Monday, June 18, 2018

Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living - The Global of the Nazarene's Foundry Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri, United States for Monday, 18 June 2018 "What Have I Done?" by Caleb Reynolds - Jeremiah 8:4-12.

Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living - The Global of the Nazarene's Foundry Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri, United States for Monday, 18 June 2018 "What Have I Done?" by Caleb Reynolds - Jeremiah 8:4-12.
Jeremiah 8:4 “You are to tell them that Adonai says:
‘If a person falls, doesn’t he get up again?
If someone goes astray, doesn’t he turn back?
5 Why do these people keep backsliding?
Why is their backsliding so persistent?
They cling to deceit and refuse to return!
6 I listened attentively but they spoke nothing right.
No one repents of his wickedness,
saying, “What have I done!”
Each runs off in his own direction,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Storks in the sky know their seasons;
doves, swallows and cranes their migration times;
but my people do not know
the rulings of Adonai!
8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise;
Adonai’s Torah is with us,”
when in fact the lying pen of the scribes
has turned it into falsehood?
9 The wise are put to shame,
alarmed, entrapped.
They have rejected the word of Adonai,
so what wisdom do they have?
10 “‘Therefore I will give their wives to others,
and their fields to those who take them over;
for from the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gains;
prophets and cohanim alike
all practice fraud —
11 they dress the wound of the daughter of my people,
but only superficially,
saying, “There is perfect shalom,”
when there is no shalom.
12 They should be ashamed
of their detestable deeds,
but they are not ashamed at all,
they don’t know how to blush.
So when others fall, they too will fall;
when I punish them, they will stumble,’
says Adonai.
(Complete Jewish Bible).
***
My brother and I had been fighting, so my Dad brought us together in the kitchen. “Now say you’re sorry,” Dad directed.
“Sorry,” I mumbled through clenched teeth, staring down at the floor.
“Now, say it again: this time, like you mean it.” Usually, my second—or third—attempt was more successful. I needed practice, and a good model, for how to say I was sorry.
Unfortunately, we have lots of ways to avoid responsibility for our sins. We blame others. We find someone else behaving worse, making our offenses seem smaller. We avoid the person we have offended. We grow more stubborn and hard-hearted. It is a lot of work to confess our mistakes, apologize, and seek to make things right.
But our first step toward the Lord is always a step of repentance. And it is a sign of growing maturity when we are quick to own our mistakes and sins, and quicker still to seek to make things right—with God and with others.
What sins need confessed in your life today? What would God have you do today, to make things right with Him, and with those affected by your sin?

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Hymn for Today: "Rock of Ages" by Augustus M. Toplady.
1. Rock of ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee
Rock of ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee
2. Let the water and the blood
From Thy riven side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure
Cleanse me from it's guilt and pow'r
3. Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to Thy cross I cling
Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to Thy cross I cling
4. Naked, come to Thee for dress
Helpless, look to Thee for grace
Vile, I to the fountain fly
Wash me, savior, or I die
5. Rock of ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee
Rock of ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee

Thought for Today: “Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” (Matthew 3:2) (Complete Jewish Bible)).
Please pray: That many people in Democratic Republic of the Congo will come to know Yeshua as their Messiah and receive the fullness of the Ruach HaKodesh.
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