Devotion 1 of 2: Jer 13
God often used symbols to illustrate His messages. In this chapter He used a linen sash. He told Jermiah to get a linen sash, put it around his waist, then take it to the Euphrates River and hide it in a hole in the rock (v.1-5). After a while, Jeremiah got the sash, and it was ruined, profitable for nothing (v.6-7). This was to illustrate that Israel and Judah were called to cling to God, but they worshiped other gods, so they became unprofitable (c.8-11).
Another illustration that was used was wine bottles. Just as bottles were filled with wine, so the people of Judah would be filled with drunkenness. God would dash them against each other, even fathers and sons, and would destroy them (v.12-14).
Judah’s sins of idolatry are described as adultery and harlotry in v.27. This is a picture of the lukewarm church compromising, falling away and worshiping AC’s image in the last days. Let’s pray for our Christian friends to overcome AC’s temptation to compromise and commit spiritual adultery!
デボーション1/2：Jer 13
神はしばしばたとえを用いてメッセージを語りました。この章では亜麻布の帯を使われました。神はエルミヤに亜麻布の帯を取って腰に巻き、ユーフラテス川に持って行って岩の穴に隠すように言われました（1-5節）。しばらくして、エレミヤは帯を掘り起こしましたが、それはボロボロになって何の役にも立ちませんでした（6-7節）。これは、イスラエルとユダが神に結び付くように召されたが、他の神々を崇拝したために役に立たなくなったことを説明するためでした（8-11節頃）。
使用された別の例えは酒のつぼでした。つぼに酒が満たされると同様、ユダの人々は酒に深く酔ってしまいます。神は彼らを互いに、父と息子でさえもぶつけ合わせて砕くと言いました（12-14節）。
ユダの偶像崇拝の罪は、27節で姦淫と淫行として説明されています。これは、終わりの日に生ぬるい教会が妥協し、背教し、反キの像を崇拝する様子を描いたものです。私たちのクリスチャンの友人たちが、信仰を離れ、霊的姦淫を犯すという反キの誘惑に打ち勝つことができるよう祈りましょう。
この箇所の日本語訳はまだありません。英語の原文を表示しています。
Devotion 2 of 2: Acts 13
This chapter describes the 1st missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. They were sent out from the Antioch Church in Syria, which replaced the Jerusalem Church as the center of activities as the church’s target shifted slowly from Jews to Gentiles.
The meeting in v.1-3 in which several prophets prayed and fasted, then prophesied about people’s ministry gifts, then laid hands and sent people into their ministry is the kind of “Laying of hands and prophecy by the Presbytery” meeting that was introduced in the 1948 Latter Rain Revival in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada.
In v.14, Paul and Barnabas arrive in Antioch in Pisidia, in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey, preach the gospel and see a city-wide move of God (v.44)! This is another picture of the LDC sending believers to various cities in Japan and seeing the whole city stirred by revival!
— Pastor Elmer Inafuku