Isaiah 11:6-9

Oh, what a day it will be! In Isaiah Chapter 11 we see a description of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the result of his return will be a world that we are not experiencing today. In verses 6 through 9, we see descriptions of wolves which the natural enemy of lambs are dwelling together without harm. The leopard and the goat also lay down together without trouble. The lion not eating the calf, and the bear eating the grass like cows. There's also a description of little children playing around snake dens and never having to worry about getting bitten.

Not only do we live in a world today where wild animals are killing other animals, but that people are killing each other also. And the future described in Isaiah this will no longer be the practice, but it truly will be paradise. No more wars, famines, need for anything, no reason to take from another, eliminates most of the killing today. As I watch the news lately, I cannot wait for a world like this to start. Just imagine walking in some of the most dangerous cities in the world without the fear of harm.

If you stop and think about it, this is the world that we would have had if it wasn't for sin. When God put the garden of Eden on this earth it truly was paradise. No killing, harm, need for anything, Adam and Eve had it all and was to rule it. But instead of embracing all that God had given them they decided to become like Him by eating the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Since then, all we have been doing is trying to get back to that place of paradise but realizing it cannot be found on this current world.

But do not give up hope, it can be found and you could experience it forever and ever. And the only cost is to accept God's free gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. So instead of trying to chase down paradise, accept the one that is being offered to you right now.

Isaiah 8:19

When we look at what is going on today in this world, there is a lot of spiritualism happening everywhere. People think that by calling themselves “spiritual”, they have tapped into God and is doing right. From cultish things like witchcraft, yoga, druidism, etc., to some of today’s world religions, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, etc., they all have verse 19 in common and call out to the dead about things of the living. And if there is one thing I know about dead things, they can’t help me when I need it.

The problems I experience in this world are things that need something alive to help fix it. Whether it is financial, work, relationships, or health, you cannot throw a dead raccoon at it and make it all better. If anything, you throw a dead raccoon at your spouse, and it will probably make things much worse. For a living problem, you need a living solution. Jeremiah 10:10 tells us that the God of the Bible “is a living God”, and Psalm 34:17 tells us that God can “deliver them from all their troubles” (“them” are the saved).

The God that has saved me by sending His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for my sin, is the God that is alive today and can help me in my times of need. There are no other religions or crafts that can say that their thing of worship is alive, and the dead cannot help the living. If you are having troubles in any area of your life, who or what are you crying out to for help? If it is not the God of the Bible, your cries are falling on deaf ears.

Keeping in mind that God also directs the paths of others to be the help for His people in their time of need. Doctors, psychiatrists, financial advisors, etc., have all been given talents and skills by God to help others. Sometimes He chooses to fix a problem supernaturally (which I have experienced myself) but many times He uses the people He has gifted to do the work. Never think it to be a failing if you need to go to someone for help, that is why God gifted them.

Micah 3:4

One thing that is very important in my Christian walk is hearing the voice of the Lord. For clarity, I do not hear His voice audibly in my ear but instead hear it through the urging of my heart by His Holy Spirit. The way I know it's His voice that is telling my heart which way to go is hard to explain, but I know it's there because of how it feels when it's gone. In Micah 3:4, he gives the leaders a warning that if they continue in their disobedience that God will ignore them when they cry out to Him and He will hide His voice from them. I can tell you from personal experience that this is no way to grow in your personal relationship with the Creator.

Like I said earlier, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between God's voice and your own desires, until that voice is gone. One summer a couple years ago, I had allowed myself to be fully taken over by the desire to do all the projects I had for my house and yard, in one season, as fast as I can. As I was knocking the projects out, I became consumed with pride over how things were looking and spent most of my time working on them. If it was raining, I worked inside and if it was sunny I worked outside. There was plenty of projects to do and I was so focused on them that I placed God on pause so I would not get distracted.

At the beginning, God's small still voice was speaking to my heart to not forget my studies and prayer time with Him, but I ignored it. I pushed that voice so far down that eventually it faded. I cannot tell you exactly when it did, but at the time I was happy it did, I had too much to do to be bothered by anything. I worked and I worked, through the pain and cuts. I even caught my foot on fire receiving severe burns, but I put some lotion on it, a bandage, and got back out there. Little did I know that the pain and the burn was God's attempt to get my attention because I no longer heard His voice.

The trick was so smooth, I never saw it coming. I became so consumed with material things that I left my first love, God. And looking back, I see that God’s desire for a right relationship with me drove Him to find a way to get my attention. To make a long story short, He finally got my attention and the next morning we had a very important conversation about what had just taken place the last three months. As I cried out to God, "What did I do wrong?", which was the proper question to ask because I recognized chastisement and somewhere deep, I knew it was coming. As God impressed on my heart "You left your first love!", I recognized that line from the Book of Revelation and knew what it meant. I forgot what was really important in this world which is God and exchanged Him some things that will fade away and will be in need of repair again someday.

As I heard the response, I was in tears, but not only for the reason you would think. Yes, there was a sense of shame for how I had treated my relationship with God over those months, but I was more moved by hearing His voice again after all that time. I didn't realize how much I missed His prompting on my heart until I heard it again that day. Even as I am typing this years later, my eyes are watering over the idea of not having God's voice in my life. This is something I pray that I will never experience again. And, if you are wondering how to tell if it is God's voice that is touching your heart to go in a direction, you first have to know what it sounds like.

To be able to know how it sounds, you have to go to His primary way He speaks to people, the Bible. If you spend enough time in His words, you will start to learn how He speaks and then will recognize it when your heart hears it. So, spend time in the Bible, I mean some real quality time and daily, then spend some time in quietness talking to Him. Soon enough you will begin to feel His words upon your heart and know it is Him.

Hosea 11

Hosea chapter 11 tells a lot about the heart of God. In chapters 8-10, Hosea tells the people of Ephraim and Israel that God has passed judgement on them for their sin. But the God of the Bible is not only wrathful and judge but is loving also. 1 John 4:16 tells us that God’s very character is love. Not that He has the ability to love, but that what love is, comes from the person that God is. Which brings us to Hosea 11 when God follows up his judgement with expressing His love for these people despite their disobedience.

People make the mistake of thinking that God only loves certain people of this world. Some think that His love is reserved for the Jewish people, some think only the Christians, while some think it is based off of what country they live in. All of these and any other category you can come up with will fall way short of the truth. God is love, and thus He loves everyone that has been, is being, or will be born in this world. God does not make it dependent on if you are a “good person” or if your parents attended church and you followed in their footsteps.

The only criteria for God to love you is that you exist. And because He loves you so much, He could not allow you to be condemned to your fate without stepping into history to make a way for you to come back to Himself. He did this in the person of Jesus Christ, and through His life, death and resurrection, He cleared the way for all your sins to be paid and your eternity set in His presence. All He asks in return is for you to accept this gift and live like He is your Lord.

Remembering chapter eleven, God was talking to them while they were in full rebellion and let them know that He still wants a relationship the way it was intended. This is why Romans 5:8 is my life verse. It tells us that even while we were God’s enemy because of our sin, He loves us enough to make that sacrifice on the cross to save us. God doesn’t wait for us to clean up our act, He saves us right where we are at now. If you are reading this and saying to yourself that you have done too many bad things for God to save you, you couldn’t be more wrong.

God in the person of Jesus did not come and dine with the religious class, He went to the sinners of that day and told them He wants to save them. The ones that the rest of society shunned because they had committed too many offences to the people. But Jesus met them where they were at and made them clean right there and right then. Don’t let your idea of what can and cannot be saved stop you from an eternity with God, ask Jesus to save you today and let Him make you clean too.

Isaiah 5:17

In today’s passage of Isaiah 5, we see an odd little saying in verse seventeen that has a big point to it. The verse talks about the poor and strangers to Israel, will inhabit the lands and possess the things that are left behind when the rich are taken into captivity. For some context, at that time the people of Israel had been prosperous and back into their old habits, because of their arrogance they think they do not need God anymore. They turn to false idols and forget the One that brought them out of Egypt. And again, God is going to send judgement in the way of captivity by another nation. It seems like they will never learn their lesson.

So as Isaiah is telling them what God says, he tells them that it will come so swiftly that the rich will not be able to take and hide their things before it comes. The poor of the land and the Gentiles will move in and take over everything left behind. In case you are curious about why the poor remain, two things, first they are humbled already and not part of this judgement, second when a nation invades and takes captive the people, they would take the ones that had education and abilities to help prosper the conquering nation. This aside, let’s focus on the fact that those that believe they did not need God, lost it all.

This is how we should look at the things of this world. That at any moment it can all be taken away and belong to someone else when it’s all done. To cling onto the things of this world so tightly and believe that you are where you are at in life because of nothing but your own abilities, is the lie this world tells you. When we look at Job from the Bible, in a day everything he owned and all his children were taken from him. In Job 1:21, he states “The LORD giveth and the LORD taketh away”. Job understood that all that he had and all his abilities came from God, and in that humility, he understood that at any moment it can all be taken away.

To live a life in pursuit of God instead of the things of this world is a life that when you experience loss, you still have your eyes on the Father. When nothing seems to make sense about the situation you find yourself in, you rest in the knowledge that God is still in control and there is a glorious purpose for it. A life not reliant on how much you can get before you leave this earth is a life that has hope and is pleasing to God. So, instead of worrying about how to protect what you have that consumes your attention, focus on the One that made a way for you to be able to bless your family while understanding that if it becomes your only focus, it can all be gone in a blink of an eye and someone else will be reaping the benefits of your labors.

Isaiah 1:27-28

As Isaiah delivers the message to Israel about God’s judgement for their disobedience and following false gods, there are these two little verses that remind us that God deals with people individually. Even though God is telling Israel that He is judging them, He states in verse 27 that those who repent will be redeemed, while those who continue to rebel will disciplined. God does not judge you because of your family name, country of birth, what others around you are doing, etc., He deals with you as an individual because His relationship with us is a personal one.

It’s kind of like the relationship a father has with his children. Yes, they are all your offspring, but they all have different personalities. A good father will lean into each one of their strengths and help with their weaknesses. You cannot treat your children a certain way based on one child’s ability. Take for example, if one child is really good at math but the other one struggles, you would not say because the one does good they both do good. You would instead find a way to help the one that struggles and does not interfere with the one that excels in it.

