Jeremiah 21
Day 1486
Surrender or Die!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 11.
There are two things a military commander never wants to do – retreat or surrender. Strategically, both can be the right decision when it is the only way to save your people, so that you can fight another day. That was the exact situation facing the people of Jerusalem, as declared by the prophet in Jeremiah 21:8-10:
“You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,” declares the Lord. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.” ’ ”
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was sieging Jerusalem, and Zedekiah, the king of Judah, was hoping God would rescue them. That was why he sent messengers to Jeremiah, just like King Hezekiah sent messengers to Isaiah when the Assyrians were besieging Jerusalem, over a century prior in Isaiah 36-37. Unfortunately, the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent as a righteous judgment against them for not seizing the moment of God’s former clemency to repent and walk in His ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16). God’s direct response to Zedekiah, in Jeremiah 21:5, was clear, “I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation.” There is only one right response to God’s wrath against sin, “I surrender all.”
Seize the moment and repent by walking in the ancient paths of God by taking on the easy yoke of Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30).
God bless you!
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Jeremiah 20
Count the Cost!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 10.
Jesus was crucified for being faithful to God. Do you believe there will be no hardship when you take you up your cross and follow Jesus? Paul, who suffered greatly as an apostle (2 Corinthians 11:23-28), explained the grave danger that comes with being God’s chosen vessel, from 2 Corinthians 4:7-10:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
The messengers of God have always suffered greatly for their faithfulness, often at the hands of the people they were sent to deliver their message. Jeremiah’s suffering was introduced in Jeremiah 20:1-2, “When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the Lord.” Jeremiah’s suffering was real, and it was at every level of his being. In Jeremiah 20:7-18, the prophet lamented his life, wishing he had never been born. As hard as it may be to accept, we are forewarned to expect such suffering ourselves. Peter, martyred for his faithfulness to Jesus, explained in 1 Peter 2:20b-21, “But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”
Seize the moment and count the cost of obedience to following Jesus (Luke 14:27-30).
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 19
Be a Vessel for God’s Glory!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 9.
Considering Jeremiah’s recent visit to the potter’s house, he was instructed next to build upon the same illustration with a new symbolic act. In Jeremiah 19:1-2, the Sovereign Lord commanded the prophet, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests. Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom [aka Gehenna], which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.” God declared His righteous judgment upon a people who had stiffened their necks and hardened their hearts against Him to worship idols and walk in rebellion. Then, like a master teacher, God emphasized His teachings in Jeremiah 19:10-15:
Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you and say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth [the valley of Ben-hinnom] because there is no other place for burial. This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,’ declares the Lord, ‘so as to make this city like Topheth. … because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”
As long as the clay remains soft and moldable in the Potter’s hands, He would not waste the precious resource by destroying it. Unless the hardened jar has been approved by the Potter for His intended purposes, His only recourse is to shatter the useless vessel so that it will not discredit His name.
Seize the moment and be a chosen vessel for God’s glory by allowing Him to shape you into a useable jar of clay, one which contains the treasure of His name (2 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:20-21; Ephesians 2:10).
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 18
Remain Workable in the Potter’s Hands!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 8.
When I was in high school, I took a potter’s wheel class, and I loved it. It never occurred to me that the clay would not become what I fashioned it to be. For the clay to become what I envisioned it to be, it had to be workable in my hands; it had to remain soft and moldable. This is the imagery invoked by the prophet in Jeremiah 18:2-6:
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
As I worked the clay on the potter’s wheel, I constantly wet it so that it would spin in my hands, minimizing the friction between my hands and the clay. I had to keep my eyes on the clay and use both hands to form it; it was amazing how subtle and gentle I had to be to form the clay into a usable vessel, with the pressure often coming from the inside of the forming vessel, even though I kept a supportive hand on the outside. As long as the clay remained soft and workable, I could start again with the same clay. Isn’t that what God is saying to each of us in our own lives, “Remain workable in My hands!”
Seize the moment and remain workable in the Potter’s hands! Trust the Sovereign God to work something beautiful out of your life.
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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Hymn: God of Wonders
Today’s worship song focus :
God of Wonders
Psalm 148:13 (NASB95)
glory is above earth and heaven.”
God of wonders beyond our galaxy, You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your majesty, You are holy, holy
Lord of heaven and earth, Lord of heaven and earth.
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.
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God of Wonders
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Jeremiah 17
Know my Heart!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, April 5.
Did you know that when you point your finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at the heart of the problem? We love to project blame onto others, to emotionally insulate ourselves from having to take responsibility for a situation. We do this as children by blaming our siblings or classmates. We do this as adults with even more elaborate schemes, but as we mature, we come to realize that the real problem is found within us. In Mark 7:20-23, Jesus made it very clear that it is not something outside of you that makes you unholy, but a condition of your heart:
That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.
