By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me

“Go to the Recabite family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the house of the LORD… We have obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab son of Recab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine or built [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me
‘For twenty-three years–from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day–the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. And though the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me
You understand, O LORD;
remember me and care for me.
Avenge me on my persecutors.
You are long-suffering–do not take me away;
think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.
When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
O LORD God Almighty.
I never sat in the [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me
When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jere-miah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD’s temple. 20.1-2
Eugene Peterson says ‘In Jeremiah’s lifetime there was a [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene And Me
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
“Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message:
” `Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah
who come through these gates to worship the LORD.
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, [...]

By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me. 
“Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said,
“I do not know how to speak; I am only a youth.”
But the LORD said to me,
“Do not say, `I am only a youth.’
You must go to everyone I send you to
and say whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you and [...]

 By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” 1.5
v    ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.’
Eugene Peterson says ‘Jeremiah’s life didn’t start with Jeremiah. He entered the world in which [...]

 By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me.
In his book on Jeremiah, Eugene Peterson says the book of Jeremiah begins with a personal name, Jeremiah. It begins “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. ” 1.1
Naming focuses the essential. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy says “the name is the state [...]

Part Five – What ways can we become more nonmaterialistic?
1. Withdrawing
The philosopher, Epicurus, has become the patron saint of “Epicureanism”, and “Epicureanism” has become a by-word for hedonism, narcissism and bacchanalianism. 
 But, in spite of the spin put on his ideas, Epicurus actually advocated a simple life of simple pleasures. He said, ‘Of the desires, some are [...]

Part Four – What resources do we have to help us kick our addiction to materialism?
The Yearning For Balance report prepared for the Merck Family Fund in the US in 1995 reached four important conclusions. 
1. People “believe materialism increasingly dominate(s) life crowding out  a more meaningful set of values centred on responsibility, family, and community.”
2. ‘That [...]