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BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 16-17 DISCUSSION                                                                      The seventh commandment read “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20.14).   The punishment for violating this command was very severe. "If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” (Leviticus 20:10).   Anyone who has suffered through unfaithfulness in their marriage can attest to the pain that is inflicted when they have been cheated on.   God knows that they consider this a very severe sin that carries with it a host of damaging consequences.    That may be why He uses...

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 13-15 DISCUSSION                                                                      Over and over in the Bible we are taught the idea that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31.8; Joshua 1.5; Hebrews 13.5).   Yet we also read in Isaiah 59.1-2, that our “iniquities have made a separation between you and your God”.   On the one hand we are taught that God will never leave us, and on the other we are taught that it is possible to be separated from Him.   As a Christian, how are we to rationalize these two possible conflicting concepts?   In reality, they are not conflicting at all. In fact, they flow together quite nicely; especially when we see what Ezekiel has to say about the subject.    In Ez...

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 9-12 DISCUSSION                                                                             In Psalm 51, David is lamenting over his affair with Bathsheba and all of the events that followed.  In this song/prayer, he asked God to “ Create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51.10).   Who among us has not felt the heavy burden of guilt?  Guilt can be such a powerful emotion because it can be positive in the sense of bringing us to conviction and forgiveness, but it can also be negative in the sense of weighing us down and preventing us from growth.  If guilt is not an emotion that we’ve experienced, it is either because of ignorance or rebellion. In either case, it usually results...

BIBLE READING: Ezekiel 5-8 DISCUSSION                                                                                   In Ezekiel 8, the Lord gives the prophet some insight as to what has been going on inside the House of the Lord.  In this vision he leads Ezekiel through a hole in the wall and allows him to see what the people are doing.  Inside he sees all sorts of abominations of creeping things, beasts and idols inside the LORD’s House.  The vision that he sees continues to grow worse. In Ezekiel 8.13 the Lord said, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”  As we all gather together to wors...

BIBLE READING:   Ezekiel 1-4 DISCUSSION                                                      We just never know what kind of opportunities God is going to place in our path.  Ezekiel was a priest who was at the right age to begin his work as priest.  This was something that he had been looking forward too, as well as, been trained to do.  However, things were not the way he once thought they would be.  Now, there was no Temple for him to work in, there was no altar for him to offer any sacrifices.  In fact, he is not even in the land that he had called home for the most part of his life. He is now in the land of Babylon as an exile in their captivity.  While there he still sought to do his Godly duty of prayer along wit...

Bible Reading: Lamentations 3. 37-66, 4, 5.1-22

BIBLE READING:   Lamentations 1, 2, 3.1-36 DISCUSSION                                                                           Why study Lamentations? The realities of sin, suffering, and evil persist in our world prompting many (especially young millennials) to question their faith. These same realities exist still today—post resurrection of Jesus. As Paul laments in Rom 7-8, the sinfulness of man and the suffering of all creation leave him and it groaning for a time of redemption.   Richard Oster calls Lamentations, “the best commentary on Romans 8.” Lamentations confronts these questions and God’s role in them while providing a voice of heartfelt emotion b...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 51-52 DISCUSSION                                                                                   I received a call a few weeks ago that a major part of my life was now gone.   The Larimore home at Mars Hill Bible School has been an icon of love and sacrifice as far back as I can remember, and now was destroyed by fire.   The house was home to TB Larimore, the founder of Mars Hill Bible School.   He was also a huge factor as to why the church is so strong in north Alabama.   As I read the recounting of the fall of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, I could not g...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 49-50 DISCUSSION                                                                                        As strange as it might have seemed, the LORD has used a pagan nation to teach the children of Israel what happened when they turn aside to idols.   However, don’t think that God is going to allow Babylon off the hook for their own sins.   In Jeremiah 50, God begins the pronouncement of judgment on Babylon as well. He wants to ensure that they know “…Babylon has become a horror to the nations…” (Jeremiah 50.23) and “I am against you” (Jeremiah 50.31).   E...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 46-48 DISCUSSION                                                     As Jeremiah begins to close out his book, God is using him to pronounce judgment upon all the nations that have practiced wickedness.   The words of Jeremiah that were specifically assigned for the Egyptians were “the swift cannot flee away, nor the warrior escape” (Jeremiah 46.6). As I read these, I can’t help but be reminded of the judgment that this world will have when Christ returns.    In the New Testament concerning judgment day, we see it will come as a “thief in the night” (Matthew 24.43; I Thessalonians 5.2; Revelation 16.15).   We also see it will be an exercise of “vengeance” and retribution (2 Thessalonians 1:5-12).   It will be a day in which no s...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 41-45 DISCUSSION                                                                           As a child I can remember being scolded by my parents and grandparents that I should not say the word “hate”.   “You should not “hate” anyone or anything because that is just not nice to say”, they would tell me.   Well I’m not one to rebuke my parents, but even God is said to “hate” some things (Proverbs 6.16-23).   Now I completely understand where my parents and grandparents were coming from because I have said the exact words to my children.   It is true that I should never say I hate someone because it doesn’t matter what they did; they were...

BIBLE READING:   Habakkuk 1-3 DISCUSSION                                                                                           The short book of Habakkuk is a recording of Habakkuk’s complaints to God and God’s response. Habakkuk is looking around at the evil people of the world (specifically Assyria and Babylon) and seeing them rise to power. He notes that the law has become paralyzed and the wicked outweigh the righteous (1.4). God’s response reminds us “his ways are not our ways” when he says, “I am doing work that you would not even believe if I told you” (1.5). Habakkuk had a little bit...

