Friday, April 4, 2014

Jeremiah 3

Day 4: Jeremiah 3:1-25

“Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against Him by worshipping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the Lord, have spoken! (Jeremiah 3:13, NLT).

What good is it to ask God’s forgiveness if we have no intention in changing? The thing about repentance is that it brings about change. We cannot repent and also continue in sin because that shows God that it was not a sincere or genuine gesture but more so just something we did because of habit, tradition, or to pacify our own guilt. Even though Judah saw what Israel did and they knew it displeased God, they followed in Israel’s footsteps and they never sincerely returned to God because they only pretended to be sorry (v.10). But the difference between Israel and Judah is that Israel did not claim to still follow God in the midst of their unfaithfulness but Judah was fronting acting as though they were still in rightful relationship with God. In spite of what we may think, God can deal with the real us. We can spend so much time trying to cover, justify, ignore, and pretty up our sin when God is saying if you would just confess it I will cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  

It’s not just any old confession that we need to make but a sincere repentance that leads us to pursue Christ and not continue doing the same things that we are asking God to forgive us for. An area that I’ve struggled with throughout my life/walk with Christ is lying. I would lie sometimes even when I didn’t really need to. I would justify my lying by saying it wasn’t that big of a deal because they were small lies such as telling a friend I needed to get off the phone to cook dinner or shower or something when I just didn’t feel like talking anymore. After a while I would start to get convicted about it and so I would repent whenever I lied. The problem with this is that I found myself constantly repenting for lying. It eventually hit me that the words of repentance that were coming out of my mouth were not coming from my heart. It was a shallow repentance because I wasn’t changing; I was just going through the motions of what a Christian is supposed to do but there was no change in my heart. The reality was I didn’t really want to change. I was okay with it and I felt like it was an easy way to get out of situations that I didn’t want to be in. 

God can work with a willing heart. He was not only willing to receive Israel back and heal their backsliding but He was also willing to provide them with a shepherd to lead them and help them to gain an understanding of how to live for Him (v 15 & 22). All they had to do is have a heart that was willing to return back to God with a sincere repentance. God longs for His people to be in rightful fellowship with Him. Through all of the unfaithfulness, the waywardness, and lack of devotion He still wants you. Don’t use grace as an excuse to continue in sin. God is waiting for you and He still wants you but how long will you play Russian roulette with your life before you decide to fully give Him your heart? 

What verse spoke to you the most from this chapter? Be sure to share it to encourage someone else! Tag me so that I can share it as well (IG: @angel_cheron. Twitter: @angelcheron. Facebook: Angel Cheron and add #ChangedHearts #Jeremiah)

**Please note Changed Hearts: Matters of the Heart date has changed from April 5, 2014 to April 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!

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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Jeremiah 2:20-37



Day 3: Jeremiah 2: 20-37

“Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? Yet for years on end my people have forgotten Me. How do you plot and scheme to win your lovers. Even an experienced prostitute could learn from you!” (Jeremiah 2: 32-33, NLT)

What has replaced your first Love? That is the question that came to mind as I read the verses for today. The interesting thing about the idols that we create is that it’s not the idol itself that pulls us away from God but it is our heart that gravitates towards it. We are the ones that make the choice to turn away from God and entertain the different things of this world. Isn’t it easy to blame it on someone/something else though? Or better yet isn’t it easier to completely deny it and act as though we have not sinned at all. That was where God found fault with Judah! They blatantly denied worshipping idols and turning away from the one true God although they’re faithlessness was so apparent (v. 23, 34-35). How often do people proclaim Christianity yet their lifestyle screams that their hearts are so far away from God? Christians have a tendency to want to portray an image of being perfect people but the truth is if we claim to be without sin we are deceiving ourselves (1 John 1:8). Here’s the thing, sin that goes unacknowledged keeps you from repentance and repentance keeps you from God. As we continue to read Jeremiah, God is going to begin to reveal our hearts to us and the reality is what He reveals may not be pretty but what will we do with it? What will you do when God shows you your heart and the areas that you have fallen short in and where you have turned away from Him? It should lead you towards repentance because that’s the only thing that will remove the weight of condemnation of our sin. 

                The interesting thing however is that if we don’t ignore the sin we usually try to clean up ourselves on our own. Verse 22 says “although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before Me” (NIV). Isn’t it crazy how you can be clean but still not be cleansed? You can do all the cleaning up and getting yourself together all you like but until you turn to Jesus Christ and allow Him to cleanse you from the inside out you’ll never be cleansed. You’ll simply just be doing a bird’s bath cleaning of yourself and missing the spots that are deeply rooted. God wants to cleanse us and remove the stain of guilt but if we refuse to acknowledge our sin we remain bound by it and burdened by the weight of it. All God wanted Judah to do was to turn from their sin and turn to Him but not just when they were in trouble and needed Him to come to the rescue but for good (v. 27). That’s a phony love and a conditional one at that! He wanted their entire hearts regardless of the situations they were in and the same remains for us. For some people, pride is not the issue as to why they have not turned from their sin; denial is not the issue either. It’s that feeling that God doesn’t want you because you’ve done so much wrong. It’s that feeling that you’ve been out in the world for so long that you feel stuck. You feel like every time you try to go forward in God you mess up and go right back to your sin. You think that God is too angry with you that He doesn’t want you as His child anymore. That same God that wanted Judah back in spite of their transgressions is the same God that still wants you. All He needs is for you to make the choice to turn away from what you have placed before Him and go forward in Him. Repentance leads to changed hearts.
I always play worship music in the background when I write and this is the song that was playing as I was writing which I thought was perfect :)


What verse spoke to you the most from this chapter? Be sure to share it to encourage someone else! Tag me so that I can share it as well (IG: @angel_cheron. Twitter: @angelcheron. Facebook: Angel Cheron and add #ChangedHearts #Jeremiah)





**Please note Changed Hearts: Matters of the Heart date has changed from April 5, 2014 to April 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!



