Study-Grow-Know Ministries - Rev. Dr. Fred DeRuvo

In the book, The Gospel for Disordered Lives, the authors expose the way Satan works to defeat the believer. In chapter 8 titled, Battling Satan and His Demons, they discuss biblical counseling and how it involves spiritual warfare against evil forces that hate us and who are stronger than the folks counselors counsel. This actually applies to all Christians, whether it is recognized by them or not.

In Ed Welch's book, Side By Side, in his last chapter, he writes about keeping the story in view. By that he means that we should try to continually focus on the big picture regarding our salvation. Welch compares our past, which is filled with sin and failure to our ultimate future in Christ. But he also points out our present situation and how much God pursues us daily.

The king seemed interested and wanted to see the scroll so he sent for it. The contents of the scroll was read before the king and all the princes gathered. After 3-4 columns of the scroll were read, the king took a knife and cut off what had been read and tossed the words in the fire near him. Eventually, the entire scroll was burned up after it had been read. This act was one that showed King Jehoiakim's view of God and His Word. He didn't care. He resisted God. V24 tells us that neither the king or princes were afraid at all. They were defiant in their rebellion of God!

I've been doing a good deal of thinking lately about why God seems to delay in meting out justice at times, yet at other times, He seems to move fairly quickly to resolve something. There are many examples in Scripture where God's patience seems to have no end in sight, then He finally moves. In other examples, it only takes a person one misstep and God reaches out to deal with it. Why is that?

We are responsible to "put off" and "put on" with the help of the Spirit within us. We must make the active decision here. Tim notes that when we angrily react to something, we are not using faith at all. We are simply being pushed by our feelings. If we consider the state of much of society, we see large portions of the population devoid of self-control. They simply react to whatever circumstance they encounter, usually in anger. Reacting like this is not loving.

The problem though is God always sees through our charades and caricatures. He wants us to stop doing that and by faith, cease from self-effort and simply live His will in His strength. This is probably the most difficult lesson of Christianity to learn and it is fully tied to our sanctification. We must learn to enter into His rest and that only comes when we stop trying to get things done using our own power.

In Jeremiah 33, we see that the prophet Jeremiah was still in prison but received another message from the Lord. God promises to fight for Judah and announces that her enemies would end up dead. None of this is based on Israel's response to God because they continued in their rebellion and disobedience, which is why God needed to purge once again rebels in that nation. However, He was also looking forward to a time when another Israelite generation would exist, a generation that would be obedient to Him. Because of this, the Lord would bring about Judah's healing and prosperity.

The book of Hebrews contains warnings to its readers in Hebrews 2, 4, 6, 10 and 12. It is extremely easy to miss the point of the warnings by taking from them meaning that doesn't belong if people fail to comprehend the background and context of the situation. I don't have time or space to go over each chapter and every verse. Suffice it to say that Hebrews opens with the writer expressing the fact that Jesus is supreme and His supremacy is over all things and all religious systems, including the Mosaic sacrificial system. This point is brought out in various ways throughout Hebrews and we need to take note of it.

Regardless of what you might believe about a Christian and self-defense, I still insist that being aware of your surroundings is the first and best alternative to being oblivious to what is going on around you. I contend that if a person is fully aware of what is going on around them, the chances of them being the victim are slimmer. Too many people walk through life clueless. They are lost in thought, lost on their phones or simply unaware of what might be transpiring around them. People who are aware do not often become victims. If you do not believe Christians have the right to defend themselves, then at least be willing to be thoroughly focused on what is going on around you. This alone is likely to make you much less of a victim.

Jeremiah had been imprisoned at this time by King Zedekiah for preaching against Jerusalem saying Babylon would destroy the city. It's also interesting that God prompted Jeremiah to purchase land from his cousin while in prison. This was a test by God because the land was already in possession by Nebuchadnezzar. God commanded Jeremiah to take the Land even though Nebuchadnezzar was ready to take Jerusalem! (v25) Kind of weird but if we consider that God was essentially telling Jeremiah that He would be victorious over Nebuchadnezzar after He finished using the king for His purposes for Israel. In essence God is saying that the Land would come back to Israel eventually.

