DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY AUGUST 13:
WORD OF WISDOM
Spiritual warfare is not fought on the ground, but in the heavenlies.
___
DAILY DEVOTION
Focusing on What Matters Most
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto
them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father
hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 1:6-8
Over recent decades, nationally-known preachers and authors have
specifically and publically predicted the date for the Lord's return. In
almost every case, they state that their declarations are the result of
careful study of Scripture, and that there is no chance they may be
mistaken. When one preacher's date proved to be incorrect, he recalculated
and declared a second date later in the year. The mistaken declarations
provided great humor for the world and great embarrassment to those who
believed them.
As children of God we should all be looking forward to the day when the Lord
will return. We know that His coming could be at any moment, but the
Scripture is also clear that no one is able to set a date or a time for
"that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing" (Titus 2:13).
It is possible for us to become so focused on future prophetic events that
we miss the tasks that God has assigned for us today. In fact, the disciples
found themselves in just that position. Just before the Lord returned to
Heaven, their focus was on figuring out God's timetable. Jesus told them
that instead of worrying about "the times or the seasons" they should
instead be witnesses for Him. There is no more important mission that we
have been given than bringing lost men and women to salvation in His name.
When we win the lost, we are focused on what matters most.
While we eagerly anticipate Christ's return, we should be busy fulfilling
His Great Commission.
___
DAILY BIBLE READING
Jeremiah 23-25 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Branch of Righteousness
23 "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!"
says the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the
shepherds who feed My people: "You have scattered My flock, driven them
away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of
your doings," says the Lord. 3 "But I will gather the remnant of My flock
out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their
folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 I will set up shepherds
over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed,
nor shall they be lacking," says the Lord.
5 "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord,
"That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and [a]prosper,
And execute [b]judgment and righteousness in the [c]earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
[d]THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that they shall
no longer say, 'As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from
the land of Egypt,' 8 but, 'As the Lord lives who brought up and led the
descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the
countries where I had driven them.' And they shall dwell in their own land."
False Prophets and Empty Oracles
9 My heart within me is broken
Because of the prophets;
All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the Lord,
And because of His holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
For because of a curse the land mourns.
The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course of life is evil,
And their might is not right.
11 "For both prophet and priest are profane;
Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness," says the Lord.
12 "Therefore their way shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment," says the Lord.
13 "And I have seen [e]folly in the prophets of Samaria:
They prophesied by Baal
And caused My people Israel to err.
14 Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:
They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They also strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
All of them are like Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
'Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,
And make them drink the water of gall;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
[f]Profaneness has gone out into all the land.' "
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
"Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They make you worthless;
They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 They continually say to those who despise Me,
'The Lord has said, "You shall have peace" ';
And to everyone who walks according to the [g]dictates of his own heart,
they say,
'No evil shall come upon you.' "
18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
And has perceived and heard His word?
Who has marked His word and heard it?
19 Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury-
A violent whirlwind!
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.
In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
21 "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.
23 "Am I a God near at hand," says the Lord,
"And not a God afar off?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?" says the Lord;
"Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the Lord.
25 "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name,
saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' 26 How long will this be in the
heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the
deceit of their own heart, 27 who try to make My people forget My name by
their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My
name for Baal.
28 "The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;
And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the Lord.
29 "Is not My word like a fire?" says the Lord,
"And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
30 "Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the Lord, "who steal
My words every one from his neighbor. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets,"
says the Lord, "who use their tongues and say, 'He says.' 32 Behold, I am
against those who prophesy false dreams," says the Lord, "and tell them, and
cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did
not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people
at all," says the Lord.
33 "So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, 'What
is the [h]oracle of the Lord?' you shall then say to them, [i]'What oracle?'
