"'Is not My word like a fire?' says the LORD, 'And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?...Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.'" (Jeremiah 23:29; 31:3)
Both texts are from the same prophet, the same Bible, the same Jesus. Some people like devotionals that are all affirming, feel good, and "smooth things;" some just like "tell-it-like-it-is," fire and brimstone. Well, perhaps I could accommodate, but that is not the Bible. The Word of the Lord is all of the above--- and more. He is a Good, Wise, Wonderful Father.
Yesterday a friend of mine sent me a video of Oprah, which referred to her new "church." It is some program where apparently she just rants on about how there are no absolutes, no "one way" with Jesus, or just anything which comes to her goddess mind. Her audience went from 300,000 to over 2,000,000 between programs. The formula for success in today's world is: Just please as many people as you can, have a pleasing personality, provide that which is in demand, flatter man's independence and rebellion against Jesus Christ, and, voila!--------- 2,000,000 worshippers. I'll stay with the "formula" for pleasing God: Submission to the ABSOLUTE reign and Word of our Father, Jesus Christ.
If you and I are in Jesus and He in us, if His Word is in us and we in His Word, we will be kept from the Oprah's and the charlatan ministries in life, and, I might add, our own. If Jesus, not Oprah, anyone, nor anything else is your God, you will walk in the "whole counsel of God,"-------------------the "fire," the "hammer," the "rock," the "everlasting love" and "lovingkindness," and, the ABSOLUTE, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," of Jesus Christ. With this I will try to accommodate.
Father, in Jesus' Name, keep releasing Your "whole counsel" in my life. I need You, everything You Are and Give. Amen.
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Preaching Schedule with the CCE Congregation: April 19 & 20
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