Jeremiah
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Jeremiah 1:5-8 NLT
Jeremiah is such a perfect example of someone threshing weat in the wine press, except he was in the wine press emotionally. He wasn’t depressed or anything, but he looked around and saw all these great men of God who happened to be older, probably much older, than himself and he did what we all do when we look around instead of looking up- he saw his inadequate state. God says to do something and we look at the other people doing the same thing or similar things, and we realize that compared to them we don’t have the same level of: schooling, training, strength, courage, popularity, Talent, and so on. But then God reminds us: ” you must go where I send you and do as I tell you, and do not be afraid of them for I will protect you.”
It isn’t about what we think we can do or what we feel we are qualified for. It’s about what God knows we can do and what He qualifies us for through His power. No matter our schooling or our skill we are all inadequate for the task before us unless we have God helping us. Oh sure we might succeed on our own, but it will always be more difficult or lead to less of a great conclusion then it would have been if we had just let God use us the way that He planned to. We may all be in the wine press emotionally on some level for something, but God has a plan for all of us, one that is unique and individual to each person. When God calls you out of the wine press follow His voice. And don’t be afraid of them, for God will protect you.
Category: guidance
Jude
Jude
This will end our four part ‘in the wine press’ series. Feel free to go back over the last three weeks to see where it all began in Gideon, to where we are now, near the end of the Bible in one of my favorite books- Jude.
In the wine press spiritually. Jude’s past right to the dating of his book and the argued over intended audience is… speculative. However, as one of my Theology Professors once said: even with legitimate doubt about the dating of Jude, a terminus a quo and terminus ad quem should be possible. What we do know for fact is that Jude was Jesus’ brother. We also know the struggle that Jesus’ brothers had with accepting Him as Messiah. Jude would have been a Jewish man who attended synagogue and learned his Torah and more than likely prayed to God. He was doing the physical acts of being one of God’s chosen people, like everyone else, but like most of the others around him he didn’t yet have a personal relationship with God- which comes through Jesus. [Now I’m going to peel away from Jude himself because, as I said before, we don’t know as much about him as we would like and I don’t wish to go on about things I’m not sure about.]
So many of us our in the wine press spiritually. On the outside we are threshing away after the harvest, doing the work we are supposed to do, yet on the inside we are in the wine press, which is not where we are supposed to be. We look like we are fully committed to Jesus, yet we still don’t have a relationship with Him. Going to Church and reading the Bible are fundamental in your Christian life, yet if you think these acts without having accepted Jesus as you savior will get you into Heaven you haven’t been paying attention to what you have read or heard. We need Him first and foremost. We need these other things that connect us to Him for sure, but they don’t mean anything if Jesus is not at our core and theirs. Bibles and Churches that have been stripped of their intended meaning and purpose to leave us with an all loving, all accepting, all roads lead to Heaven bad taste in our mouths are not going to help your Spiritual growth or your connection to Jesus, (which Jude warns against in his book). After accepting the sovereignty of Jesus, Jude became a student of the man who founded the first church – James. It would have been so hard for Jude and James to let go of the image of Jesus they had in their minds and to instead grasp the wonder of who He truly was. If my relative suddenly claimed to be God’s son I’d be checking his cup to see what he was sipping. But Jesus proved Himself again and again and we know He is God. But until you accept that and accept that you need Him as your savior no amount of Church attendance will save you. Once we get out of the spiritual wine press and start doing things the right way maybe we will have the courage and faith to say “I —- a slave of Jesus Christ,” just like Jude did.
Reflection
The moon has a dark side that is void of rhe sun’s light. But the sun has no dark side because it is the light. We have darkness in us because we have places that we don’t let Jesus into. These sides rise up and make the world doubt the goodness of Christ because His Christians aren’t perfect. But Jesus is the light and the good inside of us, He has no darkness or badness. We will always mess up no matter how hard we try to be like our Savior because we are flawed humans. But we are only a reflection of Jesus, not Jesus Himself and He does not possess our inclination toward sin. You can’t judge the sun’s warmth by standing in the dark, you have to feel it for yourself. You can’t judge Christ by Christians, we’re only a reflection and mess up, you have to experience Jesus for yourself to see how wonderful He truly is.
Saul
Saul
Saul had his own moment of leaving the wine press ( figuratively). When the Isrealites fussed to have a king like everyone else had, God chose Saul. Where was Saul when Samuel informed him he was to be king? Looking for donkeys. He didn’t want the job at first. Now I know that Saul is a contrary figure. But he was chosen by God, even if he turned from God in the end, God gave him a position of authority. But he had been found for his time, in a place of lowlyness. Not believing that God had a great time for him.
Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” 1 Samuel 9:21 NIV
But God was able to change him. To make a great king out of the least likely person.
As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day. 1 Samuel 10:9 NIV
It doesn’t depend on us. If we are well educated or are wealthy or have a great family background, none of that matters for God’s big plan for us. All that matters is that we are willing to say ‘yes God, let’s do this!’
