“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and...
“Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.
Tell of His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are...
“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is...
“But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or...
Solomon, and all who assisted him, had just completed the building of the Temple of God (Old Testament). And then the Lord spoke to him, and he told him that if he (God) brought on his people a number of disastrous events, if his people, who were called by his name, would humble themselves, and...
“Thus says the Lord,
‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without...
“So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way...
“Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not put the...
Such troubling times we live in now
Because to Christ much do not bow
But bow to men, they surely do
And to their idols stick like glue
They masquerade of righteousness
But to their sins they not address
They walk in sin, and not by faith,
Because their sins they not abate
They will not obey...
“Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.
Some boast in chariots and some in horses,
But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.
They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright...
Background
The Israelites of Jeremiah’s time were sinning greatly against God. They were dishonest, liars, rebellious, idolatrous, adulterous, sexually immoral, senseless, stubborn, wicked, self-indulgent and treacherous people who did not honor God but who rejected the Lord and his...
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21 NIV)
What is an idol? It isn’t just a carving made out of wood or stone, made to look like some kind of god which then people bow down to and worship. An idol is anything that, or anyone who we worship, that we bow down to, and to which...
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread...
“Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three...
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual...
Counsel of the nations,
Sometimes a sensation,
Sings in jubilation
Many generations.
God foretold the story,
They in all their glory
Will o’ertake the nations,
Stirring up libations.
Many eyes are blinded
To what is behind them,
Not suspect their motives,
Which are so corrosive.
Days, they...