Grace and Truth; October 19, 2020

Posted on October 22, 2020 by jgarrott

John 1:16-17 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

I get happy every time I read John 1! It’s so familiar, I knew I was to write on this part of it before I even opened my Bible. I’m not sure, but this chapter may actually be one of the reasons why John is my favorite Bible character, short of Jesus Himself. He was intensely aware of being loved by Jesus, (John 19:26 and several more) and he responded by opening himself up to the Holy Spirit fully, writing words that penetrate and remain in the mind and heart. I could do no better! To get back to the passage, John isn’t negating the Law of Moses, but he is putting it in proper perspective in relationship to the grace and truth of God. The Japanese expresses verse 16 as, “Out of His overflowing abundance we have all received grace upon grace.” I like that! God is gracious to all, whether we recognize it or not. The devil does all he can to get us to focus on negatives, to complain and feel resentful, because then we will fail to give God the praise and thanks He deserves and our own peace and joy will evaporate. After all, he “comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10) The more and better we grasp the overwhelming grace of God, the better off we are in every respect. Jesus warned us that “In this world you will have trouble,” (John 16:33) but understanding how much worse it could be, and how gracious God is being toward us, helps us avoid getting into a pity party. Those never help anyone!

Of course, if all of this remains just nice-sounding words in my mind and heart, it does me little if any good. I’ve got to apply it! I like John, but other people have compared me more to Paul. Paul had a high IQ, but John had a high LQ – Love Quotient. That’s what I want! Both apostles were extremely faithful and persistent in their obedience to Christ, and I certainly desire that in my own life. I can’t say that I desire the persecution that each of them endured, but as Paul said, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) I’m not to fear opposition of any sort, visible or invisible, but place my full trust in my Lord, knowing that He is far greater than anything that can come against me. (1 John 4:4)

Father, thank You for this joyful reminder. Help me live it out indeed, in each moment of my life, as an example for all who see me and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Entitlement; October 18, 2020

Posted on October 21, 2020 by jgarrott

Luke 4:28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.

This whole story is one I have loved for a long time, particularly where Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1-2 and says He is its fulfillment, but it struck me just now, perhaps for the first time, that the two examples Jesus gives, the Sidonian woman and Naaman, were both Gentiles. No wonder the people of Nazareth were upset. They had just been told that Gentiles would be chosen by God ahead of them! At the same time, both the stories Jesus referenced point up the grace of God. Paul goes into this issue at length in Romans 9-11. We have a strong desire for entitlement, to think we are due certain blessings, but the Bible is very clear that everything is a matter of grace. Looking around us today we can see the damage caused by a sense of entitlement, with people engaging in all sorts of behaviors that are destructive to themselves and/or to those around them because they haven’t been given everything to which they think they are entitled. That kind of thinking can literally send people to hell. Jesus was very clear on this issue. When people came to Him to report some tragic deaths, His response was to give them another similar example and say twice, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5) We forget that we aren’t entitled to a thing, because our sins have forfeited it all. Once we get that straight in our minds and hearts, we are grateful for God’s grace and far happier. It is fine to strive for the best, but we need to remember that God isn’t obligated to give us anything He hasn’t explicitly promised us – and the vast majority of those promises come with conditions that we are likely not to have met. God is gracious and He is love and He delights to do good things for His children, but we need to remember that we aren’t entitled to any of it; it’s all grace.

