today's meditation (Zeph.3) Seeking Justice

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)

(Zephaniah 3:1-20)
1   Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
     The oppressive city!
2   She obeyed no voice,
     She accepted no discipline.
     She did not trust in the Lord,
     She did not approach her God.
3   Her leaders within her are roaring lions,
     Her judges are wolves at evening;
     They have no bones to gnaw in the morning.
4   Her prophets are insolent, treacherous men;
     Her priests have profaned the sanctuary.
     They have done violence to the Law.
5   The Lord is righteous within her;
     He will do no injustice.
     Every morning He brings His justice to light;
     He does not fail.
     But the criminal knows no shame.
6   “I have eliminated nations;
     Their corner towers are deserted.
     I have laid waste their streets,
     With no one passing by;
     Their cities have been laid waste,
     Without a person, without an inhabitant.
7   I said, ‘You will certainly revere Me,
     You will accept discipline.’
     So her dwelling will not be eliminated 
     In accordance with everything that I have stipulated for her.
     Instead, they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.

8   “Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord,
     “For the day when I rise up as a witness.
     Indeed, My decision is to gather nations,
     To assemble kingdoms,
     To pour out on them My indignation,
     All My burning anger;
     For all the earth will be devoured 
     By the fire of My zeal.
9   For then I will restore to the peoples pure lips,
     So that all of them may call on the name of the Lord,
     To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia 
     My worshipers, My dispersed ones,
     Will bring My offerings.
11 On that day you will feel no shame 
     Because of all your deeds 
     By which you have rebelled against Me;
     For then I will remove from your midst 
     Your proud, arrogant ones,
     And you will never again be haughty 
     On My holy mountain.

12 But I will leave among you 
     A humble and lowly people,
     And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.
13 The remnant of Israel will do no wrong 
     And tell no lies,
     Nor will a deceitful tongue 
     Be found in their mouths;
     For they will feed and lie down 
     With no one to frighten them.”

14 Shout for joy, daughter of Zion!
     Shout in triumph, Israel!
     Rejoice and triumph with all your heart,
     Daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away His judgments against you,
     He has cleared away your enemies.
     The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
     You will no longer fear disaster.
16 On that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
     “Do not be afraid, Zion;
     Do not let your hands fall limp.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
     A victorious warrior.
     He will rejoice over you with joy,
     He will be quiet in His love,
     He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
18 I will gather those who are worried about the appointed feasts—
     They came from you, Zion;
     The disgrace of exile is a burden on them.
19 Behold, I am going to deal at that time 
     With all your oppressors;
     I will save those who limp 
     And gather the scattered,
     And I will turn their shame into praise and fame 
     In all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you in,
     Even at the time when I gather you together;
     Indeed, I will make you famous and praiseworthy 
     Among all the peoples of the earth,
     When I restore your fortunes before your eyes,”
     Says the Lord.

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

The Lord is our perfect law and order and the only one who can save us;  from His wrath, from evil, from eternal punishment and from ourselves:

verse 5 - the Lord is just

verse 5 - the Lord is righteousness and does not fail

verse 8 - the Lord is all-knowing and a witness, and therefore can see and judge our hearts and motives

verse 5-8 - the Lord is judge and will punish sinners, those who have not humbly turned to Him for His salvation

verse 7,  15 - the Lord will NOT judge or punish believers for their sins

verse 15 - the Lord chooses to NOT remember our sins when He has forgiven us

verse 11 - the Lord removes all sin and shame

verse 19 - the Lord saves and heals 

verse 9 - the Lord restores us so that we can serve Him

verse 7 - the Lord guides and disciplines

verse 20 - the Lord will take care of us

verse 12-13 - the Lord protects us when we take refuge in Him

verse 11, 19 - the Lord will deal with all sinners, the proud and haughty and all oppressors

verse 17 - the Lord fights our battles for us and then rejoices over us

today's meditation (Amos 4) Knowing God

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)

(Amos 4:1-13)
1   Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria,
     Who exploit the poor, who oppress the needy,
     And say to their husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!”
2   The Lord God has sworn by His holiness,
     “For behold, the days are coming upon you 
     When they will take you away with meat hooks,
     And the last of you with fish hooks.
3   You will go out through holes in the walls,
     One in front of the other,
     And you will be hurled to Harmon,” declares the Lord.

