Jeremiah 33
Day 1504
As Reliable as the Sunrise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today isMonday, April 29.
If the sun didn’t rise, life would come to an end. God has put signs in the sky to demonstrate His faithfulness. Twice God referenced this truth to His people in Jeremiah 33, at a time when His people were on the verge of destruction:
1. Verses 20-22,
2. Verses 25-26,
Do you trust that the sun will rise tomorrow just as it has every other day of your life? I do because I trust God’s faithfulness (Lamentations 3:23-24). Not only are sunrises beautiful daily reminders of the precious gift of life, but they are also powerful daily reminders of God’s faithfulness to keep His promises. What God was saying to His people is that His faithfulness is greater than their rebellion;therefore, in the same way that they are not powerful enough to stop the established rhythms of day and night in creation, they cannot cause Him to break His covenant promises.
Seize the moment and put your faith in God’s faithfulness and not your own (Romans 8:37-39).
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Hymn: Build My Life
Today’s worship song focus :
Build My Life
Luke 6:47-48 (NASB95)
“Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show
you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a
foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that\
house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.”
I will build my life upon Your love, it is a firm foundation.
I will put my trust in You alone, and I will not be shaken.
We need to wake up to the fact that God is deserving of all our praise and adoration. When we humble ourselves to His plans and His ways, we will find that we are truly living a life of service to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:
I Will Build My Life
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Jeremiah 32
Pray for Israel!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, April 26.
The land of Israel is intertwined with the ancient covenant between God and the Jews, His chosen people. At a time in Israel’s history, when Babylon had the siege works at the walls of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah had already prophesied God’s Word to surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar, God commanded the prophet to purchase a family plot from his uncle’s son; to redeem it as a prophetic sign of His covenant faithfulness to preserve the Promised Land. Economically, this made no sense, especially when it was the man who was prophesying the fall of Jerusalem who was being asked to purchase a land contract and seal it in clay pot for future posterity. In Jeremiah 32:13-15 & 42-44, God made it clear that He was using this as an illustration of His lasting covenant to maintain the boundaries of the Promised Land:
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, that they may last a long time. … Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them. Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” Men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes,’ declares the Lord.”
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 31
Herald the New Covenant!
In Jeremiah 31:31-33, the prophet heralded the New Covenant between God and His people:
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
What makes the New Covenant different is that it was to be written on the hearts of the people. When God gave the Mosaic Law, He wrote it upon stone tablets. This time He was going to do it differently. When God gave the Abrahamic Covenant, He commanded all the men to be physically circumcised as a sign of the covenant. This time He was going to do it differently. The Holy Spirit would circumcise their hearts, causing them to be sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the One who seals the New Covenant by establishing God’s rule from within their hearts, leading them into His rest. Different from King David’s kingdom, it was no longer a nation to be ruled, because Jesus’ Kingdom transcends all geographical boundaries and human constructs. And His banner over us is love!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 30
Persevere in Discipline!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 24.
The parent takes a deep breath, saying to her teenage child as she grounds him, “Trust me, one day you will thank me for this and understand that what I am doing is for your good.” Loving parents must discipline their children, to help them reach their full potential. Truly, it is for their good, but that’s a difficult concept for children to comprehend. Solomon taught a key principle of discipline in Proverbs 19:18, “Discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death.” Discipline is an activity of hope and not one of despair.
In the same way that loving parents are exhorted to discipline their children, God, our Heavenly Father, desires to lead us into His life and not punish us unto our deaths. But, to give us life we must face the consequences of our sin, so that we don’t continually return to our folly (Proverbs 26:11). In Jeremiah 30:24, the prophet proclaimed God’s perseverance to discipline Judah as a loving parent, “The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart; in the latter days you will understand this.” Because there was still hope for their return, God disciplined them.
By God’s grace, the same is true for us today. Jesus came to restore us into a right relationship with the Father by dealing with the sin issue that keeps us separated from Him, but we can’t ignore the chastising of the Spirit regarding our sin. We must be mature adults, responding to God’s loving discipline and no longer quenching the work of the Spirit when He convicts us of our need to repent from sin, so that, we may share in His holiness (John 16:7-15; Ephesians 4:30).
