THE HUMAN HEART

Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 16-17

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

The Arch of Titus in Rome was constructed in 82 AD by the Roman Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus to commemorate Titus’ victory in the Sack of Jerusalem in 70 AD (note the extra photo below of the inside of the Arch). The Arch of Titus has provided the general model for many of the triumphal arches erected since the 16th century, including the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. In the P.S. today is the description of the destruction of Jerusalem according to the Jewish historian, Josephus. The Roman historian, Tacitus, also covers this massacre of Jewish people and the rape of the Temple. It’s not unlike what must have happened to Jerusalem when it was destroyed by the Babylonians hundreds of years earlier as prophesied by Jeremiah.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verses: Jeremiah 17:9, 14

The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked;

Who can know it?

…Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved, for You are my praise!

Heart disease is our #1 killer physically. Same thing spiritually! Many of us have done “The Daniel Plan,” which will help heal and strengthen that blood pump inside (click here for information), and for spiritual healing there is this blog! “He sent His Word and healed them” (Psalm 107:20a). There’s healing both for the body as well as the soul and spirit in daily, daily, daily reading and meditating on God’s Word!!! For potential new 100words.ca readers, you can start any time and finish in two years (compared to one-year plans, this plan has shorter readings and extra time for meditating). Soak in God’s Word and experience physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing!!!

Jeremiah diagnosed the human heart as deceitful and desperately wicked. Is there a guaranteed healing prescription? Can this terminal heart condition be healed?

The ultimate heart healing treatment is this…Romans 10:8-10. The word “heart” is repeated three times in that passage. It’s an oral medication. You take it by mouth! Speak these words out loud or even whisper them. That gets God’s Word down into our hearts. Healing and wholeness follows. Now, having ingested God’s healing medicine, let’s do as the last words of our key verses instruct us: “You [Almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ] are my [our] praise!”

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, Your Word declares that You “inhabit the praises of [Your people!] Israel!” (Psalm 22:3b). I pray that I will learn more and more to use Scripture in my praise of You! As I do this, I know that I am inhabiting the realm of Your Presence! I’m singing now the glorious hymn of praise, “I Will Praise Him!” (click here for the Messianic Jewish family — believers in Jesus — The Isaacs singing this hymn). Let us praise God together!!! Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

It can be discouraging to read Jeremiah because of his prophecies of woe. I heard a preacher on the local Christian radio station say, “When God says, ‘Woe,’ it means, Whoa!” That’s horse language for STOP!!!” Good advice?

I debated whether or not to quote the Jewish historian Josephus in his description of the next destruction of Jerusalem after the one prophesied by Jeremiah. There are probably similarities in both destructions of the city which the religious and political leaders brought on themselves. When God is not wanted and when He withdraws as a result, all hell breaks loose. This quote is from 70 A.D., after thousands of Christian Jews had left Jerusalem, as they were warned in a prophecy to escape. In case you don’t want to read of such horror, I’ll put it in a post script.

Yours for ingesting God’s Word and inhabiting, as God does, the PRAISE SPACE!!!

David

P.S. Josephus, a Jew, was in Jerusalem under the protection of the future Roman Emperor Titus when he wrote, “You would have thought the hill on which the Temple stood was boiling from the bottom upwards, that everywhere was a mass of flames, that here lay a sea of blood deeper than the fire, that there were more killed than killers. You could not see a single piece of ground anywhere because it was so thickly covered with bodies, forcing the soldiers to climb over them in order to reach further victims.”

Inside the Arch of Titus in Rome, one side depicts the Roman soldiers removing the menorah, table of showbread and silver trumpets from the Temple as it was destroyed in AD 70.