The Simple Life

For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast: 'It is Zion, for whom no one cares!' "Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small. Their children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them. Their prince shall be one of themselves; their ruler shall come out from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself to approach me? declares the LORD. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God." Jeremiah 30:17-22 (ESV)   God k...

"For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you." Jeremiah 30:12-15 (ESV)   Those who love God grieve, but not as those who have no hope. To those who love God, there will be an end to suffering. To those who love self, there is no hope for the future, and the suffering in this life will just be multiplied in the next. We are all terminal, yet the end is not yet determined. Indeed, God knows the end, yet His knowing it and it being determined are two different ideas.   Today, I have choices to make, and my choices mat...

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. "For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:8-13 (ESV)   We need to know who speaks for God and who speaks about God for personal gain. The New Testament books of Jude and 2 Peter help us identify false teachers. False teachers use God; real teachers love God and speak of Him in that context. https://www.podbean.com/r...

Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "Go, tell Hananiah, 'Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.'" And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, "Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.'" Jeremiah 28:12-16 (ESV)   One needs to be careful as to from what they break free. Being free from listening to God enslaves us to ourselves. Being free from ...

Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, "This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears." Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, "The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears." Jeremiah 26:11-15 (ESV)   We may not want to hear about the impending doom that comes to a people who ignore God, but that does not mean it will not o...

You shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.' " The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, "You shall die!" Jeremiah 26:4-8 (ESV)   Destroying the messenger never destroys the message. The political powers of the day did not want to hear Jesus' message, so they plotted to destroy Him. Christ's followers were martyred for what they believed and proclaimed. Christians around the globe suffer daily for proclaiming the tr...

"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets…." Jeremiah 25:3-4 (ESV)   If you're not listening, what is said does not matter. Those who believe they already know cannot be taught. Teaching is a two-way street. Those who teach need something to say, and those who learn need to desire to hear what is said. If those who teach have nothing to say, they waste everybody's time. If students want to learn, then the teaching style becomes irrelevant, and information, regardless of how it is transmitted, is valued.   There is no way to teach a culture in which students grow up thinking their opinions create truth. A culture like this flocks to those who affirm their belief system, and it ...

Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, 'declares the Lord.' Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord. "When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, 'What is the burden of the Lord?' you shall say to them, 'You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.' And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, 'The burden of the Lord,' I will punish that man and his household." Jeremiah 23:30-34 (ESV)   Teachers who obtain their "lessons" from other teachers instead of from the Lord are playing a serious game of "telephone" teac...

"I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds." Jeremiah  23:21-22  (ESV)   Prophets are supposed to proclaim words that turn people from their evil ways? Before that happens, we need to identify what the evil way looks like. Today, it seems as if all evil is acceptable, and anyone who challenges someone is evil. It is as if the challenger is committing the sinful acts by the very act of challenging.   Our culture is used to being affirmed, and it has decided that false affirmation is actually better than no affirmation. Therefore, those who tell us what we want to hear become our leaders. The lines between right and wrong are blurred, and the broad way or popular vote has become the plumb line, instead of the narrow truth found in the Word of God. ...

Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.'" For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? Jeremiah  23:16-18  (ESV)   We need to be careful about from who we accept counsel. If we only listen to those who tell us what we want to hear, we are in great danger of living a lie. It's easy to think we are God and to speak as if our thoughts are God's, when in fact, our thoughts have nothing to do with God or His thoughts. We get in the habit of using His name in vain to get our way. This should not be.  https://www.podbean.com/relate365

"Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the Lord. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall, for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, declares the Lord. In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah." Jeremiah  23:11-14  (ESV)   Leaders who strengthen the hands of the evil so that no one turns from evil are evil. It is easy for a "leader" to justify a lifestyle of sin so they can maintain their popularity. Lot did not start a part of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet, he eventually was destroyed by his decision to be ...

"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord." Jeremiah 23:1-4 (ESV)   The job of the shepherd is not to destroy and scatter the sheep, but to care for them. Sheep need protection, and shepherds are the protectors. Shepherds are not concerned with throwing a sheep party, but they are always, always, always on the lookout for whatever might endanger...

And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." Jeremiah 21:8 (ESV)   Today we have choices, and our choices matter. We can tell if we have made the right choices by the fruit that is displayed in our lives.   If we choose to focus on self, we choose to struggle with depression, anger, and worthlessness. Focusing on self usually means we focus on what others are doing or saying, or not doing or not saying, and place our lives somewhere on our own-created relevance scale. If we choose to live the way we were intended to live, we do not focus on ourselves but on how we can use the circumstances of our lives to show the world who God is and to demonstrate to those around us the principles that give them purpose, life, and hope. We live disparaging lives because our focus i "Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was ...