I will even forsake you," says the Lord. 34 "And as for the prophet and the
priest and the people who say, 'The [j]oracle of the Lord!' I will even
punish that man and his house. 35 Thus every one of you shall say to his
neighbor, and every one to his brother, 'What has the Lord answered?' and,
'What has the Lord spoken?' 36 And the [k]oracle of the Lord you shall
mention no more. For every man's word will be his oracle, for you have
perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. 37 Thus
you shall say to the prophet, 'What has the Lord answered you?' and, 'What
has the Lord spoken?' 38 But since you say, 'The [l]oracle of the Lord!'
therefore thus says the Lord: 'Because you say this word, "The oracle of the
Lord!" and I have sent to you, saying, "Do not say, 'The oracle of the
Lord!' " 39 therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake
you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of
My presence. 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.' "
The Sign of Two Baskets of Figs
24 The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the
temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away
captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of
Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to
Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe;
and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were
so bad. 3 Then the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?"
And I said, "Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which
cannot be eaten, they are so bad."
4 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 "Thus says the Lord, the
God of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I [m]acknowledge those who are
carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for
their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes on
them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them
and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then
I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be
My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their
whole heart.
8 'And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad'-surely thus
says the Lord-'so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes,
the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the
land of Egypt. 9 I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the
earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse,
in all places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the
famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are [n]consumed from the
land that I gave to them and their fathers.' "
Seventy Years of Desolation
25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the
first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet
spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
saying: 3 "From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of
Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of
the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and
speaking, but you have not listened. 4 And the Lord has sent to you all His
servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not
listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, 'Repent now everyone of
his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has
given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods
to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the
works of your hands; and I will not harm you.' 7 Yet you have not listened
to Me," says the Lord, "that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of
your hands to your own hurt.
8 "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Because you have not heard My
words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says
the Lord, 'and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will
bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these
nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an
astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will
[o]take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and
the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an
astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years.
12 'Then it will come to pass, when [p]seventy years are completed, that I
will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans,
for their iniquity,' says the Lord; 'and I will make it a perpetual
desolation. 13 So I will bring on that land all My words which I have
pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has
prophesied concerning all the nations. 14 (For many nations and great kings
shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds
and according to the works of their own hands.)' "
Judgment on the Nations
15 For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: "Take this wine cup of
[q]fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to
drink it. 16 And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword
that I will send among them."
17 Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and made all the nations drink,
to whom the Lord had sent me: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its
kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a
hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his
servants, his princes, and all his people; 20 all the mixed multitude, all
the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines
(namely, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod); 21 Edom, Moab,
and the people of Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon,
and the kings of the coastlands which are across the sea; 23 Dedan, Tema,
Buz, and all who are in the farthest corners; 24 all the kings of Arabia and
all the kings of the mixed multitude who dwell in the desert; 25 all the
kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; 26
all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the
kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. Also the king of
[r]Sheshach shall drink after them.
27 "Therefore you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God
of Israel: "Drink, be drunk, and vomit! Fall and rise no more, because of
the sword which I will send among you." ' 28 And it shall be, if they refuse
to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus
says the Lord of hosts: "You shall certainly drink! 29 For behold, I begin
to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you be
utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword
on all the inhabitants of the earth," says the Lord of hosts.'
30 "Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:
'The Lord will roar from on high,
And utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He will roar mightily against His fold.
He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes,
Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 A noise will come to the ends of the earth-
For the Lord has a controversy with the nations;
He will plead His case with all flesh.
He will give those who are wicked to the sword,' says the Lord."
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
"Behold, disaster shall go forth
From nation to nation,
And a great whirlwind shall be raised up
From the farthest parts of the earth.
33 And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth
even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered,
or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.
34 "Wail, shepherds, and cry!
Roll about in the ashes,
You leaders of the flock!
For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled;
You shall fall like a precious vessel.
35 And the shepherds will have no [s]way to flee,
Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds,
And a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard.
For the Lord has plundered their pasture,
37 And the peaceful dwellings are cut down
Because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has left His lair like the lion;
For their land is desolate
Because of the fierceness of the Oppressor,
And because of His fierce anger."
