ARE YOU CURSED OR BLESSED?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:5-8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Are you cursed or blessed in life?

Maybe you have your own ideas about making that determination but none of them matter when it comes right down to it because the Lord Himself has declared what will lead a person to either be cursed or blessed and it all comes down to their faith approach in life.

Let’s first look at what would lead a person to end up with a cursed life.

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” Jeremiah 17:5-6

Notice that this isn’t a complicated or complex matter to sort out. If one places their trust in anything of this world - drawing their strength, wisdom, and inspiration from mere flesh while turning their hearts away from the Lord – they will find themselves cursed.

So what does a cursed life look like?

Again, the Lord tells us.

Think about a bush in the wasteland, dry and frail as it tries to dwell in parched places. Mere life is a daily struggle and prosperity is not in sight. Hope is fleeting and the future looks bleak if not downright scary. Death seems closer than life and in extreme cases of despair, more welcome.

Doesn’t seem like a life anyone should choose to live and yet so many do. They did in Old Testament days and they are still doing so today, choosing to live cursed lives when the chance to change those lives to lives that are blessed is right before them. All they need to do is to commit themselves to a change in where they direct their faith.

We know this because the Lord tells us what a blessed life looks like and how one gets to it. Look at these words from our passage:

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

If you want to be blessed in life, you have to trust in the Lord and place your full confidence in Him. It really is the truest expression of faith in the One who made us and saves us through His grace, mercy, and love. And why would we even think about placing our hope in anything else because the Lord can do all things. Nothing is beyond the work of His almighty hands. Nothing is impossible when we turn to Him with our needs. He will always be there for us and work things out in accordance with His will and way for our lives.

Now contrast the life of one who is blessed with the life of the one who is cursed.

Instead of a bush in the wastelands, a blessed person is likened to a tree planted by the water with roots extended into the stream. The life giving waters of the stream represent the very life giving waters of life we find when we stay connected to the Lord, the One who is likened to the vine and His people the branches in the scriptures (John 15:1-8). Connected to the vine, we bear fruit and enjoy lives that are fruitful. Apart from Him we wither and die, like a branch separated from the vine.

A blessed person need not fear trouble and adversity when it comes like the tree rooted by the stream. He or she has blessed assurance that the Lord is with him or her, ever providing for whatever their needs are so that they can still bear fruit, even when the droughts of life come upon them.

In other words, a blessed person experiences fruitfulness from the Lord in good and bad times.

And so I go back to the question that serves as this devotion’s title:

Are you cursed or blessed in life?

Use the guidelines from the word of God to answer and if you are in the cursed category, I implore you to commit yourself to change today, turning back to the Lord in faith and trust so that He can turn your life from wasteland to fruitfulness.

Only He can do it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

IT’S A MATTER OF THE HEART AND MIND

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures
I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled My anger, and it will burn forever.”

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Jeremiah 17:1-4, 9-10

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What parts of the body dictates who we are and what we do?

An easy answer to this question would be the mind because when it comes to our way of thinking, speaking, and doing, we tend to focus solely on the brain. But when we look at today’s scripture passage, drawn from the opening verses of Jeremiah, Chapter 17, we see that the Lord looks at the mind and to one other important part of our anatomy: the heart. Look again at God’s word here:

“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled My anger, and it will burn forever.”

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”  Jeremiah 17:1-4, 9-10

Note here that the sins of God’s people were not etched in their minds but rather their hearts, hearts that the Lord Himself proclaimed He searched. No one else has the ability to look inside someone and see their heart without some kind of device but God needs no help. He can look inside our hearts and see what we’re up to. He observes our every thought, no matter how much we might try and conceal them. Nothing is hidden from His view.

So what did God see when He searched the hearts and examined the minds of His people?

He saw that they were not devoted to other gods and idols in direct violation of His command to have no other gods before Him. The people of God who were expected to be completely faithful to Him were found to be anything but faithful. Their deceitfulness was discovered and that warranted consequences because God will not stand to be betrayed, denied, disregarded, and disrespected. Anyone who would do any or all of those things toward Him would incite His anger and have to pay the price for their actions.

In the case of the Israelites, the price was steep.

God sent attacking forces from Babylon who assaulted the once divine land He had given to His people as an inheritance. The land would be overrun and buildings would be left in ruin to include God’s temple. Any possessions the people had were taken away from them, plunder for the victorious Babylonian empire. And the people themselves would be taken away and enslaved by the Babylonians in their homeland for seventy years.

Hindsight being 20/20, the Israelites would have behaved differently, I’m sure. They learned the hard way that when you violate God, you will be penalized for it.

So where does that leave us today? Where does that leave you today?

What does God see when He searches our hearts and examines our minds? What does He see when He peers into your heart and studies your mind?

Does He see hearts and minds free from sin, committed to His word, will, and way, and devoted to Him and the righteousness He desires? Or does He see deceit and a stubborn inclination to disobey and dishonor Him?

One way or another, God has promised to reward each of us according to our conduct and what our deeds deserve.

Will that be blessing or judgment for you?

It’s a matter of the heart and mind.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

KNOW HIS NAME

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, ‘Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!’”

“Therefore I will teach them—this time I will teach them My power and might. Then they will know that My name is the Lord.”

Jeremiah 16:19-21

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Do you know the Lord?

