“Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Much of the judgment heralded in the prophets is tough to read. It is gloom and doom that sometimes seems to roll on for pages without reprieve. But, if there’s anything we can take from all of this today it is this: Our choices have consequences. Read the rest…
“Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Genuine, heart-felt repentance is tough to do. It requires a couple of things that we are pretty loathe to give. It requires first a recognition that we have done something that was not right. It was wrong, not in an abstract way, but in a way that was deeply personal for us and also for the other people who were affected by it. This is tough in and of itself. Often, when we have gotten caught doing something wrong we recognize the abstract, but not the personal. We are inconvenienced by the attention to our misdeeds, but not truly sorry we did it. This is the politician’s apology. In other words, we are more sorry that we got caught than that we did whatever it was we have been caught doing. Read the rest…
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Our culture is increasingly divided over the issue of abortion. Read the rest…
“…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the foundation of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
When we reject the One True God, we make two mistakes. We turn from the one source of life in this world. And, we turn toward something that is by definition not a source of life. More directly, it is a source of death. When we turn from God toward something else, we are necessarily turning toward nothing. We are rejecting what is in favor of what isn’t. This is never a good trade. So why do we make it? Read the rest…
“Thus says the Lord: ‘What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
When someone rejects God, there’s a reason for it. That seems like it should be obvious, but perhaps it’s not so obvious as it should be. If someone has been exposed to the Gospel and then left it for something else, there’s a reason for it. Read the rest…
