New days are coming Jeremiah 31:31-34

The promises of God are light to walk towards in times of darkness. There are days when despair and fear loom large crowding out hope and threatening destruction. God's promises matter most in dark days.

• The promises that God is God in all circumstances,
• that God's mercy is renewed each day,
• that God's people can count on God in all circumstances.

Those promises are a huge part of our reason to be here today as church. We are here today to speak God's Word into every life just like the ancient prophet Jeremiah. We are here to speak of God's love for his people Jeremiah 31:31-34. Speaking God's love is what matters. Speaking God's love is the difference we can make. In the face of death we can speak life. In the face of hate and rage we can speak God's life transforming love and joy. In the face of fear we can speak hope.

Some times days flow into days. It's funny how you can find yourself stuck in a place you don't want to be. You might wake up each morning to a reality you'd like somehow to alter--but you can't. I've watched with my mom, sister, and extended family these past 10 days since my dad had a stroke. I don't think any of us would have chosen for his Monday morning trip to Home Depot to end up as emergency surgery, an extend stay in a hospital, and now time in a rehab center. But that's now a part of his story and our stories.

As I was driving my mom to the hospital one morning to see my dad I asked her if it felt like the movie Ground Hogs Day. In some ways it does sure remind me. And here's where I hear God's promises made through Jeremiah and Jesus this week. In this world dealing with powers that I don't understand and can't defeat God's promises matter. My mom's been humming her favorite hymn, The Summons especially the line "you will never be the same." Meanwhile I've been humming my favorite hymn, For by Grace You Have Been Saved it's the promises of new life--of resurrection in the face of death that matter.

My hope is simple--to keep declaring this promise of hope and light.
Peace and thanks for reading, John

Crowd Sourcing: What's the New Covenant?

I am crowd sourcing today to answer this question
--What does ‪#‎Jeremiah‬ 31:31 mean?
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."
What is the ‎new covenant‬?

unnerved by grace John 2:13-22

Jesus has a way of looking at the world and seeing both today and the cosmic reality to come. John tells a story about Jesus. He stepped into the temple—the house that people built as their meeting place to be with the divine—and he saw more than just what was going on there that day right at the start of Passover. What Jesus saw was the day when he would be offered as the final sacrifice, the once and for all sacrifice to take away sin.

There in the place a prophet of old said was to be the house of prayer for all people (Isaiah 56:7) were all kinds of people. Some came for prayer and some showed up, like they did most every working day, to make a buck. Many came praying and offering sacrifice to make themselves right with God. There were merchants with all kinds animals waiting for sale and sacrifice: cows, sheep, and doves. Money changers came too who'd take money considered impure and exchange it, for a tidy fee, for money considered ritually clean to by an animal for sacrifice or to make an offering to God (John 2:14).

What Jesus did next stuns and unnerves. The one who calls believers to love enemies and pray for those who persecute wove a whip out of chords. He drove away the merchants and money changers upending tables and traditions (John 2:15).

It's unnerving to have God step into your business. It's unnerving to think God would care at all. But this is the real Jesus after all—not the one who comes to approve of everything we've done—no this is the one who loves you and me enough to challenge us and to die for us.

This is the real Jesus. The one who would die for the sake of the whole world. He is the one who would offer himself as the last and final sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:11-14). He spoke of a temple falling and being rebuilt in 3 days. His friends later realized—after Jesus rose on the 3rd day—what he really meant. (John 2:19-24)

The temple the people saw that day was a part of the world Jesus came to save. A world of hurting souls, a world of religious tradition and profiteering. And Jesus came to die for all people in desperate need of God's love. He came to be both the offering and the final temple All the sacrifices offered up to the point of Jesus weren't enough—but one sacrifice—Jesus offering himself once for all would be the only one needed (Hebrew 10:11-14). His cross would be enough. Paul says is just foolishness to the world but it makes every bit of sense to those who are being saved (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).

Thanks be to God that I can be a fool saved by grace through faith. AMEN.
Peace and thanks for reading, John.