Old Testament: Jeremiah Intro – found below
Poetry: Proverbs 3
New Testament: James 1
(James is the only book we are reading twice, back-to-back. What can you find in a second reading of this short but wise letter?)
“Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” — James 1:2–3
The testing of your faith through trials produces endurance. What is the opposite of endurance? Well, I suppose the opposite of “endurance” is “giving up”. When faith doesn’t endure it peters out. So if you don’t want your faith to peter out then you need some trials. Because James says it is trials that “produce endurance.”
Few experiences expose who we are like the experience of suffering. When trials come, we almost cannot help but hold out our heart for all to see.
Some sufferers bow their heads and give glory to God, while others curse him. Some say, through tears, “I trust you,” while others refuse to pray. Some collapse into God’s presence, and learn to love him with a broken heart, while others turn their backs and walk away.
What makes the difference between these sufferers? Dozens of factors, of course. But one of the most significant is what we know about suffering. The apostle James, writing to Christians beaten up by trials, calls them to suffer faithfully because of what they know: “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know . . .” (James 1:2–3).
Rejoice, James says, because you know something about suffering. And what did they know? They did not know many of the specific good God was working in their trials. They did not know why these trials should be happening now. Nor did they know how long their trials would last. But they did know a simple promise, filled with power: “. . . for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:3).
Testing produces steadfastness. If these three words can sink their roots down into our souls, then we might meet our trials with the most radical response of all: joy.
If we know the promise that testing produces steadfastness, we may gain strength not only to endure our suffering, but to trace a line from our present pain to our future perseverance — and, wonder of wonders, to find ourselves counting even trials as joy (James 1:2).
Such joy will not be a simple joy. It will not be a fake smile or the motivation of a great speaker. It will instead be a complex joy, a joy mingled with tears and mixed with sorrow, all the way to the bottom (2 Corinthians 6:10). In other words, it will be an otherworldly joy, the kind that can only come from the man of sorrows himself. And being from him, it will one day return to him on the other side of our trials, “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4).
In order to get there, we need to recognize our suffering for what it is: not ultimately a thief who steals our best years, nor a murderer who kills our greatest dreams, or a madman who wields his weapons at random. Our suffering is, rather, a servant from God, sent to make us strong and to use our word again. Steadfast.
-Andy Cisneros
Jeremiah Introduction
The book of Jeremiah was likely written by Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, as Jeremiah dictated it. He prophesied against the people of Judah because of their wickedness – but nobody listened to his message. Jeremiah prophesied during the rise of the Babylonian empire and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem. God commanded him to never marry and have children because God was going to send deadly diseases, sword, and famine. Jeremiah ultimately was carried off to Egypt by fleeing Israelites, and likely died in Egypt.
Jeremiah didn’t have much choice in his profession, as we see in 1:4-5, “The word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah is called the “weeping prophet” because we see so much about his personal life and his sorrow. 4:19 is one of many examples, “Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry.”
Jeremiah was very straightforward, whether talking with the rebellious people of Judah, as we see in 44:23, “Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.”; or when talking with God, as we see in 12:1, “You are always righteous, LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?”
While most of the book of Jeremiah prophesied judgment, there are still many places (like Chapter 31) where God promised that He will make a new covenant with Israel. 31:34 says, “No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, “Know the Lord”, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
As you read Jeremiah, consider the sins of Judah and the judgment God poured out on them because of their sins. And then consider the sins of our own society…
-Steve Mattison
Seek Grow Love 