Destroy and Build

"Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'I have put my hands in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.'"
-Jeremiah 1:9-10

I guess you've figured out by now that I am continuing with the book of Jeremiah. Only God knows if I'll keep going with the blogs until the entire book is covered or if I will just keep going for a few more... I'm putting it in His hands. I will say that I am working my way through Jeremiah right now in my daily reading so it's entirely possible that we'll go all the way through together.

The first time I read the two verses above, I got really confused. I've read them about 70 times in the past two days just trying to put them together and make them make sense.

I take great comfort in the first half of this selection. This comes directly after God comforting Jeremiah on the fact that Jeremiah believed himself to be too young to be of service to God, and here God is removing yet another obstacle that was in Jeremiah's way. Jeremiah's worries were that he was too young and that he didn't know how to speak. Well as we saw yesterday, God reassured Jeremiah that He would always be with him and would rescue him. Now God is saying that He has placed His words in Jeremiah's mouth. Jeremiah doesn't have to worry about not knowing how to speak because it wouldn't be him speaking. It would be God. Jeremiah doesn't become a great prophet of the LORD by speaking of his own gifts and knowledge. He doesn't have any. He simply passes along the information that God passes along to His people through Jeremiah. It must have been a huge relief to know that not only were you expected to come up with what to say, but that God would give you the information and help you pass it along.

The second verse I posted above is what gets me every time. "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." That is a scary thought. Can you imagine being Jeremiah and hearing God tell you after all the comforting He just did, "oh hey, by the way, I'm putting you in this position so that you can uproot, tear down, destroy and overthrow." Frankly I probably would have felt like crawling in a corner and trying to hide. The more I read this verse though, and the more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense to me. The information that Jeremiah was going to receive was going to have the power to tear down entire kingdoms and destroy nations. But it's not all just a cryptic nightmare. God was also giving Jeremiah to build and plant. And more than that, He put it in the same sentence as the destroying and overthrowing, telling me that these actions will be connected. Jeremiah may be chosen to bring down the bad that is at work around him, but he is also trusted with the task of building and planting God's kingdom. And what an honor that is!

I encourage each and every one of you to really stop and think while you read your bibles. Life comes with an instruction manual. It's called your Bible. Read it, study it, apply it to life.

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee

An Unbelievable Kind of Love

I have recently become fascinated with love. Not the romantic kind of love that makes up the inspiration behind every chick flick ever, though I do appreciate that kind of love as well, but the kind of awe-inspiring love that can only be felt when you have a relationship with God.

Everywhere we look we are surrounded by images of "love". The media is so set on convincing us that sex is the main way to know if you are really in love with someone. That the only way you can really know if your love is real is to test it physically. This is not true, guys. Love isn't sex. Sex is a way to express your love at the appropriate time (and by that I mean after marriage). It is time for us to stop buying into the lies that are constantly put out there, and the only way that is really going to happen is if we really start to understand what True Love is. I haven't decided whether my next few blogs will be focusing on the topic of love or the book of Jeremiah, but for now I'm focusing on the Call of Jeremiah, so I can pretty much go either way. Say a prayer that God will show me where to go from here.

The Call of Jeremiah is one of those places in the Bible where you read a section of scripture and just stop to say "Wow. This is amazing."

⁴ The word of the LORD came to me, saying,  ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
   before you were born I set you apart;
   I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
 ⁶ “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
 ⁷ But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.
 -Jeremiah 1:4-8

Isn't it amazing to stop and think about the fact that God knew you before you were born? While you were still forming, God had a plan for you. God knew that Jeremiah was going to be a prophet before Jeremiah even knew what the world outside of his mother's womb looked like. How great are God's plans that he knows that much about us from the very beginning? And even more, when Jeremiah was terrified and insecure, God took the time to comfort him. God could have simply said "I know what's best. Trust me and suck it up." But He didn't. He looked at Jeremiah and told him not to make his age a hindrance, to not be afraid, and that wherever Jeremiah goes and whatever he does, God will be with him and will rescue him in Jeremiah's times of need.

We serve a comforting God. We serve a planning God.  How amazing is that?

Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee