DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY AUGUST 21:
WORD OF WISDOM
For every minute you allow yourself to be angry, you lose 60 seconds of
happiness!
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DAILY DEVOTION
Comfort in Distress
"I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved
from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of
ungodly men made me afraid; The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the
snares of death prevented me; In my distress I called upon the LORD, and
cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did
enter into his ears."
2 Samuel 22:4-7
The Lord blessed David in so many ways, but that blessing did not mean that
the shepherd boy who was anointed to be king over Israel had an easy life.
David spent much of his life on fields of battle. There were many days when
he did not know whether he would even survive until sundown. There were many
nights where he slept in caves while hiding from those who wanted him dead.
Throughout all of his dark days, David continued to trust in God. He knew
that the hard times he endured did not mean that God had forsaken him.
Others used David's troubles to claim that God had abandoned him. "Many
there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah"
(Psalm 3:2). Yet David's faith remained steadfast.
God did not promise His children a painless and easy way through life. But
every trial and every difficulty has a purpose as part of His plan. He does
not always cause our troubles to disappear, but He always comforts those who
flee to Him for help. And it is often the very things that bring us the most
grief and turmoil that God is using to shape our lives. Charles Spurgeon
said, "Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble
digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation."
Trust God just as much when you are struggling with difficulty as you do
when you are rejoicing in peace.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Jeremiah 31-33 The Message (MSG)
31 "And when that happens"-God's Decree-
"it will be plain as the sun at high noon:
I'll be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel
and they shall be my very own people."
2-6 This is the way God put it:
"They found grace out in the desert,
these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest,
met God out looking for them!"
God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.
Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again,
dear virgin Israel.
You'll resume your singing,
grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards
on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit-
oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!
The time's coming when watchmen will call out
from the hilltops of Ephraim:
'On your feet! Let's go to Zion,
go to meet our God!'"
7 Oh yes, God says so:
"Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob!
Announce the good news to the number-one nation!
Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say,
'God has saved his people,
saved the core of Israel.'
8 "Watch what comes next:
"I'll bring my people back
from the north country
And gather them up from the ends of the earth,
gather those who've gone blind
And those who are lame and limping,
gather pregnant women,
Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started,
bring them all back, a huge crowd!
9
"Watch them come! They'll come weeping for joy
as I take their hands and lead them,
Lead them to fresh flowing brooks,
lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.
Yes, it's because I'm Israel's Father
and Ephraim's my firstborn son!
10-14
"Hear this, nations! God's Message!
Broadcast this all over the world!
Tell them, 'The One who scattered Israel
will gather them together again.
From now on he'll keep a careful eye on them,
like a shepherd with his flock.'
I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob;
I'll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.
The people will climb up Zion's slopes shouting with joy,
their faces beaming because of God's bounty-
Grain and wine and oil,
flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.
Their lives will be like a well-watered garden,
never again left to dry up.
Young women will dance and be happy,
young men and old men will join in.
I'll convert their weeping into laughter,
lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.
I'll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day
and that my people have more than enough.'" God's Decree.
15-17 Again, God's Message:
"Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah,
wild and bitter weeping.
It's Rachel weeping for her children,
Rachel refusing all solace.
Her children are gone,
gone-long gone into exile."
But God says, "Stop your incessant weeping,
hold back your tears.
Collect wages from your grief work." God's Decree.
"They'll be coming back home!
There's hope for your children." God's Decree.
18-19
"I've heard the contrition of Ephraim.
Yes, I've heard it clearly, saying,
'You trained me well.
You broke me, a wild yearling horse, to the saddle.
Now put me, trained and obedient, to use.
You are my God.
After those years of running loose, I repented.
After you trained me to obedience,
I was ashamed of my past, my wild, unruly past.
Humiliated, I beat on my chest.
Will I ever live this down?'
20
"Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son,
my child in whom I take pleasure!
Every time I mention his name,
my heart bursts with longing for him!
Everything in me cries out for him.
