Catch the Light Christian & Spiritual Readings

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Cheap Grace - July 27, 2010
SFU -- The University of Prayer - January 06, 2010
Greater Things - April 29, 2010
The Birth - December 12, 2009
Flame Jumpers - March 30, 2010
Worshiping Gad - February 08, 2010
Worshiping Gad - February 08, 2010
Bible Burners - March 30, 2010
Set Your House in Order - October 18, 2009
Who Is Jesus? - February 05, 2009
The Truly Saved - December 31, 2007
The Blessing - February 04, 2009
God's People and Plan - February 16, 2009
Can I Say That? - February 16, 2009
The Wolves are Gone - September 16, 2008
Jesus, Hold My Hand - April 27, 2009

Reading of the Week

Bible Burners

Book burning, not only Bible burning, goes hand in hand with oppressive regimes. Christian books, for example, by Diocletian’s decree in 303, fed the flames, all of which was accompanied by an increased persecution of Christians.

In Jeremiah’s time God had given him a warning to share with the people of his day, a warning of the disasters He would inflict upon them should they not turn from their wicked ways (Jer. 36). Were they to listen, God had indicated that he was ready to forgive them.

Jeremiah’s warning, read by Baruch to the house of the Lord, was such that it had to be shared with the king. Subsequently, officials of the day instructed both Baruch and Jeremiah to go into hiding in the meantime, lest there be dire repercussions.

Upon the occasion of the king’s hearing, he had been sitting in his winter quarters warming in front of a firepot. Jehudi, the reader in the king’s court, after reading so many columns of the scroll, the king cut them out with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot. Amazingly, not one attendant, least of all the king, showed any fear of such an act throughout the burning, despite their frightening content.

Again, God ordered Jeremiah on a second occasion to take another scroll and write down all the words appearing on the first scroll. God also said, “Tell King Jehoiakim he will have no one to sit on the throne of David; that his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and frost by night. I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness. I will bring on them and all in Jerusalem ever disaster I pronounced against them because they have not listened.”

It had taken Jeremiah almost a year to write what the Lord wanted to share with His people. That considered, and because it was the word of God, it was very much a Bible.

Today the Jehoiakims are represented not only by individuals who won’t tolerate God’s word, but also by theological institutions, denominations, and more. Many of the words of God are cut out from the Bible and cast into the firepots of the hearts of those waxing cold and wicked. Similarly, today’s Bible burners fearlessly reject God’s word.

May the Bible you once burned rise up out of its ashes in your heart so that you can come to believe.