Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
Jeremiah 9:23-24

This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
Jeremiah 6:16

August Reading Schedule

August 1: Jeremiah 10-13

August 2: Jeremiah 14-16

August 3: Jeremiah 17-20

August 4: 2 Kings 22:1-23:28, 2 Chronicles 34:8-35:19

August 5: Nahum, 2 Kings 23:29-37, 2 Chronicles 35:20-36:5, Jeremiah 22:10-17

August 6: Jeremiah 26, Habakkuk

August 7: Jeremiah 46-47, 2 Kings 24:1-4,7, 2 Chronicles 36:6-7, Jeremiah 25,35

August 8: Jeremiah 36, 45, 48

August 9: Jeremiah 49:1-33, Daniel 1-2

August 10: Jeremiah 22:18-30, 2 Kings 24:5-20, 2 Chronicles 36:8-12, Jeremiah 37:1-2, 52:1-3; 24; 29

August 11: Jeremiah 27; 28; 23

August 12: Jeremiah 50-51

August 13: Jeremiah 49:34-39; 34; Ezekiel 1-3

August 14: Ezekiel 4-7

August 15: Ezekiel 8-11

August 16: Ezekiel 12-14

August 17: Ezekiel 15-17

August 18: Ezekiel 18-20

August 19: Ezekiel 21-23

August 20: 2 Kings 25:1; 2 Chronicles 36:13-16, Jeremiah 39:1; 52:4; Ezekiel 24; Jeremiah 21:1-22:9; 32

August 21: Jeremiah 30-31, 33

August 22: Ezekiel 25; 29:1-16; 30; 31

August 23: Ezekiel 26-28

August 24: Jeremiah 37:3-39:10; 52:4-30; 2 Kings 25:2-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21

August 25: 2 Kings 25:22; Jeremiah 39:11-40:6; Lamentations 1-3

August 26: Lamentations 4-5; Obadiah

August 27: Jeremiah 40:7-44:30; 2 Kings 25:23-26

August 28: Ezekiel 33:21-36:38

August 29: Ezekiel 37-39

August 30: Ezekiel 32:1-33:20; Daniel 3

August 31: Ezekiel 40-42

whatever is right

Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life. 2 Chronicles 15:17

In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. 1 Kings 22:43

At first glance, it seems like high praise. Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord. Jehoshaphat did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Yet, something is a little off. Neither father nor son removed the "high places." And the people continued to sacrifice to their idols.

We might say that they did the best that they could. That they spent their time being obedient and that should be enough. But were they obedient? Not according to scripture. I counted ten times from Exodus to 1 Samuel that God forbids idol worship. Their failure to completely eradicate idolatry in Judah would have tragic circumstances. Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 21:6) I have to wonder if the outcome might have been different if Asa or Jehoshaphat had removed all idols from the land.

I desire to walk a life that is pleasing to God. I want to have a heart that is fully committed to the Lord. I want to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. And yet, I find myself "overlooking" certain areas in my life, assuring myself that they are too small to bother God. (impatience, irritated driving, and so forth.) However, scripture reminds me that "It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread." (Galatians 5:9 MSG) If I continue to allow these "minute" sins to persist in my life, they will eventually "permeate" my entire being and my witness. From that point, who knows how it might affect future generations of my family. After all, it only took one generation for Judah's kings to go from "doing what was right" to following in the footsteps of one of the most wicked kings in Israel's history. What a sobering thought.

Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 MSG

no turning back

Several weeks ago, our pastor preached a sermon series entitled Not a Fan. It was a thought provoking, inspiring message that has lingered with me through the weeks. (I'd highly recommend it. It can be found here.) The second sermon in the series was called Committed and during that sermon, Kyle mentioned Elisha's actions when Elijah called him to service.

So Elijah went and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field. There were twelve teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the twelfth team. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away. Elisha left the oxen standing there, ran after Elijah, and said to him, “First let me go and kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you!”

Elijah replied, “Go on back, but think about what I have done to you.”

So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the townspeople, and they all ate. Then he went with Elijah as his assistant. (1 Kings 19:19-21 NLT)

Kyle said that Elisha was obviously somewhat successful since he had 24 oxen to plow his fields. This was his livelihood. And yet, when he received the call, what did he do? He slaughtered his oxen and burned his plowing equipment and had a great big barbecue. He had no intention of coming back. And to make sure that he wasn't tempted to return to his old life, he burned all his bridges behind him. That's commitment.

I've thought a lot about that story since the sermon. And when I read it last week, I thought some more.

I tend to look before I leap.

Then I look some more.

And then I might sit down and think about it for awhile.

Ponder deep thoughts.

Second guess myself.