Softly and tenderly I wait for him." God's Decree.
21-22
"Set up signposts to mark your trip home.
Get a good map.
Study the road conditions.
The road out is the road back.
Come back, dear virgin Israel,
come back to your hometowns.
How long will you flit here and there, indecisive?
How long before you make up your fickle mind?
God will create a new thing in this land:
A transformed woman will embrace the transforming God!"
23-24 A Message from Israel's God-of-the-Angel-Armies: "When I've turned
everything around and brought my people back, the old expressions will be
heard on the streets: 'God bless you!' . . . 'O True Home!' . . . 'O Holy
Mountain!' All Judah's people, whether in town or country, will get along
just fine with each other.
25
I'll refresh tired bodies;
I'll restore tired souls.
26 Just then I woke up and looked around-what a pleasant and satisfying
sleep!
27-28 "Be ready. The time's coming"-God's Decree-"when I will plant people
and animals in Israel and Judah, just as a farmer plants seed. And in the
same way that earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and
demolished, so now I am sticking with them as they start over, building and
planting.
29 "When that time comes you won't hear the old proverb anymore,
Parents ate the green apples,
their children got the stomachache.
30 "No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, you're
the one who gets sick.
31-32 "That's right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new
covenant with Israel and Judah. It won't be a repeat of the covenant I made
with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master."
God's Decree.
33-34 "This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the
time comes. I will put my law within them-write it on their hearts!-and be
their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting
up schools to teach each other about God. They'll know me firsthand, the
dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I'll wipe the slate clean for
each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned!" God's Decree.
If This Ordered Cosmos Ever Fell to Pieces
35
God's Message, from the God who lights up the day with sun and
brightens the night with moon and stars,
Who whips the ocean into a billowy froth,
whose name is God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
36
"If this ordered cosmos ever fell to pieces,
fell into chaos before me"-God's Decree-
"Then and only then might Israel fall apart
and disappear as a nation before me."
37 God's Message:
"If the skies could be measured with a yardstick
and the earth explored to its core,
Then and only then would I turn my back on Israel,
disgusted with all they've done." God's Decree.
38-40 "The time is coming"-it's God's Decree-"when God's city will be
rebuilt, rebuilt all the way from the Citadel of Hanamel to the Corner Gate.
The master plan will extend west to Gareb Hill and then around to Goath. The
whole valley to the south where incinerated corpses are dumped-a death
valley if there ever was one!-and all the terraced fields out to the Brook
Kidron on the east as far north as the Horse Gate will be consecrated to me
as a holy place.
"This city will never again be torn down or destroyed."
Killing and Disease Are on Our Doorstep
32 1-5 The Message Jeremiah received from God in the tenth year of Zedekiah
king of Judah. It was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time
the army of the king of Babylon was holding Jerusalem under siege. Jeremiah
was shut up in jail in the royal palace. Zedekiah, king of Judah, had locked
him up, complaining, "How dare you preach, saying, 'God says, I'm warning
you: I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will take it
over. Zedekiah king of Judah will be handed over to the Chaldeans right
along with the city. He will be handed over to the king of Babylon and
forced to face the music. He'll be hauled off to Babylon where he'll stay
until I deal with him. God's Decree. Fight against the Babylonians all you
want-it won't get you anywhere.'"
6-7 Jeremiah said, "God's Message came to me like this: Prepare yourself!
Hanamel, your uncle Shallum's son, is on his way to see you. He is going to
say, 'Buy my field in Anathoth. You have the legal right to buy it.'
8 "And sure enough, just as God had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me while
I was in jail and said, 'Buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of
Benjamin, for you have the legal right to keep it in the family. Buy it.
Take it over.' "That did it. I knew it was God's Message.
9-12 "So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I paid him
seventeen silver shekels. I followed all the proper procedures: In the
presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed it, and weighed
out the money on the scales. Then I took the deed of purchase-the sealed
copy that contained the contract and its conditions and also the open
copy-and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. All this
took place in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had
signed the deed, as the Jews who were at the jail that day looked on.
