Tag: Travis Peterson

Jeremiah 44:16-18

16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.”

            How do you determine right and wrong? How do you determine the will of God? Is it by circumstances? Do you look at what parallels with success and assume it to always be the right thing?

            In Jeremiah 44, we see a strange scene. The people of Judah have taken Jeremiah with them in their flight to Egypt. Even though God clearly commanded the people not to leave the land, they refused his commands and left for a place they felt was safer. While in Egypt, Jeremiah commanded the people to stop worshipping a false goddess, the “queen of heaven.” But, as we read above, the people did not listen.

            What would cause people who should have been the people of God to worship a false goddess? The answer is success. When the people were doing exactly what the Lord commanded them not to do, their lives were easy. When they were obeying god to whatever level they ever actually obeyed the Lord, they found life to be hard. So, they concluded that the right thing, the smart thing, the good thing was to refuse to worship God and to instead keep up their worship of the false goddess.

            While it is good not to be in the situation of those people who worshipped the goddess, it is also tempting today to follow the path of least resistance. It is easy to assume that success means that we are doing the right thing. Be careful. Often, for a time, doing what dishonors God will give a short-term success. Churches sometimes grow in numbers when they compromise. Parents who allow their children to dishonor God sometimes have less conflict with their kids. Sometimes it is easier in life not to tell the truth. But, if we are not careful, we will find ourselves like the people of Judah, led completely away from following God by apparent, short-term success.

            The truth is, following God has always been hard. Jesus promised us persecution if we would truly stand for him. Sometimes it requires us to take the harder road, the less obviously successful road, in order to truly obey the commands of God and glorify him. By walking the harder path, we may indeed find that we honor God more and give him greater glory as we show that he and not worldly success is our desire.

Jared Wilson cites John Piper’s powerful advice on how to make your preaching interesting.

Wisdom for Life has some very helpful guidelines for thoughtful Christians to consider as they use social media like Facebook. HT: Challies

John Nielson has some spot-on things to say to parents and churches about the discipleship of young people.

Brad Andrews, guest posting at Vitamin Z, shares with us 30 ways to live missionally at your workplace.

Jeremiah 17:9-10

9 The heart is deceitful above all things,

and desperately sick;

who can understand it?

10 “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.”

            It’s funny what happens to a person as he grows older. I find myself watching little Disney movies with my children and catching the rhetoric and worldview behind the films. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the Lion King and all the rest, but there is something strange to seeing the worldview being espoused in so much of what entertains us.

            One part of the worldview that is generally put forth in any movie is the counsel, “Just follow your heart.” Almost any child’s movie, at one point or another, tells the young one to do what his or her heart tells him or her to do. It seems like such safe, such wise advice. But, dear me, it is not.

            Gods’ word reminds us that the heart of man is deceitful, desperately sick. No man knows his own heart. No woman grasps the sickness that lies therein. No child understands how his or her little heart has been darkened by the influence of sin. The fact is, the human heart is not trustworthy; it makes a terrible guide.

            God knows our hearts. He can rightly judge us by both our actions and our hearts’ intents. However, this judgment does not help us. We do not even know how wicked our hearts are. We do not even recognize that, when we think we are doing things for good motives, our hearts convict us.

            Christians, while God has made our old and dead hearts alive, we need to recognize that our hearts still often harbor sin. We need God’s word to speak truth into them. We cannot be guided by our hearts alone. We must be guided by God’s word. There is no sin and no darkness in the word of God. It is perfect and able to make us equipped for every good work. Do not follow your heart unless your heart is first following the clear revelation of God found in his holy word.

Bill Mounce takes a look at “missing verses” and offers a very simple and clear explanation as to why certain verses do not appear in modern translations of Scripture. HT: Challies

Chris Castaldo writes a helpful piece discussing why evangelicals and Catholics ought not date or marry. HT: Thabiti Anyabwile

Doug Wolter posting at Vitamin Z’s site challenges parents to remember to communicate the gospel with their children, even when correcting them.

John Piper uses C.S. Lewis to remind parents not to provoke children to wrath.

Jared Wilson gives us a very sweet answer to the question of whether or not God can make a rock so big he cannot lift it.

Tullian Tchividjian has some helpful things to say about Christian calling and whether or not we should all move to foreign lands. His point is that, though many are called to go, many are called to stay where they are and live out their Christianity.

Jeremiah 5:14

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:

“Because you have spoken this word,

behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,

and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

            As Jeremiah continued to tell the people the truth from God, the people continued to rebel. But God made it clear to Jeremiah that nobody will refuse the word of God without consequence. Oh, it may seem for a time like people get away with disobeying the commands of the Lord, but it will not last.

            The imagery of verse 14 is terrifying. God tells Jeremiah that his words, the word of God, will be a fire to the people who will be kindled like wood. Just as we see in Revelation 11, where the two witnesses breathe out fire against the enemies of God, so here we see that the word of God, spoken by a servant of God, becomes the fire of the wrath of God against those who reject that word.

            The word of God is a beautiful gift. It is amazingly kind of God to show us his word and allow us to know him and his ways through it. However, the word of God is also deadly. God giving us his word makes us even more accountable to obey it. As we hear the word, we have a choice: either we obey and are blessed or disobey and find ourselves in trouble with the Creator.

