Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
Boxed Lunches: A Sign of All Good Things Coming to an End 
JEREMIAH 16:16-18:23 | 1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-5:3 | PSALM 81:1-16 | PROVERBS 25:6-8
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Jeremiah is on a roll, and continues with his prophecies to the children of Israel. If they knew better, they would have paid attention.
Speaking of the contrast between the one who trusts in the Lord, and the one who doesn’t, Jeremiah says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Turning next to our reading from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonicans, Paul is exhorting them to live a life pleasing to God. Our soul’s are saved from eternal damnation, yes, but that is not to say that we ought to waste away our bodies. We ought to care for our bodies and treat them well, and use them to honor God, not ourselves.
Paul says, 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.
And then Paul goes on to give more advice on how to conduct oneself with dignity.
He says: 9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Is that sufficiently clear, gentle reader?
Next, Paul speaks of the second coming of Jesus, and encourages them to take heart in the hope that we will one day be reunited with those who have gone on before us. Paul gives a brief summary of one of the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith in these lines.
He says:13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Turning next to our reading of the Psalms, we find Asaph, the Psalmist, speaking of the stubborn streak of his people, the children of Israel, in turning away from the God of their forefathers.
Not unlike Jeremiah who warned and prophesied about the devastation and captivity that was to come, Asaph also speaks of a time when God turned his back on his people. God says:
11 “But my people would not listen to me;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own devices.
May it be that we are not counted among such as those with stubborn hearts.
Finally, a couple of verses from the book of Proverbs in which Solomon, wise king of Israel, is cautioning against the error of rushing to judgment. He says:
What you have seen with your eyes
8 do not bring hastily to court,
for what will you do in the end
if your neighbor puts you to shame?
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
The Franciscan: Fine Fare in San Francisco 
The Beautiful Bay and Bridge(s) of San Francisco 
Fresh California Cuisine: Makes the Conference Better 
JEREMIAH 14:11-16:15 | 1 THESSALONIANS 2:9-3:13 | PSALM 80:1-19 | PROVERBS 25:1-5
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Jeremiah’s prophecies are not pleasant ones; for the most part, they speak to the wrath of God that is to come upon the children of Israel. But when he is not being a mouthpiece to the Lord, Jeremiah’s pleads for his people as well. And this is what the Lord says in response:
“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may serve me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a wall to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,”
declares the LORD.
21 “I will save you from the hands of the wicked
and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”
And in line with this, this is also what the Lord promises to Israel, as per Jeremiah’s account: 14 “However, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 15 but it will be said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
This is a promise to hold on to, wouldn’t you say?
Turning next to our reading of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we find Paul commending his readers—new members of the Christian faith, mostly non-Jews—for their great faith in the word of the Lord as it has been preached to them by Paul and his colleagues.
Paul mentions here the damage that his Jewish brethren have attempted to do by way of discouraging the new believers.
He says: 14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.
Does this not have shades of the same sentiment that we see in Jeremiah’s words where God’s wrath is inevitable at times?
The church in Thessalonica is dear to Paul, and he speaks affectionately of them, and to them. He says: 19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
And he ends this part of the letter with these loving words of encouragement: 11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
Turning now to our Psalm for the day, we find another one authored by Asaph. There is a haunting refrain throughout the psalm which speaks to the great petition of the people of Israel. The Psalmist says:
19 Restore us, LORD God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
Finally, a couple of verses from the book of Proverbs, authored by Solomon, the wise king of Israel:
4 Remove the dross from the silver,
and a silversmith can produce a vessel;
5 remove wicked officials from the king’s presence,
and his throne will be established through righteousness.
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
An October Evening in San Francisco 
Conference Food: No Complaints! 
