Curses and lies: pursuing the spirit of man with passion and truth

Get off the ride.

Warning I've been thinking! You probably won't want to read this.



We spend a lot of time taking care of our bodies. Washing, dressing, feeding, resting, exercising, sexing, working and it feels good. There is nothing wrong with it. But often we must admit that our bodies are controlling us.

Then there is the constantly ready and willing slavery to the masturbation of our emotions. And wow does entertainment allow an unprecedented opportunity to rub our emotions raw. We can see TV and film now on demand and all the time, get lost in games that feel more real than the world in which we live and breath and read something on every subject and fantasize a life that will never be ours.

But the mind has unquenchable thirst for knowledge drives many of us to learn, read, experiment and research the minutia of detail in the nichest of subjects until we begin to relax, lost in the quest for dominance and meaning over our world.

BUT when do we have time for our spirit. When do we challenge our lies concerning value and beauty? When do we cultivate the experimenter in truth and confront the dark lies of right and wrong. We live in a world screaming lies all day long! LIES, lies, lies lies lies, untruths, twisted meanings, and deceptive intentions. We want to believe many of these lies. These lies feed our ego, they caress our sense of worth. Lies about what is important, lies about how we should spend our time. We live in the lie that something we don't have will make us happy. We expend unbelievable hours of wasted time and energy and money selfishly masquerading as if we are the centre of the world. We think we know what is true and what is good and what is of value and what is wrong and what is false and what will make us happy. We act as if everything is all right and we hide what is wrong. We surround ourselves with yes-men and mock our dissenters.

How do you build character? How do you invest in discernment of worth and value? What ways do you cultivate hope rather than the feelings of wishing. When and where are you able to be real with yourself and correct your wayward bearing? How are you developing your inner peace? How are you rooting out the lies that have you trapped? What do you do to break free from the stranglehold of addiction, self adulation, and empty time wasting pointless pursuits? What is your plan for less mental selfies and more giving of love.

Are you more loving? Are you living sacrificially? Can you spot the lies being mainlined into your ego? Have you given up a false belief that has held you captive?

Curses, Curses, spirit courses.
Train my inner man.
Let me see the path before me and not be my biggest fan.
Curses, Curses I've wasted my energy
I've starved my spirit dry
because I fed my body now my spirit dies.
Curses, Curses I'm feeling till I'm tingliy
But now I'm numb and I ask my self why
Why did I waste away with feelings on things  that won't matter when I die.

Psalm 109 NLT (listen and feed your spirit)

6They say, “Get an evil person to turn against him.

Send an accuser to bring him to trial.

7When his case comes up for judgment,

let him be pronounced guilty.

Count his prayers as sins.

8Let his years be few;

let someone else take his position.

9May his children become fatherless,

and his wife a widow.

10May his children wander as beggars

and be driven from their ruined homes.

11May creditors seize his entire estate,

and strangers take all he has earned.

12Let no one be kind to him;

let no one pity his fatherless children.

13May all his offspring die.

May his family name be blotted out in the next generation.

14May the lord never forget the sins of his fathers;

may his mother’s sins never be erased from the record.

15May the lord always remember these sins,

and may his name disappear from human memory.

16For he refused all kindness to others;

he persecuted the poor and needy,

and he hounded the brokenhearted to death.

17He loved to curse others;

now you curse him.

He never blessed others;

now don’t you bless him.

18Cursing is as natural to him as his clothing,

or the water he drinks,

or the rich food he eats.

19Now may his curses return and cling to him like clothing;

may they be tied around him like a belt.”

20May those curses become the lord’s punishment

for my accusers who speak evil of me.

21But deal well with me, O Sovereign lord,

for the sake of your own reputation!

Rescue me

because you are so faithful and good.

22For I am poor and needy,

and my heart is full of pain.

23I am fading like a shadow at dusk;

I am brushed off like a locust.

24My knees are weak from fasting,

and I am skin and bones.

25I am a joke to people everywhere;

when they see me, they shake their heads in scorn.

26Help me, O  lord my God!

Save me because of your unfailing love.

27Let them see that this is your doing,

that you yourself have done it, lord.

28Then let them curse me if they like,

but you will bless me!

When they attack me, they will be disgraced!

But I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing!

29May my accusers be clothed with disgrace;

may their humiliation cover them like a cloak.

30But I will give repeated thanks to the lord,

praising him to everyone.

31For he stands beside the needy,

ready to save them from those who condemn them.

Thankful

I laughed, I cried, I was blessed as I read about God's way of changing lives.

Please share in my joy and read this short life story of the 2nd Chapter of Acts.

http://www.2ndchapterofacts.com/History.html

Last Enemy

1 Corinthians 15:26 NLT

And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
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I got news this morning that a friend died. He was only 51. Premature death came to my life early with the death of my grandfather. And then the life changing, gut wrenching, loss of my best friend and only brother (and only sibling) visited my life when on the 4th of June 1987, Daniel Allen Bode suddenly and unexpectedly died. I was irrevocably changed by these deaths.

Death is inevitable. Death is our enemy.

But death is not the end.

I've pasted in at the end of this note the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 15 about Jesus power over death and his ultimate victory over death.

Another passage that really helped me face death and make sense of it, is found in Hebrews chapter 2.
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Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
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Death and even more the fear of death has a great power over us. Jesus has a greater power.

I can not make sense of mortality and the ticking clock without lastly hearing Jesus.
The night my father called to tell me my little brother had died, I was stunned. I had been up most of the night studying and was deeply in academic mode and weary. Because of university and work I missed my brother's high school graduation. Luckily, my brother came to visit me in Chicago just before he died.

I told my dad, I'd be right there, a five hour drive. I called back to make sure it wasn't a bad dream or I'd misunderstood. No, it was true. (Thinking about it now makes me feel young, nearly a child again, and very vulnerable.)
I sat at the kitchen table and cried out to God. I had no idea where to turn. My Bible fell open to this passage and these were the words I read :
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John 11:21-26 NLT

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
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I answered, "I believe!"

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1 Corinthians 15:12-28 NLT

But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Schedule it

Today I read Leviticus chapters 21-23, why not read them today with me?
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Leviticus 23:2-4 NLT

“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly. “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the Lord’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live. “In addition to the Sabbath, these are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.

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I'm a big one for putting it on the calendar. I like a plan. Oh to be sure I like spontaneity but I think being flexible works best in a framework or a structure. Alongside the details of plans, diaries and expectations I love to see the big picture. I like a good overview.

Life benefits from both a healthy analysis as well as a synthesis. Look at the parts and how each part works individually and from very limited perspectives. Then look at the whole, the trends the big picture and see the parts with in the whole.

Leviticus contains instructions about the details of seven national annual festivals or holidays (Holy Days). These days were in addition to the weekly Sabbath days.

So a Jewish community calendar would have a lot to look forward to. But also there was the expectation that like western Christmas lots of money went into these festivals. Nearly each one required specific sacrifices. Since the real daily commodity of life is food and nearly all the required festival sacrifices were food a family would have to plan.

No holiday is complete without a big meal so it was more than a double consideration that a portion of the best food would be taken to the tabernacle /temple as a sacrifice and then there were the hungry families to feed.

These regular frequent privileges and equally obligations required planning.

But ultimately God was teaching his people to be careful and regular about recognising him as thier provider,  protector, defender and rescuer.

I can see how the whole system might become rather expensive and difficult to keep up with. But God said he'd provide.

By giving up a portion of the best regularly and then celebrating lavishly God's people had inbuilt systems to keep them dependant on God.

Do you see God's provision? Are you completely dependant on him? Do you have in your life specific times to celebrate? Are you preparing to honour God with your first fruits and remembering his rescues?

How about putting it on a calendar?

When I Wait On You

This track by the Daughters of Davis really inspires hope in me. I hope it does in you too.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4iaKBTC4QcQY94YCdKhL65

Join me!

http://bible.us/r/3a.X Today I am reading day 33 of Old Testament – The Books of Moses:

Fruitful in the Land of my Affliction

GEN 41:51-52 ESV

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house."  The name of the second he called Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

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Joseph has had it hard. He was singled out by his father as the most loved of 12 boys. That's gotta hurt! The whole robe thing is embarrassing. He's sent by his Father to effectively be a nark and check up on his brothers. That's not going to make you popular. Then God gives Joseph these dreams that no one wants to hear, not even his father. He's tossed in a deep hole and then sold to his cousins as a slave and in turn sold in Egypt. Joseph does well though until a sex crazed woman lies about him. And He's tossed into another pit, jail. And again he does well and even gets a big break with the cupbearer to Pharaoh, only to be forgotten for another two years. So when Joseph is 30 he has a huge life change and comes into fame and fortune! And he is railroaded into marrying the daughter of a false religion's leader.

