October 10th One Year Bible Readings

Jeremiah 14:11-16:15 ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:9-3:13 ~ Psalm 80:1-19 ~ Proverbs 25:1-5
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~ Listen to today's Scripture on DailyAudioBible.com (podcast) or OneYearAudioBible.org ~

Old Testament - We have powerful readings in Jeremiah today!  I love the exchanges between God and Jeremiah.  Today in Jeremiah 15:16, we read these words of Jeremiah's to God: “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” What does this verse mean to you? Can you eat God’s words? Can they feed you? Spiritually? Are you being fed by God’s Word through the One Year Bible daily readings? Are God’s words your joy and your heart’s delight? Are you making it a practice to memorize scripture? Would this practice help you in making God’s words your joy and heart’s delight?  What does it mean to bear God’s name?  Is God’s name written on your heart? How else are you being fed by God, in addition to his Word?  Are you being fed by attending and investing in a church each week?  Do you think that church, the bride of Christ, can spiritually feed you?  Is there any reason to refuse this spiritual food?

New Testament - The First Thessalonians readings today are nice!  I found chapter 2 verse 18 to be an interesting verse: "We wanted very much to come, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. " I think this is an important reminder that Satan can indeed prevent good work from taking place in our lives. Through prayer, reading the Word, and obedience we can avoid some attacks. But, they will still come while we are in this world. I would just encourage you to keep in mind that Satan is real.  Don't dwell on this, but realize it is true. And that by growing your relationship with Jesus & God, I do believe great protection can come over you - but keep in mind that even a person as close to the Lord as Paul was prevented by Satan from doing some things Paul wanted to do.  How is your prayer life today?  Do you pray to God to protect you and keep you from Satan and all his tricks and lies and temptations?  Let us be prayer warriors for not only ourselves, but also for others in our lives!  Do you consider yourself to be a prayer warrior?  Would you like to be a prayer warrior?  What is stopping you from being a prayer warrior?  All it takes is prayer...

Bible.org's commentary on today's readings in First Thessalonians chapter 3 titled  "The Concern Expressed" is at this link.  Below is a great Fall image of 1 Thessalonians 3:12 from today's readings:

Psalms - Psalm 80 verse 19 today is powerful! "Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God Almighty. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved." I like that opening - "turn us again to you God."  I don't believe that God turns himself away from us - but that we do indeed turn ourselves away from God.  And like the Psalmist, maybe sometimes we literally need to pray that God will turn us back toward him.   I kind of come up with the imagery of us maybe sometimes being like pouty kids with our arms folded and our backs toward God - and God is looking at us lovingly - all we simply need to do is turn our face toward God and his grace will heal that pout and whatever is troubling us immediately...   If you need to, will you turn yourself again toward God? 

Proverbs - Proverbs chapter 25 verses 4 & 5 today are interesting: "Remove the dross from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith. Remove the wicked from the king's court, and his reign will be made secure by justice."  I believe dross is some sort of impurity that is in silver when it is heated up.  Actually, I just looked it up in the dictionary and dross means:  "impurity: worthless or dangerous material that should be removed; "there were impurities in the water"" or "[n. DRAHSS] Something that is useless or worthless is dross. This noun refers to the less-than-desirable parts of something. Near synonyms include: refuse, rubbish, and impurity. Another more specific use of the word dross describes the scum or slag thrown off from metals in the process of melting them. It traces back to the Old English dros, which corresponds to the Middle Dutch droes and the Germanic dros. All of these are words for dregs (less than desirable parts)."  So, this proverb is also saying the wicked in the king's court is an impurity that must be removed for a secure reign with justice.   This makes sense in a governmental sense.  You don't want crooks on the cabinet.  But, I think this also works well in our own personal lives.  Sin is a dross - an impurity - in our life that must be removed so that we will be of use to the "silversmith" - Jesus.  Do you have dross / sin in your life?  Will you allow God to remove the dross - the impurity - from your life through the work of his expert Silversmith, Jesus?  Please let Jesus heal you of the dross in your life.  Jesus is the only one who truly can!

Worship God:  This brief reflection on Jesus healing us of our sin above reminded me of the Casting Crowns song "East To West."  Here's a fantastic live version of this song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUkTenwz_mw

Do you know how far the east is from the west?  Click here to learn about the Silversmith who can forgive the "dross" in your life!

Please join us in memorizing and meditating on a verse of Scripture this week: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." Colossians 3:15 (NIV)

Comments from You:  What verses or insights stand out to you from today's readings?  Please post up by clicking on the "Comments" link below!

Grace, love, peace, and joy!
Mike

Comments

[Ramona]

Jeremiah 14:11-16:15

The following verses have always intrigued me:

Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of these people. If they fast, I will not hear their cry of despair. If they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, I will finish them off by sword, famine, and plague." And I replied, "Oh no, Lord GOD! The prophets are telling them, 'You won't see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you true peace in this place.'" But the LORD said to me, "These prophets are prophesying a lie in My name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds. "Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, though I did not send them, and who say: There will never be sword or famine in this land: By sword and famine these prophets will meet their end. The people they are prophesying to will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them--they, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out their own evil on them." (Jeremiah 14:11-16 HCSB)

God holds the people, the common people, those who are not priests or Levites, those who get their teaching from the priests and Levites, responsible for what they hear and believe. Even though Judah’s leaders are lying to the people, giving them hope that is based on their own imagination, they have made a conscience choice to believe the lies.

Doesn't the ear test words as the palate tastes food? (Job 12:11 HCSB)

Jesus also told us to be caeful how we hear and what we hear.

Then He said to them, "Pay attention to what you hear. By the measure you use, it will be measured and added to you. (Mark 4:24 HCSB)

Therefore, take care how you listen. For whoever has, more will be given to him; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him." (Luke 8:18 HCSB)

Too often we are passive in our listening and in our studying, we don’t engage the words we are taking in through our eyes when we read or though our ears when we hear. Even when we are submitted to a ministry, God will hold us accountable if truth is not taught.. During the days of Jeremiah when scribes did scrolls by hand and the majority of people did not have a copy of the Torah in their homes, they were held accountable for what was written on its pages. How much more will this generation be held accountable for acting on God’s Word when one can go to a no-tell motel and find a Bible in the night stand as they get ready to commit adultery with their neighbor’s spouse?

[Kary]

Today's reading made me think how much what happened in Jerusalem in 70AD with the destruction of the city and the Temple were so reminiscent / analogous of and foreshadowed by what Jeremiah was prophesying about with the destruction of the first Temple. When God's people rejected Jeremiah's prophecies and wanted to kill him it was just like that with Jesus. And when the people didn't repent at hearing Jesus' words, God then allowed the city to be destroyed yet again as the sign.

It is also amazing that this destruction happened 40 years after Jesus' death just as the prophet Jeremiah was alive the 40 years before the 1st destruction of Jerusalem. I think it is as if God gave the city 40 years in both cases to accept His words to them. I think how this was all written in the book of Jeremiah to warn God's people not to go through the same thing again. If God's people had been truly open to God at Jesus' time, they would have seen how the exact same thing that happened in Jeremiah's day was happening yet again this time with the Lord Jesus Himself warning them, even down to Jesus' prophecy about no stone being left on top of another.

This stood out to me when I read today's reading in Thessalonians (2:14-16) and it is amazing to think this was written by Paul about 20 years before 70AD. Amazing. May we always be attentive to what the Lord is saying to us through His Word!