Jeremiah 48 :10a: "A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD's work!"  Doesn't that verse sting!? This is from a message from God through Jeremiah against Moab. I don't know the circumstances, or which modern country used to be called Moab.  I don't think that matters when looking at this one statement. I have to admit that sometimes I am lax in doing the Lord's work. I stall. I make excuses. I hope others will pick up the slack. I pretend I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I am not like that all the time, of course.  But I have done all the above, been lax in doing the Lord's work.  I hope that the curse is imposed upon me is imposed as a missed opportunity rather than as punishment. Missing opportunities to be blessed when doing God's work is bad but I don't think I could endure God's punishment.  Thankfully, Jesus stands in the gap. Jesus has taken the punishment for those times I am lax.  God, This passage stings. I fe...

By Deanna Etienne.  Used by permission Jeremiah 17:9 is a strange and chilling verse. It says:  The heart is deceitful above all things        and beyond cure.        Who can understand it? I say chilling because to me it means that we can't trust our hearts. Our feelings which is what I think is meant by "heart" can distract us. Our feelings get in the way of evaluation of things around us, and in us. They say that love is blind. I believe that's true and even necessary. I mean that when we love someone we can put on blinders so that the same thing that would make us crazy if someone else did it, doesn't when our loved one does it. This passage tells us though that we need to use more than our hearts to discern truth or we will be led astray. Our hearts are deceitful above all things . Following God involves more than just a feeling of peace and a feeling of gratitude.  We also have to be prepared to u...

22 Kings 17:41 a (NIV) Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. Don't we all do this? We don't want to. It isn't our goal. But we all do it sometime or another. I have a friend who bought a new vehicle. Every day for what seemed like months and months, this friend washed this new vehicle. Every single day. At one point the friend made a comment about "having" to wash it. I said, "you don't have to wash it." The response was about it being a new vehicle.   To me, that is serving an idol. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with washing your car.  But it seems like the car owns the owner if it demands to be washed!  If you HAVE to wash it, you are not in charge. The car is. I think we look at the idols in the Old Testament and think of wooden carved pieces, or golden calves, and somehow become trapped into thinking those are the only things that are idols.  We think it is silly praying to an Asherah p...

Job struggled under the weight of Satan.  One day the angels presented themselves to God and Satan tagged along.  Job 1:7-8 T he LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."  Now this concerns me. I know, it is God and we can trust Him completely but really!  God just dangles Job in front of Satan like a carrot in front of a horse. God almost dares Satan to try something. Satan has a quick comeback, chiding God (Job 1:9-11): " Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand ...

I'm in a bit of a funk.  Have been for a couple of days.  I've been reading my daily readings.  In the Daily Bible, I'm into a few days of Proverbs. The publisher has them bunched by topic so it is interesting and boring at the same time.  The same proverb is repeated over and over.  I guess we need to hear it repeatedly to get the message.  I haven't gotten the message yet. Because my readings the last two days didn't spark anything, I decided to look back on past notes. This is what I found.  Jeremiah 10:23-24 is entitled "Jeremiah’s Prayer" in the New Living Translation.  The prayer includes a few more verses but these verses are my prayer: 23 I know, L ord , that our lives are not our own.       We are not able to plan our own course.   24 So correct me, L ord , but please be gentle.       Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Jeremiah's prayer acknowledges that...

For anyone interested, yes, I shoveled the snow from the driveway and this time the steps to the porch as well as the porch.  (See previous post from last week titled "God loves my husband....") But that has nothing to do with today's post. In my reading today, I read Jeremiah 3:15.  It was part of the readings associated with the "31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  31 Days prayer guide The suggested readings each day illustrate the key ideas for the prayer each day. There are a couple of things that this prayer guide does for me.  1) Makes me aware of issues that pastors and their families have that others of us do not have. 2) Makes me appreciate some things that my pastors (past, present, and future) may do for me that I may not be aware of. This passage made me think of all the "shepherds" who have been in my life from Sunday School teachers to youth leaders to our church's ministers and their families to other mem...