But Joseph makes the best of the situation and gets busy! Now he has two sons. Joseph's son's names are significant. In fact when the twelve tribes of Israel are named throughout all history you will not hear Joseph himself named. Instead you hear of Joseph's sons! Have you ever thought about the fact that built into the twelve tribes of Israel are two half Egyptian grandson's to the high priest of an Egyptian god? 

Sometimes we need another perspective. And nothing can quite give us a new vantage point like a newborn baby. All that a newborn encapsulates fills us with hope. They are needy, vulnerable, and full of possibility and still they are resilient and demanding.

Joseph sees a new future when God blesses him with sons. And the blessing erases the past and provides for the future.

Now I'd like to encourage each one of you to have sons! But I mean spiritual sons! You are not too old, too single, too afflicted to ask God to make your faith fruitful. What your church needs are new believers. What your family needs is someone who has newly come to trust Jesus. We need in the church today the hope that comes with people being born again. Wherever you are, whatever your state in life, I'm asking you to pray that God makes you fruitful! I'm asking that you hope for newborns in the kingdom of God. And I pray as they come you give them names, may be new names. In addition to brother or sister call them Hope! Name them Ephraim! 

As time goes on and God speaks of his people, he uses different tribes to refer to the whole or called them all Israel after Jacob's name change. When heartbroken over his people God's term of endearment in the book of Hosea is Ephraim. So an Egyptian boy whose grandfather was a very important religious leader for an Egyptian god and his other grandfather was a man who actually wrestled with the one true God of promise. Ephraim, the son of Joseph is a sign of fruitfulness that comes from affliction.

a silent tsunami crashing the shore without warning.

Psalms 34:18 (NLT)

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

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There is a heaviness. It fills the breast and presses in like a weight. It takes your breath away but sometimes slowly crushing and other times coming like a silent tsunami crashing the shore without warning. While trying to shift it you feel guilt for a thing you can not put your finger on and everything you've ever done wrong. The burden of failures not your own coupled with inadequacies long felt and denied rush in to fill the black hole that is sucking your life away.

I pray.

The weight does not shift.

Fear invades.

Cold analysis seems painful and facts unable to change the feeling.

Keep telling myself the truth.

What is physical? What is mental? What is from outside myself and what is from deep within?

I am not a slave to this feeling. I will not be defeated by it; it will not overwhelm me! Tell my chest that. Tell my laboured breathing. Tell my tense muscles and tell my weary soul, that years of trying, and happy times have not erased that past. The future looms.

The future is sure. The past is erased. You are free. Even if you don't feel free you are free. Today, Now begins anew. Newness is a promise. You know newness and freedom. You will not be robbed.

You need sleep. You need to pray. You need to reach out. In reaching out you feel help. Make a list. Point your finger. Dismiss the Accuser! The debt is paid. The burden is shared. The burden is light. There is a lightness.

Let your worries for others go. Take them to the Father. Lay them down. He can raise the dead.
I meant it for evil but he can use it for good. They mean it for evil but He can use it for good. Evil does not win!

The head hurts from the battle. The neck aches. But I surrender not to darkness but to light.

Darkness can not defeat the light.

Wait for his rescue. It will come!

Mistaken identity

Genesis 21:1-7 ESV

The Lord
visited Sarah
as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age
at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.  And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old,
as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said,
"God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me." And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
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How many times have you heard this story? I know I've heard it many times. And it seems to me every time I've ever heard it before I've left thinking of Abraham and even more so of Sarah. And to be sure both of them are key characters. We should empathise with them. It is an exciting miracle. A very old couple have become first time parents. Sarah is ninety! Ninety year old women don't have babies!
But this is not first and foremost a story about Abraham, Sarah, or Isaac.

This is a story about God!

If you take a moment to thumb through your Bible around these chapters in Genesis. Look for the number of times the narration punctuates the action with God or the Lord. God said. The Lord said. The Lord went. God came. God caused.
And crucially in these seven verses above, God has made.

Listen to how Paul puts God the focus of Abraham's sorry in Romans,
Romans 4:19-22 ESV

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead ( since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness."

