02/01/2026
Dear Indian Hill Friends,
Our gravel parking lot is still ice-packed; so we will not have services at IHC.
However, I am including here some inspiring thoughts from and about Jeremiah.
May the Lord bless you and make his face shine upon you and give you peace." Numbers 6
Pastor Jim
Lamenting but Hoping Lamentations 3:19-ff
Jeremiah’s struggle and faith has encouraged me when I went through my own valley experiences. He was in the pits… Literally. In Jeremiah 38:6 we see him beaten, then lowered into a cistern with mud at the bottom. He's also sinking in disillusionment, drowning in despair; he even cursed the day he was born: “O Lord, you deceived me…. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me...” “Cursed be the day I was born.” 20:14 However, I wonder if I was trapped in his mud-hole, would not I be asking, “Is there no balm in Gilead…no physician?” 8:22
But hold on. We can also bond with Jeremiah's heart in clinging to God’s promises. Listen to his HOPE! It’s in Lamentations which was also written by him. Feel and embrace his heart in 3:20b-26 “..and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind &therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Then in 32, Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, great is his unfailing love”
The following comments written by that uniquely gifted author, Max Lucado, will fill your cup:
“Jeremiah was depressed, as gloomy as a giraffe with a neck ache. Jerusalem was under siege, his nation under duress. His world collapsed like a sand castle in a typhoon. He faulted God for his horrible emotional distress. He also blamed God for his physical ailments. “He [God] has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones” (Lam. 3:4 RSV). His body ached. His heart was sick. His faith was puny. . . . He realized how fast he was sinking, so he shifted his gaze. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him’ ” (vv. 21–24 RSV). / “But this I call to mind...” Depressed, Jeremiah altered his thoughts, shifted his attention. He turned his eyes away from his stormy world and looked into the wonder of God. He quickly recited a quintet of promises. (I can envision him tapping these out on the five fingers of his hand.)
1. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
2. His mercies never come to an end.
3. They are new every morning.
4. Great is thy faithfulness.
5. The Lord is my portion. // The storm didn’t cease, but his discouragement did.”
Going through deep valleys like Jeremiah, Horatio Spafford expressed through a hymn his own “balm in Gilead,” his new found hope. It was in 1873 after his four daughters had died with more than 222 others when their ship sank in the Atlantic Ocean. We’ve sung this many times at Indian Hill:
It is Well With My Soul:
1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain: It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!— My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
