Day 10/28 – The Limits of Patience

Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
The Limits of Patience
Day Three Hundred One

“For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Hebrews 12:6

When it comes time to discipline your children, you must purpose to use God’s standards rather than your own. Following your rules rather than those laid out by God in Scripture implies that you have better insight than He in how to correct and instill proper behavior in your children, and this in tum will lead you into much pain and grief. For example, a man told me that his son was in rebellion, breaking the commandments of God. When asked if he planned on using the standards of Scripture, he said, “I can’t; he is my son.” Now I do not believe this, nor does he. Supposing the son started hitting his mother, stealing all valuables from the home and selling them, starting a fire in the middle of the living room floor? At some point the parent will have to bring a halt to such behavior. The only question is, will he use the standards of God, or gauge it by his own tolerance for pain.

If you elect the latter in your confrontation of wrongdoing, you will probably establish extra-biblical rules while tolerating the breaking of God’s rules. And you will be unfair with the one you are disciplining. I saw a parent tell his child not to get drunk. The child violated the command again and again. Finally the parent expelled him from the home. The problem rested with the parent: should the child respond the first time the parent speaks, or the third, or fifth? How does the child know? If the child knew in advance that the parent would execute biblical discipline, the situation may never have gotten to place where the child was asked to leave.382

Discipline is an essential part of relationships, and one of the highest expressions of love. Covenant with God that you will use only His standards when disciplining.

382 Cf. I Corinthians 5

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Jeremiah 15-17 2 Timothy 2 (New King James Version)

Jeremiah 15-17
The Lord Will Not Relent
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My [a]mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. 2 And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Such as are for death, to death;
And such as are for the sword, to the sword;
And such as are for the famine, to the famine;
And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.” ’
3 “And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5
“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Or who will bemoan you?
Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
6
You have forsaken Me,” says the Lord,
“You have gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am [b]weary of relenting!
7
And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they do not return from their ways.
8
Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
9
“She languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah’s Dejection
10
Woe is me, my mother,
That you have borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole [c]earth!
I have neither lent for interest,
Nor have men lent to me for interest.
Every one of them curses me.
11 The Lord said:
“Surely it will be well with your remnant;
Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you
In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.
12
Can anyone break iron,
The northern iron and the bronze?
13
Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as plunder without price,
Because of all your sins,
Throughout your territories.
14
And I will [d]make you cross over with your enemies
Into a land which you do not know;
For a fire is kindled in My anger,
Which shall burn upon you.”
15
O Lord, You know;
Remember me and [e]visit me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.
Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.
16
Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
17
I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,
Nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone because of Your hand,
For You have filled me with indignation.
18
Why is my pain perpetual
And my wound incurable,
Which refuses to be healed?
Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream,
As waters that [f]fail?
The Lord Reassures Jeremiah
19 Therefore thus says the Lord:
“If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.
20
And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
21
“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”
Jeremiah’s Lifestyle and Message
16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 “They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
5 For thus says the Lord: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord, “lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. 8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”
9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of [g]mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one [h]follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’
God Will Restore Israel
14 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. 18 And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”
19
O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
20
Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?
21
“Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,
I will cause them to know
My hand and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the Lord.
Judah’s Sin and Punishment
17
“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is engraved
On the tablet of their heart,
And on the horns of your altars,
2
While their children remember
Their altars and their wooden[i] images
By the green trees on the high hills.
3
O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
4
And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his [j]strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6
For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.
7
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
8
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not [k]fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
9
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And [l]desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
10
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the [m]mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
11
“As a partridge that [n]broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool.”
12
A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.
“Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The fountain of living waters.”
Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
14
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.
15
Indeed they say to me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now!”
16
As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
17
Do not be a terror to me;
You are my hope in the day of doom.
18
Let them be ashamed who persecute me,
But do not let me be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed,
But do not let me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of doom,
And destroy[o] them with double destruction!
Hallow the Sabbath Day
19 Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but [p]made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
24 “And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the Lord, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the [q]lowland, from the mountains and from the [r]South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.
27 “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” ’ ”
Footnotes:
• Jeremiah 15:1 Lit. soul was not toward
• Jeremiah 15:6 tired
• Jeremiah 15:10 Or land
• Jeremiah 15:14 So with MT, Vg.; LXX, Syr., Tg. cause you to serve (cf. 17:4)
• Jeremiah 15:15 attend to
• Jeremiah 15:18 Or cannot be trusted
• Jeremiah 16:9 rejoicing
• Jeremiah 16:12 walks after the stubbornness or imagination
• Jeremiah 17:2 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
• Jeremiah 17:5 Lit. arm
• Jeremiah 17:8 Qr., Tg. see
• Jeremiah 17:9 Or incurably sick
• Jeremiah 17:10 Most secret parts, lit. kidneys
• Jeremiah 17:11 Sits on eggs
• Jeremiah 17:18 Lit. crush
• Jeremiah 17:23 Were stubborn
• Jeremiah 17:26 Heb. shephelah
• Jeremiah 17:26 Heb. Negev

2 Timothy 2
Be Strong in Grace
2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure[a] hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. 7 Consider what I say, and [b]may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the [c]elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11 This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12
If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
Approved and Disapproved Workers
14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to [d]strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and [e]idle babblings, for they will [f]increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of [g]Christ depart from iniquity.”
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, [h]sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Footnotes:
• 2 Timothy 2:3 NU You must share
• 2 Timothy 2:7 NU the Lord will give you
• 2 Timothy 2:10 chosen ones
• 2 Timothy 2:14 battle
• 2 Timothy 2:16 empty chatter
• 2 Timothy 2:16 lead
• 2 Timothy 2:19 NU, M the Lord
• 2 Timothy 2:21 set apart