We've already begun to see God moving. Aside from our time spent with Erich, just hanging out with him and helping him through situations, his neighbor and her son really care about Erich. They are Christians and have invited him to their church. We've encouraged them to keep doing that and we've encouraged Erich to go. She loves Erich because he reminds her of her younger son. She is such a major help to us and suggested Silvia take power of attorney over Erich's medical situation if Erich approves. We discussed it to Erich and he is fine with it so we've begun the process. This will be a load off his mind as Silvia can keep up to date with his medical situation, make appointments for him and stay in touch with doctors who oversee his care. This is also a tangible way to love Erich because he is clueless about this situation. He didn't even know how to set up his voice mail so we got that set up for him.

If we are not careful, we believers can easily become legalistic in our approach to living for God. I've attended churches in the past who were right on doctrinally. I could go down the list and go, "Yep, yep, yes, that's right" etc., but in numerous cases, the people themselves were somewhat cold, legalistic in their approach to service and to God. Why? I believe it's because they failed to recognize the connection between having a heart of flesh (created by God), which more naturally prompts a person to live accordingly versus doing things with little to no desire but doing them because you should. There is a world of difference between these two things.

I asked my wife if she ever felt as though she was kind of hovering between earth and heaven; not fully here in this life, but not yet in heaven? The reason I asked was because that's the way I've felt and I thought that was a bit strange. Her answer surprised me. She stated without hesitation that she certainly did feel as though she wasn't fully grounded in this life anymore because of the fact that she looked forward to being with our Lord in heaven. This does not mean (for me or her), that we do not like this life. It simply means that we both understand there is a higher calling on our lives and it will only find its full meaning when this life ends and we are both safely and permanently with our Lord. While we see tremendous evil occurring throughout society, we also know it has not reached its zenith yet, but will one day. This is certainly part of the reason that we both feel somewhat of a disassociation between life here on earth and what it so to come in eternity.

In Luke 7:36-50, we read the very tender story of a woman who had the audacity to anoint Jesus with very expensive perfume oil. This was done by her as an act of pure love (in preparation for His death as it turns out). The most amazing thing here? She went into the home of a Pharisee to do this! Her very presence in Simon the Pharisee's home meant it created a huge social problem for him. She would have been considered "unclean" and therefore, his home would have been considered that as well, due to her presence.

God had decreed that King Nebuchadnezzar would reign and any nation that did not willingly come under his rule would be punished "with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand." This message also summarized the content of chapters 7-10. If the Judahites continued to reject the LORD, and disobey the Mosaic Covenant, He would destroy the temple and Jerusalem completely. The temple would suffer complete destruction, and Jerusalem would become a curse, namely, an object of ridicule and an example of horrible suffering. Jeremiah also warned the people about the false prophets and told them not to listen to them. Theses prophets were lying by saying the people of Judah would not serve Babylon. It's what many wanted to hear (including the king), but it was not the truth.

We should also always let go of and deny the temptation for revenge or vengeance. In truth this can only be done through our willingness to do so and the cooperation or practice of it over time with God's help. This can become easier to do over time. It's not as though people will stop offending us through words or actions, is it? As time progresses, while it's doubtful we will be perfect at forgiving right out of the gate, we need to consciously decide to obey God in forgiving (or forbearing), in each instance, fully leaning on God for His strength and empowerment to do so.

Because of who God is, His great love for us and His willingness to forgive us for all the offences we have committed, are committing and will commit against Him, a great portion of that salvation is the ongoing forgiveness He extends to us. He did not have to do that, yet He did. How can we not offer quick and total forgiveness from the heart to those who harm us in one way or another?

