“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” – Jeremiah 33:3 John Wyatt says the following in “God’s design for our life is that we should be dependent”: “We come into this world totally dependent on the love, care and protection of others. We go through a phase in life when other people depend on us. And most of us will go out of this world totally dependent on the love and care of others. And this is not an evil, destructive reality. It is part of the design, part of the physical nature that God has given us. I sometimes hear ..read more

“great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve.” – Jeremiah 32:19 Pastor J. Mike Minnix, in his blog pastorlife.com, writes the following: “During World War II an ocean liner left a British port headed for a harbor in the United States. Enemy subs and cruisers were scattered about, placing the ship in peril as it crossed the Atlantic. Therefore, the captain was given secret directions charting the route. Added were these instructions: “Keep straight on this course. Turn aside ..read more

“The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.’” – Jeremiah 31:3 Amy Peterson, in her book “Where Goodness Still Grows”, wrote the following on kindness: “I started reading The Kindness of God by Catholic theologian and philosopher Janet Soskice. In her examination of the etymology of the word kindness, Soskice helped me see it for the first time as a strong virtue rather than a weak one. “In Middle English,” she writes, “the words ‘kind’ and ‘kin’ were the same—to say that Christ is ‘our kinde Lord’ i ..read more

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” – Jeremiah 29:11 Mark Batterson, in his book “Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be”, writes: “I spent an unforgettable week in the Galapagos Islands. This archipelago of islands off the coast of Ecuador hasn’t changed much since Charles Darwin sailed there on the HMS Beagle in December 1831 and studied fifteen species of finches. The Galapagos may be the closest thing to the Garden of Eden left on Earth! My son and I saw a two-h ..read more

“‘Is not my word like fire,’ declares the LORD, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’” – Jeremiah 23:29 In 1931, Dietrich Bonhoeffer began teaching at the University of Berlin. His pastoral ministry continued as a chaplain and a teacher of a confirmation class for young boys in an impoverished part of Berlin, choosing to live in their neighborhood. It was during this year that Bonhoeffer experienced a radical conversion experience: “Then something happened, something that has changed and transformed my life to the present day. For the first time I discovered the Bible…I had often ..read more

“But they will reply, `It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.'". - Jeremiah 18:12 In the summer of 1986, two Soviet ships collided in the Black Sea when the Admiral Nakhimov, a passenger liner, and the freighter Pyotr Vasev struck each other. Some 400 passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident. It wasn’t a technology problem like radar malfunction–or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each ca ..read more

“Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool.” - Jeremiah 17:11 In March 2024, Lamor Whitehead, nicknamed the “Bling Bishop,” was convicted in federal court of using a parishioner’s retirement savings and trying to extort a businessman while touting he had connections to the New York City mayor. Whitehead, the pastor at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Brooklyn, was found guilty of five counts, including wire fraud, attempted ex ..read more

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9 Lyndon Johnson was known as a master at the game of self-justification. His biographer, Robert Caro, described what would happen when Johnson came to believe something to be true, he would believe in it “totally, with absolute conviction, regardless of previous beliefs, or of the facts in the matter.” George Reedy, an aide who witnessed the same behavior, described LBJ as having “had a remarkable capacity to convince himself that he held the principles he should hold at any given time, and there ..read more

“Therefore this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.” – Jeremiah 15:19 In his book “Extraordinary Faith For Ordinary Time”, Larry R. Kalajainen writes the following on repentance: “Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian, and he told of an incident that took place in the church he attended. During an evangelistic service, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all ..read more

“You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” – Jeremiah 12:1 Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his book “A Theology of History”, writes the following about patience: “God intended man to have all good, but in . . . God’s time; and therefore all disobedience, all sin, consists essentially in breaking out of time. Hence the restoration of order by the Son of God had to be the annulment of that premature snatching at knowledge, the beat ..read more