[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY AUGUST 16

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY AUGUST 16

WORD OF WISDOM

I wonder what the part of my brain that used to store people's phone numbers
is doing now?

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DAILY DEVOTION

God Finishes His Work


I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine
for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from
the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my
heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of
the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.
Philippians 1:3-7

God does not do anything halfway. What He begins, He finishes. What He
plans, He completes. We can have full confidence in the future, because it
is God who has promised to accomplish what He has said. Charles Spurgeon
wrote, "When [the Israelites] were in Egypt he sent not only a deliverer,
but an actual deliverance; not only a redeemer, but complete redemption. He
has done the like spiritually for all his people, having first by blood
purchased them out of the hand of the enemy, and then by power rescued them
from the bondage of their sins. Redemption we can sing of as an accomplished
act: it has been wrought for us, sent to us, and enjoyed by us, and we are
in very deed the Lord's redeemed."
The path that we started on when we accepted Christ as Savior does not
always run smooth and straight. Many times there are troubles, hardships,
tears, and frustrations. Many times we fail to do what we should and instead
do what we should not. But just as we did not save ourselves, we do not keep
ourselves-God does that. He knows what we will do long before it ever
happens. He knows the obstacles, temptations, and struggles we will face. He
continues to love and care for us, and He will keep us safe in Him until the
day we see Him face to face.
We need never fear that God will abandon us or fail to accomplish all He has
planned for our lives.

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DAILY BIBLE READING

Jeremiah 16-18 New King James Version
Jeremiah's Lifestyle and Message
16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, 2 "You shall not take a
wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place." 3 For thus says
the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and
concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in
this land: 4 "They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor
shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the
earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses
shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth."

5 For thus says the Lord: "Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to
lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,"
says the Lord, "lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small
shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament
for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men
break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall
men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their
mother. 8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them,
to eat and drink."

9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will cause
to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of
[a]mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the
voice of the bride.

10 "And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say
to you, 'Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or
what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the
Lord our God?' 11 then you shall say to them, 'Because your fathers have
forsaken Me,' says the Lord; 'they have walked after other gods and have
served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12
And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one [b]follows
the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13
Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know,
neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and
night, where I will not show you favor.'

God Will Restore Israel
14 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that it shall no
more be said, 'The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the
land of Egypt,' 15 but, 'The Lord lives who brought up the children of
Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven
them.' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their
fathers.

16 "Behold, I will send for many fishermen," says the Lord, "and they shall
fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt
them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor
is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. 18 And first I will repay double for
their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have
filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable
idols."

19 O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
>From the ends of the earth and say,
"Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and unprofitable things."
20 Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?

21 "Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,
I will cause them to know
My hand and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the Lord.

Judah's Sin and Punishment
17 "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is engraved
On the tablet of their heart,
And on the horns of your altars,
2 While their children remember
Their altars and their wooden[c] images
By the green trees on the high hills.
3 O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever."

5 Thus says the Lord:

"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his [d]strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.

7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not [e]fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

9 "The heart is deceitful above all things,
And [f]desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
10 I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the [g]mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

11 "As a partridge that [h]broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool."

12 A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.

"Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The fountain of living waters."

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.
15 Indeed they say to me,
"Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now!"
16 As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
17 Do not be a terror to me;
You are my hope in the day of doom.
18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me,
But do not let me be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed,
But do not let me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of doom,
And destroy[i] them with double destruction!

Hallow the Sabbath Day
19 Thus the Lord said to me: "Go and stand in the gate of the children of
the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out,
and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, 'Hear the word of the
Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: "Take heed to
yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the
gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath
day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your
fathers. 23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but [j]made their
neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

24 "And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully," says the Lord, "to bring no
burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the
Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 then shall enter the gates of this city
kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on
horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. 26 And they
shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem,
from the land of Benjamin and from the [k]lowland, from the mountains and
from the [l]South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings
and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.

27 "But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not
carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day,
then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of
Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." ' "

The Potter and the Clay
18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 "Arise and go
down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words." 3
Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something
at the [m]wheel. 4 And the vessel that he [n]made of clay was [o]marred in
the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it
seemed good to the potter to make.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 "O house of Israel, can I
not do with you as this potter?" says the Lord. "Look, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I
speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull
down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns
from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon
it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom,
to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not
obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I
would benefit it.

11 "Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I am fashioning a disaster
and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and
make your ways and your doings good." ' "

God's Warning Rejected
12 And they said, "That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own
plans, and we will every one [p]obey the dictates[q] of his evil heart."

13 Therefore thus says the Lord:

"Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man [r]leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

15 "Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
>From the ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
16 To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will [s]show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity."

Jeremiah Persecuted
18 Then they said, "Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the
law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the
word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let
us not give heed to any of his words."

19 Give heed to me, O Lord,
And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!
20 Shall evil be repaid for good?
For they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember that I stood before You
To speak good [t]for them,
To turn away Your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine,
And pour out their blood
By the force of the sword;
Let their wives become widows
And bereaved of their children.
Let their men be put to death,
Their young men be slain
By the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,
When You bring a troop suddenly upon them;
For they have dug a pit to take me,
And hidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel
Which is against me, to slay me.
Provide no atonement for their iniquity,
Nor blot out their sin from Your sight;
But let them be overthrown before You.
Deal thus with them
In the time of Your anger.

Footnotes
Jeremiah 16:9 rejoicing
Jeremiah 16:12 walks after the stubbornness or imagination
Jeremiah 17:2 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
Jeremiah 17:5 Lit. arm
Jeremiah 17:8 Qr., Tg. see
Jeremiah 17:9 Or incurably sick
Jeremiah 17:10 Most secret parts, lit. kidneys
Jeremiah 17:11 Sits on eggs
Jeremiah 17:18 Lit. crush
Jeremiah 17:23 Were stubborn
Jeremiah 17:26 Heb. shephelah
Jeremiah 17:26 Heb. Negev
Jeremiah 18:3 Potter's wheel
Jeremiah 18:4 was making
Jeremiah 18:4 ruined
Jeremiah 18:12 Lit. do
Jeremiah 18:12 stubbornness or imagination
Jeremiah 18:14 forsake
Jeremiah 18:17 So with LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg.; MT look them in
Jeremiah 18:20 concerning