4   “Enter Bethel and do wrong;
     In Gilgal multiply wrongdoing!
     Bring your sacrifices every morning,
     Your tithes every three days.
5   Offer a thanksgiving offering also from that which is leavened,
     And proclaim voluntary offerings, make them known.
     For so you love to do, you sons of Israel,”
     Declares the Lord God.

6   “But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
     And lack of bread in all your places;
     Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
7   “Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you 
     While there were still three months until harvest.
     Then I would send rain on one city,
     But on another city I would not send rain;
     One part would be rained on,
     While the part not rained on would dry up.
8   So the people of two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water,
     But would not be satisfied;
     Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
9   “I struck you with scorching wind and mildew;
     The caterpillar was devouring 
     Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees;
     Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
10 “I sent a plague among you as in Egypt;
     I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses,
     And I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils;
     Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
     And you were like a log snatched from a fire;
     Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore so I will do to you, Israel;
     Because I will do this to you,
     Prepare to meet your God, Israel.”
13 For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind,
     And declares to a person what are His thoughts,
     He who makes dawn into darkness 
     And treads on the high places of the earth,
     The Lord God of armies is His name.

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

As it says here in verse 13, God, who created everything, also gave us His word, the Bible, in order to communicate with us everything we need to know.  In it, there are directions to follow for every circumstance in order to have a fuller life.  Much more than that, salvation and fullness of life is NOT about being religious and carrying out a bunch of do's and don'ts, it is about having a personal relationship with God.  And because He is a loving God, He wants to help us along the way... in His way.  But because He is a loving God, He will never force anyone to believe or to do as He teaches.

One day, all of us will stand before the Lord to be judged.  Unbelievers will be judged according to their sins.  And because they rejected Jesus and what He did on the cross for all of us, they will go to a place void of God and all of His goodness.  Believers will be judged according to their good deeds.  Because we accepted Jesus and His forgiveness of sins, He will judge and reward us for all good deeds done in His righteousness.

Putting the two thoughts together, it is clear.  We should desire to be in God's word daily in order to know Him and His will better.  And we should desire to carry out His will - all in His righteousness - while asking Him for His strength, guidance and help.

today's meditation (Jer.19) Listening to All of God's Words

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)

(Jeremiah 19:1-15) This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests. 2 Then go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold I am going to bring a disaster upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. 4 Since they have abandoned Me and have made this place foreign, and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and since they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent  5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My mind; 6 therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will frustrate the planning of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will make their carcasses food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. 8 I will also turn this city into an object of horror and hissing; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and hiss because of all its disasters. 9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh during the siege and in the hardship with which their enemies and those who seek their life will torment them.”’

10 “Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of armies says: “To the same extent I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury their dead in Topheth, because there is no other place for burial. 12 This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the Lord, “so as to make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly lights and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”

14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to bring on this city and all its towns the entire disaster that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to listen to My words.’”

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

In Jeremiah 17, God talks about testing every deed.  He will judge all of us according to our deeds.  For the unbelievers, they will be judged and punished for their sinful deeds.  For believers, because we have humbly gone to the Lord for forgiveness of all sins, we will be judged and rewarded for our good deeds done with right motives.

I saw a meme recently where a sheep is saying, "But the verses!" and "Jesus" replies back with, "Love over versus."   While we are to love everyone, Jesus has given us all of the verses found in the Bible!  And in this passage, we can see that the Lord (Jesus) is very serious about us listening to His words!!!  All of His words.  The Bible is God's infallible word, as He is speaking directly to us.  

I also see churches, pastors and people who "know" all the verses but take them out of context in order to control, manipulate or suit their own desires and agendas.  To hear and listen to God's words. in context, is to gain knowledge and understanding in order to live obediently in His will.  God never contradicts Himself, so we can KNOW without a doubt - that we can fully trust what He says.