The way of restoration. Lamentations 3:21-26

Jeremiah was a prophet of God during very difficult times.... As God's spokesman he was there to warn the people of the impending collapse of the City of Jerusalem..... and after the fall he remained in Jerusalem speaking on behalf of the Lord to those who had been exiled to Babylon.


He gave the people an explanation of how their sin had brought this disaster upon them.  He also  spoke of the eventual hope of the nation which would return to Jerusalem some 70 years in the future. This wasn't the greatest news for those still living in Babylon.   For those he offers the instructions recorded in Jeremiah 29:4-14 as well as here in Ecclesiastes 3:21-26.   His instructions tells them to live faithfully and seek the Lord with their entire heart.  Jeremiah 29:13 and Lamentations 3:25

This would be their hope to sustain them and it is our hope as well.

Jeremiah could offer this advice because he knew of the Lord's faithfulness and forgiveness that after the time of disciple had done its work the Lord would help them to find the road of blessing again.    This is the process of restoration and this process is often painful but it is a grace of the Lord which would bring the people to a deeper intimacy with the Him.

With this belief in his heart Jeremiah would say what we find recorded in Lamentations 3:21-23 ... Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Perhaps each of us can speak of the faithfulness of the Lord in our past and in our present.   Many of these times we wonder why we deserved his favor.  Yet one thing we find throughout Scriptures is that God is with us in a special way.. and there is a special blessing reserved for those who seek him with their entire heart, despite the troubles around them.


 Knowing this Jeremiah would write..  I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;  it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  Lamentations 3:24-26

Today we have difficulty with this idea of waiting quietly for the Lord.  When marriage troubles come, when financial struggles are on the horizons, when our lives are broken we tend to turn everyway but to the Lord and these behaviors bring our ruin much faster than the trials at hand.   Instead of waiting to see God in the midst of our pain we turn to addictions, new relationships, and we run from the Lord.  In this case perhaps God's only course of action is to allow us to fall or to discipline us. But even if we are falling his hand is close to us and protecting us.  Remember God is always waiting for His prodigal son and daughter to return.

Today I pray that you will lift your burdens to the Lord.  I pray you will trust in his faithfulness even when you don't understand.  I pray that you will seek the Lord and turn from any evil ways which harm others and side tract God's restoration in your life.   Remember God's hand is very near the broken hearted.    

It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

God has a plan for you. Jeremiah 29:11-13

Jeremiah 29:11-13New International Version (NIV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.


This is one of the great promises offered to God's people in the Old Testament and it came at a very difficult time.  The people of Judah were exiled to Babylon as prisoners to live in a foreign land.  These were tough times and Jeremiah the Prophet wasn't promising any good news anytime soon.  While some false prophets were promising that God would soon return the captives to Jerusalem, Jeremiah was relaying God's words to settle down for the long haul; seventy years to be exact. Surely the people were in despair... Yet Jeremiah offers these words of hope.  Words that told them that God still had a plan for them. God had not abandon them.  

  Perhaps you find yourself in one of those places today.  You've had a major disappointment and you wonder where is God?  You hurt, you're disappointed, you're confused, you feel lost.  If you're in that place today, these are good words for you.  God has a plan and it's a plan for good and not for evil. A plan to prosper you and not harm you.  

God is still with you.  So don't despair. Cry out to the Lord.  Seek him with your whole heart and you will find him.  And for the Christian finding Christ is the greatest joy.  

In the end, this life is bound to kick us and bring us down.   Sometimes it kicks us because we did something we shouldn't have done.  This was why Judah found themselves in this predicament.  But, even in the difficulties we can find forgiveness, joy and peace.  The greatest joy comes from God's presence with us as we seek the Lord with our whole heart. 

The people of Judah surely wished things could return as they were, and in comming generations they would know that blessing, but in the midst of their captivity in Babylon they could still experience the presence of God.

