Tag: faith

MY JOY AND CROWN

On By nrfaughtLeave a comment

Usually I get my creative (what little creativity I get) early in the morning, I mean real early, like 3 AM. This morning I got nothing. So I fell back asleep and than at 7 AM I got a phone call I missed. It was from a man from Trinidad. He had tried to reach me a week ago and I didn’t recognize his name so I didn’t follow up to contact him. This morning something told me to call him, so I did. It was one of the teenagers that we baptized 50 years ago. Of course he is now 64, not the 14 when we baptized him in a crusade (what we called a “gospel meeting” but in a rented hall and not a church b/c there was no church in the town he lived in and where we held the crusade. We baptized several teens in that crusade and started the church in that town. I don’t think that I have seen him in 50 years. He has one grown son living in Queens, New York.I had a long talk with my long, lost brother in Christ. We talked about several of the brothers and sisters in Trinidad, some of whom I have talked to via WhatsApp recently. Many of those we worked with are now older than me and I am 75. Those guys were in their 30’s when we spent 3 years in Trinidad when I was in my mid 20’s. They are men whom we did intense Bible studies with to train them in the book so they could carry on the work in Trinidad after we left in 1976 and they have been carrying on the work in several congregations without any U.S. paid preachers and I am very proud of that. My long lost brother is still very active in the church there. I sadly learned that one of my most trusted friends and leaders in Trinidad now has advanced dementia; he doesn’t know anyone, he just sits and smiles. That church we started with that crusade is having their 50th year anniversary on April 15 of this year.

Ok, breaking news.My wife just came in and I mentioned our brother with dementia, that we should call them. The only phone we had for him and his wife was a landline, so we called it. She answered and we were able to talk to both of them. My dementia brother even perked up and I think remembered us! We chatted for a while and it was a joy. She said we made her day and it certainly made our day. From what she said, I’m not sure my bother has much longer to live.

All this is kinda personal, I know, and thank you for reading if you are reading it. I know everyone has their stories from the past but these are mine today! My mind is filled with a lot of thoughts right now. But I am so thankful that God providentially guided us to do 3 years of mission work in Trinidad back in the 70’s. It was a special, special time. But I think that I can relate more to what the apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:1 “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.” 1 Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy.” That’s exactly how I feel right now.

Paul also said in 2 Timothy 4:6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” So there is a crown of life waiting for us. In the Roman Empire, crowns were often given to victorious military leaders, so the imagery of a crown carried connotations of triumph and overcoming challenges. It  signifies the reward for enduring hardship and remaining faithful to the end. In other words, eternal life somewhere with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, angels and other believers. But Paul’s other crown he was looking for was to be rerunited in eternity with all those he had converted to Chist and mentored and taught in his 30 years of preaching the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. My Trinidadian brothers and sisters will be our crown some day, our joy. Even our boasting. We won’t boast about our good works. We will simply tell Jesus, “Look who I helped to become your brother”. We are all brothers to Jesus and sons of the same Father. Hebrews 2:11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” That means that Jesus, having finished the word of dying for our sins and setting us apart (sanctification) from sin, would tell of the name (and character behind that name) of the Father to His brothers (those who believed in Jesus). When Jesus was raised, he told the women: Matthew 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” He said the same thing in John 17:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” I don’t think he ever called his apostles “brothers” until after the resurrection. I had never thought of that until writing this article, so the word always has something new for us.

I hope you have someone to be your crown and joy, to greet you when you get to heaven (or whom you can greet if get there before they do!). This has been an amazing day! I could hear my dementia brother’s wife after we had said good bye, and I could still hear her saing “Praise the Lord!”. Yes, praise the Lord.”



JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG

On By nrfaughtLeave a comment

Yeah, that title was just to get your attention. It was the opening line of the song, “Joy to the World”, by Three Dog Night in 1970. It is a nonsensical song with no apparent meaning, just drink the wine and have a good time, joy to the world. “Jeremiah was a bullfrog, he was a good friend of mine, I never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wutEzjy_E If you want to watch a cute animated video of the song. or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb02JNAOBZY watching Three Dog NIght with their 70’s long hair.

Now that I maybe have your attention, or maybe lost your attention, I want to talk about the prophet Jeremiah. He prophesied during the reigns of the last 5 kings of the southern kingdom of Judah before the Babylonians destroyed the tempe and Jerusalem in 586 BC. Manasseh, the 14th king of Judah, was the most evil of the 20 kings of Judah, worshipping Asherah and Baal, worshipping the stars, practicing sorcery and witchcraft, even offering his sons to the god Molech, even putting pagan idols in the very temple of God. He reigned for 55 years and was carried captive to Babylon for 12 years, during which he humbled himself before God and repented and was returned to Jerusalem to be finish out his reign. One of the 12 (or so) books of the Apocrypha is the Prayer or Manasseh, the prayer of penitence that he supposedly prayed in Babylon. He truly repented b/c he destroyed the idols when he returned as king. His son Amon, the 15th king of Judah, was evil and only reigned 2 years before being assassinated. Manasseh’ grandson, Josiah became the 16th king of Judah and did many reforms. He became king at 8 years old. He began to seek the Lord at 16. That is a critical age for teens to decide whether to follow Christ or not. They are faced with so many temptations with the internet, the phones, the peer pressure, the drinking, the emphasis on sex. It is amazing that any of them survive all that to become sincere mature Christians, but I know several who have. At 20 he began tearing down the idols to Baal and Asherah that were still worshipped in the land. At 28 he began the massive job of repairing the temple. You can imagine the shape it was in after 55 years of idolatry. While repairing the temple, the pries Hilkiah found the “book of the Law” (i.e. the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament). It is hard to believe that there were not plentiful copies of the Law around, but apparently there were none. Josiah was shaken as he read the curses in Deuteronomy that would come on God’s people if they disobeyed God. He had the Law read throughout the land and made the people pledge to obey it. Unfortunately Josiah died in a battle with Pharoah Neco even though Neco told him that he wasn’t coming through Judah to fight Josiah but instead was going to fight the Assyrians.

