Tag Archives: Jeremiah

Engaging Our Culture: March 24-When Cinderellas Refuse to Wake Up from Their Dream

Posted on March 24, 2025 by expressyourself4him

Video of the Day: Clip from 2006 NCAA Highlights “George Mason’s Run to Final Four”

Bible Verse of the Day:

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, Jeremiah 29:10-13.

Biblical Connection:

Dreams are a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep. Some of these experiences can become so vivid that you think this actually happened. In the realm of sports psychology, professional athletes are encouraged to visualize achieving great accomplishments. In the case of a basketball team, you want all players to belief and think they can be victorious before they walk onto the court to face their opponent. George Mason’s run to the national championship semi-finals is one of the most improbable journeys in college basketball history.

The prophet Jeremiah is speaking to priests, artisans, nobility and young leaders like Daniel who were held in captivity in Babylon. The time of oppression lasted 70 years, from the burning of the Temple to its reconstruction, 586 B.C. – 516 B.C. If you’re experiencing a bad week, month or year, you’re probably going to lose hope. Jeremiah is writing to the Jews to give them a glimmer of hope. Essentially, Jeremiah is sharing a message similar to that of the apostle Paul in Philippians 1:6. Rather than abandon human beings, God is communicating that I still have plans for you.

Closing Song:

If you find yourself surrounded by dream killers, John 10:10, it’s time to reach out to individuals who affirm and build you up. When belief and confidence are united, where doubt is absent, God can move mountains in your life like the GMU basketball team in 2006, Matthew 21:21-22.

by Jay Mankus

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Engaging Our Culture: January 29-You Were Born for This Moment

Posted on January 29, 2025 by expressyourself4him

Video of the Day: Scene from the 2004 film “Miracle”

Bible Verse of the Day:

 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, Jeremiah 29:10-13.

Biblical Connection:

Kurt Russell plays Herbs Brooks, Head coach of America’s 1980 Olympic hockey team. The United States made it to the medal round, playing the Soviet Union in the semi-final game. As the host team at Lake Placid, New York, the Americans were facing a team of professionals. Since the United States team was compromised of college players, this was a real-life David verse Goliath competition. As Brooks addresses the team prior to the opening faceoff, he believes in them just like David trusted in God’s power to defeat Goliath.

Jeremiah is referred to as the weeping prophet, often given bad news from God to share with the Israelites. However, in today’s featured passage, God shares with Jeremiah a glimpse of Israel’s future. This vision serves as a sign of hope that God has a plan for your life. While Herb Brooks believed that each member of the United States hockey team was born to be on this gold medal team, every human being is born for a purpose. Free will gives individuals the choice to live for yourselves or live for God. It’s never too late turn to God and begin to live for Him, Romans 10:11.

Closing Song:

When you experience your first rough stretch in 2025, turn to God to get you through adversity.

by Jay Mankus

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S.A.N.S. Episode 335: Out of My Hands

Posted on January 3, 2023 by expressyourself4him

As a parent, there comes a time when your child’s future is out of your hands. Whether this time waits until a daughter or son goes off to college or is speed up as they enter high school, don’t worry when it’s out of your hands. While parents can always pray for children, it’s hard to let go, especially for those of you who are control freaks. As I listened to Out of My Hands by Tony Vincent for the first time, this is the topic that came to my mind.

Arise [from your bed], cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward Him for the lives of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street, Lamentations 2:19.

The scripture that I feel aligns with Out of My Hands was written by Jeremiah. Earning the nickname of the Weeping Prophet, God often brought Israel bad news for the future due to a combination of disobedience and rebellion. However, beginning in chapter 3 of Lamentations, Jeremiah does share a message of hope based upon God’s grace and forgiveness. The next time you feel helpless with a situation out of your control, remember the message of today’s Tony Vincent song.

by Jay Mankus

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Vanished

Posted on December 20, 2022 by expressyourself4him

If you have ever lost something valuable in life, certain things seem to vanish. When I was a child, I asked my parents if I could hold the money for a local ice-cream shop at the beach. On the final night of our vacation, I was given the cash for everyone’s ice-cream. I remember grasping it tight, walking with my hands in my pocket. Yet, when I went to pull the money out of my pocket, it was gone. Despite desperately retracing my steps, the money vanished from sight, blown by the wind into the night.

And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him], Genesis 5:24.

One New Testament author speaks of Enoch, living seven generations from Adam, Jude 1:14. The author of Hebrews includes this same individual in the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11:5-6. According to Moses, one day when Enoch was 365 days old, about 36.5 years old if you consider the Open Canopy Theory which slowed down the aging process from the sun, this man vanished from the face of the earth. There were no milk cartons back then, but if there were his picture would have been on the back of one.

And when they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, I pray you, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. 10 He said, You have asked a hard thing. However, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you—but if not, it shall not be so. 11 As they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire parted the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it and he cried, My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces, 2 Kings 2:9-12.

Jeremiah is much more descriptive when a similar event occurs several hundreds of years later. After Elijah had finished grooming his apprentice Elisha, Jeremiah writes about an event out of a science fiction film. According to Jeremiah, a chariot of fire and horses appeared in the sky. This wasn’t Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, but a spiritual prophet escorted by the Lord into heaven. Enoch and Elijah are the only two individuals who simply vanished from earth, never to experience death. May these two accounts make you a believer in an Almighty God this Christmas season, Romans 10:9-11.

by Jay Mankus

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Have Faith in God’s Power to Deliver Miracles

Posted on May 30, 2017 by expressyourself4him

The vigor of youth often breeds self-reliance.  The concept of praying for healing is not relative, especially if good health has always been maintained.  Thus, many young people will continue to press on without relying on God’s power to survive.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise, Jeremiah 17:14.

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet.  This nickname comes from the messages Jeremiah often shared with Israel.  The majority of the prophecies he receives from God we negative, focused on pending doom and punishment.  Yet, there are some rays of hope, illustrating the power of prayer.

Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security, Jeremiah 33:6.

As for me, the older I become the more I need God’s help to get through each day.  Over the last week, my vision has faded, unable to see or read letters unless the font is 48 is bigger.  While I may need glasses, I still believe and cling to God’s power to deliver miracles.  Whatever mountain standing in your way, may you find hope in God’s power to transform your current situation.

by Jay Mankus

 

 

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