The Simple Life

"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...