Jeremiah, the prophet not the bullfrog, was chosen by God while in his mother’s womb and called to gbe a prophet at an early age (he calls himself a “child”). He did not want to be a prophet. Unlike the bullfrog, his words were not hard to understand. He began prophesying in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign which means that he helped Josiah to do his reforms. He would prophesy during the last 18 years of Josiah’s reign and then after Josiah died about 22 more years of the reigns of the last 4 evil kings of Judah. His message was simple: Judah has committed so much idolatry and evil that, if they don’t repent, God will send the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and the temple and take thousands into exile in Babylon for 70 years. He stood in the temple gate and preached his message of doom. He was mocked, put in stocks by he priest Passhur, put in prison, even put in a cistern (a dried up well where Jeremiah “sank in the mud”) to die. He would have died there if He ahd not been rescued. He wept and complained to God about his ministry and wished that he had never ben born. He is forever called the “weeping prophet”. He especially tried to get the last 4 kings after Josiah to repent, but they did not. His words were read to King Jehoiakiim who promptly cut the scroll in pieces and burned them. Can you imagine a president of the U.S. cutting up a Bible and burning the pages? He was surrounded by false prophets like Hananiah who kept telling the people that God would not allow the Babylonians to destroy the temple, the God would save the city from the Babyonian siege just as He had saved the city in the days of King Hezekiah when the Assyrians sieged the city and God killed 185,00 in one night. Jeremiah wore an oxen yoke, telling the last king, Zedekiah, that if he would submit to the Babylonians and repent of evil that God would spare the city. Hananiah broke the yoke and prophesied that the Babylonians would be defeated within 2 years. Jeremiah predicted that Hananiah would die that very year and he did. Zedekiah knew Jeremiah was a true prophet of God but he was influenced by the princes and generals and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, relying on an alliance with Egypt for protection. Egypt was defeated by the Babylonians in 605 BC.

THE 3 DEPORTATIONS OF THE JEWS BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR
1. 605 BC. 2 Kings 24:11-16. He carried off the princes, including Daniel, & mighty men in the 4th year of Jehoiakim. That means Daniel spent the entire 70 years of exile in Babylon.
2. 597 BC. 2 Kings 25:1-7. He carried off King Jehoiachin, Ezekiel, and 10,000 captivesin the brief 3 month reign of Jehoiachin. Ezekiel would prophesy for 22 years, most of which were in Babylon.
3. 586 BC. 2 Kings 25:8-21. He destroyed Jerusalem and the temple after a 2 1/2 year siege, and carried the rest of the people except the poorest in the 11th year of Zedekiah. He. carried Zedekiah to Babylon, killed his sons as Zedekiah watched, and then put his eyes out.

Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations after the city was destroyed, lamenting (expressing sorrow and grief) about the fall of Jerusalem. He did end Lamentations with hope: 3:21-24 “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.” He said that b/c God had told him that the Jews would be allowed to return to their land after 70 years, which was fulfilled when the Medes and Persians defeated Babylon in 539 BC and King Cyrus of Persia allowed them to return to rebuild the temple. One good thing that came about due to the 70 year exile is that it cured Judah of their idolatry with no mention of any idolatry after that.

Jeremiah also had a few messages of hope for the distant future when the Messiah would come. 1) 23:5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ This was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus and the saving of the remnant of Jews who would believe in Jesus as the Messiah in the book of Acts.

2) 33:14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ 17 “For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.” This also was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus and the remnant saved in the new Jerusalem, the church. Jesus did ascend to sit on the “spiritual”, not physical, throne of David in heaven where he has reigned for the past 2,000 years and will reign forever. There is obviously figurative language in this prediction since God ended the animal sacrifices of the old covenant. Those animal sacrifices would be a figurative “type” of the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus in the new covenant. I am amazed at those who say that Jesus would establish a literal physical kingdom on earth based on prophecies like these in Jeremiah (and other prophets like Ezekiel). They say that the prophecies must be fulfilled literally, not figuratively, but surely they would not say that we will return to offering animal sacrifices in some future kingdom on earth. The kingdom Jesus came to establish was a spiritual kingdom, not physical. John 18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world.”

3) 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” This was fulfilled with the coming of the new covenant which originally was established with the remnant of Jewish believers, the early church, in Acts. The book of Hebrews tells us that the new covenant would have Jesus, not Levites, as the high priest and the blood of Jesus, not animals, as the sacrifice for sins. The author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 as being fulfilled and predicting that the old covenant was “ready to vanish away or disappear”, which it did when the Romans detroyed the temple in 70 AD, basically ending the Levitical priesthood and the offering of animal sacrifices. The temple has never been rebuilt since then.

Why study the prophet Jeremiah and the history of Judah? The author of 2 Chronicles tells why God allow the evil Babylonians to destroy his holy city Jerusalem and his holy temple. 36:15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.”

We need to pray for our country. I don’t believe we have had any prophets like Jeremiah to predict our future even though many have tried and have been proven to be false prophets. Many have unsuccessfully predicted the 2nd coming on various dates. Many have that events like 9/11 were sent by God as a warning to us, but we don’t know that was the case. But we have had men preaching from our pulpits all over the country, trying to get us to obey God, to stick to our Christian roots, to repent of our sins, to believe that the Bible is the word of God. Apparently, just as with Jeremiah and Judah, we perhaps as a nation in general have not listened and obeyed the word of God. We are consumed with greed and sexual sins. According to surveys, the majority no longer believe the Bible is the literal word of God and authority for us today. That is apparent by the majority accepting the LGBQT movement, even in many of the mainstream churches. Do you see a pattern repeated here? This country was great b/c it was built on faith in God and the word of God.

Here is a famous quote by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there. . . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests—and it was not there. . . . .in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there. . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” There are questions about the authenticity of this quote and the phrase “America is great b/c America is good”, did he really say that? Another quote by him seems to be authentic: “I went at your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their valleys. I visited their manufactories, their commercial markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ, as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America was great and free, and why France was a slave.”

So we keep hearing “Make America Great Again” recently, with emphasis on restoring our financial security by cutting federal waste and spending (which I highly approve of) and our military strength in dealing with all the crisis in the world. But I don’t hear an emphasis on getting back to faith in the Bible as the word of God. It will take a grass roots revival like the First and Second Great Awakenings or the prayer revival of Jeremiah Lanphier in 1857 to make America great again. But I feel, like Jeremiah, that such a revival is not happening. We do see signs of revival on college campuses, which is encouraging, and we see mega churches drawing great numbers. But the statistics still say that the majority do not believe that the Bible is the word of God. So, even among those who say they do believe it to be the word of God, we have the LGBQT movement in many churches. Pray for our country.