The same can be said about God. He helps us with what we, as an individual, need help with. We do not pay for what someone else does and they do not pay for what we do. At the same time, God does not expect you to do more than your talents allow because the person sitting in the pew next to you can. He works with the talents and experience you have to do what needs to be done. So, stop looking at your relationship with God in terms of what church you go to or what city you live in, but instead look at it as a one-on-one relationship full of love and grace.

Hosea 4:10

As I was doing today’s reading, I came across seven words that have a huge inditement towards materialism. As a matter of fact, I was living these words for many years and can tell you they are 100% true. In this chapter, Hosea is telling the people of Israel what God has against them. As we read the verses before verse ten, God is telling the people that as they receive more blessings in way of things, the more they are sinning. He goes on to say that they are greedy for sin, and the results will be God stepping in and chastising them for their actions.

The very first thing God says He will do for discipline is the subject of today’s devotion, as He goes on to say, “They shall eat, but not be satisfied”. That is the trap of materialism, to gain more and more things and never be satisfied with what you have. For many of my young adult years, I played the game of needing the latest and greatest new thing out there, by any means necessary. Not to mention, I accrued a whole bunch of debt doing it too. No matter what it was, I must get the next step up until I was maxed on credit and the paycheck didn’t meet the need to pay them.

For the longest I “Robbed Peter to pay Paul”, and I only got in deeper. There seemed to be no coming up for air this time. So, I know how it feels to have that hunger inside for the next new thing. It’s powerful and consumes your thoughts, but it doesn’t have to. I remember one day talking to God about my situation, tears streaming down my face, no where else to go to fix this, when His Spirit put a thought into my head. In an instant, I was overcome with relief because I knew that God had just given me the answer.

And as I did what He prompted me to do, I saw success after success while at the same time my desire to have it all started to fade into the background. By the time I finished God’s plan I was out of debt, and my house was paid off too. Yes, it took a lot of work on my part to stick to the plan. Getting a second job and refusing to give in to people’s suggestions to file bankruptcy, but when it was all finished, I was done. But after all those years of sleepless nights and worry, I can look back and see that the source of all that was, I ate and never got satisfied. And I can testify that materialism is a disease that does have a cure, it’s getting God truly involved.

And for those of you wondering what I did to get out of debt, I will tell you that there is not a one size fits all system and you need to listen to what God is telling you to do. For me, I started with cutting up every credit card I had into the smallest pieces I could and then putting anything I could on the smallest bill to pay it off. With the second job and tightening the belt, I put everything into one and then another and another as they were paid off one by one. Before I knew it, God delivered on the promise to see me through it if I just followed His instructions.

Jonah

The Book of Jonah is the story of so many Christians over the generations. I know that in my life I was a Jonah from time to time, at least until the giant fish ate me. No, I don’t mean a fish literally, but figuratively a giant fish nails it. I bet if we all look back in our lives, we will find a fish of various size directing our paths for God’s will. But first, for clarification I will sum up the Book of Jonah in case you are not entirely familiar with it.

The book starts with God giving Jonah directions to go to the town of Nineveh and tell them that judgement is coming. But because of Jonah’s personal feelings about these very wicked people, he tries to run in the opposite direction by boat. But God sends a storm to rock the boat and after casting lots, the people on the boat realize Jonah is to blame for the storm. After they try to outrun the storm and fail, Jonah is thrown overboard and the sea immediately calms. And, if being thrown out of the boat at sea is not bad enough, God sends a giant fish.

After the fish swallows Jonah whole, he begins to go to God in prayer admitting his fault when he disobeyed Him. After three days, Jonah is puked up on the shore of Nineveh alive to do what God has commanded in the first place. And this is where our stories split in opposite directions. As Jonah goes into the city, he tells them that in 40 days God will destroy them. One can almost envision him with a smile on his face when he says it because he wanted the worst and was still reluctant. Where I on the other hand had a different response.

After I had a summer of disobedience, God sent a tree instead of a giant fish. And like Jonah, I too went to God in prayer about my actions. But as I laid there for 9 days talking to God and committing myself back to the plan he had for my life, I embraced it no matter what it was He wanted. As Jonah’s attitude was, “I will if you are going to make me”, mine was “Whatever you ask I will do”. While Jonah was given shade from the heat to have it taken away, I had healing that astounded the doctors and therapists.

As Jonah’s attitude was sour, I was joyous at the prospect of God working in other’s lives because He corrected my path. As a result of my recommitment, I am now sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to whomever I can including the people of Grace Bible Church where I am now a pastor at. Something that would not have happened unless God sent a giant fish my way.

Amos 9:7-15

In today’s reading, we see that Amos has been giving a message of judgement upon Israel for three chapters. God tells the people that although you are enjoying the spoils of the land and are prosperous, this will not last. Their wickedness has come to a head, God cannot stand by and watch as they defile His name in the lands. God tells them that they will be conquered and that a person would be willing to sell themselves just to get a pair of sandals. A far cry from those who laid on beds of ivory and ate of the best meat, but as God’s chosen people, they are called for more.

But that is the blessedness of Amos 9:7-15. Because if there was no judgement of their actions, then realizing that God will still complete His promise of the coming Messiah in them means that much more. It is one thing to keep a promise with someone that pleases you. But someone that argues, disappoints or refuses to listen, will make it hard to want to be near let alone give them a blessing. But that is what God does. He does not make His blessing dependent on their current actions but upon who His character is.

Because God is so good, He will not, He cannot, break a promise He has made. He, being All-Knowing, knows that one day you will return to Him. And when that time comes, He is there with open arms like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. For a person that does not know Jesus as Savior, God is standing there waiting to embrace you. For those that do know Jesus as Savior, God is standing there waiting for you to pull your head out of this world and lay it back into His bosom. Forgiveness is for all.

For the unsaved, that forgiveness is to zero out your sin account and make you whole with God. For the saved, that forgiveness restores the closeness of that relationship you found with God in Jesus. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you have done. What matters is, are you looking at this world to save you just to watch it all fade away, or are you looking to God to save you who has already proved that He will keep all His promises?

Amos 3:2

In Amos 3:2, God tells the nation of Israel that they are the chosen from all the nations of the world to have a special relationship with. There is no denying the fact that Israel has been protected above other nations and even today, they are still a nation while so many others have disappeared. The relationship between them and God is like a marriage in that, both know something special about the other that no one else does. The beginning of the verse, “You only have I known”, tells us that God considers His relationship with these people to be above anyone else.

But what about us people that are not Jewish but love Jesus? This is a relationship that holds something even more special with the Father. As a Believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we are given many titles that indicate our deepness to our relationship such as children of God, saints, disciples, friends of God, bride of Christ, ambassadors, light of the world, new creations, priests, and so on. The ways that God sees us is more than the world sees us. God sees our potential while the world sees what we have accomplished. God is patient while we fulfill the plan for our relationship with him while the world wants us to be a finished product in an instant.

God’s love for us as friends, children, and marriage partner, that gives us a deep relationship that goes far beyond the superficial. He has a plan for us like becoming ambassadors, light in the dark, and priests, that give us more purpose in this life than just trying to be the one with the most toys. And He has become more to us as He transforms us into new creations, saints, and disciples, because it is a relationship that cannot be matched by any other one in this world. But all this means that He is also protective of us.

God knows what is good and what is bad for us more than we even know ourselves. That is why the rest of Amos 3:2 says, “therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”. In His love for us and the purpose we have as His children, ambassadors and new creations, He wants to see us do what is good and stay away from what is harmful for us (even if it doesn’t feel harmful at the time). Like a loving father, when we are doing something that is harmful, He corrects us in an attempt to keep us from “all evil” (Psalm 121:7). So, when God does what He needs to do to keep us safe, do not pout but be blessed, because that means He loves you and you are His.

Amos 1 & 2

The name Amos means “Burden Bearer”, which is fitting because the judgements he will be passing on from God will burden those that will be receiving it. Amos was not a professional prophet but a shepherd in Judah when God called upon him to carry this burden to the designated people. In these two chapters, God is pronouncing judgement upon Israel, Judah and the surrounding countries for the evil they have done. In the pronouncement of God’s judgement, we find that God was very patient with these countries and He is without excuse to follow through with them.

In each judgement we see the phrase “For three transgressions…and for four”, indicating that God allowed the people to continue in their deeds until it was more than enough. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is not slack in fulfilling His promise to punish sin, but that He is being patient so that all who want to come to Him through Jesus Christ can have that opportunity. Make no mistake, God will one day unleash His wrath upon this earth for the sins of mankind, but even then, He is still bringing people to Christ because of His mercy. Remember that God has all the time in the world, and beyond, to complete all that has been told in the Bible.

But at the same time, the sins of those that have came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ have already been paid for. He made sure they were taken care of 2,000 years ago on that cross. For us Believers, there is no sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop, the bill has been paid and we were set free. For those that do not believe, any day can be the last day to escape the Great Tribulation, but it is God’s patience that has kept it back this long. There is no reason to say, “I can live like this now and come to Jesus later”. There may not be a later!

I also want to talk about the person God picked to deliver these judgements to the people. God did not go to one of the temple priests, He didn’t go to a trained prophet, He didn’t go to the kings directly, He picked a shepherd to give the news. God does not pick whom He will use to do the big things based upon their status in this world, but instead He picks the ones that are willing. If you do not have to worry about the judgement side of Amos 1 & 2, then try focusing on the usability side of it. It does not matter what your job is or if you are a great speaker (look at Moses), it matters that you are willing to do whatever God asks of you.

2 Kings 13

There is a phrase I like to say to describe my desire when it comes to my walk with God. I tell others that how I want to live is that “I want to be better today than I was yesterday, and tomorrow I want to be better than I was today”. When God saves us, we go through the process of sanctification for the remainder of our days. This means that as we desire to be better according to God’s standards, He will give us the strength to make it possible to succeed. In turn that success gives us the desire to continue to improve and God continues to give us the strength to grow even more.

God knows that we won’t be saved one day and become perfect the next. He knows that for mankind it takes time and steps to achieve being the best you while still living in this world. In 2 Kings 13, the people of Israel continued the practices of worshipping in towns other than Jerusalem, resulting in the worship of false gods over time. Their hearts were not for God and His standards were not theirs. So, God allowed the nation to be conquered time after time as their disobedience continued and still, they refused to cry out to God. Until one day, King Jehoahaz remembered God and cried out to Him to save his people. The result of this cry for help, verse four tells us that “God listened”.

