For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted over the last few weeks to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
A lazy person is afraid of the dangers of taking action. They overstate the dangers in order to excuse doing nothing. When you are considering the dangers of a particular course of action, think about whether you are truly looking at the dangers, or if you are merely looking for an excuse to do nothing.
Those who are lazy are convinced that they are wiser than any number of advisers whose advice advocates taking actions they wish to avoid. If everyone else thinks that some action is your best course of action, but you do not, you should think about whether you are merely being lazy.
Those who love the Lord will hate evil. They will live godly lives and God will rescue them from the wicked. The Lord is ruler over all the earth and all other gods (and whatever people view as gods) will be forced to submit to Him. Those who worship anything other than God will be disgraced. Let us sing songs of praise to the Lord, both new songs and old songs. The joy which those who love the Lord feel because of His greatness overflows all bounds. Shout for joy those who love the Lord for He is victorious. The mountains and oceans will sing His praise. The Lord will judge the earth and everything in it with justice and fairness. If you love the Lord and His righteousness this will fill you with joy.
Once more Paul gives lays out what characteristics we should look for in those we are considering selecting for Church leadership. These are the “job requirements” for the position. Unlike in many job ads these are actual requirements. Unfortunately all too many Church groups treat them like the “job requirements” in many job ads: “things we would like to see, but as long as you have most of them, we will consider you”. Not only are these God’s requirements for Church leadership, they represent characteristics we should all strive to have in our lives (well, OK, if you are a woman you should not strive to “be faithful to your wife”, but I think you already knew I did not mean that).
Twice Paul says that a Church leader must live a blameless life. The fact of the matter is that the other things he lists are examples of what that means. We should all live blameless lives. Paul’s list of what it means to live a blameless life is not comprehensive and he does not intend it to be. However, it is a pretty good list to start with. Paul also mentions that a Church leader must have a strong belief in the message he has been taught (the NIV says “hold firmly”). We should strive to have such a belief so that we, also, can teach others and show those who teach differently where they are wrong.
He contrasts this teaching with those who teach distortions of the truth in order to get rich. This gives us a hint about how to recognize those teaching a false doctrine. If someone is claiming to teach the Christian message and has gotten rich from doing so, it is likely that some aspect of what they are teaching is not in accordance with God’s word. There may be exceptions, but we should be cautious about accepting the teachings of someone who got rich through preaching.
Jeremiah continues to warn the countries around Judah that they will not escape the destruction which fell upon Judah. Their failure to stand together against the coming destruction means that it will fall upon them one by one. As important, Jeremiah tells Babylon, the originator of this destruction, that it too will fall to the wrath it has unleashed. Those who believe that they can unleash the destruction of war and have it fall only upon their enemies are wrong. When war, famine, and disease begin to spread they will not fall only on our enemies. If we do not want to face similar destruction we must muster our efforts to stop them while they are still far away.
Jeremiah had predicted the fall of Jerusalem, the suffering of those who were God’s chosen people. That suffering was coming upon them because they had failed to faithfully follow God. However, Jeremiah now prophesied that the tool which God had used to bring about that suffering would in turn fall. God would raise up a power to bring down those who had brought violence and mayhem all around. At the same time He punished those who mistreated His people (something God allowed because of their sin), He would restore His people. This is something we can hold close to our hearts. When we see persecution and suffering coming for God’s people, we need to remember that it will be temporary, only for a short time. God will rescue those who faithfully serve Him through the times of trouble.