I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     The Lord tells us to stop at the crossroads and ask for the old, godly way, but instead people say they don’t want to take that road. People don’t want to take the “old-fashioned”, godly way. They want a new path for modern times. Well, the “new” path isn’t all that new either. The people of Jeremiah’s day tried taking that “new, modern path.” Look where that led for the people of Judah. Jeremiah told the people of Judah that God had prepared their judgement. The armies of Judah’s destruction had been mustered. But even so, if the people would turn from their evil ways, God would turn the judgement aside. The people thought they were safe because the Temple was there. Jeremiah told them that the safety was a myth unless they stopped their evil ways. They needed to treat each other with justice, to stop exploiting foreigners, orphans and widows, to stop harming themselves by worshiping idols. That last is an important point. It is not God whom we hurt by worshiping idols, it is ourselves. Jeremiah concludes this section by noting that when people fall down they get back up, or when they take a trip and discover that they have taken the wrong road, they turn around and go back. Yet today, people continue on the path they have chosen even after they see the bad results. Even as things go wrong, people fail to acknowledge their sin and admit that they have done wrong. I pray to God that I do not follow such a path, that when I see that the path I am on is not the path God has for me I will turn around. Let us turn from the path our society has chosen and instead follow the “old, godly way”. Let us not be embarrassed to be “old-fashioned” and do what is right. Perhaps if we do, those around us will also turn from their sins and be transformed by God’s Spirit.

     Paul warns us against being caught by empty philosophies that are full of high-sounding nonsense that are based on human logic and the spirituality of this world. We were dead in sin before Christ cut away our sinful nature. But now that we have died with Christ and allowed our sinful nature to be crucified with Him, we are raised with Him to new life. We should not be captured by rules about what we eat or drink, or about celebrating certain holy days. We should not get caught up in “pious” self-denial or worship of angels. We should not get caught up in rules that tell us, “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch.” Such rules fail to help us overcome our sinful desires. Instead we should focus on imitating Christ and doing the positive will of God. If we focus our energy on doing the things that God wants us to do, we will find that we do not have time to indulge our sinful desires. If on the other hand we focus on not doing the things that we know are sinful, we will find them filling more and more of our minds.

     Let us tell the stories of what God has done, both in our lives and in the lives of those who came before us. Do not keep these stories hidden. Each generation must set its hope anew on God. People do not inherit a faith in God. They are not born Christians. Everyone must make that choice for themselves. But if we want them to choose to follow God, we must tell them the stories about what God has done. We must not tell just the good stories where we did the right thing and were rewarded. We must, also tell the stories where we made the wrong choice and suffered the consequences of our sin.

     An honest answer is like a kiss. Think about what it is like when you kiss your spouse, the feeling of love and the excitement of more to come. That is how you make people feel when you honestly answer their questions.