[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17

DAILY DEVOTION

Unashamed

And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel
throughout all the churches; And not that only, but who was also chosen of
the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us
to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind: Avoiding
this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by
us: Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also
in the sight of men.
2 Corinthians 8:18-21

Charles Spurgeon was in the public eye in England from the time he became a
pastor of the New Park Street Chapel (later named the Metropolitan
Tabernacle) in London at the age of nineteen through the rest of his life.
He quickly became one of the best known men in the entire country. His
sermons were printed in newspapers, and so many people wanted to hear him
preach that they gave out tickets to control the size of the crowds. His
firm stands for the truth and his willingness to apply what the Bible said
to the issues of the day regardless of whether it was popular or not aroused
a good deal of opposition. At one point, he was even threatened that if he
did not tone down his preaching, disparaging information about him would be
made public. Spurgeon responded, "Write all you know about me across the
heavens."
Spurgeon was not claiming to be perfect. In fact, a reading of his sermons
and articles reveals that Spurgeon was painfully aware of his own failings.
But he also knew that he had led an honest and honorable life, and there was
nothing about his personal or pastoral work that he would be ashamed to have
revealed to the world. We know that God sees everything that we do, and
nothing is hidden from His eyes. But we should be willing to have our work
and lives examined by others. There should not be anything we do that we
would be embarrassed or ashamed to have known by others.
If we do not want others to know about something we do, that is a warning
sign that we should not be doing it.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana.

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DAILY BIBLE READING

Jeremiah 19-21 New King James Version
The Sign of the Broken Flask
19 Thus says the Lord: "Go and get a potter's earthen flask, and take some
of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go
out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the
Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 and say,
'Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will bring such a
catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.

4 "Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they
have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers,
nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood
of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn
their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or
speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are
coming," says the Lord, "that this place shall no more be called Tophet or
the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will
make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause
them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who
seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the
heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city desolate and
a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of
all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and
the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend
in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who
seek their lives shall drive them to despair." '

10 "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
11 and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Even so I will break this
people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be
[a]made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no
place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place," says the Lord, "and to its
inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem
and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of
Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to
all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods." ' "

14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy;
and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people, 15
"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will bring on
this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against
it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My
words.' "

The Word of God to Pashhur
20 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in
the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then
Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in
the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.

3 And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the
stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord has not called your name
Pashhur, but [b]Magor-Missabib. 4 For thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will
make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall
by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all
Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive
to Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the
wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the
treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies,
who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you,
Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall
go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all
your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.' "

Jeremiah's Unpopular Ministry
7 O Lord, You [c]induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am [d]in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.
8 For when I spoke, I cried out;
I shouted, "Violence and plunder!"
Because the word of the Lord was made to me
A reproach and a derision daily.
9 Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name."
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.
10 For I heard many [e]mocking:
"Fear on every side!"
"Report," they say, "and we will report it!"
All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
"Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him."

11 But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
12 But, O Lord of hosts,
You who test the righteous,
And see the [f]mind and heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For I have pleaded my cause before You.

13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!
For He has delivered the life of the poor
>From the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
15 Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
"A male child has been born to you!"
Making him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent;
Let him hear the cry in the morning
And the shouting at noon,
17 Because he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see [g]labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame?

Jerusalem's Doom Is Sealed
21 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to
him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the
priest, saying, 2 "Please inquire of the Lord for us, for [h]Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us
according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us."

3 Then Jeremiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 'Thus says
the Lord God of Israel: "Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that
are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the
[i]Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in
the midst of this city. 5 I Myself will fight against you with an
outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great
wrath. 6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast;
they shall die of a great pestilence. 7 And afterward," says the Lord, "I
will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such
as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine,
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their
enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike
them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or
mercy." '

8 "Now you shall say to this people, 'Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I set
before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who remains in this
city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes
out and [j]defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his
life shall be as a prize to him. 10 For I have set My face against this city
for adversity and not for good," says the Lord. "It shall be given into the
hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire." '

Message to the House of David
11 "And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, 'Hear the word of
the Lord, 12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

"Execute[k] judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.

13 "Behold, I am against you, O [l]inhabitant of the valley,
And rock of the plain," says the Lord,
"Who say, 'Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?'
14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your [m]doings," says the
Lord;
"I will kindle a fire in its forest,
And it shall devour all things around it." ' "

Footnotes
Jeremiah 19:11 restored
Jeremiah 20:3 Lit. Fear on Every Side
Jeremiah 20:7 enticed or persuaded
Jeremiah 20:7 Lit. a laughingstock all the day
Jeremiah 20:10 slandering
Jeremiah 20:12 Most secret parts, lit. kidneys
Jeremiah 20:18 toil
Jeremiah 21:2 Heb. Nebuchadrezzar, and so elsewhere in the book
Jeremiah 21:4 Or Babylonians, and so elsewhere in the book
Jeremiah 21:9 Lit. falls away to
Jeremiah 21:12 Dispense justice
Jeremiah 21:13 dweller
Jeremiah 21:14 deeds