Why did Jeremiah cry?

Steve Brown:
“Why did Jeremiah cry?” The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you think laughter isn’t spiritual or that faithfulness to God means conformity to Christian stereotypes. Then this program probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for honest, Biblical answers to honest questions, welcome to Key Life. Here’s our host, author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com.

Steve Brown:
Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man, how you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing really good, as a matter of fact.

Pete Alwinson:
Good.

Steve Brown:
I’m an old guy, shouldn’t be doing as good as I am. I do everything wrong. He hasn’t called me home yet.

Pete Alwinson:
Not everything you, you, I mean, you swim and you got a, you got a bike in your garage.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
You’re going to start riding.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. Well, I bought it and put it together. And in fact, when Jesus asked me when I get home, why should I allow you into my kingdom? I’m going to say, cause you died for me. And I put together an exercise bike, it took me two days. And I told him, I said it, you know, it’s enough to buy it. Right? And he said, no, you got to get on it.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s it.

Steve Brown:
And I haven’t done that yet. So we’ll see. Anyway, that’s Pete Alwinson, go to ForgeTruth.com and you’ll get some amazing teaching in that place. And if you live in central Florida, go to that website, because there are two or three, and they’re increasing, groups of men who meet together and hold up each other’s arms. And that’s an amazing ministry, and you can come and you’ll be glad I told you about it. By the way, as you know, Pete comes in and we answer questions together and we love your questions. We take you and your question seriously, you can send your question to

Key Life Network

P.O. Box 5000

Maitland, Florida 32794

In Canada it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

You can email your question at [email protected].. Or you in call 1-800-KEY-LIFE 24 seven, and you can record your question. And sometimes we put that on the air. And those are places where if after you pray about it, you feel like should help us financially, please do. I promise we’ll be faithful. We are a member of ECFA and CCCC in Canada, both organizations oversee our books to make sure we’re ethical and, so feel, and you can charge it on your credit card. And if you can, you’ll help so many other people. And if you can’t, we understand that. By the way, you can go text on your phone 28950 and follow the instructions. And if you want to, you can help us financially there. Enough, please do, if you can. Pete, lead us in prayer and we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Alright. Our great Father. We come to you today, so thankful that that we belong to you and that you came after us when we were wandering around and trying to make life work by ourselves. And it just didn’t. So, thank you that your love preceded everything and you brought people into our lives and circumstances to change our minds and change our hearts and Holy Spirit thank you for being the one, ultimately, to flip the switch inside our hearts and enable us to believe, and we give you praise and honor and glory. We thank you for all that we are and all that we can be. And so we ask that you continue the great work that you started in us. We pray for our country. We pray for our leaders. We pray for your wisdom to flow into our lives every day, as we read your word and hang out with your people and go to church. And we pray for our leaders as they prepare for this weekend and ask that you would give our priests, teachers, pastors, worship leaders, all those who lead us, give them grace and use them in our lives. And now we commit this time of Q&A to you. We pray this in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. This question is an e-mail question. How do you understand Jeremiah as the weeping prophet? Is it possible that God would actually call people to the lives that are more contemplative, at least for certain periods of time?

Pete Alwinson:
What do you think?

Steve Brown:
Well, the weeping thing comes from, you know, everybody thinks he wept for souls. He didn’t, he wept,because he was a wuss. Actually, that is where that comes from. God is pretty harsh with Jeremiah. Jeremiah is complaining to God. They think I’m ugly. And my mother dresses me funny, and God says, you know, how can you, if you can’t run with people, how can you run with horses, or something like that. So, he was weeping and that’s where that question comes from. I mean, God was saying to Jeremiah, suck it up, get out and start doing stuff. And so the questioner said, is it sometimes that God doesn’t say that, he says be still and know that I’m God.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I think that’s great. I, you know, we, could God lead you into a season of, of greater contemplation. I think life does have seasons and life has rhythms to it that, come by circumstances and what the Lord is going to teach us, through trials and other things. And so, but, yeah, I, I think we should, we, but we should do contemplation every day.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. It should be part of our morning.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right, listening to the father in the morning, listening to it, through the word and getting our marching orders in a sense for the day. Processing, our emotions is really important.

Steve Brown:
Oh it is.

