Quiet Time : wrath

I gotta say, reading Jeremiah has been a tad bit difficult. It is so much about God's wrath that I feel myself getting down; about my past and present sin, and how hopeless this world seems. I seriously find myself waiting for the "hope" part in the following verses/chapters, and they just don't come (at least not very often). Even when Jeremiah pleads for Judah/Jerusalem (the backsliders), the Lord continues describing His coming wrath. I then have to remind myself of the hope I have in Christ (good life lesson there, my friend!), and that eventually perks me up. However, it leaves such a burden on me concerning non-Christians; which actually is a good thing, and I know it's the Holy Spirit working on my heart to love them more.

Jeremiah 20:2 (KJV)

Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

Ryrie: smote, i.e., with forty lashes across the feet (cf Deut. 25:3; 2 Cor. 11:24). The stocks secured the feet, hands, and neck, bending the body almost double (cf 2 Chron. 16:10; Jer. 29:26). This exposed Jeremiah to public ridicule.

This really made me stop and think. The Lord asked this man to forsake marriage (including children, so don't think of this as some kind of crazy bachelor life) (Jer. 16:2), he wasn't to mourn (Jer. 16:5) or celebrate (Jer. 16:8). Jeremiah was a faithful servant of God, even when enduring things like the verse above. Amazing.

* I have no explanation for the picture above, except that I liked it, and wanted to add a picture... ;)

Daily Dose of Spurgeon : "obtain the hid treasure"

June 9, Evening

John 5:39
Search the Scriptures.

The Greek word here rendered search signifies a strict, close, diligent, curious search, such as men make when they are seeking gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. We must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word. Holy Scripture requires searching-much of it can only be learned by careful study. There is milk for babes, but also meat for strong men. The rabbis wisely say that a mountain of matter hangs upon every word, yea, upon every title of Scripture. Tertullian exclaims, "I adore the fulness of the Scriptures." No man who merely skims the book of God can profit thereby; we must dig and mine until we obtain the hid treasure. The door of the word only opens to the key of diligence. The Scriptures claim searching. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine stamp and imprimatur- who shall dare to treat them with levity? He who despises them despises the God who wrote them. God forbid that any of us should leave our Bibles to become swift witnesses against us in the great day of account. The word of God will repay searching. God does not bid us sift a mountain of chaff with here and there a grain of wheat in it, but the Bible is winnowed corn-we have but to open the granary door and find it. Scripture grows upon the student. It is full of surprises. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye it glows with splendour of revelation, like a vast temple paved with wrought gold, and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all manner of gems. No merchandise like the merchandise of Scripture truth. Lastly, the Scriptures reveal Jesus: "They are they which testify of Me." No more powerful motive can be urged upon Bible readers than this: he who finds Jesus finds life, heaven, all things. Happy he who, searching his Bible, discovers his Saviour.

C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Hendrickson Publishing, 1997.

Quiet Time : backsliding

Whoa boy. Started reading Jeremiah this morning. Prophetic, and of course mirroring my own sin in my life. That's the thing about the Bible (it being God's Holy Word)... According to the Ryrie Study Bible introduction, Jeremiah was a reluctant yet faithful prophet. And let me tell you, if you've ever been a backslider, then these verses will pierce your heart! However, as I was reading this, it became clear to me how I am still prone to backslide, because I am deceived by my own heart and this fallen world. I praise God for His mercy - I thank Him for keeping me - I pray I never stray again.

Jeremiah 2:11 (KJV)

Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

Idolatry.

Jeremiah 2:21-25 (KJV)

21Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
22For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.
23How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
24A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
25Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

Backsliding.

Jeremiah 2:34 (KJV)

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.

Just found this interesting. Click here for a commentary.

Jeremiah 3:14-15 (KJV)

14Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
15And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

I'm grateful for where God has brought me; literally and spiritually. :)

Quiet Time : "beauty for ashes"

Isaiah 58:6 (KJV)

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Isaiah 58:11 (KJV)

And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Faithful.

Isaiah 58:13-14 (KJV)

13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

"Not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words" really stuck out to me; then conversely what we should delight in and why.

Isaiah 59:9-10 (KJV)

9Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

I like light-dark verses.

Isaiah 59:21 (KJV)

As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

He does not change! See James 1:17.

Isaiah 61:3 (KJV)

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Our good for His glory.

Isaiah 61:10 (KJV)

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

(this is now hanging on my mirror in the form of post-its)

Isaiah 62:4 (KJV)

Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

Ryrie Study Bible: Hephzibah means "my delight is in her," and Beulah means "married."

Isaiah 64:4 (KJV)

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

See I Corinthians 2:9.

Isaiah 64:8 (KJV)

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

See Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9.

Quite Time : awesome love

Isaiah 55:8-9 (KJV)

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Ryrie Study Bible: God's love stems from a plan infinitely superior to anything man could have devised.

Isaiah 55:10-13 (KJV)

10For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

That's just awesome :)

Quiet Time : Beautiful Savior

Isaiah 53 (KJV)

1Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Quiet Time : glory and majesty

Isaiah 47:8 (KJV) reminds me of the woman in Revelation 17.

Isaiah 48:9 - 11 (KJV)

9For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
10Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
11For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. (emphasis mine)

Soli Deo Gloria. In Christ Alone. None other. Also speaks to election, and how it is not out of anything from our worth that saves us. It is all God.

Isaiah 48:16 (KJV)

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me. (emphasis mine)

I forgot to copy the study Bible note, but this refers to the Trinity with the preincarnate Christ. Awesome.