It wasn’t like the people collectively decided that they will follow all the commands of God or agreed to worship only in Jerusalem. It only took one person to cry out to God, and He listened. As a matter of fact, in verse six we read that they continued their wicked ways as God would have known they would. God did not save them because they would be the perfect follower, He did it because at this point, they remembered He was the Deliverer. The same goes for many if not all of our stories too. I will use a short version of mine for an example.

When I came to know Christ as my Savior, you would have seen very little change from the day before and the day after. As a matter of fact, I spent the next ten years making very small moves in the right direction while some days going backwards. But, one day the realization came to me that God expects more from His followers and I answered the call to be the man God wanted me to be. From there my spiritual growth grew by leaps and bounds on the good days and the fall backwards were not so big. I could feel God working in my life and could begin to see how far I had been from the person God wants us all to be.

God did not wait for me to clean up my behavior immediately, just like He did not expect Israel to clean up theirs. God is patient and kind and will wait for us to realize and call out to Him for help. We just have to take the first step and want to let Him work in our lives, and I know that He will listen.

2 Kings 11

Chapter eleven of 2 Kings serves as a reminder that when God has a plan, someone will come along to try and stop it. King David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), was made a promise by God to keep a descendant on the throne. Over the years as they came and left, there were wars and deceits during almost every one of their reigns. But by 2 Kings 11, the linage of King David was almost wiped out completely by the rage and desire for power of a mother. If it was not for one young woman being at the right place at the right time, this may be a different story to tell.

After the death of Ahaziah, his mother Athaliah became queen and ordered all the royal family to be killed to ensure her line would rule from then on. But God being the promise keeper that He is, made sure that there was a way of escape for one infant, Joash, by Ahaziah’s sister Jehosheba. As she took him away from the palace and hid him in the temple of God to be cared for until the day came to appoint him as king. In the temple he was given food and protection as the Levites that were not on duty took the position of protector with spears and shields. He remained safe there until the faithful day arrived.

As that infant became a young boy of seven years old, he was anointed king and the people shouted, “Long live the king”. This drew the attention of Queen Athaliah who went to the temple to see what was happening. As she arrived to see the new king, they grabbed her and took her away to her death. Thus, ensuring that she could not fulfil her original plan to remain in power. To think of all the things that had to take place for those seven years to keep King Joash safe demonstrates that God, from behind the scenes, can complete His plan despite what man tries to do to undo it.

For our lives, God’s plans for us will be fulfilled too. I remember one day a friend asked me a question with a funny point. He asked me, “Do you want to tell God a joke?”. As I looked at them and replied “How?”, he continued with “Tell Him your plans!”. God does have a plan for our lives that far exceeds in purpose than what we can come up with. When I think about what I was going to do in my life before coming to know Jesus, it has very little to do with what I had planned. But I can tell you that what I had planned lacked real purpose and what God planned for me is way better. I just had to stop fighting it and accept that He does know what He is doing.

2 Kings 10:18-32

After the reign of King Ahab, King Jehu came to power and devised a plan to destroy Baal worship (the false god worship) from the land of Israel. He took some mighty men and acted like he was going to worship Baal himself. As he called all the priests of Baal together into the place of worship, he sent in his men to kill every one of them to wipe out any chance that they try to start this false religion back up. This was pleasing to God and Jehu was rewarded with four generations of his descendants remaining on the throne after he is gone. But there could have been even more if Jehu had committed himself completely to God.

Yes, it is true that he abolished the false Baal worship, but he did not adhere to all that the LORD would ask of him. In Deuteronomy 12:5-6, God commands the people of Israel to bring their offerings to Jerusalem and there alone. God did not give previsions for long travels or bad weather, He made it clear that for true and proper worship in those days it was to be at Jerusalem. But because the people complained that it was too far and they desired to worship closer, King Jeroboam allowed them to worship in the cities of Dan and Bethel. Eventually the people erected golden calves so they would have a physical figure to bow to.

Just like when the people made the golden calf while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, the people wanted to create a god they could see and bow down to. At the heart of it was the desire to have a god that did not tell them what they can do and not do. It pulled the heart of the people away from the True God and onto just another false idol. King Jehu pleased God with the destruction of Baal worship and no good service to God will go unrewarded. The next four kings of Israel will come from the line of Jehu, but the reward ends there because he failed to go all the way.

Although God acknowledges partial worship, He really wants all our worship. To not make the things in our lives like our jobs, sports, money, etc., the false idols that pull our worship away from Him. It’s true that the Baal worship was worse because the golden calves started out with the idea that they were still worshipping the God of Israel, but the false idol of convenience eventually turned the golden calf into the thing of worship itself, is still disobedience to God’s command to worship in Jerusalem only during this time. True and proper worship is doing it in the manner God describes, with a heart focused on God alone, and not accepting any other way to do it.

2 Chronicles 21:5-7

In 2 Chronicles 21, we read about Jehoram become king in his father’s place, King Jehoshaphat. In verses five through seven there is an awesome truth about God tucked inside. It says, “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.”. The truth is, God keeps his promises, not because of what we do, but because of who He is.

God didn’t look at the deeds of the now king Jehoram and say, “I’m so over this promise to David, they do not deserve the throne!”. Truth be told, no person deserves the throne, only God and one day He will take it and rule the whole world from it. But that is not what God said, instead He remembered His promise to King David in 2 Samuel 7:14 when He told David that he will keep a person from his family on the throne forever. It was not dependent on how well they kept His commandments or if they gave enough money to the temple, it is because He made the promise and as a God that does not lie, He cannot break a promise.

The same goes for our salvation. In 1 John 5:13 it tells us that those who know Jesus as Savior may know they have eternal life. It is a confidence we are the Believers in Jesus Christ can have because that is what God has promised. It is not dependent on our behavior, what church we belong to, or if we have done enough good things, it is only dependent on God keeping His promise, which He has proved over and over throughout history that He will. There is a certain freedom that comes with knowing my eternity is secure, that instead of focusing on what good I can do for myself I can focus on what good I can do to show a person that love that Jesus has shown me.

And in case you are wondering about the throne and how God is fulfilling it. If Jesus will one day come back to rule the whole world, and is the Lord of everything now, but the line of King David will have the throne forever, how can this be a fulfilled truth. It’s because Jesus is from the line of David and rules from His heavenly throne forever and ever. Promise fulfilled!

2 Kings 4-7

In today’s reading, we see many different miracles done through Elisha the man of God. It starts with a widow faced with the decision of starvation or selling her sons into slavery for food. As Elisha finds out about it, he instructs her to get as many jars she can and pour out of the one jar of oil she has already, into the other jars. As she did this, all the jars were filled and if it was not for her running out of jars, she could have poured some more out of the one. As a result, she was able to sell the oil to buy food for her and her sons with enough oil left over to cook for herself. This is not the first time God had performed this miracle and the multiplying of food items this will not be the last time.

As we continue to read, we will see God making an axe head that fell into the water to float so the man can retrieve it, lepers being cured, bread to multiply to feed 100 people, and even a dead son resurrected. There are people in this world that, because they cannot understand the science behind these things, dismiss them as true. The problem with these miracles in today’s reading is not the science, but people’s understanding of Who made the science that controls all of creation to begin with. As Creator, God had to first design in His infinite wisdom all the science to make all this possible. That also means that as the Creator of the science behind the scenes, He is also able to control it in any way He sees fit.

For God, making food multiply, for axe heads to float, having diseases cured without medication, or even raising the dead, it is not only possible but easily doable. We have trouble realizing this truth because we live in a state of time, space and matter, where God, being outside of all these, can change the laws of them at His will. We must stop telling ourselves that this is not possible and start telling ourselves that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). We need to step back and realize that there are things out there that we cannot explain in our understanding, but that does not mean it is not possible.

As we start to realize these things are possible, your eyes will be opened to the truth of who God is and what He can do. Miracles happen all around us today, most are not so big that they catch our attention, but if we are on the lookout for them, we will find them. So, stop looking at this world like this is all there is and start looking at it as the God that has done these things before, can still do them today.

1 Kings 21

When looking at the Ten Commandments, one of them at first look does not seem all that bad. The tenth one, “You shall not covet”, just does not seem to stack up to “Do not commit adultery” or “You shall not murder”. But in today’s reading, we discover why this is a very important Commandment, and why we should obey. In 1 Kings 21, we read the story of King Ahab, his queen Jezebel, and Naboth who had a vineyard next door. As the story develops, it turns into one of want, trickery, and murder.

It all begins one day when the king of Syria, Ahab, looked upon the vineyard of Naboth and coveted the land for a garden. One could assume that the vineyard must have been growing some large fruit, and Ahab would then know that the land is fertile and the garden he desired to have there would be abundant. As the desire to possess this land grew, Ahab approached Naboth and made him a fair offer of better land further away, or to pay him what its worth. Naboth refused his offer not on its fairness but due to his desire to obey God and keep the land in his family.

With Naboth’s answer, King Ahab knew that no amount of money would be able to purchase the land and in his covetous state of mind, he became unconsolable. He went to bed and refused food to the point that his wife Queen Jezebel wanted to do something to make things better quickly. Her solution was to devise a scheme to have Naboth killed so the land can be taken as forfeited, which is what happened. One person’s covetous ended another person’s life, who says “You shall not covet” is not an important Commandment?

And this is not the only time in the Bible this has happened. Do you remember the story of King David and Bathsheba? David’s desire to have Bathsheba for his wife led to the death of Uriah her husband. Come to think of it, many wars and murders have started because of one’s desire for something that another has. I think the evidence is clear, “You shall not covet” is a very important Commandment and left unchecked can lead to the breaking of many other ones. The safe move here is to be content and trust that if the Lord wanted you to have it, He would supply it.

1 Kings 18 & 19

There are few things in this world that are stronger than fear. Fear can stop a person from getting on a rollercoaster, from asking a person out on a date, from helping others in need, or even obeying the Lord. For some people, fear keeps them trapped inside their home for years and years. Fear can be debilitating and stops a person from living the life God has intended for them. And as much as we hear that God has not given a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), sometimes fear just gets its talons in a person and does not let them go.