Bible Reading: 2 Kings 24-25; 2 Chronicles 36

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 38-40; Psalm 74,79                                                                              Warning after warning, after warning; and he still did not listen!   As I continue to read through the book of Jeremiah, I keep asking myself “Why…why did Zedekiah not listen to the words of God through the mouth of Jeremiah?”   God gave him ample time to humble himself with the assurance that if he did, he and his family would survive, yet because of arrogance and unbelief he did not listen.   As we read in Jeremiah 39, it is too late for him to change.   King Nebuchadnezzar slaughters the son of Zedekiah right in front of his eyes, and...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 35-37                                                                    Have you ever read a passage of Scripture that you wish wasn’t there?   Maybe it was something that when you read it, you were so upset about it being there that you wish you could just rip out that page so you would never have to read it again.   We have all heard of people who have torn out pa ges of their Bible, thinking if it wasn’t in their Bible they would not be held accountable for the words on those pages.   Doesn’t that sound facetious?   Yet that is exactly what the King did to the words that God gave to Jeremiah to write on a scroll.   Jeremiah dictates Gods...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 32-34                                                       Even though the nation has been wicked and left the ways of the LORD and are facing the punishment of a seventy-year captivity, God continues to love them.   When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and were punished, God still loved them.   When the children of Israel decided to not trust Him when they were afraid to go into Canaan and God punished them to wander in the wilderness for forty years, He never stopped loving.   When David had the affair with Bathsheba and then had Uriah killed and their son died, God never stopped loving him.   Even though we fail Him every day by our sin and shame, He will never stop loving us.   His love for...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 30-31                                                                                  The LORD declares to Jeremiah not only the things that are shortly to come to pass with the nation of Israel and Judah, but He also points him into the blessings of the future with a new covenant.   This new covenant will not be like the old one that God gave to His people as they came out of Egypt, because they have already broken that covenant.   This one will not be written on tablets of stone but will be written on their hearts.   This covenant will also be different in that it will not be just for the ...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 26-29                                                                                 In Jeremiah 27, the LORD has Jeremiah use an object lesson for the nation of Judah and their neighbors.    He has Jeremiah build a yoke and place it upon his neck as he prophesies.   The lesson is this: any nation who does not accept the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, the LORD will punish.   Yet, if they do accept the yoke, then he will bless them while they are under Babylonian rule.   As I read this story and understood the lesson, I could not help but remember the words of Jesus i...

BIBLE READING:  Jeremiah 23-25                                                               In Jeremiah 24, God sends a vision to the prophet of two baskets of figs that were placed before the Temple.  One basket was full of good figs, yet the other basket was full of bad figs that could not be eaten.  The meaning of the vision was directed towards those exiled from Judah that would be sent to Babylon.  The good figs are compared to those that go away into exile; these are the ones that accept their punishment for the LORD and do what they are told.  The bad figs were compared to Zedekiah and his officials, as well as all of those who tried to remain in Jerusale...

Bible Reading: Jeremiah 18-22

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 14-17                                                                 Throughout his ministry, Jeremiah had to endure intense persecution because of his stand for God’s word to him (15:15).   Jeremiah knew that his life was in danger and yet he chose to serve God. He never wavered from telling his people of their wrongs with little fear for his own life. Jeremiah loved his people and Jerusalem. Today, we have similar opportunities in America, our country that we love. We have all of God’s word, in the Bible, and we know what He expects of us. As you see our people in America doing things that are against God’s word, what do you do?   Does it make you sad as it did...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 10-13                                                  Jeremiah lived in a world of cultures based on idolatry (10: 3-10). His own nation, Judah, was given over to idols during the reign of Manasseh and Amon, probably the period when Jeremiah was a boy. In fact, Jeremiah says that Judah had as many gods as it did cities (2:28). Also, each society around Judah worshipped many false gods. Looking back on these religions from today’s perspective, we have a tendency to look at an idol as merely an object crafted of stone, wood or metal that worshipper’s bowed down to in hopes of receiving good fortune. But that is not really what an idol is. An idol is anything that we value more than we value pleasing God; it may control you, and it’s proba...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 7-9                                    Having faith is not a onetime event in one’s life, and it is not a state of moral perfection that only a few can attain. Faith is a dynamic lifelong journey that each of us as Christians are on. At any given time we are either moving toward God or away from Him. The people in Jeremiah’s day were under God’s judgment because they turned away from Him – they went backward not forward. (7:24). Rather than cultivate a growing relationship with God based on sustained faithfulness, they went their own direction following their evil hearts direction. (7:23-24).Let’s not let that be true of us. The only way to make progress on our journey of faith is to keep moving toward God, following His word. We will fail sometimes but we must get up and turn back toward God and not ...

BIBLE READING:   Jeremiah 4-6                                                  The prophets frequently compared the city of Jerusalem to the city of Sodom. God destroyed Sodom for its wickedness. God would have spared the city if Abraham could have found 10 righteous people. They weren’t there. How many would have saved Jerusalem from a similar judgment? only one (Jer. 5:1). Jeremiah searched in poor neighborhoods, in the area of the leaders, but he found no one righteous and following Gods way. People of Jerusalem had turned completely away from God. Sin had crept into their lives to a point where they weren’t even ashamed of their sinful ways; nothing embarrassed them (Jeremiah 6:15). Paul used similar words in Eph. 4: 17-19 when talking to the Christians in Ephesus who ...