Prayer:  Dear God I wish that things could be different for us today but we trust you know you know what is best.  Forgive us of our sins. Today, we cry out to you and we trust that you have a future plan.  And Lord, while we wait for that plan to take shape, help us to find joy in the midst of sadness because you are with us.

A thought for today:  Even if you have lost someone or something very dear in your life, seek the Lord with your whole heart.  God may not heal that hurt but God will give you a new hope.  Remember God loves you and God will never leave you.

God Bless You!

the road of blessing starts with a broken heart: Nehemiah 1:4

Nehemiah was serving as the cup bearer for the king in Assyria several years following the exile of the people of Judah.  It was a dark time indeed. It was then that he heard word about the people who escaped the exile.  Hanani, one of his brothers, along with other men told him,

 "....Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.  The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." Nehemiah 1:3  Then he writes, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.  For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."  Nehemiah 1:4

If you read the book of Nehemiah you will see a portrait of a great leader.  Someone whom God used to accomplish his purposes to reestablish Judah by rebuilding the walls of the city.  This was a mighty challenge!  But today I want to point out that it all started with a broken hearted man who did two things.

1.  He inquired of the condition of the people back in Judah
2.   He mourned over the news of there great trouble.

Nehemiah had a passion for the people and a passion for the city of Jerusalem and I want to think about that today.   In my next blog I want to focus on the fact that he had an opportunity to be a blessing and the boldness to carry it out.

But let us never forget that before he did anything else he had a burden in his heart and he mourned over that burden.  Without such a burdened heart I'm not sure that Nehemiah would have done anything. 

It is understandable that Nehemiah was deeply troubled to hear news of his homeland.   But his attitude went much deeper.  His heart was crushed and deeply burdened.  Not only did he pray. He mourned and fasted before the God of heaven and I believe God honored him as a result.

  Psalm 34:18 says,"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

and in Isaiah 42:3  it says,  "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out."

In Matthew 5:3,4  Jesus proclaims, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted."

All of these Scriptures tell me that God is near us when we are deeply burdened.  He hears our cries and is moved by compassion.  But what really moves God is when we cry out to God in faith during our deep burdens.

The Psalmist wrote, "In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears."  Psalm 18:6  

Now it's not that God doesn't hear us when we offer our simple prayers for help.  We aren't heard just because we call to God in a louder voice but God hears more then our volume.  God hears our heart and responds with compassion.

Later you'll see that Nehemiah was going to be used to answer his own prayer and that is important but just for today let us not over look the importance of feeling the pain and suffering of others.   God meets us at that place.  Literally those prayers from our burdened heart are seeds planted and our tears are the first nourishment.  Yes God meets us there.  This is the place that we open up our heart and our hands before God.  At these moments God loves us and fill our hearts with hope.

At these times we either wrestle with God like Jacob or we surrender our heart like Isaiah.  Either way we are touched deeply by the hand of God and often a new call is placed upon our life.  Nehemiah would answer that call but he may have never heard the call in his ears if his heart wasn't first opened and rent before God.   

Perhaps you have a burden today.  Some people might tell you to just have faith.  Some might offer the wisdom of our times "Don't worry be happy."  But sometimes God uses our sorrow for good especially if we allow the Lord to be present with us and meet us.  Jeremiah 29:13,14a  promises, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord,..."

Yes your heart might be broken but don't try to patch it up, suppress it, ignore it or try to move on too fast.  Turn to the Lord in prayer and know that he will meet you.  Trust God with your pain.  Wrestle if you must but when morning comes let him have his way.  You too may find purpose and a new ministry.  These are holy moments lean into them, give the Lord your pain and know that in time God promises to make all things beautiful.   

Prayer:  Dear God bless my friends who are gripped in fear and pain today.  Give them faith.  Help them to open their hearts to you.  Help them to cry out to you.  May their tears be their nourishment and your gracious touch bring them new hope and direction.   Amen

Wisdom for the confusion of life 1Kings 3:4-15

The wise man is the one who realizes how little he really knows and how much he is truly dependant upon the Lord.  The wise person understands that life is too difficult without the wisdom of the Lord. 