In today’s chapters, we read about the prophet of God, Elijah, challenging the 850 prophets of false gods to a burn-off at Mount Carmel. The challenge was for the false prophets to set up one alter with a burnt offering, and Elijah will do the same on the altar of God that had been destroyed. By the end, the offering that was supernaturally set on fire and burnt up would be the true god. For hours and hours, the false prophets cried out, danced around, made a good show of things and even cut themselves. But nothing they did made even a spark. This was a good start for Elijah to prove that the God of Israel is the One and Only True God.

As Elijah takes time to repair the altar and set twelve stones around it for the tribes of Israel, the people and false prophets looked on. Then he instructed for a trench to be dug around it and to pour twelve jars of water over everything to the point that the trench dug filled up with the runoff. At this point you can imagine that the false prophets were thinking that there is no way that would start a fire. Water usually is not a good conductor of flames. But just them, Elijah cries out to God and the offering bursts into flames despite the water and doubt by the false prophets.

The false prophets are captured and killed to stop the spread of their false teachings, and the people of Israel turn their hearts back to God, but then something happens within Elijah that you would not expect. After this great victory for God, he is overcome with fear and runs away. You would think this would be a great time for him to enter the city, proclaim God’s greatness, and lead the people into a revival, but he doesn’t. Instead of leading a movement for God, he hightails it away and God had to have a talk with him in a cave to restore his courage.

Fear grips even the mighty of us for God and it doesn’t have to, but when it does, He is there to help us through the raging storm of our feelings and set is back on our feet. But the key to this restoration is that you must be ready to hear God’s call and respond that you do want it. Then in His still small voice, His Spirit moves your spirit to seek Him. It is in that seeking that courage returns and instead of running, you are ready to take a stand in this world for God.

1 Kings 17

What an amazing chapter in the Bible this is. We see Elijah the prophet come onto the scene as Israel is ruled by one bad king after another. The first thing he does in this chapter is to call for a drought lasting for 3 ½ years as God told him to do. At first thought one could think this was a stupid move because that would affect Elijah also. So, by passing God’s judgement onto the king of Israel, he would be causing himself hardship too. But like the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:19, the God that cares for him can take care of all His children. As I am reading it, I can see the provision of the Lord is in connection to one’s obedience to His words.

As we continue in the chapter, we read that God gives very specific instructions to Elijah to go to the brook east of the Jordan where he will be taken care of. Elijah obeys and as a result he has plenty of water to drink and God sends ravens to bring him bread and meat. The cycle of God instructing, Elijah obeying, and provisions delivered, begins in a very miraculous way. But the cycle is not done yet. Once Elijah has his strength, God tells him to go to Zarephath where He has instructed a widow to feed him. Now the cycle of obedience involves two people, Elijah to go and the widow to provide.

When Elijah arrives at the widow’s house and asks for bread, she informs him that there is enough for one last meal for her and her son. He then tells her that God will provide if she does what is asked of her. She obeys and gives him what she believes to be her last meal, but to her amazement the oil and flour jars have more in them. And not only do they have more in them, but they will not run dry until the drought is over. So, Elijah obeys and goes to her house where he will be provided for during the drought, the widow obeys and now her and her son will survive the drought. They cycle of God instructing, they obey, and provisions continuing to be produced supernaturally, continues.

There is definitely a connection to their obedience and God’s provisions, but it doesn’t stop at 1 Kings 17. Like the Apostle Paul says in Philippians, God will supply all our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. If we walk in obedience, we can see God’s provision in our lives too. Maybe it is a better job you were not even looking for, maybe it’s a gift from a family member, maybe it’s the tax return coming at exactly the right time, and however God choses to supply your need it will be when you needed it. But it starts with obedience.

1 Kings 15 & 2 Chronicles 14-15

Reading parts of the Bible can seem to go on and on and on, and somewhere in your mind you are thinking “What does this have to do with me?”. In today’s reading, we came across the King of Judah named Asa. He doesn’t take up much room in the Bible and for the most part he is a little-known figure to many. But when you read his story and look for the “What does this have to do with me?”, you will find a principle on how to live a more change-making life. His story starts after the death of his father with these words, “Asa began to reign over Judah… And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.” 1Kings 15:9-11

During this time in Israel and Judah, kings were coming and going with some of them being very wicked and some trying to do what was right, but Asa starts off and finishes strong in wanting to do what was right to God. As the beginning days of his reign passed, he instructed the people of Judah to tear down the places of false worship and turn to God only. He repaired the alters in front of the temple of God and set the hearts of his people to seek Him. Asa was truly a man wanting God to be at the center of his kingship. And as a result, God worked in Judah during this time and gave peace to the people. In 2 Chronicles 15:19, it says “And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.”.

After all the war described in the Bible, after all the bloodshed and exiles of the people of Israel, all it took was one person to set his heart onto God and lead the people to do likewise. And that is what the story of Asa has to do with you! As we look at the world around us, we see wars, bloodshed, people being removed from their homes, etc., nothing seems to change, but can it? What if it only takes one person to truly set their heart on seeking God and doing what is right in His eyes only. What if the right person comes along to show the people in their life there is a better way? What if the right person that touches the next person starts a chain of people doing the same thing as them, as well as others seeing it and jumping on board. It’s called a revival and it only takes one person to start it.

The thing about revivals is that we never know who will be the one to start it until it is already in full swing. Maybe it will be me, or maybe it will be you, but if we are sitting around praying for a revival and not out there showing people a revival in our life, then it won’t be us. Like Asa, we need to be out there sharing Jesus with others in our words and deeds. People living for Jesus are infectious, so tear down those false alters in our lives, get out there to the people around us, and watch as God starts to change the hearts of those you reach.

1 Kings 13

In today’s reading, we find a prophet of God, delivering a message to King Jeroboam over the fate of worship in Judah. When Jeroboam reached out to seize him, his hand withered and became useless. Naturally Jeroboam asked the prophet to go to God on his behalf to restore his hand, which God did do. After that, Jeroboam invites the prophet to come back to the palace to eat and drink to which the prophet informs him that God had commanded him to not return where he came and to not eat bread or drink water there. It is the command direct from God that we will be focusing on today.

As this prophet is being faithful to the words of God and he left a different way than he came without eating or drinking anything, he comes across another prophet that invites him back to his house to eat and drink. The first prophet, wanting to be faithful to God’s commands, turns down the offer and informs the second prophet what was told to him. In the desire of the second prophet to have the other one join him, he concocts a lie saying that an angel came and spoke to him that the first prophet is to join him to eat and drink. The first prophet believes him and goes to his house.

As they are sitting there, eating and drinking, God tells the second prophet the fate of the first one because he disobeyed God’s command. So, the second prophet tells the words of God to the first one that because of his disobedience, he will not return to the tomb of his fathers. As the first prophet saddles his donkey and rides off, a lion attacks him leaving him dead in the road. I bet I can guess what you are thinking, that the second prophet tricked the first one, so why did he have to die. He did not die for a lie, but that he died because he ignored the direct words of God for a lie that another man offered up to him.

When you stop and think about it, is this not what many are doing today? We have God’s direct commands in the Bible that we can access at any time, but too many today are listening to some fast talker about what they think the Bible is saying (or just making up words and calling it truth). People are forsaking the truth from God because they do not know it. They did not take the time to read those words that God preserved so we can do that. Instead, they are taking the easy way out and letting some person tell them what are in the pages of the Bible, knowing that most of them never crack it open to tell the difference.

End result, the people believe they are safe from judgement and go about their lives only to find out in the end they were lying. And God will not accept an excuse that someone told you wrong, just like the first prophet. Do not leave your eternity to the words of another, but go straight to the source, the Bible.

1 Kings 12

After the death of King Solomon, his son Rehoboam went to the city of Shechem to be made the next king of Israel. Before making him king, his brother and the people of Israel presented him with a request. The people believed that King Solomon had been working them too hard, and they asked Rehoboam to lighten their workload. Before he decided, he wanted time to consult others about this request. This would have been a good start to his reign if there weren’t two things going against him, his desire to please his friends and the proclamation to Solomon after taking foreign women as wives.

First, let’s talk about Rehoboam’s desire to please his friends. At first, it looked like he was going to be wise like his father by going to the older men to ask what he should do. In times of hard decisions, seeking out the advice of some more mature godly men is a wise idea. They have seen things in their day and had made, or watched as others made, mistakes in their lives and learned from them. Seeking mature godly counsel can help you to avoid the same pitfalls that others have fallen into before. Like Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, there is nothing new under the sun. This means that you will not encounter a completely new situation that no one has seen before, but instead there is someone that can tell you where they went wrong.

But Rehoboam instead went to the friends that he grew up with and probably had the same experiences as he did. This means that if Rehoboam has not encountered this situation before, then they probably have no experience in this matter either. As a result of Rehoboam wanting to please his friends by taking their advice, he told the people that he is increasing the workload and severity of punishment for disobedience. This enrages the crowd and results in the taskmaster’s death along with Rehoboam’s retreat to Jerusalem out of fear of his life also, which brings up the second part of what was working against him.

God had told Solomon that because he left Him and followed after the false gods of his wives, he would strip most of Israel from his descendants. God told him that if it was not for the promise made to King David, He would have taken all of Israel away from his descendants. So, God allows Rehoboam’s situation to bring about His plan for the future of Solomon’s descendants. As Rehoboam flees to Jerusalem, the people of Judah and Benjamin make him their king and thus fulfilling God’s will for him. This reminds me of Romans 8:28 when it says, “all things work together for good for those that love God”, in that even in our disobedience, God’s plans will still prevail.

1 Kings 10 & 11

As we come to the end of the accounts of King Solomon, we see him at his high and low of ruling the people of Israel. He truly became an example of a person that is book-smart but common-sense stupid. In chapter 10, we read about the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon because of all the things she heard about his wisdom. And as she spent time giving him question after question, and being amazed at his answers, she determined that of all the stories about his wisdom that she thought was too big to be true, they were only about half the truth of how wise Solomon really was. Solomon truly was the wisest person thanks to God giving it to him all those years ago.