One of the most misused passages in the Bible is Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” It has been often used to say that God has nothing but good for believers in their future welfare. But read the entire context: 29:10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Notice that this promise of. future welfare is to be fulfilled after the 70 years in exile when the Jews will be allowed to return to their land and rebuild the temple. Notice it would only be fulfilled if the people began to seek God with all their heart. But even then, only after 70 years of slavery in Babylon. 29:18 I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they did not pay attention to my words, declares the Lord, that I persistently sent to you by my servants the prophets, but you would not listen, declares the Lord.’  So don’t use this passage in 29:11 to promise people a wonderful future that God has planned for them. Eventually, they will have a guaranteed eternal life future, and God may even bless them with a wonderful life on earth, but that is not always the case. That has not been the case for the past 2,000 years of Christianity as believers have been persecuted repeatedly for their faith.

So the 70 years of exile cured the Jews of their idolatry. They did return in 536 BC to rebuild the temple and did so in spite of great opposition from the Samaritans to their north. There was a great revival led by Ezra the scribe in the 2nd return from Babylon with emphasis on keeping the Law. Nehemiah 8:1And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.” That might be the first preacher pulpit even built! They re-discovered the Feast of Booths from the Law that was read to them, and they had a wonderful, joyful celebration of the feast for 7 days. 8:17And there was very great rejoicing. 18 And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.” We will only have a grass roots revival if we can get our people to believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, that sin is what God defines as sin in his word. We will only have a grass roots revival if we turn to God to seek God with all our hearts, to put away the greed and sexual sins so prevalent in our society.

It took 70 years and a lof of punishment to get Judah to repent of their idolatry and turn to God. What might it take to get our country to return to God? We trust in our financial security so much. Maybe a major depression would cure us? We trust in our military strength so much. Maybe some horrible world crisis will show us that we, like Rome, are not invincible. Maybe God will not cause something bad to happen to get us to repent. Maybe he will just let us reap what we sow. Maybe God doesn’t even intervene in world affairs anymore. Maybe he does.

I don’t know the answers to all those questions. All I know is that we need to pray for our country more than ever before. But this is not about America. It is about the people in our country turning to God to be saved. People were being saved continually during the evil Roman Empire in the first 3 centuries AD. Millions of Chinese Christians are being saved in an atheistic country China. This is about souls being saved. But when America did follow God more fully, it enabled America to use their plentiful material blessings to spread the gospel and help the poor and oppressed all over the world. Many Christian oranizations have done so much good. Our wealth has enabled generous giving to such causes. Many impoverished Christians in Africa, striving just for survival in Muslim or dictator based countries, do not have the wealth we have to share with the world. From that vantage, we do want America to continus as a strong nation even if we can’t get the majority to return to our Christian roots.

Paul’s prayer in 1 Timothy 2 sums it up. 2:1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. I leave you with that prayer. Pray for our country. Pray for believers in every country. Pray that many will be saved in every country. Pray.

NEW WINE IN OLD WINESKINS

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Luke 5:33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

The new wine would ferment more and release gasses that would cause the old wineskin to burst since the old wineskin had already shrunk all that it could schrink. The new cloth would shrinnk when washed, thus pulling away from the old cloth it was sewn to b/c the old cloth. That’s pretty easy to understand. So new wine needs to be put in new wineskins so that the new wineskin can expand as the new wine ferments.

So what is the lesson in this parable? Jesus is introducing new thinking to the legalism of the Pharisees. They were content with the old, “keep the Law” strictly, way of thinking. Jesus would introduce things like “you have heard don’t commit adultery, but I say unto you don’t lust”. They were more concerned about keeping the rituals of the Law rather than the purity of the heart. Jesus’ teaching would be the new wine and the new cloth. The Pharisees’ hypocrisy and legalism would be the old wineskins and the old cloth.

So how does that apply to me? Many of us have been brought up in churches where keeping the commands was the emphasis. Nothing wrong with that unless your strict law keeping ends up making you legalistic, judgmental, and self righteous. You might be exposed to some new spiritual thoughts that should expand your belief in the Bible or in Jesus and you are just closed minded and don’t give the new thoughts a fair chance. Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of new thinking in churches that LGBQT is an acceptable way of loving. I am closed minded on that b/c the Bible clearly says that is a sin. But then I attend one of those mega churches that has a contemporary worship service with the band and the 7/11 music (repeating the same 7 words 11 times). My old church upbringing makes me a little skeptical. Is this entertainment or worship? Our legalistic preachers in the past told us it was entertainment. But while I was there, the lights were down low and I sat by a co-worker and her family and felt a peace that i was needing. I watched my co-worker’s little 9 year old girl singing every word with emotion, swaying to the music, and I thought, “I never did that as a kid. Maybe I need what she has.” I am anti-paid preachers and big churches, but I watched probably a thousand people worship in 3 different services that morning.

I heard a sermon from probably a $100,000+ preacher that challenged me. He was preaching on 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 where Paul said that he focused on just preaching the gosel without using persuasive words of wisdom. How Paul preached out of weakness (his thorn in the flesh?) and was not an elegant speaker like Apollos. He said Paul would be turned down for preaching at most big churches today. He mentioned men like David Brainerd, the apostle to the North American Indians, who was kicked out of Yale b/c of his “spiritual enthusiasm” that had been stirred up by George Whitefield (the 2nd Great Awakening movement). He lived with tuberculosis most of his life and suffered greatly from it, dying at the age of 29 from his disease. In later life, he suffered from depression, loneliness, and lack of food. He died staying in the house of Jonathon Edwards. He probably only converted a few Indians, but he influence men like William Carey, the father of Protestant missions., and Adoniram Judson, the missionary to inland China. John Wesley said ‘Let every preacher read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd‘.

Back to the worship service I attended and the sermon. The preacher challenged the audience, “have you been called to preach, which I thought was strange since he was preaching to an audience with probably no one there who was called to preach. Then I wondered if he was talking to me! He said it was the Spirit speaking through the word in sermons so maybe it was the Spirit.

My point is that the Spirit is trying to put new, fresh, spiritual thoughts in our hearts and minds all the time if we will just tune in. You have to tune in to your favorite radio program, to tune in to the frequency of that program, in order to listen to your favorite music. You have to change your old way of listening to other radio program frequencies to get the new one that will edify you. So I leave it with you to do that in your own experiences. I shared mine and I imagine you have things like that to share also. I need to look at the wordress site and see if there is something I can click that would allow readers to share comments with one another. Hey, that might be new wine.

Jesus concluded the parable with  “and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” I think that means that people tend to prefer what they are familiar with and are reluctant to try something new, even if it might be better. We are kinda stuck in our old ways and way of thinking.

CHANGE MY HEART OH GOD

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Mark 7:14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

The Pharisees had just criticized Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating. In parenthesis, Mark explains that this was their tradition of washing hands when they came from the market place, which means washing away touching anything that a Gentile had touched, thus making them unclean. This was not a command under the Law for all Jewsalthough the priests were commanded to wash their hands before serving in the tabernacle or temple, so this was just a tradition of the Pharisees. Jesus then went on to show how hypocritical the Pharisees were. They held to their hand washing tradition legalistically, condemning those who disobeyed, and yet they would avoid supporting their parents in need, using a hypocritical oath saying they had given their money to God and didn’t have any for their parents. Mark 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

That led to a teaching by Jesus of what defiles a man. He was not saying that he Jews should no longer follow the laws of not eating unclean meats. That would contradict what Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” The Law would not be abolished until 70 AD according to Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” That verse was written around 60 AD predicting the vanishing of the Law in 70 AD. Even the Jewish Christians continued to keep the Law during the transition period from 30 AD to 70 AD.

What Jesus is saying is that it’s not really what you eat that defiles you. What you eat is digested and the wastes come out. It’s what is in your heart that defiles you and what’s in your heart will always end up coming out of your mouth, your mind, your actions. Here’s a great image.

As the capital one commercial says, “What’s in your wallet?” What’s in your heart?

These verses comfort me and scare me. The other day in inservice at school, teachers in groups were asked to give a positive comment to all the teachers in their group. All the compliments given me were “Nicky has a lot of knowledge that he shares.” That’s good but other treachers got comments like “John really cares about the kids and loves them.” Why am I known more for my knowledge than my love.

Bottom line, it’s comforting to know that God looks at the heart. David was a man “after God’s own heart”. He committed adultery and murder, but God forgave him b/c David had a pure heart even though he really messed up. He later begged God, “Create in me a clean heart” again. I have so many bad things in my heart but it is comforting that the grace of God will forgive me just as He forgave David.

But then it’s scary to know that God looks past all my knowledge, good deeds, Bible teaching and preaching, and mission work to see what’s really in my heart. He knows when I am being hypocritical, unloving, judgmental, bitter, proud. He saves me by His grace but He expects me to change my heart, to try to get rid of all the bad things in my heart.

He gives me the Spirit to help me do that b/c my flesh is so evil that I can’t do it by myself. Ezekiel 36: 26 And I will give you ia new heart, and ia new spirit I will put within you. iAnd I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.” (Romans 8:6-8) When you have those evil thoughts in your heart, if you ask the Spirit to help you get rid of them and replace them with pure thoughts, then He will help you. It’s called the “renewing of your mind” b/c the heart is just an organ and it’s really all about the mind. Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

So we will never have a perfectly pure heart. That’s the scary part. We can fall from grace and lose our salvation. I need to try harder to allow the Spirit to change my heart. In Acts 8, Simon had been baptized but then he wanted to buy the apostles’ gift of laying hands on believers to give them miraculous gifts. Acts 8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” That means that a baptized believer could be in serious trouble with God if his/her heart is not right before God.

So this article is to enoucrage me to try harder to let the Spirit help me change my heart.

Here’s a great song to close with. Please listen to it for your devotional thought for the day and then pray, “change my heart oh God, make it ever new…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlSmG-_eJTU



LORD I NEED SOME ANSWERS

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Have you been there? You have some things really troubling you? You might even be a little depressed? You have some key decisions that you need to make? You are thinking about quitting in some way? You feel like others don’ appreciate you? You are starting to imagine some conspiracy plots against you?

But you also know that maybe you deserve some of the things that are troubling you? You know your secret sins even if others don’t. You know that you have had some ulterior motives that you don’t want others to know about.

You know that pride could be part of your problem. It might be that the Lord has already been trying to answer your questions and lead you in a good path but your pride has kept you going on your own path. God said, “My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts”. Maybe you have been relying on your own thoughts and ways instead of God’s. Maybe God is testing you. Maybe God is trying to humble you. Asa, Uzziah, and Hezekiah were great men of God until they were lifted up with pride. You don’t want to let your pride cause you to make some really, stupid, rash decisions. You want to just selfishly pull away from people, from the things you have been involved in. The future looks bleak. You have so much to be thankful for, but you are in a real funk. You might even have considered trying to drink your problems away, although that is not characteristic of you. You dont know who to talk to and who to turn to for help.

Lord, I need some answers. How do I get them? Well it starts with humbly asking God for wisdom. James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” Then in faith trust God that He will give you some answers and lead you in the best path for you to take. Then, the hard part, wait for Him to clearly show you the answers. You look for signs or indicators of God’s leading. You try not to just look for the signs that might want to find, but be totally open to any and all signs. You think you have a sign and then you look for confirmation of that sign. Gideon asked God for a sign: a wet fleece on dry ground. He got it, but then he asked for confirmation: a dry fleece on a wet ground. I can’t believe the Lord gave him the 2nd sign without scolding him for his lack of faith.

I know some people who are just so decisive. They survey the situation. They make decisions and take action. They never second guess themselves or look back if they make a bad decision. But some of us don’t have as much confidence in our decision making skill. We have trouble making decisions. We second guess our decisions. We are always asking “What if I hadn’t don that, or what if I had done that”. We worry about making a decision and we worry if we made the right decision. That doesn’t sound like a lot of confidence that the decisions you make are in harmony with what the Lord wants you to do. If you feel like the Lord is helping you make a decision, then you make it and then the results and consequences of your decision over to the Lord.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” I am in need, Lord, please hear my prayer and help me.

“Lord, I am feeling lost and uncertain right now. I come before you with a heavy heart, seeking your guidance and wisdom. Please, reveal your answers to the questions that trouble me, and help me to see clearly the path you want me to follow. I trust in your love and your perfect plan for my life. Amen.” 


So I prayed and now I wait. I am afraid He will give me some answers that I don’t want to hear even though I say that I want answers. I was going to quit, maybe make a big show of quitting with an bad attitude. What if he tells me to get my act together, quit my pity party, and don’t quit. What if he tells me that he had me in just the right spot that he wanted me to be in.

Things will usually look better in the morning. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalm 30:5 These troubling, uncertain times are when you find out how much you really depend on and trust God to lead you. Use them to grow closer to God.

If this article seems to be just what you need to hear today, then that’s great. Praise God and pray. Pray that prayer several times. William Carey was the father of Protestant mission work. He had a dream of preaching the gospel to the heathen Hindus in India. He met resistance from his Calvinistic preachers who said that, if God wanted that done in India, then God would send the Spirit directly to get it done without anyone even going there. But Carey had a saying: “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” He went. He had many difficult times and lost his family, but he ended up printing, not preaching. He printed to Bible in the native Indian dialects that led to the conversion of thousands. His picture is on a commemorative stamp.

Once you think you know what the lord wants you to do, then be bold. Expect great things from God. Attempt great thing for God. If He closes a door, then he will open another door for you.

God bless you (and me) as we try to seek answers from the Lord. If this article doesn’t fit where you are right now, then be assured it fits someone else. Go encourage them. Let God use you to help someone who is down right now.

START YOUR DAY WITH THESE 7 THINGS

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Philippians 4:4 Always be filled with joy in the Lord. I will say it again. Be filled with joy.

5 Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind. The Lord is coming soon. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks for what you have. 7 And because you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s peace will stand guard over all your thoughts and feelings. His peace can do this far better than our human minds.” ESV

The secret to having good days is to start the day right. A great place to do that is Philippians 4.

1 Rejoice, be filled with joy. If you have eternal life, why does anything on earth really matter. The worst case scenario might be the health or death of loved ones, but when we all get to heaven, sickness and death here on earth will seem like a minor illness that you had 30 years ago.

2 Be kind and gentle. Try a little kindness. Instead of focusing on my problems, my work to be done, my stuff, let your mind think of ways you can show little acts of kindness to others today. It will bring joy to you and it will get your mind off your stressors.

That Glen Campbell song Try A Little Kindness is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvswocNN-g8

 If you see your brother standing by the road
With a heavy load from the seeds he sowed
And if you see your sister falling by the way
Just stop and say, “You’re going the wrong way”

… You’ve got to try a little kindness
Yes, show a little kindness
Just shine your light for everyone to see
And if you try a little kindness
Then you’ll overlook the blindness
Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets

… Don’t walk around the down and out
Lend a helping hand instead of doubt
And the kindness that you show every day
Will help someone along their way

 3. Don’t worry. 1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries to him, because he cares for you.” ERV It’s nice to be able to write down on a piece of paper the things that you are concerned or worried about (there is a fine lline between the two) and then just hand that paper over to someone whom you trust, who has the capabiltiy and resources to take care of everything you put on that paper, and to just tell that person “Take care of these things for me, please”, and then relax and trust the person to take care of it all. It frees you to do other good stuff.
Luke 10: “Martha, Martha, you are getting worried and upset about too many things. 42 Only one thing is important. Mary has made the right choice, and it will never be taken away from her.” ERV

4. Pray. Have A Little Talk With Jesus. That song goes back to 1937, first sung by The Stamps Quartet.

I may have doubts and fears
My eyes be filled with tears
But Jesus is a friend who watches day and night
I go to him in prayer
He knows my every care
And just a little talk with Jesus makes it right

Now let us have a little talk with Jesus
Let us tell Him all about our troubles
He will hear our faintest cry
And He will answer by and by

And when you feel a little prayer wheel turnin’
And you will know a little fire is burnin’
You will find a little talk with Jesus makes it right

5. Be thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Always be full of joy. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Whatever happens, always be thankful. This is how God wants you to live in Christ Jesus.” ERV I pray with the ACTS model: Adoration (praise), Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplecation (for others or requests). Sometimes I start with the T instead of the A. Often if we just start with thanking our Father for all the good things he has given us, it minimizes the bad things that we might be concerned about.

The song Count Your Many Blessings is always a great one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v18f_y2wA8

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
    And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold.
Count your many blessings, money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your Lord on high.

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

6. Tell God your requests, what you need, what you want. That’s the S (supplecation) in the ACTS model. Philippians 4:6, which says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” NASV The word “supplication” comes from the Latin “supplicare” which means “to plead humbly.” The Greek word for supplicaation is deésis: Derived from δέομαι (deomai), meaning “to beg” or “to ask. “From biblebasedliving.com “Supplication is an essential aspect of prayer as it involves making specific requests to God. It goes beyond general prayers of praise or thanksgiving and allows believers to bring their specific needs before the Lord. When we engage in supplication, we humbly acknowledge our dependence on God and His ability to meet our needs. It is an act of surrendering our desires to His will and seeking His guidance in all matters.” Ephesians 6:18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
Make your requests known to him (He already knows what you are thinking or wanting or needing, but He wants to hear you ask, showing your dependence and trust in Him. Then, leave the answered prayers up to God. “Thy will be done”. Whatever you think is best, Father, I’m ok with that.

7. Find the peace of God. Let the peace of God “guard” against all negative emotions and feelings. The Greek for guard is phroureó: To guard, protect, keep watch over. “The term “phroureó” would have been familiar to early Christians as it was used in both military and civilian contexts to describe the act of keeping watch or protecting something valuable.” 2 Corinthians 11:32 At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.” A military or civilian guard keeps anyone or anything out that would endanger the thing or person that he/she is guarding. The peace of God will keep out fear, doubt, worry, bitterness, anger, wrath, hate, envy, jealousy, lust, pride, frustration, guilt, disgust, helplessness, loneliness, confusion, sadness, shame, self-criticism, judging others, contempt, stress, inadequacy, resentment. The peace of God will not allow those emotions to keep you from rejoicing in the Lord. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” The Greek for rule is brabeuó: To rule, to arbitrate, to decide, to govern. From the root word βραβεύς (brabeus), meaning “an umpire” or “a judge.” From AI: “In ancient Greek culture, athletic games were a significant part of society, and the role of the umpire was crucial in ensuring fair competition. The umpire, or “brabeus,” was responsible for enforcing the rules and awarding the prize to the victor. This cultural backdrop provides a vivid metaphor for the spiritual life, where believers are encouraged to let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts, much like an umpire ensuring harmony and order.”

The song Peace, Perfect Peace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibqgZxWa6bM

I need to read this article every morning and listen to these songs!


KING JEHOSHAPHAT: THE RIGHTEOUS KING WHO DIDN’T SAY “NO” TO AHAB

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Jehoshaphat was the 4th king of Judah.  Second Chronicles 17:3–6 gives this commendation: “The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. The Lord established the kingdom under his control; and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honor. His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.” In addition, Jehoshaphat sent men throughout the kingdom to teach the people the Law of God (2 Chronicles 17:7–9). He removed the male cult prostitutes (1 Kings 22:46). Judah and Israel had been fighting constantly since the kingdom split, but he made peace with wicked king Ahab of Israel.

Nothing but good is said about him until 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18. Jehoshaphat goes to visit King Ahab in Samaria. He joined with wicked King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel to retake Ramoth-gilead from the Syrians. Ahab has replaced the 450 prophets of Baal that Elijah had killed in 1 Kings 18 with 400 more prophets of Baal. They tell Ahab what he wants to hear, that he will be victorious in the battle. Jehoshaphat demands that a true prophet give his prediction, and Micaiah predicts that Ahab will die in the battle. You would think that Jehoshaphat would break off this partnership with Ahab and head home to Jerusalem, but instead he still joins Ahab in the battle. Ahab is killed by a God-guided random arrow even though he disguised himself as a regular soldier instead of wearing the kingly garments.

2 Chronicles 19:1 Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem. 2 But Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord. 3 Nevertheless, some good is found in you, for you destroyed the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.” To his credit, he apparently received that rebuke and continued to be a righteous king. The same prophet Hanani had rebuked Asa (Jehoshaphat’s father) but Asa imprisoned Hanani. Jehoshaphat then appointed Levites and priests as judges, warning them to give impartial judgements and not take bribes.

After the rebuke by Hanani, Judah was attacked by Moabites and Ammonites. Jehoshaphat led a long, humble prayer asking God for help, acknowledging that he was powerless without God’s help (2 Chronicles 20). The prophet Jahaziel told Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah, “Don’t be afraid for the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15). Did you ever wonder where that song “The Battle Belongs to the Lord” came from? The Lord set an ambush for the attacking enemy. Apparently they ended up fighting among themselves and with the Edomites and were all killed. The army of Judah didn’t even have to fight. When they arrived, all they saw was dead bodies. They took great spoil for 3 days and then on the 4th day they celebrated and praised God with musical instruments and singers.

But we have to ask ourselves, “Why would a righteous king like Jehoshaphat even go visit Ahab? Why would he join with him in a battle that a true prophet of Yahweh warned against, one that he insisted on hearing his prediction?” This all goes back to 2 Chronicles 18:1 Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.” This is referring to a marriage between Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son, to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehoram succeeded Jehoshaphat as king and was an evil king, restoring pagan worship in Judah. Athaliah was the daugher of the wicked Queen Jezebel of Israel who fed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah at her own dinner table, and desperately tried to kill Elijah. Jezebel was the main ungodly influence of her husband King Ahab. After marrying Jehoram and become Queen of Judah, Athaliah turned out to be “like mother, like daughter”. She restored and promoted Baal worship in Judah, and even built a pagan idol in the temple of God. Ahaziah (Athaliah and Jehoram’s son), succeeded Jehoram as king of Judah. Jehu was appointed by Elijah to kill Ahab, Joram (Ahab’s wicked son who succeeded him), all of Ahab’s descendants, Ahaziah, 42 of Ahaziah’s descendants, Baal’s worshippers and prophets (those 400 prophets of Baal who told Ahab he would be victorious in battle?), and Jezebel. After Athaliah’s son King Ahaziah was killed by Jehu, Athaliah killed all of the royal household of Ahaziah (yes, that would be her grandchildren) and made herself queen for 6 years. Only the baby Joash was spared through the efforts of his nurse Jehoshaba. He was hidden for 6 years in the temple until the priest Jehoiada had Athaliah killed and Joash made king at the age of 7.

Jehoshaphat’s father, King Asa, was a righteous man (for most of his reign until his pride caused him to imprison Hanani) and Jehoshaphat followed in his righteous footsteps. But Jehoram (Jehoshaphat’s son) did not follow in his father’s righteous footsteps. He chose to marry wicked Athaliah. Could Jehoshaphat not have stopped that marriage? That’s a tough question b/c many of us have not been able to stop our children from entering what we feel is a bad marriage. Samson’s parents were not able to stop Samson from marrying the Philistine woman which led to all kind of problems. But that marriage alliance was the beginning of Jehoshaphat’s problems. That no doubt led to a visit to Ahab in Samaria, which led to joining Ahab in a forbidden battle.

We don’t know what Jehoshaphat was thinking or what his motives were for joining Ahab. He had made peace with Ahab and there were no wars betwen Israel and Judah as had been in the past. Was he afriad that Ahab would turn on him and go to war with Judah if he refused to go to battle with him? Jehoshaphat was wealthy and that could hurt his cash flow, as war always does.

What we do know is that Jehoshaphat violated the principle in the rebuke by Hanani, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord?” The same principle in 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness? 15 Or what harmony does Christ have with Belial, or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,“I will dwell among them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.”

God commands us to be the salt of the earth, preserving and adding godly flavor to a sinful world. To do that, we must be “in the world but not of the world”. Associating with the ungodly in this world is inevitable unless you live in a monastery. Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world.” At the same time, He warns us about making unnecessary friendships, partnerships, and associations with the ungodly. We must be careful about “why” we associate with the ungodly. We must ask, “Is this association or partnership, or. friendship something that God might use to His glory, or am I doing it for selfish reasons.

Apparently Jehoshaphat had a character flaw (don’t we all). For whatever reason or motive, he was afraid to say “no” to Ahab when asked to join him in battle. Or he selfishly saw some possible monetary reason for joining him. Do you (or I) have that same character flaw? Do you join the ungodly in drinking parties b/c you don’t want to be different? They say that the first semester in college is when many kids from Christian backgrounds and families first start drinking b/c they feel the pier pressure that “hey, that is the college experience, everyone does it”. It is hard for high school and college kids to say “no” when pressured by their peers to drink or do drugs. No one wants to be mocked b/c they are different, “better than thou” Bible thumpers.

But what about your business and friendship decisions? Do you get into business deals that make you money even though you know they might lead you to compromise your Christian values? Does hanging around with the ladies or guys in your friend group lead you to doing things that violate your conscience? Maybe doing that enhances your image or popularity?

BTW, you would think that Jehoshaphat would learn his lesson from the incident with Ahab, right? Wrong! 2 Chronicles 20:35 After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined with Ahaziah king of Israel (the son of Ahab and Jezebel), who acted wickedly. 36 He joined him in building ships to go to Tarshish, and they built the ships in Ezion-geber. 37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have joined with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made.” And the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish.” He got into trouble by joining Ahab and was rebuked by God. But then he makes another partnership, joining Ahab’s wicked son Ahaziah in a shipping venture.

Perhaps this shows that Jehoshaphat’s character flaw was the love of money. In the words of Paul, 1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” As someone said, “it’s all about the money”. We are so driven by the desire to have nice things, to keep up with the Joneses (whoever that is), to wine and dine with our friends. Many of us fell into that “snare” and are plunged into ruin and destruction. Can you think of some Christian men and women who started drinking and partying, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and now they have left the faith? I can.

Let us pray for ourselves first of all. Then pray right now for those whom you think have left the faith b/c of their love of money. Pray for our college students and high school students who face enormous evil peer pressure. Don’t give up on those who fall. James 5:19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

CONCIDENCES: CASTLE

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I am watching all the seasons of Castle on Amazon Prime. It’s one of those TV series, like Murdock’s Mysteries, where there is a constant romantic suggestion building between the male and female stars (Beckett and Castle). But the writers are brilliant. Castle is always coming up with crazy possibilities for solving crimes, but he always says “there is no such thing as ‘coincidence'” when looking at events in a crime. The events are always connected. The key to solving the crime is to find what the connection is.

That got me thinking about “coincidences” in life. A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection. I was waiting for service on my car. I was trying to get hot water out of the machine. I pressed all the right buttons, or so I thought, and I got cold water. This Mexican lady and her husband were seated nearby. She saw my dilemma and stepped over, pushed the same buttons (or so I thought) and bingo, hot water for my tea. She sat down at a nearby table. I thanked her and waited a moment to see if she seemed to want any kind of conversation. She initiated the conversation and we talked for 30 minutes. Her husband is a cook and doesn’t speak English well. She is from Mexico and has been in the U.S. for 21 years. She has 4 kids. We talked about my missionary experiences in Colombia, South America. They attend a Spanish speaking church nearby. I plan to visit that church tomorrow. Maybe my random meeting with that lady might have some purpose in God’s plans.

I don’t believe that every single event in life is necessarily a part of some predetermined plan of God. But I firmly believe that we can use every event or circumstance to do His will.” God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:4) Paul said “13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13).

Mordecai told Esther to go ask the king to stop Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews. Esther sent word to Mordecai: Esther 4:11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” 12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Saying “who knows” indicates to me that Mordecai did not have some direct revelation from God to tell Esther to go to the king. He is saying that she is in a special position as queen to perhaps save the Jews, and that maybe God put her there just for that situation. The whole choosing of a new queen and Esther, a Jew, becoming the new queen out of 128 provinces of beautiful women was part of God of God’s providence, but it still had a lot of moving parts to it. Parts that depended on the free will of people. Esther could choose to go into the king or not. The king could choose to kill her if she came to him, or not (he chose not to kill her). The king could chose to save the Jews once Esther told him about Haman’s plat, or not. But let’s be clear. Mordecai told Esther, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” If God wants something done, He will find someone who will choose to be a part of God’s working.

So that’s my take on coincidences. We should view every event or circumstance in our lives as a possible part of God’s plan to save souls. We should try to figure out how God might be using us to do HIs will. It’s called “possibility thinking”. “Possibility thinking requires both imagining what is not there and creating paths to it, so that it can become a reality.  Possibility Thinking is the willingness to see possibilities everywhere instead of limitations.”

KING ASA OF JUDAH: PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL

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King Asa, the 3rd king of the southern kingdom of Judah, reigned for 41 years and was one of the more righteous kings of all 19 kings of Judah. But “pride goeth before a fall”, which means “People who are overconfident or too arrogant are likely to fail.” Humility might be the most important thing for sinners who are seeking a right relationship with God. James 4:6 Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” 1 Peter 5:5 All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Luke 14:11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Here is a great image of King Asa’s reforms in Judah.

2 Chronicles 14:2  And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. Judah had decayed morally to the point that there were male shrine prostitutes, which Asa remove. He removed pagan altars. Judah had peace with no wars for most of his reign. He bullt walled cities. He had an army of 580,000 men of valor from the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin (which made up the southern kingdom after the kingdom split).

Even when Zerah the Ethiopian attacked Judah with one million men, Asa humbly prayed “O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.”  (2 Chronicles 14:11). Psalm 149:4 For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.” God gave Asa the victory b/c he was humble and trusted God in battle.

The prophet Azariah told Asa, ““Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chroniclles 14:2). After hearing those words, Asa immediately responded by tearing down pagan altars throughout Judah. He persuaded all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and even those from some of the northern kingdom tribes who had moved to Judah to get away from the idolatry in the northern kingdom, to enter a covenant to seek the Lord with all their heart and soul. Whoever broke the covenant would be put to death. He even removed Micaah, his own queen mother, from being queen b/c she built a detestable image for Asherah. “The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days” (2 Chronicles 15:17).

But things changed in the 35th year of his 41 year reign. The evil king Baasha of the northern kingdom built Ramah on the border between the two kingdoms in order to stop defectors from leaving the northern kingdom to go to Judah to live. There was war between Baasha and Asa. God would have given Asa victory over Baasha if he had just humbly trusted God like he did in the victory over Zerah. Instead, Asa bribed King Beh-hadad of Syria with gold and silver from the temple to attack Baasha and force Baasha to withdraw from fighting Judah. It worked! Apparently Asa was feeling pretty confident in his ability after that.

Hanani the prophet met Asa and told him ““Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. 8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand.” (2 Chronicles 15:7-8) How did Asa handle this rebuke from the prophet? Did he humbly repent and ask forgiveness? 2 Chronicles 15:10 Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.”

What happened that changed Asa from the humble man who sought God with all his heart to one who would in a rage put God’s prophet in stocks in prison and inflict cruelties upon some of the people? PRIDE. Proverbs 16: 18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” In the 39th year of his reign, he was afflicted with diseased feet, but instead of seeking the Lord for help, he only sought his physicians. He died without any record of his repenting of his pride.

It is hard to be humble in America when we have so many resources to rely on. Not all, but most o us Christians have money, medical insurance, retirement funds, prestige at work, and respect at work. But when we have a crisis, like health, money, job, marital, or family problems, who do we turn to first? God has given us doctors and there is nothing wrong in seeking help from doctors. But who do we turn to first in a medical crisis: physicians or The Great Physician. When there is a crisis at work or possibly losing my job, who do I turn to first? In a money crisis, who do I turn to first: a financial counselor or the word of God? In a marital crisis, who do I turn to first: a marital counselor or God? Who do I rely on to help me either solve a problem or cope with the problem? The one you turn to first in a crisis is the one you trust to be fully able to help you in the crisis.