This was a lesson I almost didn’t learn, and failing to learn it would have destroyed me. I grew up as a Caucasian in Japan, which allowed me to get away with a lot of stuff that a more oriental-looking child could not have done. On top of that, my parents were considered very “high status,” for a number of reasons, and I took it all as a matter of course. On top of that, school work came easy for me, and I fell into the attitude that I was indeed “the cream of the cream,” and I was entitled to everything I enjoyed. It wasn’t until I was a married father that I heard the testimony of a man who had been a preacher’s kid but had lived for his flesh and the world, until God made it clear that he couldn’t get into heaven by hanging onto his father’s belt. I was struck to my core, and felt like God was showing me a mirror to see my own soul. I suddenly realized that my sense of entitlement was all a lie, and it had blinded me both to the depth of my need and the height of God’s grace. How very merciful of God, to open my eyes! I wish I could say that pride and entitlement never tripped me up again after that, but honesty is certainly the best policy. Just yesterday I was saying that one of my foundational attributes at this point is gratitude, but it has taken me a long time to get here. I see so many people around me who seem blind to the blessings they have, and so fail to recognize and enjoy them. Just as John Newton realized, the more we understand God’s grace, the more amazing, the more wonderful it is.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You indeed for the uncountable abundance of Your grace toward me. Help me be an open channel of that grace to all around me, so that they too may recognize you, repent, and believe for their salvation. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Grace; October 17, 2020

Posted on October 21, 2020 by jgarrott

Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

I was struck just now by the fact that Luke used the word, grace, in relation to the boy Jesus. All my life I have heard the word defined as “unmerited favor,” but Jesus was perfectly without sin, so why did He need grace? As I wrote that, I was reminded of something I often say to strong believers as a blessing, for birthdays and the like: “May the grace of God be poured out on you and through you.” Maybe Jesus didn’t need grace for Himself, but He was certainly the ultimate vessel of grace to all mankind. Sometimes we get “greedy for grace,” knowing how much we need it, but in the process forget to be gracious to others, to let God’s grace flow through us to bless others. Frankly, that’s one of the biggest sources of blessing to us. Paul quoted a saying of Jesus that isn’t recorded in the Gospels: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) We have no idea when Jesus said that, but it is certainly in keeping with all the rest of His teaching that is recorded, and it is true in our experience as well. As I am constantly telling people, selfishness never leads to genuine happiness. It is when we recognize how much we benefit from God’s grace and so allow that grace to flow through us that we reap the blessings of that grace to the full. One of the most frightening things Jesus said was, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15) The better we understand how much we need God’s grace, His forgiveness, the quicker we will be to let that grace, that forgiveness, flow through us to those around us, no matter how much they have hurt us. I’m sure the boy Jesus needed His Father’s grace flowing through Him as He grew up, because people can be amazingly callous and cruel, and forgiveness was probably a daily necessity for Him to apply to others, even though He didn’t need it for Himself.

Naturally, this applies to me as much as it does to anyone. I’m certainly not in Jesus’ category of not needing forgiveness for myself, and I have been called on countless times to extend forgiveness to others. It is indeed when I let grace flow through me that I reap the most benefits for myself! Recently Cathy and I have been blessed by being able to give some of her creations to various people, even including our bank! The response has been gratifying indeed even for me, even though I wasn’t involved in her craft work. In my own case, I am blessed by being able to communicate to others the things the Lord has spoken to me. Hearing from Him is indeed a huge blessing, but it is when I share that blessing with others that I am the most blessed!

Father, thank You indeed for this insight, and for the blessing of being able to share it with others. Thank You for the occasional feedback I get from my blog, and for the likewise occasional feedback I get from spoken messages. Help me not seek such feedback for myself, greedy for “strokes,” but rather give You all the glory, because You alone deserve it. Thank You. Praise God!

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Respecting God; October 16, 2020

Posted on October 20, 2020 by jgarrott

Malachi 1:14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.”

At first glance this might not seem so relevant to people today, since we don’t practice animal sacrifice, but in over 40 years of ministry I have lost count of how many times people have said they would give something to God, through the church or whatever, and then failed to follow through. Social customs and frameworks change, but people really don’t. That’s why the oldest passages in the Bible still resonate with us today, since God certainly never changes. We are as prone to disrespect God as people in Malachi’s day. We think the world is egalitarian, but we are still very impressed when a famous person comes by. We are still impressed with titles, whether we admit it or not. With that in mind, it is really odd how people take God so lightly. Even supposedly religious people are guilty here. We ignore the Sabbath, practically speaking, and often don’t hesitate to use His name lightly. I’ve heard even reasonably devout people say “Oh my God” for the most trivial things. That is simply not right. When we are focused on the reality of who God is, we certainly never do such things. God says clearly that treating Him lightly, disrespecting Him, brings us under a curse, and that is a fearsome thing indeed.

