Cheap Crap

Cheap Crap
When I was a kid I always looked forward to getting my allowance each week. I don’t know if you got an allowance as a kid, but when you are young anytime you get money it is huge deal. It’s like that 5 dollars is burning a hole in your pocket.

When you’re a kid and money makes you act that way, you end up buying a lot of cheap crap.
The dollar general/store/hut is your best friend.

Then you take all your goodies home, and within 2 days, everything is broken and worthless so you throwing most of it away.

Some things don’t change when you get older . . . adults still buy a lot of cheap crap.
Our culture kind of encourages it.

One of the greatest theologians of our time described our culture this way:
“If we don’t get cheap crap quick, then we are angry”

And where does all of this cheap crap get up . . . pretty much nowhere

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So I was reading this story in Jeremiah yesterday and I don’t think I had ever read it before. It really stuck out, because it was such a weird story.

So here is the background . . . Jeremiah is God’s prophet to Judah. God has told Jeremiah to go to the people and tell them to repent, because if they don’t God will have to bring them down, to draw them back to Him. The people don’t listen to any of Jeremiah’s attempts to get them to repent.

So in this little passage (Jeremiah 13:1-11) God gives Jeremiah a little object lesson.

Check this out

Verses 1-6

1 This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water." 2 So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.
3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4 "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks." 5 So I went and hid it at the Euphrates, as the LORD told me.
6 Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to the Euphrates and get the belt I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

So God tells Jeremiah to go hide a belt in a rock near the river.

Weird. Right?

But God is making a big point, let’s check it out.

Verses 8-11

8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! 11 For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'

Because they did not listen, because they relied on other gods, the people of Judah became completely useless.

Useless like the belt.

Completely useless like cheap crap.

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As followers of Christ, we may think that if we are doing all of the right things, like going to church, reading the bible, and praying that we are doing all of the right things.

But in life it is so easy to rely on other things . . .

Maybe its another relationship . . . your mom, dad, siblings ? maybe a boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse ?

It could be a job ?

Or it could be a certain group of people like a sports team, band, or a social circle

Maybe even a role in life, like being a leader, or popular , or the funny person, the emo kid

Or whatever.
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I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to be useless to God.

I remember what it was like to have cheap crap lying around . . .

I would have rather had stuff that brought me joy, that I could use to accomplish things, things I could be proud of.

I hope that you don’t want to be worthless to God . . . because he has instilled you with a so much worth. He has given you gifts, abilities, talents, and opportunities to use all of those.

But the choice is up to you !

Are you going to be cheap crap ? Or are you going to be something useful ?

I pray that you don’t waste your worth.

For my King,
Dev