Yes life is confusing, hard and extremely challenging.

Some people think that if they only had more money they could buy themselves out of the troubles of life.  Others believe they can get through life on their talents and natural abilities with a little bit of luck along the way.  This seems to work for some people at least for a little while but we all seem to come to a point in our life when we look at ourself and realize how futile life is.

Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes says that it is like "chasing after the wind."

These might be surprising words from the "Wisest" man to live.

Solomon was only a young man when he became ruler over the kingdom of Israel ruling on the throne of his father David.   In 1Kings 3 it records the conversation as God appeared to Solomon in a dream.   God said, "Ask! What shall I give you?"  1 Kings 3:5b

Solomon could ask for anything but he realized his greatest need was not victories over his enemies, or great riches and possession but wisdom and an understanding heart.   God gave him this and everything else that Solomon could have dreamed.  God was please with his request.

But that doesn't mean that Solomon always used the wisdom he was given.

Solomon is a sad story in many ways.   He had it all but his own sin led him astray.

  This reminds me of the story told of a little girl in Sunday School.

"King Solomon," Declared a little girl in Sunday school, "is my favorite character in the Bible.  He was kind to ladies and animals."

The startled teacher asked,  "Who told you that?"  "Nobody told me.  I read it myself in the Bible,"  asserted the little girl.  "It says Solomon kept seven hundred wives and three hundred porcupines."

We might laugh at the small girl but her insights uncovered Solomon's problem in life.  

Yes, it is great that we ask the Lord for wisdom as it says in James 1:5,  ^"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."

But don't you know having wisdom and using the wisdom we have is a totally different thing.   Many of us have made mistakes just as King Solomon.   We acted or spoke without thinking things through.  Sometimes these laps have caused us and others great pain.

If you've fallen into that trap continue to seek God's wisdom, forgiveness and start again knowing that as it says in Lamentations 3:22 "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning;  Great is Your faithfulness."

Prayer:   Dear God for the mistakes I have made please forgive me and fill me with your wisdom anew that I can walk with you.

In the end, the wise person isn't the one who makes no mistakes but the one who learns from their mistakes.

These are the lessons we learn as we walk through the Word together.

Be Strong and Courageous - Johua 1:9

Ok I have to tell you that this is probably one of my all time favorite Scriptures to preach about.   I know I may say that a couple times over the next two years but I really mean it when it comes to this passage. 

Joshua is also probably my favorite person in the Bible to preach about so I will try to resist the urge to blog every day. (hopefully I won't have as long a blog post as today's either!)    

So Why do I like Joshua?  Simply put he was a man of great courage.  He was a great leader.  He was faithful to God.  But also because he didn't run away from his fears.   

Fear and courage are by no means opposites.  The most courageous people are those who move forward and do the right thing despite their fears.

So why do I think that Joshua was afraid?  For me it starts with the fact of how many times God and Moses tell Joshua to be strong and courageous.  Moses had successfully led the children of Israel to the foot of the promise land.  Joshua had been Moses right hand man and he would succeed Moses to lead this mighty nation of wanderers.   Moses would help the people out of the place and the mentality of slavery.  Joshua would take this free wandering nation and make it into an army and into a nation where they could put down their roots.  Much is said about Moses exploits to free Israel from grip of the Pharaoh and to lead God's people through the wilderness but Joshua was equally as great a leader.    

