Our reader Katie Wong writes:
Having gone through several times imprisonments, his heart had never shaken. He knew more about God, and knew no matter where God orchestrated man, God was to save man. He saw God’s thoughtful kind intention and grew up in persecution and tribulation.
I saw this video on TV this morning. I lost my mom this past July and I am so comforted by the fact that I WILL see her again. This is for all of you who have lost a loved one in Christ. For all who are missing someone dearly.
| …Before your head hits the pillow…
Jeremiah 34 – Bondage In Jeremiah 34 we see many of the prophesies of Jeremiah coming to fruition. The Babylonians were now invading Jerusalem. Jeremiah had warned King Zedekiah many times to submit to the Babylonians but he refused to do so. He made an alliance with Egypt which angered King Nebuchadnezzar. This disobedience incurred the wrath of the Almighty God. Many years earlier, God had proclaimed to the Israelites that every Hebrew slave needed to be released after the sixth year of their servitude. This was a solemn command of the Lord. In fear for his life and as a hollow token of obedience, Zedekiah ordered all of the people still remaining in Jerusalem to free their Hebrew slaves, both men and women. When the siege was temporarily lifted, the people once again became bold in their own strength and the wicked people changed their minds and took back the people they had freed and placed them back into bondage. King Zedekiah and the people of Judah had enslaved other Hebrews who God demanded they set free, but the true men and women in bondage were the wicked people of Judah. They were in bondage to their own sins. The bondage to their sins led them to bondage to the enemy. They destroyed themselves through their bondage to sin. We too have a decision to make. We can be like the people of Judah. We can repent when times are tough and turn from our wicked ways and then when things get better, when God has lifted the siege, go back to our ungodly ways. Or we can truly repent and seek the face of God in all that we do. If we do not break the shackles, the bondage of sin, we too will destroy ourselves. God will still be our God, He will still love us, just as he constantly loved His Hebrew children, but He will allow our bondage to sin to destroy us. If we are truly His sons and daughters we can be assured of redemption, just as God returned the Hebrews to their homeland, but not until they had endured many years of hardship. We can either turn from our wicked ways and live in peace or we can be enslaved to sin and allow it to destroy us. God will still love us, but bondage to sin has serious consequences. Soon we will enter into the Christmas season, when we celebrate the birth of our Redeemer. So let’s show our gratitude for His sacrifice by throwing off the shackles of sin that enslave us and rely on our Lord for guidance and strength. Never forget the promise in John 8:31-32 – So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” |
Bible verses about Mercy as Larger Obligation
Matthew 12:1-8
Jesus truly knew God’s law and that other concerns (mercy, in this case; verse 7) may sometimes override the strict letter-of-the-law approach the Pharisees used. The Pharisees no doubt thought Jesus a flaming liberal, but to Jesus, He was simply working within the liberty God’s law allows (see Psalm 119:45; John 8:31-32; II Corinthians 3:17; James 1:25; I Peter 2:16).
Forgiveness
Matthew 23:1-39
In one chapter, Matthew 23, Jesus Christ rips the scribes and Pharisees to shreds. Eight times He pronounces on them woe—defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “deep suffering, grief, affliction, ruinous trouble.” He dubs them “hypocrites” seven times, “blind guides” twice, “fools and blind” twice, “blind” once, “whitewashed tombs” once, and finishes His name-calling tirade by designating them “brood of vipers”!
He then accuses them of being the children of those who had killed the prophets—a heavy-duty insult considering how proud they were of their ancestry. He predicts they would do the same themselves and declares that He would have nothing to do with them until they accept and bless the ones He sends.
Jesus was really worked up over this! Why? These people were extremely careful in keeping every minor article of the law. They even added many precise rules themselves to ensure they did not overlook the law’s details.
Their lives, and the lives of those under their jurisdiction, consisted of endless, mindless details. Endless, for they continued to break branches of the law down to twigs down to leaves. Mindless, because this focus hampered their ability to think and properly weigh what was most important. They became so involved in making sure everyone else obeyed their demands that they no longer remembered the fundamental purpose of the law or kept it properly themselves. Even worse, they used the law against others and took advantage even to the point of “devouring widows’ houses” (verse 14). Hence Christ’s remonstrance: Hypocrites!
Yet they LOOKED good, publicly counting their mint, cummin and anise. It is not wrong or unlawful to count each seed; tithing should be done, as Christ pointed out (verse 23). But there are far more important issues of the law to consider than counting individual seeds—namely, JUDGMENT, MERCY AND FAITH.
Notice Christ’s scathing indictment of the Pharisees’ religion and it’s effects:
• They set a horrid example by not following their own teaching (verse 3).
• They abused their office by burdening others with strict requirements while not requiring the same of themselves (verse 4).
• What they did do was only for vanity and show (verse 5).
• They were social climbers (verse 6).
•Their teaching had negative results, driving people farther from the Kingdom rather than closer to it (verse 13).
• Their twisted reasoning led them to steal even from the weak (verse 14).
• Their misguided zeal made their proselytes twice as bad as they were before they were even “converted” to Pharisaism (verse 16).
• Gold, money, and greed became their main focus and god (verses 16-18).
• Their perspective was so perverted that they would pay more attention to keep from swallowing a gnat than they would a camel (verses 23-24).
• How others saw them was far more important than moral values (verses 27-28).
• While they extolled the virtues of past men of God, they were so deeply hateful and murderous that they would kill Christ and any of His followers that they could (verses 29-37).
• Their religious house was utterly worthless and desolate, bereft of any contact with or influence of God, though they thought they were perfectly righteous. In a word, they were self-righteous.
We could easily break these attitudes down into many more categories of sin, but the point is obvious: The total of all their religious efforts was zero. Actually, Pharisaism had negative value, for the scribes and Pharisees took what people already had and made them even worse off than before!
The Christian Conservative 