Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

May 5
Sunday


DIGESTING
THE WORD

READ:
Jeremiah 15:15-21
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Your Word was to
me the joy and
rejoicing of my heart.
__Jeremiah 15:16
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King James is famous for the Bible translation that bears his name. But around the same time as the printing of the Bible, he also commissioned "The Book of Common Prayer." Still used today, this guide to intercession and worship contains a marvelous prayer for internalizing the Bible: "Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may...hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of [Your] holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life."

Many centuries earlier, Jeremiah the prophet expressed a similar way of letting the Scriptures nourish our hearts: "Your words were found, and I ate them; and Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts" (Jer. 15:16). We internalize the Word as we "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" a passage of Scripture through prayerful meditation.

Ask the Lord to help you apply the Bible to your heart today. Take time to ponder the meat and milk of the Word (Heb. 5:12). As you quiet your heart, God will teach you about Himself through His Book. __Dennis Fisher

`````````````````Lord, I meditate on Your precepts and contemplate`````````````
```````````````````Your ways. I delight myself in Your statutes; I```````````````
``````````````````will not forget Your Word. Open my eyes that````````````````
`````````````````````I may see wondrous things from Your law.`````````````````
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Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested. __Bacon

*******************Today's Bible Reading __ Jeremiah 15:15-21**********************

15 O LORD, You know;
remember me and visit me,
and take vengeance for me
on my persecutors. In Your
enduring patience, do not
take me away. Know that
for Your sake I have
suffered rebuke. 16 Your
words were found, and I ate
them, and Your word was to
me the joy and rejoicing of
my heart; for I am called by
Your name, O LORD God of
hosts. 17 I did not sit in the
assembly of the mockers,
nor did I rejoice; I sat alone
because of Your hand, for
You have filled me with
indignation. 18 Why is my
pain perpetual and my
wound incurable, which
refuses to be healed? Will
You surely be to me like an
unreliable stream, as waters
that fail?

19 Therefore thus says the
LORD:

"If you return, then I will
bring you back; you shall
stand before Me; if you take
out the precious from the
vile, you shall be as My
mouth. Let them return to
you, but you must not
return to them. 20 And I will
make you to this people a
fortified bronze wall; and
they shall not prevail
against you; for I am with
you to save you and deliver
you," says the LORD. 21 "I
will deliver you from the
hand of the wicked, and I
will redeem you from the
grip of the terrible."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The prophet Jeremiah was called to his prophetic ministry in his
youth (about 627 BC; see 1:6), and he was still faithfully serving 40
years later during the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian
invaders (about 586 BC). He is often called the weeping prophet
because his ministry is marked by grief and tears over the fall of the
southern kingdom and the judgment they received.