Jeremiah 9: 23 “This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches…

In this chapter we read the greatness of God, which is far beyond the greatness of men and his wisdom.

Instead of continuing to praise and thank God for His goodness and provision, they started boasting on themselves with pride.

Boasting seems to be in everybody’s blood.
All boasting is rooted in the sin of pride.
Boasting is nothing more than a lie.

Those who boast and brag think they are superior to everyone else. They may have more stuff and greater worldly accomplishments, but does that make them better than anyone else? Just because someone has more than someone else does not make him superior.

Those who boast are self-centered.

People put a lot of value in riches, power, wisdom, knowledge, social status and appearance and they like to boast about them.

These are all “things” that are temporary and can be taken away at any time.

God does not value these “things” but what He does value is that we recognize that the one thing we have that we can boast about is that we know Him and love Him with all of our heart.

The opposite of boastfulness is humbleness.

A humble person is not boastful about themselves but instead his only boasting is in his relationship with Jesus.

“Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. For it is not the one that commends himself, who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.” II Corinthians 10:17-18.

Jooley Mathew Z
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Musings🤔. DAY 65
Saturday 26 December 2020
JEREMIAH 07-10
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❤️ THE HEART Of WORSHIP

🧡Jeremiah at the Temple Gates

ISAIAH 7:3-10
These verses made me stop in my tracks. They are the words of Jeremiah, standing at the gates of the Temple, to the worshippers going in. To the worshippers the Temple may have been like a talisman or good luck charm. They felt that no matter what they did, going to the Temple would *keep them safe. ❗Could they have been farther from the truth❓Was anyone listening to Jeremiah❓

💙Eerie Sensation
▪️What an eerie, familiar sort of feeling it arouses, too close to home for comfort. Is our worship acceptable to God? So many centuries down the line, but the situation in Jeremiah’s day could have been plucked from our midst.
Do we steal, murder, commit adultery and perjury……and then come and stand before God in the house which bears God’s Name and say “We are safe”? Safe to do all those detestable things?.

Don’t say we don’t do heinous things like murder etc. Just the other day a young nun, killed 28 years ago, finally got justice. Wolves in sheepskin! It’s not just ordinary folk who do hateful things and stand before God in the Temple, saying they are safe, but those very people who are supposed to shepherd the lay folk!

💜Present day Jeremiahs
▪️We too have our Jeremiahs talking on YouTube and elsewhere. Talking against our venerated rituals and customs. But we also have our Jeremiah opponents; church goers who not only express their displeasure, but in such unbecoming, deplorable language…. Language unbecoming of churchgoers .

Examine Our Worship

▪️Don’t you think something is horribly wrong with our worship and worshippers? Makes you wonder about our virus who has very effectively stopped church worship as we used to know it. But will anyone ponder and change?

▪️We really have to think about what we constitutes the heart of worship and implement the changes. For most of us, worship is a *Me Time. Time to make our needs and desires known and get things for ourselves. But what God wants is a 24/7 worship by the way we live, loving righteousness, helping the needy and obeying God. Not just an outward ceremony. God keeps reiterating he needs holiness, not just for a few days couple of hours at service but the rest of the hours also. A renewal of life, a cleansing of the heart. The temple and temple worshippers are not blessed but the holy ones who love righteousness and do justice etc. Mere regeneration by baptism or the feeling that taking sacraments saves you don’t make worship genuine. It’s a 24/7 lifestyle, living lives pleasing to God

💟🎵All this brings to mind this lovely song:

🎵I am coming back to the heart of worship,
And it’s all about You, all about you Jesus
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You.🎵🎶

🖤How full of ourselves and our needs we are in the name of worship. Worship is about appreciating God and living according to his will.

🖤The Majority of our churches today are such a disgrace, bringing shame to Jesus all over again. Infighting and so much corruption if all kinds. The less said, the better.

💖Let us examine our hearts. May we accept our faults and shortcomings and learn to worship God in a manner pleasing to Him.

Shanta💞