Jesus taught that the heart of the problem is found in the control center of your life, where your emotions and thoughts are derived. He was echoing an ancient truth, made visible through the first couple’s blame game, and clearly proclaimed by God through the prophet in Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.”
Seize the moment and invite God to cleanse you from the inside out. Holiness is Christ in you, ruling from the throne of your heart, so invite the Holy Spirit every morning, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23-24).
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 16
Embody the Message!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 4.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection clearly proclaim God’s love to the world (John 3:16). If it weren’t for Jesus’ crucifixion, humanity could never understand the fulness of the gospel, as explained in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus, as the Suffering Servant of Israel, was not the first messenger to Israel whose life embodied the message. Just like God used the intimate details of Jesus’ life to portray the message, God revealed Himself in the personal details of His prophets’ lives. Like Hosea’s broken marriage and Ezekiel’s loss of his wife, Jeremiah’s call to celibacy had symbolic meaning. In Jeremiah 16:2, God commanded Jeremiah, “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” He obeyed God and trusted Him for the future.
I can only imagine how costly such a command was to Jeremiah, but he was a man called to embody the judgments of God, demonstrating the prophetic message of God’s wrath for sin. No wonder he was called the weeping prophet. Even though he had been called to celibacy, later, in Jeremiah 29:5-7, God commanded him to encourage the people to marry and have families while in exile, which was a prophetic sign through the people’s lives. Jeremiah’s symbolic action of not having a family represented the coming destruction of Jerusalem, just like the people’s actions of having families while in exile was symbolic of God’s promise to restore them. We must do the same by discerning how we are to live our lives, “so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:7-11).
Seize the moment and obey God’s Word in the intimate places of your life. Tell a better story with your life by embodying God’s message in the personal choices you make.
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 15
Fresh Bread!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 3.
Do you like fresh bread? There is a significant difference between eating bread, baked fresh from the oven, versus bread that has been left out for days, which has become hard and stale. I compare my morning devotion time to that of a baker making fresh bread each morning.
In Jeremiah 15:16, the prophet describes the privilege of receiving God’s Word, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” Another prophet made a similar statement in Ezekiel 3:1-3, “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, ‘Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.’ Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.”
What a privilege to be given God’s Word; to be chosen as a spokesperson of God to the nations. In 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, Paul speaks to all who have been reconciled to God through His Son Jesus Christ, “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us.” Just like the prophets of old, you have been called to consume God’s Word so that you can give it to those in desperate need of their daily bread. What do you have to share with others?
Seize the moment and enjoy some fresh bread today by reading your Bible – “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8). Don’t give people something dry and hard; give them something baked in your morning devotion time. That’s what I’m doing for you!
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 14
Hope in Dark Days!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 2.
A severe drought had come upon Jerusalem and the surrounding region of Judah. What were the people to do, knowing the drought was a righteous judgment for their rebellion? In Jeremiah 14:7-9, on behalf of the people, the prophet cried out to God for mercy:
Although our iniquities testify against us, O Lord, act for Your name’s sake! Truly our apostasies have been many, we have sinned against You. O Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of distress, why are You like a stranger in the land or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night? Why are You like a man dismayed, like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet You are in our midst, O Lord, and we are called by Your name; do not forsake us!
During dark days, Jeremiah boldly cried out for God’s mercy, concluding his plea in verse 21, “Do not despise us, for Your own name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of Your glory; remember and do not annul Your covenant with us.” The prophet knew that the only hope for rescue and redemption was by invoking God and His ancient covenant.
When a nation is under judgment it may feel like God has forsaken His people, plunging them into darkness with no light to guide them. But God! He has a plan for even the darkest of days. In Romans 1:18-32, we learn how God gives people over to their own rebellion for the purpose of showing them the consequences of their choices; it’s God inviting His people, “Hope in Me! I am your way of escape. Repent and follow Me!”
Seize the moment and cry out to Jesus, “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), who promised in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
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 13
Show Me, Don’t Tell Me!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 1.
Have you ever tried to teach someone, but words were not getting through to the person? When words are not enough, showing is more powerful than telling. God knows His people better than any teacher knows her students, and He loves to use word pictures to get across complicated concepts. You may remember that Isaiah was tasked by God with walking around naked in Isaiah 20. That got everyone’s attention!
In the prophetic work of Jeremiah there are at least nine times that the prophet is commanded to show them through a symbolic action. In Jeremiah 13:1-7, he is tasked to buy fine linen, the cloth of a priest, and wrap it around his waist. Then he was told to hide it in the crevice of a rock where it was destroyed, rendering it useless for the purpose it has been purchased. God explained the living parable in Jeremiah 13:9-11:
Thus says the Lord, “Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless. For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,” declares the Lord, “that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.”
Seize the moment and abide in God, like a branch to a vine, so that He may bear fruit on your branch, demonstrating to the world that you are His disciple (John 15:1-8). God is still using word pictures today through our prophetic activity to the nations, so as you go, show them Jesus!
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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