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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Jeremiah 2:1-19



Day 2: Jeremiah 2: 1-19

“My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Jeremiah is now reflecting on how Israel forsake God even though He delivered them out of Egypt and provided them with everything that they needed. The picture is painted of how God did everything for them and He even proposes the question “what fault did your ancestors find with Me that caused you to stray so far away from Me?” (v. 5) The answer is nothing; God showed Himself to be faithful and constant yet they rebelled against Him. You can imagine God thinking I don’t get it! People who worship gods that aren’t even gods at all remain faithful to these things even though they do absolutely nothing for them yet My people have exchanged Me to worship false idols (v11). Those same idols that did not deliver them out of Egypt, that did not provide them with manna from heaven, that did not part the red sea when Pharaoh’s army came to kill them. Yet they turned away from the very God that did to worship a god that didn’t. Crazy, right?   

As we read through the next couple of chapters on the unfaithfulness of both Judah and Israel it’s important to not just look and them and go ugh they’re so trifling and I can’t believe they did God like that! The reality is that we are all in the same boat or have been in the same boat as far as rebelling against God and being unfaithful towards Him. The importance of reading this is to learn from their mistakes and to understand the importance of repentance for our sin. As I looked down at the note in my life application study bible for verse two it said “Think about your original commitment to obey God, and ask yourself if you are remaining truly devoted.” Can you say heart and life check?!? Are we remaining truly devoted to the commitment that we made to God or have we, just as the Israelites, exchanged our God for the gods of this world (money, people, jobs, material things, etc.)? As long as we’re chasing after the things of this world we will continue to come up empty. God said “my people have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Don’t you get it? Everything that you try to do outside of God it just won’t work. The thing about broken cisterns is that they have cracks so no matter how much water you put into it won’t last because it will continue to leak and it will eventually come up empty. You will waste your time continuing to add water to it only for it to continue to come up empty. You’ll continue to put time into that relationship that doesn’t honor God and it seems like you keep investing time, money, and energy yet you keep coming up empty. You continue to put in all this time and effort at a job yet you still don’t feel satisfied. You keep giving and pouring into things and people but it seems like you give and give and give but you continue to come up empty and you just don’t get it. A broken cistern can’t hold water; until you stop trying to take matters into your own hands and until you learn to be obedient to God and allow Him to be the spring of living water in your life you will continue to come up empty.


What verse spoke to you the most from this chapter? Be sure to share it to encourage someone else! Tag me so that I can share it as well (IG: @angel_cheron. Twitter: @angelcheron. Facebook: Angel Cheron and add #ChangedHearts #Jeremiah)

**Please note Changed Hearts: Matters of the Heart date has changed from April 5, 2014 to April 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!


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Monday, March 31, 2014

Jeremiah 1

Day 1: Jeremiah 1: 1-19
 
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

It’s funny how we can desire for God to show us our purpose but just as soon as He does we hit the brakes and go wait what? God, I think You meant that for someone else because there is no way that I am capable of doing this! You can only imagine what Jeremiah’s thoughts were as God not only tells him that He created him to be a prophet but also that he is to go and share the message of God’s wrath to the people of Judah. Jeremiah immediately looks to his own limitations (v.6) and begins to tell God why he can’t do it. We so often give God this laundry list of why we can’t walk in the calling He has for our life because we don’t think we’re capable of doing it. The truth is a lot of us have convinced ourselves that we can’t do certain things because other people, not God remind you, told you that you wouldn’t be able to or that you weren’t good enough. They told you you’re too young, you’re too old, you’re too uneducated, you don’t look the part, you can’t because your momma or your daddy didn’t, you don’t have the money to do it, you don’t have the skill….and the list goes on and on and on. Look, at some point you have to tell people to take their mouth off of you! They can think and say whatever they want to but what did God say? Stop allowing unqualified people to speak into your life and simply allow the word of God to be your point of reference for what you are capable of doing!

As the Lord reveals to Jeremiah the different things that are going to happen to Judah due to their disobedient (v. 11-16) He also reminds him of something very important. He reminds Jeremiah that as he prophesies the Lord’s wrath on these people that they will fight against him. He didn’t say they might fight against you, they may or may not like you, they may receive you, I don’t really know just go in and see. No, God gave Jeremiah a sure word that they will fight against Him but the follow up was also a sure word and that is “but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee” (v.19). Don’t be afraid to face opposition in doing what God has called you to do or to say. People may fight against you, but they won’t take you out. They may talk about you, but their words won’t prevail. They may hate you and the God that you serve, but they will not overtake you. Stand firm in the midst of opposition and keep doing what God has called you to do. Stop waiting for everyone to be okay with what God has called you to do! Everybody won’t get it, like it, or believe in it; that’s their problem not yours.  

What verse spoke to you the most from this chapter? Be sure to share it to encourage someone else! Tag me so that I can share it as well (IG: @angel_cheron. Twitter: @angelcheron. Facebook: Angel Cheron and add #ChangedHearts #Jeremiah)

**Please note Changed Hearts: Matters of the Heart date has changed from April 5, 2014! I will be sharing the new date and time later this week.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!


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