I have never been one to use the Lord’s name lightly. Off hand, the only time I can remember saying, “Oh my God,” was when I was watching on live TV and saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center on 9/11 in 2001. That was an honest prayer! That’s not to say I am innocent of disrespecting God, however. I grew up with God as an undeniable part of my life, but as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. I have done things that I knew were displeasing to God even while being assured that He knew it all. That’s hardly the Fear of the Lord! At the same time, as a pastor I am somewhat “in the line of fire” when it comes to other people’s attitudes toward God. At times I have been deeply saddened to see people who claimed Jesus as Savior who failed to make Him Lord over specific areas of their life. Sometimes that has been finances, sometimes sex, sometimes food, and any of a number of other things. Seeing them, I have no excuse whatsoever to be blind to my own failures! The longer I live, the more sharply aware I am of the depth and intensity of God’s grace. He loves me in spite of me! He calls me to perfection, to perfect holiness, but He doesn’t reject me because I’m not there yet. How can I not love and respect a God like that? However, my love and respect are still works in progress. That’s one of many reasons I look forward to standing before the Throne, clad in the righteousness of Christ alone with no pretensions whatsoever of my own.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me live this day and each day respecting and loving You as You alone deserve, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Cleansing; October 15, 2020

Posted on October 20, 2020 by jgarrott

 Zechariah 13:1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

As the hymn says, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.” As we ran into a few days ago, it’s nice to run across the Scriptural basis for familiar songs. However, this is far more than a song. In normal life the idea of bathing in blood seems gross, absolutely disgusting, but two things are at play here. The first is that societal norms in Old Testament days were certainly different from those today. We don’t much like the idea of dabbing blood on thumbs and earlobes, even, much less painting it on our door frames, yet those things are clearly prescribed in the Law of Moses. The second thing is that God has never been politically correct. When we try to dress things up we cover over the raw reality of sin, and that our disobedience and rebellion against God really has destined us for horrible destruction. When I was a teenager I talked with someone who had been in South America as a missionary kid during a revolution in the country where they served, and she said she would never forget the smell of rotting human flesh, from bodies that had been left lying in the streets. We don’t like to confront that sort of reality, but our sin is part and parcel of that, and God had to take drastic action. Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, was widely panned for its violence, but it was simply realistic, a true-to-life depiction of the fountain in this verse being opened up for the purification of the sins of mankind. God did what was necessary, and we just have to repent and believe.

This is something I keep coming back to, because even I forget it. I don’t like to acknowledge how horrible, how despicable my sins are. I am forever telling others about how God is perfectly holy and so cannot simply excuse sin, but the question remains of how holy I am, how up-to-date my repentance is. As I tell others, I’m not to keep picking at myself, searching for sins. Rather, I am to accept that the work of redemption has already been fully accomplished, and allow the Holy Spirit to shine light on specific issues as I need to deal with them. Repentance isn’t a “once and done” sort of thing, because I keep stumbling. However, forgiveness is very real, and I’ve got to accept it and forgive myself, as well as forgive those around me. God’s cleansing works in every direction!

Father, this is a vital, fundamental issue, yet at the same time it seems very deep to the average person. I don’t have the capacity to grasp it fully myself, much less communicate it effectively to others. I ask You to reveal it by Your Spirit, both to me and to those to whom I minister, so that we may walk in the holiness to which You have called us, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Mad at God; October 14, 2020

Posted on October 19, 2020 by jgarrott

Jonah 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.