Saul was planned for a time and purpose. He is also a great example of what happens when we turn from God even in the midst of following His plan for our lives. We must remain true to Him and serve Him or else He may use someone else to fulfill His plan. Saul had the chance to be great in God’s power. But He chose to try and be great in his own strength and was cast down.
God can use you no matter how unlikely you seem to yourself. But if you don’t honor Him He will find someone else.
With Him in the garden
‘Today is my day to sorrow’, thought the tiny flower growing beside a rock. ‘Last night a great trouble came over me as a man, or something more than a man, sat by my side and wept. His tears were so great that when they splashed upon me I felt sick and my roots were weakened. I tried to reach out to the man, but I am just a flower and cannot draw attention to myself like a bird can with her song. He cried and screamed and begged and pleaded, but no peace came to this man. I hoped that He would look at me and I could make Him smile. He left and then returned, even sadder when He came back. All I could do was sit with Him. Then I sensed a resolve in His being and He went to stand once more. He stumbled and His hands landed near me. I tried to be radiant to bring Him comfort, finally He saw me, He smiled very gently, then He rose to His feet. “Thank you my radiant flower.” He said, then He left.
I feel that something great and tragic happened that night. Today I feel as though a friend is calling out for mercy. Today I feel sad. But being a flower, I know that tomorrow will bring new joy and hope.’
Don’t miss it
Don’t miss it
I remember hearing a Christian lady arguing with a scholar. She had asked a simple question but the scholar -not of Christian theology- had seen that she was a Christian and had decided to take her to the mat because of it. He used big words in several different languages and quoted the Bible back to her claiming his vast knowledge was proof that he could say that Jesus wasn’t God. When she tried to explain how he had misrepresented the scriptures he had chosen to quote, and what they truly meant within the context they are in, he had fought back by listing his degrees from some of the big name brand schools and claimed her lack of degree showed how she couldn’t understand scripture even of it were true. ( His expression. I fully know scripture is true). Finally she was so tired of him she simply shook her head and said, “You’ve missed the whole point.”
In this guys vast learning and studying he had claimed himself equal to Christ, he thought his knowledge of God placed him next to God on equal level with Jesus, because Jesus had come simply to prophesy about a new way to God, but wasn’t actually God Himself. He had missed the whole point. (We won’t go into how much of what he said was wrong and which chapters of the Bible prove how wrong this ‘learned man’ was, that would take too long.)
We can’t be Jesus. Jesus wasn’t a prophet or a scholar. If He had been than we would be in trouble because His death wouldn’t have meant a thing. We cannot sit equal to Jesus at God’s side. He was and is and always will be God’s only son. He is God. Jesus made it so we don’t need a priest, or a degree or a scholar to understand Him and be close to Him. The new covenant was an open relationship with God, not as little Christs oursleves, but as servants who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Before Jesus died, we couldn’t talk to God ourselves, we couldn’t ask for our own sins to be forgiven, and we always had to bring a sacrifice- now we can talk to God about everything, we don’t need a priest to ask for our sins to be forgiven, we can ask for it ourselves, and now we have a communion with the last sacrifice ever needed and through Him we are no longer slaves but friends. Study your Bible and learn as much about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit as humanly possible, but don’t feel your knowledge of God replaces a relationship with God. Don’t miss the point of the cross.
Modeling chocolate
Have you ever tried to form clay? Or modeling chocolate? Or fondant?
Anything you try to form into a new shape has one common problem, it wants to do it’s own thing. You try to form it one way, it shifts to another. You try to make it round, it goes pointy; you want it flat, it develops bubles; you try to make a fower and you get an elephant. Clay is paitence building and time consuming.
We are told that we are clay and that God is the Potter. He knows what he intends us to look like in the end, so he molds us, and then he fixes our cracks, and then he shapes us again. Just like modeling chocolate, every time God tries to put us into the shape he intended us to be we try and mold ourselves into the shape we think we should be. Where God intended a beautiful flower we are becoming a cracked and crooked elephant. What a blessing it is that God is patient. If he got bored or annoyed he could crumple us up and throw us away and give up entirely, but he doesn’t. He keeps working with us, shift by shift, small movement by small movement, until we begin to take proper shape. God has a perfect and beautiful plan to create us into something wonderful, if only we would stop trying to form ourselves into what we think is perfect, if we let go and let the Potter do his job we will become something beautiful In the end.
The enemy cannot win forever
Remember in the Two Towers? When Frodo and Sam are walking on the road of the old kings that had been taken by the enemy and they came across the statue of the great king. Violent hands had knocked off the king’s head and replaced it with a rock with a symbol of the enemy as a mockery to the king of old. Yet in the grass where the old king’s head lay, beard broken off and stone scarred, flowers of tiny gold and silver blossoms had encircled the kings head, crowning it once again, as if in honor to the old king, and Frodo said, “the enemy cannot win forever.”
