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Dr. David Jeremiah

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Articles by Dr. David Jeremiah

It became the anthem for the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco—Scott McKenzie’s song, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair).” And the first verse became a clarion call to young people all across the United States:   “If you’re going to San Francisco, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. If you’re going to San Francisco, You’re gonna meet some gentle people there.”               Wearing “flowers in your hair” was a reference to the term “flower power” that was coined by the “Beat Generation” poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965. Ginsberg was an active opponent of the Vietnam War and advocate of a peaceful form of anti-war demonstrations where  flowers were a symbol of gentle, peaceful resistance.              As the chaotic summer of 1967 wound down, the psychedelic movement wound up. “Flower power” became emblematic of the fragrances of the revolution. Their aroma wasn’t as strong as the incense and drugs being burned, but they remained representative of the movement.  
Like most of the systems in our cars, a tiny icon on the dashboard is all we see of our car’s cooling system—a thermometer-looking icon with an H (Hot) at the top and a C (Cold) at the bottom and a line right in the middle that means “Just Right” (the Goldilocks approach to auto diagnostics: not too hot, not too cold, but just right).             Think about this: The water in the car radiator has to be cool enough to keep the engine from overheating, but hot enough to generate heat for the car’s heater to keep us warm in winter. And there is a complex system of checks and balances that allows that to happen: the car’s thermostat, adding coolant (antifreeze) to the water, the spring-loaded radiator cap, and the radiator fan that draws air through the radiator to cool the circulating water. I’m so amazed that smart people have figured out a way to keep our car’s water at around 190 degrees Fahrenheit—not too hot and not too cold, but just right.             If the water overheats, the engine boils over with billowing clouds of steam. And if it gets too hot due to a lack of water, the engine parts can literally melt together so the engine “freezes up.” And an engine that’s too cool will fail to heat up the engine’s lubricating oil creating more friction and wear, leading to poor gas mileage.             I think you get the point: Consistency is the key when it comes to your car’s water temperature and cooling system. 
None of us like inspections any more than we like pop quizzes in school or checkups at the doctor’s office. We tend to resent going to the emission centers before getting our car tags or having to wait for the city codes division to inspect the electrical work on our house before flipping on the switch. But imagine living in a world without safeguards, supervision, standards, or checkups. The Bible teaches that we need inspection and examination in our inner hearts as well. David makes this the theme of Psalm 139, which could be aptly titled “A Plea for Inspection.” He began Psalm 139 by saying, “Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.” He went on to say that we can never escape God’s inspecting eye, nor do we want to. Then in a twist at the end, David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139 begins and ends with inspections. “You have searched me and known me…. Search me, O God, and know my heart.” When did we last pray like that, asking God to put us on the examination table and probe our hearts? When did we last say, “Lord, audit my thoughts and weigh my motives?” Though we love Psalm 139, we don’t often seriously pray the last two verses. 
Mark Twain once quipped, “Clothes make the man; naked people have little or no influence in society.” Yes, but who makes the clothes that make the man? Try Savile Row, a prestigious street in London’s Mayfair district for more than two hundred years. It’s been called “The Golden Mile of Tailoring.” Throughout the 1800s as residents of Savile Row became increasingly fastidious about their appearance, a proliferation of tailors began opening shops on the street. One famous client of the Savile Row tailors was Beau Brummell, a dashing conversationalist and man of fashion. He’s responsible for a style that lives to this day—the modern suit, trousers, and necktie. Customers like Brummell “spoke for” every detail of their suits, giving rise to Savile Row’s most famous phrase: “bespoke tailoring.” The word “bespoke” refers to custom-made clothing as opposed to mass-produced garments. If a garment is “bespoke,” it’s tailor-made to the buyer’s specifications, and is "be spoken for." Historically, it refers to clothing and to the individual tailoring that encompasses everything from fabric to style to size to stitching.
The word control often has a negative connotation but think about how important “control” is in your life. I don’t mean the negative dimension of being a controlling person. You want someone in control of the airplane you are a passenger on, so all control is not bad. I mean self-control—the ability to resist impulses and temptations and accomplish the things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). It’s no wonder that Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, in their book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, cite research indicating that “poor self-control correlates with just about every kind of individual trauma: losing friends, being fired, getting divorced, winding up in prison.”[1] [1] Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (New York: The Penguin Press, 2011), 2. 
•A man lectured about the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali and Catalan culture for 124 hours without stopping. •A United States Marine did 17,003 push-ups without stopping. •A man in England did 3,750 pull-ups without stopping.   Some pretty “unique” people have set out to do unusual things without stopping. And as the Bible says: We are to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, [and] in everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). In this article we look at perhaps the most challenging of the three—praying continually.             When it comes to rejoicing and giving thanks, we get the idea that it is possible to “cease” in between occasions of rejoicing and thanking. But “pray without ceasing” has a different ring to it. Paul says we should never cease praying. Ceaselessly means don’t cease; it means don’t stop praying. The Greeks had a clear way of saying these things. The Greek word adialeiptos (without ceasing) is the word for “ceasing” or “leaving” with a negative prefix (“a”) attached to it. The negative prefix means “No” or “Don’t.” So “don’t” plus “cease” sent a very clear message: Don’t stop praying.
Two members of an animal protection group were driving home from an anti-hunting rally when they crashed their car into a deer that ran onto the highway. They announced their intent to sue the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, saying that the agency’s efforts to increase the deer population resulted in the deer bounding onto the highway into the path of their car.             An Israeli woman sued a television station for making a weather prediction that turned out to be wrong. As a result of believing the television station’s prediction for fair weather, the woman dressed accordingly. However, she was caught in a rainstorm and shortly thereafter contracted the flu, missed a week of work, and incurred expenses for medication. She blamed the television station for her troubles.             Disclaimer: I have cited the cases above not to say who’s right or who’s wrong, but to note a general trend in our society. That is, it seems that nothing is anybody’s fault anymore! It is no wonder that we have become such a litigious society. Americans file more civil lawsuits than any other industrialized country and are home to eighty percent of the world’s lawyers! More than $250 billion is spent annually playing the “blame game” in America—trying to say that something that happened to me is your fault. 
If you liked “The Amazing Race” or “Survivor,” you might be interested to know that so-called reality TV had its beginnings in old black-and-white programs like “Candid Camera.” These were unscripted shows with hidden cameras and microphones designed to show people reacting to practical jokes. Viewers howled as the surprised victims were told: “Smile, you’re on candid camera.”             Reality TV has come a long way since then, and some people obsess about being on such a show. They view it as their ticket to fame and fortune. Several years ago the magazine Psychology Today studied why people watch reality TV, and the results were surprising. “The attitude that best separated the regular viewers of reality television from everyone else,” said the magazine, “is the desire for status.” 
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About Turning Point

Turning Point's Mission: Delivering the Unchanging Word of God to an Ever-Changing World

About Dr. David Jeremiah

Dr. David Jeremiah is the founder of Turning Point for God, an international broadcast ministry committed to providing Christians with sound Bible teaching through radio and television, the Internet, live events, and resource materials and books. He is the author of more than fifty books including The Book of Signs, Forward, and Where Do We Go From Here?  David serves as senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego, California, where he resides with his wife, Donna. They have four grown children and twelve grandchildren.


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