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Jeremiah 29: 11‘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. 12‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. This is a familiar verse for many. Often regarded as a message of hope, it also has a great message of encouragement. But it is also followed by a call for prayer. We…

Jeremiah 27:1In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying— 2thus says the LORD to me—”Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck, 3and send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to…

Jeremiah 23: 1“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. The responsibility of a pastor is emphasized here, and the Lord regards it highly. Tending to the Lord’s people can also alter the course of many others. The effects can be generational. The eternity of countless souls could be in the hands of any given pastor. Jeremiah 23 The Coming…

Jeremiah 22:15 “Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. 16 “He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; Then it was well. Is not that what it means to know Me?” Declares the LORD. Then, as now, teenagers and younger adults seem to have a hard time learning from their parents. If you…

Jeremiah 17: 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. 8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit. Trust in the Lord. Be blessed. Sounds simple, but reading the next verse, we find…

Jeremiah 15: 19 Therefore, thus says the LORD, “If you return, then I will restore you— Before Me you will stand; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them. If we repent and return, we will be restored. If we have already repented and felt the glory of salvation, we know that the…

Jeremiah 10: 21 For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD; Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered. There are many recommendations and admonitions to pray in the Word, including praying without ceasing. The Lord emphasizes this even further by calling the lack of prayer “stupid.” Here, the results of prayer, which are many, could have included…

Jeremiah 9: 23Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD. Pride is one of the easiest…

Jeremiah 4: 2 And you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory.” This is quite a statement, with the people literally swearing in the Lord’s name, and the results are impressive. But the requirements are also a tall order, truth, justice, and righteousness being as rare as they are. Then…

Jeremiah 2:7 “I brought you into the fruitful land To eat its fruit and its good things. But you came and defiled My land, And My inheritance you made an abomination. This does not sound good for the people. But, if we turn and look toward ourselves instead, are we not in the same situation? Hasn’t the Lord brought us-His church-into a fruitful land, and do we not enjoy His blessings? But what,…

Isaiah 64: 8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. A simple but great analogy here in verse 8 has been the basis of many sermons, to be sure. Looking past the general idea of molding clay by hand, we will see that the potter often spins the clay pot around on his wheel. And he uses water, as the clay must be wet to be…

Isaiah 61: 8 For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; And I will faithfully give them their recompense And make an everlasting covenant with them. The Lord loves justice and, conversely, despises iniquity. So, when we make our offerings, we need to ask ourselves, is there any iniquity in how we earned our income? Did we give an honest day’s work for our wages? Have we…

Isaeah 58: 4 “Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. 5 “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD? 6 “Is…

Isaiah 55: 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. These…

Isaiah 54: 1 “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD. 2 “Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And strengthen your pegs. Like the…

Isaiah 50: 4 The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple. The most profound statements, as in this verse, are often very simple and straightforward. In Isaiah’s mind, the very reason he has been given communication skills is discipleship. That would be an…

Isaiah 47: 4 Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel. In the middle of 3 chapters of a narrative addressing the people, there is a pause for one verse acknowledging the Lord with this declaration. No matter what we are occupied with, it is always right to pause and acknowledge the Lord. Isaiah 46 Babylon’s Idols and the True God 1 Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops…