# The Swindoll Study Bible NLT

## Metadata
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- Full Title: The Swindoll Study Bible NLT
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- In what ways do you struggle to forgive others or to follow your godly leaders? An overinflated sense of self often leads us to strike out on our own or to hold on to our frustration and anger regarding the choices of others. However, Paul’s discussion of Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16-21) reminds us to seek reconciliation. Watch out for the pitfall of disunity with leaders and with other believers. Rather, like Paul, strive to live with all people in humility. ([Location 60203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=60203))
- WHEN THE BOTTOM DROPS OUT Lam. 1:1 What happens when you experience some great calamity, like the total loss of your home through a fire or flood? Or an unwanted divorce? Or the death of a loved one who meant the world to you? Or maybe some lingering, intense personal suffering that just doesn’t go away? When the bottom drops out of our lives, we may be filled with dreadful fear. We may feel insecurity and loneliness. Some lose their faith in God when they go through times like these. However, it is possible to find the hope to endure. You may even find a deeper meaning in life through suffering. During these times it is even possible that you will see God proving to you that He is alive—that He’s caring for your needs and purifying your character. ([Location 116769](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116769))
- LAMENTING DESTRUCTION Lam. 1:14-22 Lamentations is a response to the disaster of 586 BC, when Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed. Jeremiah, who wrote Lamentations, had been preaching for forty years. The people had ignored and mocked and rebelled against and refused his message until finally they were crushed under the boot of Babylon. They became captives and exiles, at last suffering the consequences of their disobedience. Here Jeremiah laments the destruction, taking us on a walk through the streets and looking at the sorrowful end of it all. ([Location 116776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116776))
- PLEAD FOR YOUR CHILDREN Lam. 2:19 The most heartrending consequence of Judah’s willful sins against God came as the children of the city starved. The consequences of our compromises hurt more than just us—and can be much worse than we ever imagine. The results of our sins can harm those closest to us. Seldom do we consider, for example, that the fallout of our self-serving decisions can devastate our children’s well-being for a lifetime. Our children may find themselves caught up in a dire situation they had no part in creating. And if we see children in such circumstances, we must respond with… ([Location 116782](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116782))
- FAITHFUL LOVE Lam. 3:22-23 In the midst of the destruction, Jeremiah sees a faint glimmer of hope in the character of God: The Lord’s compassion never ends. His faithful love… ([Location 116789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116789))
- Not only is it true that God will not change in His faithfulness—He cannot change. He never cools off in His commitment to us. He never breaks a promise or loses enthusiasm. He stays near us when we reject His counsel and deliberately disobey Him just as much as when we are zealous for the truth. He remains intimately involved in our lives whether we are giving Him praise in prayer or grieving Him with our actions. Whether we are running to Him or from Him, He remains faithful. His faithfulness is unconditional, unending, and unswerving. Nothing we do can diminish it, and nothing we stop doing can increase it. It remains great. Even when you blow it. Even when you make a stupid… ([Location 116791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116791))
- Lamentations is put together in a most interesting fashion. The first two and the last two chapters in the book are each acrostics: Every successive verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, so each of these chapters is twenty-two verses long. This middle chapter is also an acrostic, but each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is given three verses, adding up to a total of sixty-six verses. An acrostic is a mnemonic device: It helps readers and hearers remember what is said. Many of us know the importance of mnemonic devices as memory aids. You make up a silly word or sentence, and the letters cue the information you want to remember. Here, Jeremiah uses the alphabet. Jeremiah and his people were experiencing the consequences of abandoning God, and Jeremiah said, “Let’s not forget it!” He knew the Exile would span… ([Location 116799](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116799))
- THE WAGES OF SIN Lam. 5:13-16 Jerusalem has lost everyone, from old to young. Her elders are no longer there to guide the people. And her young men? “Oh, we had these young men who wrote and sang songs,” says the writer, in effect, “but there’s no longer the sound of music.” Dancing had turned to mourning. Those are the wages of sin. He goes on: “Weep for us because we have sinned” (Lam. 5:16). Show me an individual who’s living in the excursions of the flesh, and I’ll show you an individual who has lost his or her joy. They may have laughter, but down inside they don’t have a sense of great satisfaction in living. Instead, they have a guilty conscience that haunts them day and night.… ([Location 116808](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XKXRMWG&location=116808))