Seize the moment and persevere in discipline, trusting that those who do will bear the good fruit of maturity in Christ (Hebrews 12:7-11)
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 29
Hold on to the Promise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 23.
The Lord has good plans for your life; in fact, Jeremiah 29:11 promises, “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” This is one of the greatest promises of the Bible, but it must be read in its historical context if we are going to have the faith to hold on to God through our darkest days. It was given at a time when most of the people wanted God’s messenger locked up and shut up. Interestingly, this significant promise is bookended by the punishment of two false prophets for contradicting Jeremiah – Hananiah (Jeremiah 28:15-17) and Shemaiah (Jeremiah 29:30-32). During international turmoil, national division, cultural decay, and religious bankruptcy, God did not forsake His people. Quite the opposite, in Jeremiah 29:5-11, He sent His promise to the exiles in Babylon to give them hope, but also with the expectation that they would return to covenant faithfulness:
“‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’ … For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 28
Trust the Fidelity of God’s Word!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 22.
It is God who raises up prophets, but what happens when you aren’t sure if someone is being faithful to God? In Deuteronomy 18:20, God gave Moses clear guidance on what to do about a prophet who presented their own words as if from God, “But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” God doesn’t make idle threats about protecting the fidelity of His Word.
In Jeremiah 28, when the prophet had put on himself a wooden oxen yoke as a prophetic sign to the people, a man named Hananiah, who was claiming to be a prophet, broke the yoke off Jeremiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Even so will I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations’” (10-11). This message opposed Jeremiah’s former prophecy, but God can’t contradict Himself, so who was right? God answered that question by giving Jeremiah a message to clarify which word was from Him, “Listen now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord’” (15-16). God was faithful to protect the fidelity of His Word and to uphold the honor of His messenger. Today, if someone claims to speak for God, but his or her words are not lining up with the Bible, then that person is not God’s spokesperson.
Seize the moment and trust God to protect the fidelity of His Word! Be noble like a Berean and line up everything you hear with the Bible (Acts 17:11).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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The Call to the Great Community 2
Lesson #2:
The Church is One in Christ!
Our new sermon series, “The Call to the Great Community,” is a series of discipleship teachings about the body of Christ and our call to be fellow members of the body of Christ. This is an important call to answer for us individually and corporately for the sake of the mission of Jesus Christ (why He came!) for the glory of God. You have a purpose for belonging!
The big idea from the first teaching last week was that the church is God’s idea; not mine nor yours! From the Scriptures, we learned that the church is the Body of Christ because we exist for the mission of Jesus to the glory of God. The mission of Jesus is the great rescue mission; He came from Heaven to Earth to show us the way to the Father; this has always been God’s Plan A; therefore, the church exists for the mission – to make Jesus known and to continue His mission, as His body for the glory of God. We have a purpose for belonging!
Finally, last week you were invited to find unity with your fellow member by participating in the 150-day Pray the Psalms Discipleship Challenge. Today is Day #7, which means we are praying through Psalm 7. I pray you are finding it meaningful to do this just as you found it meaningful to read through the New Testament together. Belonging doesn’t happen by accident!
Today’s big idea: The Church is One in Christ!
Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
+ How can we demonstrate our unity within our diverse functionality?
Ephesians 4:1-6, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
+ How should we treat one another to preserve the unity of the Spirit?
John 17:20-26, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
+ How do we pray for one another to see the fulfillment of John 17 in us?
RESOURCES:
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Hymn: Blest Be the Ties That Bind
Today’s worship song focus :
Blest Be the Tie that Binds
Galatians 3:28 (NASB95)
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.
We need to wake up to the realization that it is the love of God that binds our hearts to one another. We need to have the determination to love people through every circumstance, even those that try to pull us apart. We will find that it will make us stronger and that we are truly loving as God loves us.
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:
Blest Be the Tie That Binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
we pour our ardent prayers;
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.
our mutual burdens bear,
and often for each other flows
the sympathizing tear.
it gives us inward pain;
but we shall still be joined in heart,
and hope to meet again.
our courage by the way;
while each in expectation lives
and waits to see the day.
and sin, we shall be free;
and perfect love and friendship reign
through all eternity.
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