Agape Devotions

READ : Jeremiah 13 REFLECT :  Pick your favourite pair of underpants. Run them through the mud. Mix them in the trash. Then clean out your gutters with them. Are they still your favourite underpants? Strangely enough, in  this chapter , the Lord asked Jeremiah to take a linen belt, which is equivalent to our favourite (expensive) pair of underpants and hid it between the rocks near a river. That linen belt surely didn’t come back clean. Through this analogy, God explained to Jeremiah that the Israelites were taking their position as His chosen people and using it to advance their own standing amongst others, going after other gods by serving and worshiping them. God wanted to show the world His love for His chosen people, but the Israelites’ arrogance and “stubbornness of their hearts” turned them away from their Creator and ultimately His purpose for them. RELATE : The danger in  arrogance   is that our own importance overshadows God and His true goodness. When...

READ : Jeremiah 11-12   Verses chosen for meditation: Jeremiah 12:14-17 14  Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.  15  And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land.  16  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.  17  But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the Lord.” REFLECT We see Jeremiah’s pain in these chapters as he faces a threat: A conspiracy against him, and o...

READ : Jeremiah 8:18 - 10:25 “Grieving for His people”. Verses chosen for meditation: Jeremiah 8:18, 9:1. 18  My joy is gone; grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me.  Jer 8:18 . 1  Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Jer 9:1 .   REFLECT Can you agonise with the coming destruction of Jerusalem when reading these 3 chapters? How do we react when famine, destruction, siege and exile happen to our city and people? Jeremiah's early messages consist largely of condemnation of Judah's apostasy and earnest pleas for repentance while there is yet time before judgment falls.  Throughout chapter 8 and 9, prophet Jeremiah poetically expressed his laments over Judah in exile. Hear the intensity of his grief, “ My joy is gone; grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me ” 8:18), he was downcast over his people's sins! On the other hand, there is seemingly no...

Read Jeremiah 7:1 - 8:16 Verse chosen for meditation: Jeremiah 7: 4 ESV: Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ Reflect What is deception? Is the church safe from deception? How does the Lord want us to worship him? Relate Jeremiah was the last of the pre - exilic prophets who served under five different kings, beginning with Josiah and ending with Zedekiah, during his forty years of ministry. Among the five kings, Josiah was the only godly one who led the people in a great revival. Unfortunately, the reforms he initiated did not last very long. Soon after his death, they were forgotten by the people who quickly returned to their old pagan ways of worship, reminiscent of the times of his grandfather, Manasseh, arguably the most wicked king  Judah ever had. What was left is just a shell of a temple with a semblance of religion that's vaguely godly, or not at all. It was deception at the core and temple...

  TEXT FOR REFLECTION: “From the least to the greatest,     all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike,     all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people     as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say,     when there is no peace." JEREMIAH 6:13-14 REFLECT Greed had permeated the city of Jerusalem; in fact, greed had become somewhat of a national culture, a community ethos. "From the least to the greatest" - across every stratum of society, the people had become greedy for gain. And the moral leaders, the priests and prophets, practised deceit as well. Priests and prophets were supposed to be the moral compass of society; they were meant to set the tone for what God had meant society to be. In this case, greed had become a "normal" part of the national ethos. By their practices, the religious leaders had declared that greed was an acceptable part of life. Whenever wealth and prosperity become the barometer of the...

Read Jeremiah 4:5-5:31 No devotional today (Sunday)

Read Jeremiah 3:6-4:4 Verses chosen for reflection Jeremiah 3:12-15  12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, "' Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever.  13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD.  14 Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  15 "'And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Reflect The prophet Jeremiah was given word by God to ask Israel to return to Him. Jeremiah was to tell Israel that if she would acknowledge that they had rebelled against the Lord; they would be forgiven and allowed to return. When t...