“All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps." -Matthew 25:7
.png)
A FEW THOUGHTS ON TODAYS READING...
There was a time in the 1790's that the universities of higher learning, such as Harvard, built bonfires and burned Bibles. In 2003, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from office for defying a federal judge's order to move a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. The New England Primer was used as the primer to teach children how to read from 1692 until the early 1900's, when it was replaced by "Dick and Jane "books. This primer was used because it was felt that Christian moral education was more important in their eye's than learning Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. They felt that Good character made good citizens, good neighbors, and a moral government. With the acceptance of Evolution by schools and a denial of Creation and the Sovereignty of God, this primer was phased out. We now live at a time where the world shouts to exclude God from every public arena including school, Washington DC, and the workplace. There are ongoing attempts to remove God from the Pledge of Allegiance and from our currency. The world screams tolerance but is intolerant to the Word of God.
We have read chapter after chapter of Jeremiah speaking the Word of God to the kings of Judah. These messages continually told the kings that unless they repented along with the people, they would be destroyed by Babylon. In chapter 36 of Jeremiah, we read of Jeremiah through Baruch writing down the prophecies of the past 22 years. When this scroll was read before the king we read in Jer.36:23-24, "And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words." As the Book of Jeremiah continues we see that he rewrites the scroll, and the king will eventually lose his life as a result of his disregard for God.
As Christians we get to hold the Word of God in our hands, in our language, in an easy to read translation. Many have been severely persecuted for translating this Book for us. William Tyndale, lost his life for translating this Book. Many of our brothers and sisters in other areas like China have been imprisoned and killed for distributing the Bible. In Hebrews 4:12, we read, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." May we never take for granted or fall away from the daily reading and application of God's Word to our lives.
THIS WEEKS MEMORY VERSE
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. ~Hebrews 4:12
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
My brethren, let me say, be like Christ at all times. Imitate Him in “public”. Most of us live in some sort of public capacity — many of us are called to work before our fellow-men every day. We are watched; our words are caught; our lives are examined — taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argus-eyed world observes everything we do, and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life of Christ in public. Let us take care that we exhibit our Master, and not ourselves — so that we can say, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.”
— C. H. Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6