DAILY BIBLE READING
Aug 16: Jer 32-34
Aug 17: Jer 35-37
Aug 18: Jer 38-40; Ps 74/79
Aug 19: 2King 24-25; 2Chron 36
Aug 20: Habakkuk
Aug 21: Jer 41-45
Aug 22: Jer 46-48
Aug 23: Jer 49-50
NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S READINGS
· This will be short – due to my time constraints! First, as you read the end of Jeremiah, you’ll notice the reverse of Isaiah, in at least one important aspect.
I remember the only day I ever saw Betty McGee cry. It was about nine years ago. I cried as well.
Betty came to Corinth ten years ago this month – August 2000. If you have been following our staff ten-year anniversaries, you know that was a year we added a number of new staff members.
The circumstances under which Betty came to us were different than the others, however. I had been to a local pastors’ meeting in which I found out the Duke Endowment was offering to pay the salaries of parish nurses for one year. There would be no obligation after a year.
DAILY BIBLE READING
Aug 9: Jer 7-9
Aug 10: Jer 10-13
Aug 11: Jer 14-17
Aug 12: Jer 18-22
Aug 13: Jer 23-25
Aug 14: Jer 26-29
Aug 15: Jer 30-31
Aug 16: Jer 32-34
NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S READINGS
· Jeremiah prophesied during the “Babylonian crisis.” We have read much about the “Assyrian crisis” of the 8th century B.C. The northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. The southern kingdom of Judah was severely threatened, and saved only by a divine intervention under King Hezekiah. A century and a half later, in the early 6th century B.C., Judah was heading toward exile. Jerusalem would fall in 587 B.C. Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied before and after that momentous event.
Jesus prayed in John 17 that all who would ever believe in his name would be one as he is one with the Father “that the world may believe.” What does that mean?
Over the years I’ve noticed that the best compliment for a live Christmas tree is this: “It almost looks artificial.” Conversely, the best compliment for an artificial tree is, “It almost looks real.”
I thought of that comparison when I read Brandon O’Brien’s comment that “as many small churches are straining to be large,…larger churches are spending their considerable financial and personnel resources to re-create the small-church experience” (35).