Pete Alwinson:
When you go through and have a great loss, a loss of a job, a loss of a loved one. Boy, these, these times, or crises like we’ve had in our country, they, they take you down and, but Jeremiah was upset, because God’s people were so disobedient and were going to incur God’s judgment.

Steve Brown:
And God had sent them to him.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And he didn’t want to go.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Pete Alwinson:
No. I’m with you.

Steve Brown:
I just wanted to point that out.

Pete Alwinson:
I just, I want to, I just want to champion your point, I think it’s such a good one, is that sometimes we are, we coddle ourselves too much as Christians. And God needs leaders and prophets who get up and do what they’re supposed to do.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. I agree. You know, though, and I agree with every word that you said, but I think throughout the history of the church, there have been people who have been called to lives of contemplation and I used to make fun of them. And then I used to say that God didn’t call you to do that, but I’m not so sure, that’s not, that he doesn’t on occasion, call people to quiet prayer. There are people that have awesome prayers lives for others, because they walk quietly with Christ in the background. And, you know, there have been times on, I heard a preacher say this once and didn’t understand, but it’s true. As I get older, there are people that have prayed for me daily for years. And they’ve gone home to be with the Lord and I can tell the difference. And so I ask people to pray for me, and maybe that’s where they’re called, and where they’re supposed to be.

Pete Alwinson:
I, I totally agree with that, you know, the whole idea of the prayer warrior. I think, as we get into older age, I think a lot of people are called to that ministry too. They should be doing it. There’s nothing I can do. Oh yes, there is.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, there really is. This is another e-mail, you often say that God is not a child abuser, and I agree. I’m wondering in the light of that truth, how do you interpret that God the Father willed for his son to be brutally killed, even if it was to demonstrate his love for us, yet it was the Lord’s will. And he’s quoting scripture from Isaiah. It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. Is that not a child abuser?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s a good question. I think most theologians would, would want to say something like this, at least they would want to say it was the triune God who in the eternal councils of their council, decided that the son would suffer. So while that Isaiah 53:10 clearly says that, what you read, it was God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who made that decision.

Steve Brown:
I agree. That’s a great answer for that. And also abuse suggests that I’m going to hurt you because you’re not doing what I’m telling you to do, or if I’m a father, you’re not doing it right, or you’re sinning. And God, that’s not God. God’s not that way. He doesn’t say, I’m going to break your legs or give you cancer, if you don’t get rid of that sin. And a lot of preachers, insinuate that, and when I say God is not a child abuser, I’m talking about that kind of abuse and the Cross is not that.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Right. You’re speaking about also circumstances that people interpret and they blame God for.

Steve Brown:
Oh, so often.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s not of God. That’s just because we live in a broken world.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And, you know, people do that all, you know, we’re all neurotic to one sense or another, we get that kind of thing. I often, this is another e-mail struggle with the thought that my salvation experience when I was young was just an emotional experience, not a real one. And now after years of church, ministry work, etcetera, I can sin and feel no guilt, avoid God and not miss him. And beg for mercy from him and feel no response. So, now I find myself doubting my salvation and doubting I can be saved. Am I really a Christian? I want you to comment on that, but I want to say something to the person who wrote that e-mail. That’s from the pit of hell, smells like smoke. Satan’s called the accuser and that’s what he’s done with you. Don’t let him do that to you.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. No. That’s great. I mean, that’s, that’s powerful. You’re saying first and foremost, this brother or sister is really experiencing satanic warfare at an epic scale and they’re buying into it.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. That’s right. If you, it doesn’t matter whether it was an emotional experience, it doesn’t matter whether it was a cut and dried mathematician person. If you came to Jesus, he said, I won’t cash you out.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And he doesn’t lie. And what you’re saying is, I came to him and he lied. So, I’m not his. Don’t let that happen.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. That’s powerful, that’s powerful. And you know, as I look on here after after years of church and ministry work, both you and I have been in years of church and ministry work. We know how exhausting that is, and you’re a warrior and warriors get tired. Warriors can, can burn out emotionally and need, need to have the fire relit. So I, I, I’m more thinking, Hey, you may need to have somebody to talk to and then, and then maybe take a break from what you’re doing for a while to rejuvenate.

Steve Brown:
And only read books on grace.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Don’t go out and make an impact on the world yesterday. You already been trying to do that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Just be still and let him love you. You might be surprised what will happen. We don’t have any time for any more questions. We really have to go. And I only have time to say, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.