Jeremiah 23, 24 and 25 deliver stern warnings of judgment against corrupt leaders, false prophets, and a disobedient Judah, culminating in the prophecy of a 70-year Babylonian captivity. Interestingly enough, in the midst of these threats, God promises to raise a Righteous Branch (Messiah) from David's line. Further, —God will restore the remnant, while also pronouncing judgment on Babylon itself as well as other nations that set themselves against Israel.

Here's insight that may help. Your love for God and other people will grow to the degree that you understand what you have been saved from. The more we gain understanding and enlightenment on just what God has saved us from, the greater our love and our devotion to God will become. This is what grows our love for Him, resulting in a true desire to be more obedient to Him in all things. This then, in turn, causes us to be greater evangelists for God, presenting the Gospel to people we come in contact with throughout the day. Why? Because of our increasing love for God and them.

Jesus was never captivated and controlled by fear, worry or anxiety. He had a completely different perspective than we often do and He simply continued on, loving people by doing loving things for them in spite of how He might have been tempted to think and feel. I'm quite sure that Jesus was tempted time and time again to give into the fear of many circumstances (real or imagined) as we are today, yet He never followed the urges to protect self (Hebrews 4:15) by giving into fear leading to worry and anxiety. As believers, we need to act in a way that shows our love for God and others. We cannot do that and engage in fear, worry or anxiety. The two - love and fear - are opposed to one another. We can do one or the other, but not both at the same time.

Imagine what it must have been like to see the armies of Babylon gathering outside the walls of Jerusalem? God had warned and warned, yet to no avail. The Babylonians were hardcore soldiers. They not only knew how to fight, defeat and slaughter their opponents, but they knew how to build siege ramps that allowed them to climb over any way. So even though Jerusalem was surrounded by a huge wall, Nebuchadnezzar's armies would gain access over it. So imagine how that felt to the people inside Jerusalem. Daily they heard the noise and saw the effort put in by Babylon's soldiers to build the ramp that would allow them to gain access to Jerusalem. Imagine the terror the people of Jerusalem felt.

Many in Israel wanted Jeremiah dead because of what he said. They wanted to kill him because of words which happened to be truth that they did not like. We see this happening today as well in and outside Christendom as people do not want to hear the truth. Moreover, truth is attacked and negated throughout society because it is inconvenient and people do not want to hear it. In response, Jeremiah offers laments to God and asks that He rebuke the people strongly. Jeremiah was angry at the state of Israel and wanted God to act based on what He promised to do to that nation.

For those Christians who believe that the Christian's job is to change the tone of society by preaching the Gospel to people with the result being conversion, I'd like to respectfully ask that they think again. By being involved in transforming society, the focus shifts from the person of the unbeliever to the condition of society. While theoretically yes, people who become Christians can have a positive effect on society, there is no guarantee that this will happen.

According to (Patrick M.) Wood, Trump's Genesis Mission EO colludes with and gives tremendous power to the people behind artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, it's on steroids and of course, the way it is highlighted by the White House[2], it sounds so beautiful and "America-First." However, as Wood notes, it's the furthest thing from actually being America First. It will usher in a tremendous amount of control over all of our lives. AI will have access to any information about us on the Internet and won't even have to deal with getting approval first.

Immediately after Rob and Michelle Reiner's souls left their lifeless bodies, they instantly understood the things they had put stock in and believed wholeheartedly here in this life, were nothing but lies. The firm belief that there is no God and that man invented God, not that God created man, was immediately seen for what it was - a lying deception from Satan himself. Imagine the unparalleled terrifying emotional trauma of understanding with near-precision accuracy the Truth that they now face. When they crossed over from this life to eternity, they instantly knew God lives and they were going to answer to Him and Him alone.

It is difficult for us to admit we are needy, to admit that we need to go to God immediately, every time, instead of relying on Self, which is thoroughly opposed to God and His Word. Going to God is primary. Going to other believers asking for their help in prayer and support is secondary, but also important. Too often we refuse to do that because we don't want to be seen as weak, ineffectual or lacking faith. In our Tuesday night Bible study group, we routinely share prayer requests and praises. It brings us together in reliance on others. Paul talks a great deal about this in his two letters to Corinthian believers.

