Jeremiah 8:8-9:26, Colossians 3:1-17, Psalms 78:32-55, Proverbs 24:27
Today is the 7th day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue the journey…the journey through this week and month and year and the Bible all together around the global campfire. And our next step, the one we’re going to take today leads us back into the book of Jeremiah chapter 8 verse 8 through 9:26.
Commentary:
Okay. I look forward to this reading in Colossians each year because there’s such a stark juxtaposition…like a stark contrast. Such clarity comes from the contrast that we…it’s really, really hard to not look yourself in the mirror and go, “okay. I got work to do.” Let’s approach this with the idea of like a recipe. So, my wife Jill who does Daily Audio Bible Chronological, she is, she is a gourmet fantastic cook, a really gifted, talented cook. And, so, yeah, she can follow recipes, but she can make stuff up on the fly as well, but she’s developed this talent for kinda understanding what she’s mixing together and what the outcome is supposed to be. So, you know, she doesn’t make up, for example, like green beans and taste the green beans and they’re all nice and…and decide, “you know what we need is peanut butter, right? Or, “you know what we need with these green beans is peanut butter and sauerkraut.” I don’t know, maybe that would taste good. It sounds like it would taste disgusting, at least to me. So, she’s not mixing things aren’t gonna work. And in effect, that is Paul’s point in our reading from Colossians today. Why are we mixing things that are going to not work, that are gonna be horrible? So, if we stick to the analogy of a recipe or of cooking then let’s just imagine we’re gathering all of our ingredients for a dish that we’re gonna make and the dish that we’re gonna make consists of sexual immorality, moral corruption, lust, evil desire and greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language and dishonesty or lying. Take all that and whip that up in a bowl and what have you got? Take that and whip it up in your heart and what have you wrought? Like, what is that? It sounds horrible, but at least it sounds somewhat consistent. But let’s say the next day we’re gonna…we’re gonna make a different recipe. So, we gather those ingredients, and this dish has compassion, humility, kindness, gentleness, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, peace and love. And we whip that up and that sounds like…that sounds like what we need. That sounds like nourishment for the soul. So, of the two sets of ingredients what do you want to cook up? So, that first set of ingredients, Paul says that’s what we have died to. We have no business having those ingredients around. That second list is what we were resurrected into, the…the way things are supposed to be. If we want to hold the analogy, it’s what we should be cooking with and what we should be nourishing ourselves and everyone that we love and everyone that we don’t love with. Where it gets tricky and where, you know, we…we get confronted in our own lives is with the…the truth, with the fact that often we’re trying to mix the two sets of ingredients into something that’s nourishing and delicious. But it’s not. Like can we be in perfect peace while lusting? Can we forgive while raging? Can we be gentle and malicious at the same time? Can we love and slander? So, you get the picture. These things don’t go together and mixing them together doesn’t work and that’s Paul’s point. It’s not gonna work. One set of ingredients or characteristics is associated with who you were, and one set of ingredients or characteristics is associated with who you are in Christ, and they don’t go together. In fact, there so separated that, according to Paul, those first set of characteristics they’re dead. They can’t be alive while the other ones are at work in us. And, so, that should explain an awful lot when we try to whip up these recipes that leave us full of anxiety or bitterness, or resentment, or any of the things that come from…well that come from ingredient list A. They don’t go together any better than green beans and sauerkraut and peanut butter. So, we’re sort of left with a little bit of a stark question. What are we doing here? What are we whipping up? What are we…what we using to construct our lives and nourish ourselves with? Like healthy and destructive, they don't…they don’t go together. And there’s obvious correlations here. We could bring this into our…our physical bodies. We can bring this into our physical worlds since we’re talking about recipes. Like the…the things that are ultimately going to kill us, the things that are not healthy for our bodies, if that is our diet, we are dying sooner than we have too. However, if the things that will nourish us and keep us healthy and protected are our diet then we’re gonna have a better life. Like, I know it’s a constant struggle because of all of the opportunity that’s out in front of us to consume things, but the fact is, health begets health. And Paul is essentially showing us what should be incorporated into our lives to be healthy spiritually. And, so, let’s give it some time some thought today. What are…just hold of the metaphor. What are…what are we cooking with? What are we whipping up in our hearts that is supposed to nourish our souls? What are we consuming? What are we mixing? And if we’re mixing things that won’t work together then let’s at least acknowledge why it’s not working instead of blaming everything else. Let’s just understand that what we’re trying to do isn’t going to work because they don’t go together.
Prayer:
Jesus, we need You in this. I mean there’s just all kinds of challenges and we are in a very very fast-paced world. And so often we’re not…we’re not slowed down enough to do anything but react. And so often when we do react we’re grabbing the old recipes, we’re grabbing ingredients from the old recipes and just reacting when You’ve given us permission to be intentional and slow the whole thing down and prepare in advance and live in the truth and live with these ingredients, these characteristics that are nourishing, nourishing to our own soul but nourishing to anyone who comes into contact with them. Help us Lord to have mercy, to be kind, to be humble, to be gentle, to be patient, to forgive, to walk in peace, to exude love. Let this be what we are and are known for we ask in Your precious name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.