Joshua and the people of Israel now had to learn to fight.  They had to farm the land.  No one had done that in 40 years.  They had to learn to be self sufficient.  At the same time they needed to continue to be totally dependent upon the Lord.  They had to be strong and courageous in the face of some of the greatest obstacles imaginable.  Joshua knew it.  Moses Knew it and God knew it so several times it is written in Scripture instructing Joshua to be strong and courageous.  In Deuteronomy 31:8  Moses tells Joshua "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."  In Deuteronomy 31:24 it says, "The Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun:  "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you."   Just read our passage for this week.  How many times does God tell Joshua to be strong and courageous and not  be terrified or afraid.  Why would God repeat this so many times and why would the author of Joshua write it so many times?  Simply because Joshua was probably afraid and so he should have been.

My guess is that you have some pretty big challenges in your life.  My guess is many of you have reason to be afraid.  Being afraid is not a sign that you lack faith it says your human.   God knows your human.  However, notice that everytime God instructed Joshua to be strong and courageous he didn't just stop there.  He didn't just say, "Come on Joshua take it like a man!" No God promised to be present each step of the way.  Joshua could be strong and courageous because he knew that God went before him and no matter the struggles and the pain, God would never leave him or forsake him.   And that my friends is the promise that each of us has today.  Trust God!  Life may be painful and I know it is for many of my friends but God is with you and God is faithful.

To Ponder:  God is with me.  God is faithful to his covenant with me.  I can stand tall.  I can have faith.  I can move forward.  I can be strong and courageous!   Remember there is no pain and no mistake that God cannot fix if we are walking with God.  But just like Joshua had to move into the place of promise, so too we have to be strong and courageous to keep walking and keep doing those things God has called us to do. 

Our Covenant God! Deuteronomy 7:8,9

^"8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments."  (Deuteronomy 7:8,9"


"Covenant" isn't a word that we hear just every day.  A Biblical covenant is basically an agreement between God and God's people.  The exception to this was the covenant God made with Noah following the flood when God promised "all people" to never destroy the earth with a flood.  

In today's text we are referring to the Mosaic Covenant which includes the laws as spelled out in the Ten Commandments and the Torah or first five books of the Bible.  In this covenant as well as all of the Biblical covenants you find that God is the initiator,  the administrator of the blessings, and the one who pays the greatest price to make and keep the covenant.

His covenant is always a covenant of love.  The greatest love of course was shown in the New Covenant which was sealed in the very blood of Christ who died on the cross.  Christ would take the punishment for our sins and our failure to abide by the terms of all the previous covenants.  What we could not do Jesus did for us.

The point that amazes me is that God is a covenant God!  From the covenant he made to Noah through Jesus, God shows faithfulness, grace, and love.  

What is our part of the covenant?  Our part it is to make the Lord our One God above all things in our life.  We are to love him through our worship and obedience and to serve him with our life.  That is our part of the covenant relationship.  His part is to love, protect, bless and give us eternal life.

But what happens when we break our part of the covenant? Does God punish us or turn away from us?  No. 

God sent his son Jesus to die for us thus taking the punishment of our sins upon himself.  Again through God's grace he has done in Jesus Christ what we could not do ourselves.  To receive this grace all we must do is confess our sins, call upon the Lord and believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

1 John 1:9 reminds us, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Romans 10:12,13  also proclaim: "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call on him.  For whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

God is always faithful to His covenant and love.  God is love and God cannot go against his very nature.   This is good news indeed!

God is serious about the covenant that He makes with us.  As we obey the covenant and put God first in our lives we are truly blessed and that blessing, which goes beyond our salvation, is handed down to our children and to our children's children....  They are still responsible to respond to God's call upon their lives but the way we live today will bless them and make it easier for them to respond.

You might say that in the same way the curse of alcoholism, other addictions and sinful behaviors is handed down from one generation to another so it is that blessings can be handed down from one generation to another.  

So what kind of inheritance are you handing down to your children?

Let us celebrate the faithfulness of God and trust that as we walk in obedience and love God will provide for us and leave a blessing to the next generation.

To ponder:  Your obedience and love for Christ is a much better inheritance to hand down to your children than any amount of money you may leave behind.