As a result of all that the queen heard that day, she began to praise God and bestowed many gifts unto Solomon for the answers he gave her. Between the gold, precious stones and the spices, the value of her gifts were between $200-$300 million in today’s prices. Even back then the value would have been great, and the Bible tells us that the number of spices that she gave was larger than any other amount ever given to the kingdom before. King Solomon was definitely the premier person to go to when you got stuck in your homework, but for all the wisdom he had, he still was stupid about women.

In Deuteronomy 7:3-4, God instructs the people of Israel not to intermarry with the surrounding nations, not because they were too good for those people, but because God knew they would adopt their false god’s if they did. And of course, they did that over and over and over, resulting in discipline and repentance. In chapter 11 of 1 Kings, it starts off with “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women… from the nations concerning which the LORD had said... “You shall not enter into marriage with them””. As wise as Solomon was, you know these instructions were somewhere inside that brain of his and he chose to ignore it.

And just like God said, Solomon’s heart was turned away from God, and he started following the false gods of the women he married. The result of this direct disobedience is that the kingdom will be ripped in two, and if it was not for the promise to King David, God would have removed Solomon’s descendants from becoming future kings. But God is just and He always keeps His promises. And because He keeps His promises, He gave a small portion of the land of Israel to Solomon’s descendants while the remaining kingdom will be ruled by others. Eventually both kingdoms will be captured, and the Israelites will be exiled, all because a man was book-smart but common-sense stupid.

Ecclesiastes 10:1

In this verse, King Solomon creates a picture of a bottle of perfume that has attracted flies that eventually died in it. At this time in history, the use of perfumes was important as bathing was not a priority for most. Perfume was used to mask the odor of a person, but when flies died in it, it would cause it to omit an odor that was not pleasant. It would end up defeating the purpose of using it in the first place. Just imagine that all it took to make the perfume ineffective was a couple tiny flies. But Solomon did not stop there. He continues in this thought to relate it to our reputation.

He goes on to say that it just takes a little foolishness to make others consider you unwise. It doesn’t matter whether you are wise or not, when you are observed doing something really foolish it is hard to walk it back. The reputation of a person is who most people look at in dealing with them, and to be considered foolish spreads like wildfire among the people and solidifies quickly into the reputation that sticks. And because of this, people don’t turn to you when they are looking for wise counsel and dismisses you quickly when you attempt to solve a problem. Always remember that gaining a foolish reputation happens way quicker than developing a wise one. It only takes one foolish act to get there, but to be considered wise you must work at it for a long time with many good decisions behind you.

It is the same with sinful acts and how people see you. It only takes one sin, made public, to give you a bad reputation. It is also a hard reputation to shake off, and the Apostle Paul addresses it in Galatians 5:9. In this verse he tells the reader that it takes just a little leaven (rising agent) to affect the whole batch of dough. And while yes, it does only take one sin for a person to become a sinner, a person does not have to be defined by that sin. God has made two cures for that sin problem, one for the unsaved and one for the saved. For the unsaved, God gives John 3:16. For an unsaved person to rid themselves of all their sins, they just need to accept what Jesus has done for them and make Him Lord of their life.

For the saved, it’s true that all a person’s sin is gone when they trusted Jesus, but now that you are in a right relationship with God, it must be maintained. This is where God gives 1 John 1:9 into a person’s walk with Him, not that we can ever lose our salvation, but that our relationship is affected by the act. In this verse, God tells us that if we come to Him and confess what we have sinned, He will restore the relationship as if the sin never happened. Who we are to God is not defined by the act we did but the act Jesus did for us. And although it is hard to fix a reputation with others when we act foolish or sinful, God has made it easy with him. Maybe we should stop trying so hard to impress other people and choose to impress the One who is wanting to see us as righteous to begin with.

Ecclesiastes 8:11

Sin, like credit cards, works on the play now and pay later program. In today’s verse, King Solomon tells the reader that the reason a person sins is because they do not feel the consequences of their sin immediately. Hebrews 11:25 also tells us that sin has a pleasure in it, but that pleasure is only for a season. Eventually the payment for that sin will come due. Sometimes the payment comes quickly and sometimes many years will pass before the final payment is due, but I guarantee that the price to pay will be paid. But because sin does not always come with the bill immediately, many people like to think about sin in one of three ways.

The first is to think that maybe this time there will be no payment required for this one. Some people today believe that this world has no moral lawgiver, we as Believers know as God, and that what a person believes is right for them to do they can do. By eliminating God from the equation, this allows a person to be the determiner of what is right and what is wrong so there is no payment due because there was nothing wrong done. God does not accept their denial of Him and His moral standard as an excuse to ignore right from wrong, but that He will still require that the payment for sin be paid.

The next is to know there will be consequences for sin but then weigh the amount of payment to amount of pleasure for it. This one can apply to the saved as well as the unsaved alike. Even followers of Jesus Christ can play this scenario in their minds in determining if they will do it or not. But this way of thinking is a very temporal way of looking at sin. A person is thinking in the moment and forgetting that sin has consequences beyond the next five minutes.

For a person that has never trusted in Jesus, they will have the rest of eternity to remember that they chose that sin over Jesus and will be paying the eternal consequence of that decision. For the Believer, when Jesus paid for the sins of all those that trust in Him, this becomes another sin laid upon His body. The strips that He received at the scrouging, the nails that were driven into His wrists and feet, the thorns in His scalp, are all evidence of the sins He took when He paid it all. So doing another sin is adding to the suffering of our Lord and Savior.

And lastly, some may think like this, that maybe God is too busy keeping the universe in place to see what I am doing right now. Maybe, just maybe, I can get away with this one. Forgetting that the God we serve is omnipresent (ever-present) and omniscient (all-knowing) and that nothing escapes His sight. 1 Peter 1:16 tells us to conduct ourselves in a holy manner because God is holy. God wants us to be the example of His Son which includes not sinning. To be a light for Christ, you must be the light that shines in this dark world.

Ecclesiastes 4:4-5

I believe this verse is more relevant today than any time before. In this verse, Solomon is telling the successful that instead of honor by others for their efforts to get to where they are today, they are met with envy and strife. While the successful person may in well have good intentions to their climb, while at the top they are met with opposition and troubles. You do not have to look far today to see this very thing taking place in our society. Those who have not, believe they are entitled to what the other person has, and if they cannot get it without working for it, anger erupts. There is nothing new about this and Solomon continues the thought in verse 5 when he tells the reader that the person of strife still does not try to work for it but instead expects handouts.

As I stated earlier, this reality is being played out in major ways in our society today. Company owners are being demonized for being rich, people that work on the line believe they should have everything the owner has, and those that choose not to work at all sit around believing they are still entitled to a rich lifestyle. What ever happened to the idea that you get what you put into something? The person that chooses not to work should not be living a lifestyle like the one that goes in to work every day to earn what they have. The worker did not put their family’s livelihood on the line to risk it all to create the company they work for, so they do not deserve the lifestyle the owner earned. And the owner should not be judged for what they have because they are the one that put all the time, effort and risk into the company.

But despite all this, there is a deeper reason for all this strife and un-contentment, it’s that people take their eye off from what is important, following God. I used to be the one that was not happy with what I had and thought that, because I have a job, I should have it all. And all that did was make me unhappy about where I was in life and deeper in debt. Nothing I did generated the satisfaction I was looking for, and I believe that nothing I would have done to get more could do it for me. The problem was not the lack of things but the lack of correct focus. I needed a heart change.

Jesus tells us in Mark 8:36 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”. Although I was already a Christian, my heart was not heading in the right direction and my spirit was sorrowful. It wasn’t until I refocused and understood that I needed to give more of myself to God instead of getting more things in this world. I found the contentment I was searching for, not in a thing, not in a level of success, not in what others thought about me, but I found it when I finally realized that what God really wanted from me was “ME”. Today, I know I have made the right choice because I found the rest and joy in His arms that I so desperately search for in all those “things”.

Ecclesiastes 1 & 2

It is commonly believed that King Solomon in his elder years wrote this book to warn the people that this world has nothing to offer in comparison to what God does. As king of Israel, rich beyond any other person, and wisdom the surpasses the wisest of people, he had plenty of opportunity to experience the pleasures of this world. And as he is looking back upon all that he has done he concludes that it was all for nothing. In fact, he uses the phrase “Vanity of vanity” meaning that after all the effort he put into doing those things and gaining all the material goods, if meant nothing in the bigger picture of life.

As you read these two chapters, he used the phrase “striving after wind” to describe how futile the pursuit of all he gained in this world was. Just as wind slips through your fingers as you try to catch it, so does all the things of this world. No matter what it is that you worked hard to get, whether it was a new car, home, raise at work, better job, etc., all these things go even faster than they came. And for most, those dreams that occupied much of their time and effort never happened for them no matter how hard they tried. It was like reaching out to catch the wind and finding nothing but an empty hand.

This is not to say that we should not want to provide for our family, to make enough money to take care of them, and maybe enough to help others too. But it is the motives behind the scenes that make all the difference. Why do you want that job, why do you need to make more money, why do you need a new car, etc., is it in the pursuit of people telling you how nice you look behind the wheel or are you dedicating it to do whatever the Lord need of you to do with it? Solomon also reminds us in these chapters what happens after a lifetime of gathering “things” in this world.

First, he tells us in chapter 2 that after all the toil and striving of the heart to get the things you believe you wanted, a person’s days are full of sorrow, and the work is soul crushing. A person ends up working for their possessions instead of their possessions working for them. To get to the place in one’s life where if you were to change anything about your circumstances you would run the risk of losing it all, makes you a slave to your things. I have personally known of people that made their decisions based on what it took to keep everything they have gained in this world and regretted it in the end.

Solomon also tells us in chapter 2 that for all the work you put into gaining all your possessions, in the end you are just going to leave it to someone that did not work for it. It’s true, no matter how hard you try, you will not take your possessions with you into the next life. Someone in your life will end up with it and if they do not like it, they may just end up disposing of it anyway. So, if the things in this world that you are chasing so hard bring your heart turmoil, and you will not be able to hold on to it forever and the person that gets it next may toss it, then what’s the point? Exactly! We are to seek the eternal things of God. The things that will last forever and we can take with us. Things like a godly life, trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior, generosity, soul-winning, etc. The things that will get you face to face with Jesus in the end and hear those 6 blessed words, “Well done good and faithful servant”.