            What will God’s word be to you? Will you hear God’s word, obey it, and find the blessing of being his child? Will you follow God’s word, run to Jesus for grace, and obey his commands for joy? Or will you be like a twig in the fire? Will you allow the word of God to pronounce your judgment because you refuse to humble yourself, repent of sin, run to Jesus, and obey the word of the Lord?

Jeremiah 1:17 – But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.

            It’s hard to say things that people will not want to hear. That was going to be Jeremiah’s job. The people of Judah were not following the Lord. In fact, God was about to tell them that he was more angry with them than he was with the northern kingdom that he had allowed the Assyrians to overrun a century earlier.

            When we have hard things to say, we have two choices. We can either choose to say the hard thing and upset the people to whom we speak, or we can choose to ignore what needs to be said. Often we choose the latter option, because we do not have to hear the voice of God expressing his disappointment.

            This is why what we see here in Jeremiah is of such value. God lets Jeremiah know that, should he choose to ignore God’s command and keep the people happy, he would be in deep trouble. God tells Jeremiah not to be dismayed by the people so as not to speak the truth. If Jeremiah is too afraid of men, God will make Jeremiah even more afraid. God basically tells Jeremiah, “if you think they are scary, wait until you have to deal with me.”

            Saying hard things to people is hard, but facing the discipline of the Lord is harder. God calls his servants to speak the truth of his word. If we refuse to speak the truth, we show that we fear people more than the Lord, that we are more willing to disappoint God than man. Let us learn to be bold. Yes, it is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable, but the alternative, dishonoring our Lord, is far worse. And, if we will honor God, he will fill our souls with the joy of seeing his glory.

1 Corinthians 1:17 – For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

            Paul was a genius; almost any reader of his will confirm that fact. He made deep, powerful, logical connections between thoughts that still leave us marveling thousands of years later. He was able, had he chose, to out-argue anybody around him.

            Fascinating, then, that Paul does not choose to argue with clever or sophisticated speech. Instead, Paul chose to build his ministry by preaching one thing, one simple thing. Paul preached Christ Jesus and him crucified. This made the Jews stumble, as they could not imagine the Christ being crucified. It was a problem for gentiles who simply thought the concept of God forgiving us based on Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection totally nuts.. Yet Paul chose to preach this simple gospel in order that the cross of Christ not be emptied of its power.

            Christian, do you see the wisdom of this “foolish” plan? When we preach the gospel, the true gospel, and nothing but the gospel, and when people are changed by that gospel, it is obvious that they have been truly, supernaturally, spiritually converted. However, when we persuade people by our strong personalities, our perfectly designed programs, or our powerful rhetoric, we actually have no idea what happens when they claim a conversion. In order for us to see that God is the one who did the work, we need to be sure that what the people we preach to hear is the gospel that the lost world finds to be insane.

            This is no call to be foolish in your activity. This is no call to avoid planning, to be disorganized, or to fail to communicate in a way that your listeners will understand. We want a wisdom about how we approach people. However, we dare not tinker with the gospel. We dare not call people to respond to something other than the Jesus of the Bible, crucified and raised. We must not empty the cross of its power by making the faith about moral changes, political positions, or one country’s values over another. No, we must let the cross be the cross, a deadly, bloody, substitutionary atonement. This makes no sense to the lost world. It confuses them, makes them laugh, or makes them angry. Guess what, that is what the cross should do. Because there will be some who, when they hear about this cross, will be made alive in their hearts, will respond in faith, and will truly be saved by God to the glory of God.

Isaiah 49:6 (ESV)

he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

            Do we set our sights too low? Have we forgotten the power and sovereignty of our God? Do we settle for meager survival when something glorious is before us?

            Reading that little paragraph, it sounds like a prosperity preacher. All that needs to follow is some call to “claim the promise” and you too can have the material wealth you have always dreamed of. But I’m not thinking about health, wealth, and prosperity. No, I’m thinking of God’s plan to win the world and build his kingdom.

            In Isaiah 49, God tells Isaiah that there is more to his life and mission than Isaiah ever knew. Isaiah was not merely called by God to bring Israel back to their Lord. No, that would be too small a thing. God was going to use Isaiah and the divinely inspired message that God gave Isaiah to bring the nations to the Lord. Isaiah would be a tool in the hands of the Master to bring about the building of God’s global kingdom.

            In the Old Testament, such a plan was mysterious. How could God rescue the gentiles too? But by the time we see Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, lay down is life for all who will come to God from any nation, the global vision becomes more clear. God truly has always intended that his kingdom be filled with people from every nation on earth. God will not fail. Christ did not fail. God’s kingdom will be established.

            Now, back to my question of small thinking. Do we think too small? God told Isaiah that the return of Israel would be too small a task. That would be too easy, too little. No, God had a gigantic task for Isaiah. Isaiah would be a voice calling the nations to their King.

                But Isaiah is not the only one with such a call. Jesus commissioned his disciples by calling us to take the good news of Gods’ forgiveness to the nations. We are to make disciples of all peoples. A vision of a surviving church, or even a thriving church in a local community, is too small a vision. We need to think like God thinks. We need to pray for God to truly glorify his name. Would God not say to us just as he said to Isaiah, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth?” And if God would say this to us, how do we obey? It is time that we think bigger, pray bigger, and direct our plans globally. Yes, we are to reach our communities with the gospel. But we are also to take the gospel to the next town, the next county, the state, the nation, and the globe. O Christians, do not think too small when thinking about the building of the kingdom of our God.