It strikes me that Jonah is a fairly extreme example of God using imperfect human beings. As is common with us all, Jonah wanted to call the shots, to be in control rather than submit to and obey God. The whole story arises from his trying to run the other direction when God told him to go to Nineveh, and here, after God had used extraordinarily dramatic means to turn him around and get him to Nineveh to deliver His message, he still wanted to be in control of what happened to the city. We might laugh at Jonah, but we are far more like him than we care to admit. We too get mad at God when things don’t go the way we would like them to. We too argue with Him, if we are even aware of His speaking to us, because somehow we think we know better than He does. That is the height of foolishness, but even when we recognize it in others, we fail to do so in ourselves. God does expect us to use the mind He has given us, discerning and making decisions, but we must always remember that we have at best a small subset of the total facts about a situation, and even then, what we think we know may be mistaken. On top of that, there are limits to our decision-making ability itself. When we are aware of all of that we are grateful that God is God, but often we forget it in practice and get mad at Him, just like Jonah did. The answer to it all is humility, along with the assurance that God often chooses to use us in spite of ourselves. When that is our attitude, we will be filled with gratitude, and that is the key to a happy, fulfilled life.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been mad at God, but I’ve certainly tried to get around what I knew He had said. I certainly have an innate desire to be in the driver’s seat! Around the time I was in seminary a popular bumper sticker said, “God is my Co-pilot.” It wasn’t long after that that someone pointed out, “If God is your co-pilot, you’re in the wrong seat.” One of the few times God has spoken to me in what might as well have been an audible voice, I was lying in bed thinking about how many things I wished were different. I wasn’t consciously praying, but suddenly He broke in with, “How do you think I feel?” I was filled with the awareness that much of what God allows at this point isn’t because He wants things to be this way, but because His incredible, gracious plan of the ages works through all of this to bring everything to a better conclusion than I could even imagine. Several years ago I was talking with a young, dedicated Christian who was talking about various elements of his circumstances that “he didn’t know why God had done things that way.” Rather matter-of-factly I said, “So, you’re mad at God.” He reacted like I’d kicked him in the stomach, because he recognized his rebellion and repented of it. He has continued to grow in his dedication and obedience to God, and I am proud to consider him a son in the faith.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your continuing grace toward me, on more levels than I am even aware. Help me indeed let You be God and be fully available to You for however You want to use me, or not, as You choose, for the sake of Your kingdom and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Idols; October 13, 2020

Posted on October 19, 2020 by jgarrott

Jonah 2:8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

This verse is underlined in both Japanese and English in my Bible, but I don’t really remember reading it. It is powerful indeed, particularly for anyone in a country like Japan that is littered with idols of all sorts. As the Bible says in many places, God is gracious toward all He has made, but it is up to us to accept that grace or discard it (which is how the Japanese expresses what the NIV gives as “forfeit”). I’m reminded of a news item I read just yesterday of a man in Britain whose hoarder brother died suddenly and he was faced with dealing with a mountain of stuff. His initial impulse was to have it all carted to the dump, but instead he hired a company to come in and sort it all and appraise it, and they discovered it was worth millions of dollars! Exactly how much will be determined after a rather massive auction, but in any case, the man was about to discard it all. Countless people do that with the grace of God, not realizing its incalculable worth. In Japan, India and the like, explicitly religious idols abound, but in every country people put ultimately worthless things in the place of God in their heart. As has been said, we each have a “God-shaped hole” in our heart, and we attempt to fill it with all sorts of junk. Some people put another person there, and that too is idolatry. Our value is not dependent on other people, even a spouse, but rather on God who created us. Actually, the Japanese in this verse for what the NIV renders as “cling to” is “fill their hearts.” I translated the first line of a Japanese song as, “Come, fill your hearts with love, for God Himself is love; His temple are we.” Filling our hearts with anything less than God is indeed discarding the grace that He extends to us so freely. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

I wish I could say I have always properly valued God’s grace toward me, but that would be missing the truth by a wide mark. I have believed in Jesus and known He loved me for as long as I can remember. My parents wrote in a Christmas newsletter when I was five that I had proclaimed my love for Jesus in very strong terms, and I asked to be baptized at age seven. However, I have allowed all sorts of things to take God’s primary position in my heart at various times, and the results have never been good. A particularly insidious one has been the gifts and abilities God has given me. I have failed to recognize that I have earned none of them; they are all grace. Trying to use them without submitting them to God is like using an item of electronics and never recharging it. After a while it becomes useless. I too need to be very careful I don’t fill my heart with anything less than the God who created me.