1 Kings 9

The title to this chapter is “The Apex of Solomon’s Reign”. At this time, Solomon has completed all the construction on the temple, the king’s house, and all the other construction he was wanting to accomplish. In this chapter, he is several years into his reign, and the people continue to be amazed at his wisdom. He had everything at his command and his authority over everything was demonstrated when he was able to give away nine cities to the king of Tyre as a thank you for the cedar wood all those years. And to top it all off, this is the second time that God appears to him and delivers a promise.

God tells Solomon that He has heard his prayers, He has consecrated the temple that Solomon built and He will dwell there always. Then God tells Solomon that if he continues to live upright and with integrity like his father David, He will continue to keep his descendants on the throne of Israel. God also tells him the consequences of not keep his walk with Him alone that will extend even to the people. God makes it very clear to what Solomon must do and not do to keep the land in the Israelites possession and to have his descendants on the throne. It would seem very clear and easy to follow, but he doesn’t.

We know from other books in the Bible that Solomon allows his flesh to dictate his worship and the worship of his people. He marries and has for concubines a thousand women. And as he takes these women into his household, he allows provisions for their false god worship that spreads to all the people of Israel. As we know from history, the people of Israel do not get to keep their land but has been conquered and exiled multiple times, Solomon’s descendants do not sit on the throne, and there is no temple in Jerusalem today. It didn’t even take one lifetime to set a people on a path that led them to rejecting the Messiah when Jesus arrived.

The same can happen to our household too if we do not guard our walk with God. Being the spiritual leader of my home does not end when my wife and daughter follow Jesus, but I am ever to continue to strive to be the godly man that He has called me to be in His words. I am to continue to walk the walk and talk the talk because like Solomon, if I allow lies into my life and turn from following God fully, what will happen to those that come after me? Thanks be to God that He keeps me strong in my walk and my grandsons get to see what following God looks like. Through our conversations and their observations that we stand strong for God, they both know Jesus as their Lord and Savior today.

I you were ask them today, they would tell you they LOVE Jesus. But what if I were to say my job is done and I can let myself enjoy the things of this world that are against God? How would that shape the way my grandsons continue to walk with God and then what would their children see as truth. It starts with me now, just like it started with Solomon then. The direction of our descendants can be shaped by how we follow God today. Stay strong, stay upright, stay in God’s word, stay connected to Jesus, and you can help shape the generations to come by being the person God wants you to be now.

Psalm 71

Psalm 71 does not have a named author, but whoever they are, they rested in the assurance of God’s protection. Not just because they read it in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, but because they experienced it. But that is usually what it takes before we can believe something, and if you doubt this statement then let me give you an example. It’s a very common situation where a parent cooks in the kitchen and a toddler comes into the room. As the toddler becomes curious about what the parent is doing, they make their way to where the parent is to observe them. Before too long, curiosity overcomes the toddler and the parent sees a little hand making its way to the boiling pot.

Concerned for the toddler’s safety, the parent redirects their hand and tells them, “Don’t touch, its hot”. After a brief pause, the little hand starts to come back up, and the parent repeats the prior warning and escorts the little one out of the room. Now that the parent believes the crisis has been adverted, they go about their business of preparing the meal and is now standing in front of the sink. The toddler sees their opportunity to fulfill their need to discover and runs to the stove and touches the pot resulting in a very painful burn to their hand. It is now that the toddler understands what “hot” means and does not attempt it again. Something that only experience can teach.

Returning to Psalm 71, experience has taught the writer that God is steadfast and can protect them as stated in verses 1 through 3. And then they back it up in verses 4 through 6 when they tell the reader that they know it because they experienced it themselves. In these verses, the writer talks about from a young age, they have been given protection and comfort by God and because of that they will praise Him continually. As demonstrated by the toddler in the story, we have a hard time understanding something until it happens to us, this includes myself. I can tell that God, even before I became a Christian, was already protecting me and helping me through the hard times.

It is those experiences that make the words in the Bible about God as the Good Father come to life for me, and if you think about your life, I know you can find the times that He was working in yours too. Whether you are a Christian or not, God has been there for you. Helping you along the way even if you did not understand who or what was behind it. And when you come to understand what He has done for you behind the scenes, tell Him thank you. If you come to that realization and you are not a Christian, then continue to think about what God really wants to do for you. He wants to save you! Consider accepting His free gift of salvation through the sacrifice Jesus made for you, so you can finally be freed from the penalty of sin and know your eternity is secure with God.

Psalm 49

Psalm 49 tells us that the one with the most toys, still dies! There has never been a time like now. The ways to make money, spend money, and use money to increase quality of life are numerous and an easy trap for so many. I say this from firsthand experience, so I know it’s true. There was a time when the thought that I needed the latest toy, the name brand whatever, and that keeping up with the Jones’ was a gospel. I allowed it to affect my thinking and my bank account in the most terrible ways. And after all that, I found no contentment in this lifestyle. And then I met Fast Eddie.

It was several years ago when me and another Believer were sitting at a restaurant eating breakfast, talking about how we are not using our finances properly for God’s kingdom, when I noticed a man walking to the payphones and newspaper change returns, hoping to find some unclaimed change. As I watched him walk out of sight, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I ask him in for a meal and share Jesus with him?”, which is what we were just talking about. As we sat there, I cannot tell you what was being talked about because I was in heavy prayer that if God wanted me to do this, then bring this man back to me.

Just then I looked up and here he came from a direction I was not expecting and walking straight towards us. Praise God! I banged on the window and motioned for him to step in, which he did cautiously. I asked if he would like to join us and I would buy him breakfast, which he was eager for that. As we sat and talked, we found that he was a Christian too and that he loved talking about Jesus. We also found out that he had lost his mother a couple years ago and then his father a couple months before this encounter. He talked about how the other residents at the adult foster care were mean to him when he talked about Jesus. As he talked, we saw a picture of a person that had little, lost both his parents, and was not liked.

As we continued to talk, we were feeling good about what we were doing for him and that’s when it happened. The thing we were doing to be a blessing to him turned out to be a blessing to us instead. While he was telling us about all the negative things currently happening and that the highlight of his month was that he found two $5 bills on the same day, he then laid a truth on us that rocked us to our core. As all this was happening, telling us things that would make us feel sorry for ourselves, things that people have lost hope long before all of it, things that would be considered the opposite to what this world says will make us happy, Fast Eddie told us something that I will never forget.

As I am typing this, I still get goosebumps and my eyes start to water all these years later, because it has that much impact on my spirit. The moment he made this statement is the last thing I remember clearly because it all became a blur after this. He said, “But I am content!”. These four words changed how I looked at money, things and what this world had tricked me about for so many years. Those words gave me the clarity in this world to ask God what does He want me to use my finances for instead of what can I buy for myself today. Although I have never seen Fast Eddie again after that day, I know that one day I will see him in heaven and I will walk up to him and thank him for the best Biblical lesson on finances I could have ever received.

Psalm 42:1-2

Today I worked 7 hours on yard work at 80-degree temperature, while taking very few water breaks. If I can say there is one thing that I wanted more than rest after this, was water. My mouth was beyond dry and the veins in my hands all but disappeared. I needed water, and I needed it soon. Normally when I drink water, I like it ice cold with a splash of flavoring, but at this point I didn’t care about that. I grabbed water straight from the tap and oh was it satisfying. That is how much I desired a drink of water in that even slightly cooler than room temperature water was all I needed to refresh me.

In Psalm 42:1-2, the sons of Korah wrote that as a deer pants (desires) for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. The description of the deer desiring water in this psalm is from the extreme need for water so desperately that one could almost walk up and touch it before it runs off. At a time like that, the deer is willing to risk its own life for just one more drink of that water to refresh it. That is how our soul should desire God. That we will be willing to risk something, even up to our life, just to get one more drink of that Living Water (John 4:13) that Jesus describes to the Samaritan woman at the well.

And just like I knew today that if I did not go in and get a drink of water before the effects of dehydration kicked in, I can tell when I am neglecting the living water of worshipping God, even just for part of a day. The reading of His word, the prayers, the studying, the hearing truths told by godly preachers, etc., is the water that my soul pants for, and to neglect it SHOULD turn desire into desperation as the day goes on. This is how all Believers should feel in this situation, but Satan’s great trick is to get us so busy that we don’t hear the cries of our soul for that water.

If you feel that the days are getting away from you and there is too much to do in a day, then you are just where he wants you. Don’t let him keep you in a state of busyness but make time for God so that you get that water to where it needs to go. Doing it early is ideal, but God accepts anytime as long as you make that time for Him. Your soul will thank you for it.

1 Kings 5 & 2 Chronicles 2

Wisdom alone does not build a temple. For all the wisdom that King Solomon had, the wisest thing he did in the building of God’s temple is ask for help. He did not let pride get in the way and say to himself, “I can do this all on my own”. He didn’t try to take from others the things he needed to complete the build or have someone else make the bargains that got the thing needed. He did the asking himself. In these chapters we see that Solomon wrote a letter to King Hiram asking for the cedar trees of Lebanon in the building of the temple. By this time, Solomon had been king for four years and his wisdom was well known by the surrounding nations.

So instead of force or backroom deals, Solomon used his wisdom and influence with king Hiram to get the trees that would be the best for the build. And King Hiram was more than happy to do this and even sent some of his skilled people to help with the work. Because Solomon was humble, wise and direct, he not only received what he asked for but more. The next wise thing he did was to be generous in return. Every year for the seven years it took to build the temple, Solomon sent to Hiram the following in return: 120,000 bushels of wheat, 120,000 bushels of barley, 120,000 gallons of wine and 120,000 gallons of oil. This kind of generosity and character tends to make others want to help you become successful in all you do.

Song of Solomon

There’s no wonder how King Solomon got his 700 wives and 300 concubines with smooth words like these, “Your belly is a heap of wheat” and “Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon”. Boy what a talker this guy was, I should take notes and see what my wife, Patty, would think about these lines. I will let you know once the doctors release me from the ER, Ha-Ha. But seriously, these words were completely the compliment that this woman was looking for, and she responded in this song in the same way. This “Song of Solomon” was considered the gold standard for songs in that day. You may have seen in some Bibles the title “Song of Songs” instead, meaning that this was the greatest of all songs at the time.

