REBELLION AGAINST OUR LORD Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.’  In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died. —Jeremiah 28:16-17             It is a very serious thing for someone to proclaim a word that they say is of the Lord, but is actually against what He says. For the prophet Hananiah that was exactly the case. Jeremiah said that the Lord would bring Judah into exile for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10) and Hananiah disagreed with him and said that Judah would throw…

LAST DAYS… But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. —II Timothy 3:1-5             The last times can mean from the 1st coming of Jesus unto the 2nd coming of Jesus or it can mean the days just prior to His 2nd coming (I John 2:18; Matthew 24). Surely…

ENTRUSTED TO ENTRUST You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. —II Timothy 2:1-7             Am…

PROPER FOCUS Cursed be the day on which I was born! —Jeremiah 20:14             Ever have a day like this that you have said, “I wish I never had been born?” Jeremiah felt that way. Job also felt that way— “Curse that day for failing to shut my mother’s womb, for letting me be born to see all this trouble” (Job 3:10).  Sometimes people get so down when difficulty comes that they say “they wish they never had been born.”             This just goes to show you that the wealthy and the godly have difficulty just as the poor and ungodly do. Life in a fallen world— “Yet man is born…

CURSED OR BLESSED This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.   “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It…

PROVIDE ACCORDING TO OUR LORD’S WILL But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. —I Timothy 5:8              This is a pretty clear directive for those who follow Jesus. Those who follow Jesus are not to expect the government or even the church to provide for their relatives. No, followers of Jesus are to take care of their own relatives. To not do so is a denying of “the faith.” For a follower of Jesus not do so “is worse than an unbeliever.” Wow, those are pretty strong words, but they…

Go! And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. —Jeremiah 11:6  Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame… Go out to the roads and country lanes.  —Luke 14:21, 23             Where are we to go to share the message of God’s Word? Surely we are to start in our own home (Deuteronomy 6:4-8). Then we need to bring His message to the streets of the cities and towns, to roads and country lanes.…

STUPID… OR NOT Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”  It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.  When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.  Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for…

OBEDIENT OR DISOBEDIENT The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD… . Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to…

THE LAW POINTS OUT OUR NEED FOR OUR SAVIOR— JESUS!  Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. —I Timothy 1:8-11             The law is not for those who are living for the Lord, but…