Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
WEDNESDAY, October 14 (Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky)
Jeremiah 37:3-21. Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, "The Chaldeans will surely go away from us," for they will not go away. Even if you defeated the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men in their tents, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.
The Nile River has been called "a long, narrow oasis." Mountains of sand rise from the river, and life is only possible for those who stay close to that narrow ribbon of water.
We often slip into thinking that the embrace of God will take away the desert, that God will allow us to best all our enemies. But Jeremiah warned against such thinking: "Even if you defeated the whole army of Chaldeans...they would rise up and burn this city."
We live right in the middle of the enemy army. The kingdom we have created remains an arid, seemingly overwhelming desert of power-struggles and frustration. God doesn't destroy that desert; God offers a place to transcend the struggles we endure here. God simply offers an eternal narrow oasis that runs throughout our human lives, and beyond. And that oasis is as near as the uttering of God's name.
PRAY for the Diocese of Tennessee (Province IV, USA)
Ps 119:1-24 * 12, 13, 14; 1 Corinthians 14:13-25; Matthew 10:24-33
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