God told Solomon after he built and dedicated the new temple: 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” I think that our country is at a critical point right now. We have been blessed with so many material wealth. “In 2023, the mean personal income in the United States was $63,510. The median household income was $80,610.” “According to the World Bank’s classification, the mean income in “third world” countries, categorized as low-income economies, is typically below $1,145 per capita per year, with lower middle-income countries ranging between $1,146 and $4,515 per capita”. “According to data from the World Bank, around 84% of the world’s population lives in “developing countries,” which is often considered synonymous with “third world countries,” meaning the majority of the global population resides in these regions.” Many complain about lack of money, but usually that is b/c of mismanaging money and debt from a high standard of living. The U.S. has more military might and capability than ever before. “The United States military is considered the most powerful in the world, with a large budget, advanced technologies, and a global presence. The US military’s strength is measured by its capability, capacity, and readiness to handle missions.” 70 % in our country say they believe in God, but according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, only 54% of US adults believe in “God as described in the Bible”. So only half of our people believe in Yahweh of the Bible. That other 16% would believe in the god of some of the world religions like Buddhism. Only 30 % attend church. I am not a big proponent of organized churches, but church attendance is still a good indicator of an active faith in God. Only 25% believe that homosexual relations is a morally wrong and a sin. 64% believe that homosexual relations are morally acceptable.

All those statistics sound to me like America is in need of moral reform. If the prophet Azariah was here today, I think he would tell us the same thing he told Asa, “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” . That means believing in the Bible as the verbally inspired error free word of God (the orginals were error free and the translations we have are trustworthy). If the Bible says that homosexuality or adultery or drunkenness in a sin, then it is a sin. That means relying on Yahweh as the only true God and Jesus Christ as the only Savior from our sins. That means relying on God for how we live, think, and do. That means humbling ourselves to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That means fellowshipping with other Christians in house churches or even orgainzied churches.

MAGA: “make America great again”. I’m all for that. But I prefer MAHA: “make America humble again.”

AT LEAST KING JOSIAH TRIED!

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King Josiah was the 16th king of the southern kingdom of Judah from 640-609 BC.

Josiah’s grandfather was perhaps the most evil of the 19 kings of Judah. His 55 year reign was mostly marked by terrible evil.

The Assyrians carried Manasseh to Babylon in hooks, bound with bronze fetters. In his suffering there, he humbled himself and repented of his evil way. We don’t know how, but God brought him back to Jerusalem. He then removed the idols, foreign gods, altars for sacrificing to those gods, etc. 2 Chronicles 33:18-19 mentions his prayer. There is a book in the Apocrypha called “The Prayer of Manasseh”, a short prayer that he supposedly prayed. We are not sure of the authenticity of that book, but 2 Chronicles 33:19 says that his prayer was recorded in the records of Hozai, so it is possible that “The Prayer of Manasseh” is really his prayer passed down throught Jewish history. As evil was Manasseh was, God forgave him and he died in a right relationship with God. God is such a merciful, forgiving God.

His father was the evil king Amon, the son of Manasseh. Amon began to reign when he was 22 and reigned for only 2 years. Most of his teen and young adult life would have been watching his father Manasseh do evil things. He would have also sseen Manasseh’s repentance and reforms, but that did not make an impact on Amon. How evil was Amon?

Josiah began to reign when he was 8 years old. Amon his father reigned for 2 years. That means that Josiah was 6 years old when his grandfather Manasseh died and 8 years old when his father Amon died. . His memories of his evil father Amon would not have been good as a 6 and 7 year old child. Fortunately his memories of his grandfather might have been mostly good as a 4 and 5 year old child since Manasseh would have been doing his reforms during those years of Josiah’s childhood.

Here is a great image detailing the age of Josiah when he began to reign at age 8 and did reforms. (Actually it should be 26 years old, the 18th year of his reign, when he repaired the temple.

During the repair of the temple when he was 26 that Hilkiah the priest found the “book of the Law” (i.e. the Pentateuch) and brought it to Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:14-21). The king tore his clothes and he himself read the book of the Law to all the elders, priests, Levites and people of Judah. He told Hlkiah to ask the prophetess Huldah what his (i.e. Josiah’s) fate would be in light of the curses that he read from the book of Deuteronomy, no doubt, as consequences for all the evil that Manasseh and Amon had done in Judah ( 2 Chronicles 34:22-30). Huldah told him that he would be spared seeing the punishment that God was going to inflict on Judah, but that the evil was so wide spread that Josiah’s reforms were “too little, too late” to save Judah from being carried off into Babylonian captivity. There were 3 deportations to Babylon that began almost immediately after Josiah died during the reign of the last 4 evil kings of Judah, and in 586 BC King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and took the last group of captives to Babylon, beginning the 70 years of exile in Babylon.

So why this lesson on King Josiah at this particular time? It is b/c of my concern for America. I know there is a lot of talk about “make Ameria great again”. You can buy a MAGA hat for $50. I do hope that we can balance the budget, trim the deficit, cut government spending, secure the border, reduce inflation, etc. But will America truly repent of the greed and sexual immorality that permeates our country? Will the churches who promote LGBQT go back and read the Bible condemnation of homosexuality and repent? Will our leaders truly turn to God for guidance on how to lead this country? America has typically bounced back from ungodly stretches of its history with “grass roots revivals” like the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings, and the Jeremy Lanphier prayer revival (that spread across many cities with thousands praying every day at noon)? But those revivals were based on people believing that the Bible was the word of God. If the Bible said drunkenness was a sin, then to repent means to quit getting drunk. But today about 70% of Americans believe that same sex relationships are morally acceptable. If someone does that believe that homosexuality is a sin, then they won’t repent of that. Therefore a grass roots revival will be nearly impossible unless we do what Josiah did. We need to rediscover the Bible, open and study it, and let the Bible tell us what sin is, and then repent if we are guilty of sin. What will be the fate of America if we do not repent and restore the Judeo-Christian values that this country was built on? Only God knows the answer to that, but I am praying for a revival. American Christians have so many resources that can and are being used to drill wells overseas and print Bibles to spread the gospel. I don’t want to see that end.

In the mean time, we need to pray daily and earnestly for our country and our leaders. 1 Timothy 1:1 First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all people, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”