We Christians are not islands. Our lives touch other people. What happens to us and how we react to situations speaks to other people - both Christians and non. We need to remember that God ultimately wants to be glorified in and through us. In order for that to happen, things must come into our lives that do not seem palatable at first. Even though our fist inclination is to try to push away from those things, God has important plans for them. He wants us to grow in our faith and exhibit greater trust in Him. We cannot do that without the downward pressures of unpalatable situations and our response to them. Will we allow what is initially perplexing to create despair/depression within us or will we do as the three men in Daniel 3 did? If we fail to focus on the hope we have in Christ Jesus, we can easily become despairing/depressed.

But if it isn't wars and rumors of wars mentioned by Jesus (Matthew 24:6; another form of violence), full-on deceit crafted by Satan and his angels, often using human wolves to deceive the true flock of Jesus exists (2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15), false teachers leading to the one final man of lawlessness/Antichrist are clearly here (2 Thessalonians 2), there's been a tremendous increase in natural disasters (Matthew 24:7b-8), like the typhoons that just hit the Philippines with some of the highest winds ever recorded, increasing persecution of Christians (Matthew 24:9), increasing lawlessness in general and apostatizing of those who have called themselves Christian (Matthew 24:10-12), and much more.

In this section, God warns that those who trust other men are cursed. Those who trust God are blessed. God says we cannot know our hearts (v9) because it is so deceitful, yet we are too often led by it. God knows each heart – He sees the truth. The Judahites continued to ask "Where is the fulfillment of God's Word? (v15).  Jeremiah asks God to bring shame to those who persecute him (v18).

Doesn't this remind you of Jesus' words when He said, "...whoever hates his life will keep it for eternal life," (John 12:25). It's the same thing. Job came to the point of hating his own life because he saw such sin in it when compared to God and His holiness. This is what each and every authentic Christian needs to realize. Understanding the weight of our sin has a wonderful effect. It helps us realize just how much God gave that we might have life eternally. Without this growing realization, we will continue to cater to Self continually. With this growing understanding, humility will replace our self-centered satisfaction.

Paul is so good about getting to the heart of the issue, isn't he? We can all relate to what he is stating. We want to do what is right, what pleases God, but we are too often bound by our sin nature. It seems to control us way too often. Yet, Paul, while pointing out how bad things can be for him within, looks to Jesus as the only true Redeemer. Jesus, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, will create within us truly clean hearts, hearts given to serving God, not our sin natures. But of course, our job is to actually go to Him during those times when we are torn and being dragged toward fulfilling the desires of our sin nature. It truly is a battle and the battle is won in our minds when we deliberately turn our backs on our sin natures and the temptations promoted by it, instead, looking to Jesus as our true Source of strength. He will overcome in our lives if we deliberately turn to Him. Sometimes, all we can do is plead with Him to help us and He will follow through.

The opposite of being disciplined is being lazy. There's too much of that going around, even among Christians today. Paul could have just coasted. After all, he was saved, right? Why did he work so hard to bring about the change in his life that God wanted? By that I mean why did he make the strong effort to cooperate with God the Holy Spirit in order to become the person God wanted him to become? The answer is much more simple than the process itself. Paul did this because he wanted to bring glory to God and he understood that whatever he was going through, it was because God ordained it and in every situation, he wanted to respond in a way that pleased God. Because of that, he literally disciplined himself - his thoughts, his actions and his words - so that he relied heavily on the power of the Holy Spirit to create in him (Paul), what was good for edifying others and glorifying God. This meant constant growth and change for Paul.

The warning signs for the people of Judah are signs for us as well. They continually failed to obey God. Instead they embraced the lies of the false prophets. The people of Judah fell away because they embraced lies that pulled them away from God and they had no interest in repentance and returning to God since they convinced themselves they were doing nothing wrong. They didn't care how often God gave them chances.

