Week 28 Day 4
Finding God in the Mysteries of every day
Contact me at – Website: larrymlawrence.com or e-mail: lml125grn@outlook.com
Jeremiah 38: 11 So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. 12 Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, 13 and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
Thirty men to help Jeremiah out of the cistern. Think about it. It is a picture of many attributes of our heavenly Father. There is the grace of rescue, there is the grace of provision, there is the grace of reward for obedience even when there are consequences, there is the idea of community, and there is the idea of hope. All of this in the midst of isolation and peril. Does that sound loike the predicament of the church today?
Jeremiah was called the “weeping prophet”. Perhaps o other prophet suffered as much in his service to God as did Jeremiah. His hear was great and wholly given over to the service of the Lord. His unquestioning obedience to even the most seemingly outrageous commands of God is an example to us all.
Perhaps the most telling statement I have ever heard regarding the health of congregations in the past forty years is the condemnation for our coldness of heart. “We have lost the capacity to weep over the sins of our brothers and sisters.” If you follow the thought through to its logical conclusion we have come to the place where we have confused emotional feeling with Holy love. I realize we have a hard time liking, even trusting one another. Regardless, we are called to love as an act of will, not emotion. The next time you look at one of those elders who weep regularly at the altar and are tempted to mock them, remember Jeremiah.
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 