Jeremiah uses a weird combination of flattery and challenge in his ask for God not to ruin His own name by punishing His people.  My God will not be mocked, I need to be sure of my heart condition whenever I come before my King.  When my motives are based on the truths of God’s word, He is faithful to guide!

“For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.  For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 -> me: Today I was drawn to this passage as a reminder of Whose I am and the power that God gives me when I submit to and am obedient to Him.  Tyndale’s commentary on this passage discussed the military terms that Paul used here and their paraphrasing of verse five is “The arguments Paul destroys are the ‘strongholds’ in which people fortify themselves against the invasion of the knowledge of God (the gospel).”  This is so right on when it comes to our current situation in our country.  We all have these intellectual strongholds, but when I submit myself to God and His Word, then His gospel and Holy Spirit give me the ability to not only to demolish false arguments but also to bring people’s (and my own) thoughts under the lordship of Christ.

“Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” Jeremiah 12:1 -> me: I love this courageous, yet cautious approach to asking the Lord something I have contemplated so many times.  Why does God allow the wicked and evil people of this world carry on so long without a recourse?  I so appreciate the relationship Jeremiah had with the Lord God Almighty that he could question God in this way.  I look around me even today and hold some of the same questions in my heart.  However, we have not talked about God’s answer yet -> in response to Jeremiah, God  says in verse 5: ‘If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?  And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?’  Essentially what the Lord is saying is buck up and deal – it will only get worse.  God never really answers Jeremiah’s question directly and I think it is because the answer is too complicated.  God’s ways and purposes are met through His plan.  In this world where His plan is executed, His work and outcomes will be achieved because He uses use many situations, good people, and bad people for His purposes.  In the end the evil and wicked will meet their reward…unless they find the life saving blood of Jesus Christ.  All I have to do is remember the person of Saul of Tarsus and what evil he had enacted on Christian believers before the Lord Jesus grabbed him out of his sandals on the road to Damascus.  What I can trust is -> is that God is in control.  His purposes are being enacted through all of the worlds current situations, leaders, and evil elements.  TRUSTING God and resting in His Sovereign and Perfect will is all I need to do.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” Luke 15:4 -> me: Marianne and I have been internalizing the effects of centuries of oppression and hurt on those in the black community and what we can do to make change happen.  I want to point you Marianne’s post (the one just before this one) for her thoughts on this topic.  She has captured her own heart in such a beautiful way.  As we were talking today, she was talking about this verse which is quoting Jesus to His disciples.  In our minds, those who are oppressed are like the one that Jesus would leave the ninety nine (who are fine and not in trouble) to go save the one.   My heart hurts for anyone in this position and there is no way that this white man is ever going to be able to understand what my black brother or sister in Christ has had to endure in their life-times.  What I can do is stand up for them, I can question my own unconscious bias, and I can speak up against implied racism when I see it.  It is time we seek out, focus on, and help the one.  Final thought – God knows the number of hairs on a person’s head, that person infinitely matters to Him.  Jesus would stop, separate Himself from the throngs, and single out thrown away people who mattered nothing to the baa’ing sheep around them, but that person who didn’t matter to anyone else, mattered the most to Jesus.  Not only that, He knows them, their heart, and their sin, but He loves them more than they themselves will ever understand.  As a man of God who is in fellowship with Jesus, am called to love this way.  Now, is the time to act and show this love.

“Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?  Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Psalms 34:11-14 [ESV] -> me: Last night (while the girls were watching a show in the other room) Marianne and sat in the office and watch the various news outlets cover the protests that had become riots and looting.  My heart is heavy for the family of George Floyd who not only have to deal with the death of their loved one over and over again as the media plays the video, but also to see the violence brought on by a few who have an agenda that is not aligned with their plight.  We found ourselves wondering what we can do and this passage has helped me put feet to my helplessness.  Let’s start with the middle of this passage -> Everyone wants a good life and many days in it.  The rest of the passage tells us how to attain it.  1) Fear of the Lord: The person who disregards the safety of another human being or respect for property, does not know or has lost the fear of God.  2) Watch what you say and guard your heart.  James (in James 2:26) tells us that when we let our mouths run afoul, we have deceived our heart.  3) Repent!  Turning away from evil is doing a 180 degree turn from whatever it was that you were doing that is sinful.  4) Do good!  Doing good brings peace.  5) Not only should we seek peace and be we should run after it.  This is a total turn from what isn’t peace!  So, I can’t tell what you should do specifically other than ‘Fear God’, ‘Guard your mouth’, ‘Repent of your sin’, ‘Do things for others’, and finally ‘Pursue peace’!  What better way to pursue peace than to bring others into the knowledge of Jesus and God’s gift through Him!

“But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.” Jeremiah 11:20 -> me: Its not often that you hear someone in the bible (a prophet no less) call on God for vengeance.  So, I wanted to pull this apart a bit.  1) Jeremiah is not executing the vengeance himself.  He is calling on the Most Just to execute justice.  2) The people who were after him, trying to stop his preaching of God’s Words, were the people from his own home town (not unlike the people in Jesus’ home town persecuted Him).  3) Jeremiah is attempting to use the position he is in (God calling on him and his obedience to that call) to add weight to his ask.  Does this mean we can pray for revenge against our enemies? We are told in Romans 12:14, 19–20 to bless instead of curse, just as Jesus forgave his enemies (Luke 23:34). This is our primary task. But at the same time, we may commend our own or other cases of injustice to God, trusting that he is the righteous Judge who will bring righteousness and justice in the end.

“But the Lord is the true God and the God of truth (the God Who is Truth). He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations are not able to bear His indignation.” Jeremiah 10:10 [AMP] -> me:  This is the God I follow and love!  I really like how the amplified uses both ‘true God’ and ‘God of truth’.  In this chapter Jeremiah and the Lord are talking about how the idols that the Children of Israel worship are but carved wood adorned with jewels and yet have no power.  The skilled workers who make these are idols are said to be ‘senseless and foolish’.  Following on yesterday’s Quiet Time, we can be those skilled workers at generating and promoting useless and senseless idols that we believe will bring us happiness; money, things, family, friends, and even service can be well crafted and look pretty adorned with effort and accomplishment but it is still an idol in regard to the God Who is Truth, the Living God, God the King, and the God of Wrath.   I must constantly check my heart and motives when I strive for happiness and contentment from anything other than the God Who saved me from myself, from sin, and from death.  He is the only One deserving of my worship.