Father, thank You for this strong, clear reminder. Help me follow through in obedience, and help me communicate this truth with as many people as will receive it. Thank You for making it clear just now that this is what I am to speak on Sunday. I ask You to give me Your organization, Your words, so that it will communicate clearly, penetrating the lies of the enemy and setting people free, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Genuine Repentance; October 12. 2020

Posted on October 14, 2020 by jgarrott

 Joel 2:12-13″‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

We have trouble imagining the circumstances under which this was written, but East Africa has had a locust infestation even this year, though perhaps not as severe as the one referenced here. I read a headline just a couple of days ago asking, “What happened to America’s locusts?” In other words, America used to have such extreme outbreaks too, but hasn’t for a long time now. (I wonder what people think of that aspect of “climate change?”) The closest most Americans can come to imagining the situation is the extreme situation with the red-eyed cicadas a couple of years ago, but from what I read, they were more noisy than destructive, the way locusts are. All of that aside, the important point here is in the first line of verse two: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” For many hundreds of years there had been a cultural custom of tearing your clothing as a sign of mourning, contrition, or deep sorrow. Joel is telling us that such external symbols are meaningless without a genuine change of heart. God isn’t interested in our “going through the motions” without actually repenting of what got us into the situation in the first place. In yesterday’s message in the service the Lord said through me that all too often we regret the consequences of our rebellion against Him without regretting the rebellion itself. That isn’t real repentance! God allows the consequences in order to get our attention, and indeed such consequences are a major reason why God gives us rules in the first place, but what we need to do is let go of our insistence on being in control, so that obeying God will be our first response instead of something we come to reluctantly.

Seeing all that is going on in America at the moment, I can’t help but feel America is having a “locust moment,” one that will be corrected only by genuine repentance. The situation is certainly complex on many levels, but God has it all sorted out and the answer to it all is turning to Him. I feel more involved than ever before in my life, yet I am physically on the other side of the world. I need to be careful of my own heart attitudes and pray for a spirit of repentance to come over the whole country. The event in Washington D.C. recently with Franklin Graham was certainly encouraging and a step in the right direction, but I can’t participate in such things physically. Since I can’t “rend my garments,” that is more encouragement to “rend my heart,” repenting of national sins like Daniel did (Daniel 9) and seeking to have my own heart right before the Lord.

Father, yesterday afternoon You had me point out that different parts of the Body of Christ have different functions and shouldn’t be comparing themselves to one another. Help me recognize Your tasks for me and do them with my whole heart, not insisting that others join me but encouraging them to seek Your plans for them, so that together we may do Your will in all its varied aspects, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Wisdom; October 11, 2020

Posted on October 14, 2020 by jgarrott

Hosea 14:9 Who is wise? He will realize these things.
Who is discerning? He will understand them.
The ways of the Lord are right;
the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.

