I’ve really enjoyed reading through Jeremiah 20. I am noticing for the first time how Jeremiah’s emotions flash from bitterness with God (v7-8), to compulsion (v9), to paranoia (v10), to reassurance (v11-12), to elation with God (v13), to despair (v14-18).
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Henry David Thoreau
It’s not often I use a secular quotation on this blog, but this one has been on my mind. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, there is a strong feeling of separation from God during times of depression - thus the quiet desperation instead of the peace of Christ. God is love, but even more appealing to me these days, He also is a God of peace.
As I said in a previous post, I’m not a big believer in man-made global warming. However, I’m not inclined to believe what criminals claim they found in “original” e-mails to refute man-made global warming either. If someone can justify breaking the law to steal private information, then I assume they also can justify falsifying the information they steal.
As I was working through Jeremiah, I came across this verse:
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
This is a false dichotomy. Judgment is not mutually exclusive from love. I’ve heard the expression that the only thing worse than hate is apathy - because even to hate somebody, you still have to care about them in some respect.
Love means deeply caring about someone’s welfare. As a father who loves his kids, I am going to judge and discipline them, instead of apathetically turning them loose to their own follies and bad consequences. This concept and how it relates to God’s judgment and discipline of those he loves is stated beautifully in Hebrews 12: