Jeremiah

This week, we're diving into the life of Jeremiah, discussing the dangers of ignoring God's warnings and the courage to stay faithful. Tune in for inspiration and encouragement! ✨

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast. I am your host, kara R Hunt, and with me is Sherry awesome human being, swalwell.

Speaker 2: 0:30

How are you doing? I am doing great. The sun is shining today. We don't have the rainy weather. It's kind of like cozy and I don't feel quite so intense. But today, I don't know, I just kind of feel energized. I have a busy day today and I just I'm kind of glad that the sun's going to be pushing me along.

Speaker 1: 1:00

Right, and, yes, I love these sunshiny days that we are having, and God is just so good, you know, because, like we've talked about numerous times before, rainy days used to just make me down and everything else, but now I'm loving all that God has to offer. Right, it's like I really thoroughly enjoy all four seasons. God has given me a totally different perspective, you know, on each and how each has its own. It just reminds me of the seasons of life, let me put it that way, you know. And so, again, welcome to the Cheer Up podcast. And we just want to say welcome to Cheer Nation. And we just want to say thank you for tuning in every week On Wednesdays. You know we are new episodes are, like, generally uploaded. I say generally because it's maybe 1% of the time that you know we may have to do it on a Thursday or something, but 99.9% of the time is on a Wednesday. And we just thank you all so much for joining us, for all of our loyal listeners.

Speaker 1: 2:10

And I just want to take a minute to shout out to some areas that new listeners and loyal listeners. I mean we have them from New York, new York, las Vegas, nevada, detroit, michigan, annandale, virginia, spring Valley, california, camden, maine, montgomery, alabama, ashburn, virginia, richland, michigan, oakland City, indiana, mississauga, ontario, norwich, connecticut, clearfield, pennsylvania, port St Lucie, florida, fort Pierce, florida, indianapolis, indiana, dallas, texas and I've got to give a huge shout out to these countries India, colombia, singapore, canada, chile, netherlands, nepal and Germany. Thank you all for just tuning in and for welcoming the Chiro podcast into your day and just helping us with your journey to joy as we go through the scriptures, as we talk about topics that are important to Christian living in this day and time, and so I just wanted to let everybody know that we see you, that we know you're there, and that we are also thankful that you're listening. So thank you all so much for joining us and for continuing to return every week. Is there anything you want to say to them, sherry?

Speaker 2: 3:39

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. We hear you, we see you and we are, just like Kara said, just so appreciative and so thankful.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Thankful, grateful, blessed. We do are a huge part of why we do what we do. So we just wanted to say thank you and say hello and if you ever wanted to introduce you guys yourself personally, just send a name, just send your first name to cheerlepodcast at gmailcom and we would love to add you guys to our prayer list. We would just that is something. You don't have to give last name, you don't even you know, or whatever. You could just say um Annie from Florida or, you know. You could just say um Mary from Bogota, you know, cause they're also on our list. I hope I didn't overlook Bogota, um there. So, yes, just thank you, just thank you guys. So much, but this, right now we are getting ready to finish. Wait, are we wrapping up this month? Where are we, sherry? What month are we in?

Speaker 2: 4:56

We are in the third week of June already. It's unbelievable. But we have one more week in June, next week, and then we will be in July already Unbelievable. Where is the time going? Where? After next week, we're going to flip over to the New Testament. So we've been in the Old Testament this whole time, but we're going to flip over to the New Testament. It's starting in July, so it's an exciting next couple of weeks.

Speaker 1: 5:28

I know, and this time, and as everyone knows who have tuned in, and for those of you who do not, we have been talking about biblical figures and we've covered, oh, so many of them over the past couple of months, from the Old Testament, and today we are talking about Jeremiah. He is a great excuse me, he's a great prophet in the Old Testament and he, oh my gosh, one of the parts that I really loved about when you read through what you can see in the scriptures in the book of Jeremiah Sherry, is how many times it says the word of the Lord came to me. This is Jeremiah talking right, and he says because it's named, the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament is written by Jeremiah. And when he says and the word of the Lord came to me, oh, my gosh, in the 50 something chapters of Jeremiah, that happens so many times where he says the word of the Lord came to me. And he also had visions of things God had given him visions and so, anyway, he was a great prophet. He was a great prophet but he did not. So when he first comes into his ministry, his prophet ministry in the Old Testament, he is under a good king. He is under King Josiah. Things are looking good and things are looking great. However, king Josiah is kind of cut down on his prime, and so the fourth son is it Sherry? Of Jeremiah? Oh, how do you pronounce his name? Jehoakim? Jehoakim, I think ended up becoming the king of Judah and, oh my gosh, it went from like a really good godly kingdom, you know, where God was honored, and everything else, until the Israelites went right back into idol worship.

Speaker 1: 7:32

And so the word of the Lord kept coming to the great prophet Jeremiah and for 40 years I believe the scripture said approximately 40 years it kept. He kept telling the prophet Jeremiah, kept telling Judah y'all need to repent, we need to repent, Like you know what is going on, don't you look? How far have you forgotten about everything that God has done for us? And everything was great until we got this new king, like, but no, now you know we need to repent, otherwise some horrible things are going to come, some dire things are going to come. You know, if we do not repent as a nation, and Judah's just like yeah, no, we're just going to keep our idol worship, we're just still going to do everything else. But 40 years approximately I should say 40 years he kept trying to tell them to turn, to repent as a nation and to turn from their ways. Well, guess what? They did not do that and they ended up being taken over, I believe, by the Assyrians.

Speaker 1: 8:32

And Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, his beloved city, and he witnessed the destruction of the Holy Temple. And I, just when you put yourself in his place, and he's like, for 40 years I've been trying to tell you guys like this was what was going to happen. And then he's like, and then he witnesses it. He witnesses the destruction of Jerusalem, he witnesses the destruction of the Holy Temple, he witnesses the people and the moanings and the groanings and everything else, and he's sitting there, going. I tried to warn you, I tried to tell you, the Lord told me and I told you that this was going to happen. But to just be able to sit there and witness it and his heart is aching right and he's just like. I so wanted to prevent this. I did everything I could to prevent this, you know.

Speaker 1: 9:33

But Jeremiah, being a nice, awesome guy that he is, he didn't really, I don't think, just was like didn't I tell you guys that this was going to happen, you know, and everything else.

Speaker 1: 9:49

He was more of like.

Speaker 1: 9:51

He just kind of went there and he even witnessed to those, I think, that were taken captive, if I'm not mistaken, and he just tried to give them encouragement and hope, you know, and everything else, because he's like gosh I really could be rubbing it in these people's faces, like now, that this was going to happen.

Speaker 1: 10:14

God gave them 40 years to repent, you know, and the scriptures talks about how God is long suffering to us and not willing that any should perish, you know, but that all should come to repentance. And he well, that's in 2 Peter, but he was. He gave them 40 years, he gave them such a long time, the heart of God, and he sent Jeremiah to warn them, you know. But yet Judah has to face the consequences, the consequences, and again we're talking about a story that was written approximately in 585 BC. And you're probably saying, hey, carrie, what has that got to do with us today? And in so many ways we could look at that, because it was like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, thousands of years ago. But, and God was like you know what?

Speaker 1: 11:26

I need you to tell this person this and you know or warn them that this behavior you know, could you know, end disaster disastrously you know, and to the point where you're like, and then you, you warn them and you're like this isn't, no, there's just no way this is going to end well. And they're just like flipping their hand at you or something, and you're just like, okay, lord, I told them, I called them up like you nudged me to, I talked with them at dinner, like you told me to, you know, and things like that, but they're not listening. And then you witness, you, things like that, and but it's, they're not listening. And then you witness, you witness the downfall. You know how heartbreaking is that.

Speaker 1: 12:13

And I just think, regarding I think we should just follow Jeremiah's example and not kind of rub their face in it. Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you? Didn't I tell you that the Lord told me that this just wasn't going to end well for you? Or didn't you see the writing on the wall? Didn't you see all the red flags? You know, are you crazy? Are you stupid? Are you dumb? Like what? Like how come you couldn't get it?

Speaker 1: 12:37

You know that's really not going to help bring them to repentance, which is truly what God wants, right, even though we know it and we're hurting. We're not saying that to be mean. We're like your life. You wouldn't have to face these consequences right now if you had just listened, and that's really what our angry words are about right In most cases. But I think we just need to follow Jeremiah and just hug them, minister to them and continue to encourage them, continue to give them hope so that, in the end, that they will come to true repentance. And because they haven't sinned against us, even though we were the ones sent to warn them, they sinned against God, you know, and so the whole point is to like get them to repent of their lifestyle, their behavior, the things that they have done, the things that they have not done Right, and just to bring them into that closer relationship with God. What are your thoughts on Jeremiah, sherry? I?

Speaker 2: 13:34

completely, completely agree with you, kara. The older I get, the more I see from my own experience, but it's like my own life and the grace that I've been given from many, many different people and the more that I like as a parent. So I'm thinking Jeremiah kind of felt the same way as a prophet, because a prophet is sent to warn not necessarily discipline, but disciple and disciple and to warn and to be that voice of reason and that's kind of what a parent is.

Speaker 2: 14:08

A parent is supposed to disciple and um love and train and equip their kids to be able to go out and be um responsible adults. And so I kind of get the impression that that Jeremiah kind of felt like a parent to these people and so I kind of get the impression that Jeremiah kind of felt like a parent to these people and so there would be that level of frustration of man.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Why aren't you listening to me? I do know what I'm talking about, but at the same token, I don't know of any child that listens or handles. I told you so very well, and I don't care how old you are, if you're three you're 33.

Speaker 2: 14:48

If you're told I told you so you're kind of making it so that you're kind of shutting the door of communication between the two of you and you're kind of making it so that they're not going to listen to you going forward because they know they're going to be met with.

Speaker 2: 15:06

It puts these unrealistic expectations on them that I can't make a mistake, I can't do anything wrong, I can't learn. And the whole point of a prophet, a parent, a disciple, um, is to teach and is to guide and is to to bring somebody to the point where they want to repent and they want to have that relationship with God. And ultimately that's what God wants. And ultimately that's what Jeremiah was trying to tell these people is hey, we have gone so far from where we need to be. We have gone so far from God's best for us. Look at what we're doing. In fact, what I was reading when I was studying Jeremiah, it was talking about how they even started doing child sacrifices, like that's how far from where they had been Talk about turning a deaf ear to the warnings right.

Speaker 2: 16:01

From God.

Speaker 1: 16:02

Talk about turning.

Speaker 2: 16:03

They went so low, so depraved but go ahead Exactly, and so any kind of I told you so is going to fall on deaf ears and it's going to make it so that even or especially, when you have something important to say, people aren. That really struck me when you were talking is God has so much grace for us and God has so much mercy and he has such a long patience for his people In a way. Now trust me, I am not saying that God's ways are wrong by any means. I am so grateful that God is as patient and as loving and kind and and waits for us before he long suffering.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Yeah, there we go.

Speaker 2: 16:52

I'm so grateful that he's so long suffering, because when his judgment comes I don't want to be anywhere near it. But I think, because the parent or the parent, I think because the people, the Israelite people, hadn't faced God's consequences, that I think they got to the point where they just didn't believe it anymore, that they were like, oh no, he's, let us do this for this long. He doesn't care, he'll, let us do it. We're not doing anything. And I think that's where the lies of the enemy come in.

Speaker 2: 17:26

So that's not a slam against god by any means. That's a look at how the lies of the enemy come in and trick and deceive us, which is why, as believers, we need to continually ask god for a soft heart, ask god to create in me a clean heart oh lord and renewal right spirit within. See if there's any wicked ways in me and help me to turn from them. Basically is what the scripture is saying, and when I look at, we're almost done with the Old Testament. There's so many more stories and so much more for people to learn from that and we hope that you'll go back and learn it yourself or read it yourself. But we're almost done with the Old Testament, and one of the main themes of the Old Testament that I found is that people start out strong. David started out really strong, or he?

Speaker 2: 18:16

was really really strong as a warrior and as a fighter, but yet he was a horrible parent. He did not parent his children at all. He was a great leader, so he knew how to lead. He could have parented his kids great, but he, like I don't know, checked out when it came to them and he, he committed some pretty awful sins as well.

Speaker 2: 18:42

So I, when I read those stories and when I read those events, those historical events in history, I think to myself and I, I have conversations with God and I'm like Lord, I don't want to figure out, I want to finish strong, I want to start strong and I'm going to finish strong.

Speaker 2: 19:01

I created me, this clean heart. So if there is something in me, lord, that is a slippery slope and I'm starting to go down the mountain, I want you to draw my attention quickly so that I can course correct quickly and not not pay the penalty that the people of Judah, the Israelite people, had had face or that David had to face. Like he grieved because his children were so horrid, they were trying to overtake him and his one son ended up being killed because of it, and that was the son that killed the other son who raped his half sister, david's daughter. So like I don't want to ever come to a place in my life where I'm so immune and I'm so hard that I miss the nudges of the Holy Spirit to turn, so that one I finish strong, but well, no, that would be the second.

Speaker 2: 20:05

The second that I finish strong, but the first, so that that would be the second. The second that I finished strong, but the first so that there's no sin in me, like I don't want. I don't want to listen to the voice of society and culture so much so that I ignore or stop hearing the voice of the spirit. So those are the two things that really took away from what you were talking about.

Speaker 1: 20:29

You know it was something that you had mentioned like, okay, well, I have done this and nothing happened, so God must be okay with it, type of thing. Well, you were saying they turned a deaf ear because you know, it was almost as if okay, so we're going to do this, and then, okay, nothing happened.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Oh well, now we're going to do another animal sacrifice and it went from animal sacrifices to children's sacrifices or whatever sacrifice. Right, because the longer you're in that type of state of mind, it just gets worse and worse and worse. Right, because you keep thinking what you can get away with more. And in today's society it's just like a spouse, a husband saying, who cheats on his wife, and he's like, oh, I didn't get struck by lightning, since he calls himself a Christian. Right, oh, I just cheated on my wife, I didn't get struck by lightning, and okay, I feel like I'm okay with that, but I'm not going to do it again. And then next thing, you know, they, I feel like I'm okay with that, but I'm not going to do it again. And then next thing, you know, they fought the temptation again and again and again and again and they're not quote unquote struck by lightning. So they just keep thinking that they can get away with it. But we have to remember God sees all.

Speaker 2: 21:43

And you're not quote unquote using the phrase struck by lightning, because he's giving you time to repent. Exactly, you know he's.

Speaker 2: 21:47

But we don't see it that way, do we? We see it. No, god's still blessing us. No, god's giving well, god's giving you mercy. But yes, there's a pastor, tim delena, from the times square church times square, yeah, church in um in new york city, and he preached a sermon about that. It it was called Dangerous Success. Don't Be Fooled by Flushing Water by Tim Delina, and it's the exact same thing that we're just talking about. Don't be fooled by the blessings that you're getting or by the lack of punishment or consequences that you're getting. It doesn't mean that God is blessing or condoning what you're doing. He never condoned David's affair with Bathsheba. He never condoned him murdering Uriah, her husband. He just waited for David to repent and then, when David didn't repent, then the consequences came faster than what the Israelites are seeing. So, yes, I mean, you hit the nail on the head there, kara.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Well, yeah, and it's like, but you have made me think of that because it's like we do so many things in life. And then we think, okay, I'm good, it's okay, you repent the first time because you know the Spirit of God is still strong in you, right? And you just repent and you're just like, okay, god, I'm so sorry, I can't believe I fell to that temptation, I won't do it again. Right, but that's like a half-hearted thing, because the temptation is going to come again, you know. And then the more you give in, the more you give in, the more you give in. First it's just oh, it just was a coworker that you like the look of or something. And then you know then it's another coworker and everything else. And then you're like, okay, I still have my job as a pastor or minister or worship leader and everything else, and no one's talking about it or no one's seeing anything, you know, and I just keep getting away with it. And the next thing you know your coworker and a friend, your friends and other coworkers and other women in your life, just using that husband as an example, they no longer just satisfy you. So you sink deeper, you sink deeper and now, all of a sudden you are going to strip clubs. Of a sudden you are going to strip clubs, right.

Speaker 1: 24:08

And so it's like the old saying that sin will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay. And it started out as one thing and you were like, okay, good, okay, I'm good with that, okay, everything's still good. No one still knows my wife, don't know Church, don't know my job, don't know Whatever. But then you just keep giving in. And you keep giving in, because that first time you thought you got away with it, when really that was just God's mercy, saying, okay, you know, I'm waiting for you to truly repent, I'm waiting for you to do this. But instead, every time the enemy throws somebody new in your face, you're like getting into temptation. And it only leads to more temptation, because now you had a taste of the wild side, right, and the wild side can be very, very enticing.

Speaker 1: 24:55

But the thing is it takes you so far deep that you're like drowning and you don't even know how to get out. But the enemy told you to be fine. Oh God, don't mind, look you still. You, you'll be fine. Oh God, don't mind, look you still. Got your job and everything else. Look, you're fine, you're a man, you're human, you have needs, you have wants. You have to fulfill these things. Your wife's not doing it. You have to get these things done and you start believing the lies, and those lies are slowly leading you into a pit that you're soon going to find yourself so hard to get out of, because then it's no longer that the strip clubs and the women are doing anything for you anymore. Then now you're going to hookers and prostitutes and then after that you know it could be children.

Speaker 1: 25:45

It just goes so far because the enemy has no bounds. It has none, and it started off as one thing. And then you end up in a mire, in the pit, and you're like how did I get here? How did I get here? And so sometimes we have to. You know, it's like we talked about when we did the podcast on Yael and how she had to put the tent peg through the man's temple, through the enemy's temple. Sometimes, when those things come to us in our life and we're talking spirit, she did it physically right, because they had to get rid of Sisera, right Because they they had to get rid of Cicera. But spiritually, a lot of times, when those temptations come, we have to. How do the scriptures put it? Sherry, flee from the enemy. No, ignore the enemy and he will flee. Yes, well, yes.

Speaker 2: 26:42

We have to have all of our thoughts and then, yes, we need to. Yes, you know, I'm gonna you keep talking and I'm gonna look that up because that's gonna bug me.

Speaker 1: 26:52

Oh yeah, Resist the enemy.

Speaker 2: 26:55

There you go, resist. That's it from you, yep.

Speaker 1: 26:59

Yes, resist the enemy and he will flee.

Speaker 1: 27:08

He will flee and that is so important because if you don't, then you're going to find yourself in a place and you're going to be looking up and around and like how did I get here? What am I doing? What happened to the man that I used to be, the man of God who stood up to right things? Like, how am I in this pit now where I'm hurting people? I'm hurting my wife, my family, my children, the church, the block I lead, the people I work with.

Speaker 1: 27:32

You know, how have I gotten to this point? You know, and you've been listening to the wrong voice for so long, and he promised you that there was going to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, like it was all going to be fine. And then you find out he's laughing at you in the end, like that was easy. You didn't even put up a fight. You know, mr man of God, mr Woman of God, this you know, child of God, you didn't even put up a real fight. All I had to do was put a little apple here, a little woman there and everything else. And you know, the rest was history. And you know, and then they're laughing at you. They're, as in, demonic spiritual beings who led you there and now you're in despair.

Speaker 1: 28:14

Resist the enemy and he will flee. So instead of him leading you down a garden path, we just need to stop it and have those spiritual boundaries and just be like no, I'm not doing this, I am not going to do this, I am not going to get involved in this. It looks good, it may look tempting, but I'm resisting it because I know where this could lead, because the enemy will never tell you how far it's going to lead. You tell you how far it's going to lead you to, as as in jeremiah, as with the children of the people he was trying to um prophesy to and was warning them. When they started out with just major, just a little bit of idol worship, they had no idea it was going to lead to sacrifice and children, but they were okay with it because they had did it for so long. It was just a natural progression of the sin. I don't know Anything else you want to add today, sherry Well in case people are sitting here going well, that's not me, I'm.

Speaker 2: 29:14

I've never cheated on my wife. I've never cheated on my husband. I don't have those kinds of issues. Well, it doesn't matter what the what the sin is. You can say are you into pornography? Right. And you can say the same thing about food, any kind of oh, absolutely. You start out and you overeat. One day you get on the scale and it doesn't show. So you're like, oh well, that didn't, that didn't do anything to me, so I guess. And then it goes further and further and further. And then you finally wake up and you get on the scale six months from now and you've gained 50 pounds and you're like, what in the heck happened? Like I thought my clothes were a little bit tight. What's going on? So it's the whole point I think that we're trying to make is that the Israelites they were taught, they were told, they were warned. However, you want to word it way back with Moses and then again with Joshua, before both of them died and they were given a choice.

Speaker 2: 30:11

And God said choose life or choose death, choose blessing or choose cursing. You obey me, and these are the blessings that you will get. You disobey me, and these are the curses, the natural consequences that you will get me, and these are the curses, the natural consequences that you will get. And they took God's mercy in his what did you call it again, long suffering. They missed his long suffering and his mercy for a free pass and for permission.

Speaker 2: 30:42

Yes For permission, and that was far from the truth, and so I think I want to encourage everybody with a couple of things today. First and foremost, god doesn't lie, so if God tells you something in the Bible, he means he's not going to change his mind.

Speaker 2: 30:58

He's not going to make you the exception of the rule. He's not going to give you a free pass. If God says something in the Bible, he means it and you better pay attention. And that's not a I told you so that's not a you know better. That's just a simple warning, friend to friend. If God says it in the Bible, he means it, and I love you too much to not be truthful with you.

Speaker 2: 31:26

So if God tells us something in the Bible, then we need to pay attention. And if God warns us about something, or if the Holy Spirit puts that check in our spirit and what do I mean by that? I mean you have an uneasy feeling. You know that something's not right. Even if you're trying to justify it, you know in your knower that what you're doing is not pleasing to God. Pay attention, because you know what. There's another verse in the Bible that says that when people rejected God time and time and time again, he ended up giving them what they wanted, and he gave them over to their sins and do you want to be that person?

Speaker 2: 32:03

I don't want to be that person and I believe that, even if you're a born again believer, that if you allow your heart to be hardened, that God will give you what you want, and I don't want that. I don't want to finish weak, I want to finish strong. And by finishing strong, if that simply means that every day I wake up and I say, god, keep my spirit soft so that I'm hearing your whispers, and then give me courage to obey what it is that you want me to do, because it takes courage to stand up against everybody else I can't imagine what it would have been like. Well, I guess I can, because we deal with it nowadays in society to a lesser degree, but I'm sure it was incredibly difficult back then if you were standing up against the idol worship, if you were standing up and saying, no, I'm not going to sacrifice babies with you.

Speaker 1: 32:56

Or it's better.

Speaker 2: 32:57

Yet you took a stand and you tried to save the poor babies. Like it takes courage. So it's a twofold challenge slash encouragement for us today. It's one continually ask God what it is that he is trying to teach us, what he's whispering to us, what he wants us to hear and what he wants us to do. And then the courage to step out and to actually do it. Because it takes courage. It takes courage from Esther. It took courage from David to meet or to face Goliath. It took courage from Noah to go against his society and build a boat for rain. We don't even know what rain was. It took Moses courage to stand in front of the burning bush and listen to God and then to stand in front of Pharaoh. It took courage for Esther to stand in front of the king, even though he was her husband. He could have killed her.

Speaker 1: 33:55

And let's not forget, jeremiah was thrown into a whale. You mean Jonah, no, no, whale, as in W-E-L-L, a sister.

Speaker 2: 34:05

Gotcha, gotcha. Sorry I thought I heard whale. I'm like. I thought you talked like me. It was my accent I'm like a whale. I thought that was Jonah. Sorry about that.

Speaker 1: 34:17

Yeah, because Jeremiah was mocked and they were, you know, mocked him and everything else, and then eventually they put him in a. The Bible calls it a cistern, but I think today we would call it like a whale.

Speaker 2: 34:28

W-E-L-L that holds water.

Speaker 1: 34:32

Yeah, so go ahead.

Speaker 2: 34:34

So he was mocked too. Yeah, right, exactly. And so anytime we have to stand against the current, we have to swim against the current, as our family has to say, and stand against the crowd. It takes courage and we need to pray for that. We need to pray for that courage because I know I don't have the strength in myself to stand up and to say some of these things that I need to say. I don't have the courage, enforce consequences, but knows that if they don't, that it's going to be even worse, because then their kids are going to never believe them and never turn and be disciplined and become good members of society.

Speaker 2: 35:27

God, still, in the midst of all of that, in the midst of all that the people of Judah had done and they did some pretty awful things he still gave them hope, he still loved them and he still showed them that love. And he said you repent and turn back to me, and you know you still are going to have to deal with the consequences from the last 40 years that you ignored me, but I love you and I'm here and here. And he even listed out new promises for them. He said this is what your life will be like again. After the punishment, after the consequence, this is how wonderful it's going to be. So I just want to encourage people with that. I just want to share that that God loves us and, just like with parents, when we have to discipline our kids or when we have to go through a period of time of learning and training and equipping, it doesn't mean that well. Actually, it means that we're loved even more than somebody who isn't disciplined or equipped or trained at all. So it's really a sign of a great love, not a sign of not being loved. So that's kind of what Karen and I wanted to talk about today not being loved. So that's kind of what Karen and I wanted to talk about today.

Speaker 2: 36:50

If you have any, if you need prayer or if you need encouragement, head over to the cheer up podcast at gmailcom and give us an email. Let us know what you need, what you're thinking, and we would love to be a blessing to you. If you want to start a conversation in the Facebook community group, head over to Facebook cheer Kira Podcast and start one there and we will all of us will join in on the conversation. It won't just be between Kara and me and you Also. Head over to Kara's website, kararhuntcom, or my website, maryslawwellcom, and you can see the different things that we have going on.

Speaker 2: 37:24

I know Kara is busy working on her next novel and I'm working on some more mini-devotionals for the membership, the Jesus in the Everyday membership and I'm super excited about it. It If you need or want encouragement every day to draw closer to God, to grow your relationship with God, then head over to my website and look at the. I want to be a member and that will show you everything that you'll get every month for a very small fee and it will help you to grow your relationship and just develop that close, deep root with God himself. So those are kind of some of the things that we're working on. Those are kind of some of the things that we have going on, and next week we will be doing our last um conversation about the old testament and we'll be talking about Hosea and Gomer.

Speaker 2: 38:24

If anybody has read the novel Redeeming Love, it's a fictionalized version of this story in the Bible and I am really excited, sarah, I can't wait to have the opportunity to talk to everybody about that and just kind of see what your thoughts are. We've talked about Rede redeeming love before, but talking about it straight from the Bible, I know there's going to be different insights and it's just going to be a really great conversation. So have a great rest of your day, have a great week and we will talk to you next week, thank you.