Jeremiah 44-45.
When ever we attempt to justify a course of action, Christ will always hold to the truth and will bring us back to the truth.
This chapter reinforces the righteousness of God and His justice.
The Jews in Egypt attempt to justify worship to the "Queen of Heaven" on the ground that when they were still in Judah and had worship her, they had been prosperous. Not so say the Lord of Hosts. Look at what He says:
21 "Did not the LORD remember and think about the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your fathers, your kings and your officials and the people of the land?
Look at verse 23:
23 "Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see."
That's tough. When ever I try to "pass the buck" Christ always brings me back to honesty. Every time.
He is righteous and requires righteousness from us, which we cannot do. So He imparts to me the Righteousness of Christ. But it is up to me to look and live as James says. See, the way I see it, the Jews in Judah claimed God as theirs. yet their walk didn't match up to their talk.
I need to be mindful that my Christian walk lives up to my talk. The evidence of my faith will always be what I do, or more importantly, allow Christ to do in and through me. He is waiting to do that which He calls me to. The question is, will I allow Him to do it?
Now to today's reading which is from Jeremiah 46-47.
It is always very interesting where Christ will take me with these readings. Sometimes the message is for me, other times it is just musings. Is that a word? Musings I mean.
Anyway, as I read this reading today my mind wandered here and there and I got to thinking about how God treated Israel and what their reaction was to it and so on. Then I got to thinking about Romans Chapter 1. How does one get from Jeremiah to Romans. Well, it's easy really. Turn right and head to the New Testament.... Yes, Okay I know what you mean.
Lets just assume for a moment that Israel is a type of the church. And the way that God treated Israel is the same way He may, note I said may not does, treat the church today. How do I get there. Look at Romans 1. Look at verse 24. Now, God really didn't do much with Israel. He just left them to their own devices. And the parallel with the church? Look at verse 24. God gives these foolish people over to what ever it is they want to do. Look at Verse 18. That's the final outcome.
How's Melbourne transport. We wont go there. Just do a search of the Age and Herald sun Newspapers. You will soon find out.
I got an email today from Senator Steve Fielding. Who is Steve Fielding? Well he is a member of the Family First Political party and has a seat in Federal Parliament. The government wanted to increase the tax on alcopops. Alcopops are a sweet, alcoholic fizzy drink which the younger generation happen to like and they drink lots and get very drunk and do silly things. Senator Fielding voted against the bill in parliament. Why? Because he thought the government wasn't serious about binge drink and that this was just a money grab. He doesn't seem to think that increasing the tax would reduce binge drinking.
This is what he wrote in an email:
"It has been a tense and challenging few weeks in the Senate. I have copped a lot of flak over my decision to vote down the alcopops tax. But I stand by my decision – this tax did nothing to address Australia’s binge drinking problem. It was simply a tax on one product and the Senate inquiry found there was no evidence to prove that in the year it has been in place it has worked. In fact, what the research uncovered was that a number of drinkers had turned from drinking alcopops to instead using spirits – in much greater quantities – to mix their own version. How is that addressing our binge drinking epidemic?"
Now, that may well be the case. But it would seem to me that any measure that will slow down the binge drinking in any way at all has got to be a step in the right direct.
And that will do for now.
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