The Open and Affirming Preacher (50 min)

From Jeremiah 23 and for today:

“As for the prophets:

My heart is broken within me,

All my bones tremble;

I have become like a drunken man,

Even like a man overcome with wine,

Because of the Lord

And because of His holy words.

10 For the land is full of adulterers;

For the land mourns because of the curse.

The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.

Their course also is evil

And their might is not right.

11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted;

Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.

12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,

They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;

For I will bring calamity upon them,

The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.

13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:

They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

14 “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:

The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;

And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,

So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.

All of them have become to Me like Sodom,

And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets,

‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood

And make them drink poisonous water,

For from the prophets of Jerusalem

Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’”

16 Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.

They are leading you into futility;

They speak a vision of their own imagination,

Not from the mouth of the Lord.

17 “They keep saying to those who despise Me,

‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’;

And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,

They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’

18 “But who has stood in the council of the Lord,

That he should see and hear His word?

Who has given heed to His word and listened?

19 “Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath,

Even a whirling tempest;

It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

20 “The anger of the Lord will not turn back

Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart;

In the last days you will clearly understand it.

21 “I did not send these prophets,

But they ran.

I did not speak to them,

But they prophesied.

22 “But if they had stood in My council,

Then they would have announced My words to My people,

And would have turned them back from their evil way

And from the evil of their deeds.

23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord,

“And not a God far off?

24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places

So I do not see him?” declares the Lord.

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.”

This is what I must humbly offer to the open and affirming “preacher” today.

God bless!!!

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