13-15 "Then, in front of all of them, I told Baruch, 'These are orders from
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: Take these documents-both the
sealed and the open deeds-and put them for safekeeping in a pottery jar. For
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, "Life is going to return
to normal. Homes and fields and vineyards are again going to be bought in
this country."'
16-19 "And then, having handed over the legal documents to Baruch son of
Neriah, I prayed to God, 'Dear God, my Master, you created earth and sky by
your great power-by merely stretching out your arm! There is nothing you
can't do. You're loyal in your steadfast love to thousands upon
thousands-but you also make children live with the fallout from their
parents' sins. Great and powerful God, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
determined in purpose and relentless in following through, you see
everything that men and women do and respond appropriately to the way they
live, to the things they do.
20-23 "'You performed signs and wonders in the country of Egypt and continue
to do so right into the present, right here in Israel and everywhere else,
too. You've made a reputation for yourself that doesn't diminish. You
brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders-a powerful
deliverance!-by merely stretching out your arm. You gave them this land and
solemnly promised to their ancestors a bountiful and fertile land. But when
they entered the land and took it over, they didn't listen to you. They
didn't do what you commanded. They wouldn't listen to a thing you told them.
And so you brought this disaster on them.
24-25 "'Oh, look at the siege ramps already set in place to take the city.
Killing and starvation and disease are on our doorstep. The Babylonians are
attacking! The Word you spoke is coming to pass-it's daily news! And yet
you, God, the Master, even though it is certain that the city will be turned
over to the Babylonians, also told me, Buy the field. Pay for it in cash.
And make sure there are witnesses.'"
26-30 Then God's Message came again to Jeremiah: "Stay alert! I am God, the
God of everything living. Is there anything I can't do? So listen to God's
Message: No doubt about it, I'm handing this city over to the Babylonians
and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He'll take it. The attacking Chaldeans
will break through and burn the city down: All those houses whose roofs were
used as altars for offerings to Baal and the worship of who knows how many
other gods provoked me. It isn't as if this were the first time they had
provoked me. The people of Israel and Judah have been doing this for a long
time-doing what I hate, making me angry by the way they live." God's Decree.
31-35 "This city has made me angry from the day they built it, and now I've
had my fill. I'm destroying it. I can't stand to look any longer at the
wicked lives of the people of Israel and Judah, deliberately making me
angry, the whole lot of them-kings and leaders and priests and preachers, in
the country and in the city. They've turned their backs on me-won't even
look me in the face!-even though I took great pains to teach them how to
live. They refused to listen, refused to be taught. Why, they even set up
obscene god and goddess statues in the Temple built in my honor-an
outrageous desecration! And then they went out and built shrines to the god
Baal in the valley of Hinnom, where they burned their children in sacrifice
to the god Molech-I can hardly conceive of such evil!-turning the whole
country into one huge act of sin.
36 "But there is also this Message from me, the God of Israel, to this city
of which you have said, 'In killing and starvation and disease this city
will be delivered up to the king of Babylon':
37-40 "'Watch for this! I will collect them from all the countries to which
I will have driven them in my anger and rage and indignation. Yes, I'll
bring them all back to this place and let them live here in peace. They will
be my people, I will be their God. I'll make them of one mind and heart,
always honoring me, so that they can live good and whole lives, they and
their children after them. What's more, I'll make a covenant with them that
will last forever, a covenant to stick with them no matter what, and work
for their good. I'll fill their hearts with a deep respect for me so they'll
not even think of turning away from me.
41 "'Oh how I'll rejoice in them! Oh how I'll delight in doing good things
for them! Heart and soul, I'll plant them in this country and keep them
here!'
