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Teachers Need To Teach

"So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, 'This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.’" Jeremiah 7:27-28 (ESV)   Sometimes teachers are given challenging assignments. Often, we blame ourselves when our students do not learn. In reality, teachers seem to fail more than they succeed because students often go through the motions of learning while missing the lesson's point.   Jeremiah is being told of the stark reality that awaits him. You will teach, but your teaching will have no effect. You will teach and answer questions your students are not asking and talk about the future to those who have their heads exclusively in the moment.   As hard as it may be, teachers need to teach regardless of the response, for their faithfulness is to God, not to ...
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Cannot Blame Others

"But this command I gave them: 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward." Jeremiah 7:23-24 (ESV)   A few verses earlier, Jeremiah was told not to pray for a people who would not listen to God. In this passage, once again, God reveals His expectations. We are to be people who know and listen to God if we want to live life as it was meant to be.   Not knowing God is a crisis. Knowing God and not listening to Him is a tragedy.   We cannot blame anyone else for our not knowing God. If we want to know Him, we need to spend time in His Word. Satan, the god of this world, has blinded our minds by immersing us in Godless thought and activities, and cultivating the "victim" mentality.   https://www.podbean.com/relat...
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Prayer

"As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame?" Jeremiah  7:16-19  (ESV)   Beating my head on a rock and praying that I do not get a headache is a waste of time. Praying for something to be blessed that is obviously not of God is foolishness at best. God told Jeremiah not to waste his time praying for a people who are, in essence, beating their heads on a rock.   I would not be comfortable telling someone not to pray for someone, yet perhaps I need to reexamine the role of personal responsibility in answered prayer. htt...
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Tough Teaching

"As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame?" Jeremiah  7:16-19  (ESV)   When was the last time you were told not to pray for someone? You would think whoever would say that would be heretical. Often, we talk of prayer as something we do to unleash the power of God, but in this instance, it seems that the absence of God will make the statement.   There are passages that "preach" easier than this one, yet all of the Scriptures are profitable for teaching, and none should be avoided.   https://www.podbean.com/relat...
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Lies enslave; truth sets you free!

"Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!'—only to go on doing all these abominations?" Jeremiah 7:8-10 (ESV)   Words can be used to either reinforce truth or manipulate the masses with cleverly masked lies. The lies can be so well said that those who speak them believe them. If you are a liar, you are either lying on purpose or you have been deceived and believe the lie is the truth. Those who lie feel personally attacked when you confront them with a lie, and rightfully so.   Honest people are willing to examine what they believe, and then evaluate it against the truth. Dishonest people have no way to evaluate what they believe. They alone are the authority for this belief, making any challenge against what they have said a cha...
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Actions are the consequences of our ideas.

 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'" Jeremiah 7:3-4 (ESV)   Amend your ways," the plans, the road you're on, the direction you are headed. Amend or "change" the way you are headed. This starts in the head, not in the actions. To change our actions, we need to change our direction, and our direction comes from our thoughts.   As you examine your actions, you will see they come from what you have considered normal, and that "normal" has become your worldview, which then directs your actions. What you need to examine is whether your normal is actually right or wrong, and to determine in your heart to make the right normal, even if it's not "normal."   Actions are the consequences of our ideas, and if we want to change them, w...
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Repair Process

"I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways. They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed. Rejected silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them." Jeremiah 6:27-30 (ESV)   "In vain the refining goes on…."   I was working on a water pipe I needed to replace that had been in place for over 30 years. I could not loosen the joints. The more stubborn the joint, the more heat and force I applied. Eventually, the heat and force prevailed. The process would either break the pipe or fix it.   The "repair," or refining process, can be hot, uncomfortable, and, at times, downright brutal. I can understand going through a refining process if, in the end, I have been refined, but to go through the refining process and, in th...
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