No matter the title or the way they expressed their love to each other, the principle behind the song is still relevant today. Do we love the one we are dating, or married to, in this way, and do we let them know it with the passion that these two did in this song? I remember when I was dating Patty and I would write her poems expressing my feelings for her, and she kept them to remind me every so often that I was a sentimental one back in the day. When we were dating it was easy to express those feelings in this way while I was discovering something new all the time about her, but as the dating went on and then into marriage the writings stopped. The reason why wasn’t because I learned everything about her or that I was falling out of love, but it was much simpler than that.

I realized that I had caught my prize. As people start dating, we really work hard to gain the other person’s love because we love them and cannot imagine not having them in our lives. But there is this point when you become confident that they feel the same and you begin to let off the gas a little. Maybe not write as many poems, maybe not dress in the most stylish clothes you have in the closet, or maybe you stop letting them know how much they mean to you every five minutes. It’s easy to say that life got busy, and if you are married with kids, that all your free time is wrapped up in what they have going on in sports or other activities, all the time the longing gaze and sweet words turn into staring at the Tv and snoring.

I am not talking from a spot of “I got this”, but that I am just as guilty as most others. I have allowed time and things to take my attention from showing her the love with the same enthusiasm I did when I was in hot pursuit of her affection. Yes, I have heard all the stories of her past, but because she loves telling them I will love hearing them again. I will tell her I love her cooking and will ask where I can help out more around the house. I will chase after her like I still have to catch her, and I believe then she will know that I think she is as “awesome as an army with banners” (6:4)

Proverbs 17:10

As we are going through Revelation on Sunday mornings at Grace Bible Church, this one verse can sum up the heart of most people during that time. So far in the first six chapters of the book, we have talked about the Antichrist coming on the scene promising false peace after those that profess Christ has been raptured into Heaven. We read about wars and famine that will be severe and most will be affected by one or both severely. We seen where disease and wild beasts will continue the carnage of people until a third of the population are killed. And that was before what we discovered in today’s reading the breaking of the sixth seal which brought disasters so immense that no one disputed that they were judgements from God.

In this section of chapter six, we see worldwide earthquakes so severe that all the mountains and islands are moved out of place. We see the effects of multiple volcanos erupting because is the earthquakes and meteorites hitting all over the earth like never before. We see that the atmosphere will be filled with so much silt that the cosmos appeared to disappear. And after all this, most people will cry out to the rocks and mountains to fall on them to hide them in the cave from God’s judgement. They see the devastation, they mourn the deaths, they know the worst is yet to come, because they know that this is the wrath of the Lamb for the sins of the people.

How stubborn does one have to be to see all this and still refuse to bend a knee to Jesus. The book of Revelation was written for a couple reasons. First, to let those that have trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior that no matter what happens in this world, we win. Second, to let people know that there will be a day that the wrath of God over the sins of mankind will come to this world and you do not want to be here when it happens. And third, to show that no matter how much God will pour out His wrath on the world, He is still merciful enough to allow people to come to Him for forgiveness through Jesus during all this. In Joel 2:32, after it describes the destruction of seal six, it says “And it comes to pass that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance. Praise God for His mercy.

No matter the things a person has done, no matter if they feel like they deserve forgiveness, no matter if the world is crumbling down around them, God will always have His hand out ready to catch you and give you forgiveness in Christ. All you have to do is ask!

Proverbs 14:14

You reap what you sow. As a Christian, proverbs 14:14 is important for us to remember and is very relevant in our walk with God. It’s true that God protects us from so many things that can cause us harm, but He will not stop everything. The first part of Psalm 14:14 tells us that someone who is backsliding from God’s way, will reap the natural consequences of their actions. We are not to take the gift of being forgiven of every sin we have, and will, commit and make it a license to find ways to be forgiven for more. The desire of a Believer’s heart should be to want to follow God’s direction for our life and to be a good ambassador for His kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Just like the ambassadors of this country that go out on the President’s behalf are not to say or do anything that the President wouldn’t, we as God’s ambassadors should strive to represent the values of God to the people of this world. It’s a hard thing to do, when our actions look more like the actions of this world than of God’s will. And because we are His ambassadors, there will be times that He decides to correct our actions and there will be times that He allows the natural consequences to do it instead. Either way, if it is God’s desire that all come to repentance and seek Jesus, 2 Peter 3:9, then He must ensure that His ambassadors are leading others in that direction. And be thankful He does do it this way, because unlike the President who removes a bad ambassador from their position if they act in this manner, God will never remove you from being the saved.

And this brings us to the second half of Psalm 14:14 that tells us a good person, one being a good ambassador, will reap what they sow also. Just as God corrects a bad ambassador, He rewards the good ones. It says in Matthew 7:11 that God wants to give good gifts to His children. But what father on earth wants to reward bad behavior from their child? God doesn’t want to reward that same type of behavior either, but He is willing to give gifts to a Believer that is demonstrating the values of their Heavenly Father. This is not saying that you will be rich and famous, but it does say that the gifts He has for you in this life and the next are just waiting for you if you follow Him. So, if you are asking, “Why do I not feel the gift of peace in my life?” or “Where is all the joy that the Bible talks about?”, then take a step back and ask yourself, “Am I being a good ambassador to God’s kingdom?”.

Proverbs 13:24

As we look around at the world today, we see the youth in it that missed this verse in their life. They are involved in “Teen Takeovers” where people are being stabbed and the area they take over is vacated by people there just to enjoy themselves. We see a generation of youth that lack basic respect for authority and dismiss common respect for other human beings. They believe they are animals and insist on litterboxes in the school and think that their beliefs must be shared by all or they will resort to violence. They lack the basic ability to debate civilly with people that disagree with them but instead turn to hate speech about the other side. It’s not all of them, but their numbers are growing as the generation of “Gentle Parenting” youth are emerging into their own.

God understands that a child left to their behaviors without redirection through loving correction, can go up rebellious and destructive. In Proverbs 13:24, it says that the parent that does not use discipline to correct a child is not demonstrating love for them. Discipline is needed to correct negative behaviors and to keep the child safe. To demonstrate this, would you allow your child to jump into water filled with electric eels? Of course not, you would do whatever is necessary to spare the child harm including discipline up to restraining the child so they could not get any closer to the water. And that would make you a loving parent, so why is it that just because the danger is not immediate one would believe that discipline is not required?

Danger is not just what you can see directly in front of you. It sometimes takes a while to develop and if you truly love your child, you will protect them from dangers now and what can happen. God understands the connection between love and discipline when He tells us in Hebrews 12:6 that those He loves He does chastise. And yes, it is not pleasant for either the parent or the child to have to turn to discipline, but as we read on to verse 11, we see that discipline produces right actions as they grow up. And when we do discipline, remember a couple principles when we do. First, make the discipline fit the actions. You do not want to cause anger because you go to the furthest end of the discipline spectrum for everything they do wrong.

And second, make sure the discipline is close enough to the wrong actions to still be understood why they are being disciplined. As Proverbs 13:24 continues, it says that the parent that loves the child will discipline them early. This means that as soon as possible, implement the discipline so they can see that the discipline was for a specific action they did. The is especially true the younger they are. Also, do not forget the most important step of discipline, and that’s to do it from a place of love. If you are doing it because you are mad, then that’s not the best time to issue discipline. Remember that this is being done to protect the child, not to satisfy your anger about what they did. In the end, they have a much better chance of being a respectful member of society that knows you love them.

Proverbs 8

In the first 3 verses, we can see the metaphorical way that wisdom, depicted as a woman, is crying out to all who will listen. It is a general call in a way that someone would be crying out for help in a public place to anyone willing to heed it. By the call being so public about it means that wisdom is not hidden for just a few, but available to all (verse 4). The call is not a quiet one as we read “she” lifts her voice. God does not want to keep wisdom hidden but always welcomes seekers. But we still must be willing to seek her, it’s a partnership. Like salvation, God will not thrust wisdom onto a person, but He is more than willing to give it freely when you seek His wisdom.

God’s wisdom promises truth and reliability. It’s timeless, trustworthy and priceless. God also uses different ways for one to gain wisdom. It will not be an instant process where you wake up full of wisdom one day but will be a process of seeking and finding in the situations of your life. This is not to say you will never receive wisdom that comes straight to your mind from God’s Spirit, but He does put enough situations in your life to develop it. Here are some things we can do to find wisdom:

1. Look for wisdom in your everyday life.
2. Look for wisdom in God’s words.
3. Accept wisdom for the wise people around you.
   1. Friends, parents, coworkers, a pastor’s sermon, etc.
4. Ask God daily what He is trying to teach you this day and during a situation in your life.
5. Slow down enough to listen for God’s wisdom.
6. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things (John 14:26).

As we continue in this chapter, we are told that wisdom comes with prudence, knowledge, discretion, insight, and strength. True wisdom is not just an accumulation of information but comes with the tools to use that information in a correct manner. Let’s look at each one of wisdom’s friends to see the complete picture:

1. Prudence helps us to think before we act. I know I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had utilized prudence more often in my youth and maybe need more of it even now.
2. Knowledge and discretion work together to help us to know when to speak and when to be quiet (again a lifelong work in progress).
3. Insight is looking below the surface of a problem to see the whole picture.
4. Strength gives us the courage to do what is right even when it’s not the popular thing to do.

Like any great sword, just having it in your hand does not fight off the enemy (folly). So, in your pursuit of wisdom, remember to ask God to give you the training to use it correctly. With the sword of wisdom and the training of prudence, knowledge, discretion, insight and strength, you will be able to avoid many of the traps this life has to offer.

Proverbs 5:1-6

In a way it is ironic that King Solomon is advising his son on the avoidance of other women in this chapter. This is the man that ended his days with 700 wives and 300 concubines. Once again, it is proven that wisdom alone does not stop a person from falling into the traps of this world, but we must rely on God to give us strength to fight evil. We see that in Solomon’s situation, it was when he started giving in to his wives’ request for foreign gods to be set in Israel that he really took a sharp turn away from following God’s way. He started off with the small, another wife here and another wife there, and ended in the big when he accepted the false gods of those women into Israel. That is how sin does it. It lets you enjoy the small sins and then hooks you into the big ones. I know this chapter deals with adultery, but we can replace the woman with anything that tempts us into sin.

