Jeremiah 37:13-14

Therefore, all who devour you shall be consumed, for all your enemies shall devour themselves. Your sins multiplied because of the abundance of your wrongdoings, thus they did these things to you. But those who tore you to pieces shall be as prey, and I will give all who plundered you as plunder. For I will bring about your healing from a painful wound. I will heal you,’ says the Lord. ‘For you were called Dispersed, for they said, “She is your prey, because no one seeks her.’ ”

Personal Challenge

The Israelites of old were dispersed, multiple times, from their promised land. Each time it was a result from abandoning their part of their covenant from God. Do we not do the same with our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. We get caught up in the world around us and turn our heads and hearts away from Him and toward the things of the world. We become enamored with the things of this world and begin to worship them instead of our Lord. As long as we are still alive within our temporal bodies we will be confronted by temporal temptations. We must continually turn to our loving God and seek His healing and His protection so that we can be kept pure in our relationship

with Him. We must do our part because He is always ready to do His part. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Encouraging Words

There is always a great tension between different Christian faith practices around the application of works in our Christian journey through life. There have been many times in my earlier Christian journey where is warned, sometimes vehemently, to be careful to not expect that my mission trips and other activities would get me into heaven. These conversations always struck me as odd because I knew that the only reason I was doing what I did was that I was grateful for all that Jesus had done for me. It is the grace of God and the work of Jesus that is my only source of salvation. Now that I have been practicing Orthodoxy for several years it is becoming easier to see the truth of God’s grace and His love for me. Here is how the Orthodox Study Bible explains this verse:

How can one get from the one kingdom to the other (vv. 1–7)? By the unity of grace, faith, and works (v. 9). Not that these are equal, for grace is uncreated and infinite, whereas our faith is limited and can grow; good works flow out of authentic faith. Works cannot earn us this great treasure—it is a pure gift—but those who receive this gift do good. We are not saved by good works, but for good works (v. 10).

Perhaps I had an Orthodox mindset before I started practicing Orthodoxy. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Ephesians 1:3-6

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Encouraging Words

There is so much that could be unpacked from these four verses. Because of Jesus, who He is, the incarnate Son of God, and what He has done, lived a sinless life as a human and yet was crucified and rose from the dead, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. What more can we hope for than this? But our blessings do not stop here. He chose us, all of mankind, before the foundation of the world was laid, to be adopted into His heavenly family through Christ. As we choose to not reject Him and to be received into Him then we become members of His royal family. Through Jesus, we are blessed and made acceptable to be in the presence of the Almighty and sinless God. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Jeremiah 36:5-7

Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands; and be multiplied and not diminished. Seek the peace of the land into which I carried you captive. Pray to the Lord for them, for in its peace you shall have peace.

Personal Challenge

Just as the Israelites of old, we who follow Jesus, are exiles into a land that is not ours to claim. Paul calls us ambassadors. As a follower of Jesus, our true home is the Kingdom of God and this temporal home is where we have been placed to live out our physical lines until that precious day when we are taken to our true home. We are told by Jeremiah that God wants us to live to our fullest capability in this land that is not ours so that we can be images of Him to those around us. We do this as ambassadors to win over others to Him that they too might choose to be His. Glory be to God!

Galatians 6:14

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Personal Challenge

How can we boast in the cross? If was such a vile instrument of cruelty. We boast in our Lord’s victory over the cross and the power that victory brings into our lives. We boast in the fact that we can crucify our sinful self to Jesus’ cross and through that process be cleansed of our sins and set free from the bondage of death. It is the work that Jesus performed through the cross that we boast in. Glory be to God!

Jeremiah 36:11-13

For I shall consider a plan of peace for you, to give you good things and not calamities. Therefore, pray to Me, and I will hear you. Seek Me, and you will find Me, because you seek Me with all your heart.

Encouraging Words

Our God desires us to have peace in our lives, His peace and not the world’s peace. If we will pray to Him, He will hear us. If we seek Him, we will find Him. Glory be to God!

Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Personal Challenge

We are called by our Lord to serve Him and our neighbor with a joyful heart. We know that by doing this we are storing up treasures in a world far beyond this one. Many times we are blessed to receive rewards for these actions in this life. Sometimes it is a heartfelt thank you from someone or a gracious smile from the recipient of our service. Many times we receive nothing, especially if our service is anonymous. Paul reminds us to not grow weary of doing this good. We are not doing acts of goodness and kindness to receive rewards but out of our love for our Lord. We do good because of the good that He has done for us. However, it is still possible to grow weary of doing good works and serving our Lord. We can always remember that in the right season of our life we will reap the treasures stored up for us. This is how we do not lose heart. Glory be to God!

Jeremiah 23:23-24

“I am a God who is near,” says the Lord, “and not a God afar off. Can a man hide in secret, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

Encouraging Words

As we come together in our homes and churches around the world to celebrate the birth of our incarnate Lord and Savior I am reminded by this verse of the uniqueness of the Christian belief. When our God says He is near to us it is not some ethereal promise that He is giving us. His nearness came in the form of a child that was born of a lowly, common family, in a time when the known world was under the oppression of a conceited and arrogant leader. It was a world filled with grief, hunger, wars, and sicknesses. Our God chose to become a human being so that we could become His adopted and deeply loved children. No other religious belief has this as their core teaching. God became man so that man can become His children. As so many of us reflect on the beauty and miracle of this day so many years ago, we are reminded that we too are the shepherds that the angels are hearkening to, hearkening to come and see the infant on the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. We too are the wise men who are traveling far to find the King Who will set all of mankind and creation free from bondage. And we, like so many that have gone before us can celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the entry of new life to our world. Glory be to God!