Ultimately, God looks upon individual believers through the eyes of pity or compassion. He certainly understands our frame and remembers we are simply dust. At the same time, He will do what is needed in our life to bring us back to the narrow road that leads to life eternal when we fail to stay on that road. This is the difference between Israel and the Church. With Israel, God often dealt with those people as one nation. If the leaders were corrupt, He would bring judgment eventually onto the entire nation. Though some within that nation might be spared from the true harshness of His judgment because of their individual loyalty to God, ultimately, He was judging that nation. Where the Church is concerned, God deals with individual Christians within the Church who go astray or require judgment for sins undealt with that keep them from fellowship with God.

In spite of how bad things looked for Israel during Hosea's time as a prophet to that nation, God continued to hold out hope. He always pointed them to the day when Israel, as a nation, would return to Him, embrace Him wholly and live for Him as well as they had lived apart from Him prior.

In Jeremiah 9-10, we learn that God is not at all pleased with how low the Judahites had sunk. They had learned a great deal from Gentile nations and none of it was good. If they weren't trying to depend upon help from these nations in fighting their enemies, they adopted many of the standards and protocols of those neighboring nations and empires. The biggest problem Judah had was it's tendency to worship idols. The prophet Jeremiah loved his people so much, he wished he had more tears to shed (v1) for them. His tears is what earned him the nickname "the weeping prophet."

Reading through the Old Testament and even the New, it is clear that Satan hates those who stand with God against malice, hatred and all manner of sinful corruption that plagues much of humanity. The apostles did not die quietly from old age. Many were brutally murdered. The prophets of old did not retire and draw from their pensions while living in relative ease. They were often treated brutally and even martyred for daring to speak God's Words to people, words that those people found offensive.

God reminds the people to go find Shiloh where the Tabernacle stood because Shiloh had been destroyed due to Israel's evil. The LORD was ready to cast the Judahites out of the land to the north as He had done with Israel. God would send them into captivity by Babylon because of their continued disobedience and flagrant idolatry. God appears to have made up His mind with finality (v16) and tells Jeremiah to not pray for them. In essence, Jeremiah's prayers would not help at all.

Some people enjoy going onto their social media accounts simply to create problems because they can do so often anonymously. They then sit back and watch the fireworks as it gives them a sense of power. In fact, it seems clear only a few years ago that people would say on their social media accounts what they'd never say to another person face-to-face. Now? Seems as though anything goes. People are divided today by political and ideological lines and the resentment one to the other is often very deep and visceral. Because of social media, some of my friends and I often started butting heads figuratively speaking because of politics and then eventually went our own ways, never to talk again. This seems to have been the goal too.

So once leaders turn their backs on truth, advocating lies, this results in that society exhibiting and experiencing far more wickedness, bitterness and hatred ending in a growing callousness toward one another. Eventually, sin ceases to be called sin. It is embraced as good and that society begins living a  Romans 1 life. Even while doing that, it still often sees itself as "innocent" of being evil in spite of the many examples from that society that exist on a daily basis. These become actually willfully indulged in by many to most within that populace. Once the rejection of God's morality is complete, there is little left except for God to judge that nation.

One thing this has taught me is that Babylon and its proponents play for keeps. It appears to be coming to a point where Babylon is not going to put up with pesky conservatives/Christians much longer because there is too much for them to lose. Babylon isn't playing to lose. Of course, the Bible tells us that at one point, during the coming Tribulation, that the system of Babylon will be killed, as it will no longer be needed (Revelation 18). Of course, God is allowing all of this for His purposes and glory regardless of how difficult that is for us to accept. The momentum is building, giving Babylon its growing power. That power will attempt take down anyone who stands in its way.

Jeremiah is made up of 52 chapters and represents one of, if not, the longest book in the Bible regarding text. Below are some facts surrounding the prophet Jeremiah and the book he is known for writing. In the coming weeks, as we go through the book of Jeremiah, we will most likely cover a number of chapters together, rather than go over one chapter per week since it would take a year to do so. This look at Jeremiah will be a bit cursory but will cover major aspects of the book and we'll find out how it applies not only to the nation of Israel but to believers today as well.