Romans 9:8-11 ESV

This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—

Later the author of the book of Hebrews sheds this light on these events,

Hebrews 11:11-19 ESV

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

In every case the story is about God. Is your life story about God? Are you putting your faith in the promise of God to you?

When you review your past or contemplate your future is it seen though the lens of God's plan and God's promise?

Don't try to be the star of this epic saga. Trust God who, keeps giving. Expect God to enable you to fulfil his promise to you.

Do you even know God's promise to you? Here's a clue it is a promise about Jesus. Jesus is the son of promise, born out of time. Born into impossible circumstances. Born to declare God's intention to save. Born to show God to you. Jesus is ultimately the one who in every way fulfils the many promises of God.

Do you know him?
Do you trust him?
Are you expecting him to work out the promise of God to you?
Are you making sure the story of your life is a story about God fulfilling his promise through Jesus?

Is God not more just and merciful than you?

Genesis 18:32 ESV

Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there." He answered, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it."
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Here in Genesis 18 God debates within himself the appropriateness of telling Abraham his plan to judge Sodom. (v.17) Abraham, most likely thinking of Lot, his nephew, begins to consider the consequences of judgement on Sodom.

Abraham like us knew Lot was wealthy and he had many employees, and some married daughters as well as sons in laws,  so from this considerable family and business surely there'd be 50 people who did not deserve to be judged. 

But Abraham reconsidered his original negotiation with God. He thought about things in Lot's town being pretty bad. So with determination and a bit of fear Abraham haggles with God down to a mere ten. Could this number represent just Lot and his immediate family?
Whatever it was Abraham had hoped there were ten! There were not ten.

But God let's Lot warn family that doesn't take heed and then let's Lot escape to a very small near by village.

I hope you read the Bible everyday and that you read it honestly.

Maybe you've followed along reading some of the passages I've been reading. If you have, you should be seeing a trend in Genesis so far.

People are given everything they need to do right and they choose to do wrong.

It starts with the curse and being driven out of Eden. Then there is Cain the murderer being driven to wander. And people go so far from God's way that during the time of Noah the whole of creation is judged for the wickedness of all the people. And Noah and his family are saved alone. Now Lot and his daughters are saved alone as fire and brimstone rain from heaven.

You should ask yourself, 'Will any one take God seriously?'

It is not like God had not displayed his power and intention. But what do we do with our free will? What do we do to our Eden? What do we do to our brother? What do we do to our neighbour or the weary travellers?

Who is faithful and who is corrupt?

And even now today you have a choice as do I. Who will I believe? Who will I serve?  Who will I fear and worship?

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Genesis 18:25 ESV

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"

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God's promise to you today is a resounding yes. He will indeed do what is just. And yet he will also be merciful. And for your sake his mercy is your salvation.

Romans 5:17 ESV

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

The compatibility of bringing grief and showing compassion.

Lamentations 3:31-33 NLT

For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.

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I've finished reading Jeremiah and Lamentations this week. I've also been preparing a Bible study on Joshua chapter 11. I'm very concerned for you and for me. I think we have deliberately misrepresented God.

We think we know what's best. We are quite sure we know right from wrong. So we think we know how God should act. We stand in judgement over God. We gather others who hold the same opinion as us and feel smug. We feel self - righteous. We're confident we know how God behaves.

God is a nice God.

Or we dream up an evolved God, a new God, a changed God of the New Testament.

BUT God is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

God does not change.
What God does is right.
We are not better than God nor do we know better than him.
We can not take from God what he has claimed. We can not attribute to another what God has attributed to himself.

When I read these passages I have to reevaluate my opinion of God. I must fear God. I must trust him. I must follow him because he demands it. I must not think I am better than God. I must not think I know better than God.

I must not make God in my puny image.

I must also not use God as my sword! God is not my tool for my twisted sense of vengeance or my bigger gun brought to the shoot out! I do not choose what is just. God is not up for the highest bidder.

I've seen both these approaches to God's more uncomfortable accounts of judgment. From the first chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, God has held out death and all its horrors as a judgement for disobedience. And God does demand love. We showers us with blessings and he scares us with terrors! But all this is to the end that we would know him, fear him, and love him! Far too often we have glossed over the overwhelming inescapable wretched judgements brought about by God against his people for their hard hearted spiteful rebellion. But then we also have ignored his self sacrificing, compassion, grace and love! In fact we have ignored God altogether unless it is to use him as a genie in a lamp, a scapegoat for evil and trouble or a weapon against our enemies. We can not make God for our own purposes! We did not invent right and wrong. We are not trustworthy sources of ethics, morals or reality. We are flawed and selfish. We should stop making idols that bear the name of Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. We must cease reading the Bible to accomplish our own ends. 

