111 Jeremiah 23 Spirit of the False Prophet
JMD Devotional 111 Jeremiah 23 Spirit of the False Prophet
Vs 1 WOE TO the shepherds (the civil leaders) who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasturing! says the Lord.
It is a capital offense in the eyes of God when those in power to lead, teach and protect the people instead mislead, undermine and destroy them.
Vs 14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
It is sad to say that the more worldly a 'Christian' leader is, the more of a following he amasses. People so want to justify their own sin that they will flock to support blatantly materialistic 'Messiahs' of questionable morality. ("They make me feel comfortable").
Vs 16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and fill you with vain hopes; they speak a vision of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord. They are continually saying to those who despise Me and the word of the Lord, The Lord has said: You shall have peace; and they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own mind and heart, No evil shall come upon you.
How popular it is to hear what you want to hear rather than to taste the medicine of a frank assessment of your true spiritual condition, coming judgment and your need for repentance!
Vs 21 I did not send these [false] prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them [My people] from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.
Real teaching would challenge sin and foster conviction and repentance. It would not leave everyone feeling 'comfortable.' To many, it would be down right offensive (because that is the world's reaction to the truth).
What role do congregations play in cultivating false teachers and corrupt leadership?
2 Timothy 4:3,4 (NIV) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Dear God,
Please give your people discernment. May a diet of distortions and half-truths give us the stomachache it deserves; wean us from 'feel-good' messages and demonic doctrines. Discipline our minds to be like that of the noble Bereans in the book of Acts who daily examined what their teachers said, to make sure it was true. May we cast out anyone who propagates the leaven of lies, that your Church be pure and a place that cherishes and embodies the truth.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
My Poetry
http://saintjamespoetry.blog.com/
(Some) of my Devotionals
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
Vs 1 WOE TO the shepherds (the civil leaders) who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasturing! says the Lord.
It is a capital offense in the eyes of God when those in power to lead, teach and protect the people instead mislead, undermine and destroy them.
Vs 14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
It is sad to say that the more worldly a 'Christian' leader is, the more of a following he amasses. People so want to justify their own sin that they will flock to support blatantly materialistic 'Messiahs' of questionable morality. ("They make me feel comfortable").
Vs 16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and fill you with vain hopes; they speak a vision of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord. They are continually saying to those who despise Me and the word of the Lord, The Lord has said: You shall have peace; and they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own mind and heart, No evil shall come upon you.
How popular it is to hear what you want to hear rather than to taste the medicine of a frank assessment of your true spiritual condition, coming judgment and your need for repentance!
Vs 21 I did not send these [false] prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them [My people] from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.
Real teaching would challenge sin and foster conviction and repentance. It would not leave everyone feeling 'comfortable.' To many, it would be down right offensive (because that is the world's reaction to the truth).
What role do congregations play in cultivating false teachers and corrupt leadership?
2 Timothy 4:3,4 (NIV) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Dear God,
Please give your people discernment. May a diet of distortions and half-truths give us the stomachache it deserves; wean us from 'feel-good' messages and demonic doctrines. Discipline our minds to be like that of the noble Bereans in the book of Acts who daily examined what their teachers said, to make sure it was true. May we cast out anyone who propagates the leaven of lies, that your Church be pure and a place that cherishes and embodies the truth.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
My Poetry
http://saintjamespoetry.blog.com/
(Some) of my Devotionals
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
posted by James M. Dinsmore at 6:41 PM
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