a word of encouragement, a word of hope

Monday, April 27, 2020

NAVIGATING THROUGH CRISIS

Jeremiah 1:4~7
   -Jeremiah is called by God to prepare the ppl for the coming hardship
      -prophetic is not abt predicting the future but preparing for the future
         -be ready when the hardship is here

2 things Jeremiah has to do as a prophet
- prepare the ppl for the hardship
-if ppl are prepared, they could still experience goodness of God!
-to preach hope to the ppl
-there will be a day of the end of the crisis and there will be a day of restoration
*we should have faith and hope in God!

Jeremiah 1:4~8
   -when God presents us with a problem, we always think tt we are not good enough
   John 6:5~6
      -for every anticipated problem, God alr have a solution in mind

Jeremiah 1:17~19

*we must learn to be shaped by vision and not by sight..
-vision is by God's word

Jeremiah encountered 2 visions
1. an almond rod

-"almond" and "watching" has similar word in Hebrews
-God spoke this word vision of almond to Jeremiah, almond became a symbol tt God will fulfill His words

-even if things are still difficult, Jeremiah anticipate tt God's word will nv fail

-Jeremiah is skillful in hope and faith

-hope and faith builds resilience and strength in our being

2. a boiling pot

-this shows how the enemies are coming

-the hot water comes from a pot..not from heaven
-there is a limit!
-evil effect of it will be contained
-God will set boundaries to the chaos

-the pot is at the north
-north is usually known as the direction where God is...God is still in control!
-God will contain the effects of the evil

*a crisis is a chaos to us, but its just a rearrangement to God
*it takes faith and vision to see that every crisis has a limit and tt God is in control

-no evil shall befall you doesn't mean tt we will not encounter evil..but the effect is limited by God

-not a way out to escape, but to endure till the end of the crisis

*as long as we can name the crisis, the name of Jesus is above every other name!

Jesus died for us to bring goodness

Monday, April 20, 2020

JESUS OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

-God is greater and giver of life
-with God all things are possible!

almighty God came and shared our humanity

only Jesus can satisfy the judgement of penal substitution

1. Jesus is merciful

-Jesus understands and empathizes..
-He went through what we go through... temptation, pain, disappointment

-help = run on hearing a cry to give assistance

when we are caught in the storms of life, Jesus will run to you and bind you with "helps"

boldly declare "I will not fear"!

-compassion can only be learned in the school of suffering
-if we want to be like Jesus, we need to go through temptations and sufferings... go through hardship, be tested again and again in order to have compassion for others
-in hardship, we don't turn bitter, but cry out to God!