Jeremiah 18:11 – The Prophetic Fire Suit
11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” ’ ”
When I get a mass email, even one that is helpful, very often it comes from an email address designed for that purpose. "Do not reply," when I look, is built into that originating email address. Sometimes, the person writing the copy will even add as a coda to the organization's message the de-escalating reality that any responses, probably irritable ones, will go to an unmonitored inbox
There's a little of that built-in imperviousness as God turns his otherwise sensitive prophet to address hot words of impending doom to Jerusalem and Judah again. God explicitly includes the prophetic imprimatur. Tell them, He instructs Jeremiah repeatedly but again in Jeremiah 18:11, that these are My words rather than yours.
Perhaps there's an aspect of that envelope that's meant to preach to the heart of the prophet and latter-day Gospel messengers likely to remember, and maybe cringe from, rejection. We base our standing on what God says about His Word rather than any presumptive measures of success we can envision for it.
We are grateful to get to include personal touches of style and testimony, much as the Holy Spirit incorporated individualized elements in the disparate addictions of the Bible's varying texts. Even so, the message is His. Its efficacy is His.
If we relate the source of our authority often enough on with our testimony, we might begin to believe it. It is our prophetic fire suit which will allow us to venture into the culture's hottest situations as He directs and, alternately, deliver the encouraging verses which the culture willingly puts on Christmas cards, posters, and throw pillows, and the ones like Jeremiah 18:11 which won't be selling out in those mediums anytime soon.
With that bravery intact and embedded, convinced and re-convinced that the message we carry, the message we LIVE, is His whether people respond or don't, whether, as Christ promised, people hate His as they hated Him, an initial outlook as mechanical as the "do not reply" email may not be necessary. If we begin to be convinced at an emotional and identity level that our righteousness is in Christ and that it is our privilege to carry His message, we will be open to His leading in each encounter.
That is, the person singed by rejection, as Jeremiah certainly has been in complaining to the Lord that people contend with him on every side, will be willing to engage once again, to listen to blowback if the Lord so leads and enables.
Conversely, the messenger who feeds off of human interaction and approval, gets a sense of his or her righteousness and relevance by social media likes and comments, he or she may mature to rest in Christ's impending affirmation and reward rather than pine for the human knockoff thereof.
The messenger who knows he or she is sent by Christ will beg less and declare more. The message we carry, powerful as it is, impassioned as it is, creative as it is, will be but a small representation of what Christ is doing inside of us.
We will be able, by God's grace, to deliver Jeremiah's ultimatum with something like the parental poise which is half the message. You, culture, you, friend, you, by the grace of God are choosing how this plays out. Behind this calm lurks the smoldering assurance that He will call His own, and His own will thereafter rejoice eternally in the rescue and rebirth only He, rather than human logic, could make possible.
When I get a mass email, even one that is helpful, very often it comes from an email address designed for that purpose. "Do not reply," when I look, is built into that originating email address. Sometimes, the person writing the copy will even add as a coda to the organization's message the de-escalating reality that any responses, probably irritable ones, will go to an unmonitored inbox
There's a little of that built-in imperviousness as God turns his otherwise sensitive prophet to address hot words of impending doom to Jerusalem and Judah again. God explicitly includes the prophetic imprimatur. Tell them, He instructs Jeremiah repeatedly but again in Jeremiah 18:11, that these are My words rather than yours.
Perhaps there's an aspect of that envelope that's meant to preach to the heart of the prophet and latter-day Gospel messengers likely to remember, and maybe cringe from, rejection. We base our standing on what God says about His Word rather than any presumptive measures of success we can envision for it.
We are grateful to get to include personal touches of style and testimony, much as the Holy Spirit incorporated individualized elements in the disparate addictions of the Bible's varying texts. Even so, the message is His. Its efficacy is His.
If we relate the source of our authority often enough on with our testimony, we might begin to believe it. It is our prophetic fire suit which will allow us to venture into the culture's hottest situations as He directs and, alternately, deliver the encouraging verses which the culture willingly puts on Christmas cards, posters, and throw pillows, and the ones like Jeremiah 18:11 which won't be selling out in those mediums anytime soon.
With that bravery intact and embedded, convinced and re-convinced that the message we carry, the message we LIVE, is His whether people respond or don't, whether, as Christ promised, people hate His as they hated Him, an initial outlook as mechanical as the "do not reply" email may not be necessary. If we begin to be convinced at an emotional and identity level that our righteousness is in Christ and that it is our privilege to carry His message, we will be open to His leading in each encounter.
That is, the person singed by rejection, as Jeremiah certainly has been in complaining to the Lord that people contend with him on every side, will be willing to engage once again, to listen to blowback if the Lord so leads and enables.
Conversely, the messenger who feeds off of human interaction and approval, gets a sense of his or her righteousness and relevance by social media likes and comments, he or she may mature to rest in Christ's impending affirmation and reward rather than pine for the human knockoff thereof.
The messenger who knows he or she is sent by Christ will beg less and declare more. The message we carry, powerful as it is, impassioned as it is, creative as it is, will be but a small representation of what Christ is doing inside of us.
We will be able, by God's grace, to deliver Jeremiah's ultimatum with something like the parental poise which is half the message. You, culture, you, friend, you, by the grace of God are choosing how this plays out. Behind this calm lurks the smoldering assurance that He will call His own, and His own will thereafter rejoice eternally in the rescue and rebirth only He, rather than human logic, could make possible.
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