Scripture for the day: Jeremiah 25:3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.”
Thought for the day: Small wonder Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet! He’d been commissioned by the Lord to preach a message no one would accept. He was given no lee-way as to how it was to be presented or to whom he would preach. By the time we reach this 25th chapter, poor Jeremiah is exasperated with those stubborn inhabitants of Jerusalem who just wouldn’t listen. 
 Go back with me, though to the time of his commission. The Lord told Jeremiah, “Go and preach to this people who won’t listen. Say to them exactly what I give you to say. Do not let them cause you dismay; if you do, I will cause even more of the same. Oh, and don’t worry about them, for I have your back in all this” (Jer. 1:17-19, my paraphrase). And what was the message? 
 “I brought you into a bountiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled My land and made My heritage and abomination” (1:7).
 “My people have changed their glory for what does not profit” (2:11). 
 “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power” (5:31)
 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit …. Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes” (7:8, 11)?
 “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me” (9:23-24).
 On and on the warnings came from the mouth of Jeremiah. Consistently the people refused to listen to the call of God for them to return to Him. Finally, Jeremiah began to intercede for the people. “O Lord,” he said, “though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You” (14:7). The answer to Jeremiah’s prayer of intercession was a simple “No.”
 Finally, after many years, Jeremiah got so frustrated with people who knew the message of repentance but refused to turn back to God, that he decided to quit preaching. Unfortunately for him, the message was still burned deeply into his soul. He said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not” (20:9).
 We could go on and on recounting the frustration, the trials, the tribulations of Jeremiah at the hands of those in positions of power. He was thrown in prison, lowered into a pit filled with slime and refuse, and threatened with death almost daily. Yet, because of God’s promise of protection, he persevered. Not only that, he went on preaching until he could find almost no one who would stand with him. The Lord said, “Stand in the court of the Lord’s house and speak …. All the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word” (26:2). 
 And the response? “This man deserves to die! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard” (26:11). Nobody likes a chronic doomsayer!
 I don’t want to be in that category, but as I look around at the United States and see how far she has wandered from the moral foundation that characterized her beginning, I wonder how long the Lord’s patience will endure. He has sent His messengers to America countless times and the answer has been “We will go our own way. We do not need the Lord to lead us.” 
Now go take on your world.  - Bill