the truth – Be Still…

Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 – Being Without Jesus

Read Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

We all die. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Does that give us the okay to live our lives in foolish ways? Solomon seemed to think so, not realizing that God watches how we live our lives. All the choices we make in life help shape the people we become.

Fools do walk in the dark. Or should I say those that walk in the dark are fools? What does it even mean to walk in the dark? We are in the dark when we don’t have the truth in our lives. If we’re groping around in the dark, how do we find the light switch? To find the light, we need to find Jesus who is the light.

2 Peter 2:1-3 – False Teachers

Read 2 Peter 2:1-3

Peter had no doubt witnessed false teachers at work trying to confuse people and twist the truth. Heresies have plagued the church for centuries. Such deceivers are alive and well today, too. And God is watching. These inaccurate messages are not being ignored by God.

And God is not pleased with the messengers of those heresies. Their fate is set, and they don’t even know it. As Peter says, “they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.” Their deceitful actions and teachings full of lies will catch up to them. We can rest in that assurance at least.

Jeremiah 20:1-6 – A Suffering Servant in a Fallen World

Read Jeremiah 20:1-6

What is the focus of our reading today? Is it the public suffering of Jeremiah or is it another example of how far God’s people have fallen? Both seem to be powerful. Especially when you remember that Jeremiah was a real person. What went through his mind as he was being beaten?

I couldn’t help but let my mind go to brutal scenes of Jesus’ own whipping. He is now referred to as being the ideal “Suffering Servant.” Isaiah, a prophet years before Jeremiah wrote about Jesus in Isaiah 32:13-14, “See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted. But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.”