The Weeping Prophet!

Jeremiah 9

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, March 26.

Have you ever sat under a pastor who cried when proclaiming the goodness of God? I am profoundly touched by such a display of emotion when I discern it to be real, but I cringe if I believe it to be showmanship. Truly, only the Lord knows a person’s heart! Jeremiah was the real deal, giving him the reputation as the “weeping prophet.” We catch a glimpse of this in Jeremiah 9:1, “Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” His depth of concern for the well-being of God’s people reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s compassionate concern for the Jewish people, from whom he experienced rejection and ridicule. He said in Romans 9:1-3, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren.” Wow: that’s love!

The heartache of Jeremiah and Paul has another similarity, their proclamation of what it means to be Israel. Paul says in Romans 9:6, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” The prophet explained that being a child of Israel was not about a nationality; it’s a condition of one’s heart, foreshadowing the necessity of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 9:25-26, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised – … for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”

Seize the moment and ask the Lord to reveal the truth of your heart (Romans 2:28-29; Colossians 2:11). Does your heart break for the things that break God’s heart?

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.

Sorrow for Sin!

Jeremiah 8

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, March 25.

Sin destroys relationships and brings pain into your life, and into the lives of those you love. Jeremiah 8 is a heartbreaking chapter from a devastating time in Israel’s history. Honestly, it’s a tough chapter to meditate upon as it demonstrates to us the sorrow of sin. In Jeremiah 8:18, the prophet expresses his heartache over Judah’s sin, “My sorrow is beyond healing, my heart is faint within me!” A century prior, in Isaiah 22:4, the prophet expressed the same kind of godly sorrow over the impending judgment of Israel, “Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly, do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

Lament is the right response to the pain and suffering caused by sin. We cannot whitewash the damaging effects sin has on our lives. Furthermore, we should not avoid lamenting over it, because godly sorrow leads to repentance. We even see Jesus, in Luke 19:41-44, respond with the same sorrow for sin as that of the prophets who came before Him:

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

While there is forgiveness for sin through the victory of Jesus Christ, there are still consequences for sin in our everyday lives. Have you experienced godly sorrow for your sin?

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.

Seize the Moment – Day 1467

Today’s worship song focus :

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)

Mark 11:8-10 (NASB95)

Inspired by a desire to write a song that expresses adoration and a surrender to God, Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown teamed up to create this powerful and impactful song. It encourages believers to be like those who proclaimed Jesus’s entry into the city, lifting up their voices in recognition and declaring who the Messiah is as the one who came to save us, our Lord and Savior!

We need to wake up and make this song one that we sing all week long as we prepare for Holy Week with the start of Palm Sunday tomorrow. Use this powerful song as part of your personal worship and express your love and adoration to God for sending us the Blessed Messiah! Let your praise rise up!

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Hosanna (Praising Rising)

Incantations vs. Prayers!

Jeremiah 7

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, March 22.

People frequently allow superstition to infiltrate their faith, treating the name of Jesus like an incantation, repeating it, and tacking it on to the end of their requests. But there is a significant difference between praying to God and performing an incantation. Jesus taught about prayer in Matthew 6:7, “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” This is the exact practice God was rebuking through His prophet in Jeremiah 7:3-7:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”

Prayer is not a magical means of compelling God to do your bidding. Instead, prayer is a divine gift by which you can know and walk with God, as Jesus taught in Matthew 6:8, “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the authorized way to have intimacy with the Father (John 3:16; 14:6, 13-15; 16:23-28); He is not an incantation to be invoked.

Seize the moment and pray the Lord’s Prayer, taught by Jesus in Matthew 6:9-13, as a means of grace to walk in covenant faithfulness to God in your daily 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.

Find Rest for Your Soul!

Jeremiah 6

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, March 21.

Jesus intentionally created a clear connection between Himself and the Old Covenant prophet Jeremiah, as well as to the larger prophetic tradition of Israel. One of the clearest examples of this is found in Jeremiah 6:13-16:

“For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace. Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be cast down,” says the Lord. Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

Through Jeremiah, God was calling people to return to Him and His Covenant, which included the ancient promise of rest. Leaving no room for misunderstanding, Jesus focused the ancient paths of God from Jeremiah 6:16 on Himself by quoting this promise in Matthew 11:28-30. In coming to Jesus, a person is graciously invited to enter the rest of God and avoid the wrath of God that is upon all who do not walk in the ancient paths, as Jesus proclaimed over the apostate Jewish cities in Matthew 11:20-24. Jesus declared that the New Covenant was to be found in Him and that the rest of God was His to give to those who come to Him.

Seize the moment and “be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11).

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.

The Transforming Power of Devotion!

Jeremiah 5

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, March 20.