It strikes me that this could stand to be the last verse of the whole Bible, and not just of the prophecy of Hosea. It says that if you’re smart, you’re going to understand this stuff. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah all rightly connect wisdom with the fear of the Lord. It doesn’t matter what your IQ is, if you don’t acknowledge that you’re a created being with accountability toward your Creator, you don’t understand anything. There’s a slight difference in the Japanese from the NIV in the second half of this verse, and I find it very illuminating. Where the NIV says, “The ways of the Lord are right,” the Japanese says, “The ways of the Lord are flat/smooth.” Such a road should be easy to walk on, but Hosea tells us the rebellious stumble anyway. It doesn’t take a great deal of perception to realize that those who are in active rebellion against their Creator have willfully blinded themselves to how things really are. Their pride convinces them they don’t need God, when nothing could be further from the truth. Without God’s sustaining hand, our constituent atoms wouldn’t even hold together! One of the great mysteries of physics is just how the universe exists, and scientists use all sorts of vague terms like “strong force” and “weak force” and “dark matter” and “dark energy” to try to explain it. Numbers of such scientists have come away convinced that there must be a Creator, and the majority of those have found that of all the world’s religions, the only one that lines up with their discoveries is the Bible. Even so, countless people who start with rebellion instead of with honest inquiry end up claiming “science” as their excuse for atheism. It all points out the distinction between wisdom and intelligence. Computer scientists have made great strides toward what is called “artificial intelligence,” but that is not at all the same thing as wisdom.

This of course applies to me. I was blessed with a high IQ, but if I depend on that instead of my Creator, I am certainly not wise. If I find my way seems rocky and hard to follow, I need to check my relationship with my Lord. It is quite true that we live in a fallen world, and as a result we will inevitably have trouble. (John 16:33) However, if my heart is rightly fixed on my Creator and His Son, my Lord and Savior, then I will always know where to put my feet, where and how to walk. Intelligence is a blessing, but wisdom is far more important.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the privilege of sharing the things You speak to me. I ask Your anointing in this morning’s service, and then again this afternoon as I bring a greeting at an ordination/installation service at another church. It dawned on me this morning that I have literally achieved the status of a “graybeard,” and my words were sought for today. I pray that they would not just be mine but be Yours, to accomplish that for which You send them, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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God’s Sovereignty; October 10, 2020

Posted on October 12, 2020 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 33:1-3 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it–the Lord is his name:  ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'”

It really strikes me that this Word from the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was a prisoner. The whole rest of the chapter goes on to specify things that were indeed beyond human capacity to understand under the immediate circumstances. The lesson is, God is not limited by our circumstances! I am presuming that when the Lord told Jeremiah what we have here, he indeed called out to God to be shown whatever God wanted him to know. Any time God makes us a direct, immediate offer, we need to take Him up on it! Judah was in imminent danger of being totally conquered by the Babylonians, and that is indeed what happened, including the destruction of Jerusalem. That’s something to remember in the middle of the current political turmoil in the US. Judah was conquered by an external enemy because of her internal sins, and America is in danger of being taken over by internal enemies for the same reason. Whatever the outcome of the election, and all the political turmoil before and after, God is still God, and He’s not even inconvenienced. Those who know Him and are committed to obedience to Him need to remember that and pray for His grace and mercy, not in abject terror but in both humility and assurance that He is good. Governments do matter, and we do need to pray and work for the righteousness that exalts a nation, (Proverbs 14:34) but we are not to place our hope in government as such. That would be making the same mistake as those who are trying to get the government to take over every aspect of society, so long as they have authority in that government. No, our hope is in the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, and we must never forget it.

This of course applies to me. All sorts of things seem to threaten, and the devil wants to steal my peace and joy. I’m to resist him, not just in specific actions but also in the attitudes of my heart and mind. As many people have noted, the biggest battlefield is in our minds. I am to seek God for any actions He wants me to take, and I am to be available as His mouthpiece to say whatever He wants me to say, and in that I am to rest, relax, and rejoice in Him, whatever is going on politically, financially, health-wise, or anything else. I am reminded of the message my father was able to send my mother via the Red Cross after Pearl Harbor and before he was sent to the US on a prisoner exchange ship: “Profitably interned.” Like Jeremiah he was a prisoner, but also like Jeremiah he knew the Lord who was above everything, and he was ready to receive whatever God wanted to give him in his circumstances. I need to have no less faith, regardless of what goes on around me.

Father, thank You for this Word. I do care very deeply about the election, and all the rest of it, but help me care about You even more. May I be Your agent of grace, mercy, and righteousness to all around me, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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