May 22 - Jeremiah 3:12-13

Deeper Life Conference Tonight, 6:30

I am merciful, says the Lord;

I will not be angry forever.

Only acknowledge your guilt,

that you have rebelled

against the Lord your God.

Jeremiah 3:12-13

Yesterday, we told the story of God warning Israel … and warning Israel … and warning Israel. Today is one of those earlier warnings.

Israel sinned. They disdainfully ignored the commandments. They followed other gods. They grieved the true God. And a God of truth and justice gets “angry,” as it says in our lesson for today.

Fortunately, our God of truth and justice is also “merciful.”

Did you ever make your parents angry? Were their eyes ever like lasers? Did steam ever come out of their ears? Did you ever cause them pain … and sleepless nights? I have a friend who says her daughter taught her to pray … and it was prayer that was drenched with a lot of worry and tears.

Now let me ask you another question … Did your parents stay angry forever.

God is gracious and merciful. Like a gentle parent, steam may occasionally come out of his ears, but he will not be angry forever.

And yet – in Jeremiah 3 – God has a condition for full restoration: Acknowledge your guilt.

This is confession. This is repentance. This is freeing!

God wants to set us free – in fact, through the cross, he already has – but sometimes we have to set ourselves free first. Confession frees us from the weight of sin. It brings the darkness into the light – and like a vampire, darkness shrivels in the face of God’s sun (and God’s Son).

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who wants to be

like Johnson’s Baby Shampoo

(“No More Tears”

… for God …

on account of me)