Are there consequences for worshipping the creation rather than the Creator? In Jeremiah 5:21-24, God gave the prophet a timely word for His people who were facing repercussions for rejecting Him:

“Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see; who have ears but do not hear. Do you not fear Me?” declares the Lord. “Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and departed. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the Lord our God, Who gives rain in its season, both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’”

We become like that which we worship. We become foolish and senseless when we reject God for any created thing, as God reminded His people about the danger of idols in Psalm 115:5-9, “They have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; … Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.” Jeremiah warned God’s people, reminding them that God is the Creator who sets all things in their prescribed place, bringing order to the chaos with His presence. When we allow anything else to be first in our lives, then we become unduly influenced by it. Whatever we are devoted to has the power to transform us into its image.

Seize the moment and worship “the glory of the incorruptible God” and not His creation (Romans 1:18-32).

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:

Formless and Void!

Jeremiah 4

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, March 19.

What happens when you don’t cultivate and care for your garden? Very quickly, it returns to its wild state with no hope for it to produce a crop. Imagine what a lifetime of not tending to your garden would do to it. In Jeremiah 4:23, the prophet intentionally connects the coming judgment of Judah with the creation story, “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.” The word pair of “formless and void” is a direct reference to Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

In the people’s rebellion against God, He would allow the land to return to its natural state apart from His intervention – a non-functional, uncultivated state, filled with evil and calamity. Because God judged them and found them guilty, He would remove the light of His presence from the land. This was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of God’s people to Babylonian exile. The imagery of “formless and void” is so stark that one might think that God was going to annihilate His chosen people, but He qualifies His judgment in verse 27, “The whole land shall be a desolation, yet I will not execute a complete destruction.” The land would go to wild for seventy years, but God promised to allow the people to return after the time of judgment was fulfilled (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

Seize the moment and steward the garden of your life, cultivating the soil of your heart and mind, planting the good seed of His Word, caring for the growth, and reaping a harvest of praise to the glory of God (Isaiah 55:6-13).

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.

Wisdom through Observation!

Jeremiah 3

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, March 18.

There are many ways we learn to be wise: by reading the Bible, through formal education, and from personal experience. We also learn by observing others, watching what happens to those around us, and what happened to those who came before us. Judah had an opportunity to learn from the experiences of their northern neighbor’s rebellion. Nearly a century after Israel’s judgment, Jeremiah gave this scathing rebuke against Judah in Jeremiah 3:6-10:

Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord.

Judah did not learn from the mistakes of their northern cousins. Instead, they repeated their folly, playing the harlot. But God, rich in mercy, continued to pursue His people with the same call to repentance through a prophet to a new generation – repent of your adultery; come home to Me, and I will forgive you. Return to Me, and I will be faithful to you.

Seize the moment and learn wisdom through observation. Pay attention to how God has designed His creation – “whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7-8).

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.

Seize the Moment – Day 1460

Today’s worship song focus :

The Blessing

 Numbers 6:24-26 (NASB95)

Taken from the priestly benediction of Numbers 6 and the prayerful blessing of Psalm 67, Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Steven Furtick and Chris Brown created this anthem of hope and encouragement for all believers in the spring of 2020. We are reminded of God’s faithfulness and unfailing love for us with this message of peace and assurance even in the middle of our chaos.

The Lord bless you and keep you

Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you

The Lord turn His face toward you

And give you peace                  

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ55mDL7dA0

The Blessing

The Absurdity of Apostasy!

Jeremiah 2

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, March 15.

Judah was unfaithful to God, seeking after the gods of powerful neighbors. Their false worship through idolatry was considered apostasy, which is the forsaking of the prescribed way of worshipping God. It was for this reason that God called Jeremiah to be a prophet to Judah – to call His people out of rebellion and back into the way of covenant faithfulness. Through him, in Jeremiah 2:13, God confronted the people of their crime, “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” This is imagery built upon his predecessor’s prophetic ministry, as Isaiah stated, over a century prior, in Isaiah 55:1-3, “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; … Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.”

Covenant faithfulness is how Judah can drink from God’s “fountain of living waters.” Unfortunately, they refused to worship Him, choosing the corrupted cisterns of apostasy, directly referenced in Jeremiah 2:17-18 as the Babylonian and Egyptian empires, “Have you not done this to yourself by your forsaking the Lord your God when He led you in the way? But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?” Which would prove themselves to be corrupted cisterns of counterfeit promises. This is the absurdity of apostasy – to forsake the ancient paths of eternal peace for the contemporary means of transitory power.

Seize the moment and walk in the prescribed way of Jesus Christ, the One who can rescue you from the absurdity of apostasy – “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38; cf. John 4:10-14; Revelation 22:17).

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.