Seriously, do you really know Him by name?

The question might seem silly on the surface. Most people might even scoff that I would have the audacity to even pose such a question but it needs to be asked because most people say they know the Lord by name but their actions tell a different story.

Let me explain by first going back to the days of the prophet Jeremiah and the lifestyle of the Israelites, the people that God proclaimed as His own.

As we look at the verses found at the end of Jeremiah 16, we find that Jeremiah speaks first followed by words from God Himself. Here’s what we discover about God along the way:

1. He is our strength and fortress, our refuge in times of distress.

When Jeremiah found himself in times of trouble, he knew he could call on the name of the Lord and the Lord would be there for him, providing him deliverance and rescue as well as strength to persevere through difficulty and hardship.

2. All the nations come from the ends of the earth to seek His counsel.

If the nations wanted to gain true wisdom and direction, they could find it only by calling on the name of the Lord.

3. He is the only God.

The Israelites’ ancestors had worshipped false gods, gods that were lifeless and powerless, gods that were fabricated by people. Those gods were not gods at all. There was only one god and He bore the name, “God”.

4. He possesses infinite power and might.

No matter how much power is vested in an individual or a collective of people, it will never measure up to the power and might of God. He has no rival and will triumph over anyone or anything that attempts to challenge Him.

The Israelites claimed they knew the Lord but they really didn’t. If they had, then they would never have resorted to such blatant sinfulness in His sight, disregarding and disrespecting Him in the worse way possible, actions that almost dared God to send His judgment upon them.

No one who truly knows the Lord by name would even consider such a thing. And yet, when we look at lives today (and maybe I am touching a nerve because I may be referring to the way you are living), so many people are saying one thing, claiming that they know the Lord, when their behavior is saying something completely different.

In order to get the attention of the Israelites, God resolved to send His judgment against them to show them who He truly was since they obviously didn’t know themselves.

Is He going to have to do the same with us today?

Let’s do ourselves all a favor and seek every day to grow ever more in our relationship with God so that we know Him by name and as intimately as He knows us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

FISHERS OF MEN (HUNTERS TOO)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from Me, nor is their sin concealed from My eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled My inheritance with their detestable idols.”

Jeremiah 16:16-18

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Trouble was coming.

The Israelites had pushed God too far, testing His patience and frankly treating Him with disregard and disdain through their sinful behavior. God had ordered them to have no other gods before Him and yet they had placed their hope and trust in the pagan gods and idols over Him, even being as bold as to construct altars to these false gods within God’s holy temple in Jerusalem.

It was if the people of God had decided to test His resolve and see how much they could get away with.

Bad move on their part.

For as we see in our scripture passage today, what they were doing was in full sight of God. None of their transgressions were hidden from Him as He kept His almighty eyes on their ways. They defiled His land with the lifeless forms of vile images and filled His inheritance with detestable idols. And so in return, He would show them who was in charge and that there is always a price to be paid for wickedness, a price that in the case of the Israelites was going to be doubled.

The punishment God was about to levy on His people would come in the way of attacking armies from Babylon who would besiege the southern kingdom of Judah and its prized holy city of Jerusalem. During the assault, the once blessed land would be laid to waste with all structures destroyed and left in ruins to include God’s temple. The people would hunted like animals and fished for like those looking for a prize catch, captured and taken away like trophies to a foreign land where they would live apart from God for seventy years. If they wanted to abandon God and turn from His will and ways, then they could see just how bad life could be separated from His goodness, guidance, and protection.

Yes, fishers and hunters of men were coming on the Israelites of Jeremiah’s time and they were bringing judgment but today, we find fishers and hunters of men and women called to do so in a different sense. Look at these words from the New Testament, words that came from Jesus Himself:

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 (NKJV)

The scene was the calling of His first disciples, the brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, who were casting their nets into the sea as Jesus addressed them. They were fisherman by trade but the fish Jesus was speaking of were of much more value than those that would be pulled up out of the sea. You see, Jesus wanted to use them (and all of those who place their trust In Him today) to hunt and seek people in an effort to catch them for Jesus and in doing so, bring them to the salvation promise He offered.

Catching real fish led to the death of the fish.

Catching people and leading them to Jesus led to life, a new life in Him for the present and an everlasting life with Him for their future.

Jesus sent all of His appointed fishers and hunters with a single purpose and assignment. We know it best as the Great Commission:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

That’s it. This is our charter from Jesus Himself. There are no options given here. As His fishers and hunters of men and women, we are to all go and make disciples of the people we catch, leading them to baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, while teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded.

It’s as simple as that.

But note this one important point that Jesus made for He did not send us off to carry out His Great Commission without His presence. No, He assured His disciples in New Testament days as well as all disciples who would follow in their footsteps that He would be with them to the very end of the age.

In other words, as we fish and hunt for people to bring to His salvation, Jesus is always part of our fishing and hunting expeditions, walking alongside us.

Friends, there is much work to be done with countless people in the world yet to be captured and brought to Jesus. We are not called as captors who are bringing people to judgment like the Babylonians. Rather, we are called to bring people to a life that is beyond imagination, a life everlasting where there will be no more sin or pain or hardship or affliction or suffering, only peace and light and love forever.

It’s time to get to work and help others find this glory.

It’s time to start fishing and hunting as Jesus commanded and to do so in earnest.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com