Think that God surely couldn't be asking me to do that.

Wait some more.

Look some more.

And if I wait long enough, sometimes the opportunity passes me by and I say, "obviously that wasn't God's will.)

But I wonder.

I wonder if there will come a day when the Lord says to me, "Karen, you missed this. Look at how much more you could have been if only you were willing to believe...commit..." It's not that I'm afraid of commitment. I think maybe I'm afraid of what commitment might lead to instead. Does that make sense? Maybe it's more that I'm comfortable where I am. With my oxen and my plow. Following a different path may take me to uncomfortable places. Put demands on me that I don't want to deal with. Require absolute trust in my God.

Yet here's the thing.

I don't want to miss it. The more I come to know Him, the closer I draw to Him, the more I want what He wants for me. So I think my prayer will change to become, "light the barbecue, Lord. Let's go."

July

July 1: 2 Kings 12-13, 2 Chronicles 24

July 2: 2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25, Jonah

July 3: Hosea 1-7

July 4: Hosea 8-14

July 5: 2 Kings 15:1-7, 2 Chronicles 26, Amos 1-4

July 6: Amos 5-9, 2 Kings 15:8-18

July 7: Isaiah 1-4

July 8: 2 Kings 15:19-38, 2 Chronicles 27, Isaiah 5-6

July 9: Micah

July 10: 2 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 28, Isaiah 7-8

July 11: Isaiah 9-12

July 12: Isaiah 13-16

July 13: Isaiah 17-22

July 14: Isaiah 23-27

July 15: Isaiah 28-30

July 16: Isaiah 31-35

July 17: 2 Kings 18:1-8, 2 Chronicles 29-31

July 18: 2 Kings 17,18:9-37, 2 Chronicles 32:1-19, Isaiah 36

July 19: 2 Kings 19, 2 Chronicles 32:20-23, Isaiah 37

July 20: 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 32:24-33, Isaiah 38-39

July 21: 2 Kings 21:1-18, 2 Chronicles 33:1-20, Isaiah 40

July 22: Isaiah 41-43

July 23: Isaiah 44-47

July 24: Isaiah 48-51

July 25: Isaiah 52-57

July 26: Isaiah 58-62

July 27: Isaiah 63-66

July 28: 2 Kings 21:19-26, 2 Chronicles 33:21-34:7, Zephaniah

July 29: Jeremiah 1-3

July 30: Jeremiah 4-6

July 31: Jeremiah 7-9

gratitude

One area of my life that I struggle with constantly is remembering God's goodness to me. To be perfectly honest, I don't think about this much. It usually comes to light when I am working through a bible study and I'm asked to list a time that I remember that God did something wonderful. And while I know that he does many beautiful miraculous things on a daily basis, mostly I draw a blank. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't pay enough attention.

Anyhow, we recently read the story of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath.

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."

"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."

Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.' "

She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.(1 Kings 17:1-16)

Here's a woman who is living life with a constant miracle. She knows that no human is putting flour in the jar and oil in the jar. There still is no rain so there is no hope for a harvest. Elijah has told her that God himself said that she would have flour and oil as long as there is no rain in the land. You have to think that she is feeling pretty good about the Lord and how He's blessed her family. Except...

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

"Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"

The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth." 1 Kings 17:17-24

I have to tell you that I was a little bit frustrated by the widow. She's living this miracle life and yet the moment her circumstances change, she's pointing the finger and blaming Elijah (and God). The note I made in my Bible says, "do our life circumstance cause us to forget the miracles in our lives?" But I still wasn't talking about me. Yet. It wasn't til later that I realized that I was no different than the widow. If I can't remember the good things the Lord has done in my life when I'm working through a bible study, what are the chances that I'll remember them when life comes pounding on the door? To carry the thought one step further, am I truly grateful as the Lord works throughout my day? And what can I do to change it if I'm not?

One of my favorite blogs is a Holy Experience written by Ann Voskamp. I will often reread her posts over and over just to allow them to seep into my soul. She has such a way with words and everything she writes has a scriptural tie. It's a beautiful thing. Anyway, she wrote a post entitled a thousand gifts where she talks about her journal of the gifts that the Lord has given her. Over the years she has surpassed one thousand and now goes on to number the thousands. She says, "Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don't see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me."

Anyway, recently I decided to begin my own list of a thousand gifts. Some days are more challenging than others and I have to look a little deeper to see how He's blessed me. Some days are simple gifts such as the bluest sky that I've seen in a long time and some days the gifts are huge. Through it all, my hope is that when I seek Him, I will find Him. (2 Chronicles 15:2) And maybe the next time difficulties come knocking on my door, I'll remember the miracles that have come before and I will rely on the Giver of life.