Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 47-49
Notes: Even those who do not profess the God of Israel are held responsible for their disobedience to their maker. Three are promised return, and God pledges to defend the orphans and widows of Edom. -> Nations that are not God's Display Nation (us, too!) are still held responsible for their disobedience. While we are not called to legislate non-Christians into acting like Christians, we should be clear in our message that God is not giving unbelievers a free pass at disobeying Him, especially in their treatment of the weak (widows and orphans). That latter part should also be a warning regarding our own priorities.

Why Fast?

One of the benefits of fasting is to teach us the discipline and build the habits to be content with and do with less, leaving us with more to give to others.

Ouch

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Ezekiel 16:49 ESV

W.W.J.D.

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. 1 Peter 2:21

I have to wonder how many of the fadistos ever thought about that they were committing themselves to suffering, or more specifically, to taking up their cross.

Action

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT

Christlikeness

Lord, help me to understand, rather than to be understood.
To love, rather than to be loved.

Mother Theresa

Ouch.

An Old French Philosopher...

My best friend gave me a birthday card once that read,

An old French philosopher once said, 'Getting old hasn't hurt anyone yet.'

You'd open the card, and inside it continued,

Those French! Always so fast with the cheese and the wine. I think it hurts them in the philosophy department.

Well, today I was offered something (through an e-mail list I'm on) labeled an "Old German Proverb." I had never heard it, but I decided it has an important message:

Love sees the need, not the cause.

John 15:8

The point is not that it doesn't matter what fruit you produce.
The point is that unless you produce fruit, nothing else matters.

The Middle Way

They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God.They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.

[...]

No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

Isaiah 58:2,6-7 NLT

Granted, there is a way to do this wrong, and reinforce bad things.

There must be a way to do this right.

Often, I feel that we have chosen the middle way: do nothing.

The Progress of the Lord's Kingdom

When we calmly reflect upon the fact that the progress of our Lord's Kingdom is dependent upon prayer, it is sad to think that we give so little time to the holy exercise. Everything depends upon prayer, and yet we neglect it not only to our own spiritual hurt, but also to the delay and injury of our Lord's cause upon earth.

E. M. Bounds