Filled to overflowing with Gods anger

Jeremiah 5:14b
"I will make my words in your mouth a fire
and these people the wood it consumes."(NIV)

Jeremiah 6:10-11a
^"10 To whom can I speak and give warning?
Who will listen to me?
Their ears are closed
so they cannot hear.
The word of the LORD is offensive to them;
they find no pleasure in it.
¹¹ But I am full of the wrath of the LORD,
and I cannot hold it in."(NIV)

Jeremiah is obviously filled with God's power. How many of us can say that? I don't think I can. I mean, yes I am following God where he leads me. But have I ever been so full of the presence of God that "I cannot hold it in."? No, not really. I long to feel that though, to give myself completely to God, so that I'm "just along for the ride". But there's the catch, I have to give myself completely to God, that is the hard part, we have to give control of our life away.

Jeremiah faced back in ancient Judah what alot of us face today, "Their ears are closed... The word of the Lord is offensive to them." And the Devil uses this against us, he feeds us the lie that everyone is offended by the Bible, so we shouldn't bring it up.
In an interesting story I have witnessed this very thing. At the place where I work a summer job, there are a lot of Christian kids, but most of the "vererans" that are back from previous years aren't Christian. Therefore most of the time the radio is set to secular stations, country, classic rock, new rock, etc. Generally it is the "right" of the person who gets the radio to pick the station. Well, I just happened to get the radio this night, so I set it to the christian station. But while I was doing that, in the back of my mind I was really hesitant about playing this station and very self-consious about it. I didn't want to turn it up really loud incase someone didn't like it. Finally I realized that it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks, that I'm going to play my music. But that didn't remove the doubts I had about it. So I "compromised" with myself and decided that if someone didn't like it I would let them change it. After a while someone did come in and change it, and I just stood there. Afterwards, (meaning later that night in bed...) I realized that that guy had no business changing the radio station, I got the radio and I picked the station, just because he doesn't like the music doesn't mean he can change it. Does that mean that I can change the station when someone puts country on? (which I loath) No, I have to endure the stupid twangs and mind-sticking songs. But at the time, I was feeling so self-consious and timid that I didn't stand up for myself. I believe that this is an example of the Devil working, subtley, undermining our efforts to be open about our faith. The Devil affected my thoughts and made me much more timid than I normally am. Although after that night, a bunch of people came up and told me they enjoyed the christian station being on, and that they thought it was cool.

This is only one example of the war between God and Satan and is effects in our sphere of existence. If I ever have any doubts if God and Satan are real or not, I just have to think about what happens when I try and follow God, Satan puts stumbling blocks in my way, trying to get me to trip. Sort of like the way Truman encountered obstacles in the movie "The Truman Show" whenever he tried to leave the island. (Great movie by the way :) )

Faithless vs Unfaithful

Jeremiah 3:6-11

^"6 During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. ⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. ⁸ I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. ⁹ Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. ¹⁰ In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.

¹¹ The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah."(NIV)

This is a good lesson for us to think about. What is the difference between Faithless and Unfaithful?
Faithless in this context means that there is thought of being faithful, Israel completely turned away from God. Israel ran away from God and displayed it proudly.
On the other hand Unfaithful means obeying the law but secretly running away. Judah still held services in the Temple, but worshipped other gods on the side.

In Revelation 3:15-16 it says, "¹⁵I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."(NIV)

There are many times that I have caught myself reading the Bible just to say "oh ya, I read the Bible today..." or going to church to talk with my friends. That is the wrong attitude to bring to God. I am just doing these things for show, not out of a desire to please God. Thankfully I catch myself and then focus on God more, or someone else will mention it to me.

In a recent chain letter I got (meaning I can't vouch for its accuracy...) it mentioned a statistic that 85% of America claimed they were Christian. But how many of those people even go to church? Not many I would say. Then take it another level down, how many people who go to church also read their Bible and aren't there to simply check the box? And again, another level, how many people who read their Bible are applying it to their lives?

This is an example of how "lukewarm" America is today, we say we are christians, but we don't do anything about it. This is the same thing Judah was doing in 600 BC, worshiping in the temple just to "obey the law" then afterwards they go out to the street corner and worship Baal or Molech, or some other god made of stone.

"I will not forget you!"

<sup>Isaiah 49:14-15

14</sup> But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."

¹⁵ "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!

Eventhough Isaiah is talking about Israel, this passage applies to everyone who trusts in God. I think that this passage speaks for itself. ;)

Being held in Gods right hand

Isaiah 41:9-10

"I took you from the ends of the earth,
from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, 'You are my servant';
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand"

Well, the first two lines are really cool, "I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you." First the earth doesn't have corners, nor ends, so the way I see that is that no matter where you are God will always see you and be able to call you, no matter where you are on earth or in your spiritual journey.
Then the third line seems kind of distasteful, "'You are my servant'"? but remember, we are serving God, and since we can't get away from being a servant to something (Romans 6:16,18) I would rather be a servant to God than to sin. Then bring the next line in, what is better than being chosen by God? Think of dodgeball in gym class, if the captains are choosing, and you are the first one chosen, that feels pretty good right? I mean, the captain thinks you are so good that he choses you first so that the other team doesn't get a chance to get you. Just think, God chose you, in Gods dodgeball game, he choses everybody first.
Finally in verse 10, the first two lines tell us why we shouldn't be afraid of anything, "So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God." What is better than having God by your side? Nothing, no matter what is happening outside, the creator of the Universe is With You. On the other hand, learning to trust that he has the best plan is a long and painful journey, one I don't think anyone can truly finish.
Not only is God With You but he will also "strengthen you and help you". In Ecclesiastes 4:12 it says " Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.", if three strands of cord are hard to break, think of when one strand is like the cable holding up the Golden Gate Bridge, is a 1 foot section of that ever going to break? No I don't think so...
Finally God tells us that he will hold us in his "righteous right hand." What could be better? We are the focus of God's attention, we are in his right hand (or left hand for all you lefties out there ;) ) He is upholding us, he cares about us, he loves us.

Anyways, these verses were the camp verses at Eagle Lake Camp in 2003. They are Definatly worth memorizing.

Giving ourselves away to become valuable

Today, in the Daily Bible, they were going over the fall of Samaria, and one of the verses, 2 Kings 17:15, really grabbed me. It reads, "...They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless..." That struck me, how many modern idols do we bow down to? I can name a couple right off the top of my head, TV, Computers, Exercising, Porclain Throne... Well that last one isn't an idol, but everyone bows down to it occasionally... ;) (on the other hand, anorexic people could see that as an idol...)
But, that verse says that when we give ourselves to worthless stuff we become worthless. The converse of that is, if we give ourselves to someone acctually worth something, we will ourselves become valuable. God is the only person/thing valuable enough to give ourselves to. If we follow God we will become worth something.

New Direction

I finally decided about what to blog. I am going to blog interesting stuff from my daily bible reading and what I got out of it.