"And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." Jeremiah 21:8 (ESV)   Today we have choices, and our choices matter. We can tell if we have made the right choices by the fruit that is displayed in our lives.   If we choose to focus on self, we choose to struggle with depression, anger, and worthlessness. Focusing on self usually means we focus on what others are doing or saying, or not doing or not saying, and place our lives somewhere on our own-created relevance scale. If we choose to live the way we were intended to live, we do not focus on ourselves but on how we can use the circumstances of our lives to show the world who God is and to demonstrate to those around us the principles that give them purpose, life, and hope. We live disparaging lives because our focus is on ourselves, and our decisions are about what is best for us.   Jesus came to earth, was born in a stable, and was crucified because...

Then Jeremiah said to them: "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.'" Jeremiah 21:3-5 (ESV)   There is no weapon of war, no strategy, and no armed force that can prevail against God. If God says that He, Himself, will fight the fight, and His comments are directed at me, I have no hope.   Experiencing the mercy of God and living in the grace of God is easy and very "doable." To choose a life that ignores Him, His ways, and His purposes dooms us to certain and irrevocable disaster. For now, the choice is ours. https://www.podbean.com/relate365

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Jeremiah 18:7-10 (ESV)   We need to live in a way that embraces the personal responsibility we have been given. It is our responsibility to walk with God. It is our responsibility to know Him and to listen to Him. When we do not do that, we will pay the price of being distanced from Him.   God knows what choices we will make, and our choices do not limit His choices. He has already arranged the victory, and our choices will allow us to participate with Him in the celebration as active participants, or to be the "onlookers" ...

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Jeremiah 18:1-4 (ESV)   Man, as pottery, is a powerful illustration of reality. God made us for a purpose. He, being the potter, has the prerogative to make us into whatever He desires. Our shape, purpose, and eventual placement are His decisions, not ours.   We can look at the other pieces of pottery and wonder why we are not like them. We could wish we had a different function, and even claim the potter should have done otherwise, but in reality, the potter did, with His clay, as He wished.   The vessel should serve joyfully the purpose for which it was intended.   https://www.podbean.com/relate365

Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction. Jeremiah  17:21-23  (ESV)   Relationships are important. In fact, they are important enough to rearrange your life around them. Our relationship with God is something we need to prioritize. Our relationships with our spouse, children, friends, and coworkers should be a priority. We cannot have relationships with media, money, or things, so we should not allow them to steal us away from those with whom we do have relationships.   Somehow, we have "developed" into a nation of strangers, and we like it that way. We do not know God, even though we have ample opportunity to do ...

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. Jeremiah 17:9-13 (ESV)   We like to believe what we want to believe, and we believe that what we believe is what actually is, when it is often a lie. Lying to others may be detestable to us, but lying to ourselves, for some reason, we find totally acceptable.   We need to be in God's Word to have a way to chec...

Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:5-8 (ESV)   Our flesh fails, while God never fails. Our strength gives way, whereas God's strength is constant. Our view is limited, our dreams are dependent, our planning is often futile, and our resources are limited. God's view is unlimited; He cannot dream, for He is the cause of all that will happen, and He is the only one who can actually plan for the future, for He knows the future.   Tru...

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!" "Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord." Jeremiah  16:19-21  (ESV)   We can see God as God now, or we will see and acknowledge Him as God later. If we do that now, we can live with no regrets. If we do that later, we will have only regrets.   We can, for now, believe whatever we want, and our belief will affect our lives, our decisions, and our eventual outcome, but it will not affect the overall results.   God is already the victor. He has already won the battle, and He is awaiting the celebration with all who have chosen to be part of the winning struggle. https://www.podbean.com/re...

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 (ESV)   God is love, so God gives us choice, real choice. Real choice comes with real consequences; otherwise, it is a "fake" choice. God knows what choices we will make, so He has already adjusted to our decisions.   The fact is, if we make the right choices, we will be restored to the way it was meant to be. If we make wrong choices, we have no hope, for God is just and loving, and justice will prevail in the shroud of love.   We often struggle to understand God's attributes because there is no human way to grasp them. Since we make ourselves the ones who are all-knowing, we make it impossible for God to have characteristics we do not have, cannot understand, or that limit our status.   The facts are that when w...

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 (ESV)   There is a limit to the opportunities God gives to an individual, a family, and a nation. Our lives are finite, and our abilities are limited. The idea of God being weary of relenting is often hard to reconcile with what we think we know of God. Since we need to use finite words to describe the infinite, we often struggle with both the word usage and meaning.   God has foreknowledge; before the world was created, He knew what choices man would make and the consequences of those choices. The fact that He still wearies from seeing many choose wrong means He has never gotten used to the idea, which is a good thing. Knowing what someone will do and preparing for such action does not mean one is "good" with the action.   God has given us real choice because He really loves, and real choice will always ha...