We are not God. We actually misunderstand who God is or what he is like. A proper view of God should be our goal. And to that end we must challenge our preconceptions. We must not avoid the unavoidable. We must force our minds to wrestle with the truth. Our world is full of apparent paradoxes. We don't know everything. In fact we actually really know very little. Whether we are people of faith or people of reason, whether we are say we follow science or the Bible or feel we have reconciled them both. We will have to trust other sources, we will have to accept we can't explain all the apparent paradoxes.

But we still need to grapple with them.

We need to be humbled.

We need to resist making God in our own image.

• God the bear

  • Lamentations 3:10 (NLT)

    10He has hidden like a bear or a lion,waiting to attack me.

  • Lamentations 3:11 (NLT)

    11He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces,leaving me helpless and devastated.

  • Lamentations 3:12 (NLT)

    12He has drawn his bowand made me the target for his arrows.

  • Lamentations 3:13 (NLT)

    13He shot his arrowsdeep into my heart.

  • Lamentations 3:14 (NLT)

    14My own people laugh at me.All day long they sing their mocking songs.

  • Lamentations 3:15 (NLT)

    15He has filled me with bitternessand given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.

  • Lamentations 3:16 (NLT)

    16He has made me chew on gravel.He has rolled me in the dust.
  Labels: arrows gravel joshua 11

• Dead in the streets

  • Lamentations 2:20 (NLT)

    20“O Lord, think about this!Should you treat your own people this way?Should mothers eat their own children,those they once bounced on their knees?Should priests and prophets be killedwithin the Lord’s Temple?

  • Lamentations 2:21 (NLT)

    21“See them lying in the streets—young and old,boys and girls,killed by the swords of the enemy.You have killed them in your anger,slaughtering them without mercy.
  Labels: cannibals joshua 11 lying in the streets

• Utter horror

  • Isaiah 66:24 (NLT)

    24And as they go out, they will seethe dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me.For the worms that devour them will never die,and the fire that burns them will never go out.All who pass bywill view them with utter horror.”
  Labels: joshua 11

• Eaten by worms

  • Acts 12:23 (NLT)

    23Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.
  Labels: joshua 11 judgement

• Destroyed by your only helper

  • Hosea 13:9 (NLT)

    9“You are about to be destroyed, O Israel—yes, by me, your only helper.
  Labels: 11 by god destroyed

• Mangled like a wild animal

  • Hosea 13:2 (NLT)

    2Now they continue to sin by making silver idols,images shaped skillfully with human hands.“Sacrifice to these,” they cry,“and kiss the calf idols!”

  • Hosea 13:3 (NLT)

    3Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist,like dew in the morning sun,like chaff blown by the wind,like smoke from a chimney.

  • Hosea 13:4 (NLT)

    4“I have been the Lord your Godever since I brought you out of Egypt.You must acknowledge no God but me,for there is no other savior.

  • Hosea 13:5 (NLT)

    5I took care of you in the wilderness,in that dry and thirsty land.

  • Hosea 13:6 (NLT)

    6But when you had eaten and were satisfied,you became proud and forgot me.

  • Hosea 13:7 (NLT)

    7So now I will attack you like a lion,like a leopard that lurks along the road.

  • Hosea 13:8 (NLT)

    8Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away,I will tear out your heart.I will devour you like a hungry lionessand mangle you like a wild animal.
  Labels: joshua 11 judgement mangled tear out your heart

• Babies dashed, pregnant women ripped

  • Hosea 13:16 (NLT)

    16The people of Samariamust bear the consequences of their guiltbecause they rebelled against their God.They will be killed by an invading army,their little ones dashed to death against the ground,their pregnant women ripped open by swords.”
  Labels: because joshua 11 judgement killed rebellion terrible

• Bowel trouble painful death judgment

  • 2 Chronicles 21:13 (NLT)

    13Instead, you have been as evil as the kings of Israel. You have led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship idols, just as King Ahab did in Israel. And you have even killed your own brothers, men who were better than you.

  • 2 Chronicles 21:14 (NLT)

    14So now the Lord is about to strike you, your people, your children, your wives, and all that is yours with a heavy blow.

