JEREMIAH 50:
Finally after hearing messages prophesying against so many nations, always telling or implying that the Babylonians would be God’s instrument to punish them, now this long chapter tells how Babylon will finally be judged as well, and God will return to take pity on Israel.
PROVERBS 10b:
Here is an example of Hebrew parallelism from today’s 2nd half of Proverbs 10:
23 NLT Doing wrong is fun for a fool,
but living wisely brings pleasure to the sensible.
‘Fool’ and ‘the sensible’ oppose each other. “Doing wrong is fun for a fool,” and it seems like ‘fun’ would only be temporary. Whereas the sensible who live wisely receive ‘pleasure’, which is much longer lasting than the ‘fun’ the fools get.
1JOHN 3:19—4:
Chapter 3 of 1John circles around the theme of being children of God. There are important verses at the end of chapter 3 which can provide assurance and power when we pray. If our consciences do not condemn us— which is strongly related to living the way John has urged us in this chapter, then we can boldly come to God in prayer and have courage to ask for ‘whatever’. I have met people with overactive consciences. If you are the kind of person who always feels guilty even though you have just finished asking God for forgiveness, this passage helps you too! Verse 20 says “God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.” He knows if you are having trouble believing that Jesus would forgive you, or if you have demons feeding you false guilt messages. Read the chapter again and see how you are doing in the areas John mentions. Pray asking the Holy Spirit to remove false guilt, or to reveal any reason you keep feeling guilty. Here is just one of many: If there are people you have harmed, make restitution. THEN, when you have done this homework, pray with boldness, because you have done everything needed to have a clear conscience.
Translation notes:
2 This is how you will be able to know whether [such a person has//someone has//it is] God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God.
3 But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that [the Enemy//it] would come, and now [his representatives are//it is] here in the world already.
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