Who are you TRUSTING in?

The last few weeks I've been trying to read Jeremiah and sometimes it's clearer than others how I'm meant to respond to the word. But today Jeremiah was pretty clear: there are two ways two live...

"Cursed is the man who trusts in man" (17.5-6)
> he makes flesh his strength
> whose heart turns away from the LORD
> like a desert shrub, he will not see any good come

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD" (17.7-8)
> whose trust is the LORD
> he is like a tree planted by water
> that does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green
> is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit

Who you trust is who you put your trust in - and this results in blessing or curse.

To have my roots in the LORD, the fountain of living water (17.13) - to understand the world as the Bible shows me it, to know I am 'ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven'. To not get depressed when my plans fail, to not buy into the materialist dream, to remove self from the driving seat, to know I'm worthy because I'm loved and not try and be loved by being worthy.

Keep me trusting who God is!

(Also, check this video out!)

All the time in the world...?

Reading Jeremiah 14.1 - 15.9 this morning.
Judah's mourning looks real, but it seems they're more cut up about the drought, and subsequent lack of water, rain, vegetation, than their sin.
Jeremiah's prayers are real: he realises that Judah's iniquity testifies against them (14.7, 20), yet he calls on the LORD to act, 'for your name's sake' (14.7). He calls on the 'hope of Israel, it's saviour in time of trouble' (14.8) and his prayer is bold: why should the LORD be like a warrior who cannot save, like a stranger in the land. But the time for turning away has passed, and Jeremiah is told not to pray for the people (14.11), their fasts, cries, and offerings are to no avail.
And the false prophets who denied God's judgement and told of assured peace in the land? They will face the judgement that they so deceitfully denied (14.14-15).

The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
2 Peter 3.9-10

Time was up for Judah. Time will soon be up for the world.
All the time in the world?

Lamenting for my people...

Reading Jeremiah 8.4 - 9.6 this morning...

SIN.
How can you say "we are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us"?... behold they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them? (8.8-10)
No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. (8.12)

Pending judgement, and Jeremiah's response:
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Oh that I had in the desert a travellers lodge, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. (9.1-2)

Weep for the people, weep at their sin.

Just a man in the name of Glory...

I don't think Jeremiah was anyone special, just a priest in Anathoth, but then 'the word of the LORD came' to him (Jeremiah 1.2). The message he was to bring to Judah was that of the boiling pot of God's judgement (1.12, 16), as the kingdoms of the north were to descend on Judah and Jerusalem. What had Judah done? Forsaken God, made offerings to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands (1.16). Idolatry! Sin! Rebellion!

It's the same message that Paul brings in Romans 1.18-32: Man is without excuse before God, for suppressing the truth of who God is and not responding to Him as He is due. Israel had already been taken captive to Asyrria in 722 B.C., and now it was the turn of Judah.

The command to Jeremiah was big enough: to say everything that God has commanded, and to not be dismayed by those he is to say it to. And the assurance was equally massive: God would make Jeremiah a fortified city, an iron pillar... 'for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.' (1.19).

Little Jeremiah and BIG God, a God-given message in a jar of clay, 'to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us' (2 Cor 4.7). The gospel, a message of reconciliation, has been entrusted to the church with the duty of holding it out to this generation.

Will I take up the challenge of telling a world in rebellion they need a Saviour?
Will I be indifferent to whether or not the One who deserves all glory gets it?