42-44 "Yes, this is God's Message: 'I will certainly bring this huge
catastrophe on this people, but I will also usher in a wonderful life of
prosperity. I promise. Fields are going to be bought here again, yes, in
this very country that you assume is going to end up desolate-gone to the
dogs, unlivable, wrecked by the Babylonians. Yes, people will buy farms
again, and legally, with deeds of purchase, sealed documents, proper
witnesses-and right here in the territory of Benjamin, and in the area
around Jerusalem, around the villages of Judah and the hill country, the
Shephelah and the Negev. I will restore everything that was lost.' God's
Decree."
Things You Could Never Figure Out on Your Own
33 While Jeremiah was still locked up in jail, a second Message from God was
given to him:
2-3 "This is God's Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and
lasting, known everywhere as God: 'Call to me and I will answer you. I'll
tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on
your own.'
4-5 "This is what God, the God of Israel, has to say about what's going on
in this city, about the homes of both people and kings that have been
demolished, about all the ravages of war and the killing by the Chaldeans,
and about the streets littered with the dead bodies of those killed because
of my raging anger-about all that's happened because the evil actions in
this city have turned my stomach in disgust.
6-9 "But now take another look. I'm going to give this city a thorough
renovation, working a true healing inside and out. I'm going to show them
life whole, life brimming with blessings. I'll restore everything that was
lost to Judah and Jerusalem. I'll build everything back as good as new. I'll
scrub them clean from the dirt they've done against me. I'll forgive
everything they've done wrong, forgive all their rebellions. And Jerusalem
will be a center of joy and praise and glory for all the countries on earth.
They'll get reports on all the good I'm doing for her. They'll be in awe of
the blessings I am pouring on her.
10-11 "Yes, God's Message: 'You're going to look at this place, these empty
and desolate towns of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, and say, "A wasteland.
Unlivable. Not even a dog could live here." But the time is coming when
you're going to hear laughter and celebration, marriage festivities, people
exclaiming, "Thank God-of-the-Angel-Armies. He's so good! His love never
quits," as they bring thank offerings into God's Temple. I'll restore
everything that was lost in this land. I'll make everything as good as new.'
I, God, say so.
12-13 "God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: 'This coming desolation, unfit for even
a stray dog, is once again going to become a pasture for shepherds who care
for their flocks. You'll see flocks everywhere-in the mountains around the
towns of the Shephelah and Negev, all over the territory of Benjamin, around
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah-flocks under the care of shepherds who keep
track of each sheep.' God says so.
A Fresh and True Shoot from the David-Tree
14-18 "'Watch for this: The time is coming'-God's Decree-'when I will keep
the promise I made to the families of Israel and Judah. When that time
comes, I will make a fresh and true shoot sprout from the David-Tree. He
will run this country honestly and fairly. He will set things right. That's
when Judah will be secure and Jerusalem live in safety. The motto for the
city will be, "God Has Set Things Right for Us." God has made it clear that
there will always be a descendant of David ruling the people of Israel and
that there will always be Levitical priests on hand to offer burnt
offerings, present grain offerings, and carry on the sacrificial worship in
my honor.'"
19-22 God's Message to Jeremiah: "God says, 'If my covenant with day and my
covenant with night ever fell apart so that day and night became haphazard
and you never knew which was coming and when, then and only then would my
covenant with my servant David fall apart and his descendants no longer
rule. The same goes for the Levitical priests who serve me. Just as you
can't number the stars in the sky nor measure the sand on the seashore,
neither will you be able to account for the descendants of David my servant
and the Levites who serve me.'"
23-24 God's Message to Jeremiah: "Have you heard the saying that's making
the rounds: 'The two families God chose, Israel and Judah, he disowned'? And
have you noticed that my people are treated with contempt, with rumors afoot
that there's nothing to them anymore?
25-26 "Well, here's God's response: 'If my covenant with day and night
wasn't in working order, if sky and earth weren't functioning the way I set
them going, then, but only then, you might think I had disowned the
descendants of Jacob and of my servant David, and that I wouldn't set up any
of David's descendants over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But as it is, I will give them back everything they've lost. The last word
is, I will have mercy on them.'"
The Message (MSG)
Copyright C 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