I see in my mind an image of Jesus. People have marred it and the enemy set up something honoring himself and mocking Christ in the place of where Jesus’s earthly honor once stood. Yet there are still some who refuse to bow to the enemy, some who wish to be jewels in the true King’s crown. In a moment of sun in the dark world my heart cries out, “the enemy cannot win forever.” The true King will return in all His glory as He really is, not as how the enemy has made Him appear. He will vanquish all evil and we who honored Him still, even when it looked like He might be defeated, will sit at His feat in His throne room and be blessed by His presence. This will not last forever. Whatever darkness is getting inside your head, whatever fear you feel, whatever evil you see, it will all be destroyed when the King returns- when Jesus comes back to take us home. Long live the King!
What is meant to last?
Tea pot rock. The Hoodoos. Minter Gardens. Notre Dame. Black hills mustangs.
Just to name a very small few.
There are so many things that are either gone or are fading that we thought would last forever. Only two of the things listed can be rebuilt or reopened, the rest once gone will be gone for good. It makes you stop to consider, how much of what we care so much about and put so much energy into in this world, will be gone in the next hundred years? The mustangs still could be saved if people would stand up for them; but the rest there’s nothing you can do to help. God never intended for this world to be eternal, not after the fall that is. He plans on rolling it up and tossing it away. Which is so hard for us because this world is all we know. Yet to Him this world is just a short stop for His people before we go to Heaven. Then people start asking why God would do that? Why not just have in Heaven to begin with? We’ve all heard the questions and the answers, yet I feel that the reason God started us here was because it was His plan to start us here, He’s the one writing the story, He can do as He pleases. I heard about an algae living in a space under the ice on the sea floor of the Antarctic; life in an area where life shouldn’t be able to exist. All the scientists from all different science standpoints wanted to explain how it got there, and I just smiled and went, “you had fun with that didn’t you God?”
I get science. I was going into Marine Biology before God called me to a differnt path. Just saying that because I know how some people do the, ‘well people who don’t understand science are the ones who don’t try to explain it,’ thing. God is in control. That makes us feel very small and helpless so we try to come up with things that make it sound like we are in control. Like the latest one that says: God doesn’t actually have a plan or an agenda for your life, He’s just there for you if you need Him.
That’s wrong by the way. People who have read their Bible know that that’s not accurate, and those who believe this and have read their Bibles need to read their Bibles again.
Agenda is a bit of a contorted word these days, it’s one of the many words that have lost their original meaning, but basically it means that there is a plan for you, specifically, and every part of you life has been known and calculated since before you were conceived. You can deviate from that plan, but when you let Him, God will put you back on the right path. I know that that thought can feel scary because it’s a full acknowledgment of the greater power that God has compared to us. But he does have a greater power, an unbelievable power, and yes it is to be feared, but when it’s protecting you because you are one of His children, then it is something to be adored and respected. God sees you. As an open and bare soul. No part of you is hidden from Him. But instead of being terrified or trying to make God smaller so He doesn’t bother you so much, you should lean into His knowledge about you and feel safe knowing that He knows it all and is taking care of you.
God’s plan is for the eternal. For your soul. Even when the Hoodoos are flat and the grasslands (as sad as it will be) are bare, God’s plan for you will remain, because His plan for you ends in you running into His open arms at the end of your story and hearing Him say, “well done, good and faithful servant.”
Don’t leave His path. Don’t run from His plan. His plan is because He loves you and wants you with Him forever.
The day He wore my crown
The day He wore my crown.
The city was Jerusalem
The time was long ago
The people called him Jesus
The crime was the love He showed
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all the pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown
He brought me love that only He could give
I brought Him cause to cry
And though He taught me how to live
I taught Him how to die
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all the pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown
He could have called His holy Father, and said,
“Take me away, please, take me away.”
He could have said, “I’m not guilty.
And I’m not going to stay
I’m not going to pay.”
But He walked right through the gate
And then on up the hill
And as He fell beneath the weight
He cried, “Father, not My will.”
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all His pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown.
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all His pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown.
-Sandi Patti
There isn’t a lot more I could add here. As the day of the betrayal in the garden and the road to the cross draw closer, this song plays over and over and over again in my mind. He wore my crown. I now get to wear a crown of glory because Jesus wore my crown of thorns. We all strive toward the glowing gates of Heaven and the final prize, but do we stop to consider the path that had to be taken for us to to be able to aim for Heaven at all? We dream of golden streets and crowns of jewels, but do we recall a dusty road and a crown of thorns?
That was my crown Jesus wore. That was your crown that pierced His head. That was our crown that soaked up His blood as soldiers mocked Him. He could habe said ‘no’, He wasn’t abligated to die for us, but He chose the thorns, He chose my crown. Don’t forget that.
Carried in the cross 