  • 2 Chronicles 21:15 (NLT)

    15You yourself will suffer with a severe intestinal disease that will get worse each day until your bowels come out.”

  • 2 Chronicles 21:16 (NLT)

    16Then the Lord stirred up the Philistines and the Arabs, who lived near the Ethiopians, to attack Jehoram.

  • 2 Chronicles 21:17 (NLT)

    17They marched against Judah, broke down its defenses, and carried away everything of value in the royal palace, including the king’s sons and his wives. Only his youngest son, Ahaziah, was spared.

  • 2 Chronicles 21:18 (NLT)

    18After all this, the Lord struck Jehoram with the severe intestinal disease.

  • 2 Chronicles 21:19 (NLT)

    19The disease grew worse and worse, and at the end of two years it caused his bowels to come out, and he died in agony. His people did not build a great funeral fire to honor him as they had done for his ancestors.
  Labels: bowel death idolatry joshua 11 judgement painful trouble

• Manure on your face

  • Malachi 2:3 (NLT)

    3I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile.
  Labels: joshua 11

• Ripe for judgment, scattered dead bodies

  • Amos 8:2 (NLT)

    2“What do you see, Amos?” he asked.I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again.

  • Amos 8:3 (NLT)

    3In that day the singing in the Temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
  Labels: joshua 11

• Harsh day of the Lord

  • Amos 5:18 (NLT)

    18What sorrow awaits you who say,“If only the day of the Lord were here!”You have no idea what you are wishing for.That day will bring darkness, not light.

  • Amos 5:19 (NLT)

    19In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—only to meet a bear.Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—and he’s bitten by a snake.

  • Amos 5:20 (NLT)

    20Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,without a ray of joy or hope.

  • Amos 5:21 (NLT)

    21“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
  Labels: joshua 11

• I will slaughter

  • Amos 1:8 (NLT)

    8I will slaughter the people of Ashdodand destroy the king of Ashkelon.Then I will turn to attack Ekron,and the few Philistines still left will be killed,”says the Sovereign Lord.
  Labels: joshua 11

• Day of the Lord, horrible

  • Zechariah 14:6 (NLT)

    6On that day the sources of light will no longer shine,

  • Zechariah 14:12 (NLT)

    12And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
  Labels: joshua 11

• Disaster comes from God

  • Job 12:9 (NLT)

    9For they all knowthat my disaster has come from the hand of the Lord.

  • Job 12:10 (NLT)

    10For the life of every living thing is in his hand,and the breath of every human being.
  Labels: joshua 11

• God as a fighter

  • Jeremiah 48:10 (NLT)

    10Cursed are those who refuse to do the Lord’s work,who hold back their swords from shedding blood!
  Labels: joshua 11

• God as a fighter

  • Zechariah 14:1 (NLT)

    1Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you!

  • Zechariah 14:2 (NLT)

    2I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.

  • Zechariah 14:3 (NLT)

    3Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.
  Labels: joshua 11

• King caught

  • Lamentations 4:20 (NLT)

    20Our king—the Lord’s anointed, the very life of our nation—was caught in their snares.We had thought that his shadowwould protect us against any nation on earth!
  Labels: jesus messiah

• Tenderhearted cannibals

  • Lamentations 4:10 (NLT)

    10Tenderhearted womenhave cooked their own children.They have eaten themto survive the siege.
  Labels: cannibals jerusalem siege survival women

• No one abandoned forever

  • Lamentations 3:31 (NLT)

    31For no one is abandonedby the Lord forever.

  • Lamentations 3:32 (NLT)

    32Though he brings grief, he also shows compassionbecause of the greatness of his unfailing love.

  • Lamentations 3:33 (NLT)

    33For he does not enjoy hurting peopleor causing them sorrow.
  Labels: abandoned compassion crushed grief unfailing love

• Mercies never cease

  • Lamentations 3:16 (NLT)

    16He has made me chew on gravel.He has rolled me in the dust.

  • Lamentations 3:21 (NLT)

    21Yet I still dare to hopewhen I remember this:

  • Lamentations 3:22 (NLT)

    22The faithful love of the Lord never ends!His mercies never cease.

  • Lamentations 3:23 (NLT)

    23Great is his faithfulness;his mercies begin afresh each morning.
  Labels: bitter cup gravel hope judgement