But in hell and eventually the Lake of Fire, which burns into perpetuity, the constantly burning fire will torment, but not purify. The reason it cannot purify the souls housed there is due to the fact that those individuals will continue sinning in eternity. The unrighteous person does not stop sinning once this physical life is over. They will continue sinning even after they arrive to eternity. The fires of the Lake of Fire/hell, will never be able to refine or purify those sinners there because of their continued sinning throughout all eternity.

Here's what I'm saying...we actually can see the character of our Lord in other believers to a small or great degree (depending on the person), if we will look for it. Sometimes, it stares us in the face for 40 years without us knowing it. While I've always loved my wife and will continue to love her, I've simply not noticed that Jesus lives within her and is expressing His character through her to other people and me. I've always seen her as pleasant, sweet, loving and attractive. Yes, she is those things and some of those things may be due to her own innate personality. However, it seems ultimately very clear to me that since she is a believer and Jesus does live within her because of the Holy Spirit, He is clearly expressing His character through her personality. He wants to do that with every believer. Some of us offer more roadblocks to Him unfortunately.

There were also numerous times when God said that things would happen "soon." Isaiah is filled with words from our Lord that appear to indicate things will occur "soon," and yet, in some cases, hundreds of years if not a few thousand years passed before His Words were fulfilled. When we hear "soon" from someone, we think not long in coming. Yet, from God's perspective, "soon" may not mean that. He talks about the Millennial Kingdom and the blessings for the nation of Israel as happening "soon," but we are still waiting. From His perspective, the timing is His and His alone to determine and it is compared to eternity not time as we understand and live it.

There's something happening that most cannot see because it is hidden under the surface. Artificial Intelligence (AI), is  more and more included in the design of too many things: cars, appliances, telephones, TVs and too many other things to list. People are using AI to help write their papers or books. AI is being used as part of company coding that unfortunately, has had some very negative effects, which we'll get to in a minute. We are losing freedom in huge steps due to the Internet, which can be hacked. Yet most of us are completely unaware that this is the case. The reason? Because we do not see any real physical signs of the digital prison being built. Oh sure, when we go to stores, we see those cameras, but we tell ourselves those are to stop shoplifters. They do work for that purpose, but they go well beyond that purpose too. Maybe we no longer see the cameras.

Certainly, to be clear, things are ramping up and each day brings us one day closer to the Rapture and/or the start of the Tribulation (if you do not believe the Rapture precedes the Tribulation). However, we cannot know the day or hour of those events. We can know the times and the seasons but that is all. That still should not pull us away from the God-given task at hand, which is to live lives that glorify Him and we do that by dying to our own self will and reaching out to the lost.

If God is love (He is), we who call ourselves believers, Christians and followers of Jesus must also live lives of love. It all starts and ends with forgiveness. If we cannot truly forgive, we are simply not loving others. God did not have to, but He chose a way to forgive those who come to Him in faith through His Son's sacrificial life, death and resurrection. That forgiveness granted to us is permanent, unfailing and results in our true justification before Him. How can we call ourselves believers and followers of Jesus if we cannot forgive (love), as He forgives us?

If God literally lives within us, then why aren't we living a life of power that enables and compels us to be imitators of Jesus in the way He lived, by loving God and loving others? Doing the Father's will was what He loved and He considered it food (John 4:34). What does that mean except that He was so filled with the desire to fulfill every aspect of the Father's will, even when it meant sorrow, pain, discomfort and ultimately, death?

Today, we spend a good deal of time seeking things that have some value, but compared to God and eternity, have little to no value really. God tells us we should not glory in any wisdom we might have. We should not glory or praise ourselves because of any strength or might we believe is ours. We should also not glory in any riches we have acquired. None of these things have any real staying power, no real eternal worth. We can lose them in a moment. Of course, this does not mean that if the Lord has given us wisdom, might and even riches, that these are necessarily bad things. They are not, but when we focus on just those things, we are missing something very large and very eternal.