Solomon starts off reminding his son to keep these words in his heart so that when the time comes, he can be ready with the correct response. Looking at the passage, he does not tell his son if the day comes but is preparing him for when the day does comes. We need to keep in mind that the tricks of the devil come in just three forms (lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life), and he is good at cycling them through until he finds your weak point. We know for Solomon, that women was a weak point as he ended up with 1,000 of them.

In this section of Proverbs 5, we see Solomon telling his son that a woman can be smooth in their talk and what she says will be sweet to a man. This is not exclusionary to a woman to a man but can work both ways. He also tells him that her words can be like wormwood which is a bitter plant in the middle east that, when used in proper amounts, was considered medicine, but anymore and it becomes poisonous. Her actions are like a two-edged sword that cuts both the body and the spirit (comfort and happiness). Her feet, the path she leads, will bring a person that follows her to their destruction.

In verse six he is reminding his son that if he refers back to the beginning of this section, he can ponder the wisdom of following such a woman and avoid her if he knows what’s good for him. This hold true for all of us too, not just a man or a woman, but anything that we want to possess more than we want to follow what God says is good and right. So, heed the warnings form those that came before and made the mistakes already, keep your eyes on God, and remind yourself by speaking out loud the truths of God’s word. It makes it hard to justify your actions when you hear yourself say out loud what is the right thing to do.

Proverbs 4:1-13

We have heard about generational wealth, but how often do we hear about generational wisdom? Solomon starts off by telling his children that they need to hear what their father has to share with them. As wise as Solomon was, he also knew the value of wisdom from those that have come before him is. In verse three, he tells his children that the wisdom he was about to share was given to him by his father (King David). And in verse two, Solomon tells his children that he is giving good teachings, whether it was by personal experience or handed down by his father, he trusted what he had gained in his past to pass these words on to his own children.

In this Psalm, he gives a couple practical truths about what wisdom can do for a person if they get it and gain insight about it. The first one comes in verse six when he writes that wisdom can protect us from making mistakes or being tricked by the things of this world. This is most likely why he is giving these truths while his children are young. Knowing that if they receive them and incorporate them into their lives now, wisdom can prevent them from falling into some of the tricks in this world that try to lead a person astray from following God. The younger you start with a child, the easier it is for them to say no when the time comes.

Another thing that wisdom will do is that it will lift you up beyond where you are now. Gaining wisdom only has benefits for a person’s life. It points out the right direction to go, where you have gone wrong and how to make it right, have you successfully finish the race that God has laid out for you, prevent you from making certain mistakes, help you avoid sin, and much more. But there is one thing that we must remember when we are pursuing wisdom is that we seek the right one. Remember in verse three, Solomon tells his children that some of his wisdom came from his father and we know that he had wisdom far beyond his father’s, that because he tapped into the true source of real wisdom.

Solomon received it directly from God, and we have access to some of that same wisdom. Not just in the writings of Solomon, but the entire Bible was given for our learning (Romans 15:4). Through daily reading, studying, praying, meditating, and letting the Holy Spirit reveal truth to you from the Bible, you will find the wisdom you need to overcome this world. If you are thinking that you have read the Bible before and that it has nothing more to teach you, that would be in error. The Bible is the one book that you can study for a lifetime and not exhaust the truths to be found within its pages.

Proverbs 1:1-6

The book of Proverbs by King Solomon is known as one of the wisdom books of the Bible. Solomon remembers, from when God asked what he would want and he chose wisdom, that wisdom is something a person acquires from God. According to Romans 11, all praise goes to God for His mercy, knowledge and wisdom in His creation. As the creator of all, God is the only one that knows exactly how it all works. One misconception is that wisdom and knowledge are the same thing. Knowledge is the accumulation of information stored in your brain, while wisdom is the ability to use that knowledge correctly. In Proverbs, Solomon is not wanting to just give knowledge like so many already had, but to tell the reader what to do with the knowledge one has already.

We have all heard the saying “Book smart but no common sense”. This is having knowledge without the wisdom to correctly use it. In this section, we find four things that are action words in the pursuit of wisdom. In verse 2 we perceive the words of understanding. We must become aware of wisdom. We need to understand that under our own discernment, we cannot have true wisdom, but it’s by God’s Spirit we will be given understanding (v. 23). In verse 3 we need to receive it. A gift is not a gift unless there is someone receiving it. The same is with wisdom in that if it is a gift we want from God, we need to receive it from Him. If we are not willing to receive it then God, being the perfect gentleman, will not force it upon us.

Verse 5 has a very important verb which is to hear. Me being a Lions fan, I know what it is like to not hear when my wife is talking. I have developed a good sense of when to nod my head and say “yep” and “ok”. Do you ever feel that God is talking to you, but you are not hearing what He has to say? But in this verse, He promises that if you hear Him you will increase in wisdom. Also in verse 5 is the word attain. To attain something is to acquire something. When we acquire something, we are adding to what we already have, but we also must give up something for it. In this case, we are giving up our limited understanding for God’s infinite understanding of the situation. In short, to gain godly wisdom we must perceive, receive, listen and add to, the things God has for us to become wise.

1 Kings 3

In this chapter, God comes to the new king of the people of Israel, Solomon. This is a very familiar chapter about how God asked Solomon what he wanted, and Solomon chooses wisdom. Such a correct choice at the age of twelve. I am not wanting the focus of this devotion to be about his choice, but in the way that God came to him to present the question. Solomon was asleep at the time which seems to be a common way for God to communicate. He did it with Job, with Solomon, in Joel 2 and Acts 2 it says that men will dream dreams, to Joseph and others.

Why would God choose this method of communicating with us? If I were to answer that question, I would probably say it because it is the only time that we are quiet long enough for our spirit to hear what He has to say. Think about it, we get up, get ready and eat breakfast, then we go to work and back home, we get ready to eat dinner and then get some work done around the house. After all that, we are ready for a break, so we turn on the TV and hear what the news has to say or to be entertained. Before you know it, it is time for bed where you fall into a deep sleep after a hard day.

I know you next thought, “What about the weekend?”. I got you covered there too. Saturday is yard work and project day, and Sunday you are in church in the morning, football in the afternoon and then back to evening church. The next day is Monday, and the cycle starts all over again. Looking at the week, when does God have time to speak in that small still voice of 1 Kings 19? Answer, when we are asleep. I do not lay this all out to make you feel guilty, as many good Christians are following that same schedule. I do it to challenge you to do something about it. Find that time of silence during the day sometime when it is just you and God.

Make it a priority to go somewhere quiet, for at least 5 minutes to start with, and pray, read the Bible, or maybe just think about the last sermon you heard. Anything to open that door of communication between you and God. And before you finish, tell God that you will be listening for His voice on your spirit. He may impress upon your heart in a direction to go, or maybe he will speak to you through a dream. Whatever way that God chooses to speak to your spirit will be unmistakable. And if you ever wonder if it is really Him talking, ask yourself “Does it sound like the words I read in the Bible?”.

Psalm 82

In Psalm 82:2, God is asking the judges of Israel “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?”, which is a totally legit question coming from the Supreme Judge. As we look at how this world is, does it not seem like justice is not being served? Right is wrong and wrong is right? That the wicked are catching all the breaks while the people of God are being told they are guilty of anything they can come up with? As the day of Christ’s return grows closer, there is an increased feeling in the air that anything associated with the name of Jesus is being rejected as the right things?

It should come to no surprise because the Bible tells us in Luke 17 that as it was in the days of Noah and the days of Lot, Jesus will be revealed. What the days of Noah and the days of Lot have in common is that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. You may remember the days when the phrase “I speak my own truth” was just getting started. That’s the problem, we are not the source for truth, only God is. And now look where we are at in this world, we have kids pretending they are animals and the schools are putting litter boxes out for them to use, we have men thinking they can have babies because they claim to be a woman, we have church leaders telling people that the Bible is not 100% true, etc.

The doors have been opened wide, and most people have walked through them. They are the doors to whatever I think is right for me is the right thing to do. I heard a statistic today on the radio saying only 40% of the people in America go to church. And we are not fooled into thinking every one of them are in a Bible believing Christ centered church, and not all the ones in a good church are Believers in Christ as Lord and Savior. The number of true Christians are growing smaller each year, and it does not appear to be reversing any time soon. For those of us that do follow the true Jesus, all this I talked about in today’s devotional should not be a thing of discouragement but of hope.

Why do I say hope, because what is happening in the world today can go one of two directions from here. Either we continue the trend and Jesus comes to take the church out of this world. If that happens, we begin our time in Heaven with the Father engulfed in His glory. Or the opposite direction and we get to be a part of a revival that this world has never seen before. Either way, things will be better for the Believer. If Jesus is not coming back in our lifetime, then let’s work hard for the alternative, the revival. To do this, all Believers need to do their part to share what Jesus has done for everyone when he died on that cross. So, get out the word that there is a Savior that loves them enough that He gave His life so they can live.

Psalm 78

In Psalm 78, Asaph is reviewing the history between the Israelites and God. He talks about the power God displayed in the wilderness and the rejection the by the people through it all. Asaph does not paint the Israelites in a good light and rightfully so. God was very good to them and at every turn they complained and at times fully rejected Him and turned to false gods. Even when their disobedience resulted in the death of thousands of their people, they continue this cycle of rejection, punishment, return to worship, and then eventual rejection again. But this is not what this devotion is about.

Today’s devotion comes from verses five through eight of Psalm 78. In these verses it tells us that the Pentateuch, the first five book of the Old Testament, were given by God so that the fathers can teach it to their children. But there is to be a purpose to the teaching, it would set the hope of the children upon God, so they would not forget the good things God has done for their people and would follow the commandments given by God. And that takes us to verse eight when he says the reason for this is so the children will not be like their fathers, OUCH!

It’s not that the fathers were bad at being fathers. It’s not that by following their fathers they would become bank robbers or a camel thief, but that being like their fathers would mean they would miss the most important thing which is to follow God in all your ways. God does not want to be your God so that you can claim it on your resume or so people think you are a good person. God wants to have a relationship that involves your full obedience to His prescribed way to live and in return He will be there by your side all the days of your life. He wants to guide you, protect you, let you feel His love, give you a safe harbor in the storm, and will be there to mend your broken heart. All He asks is that you follow Him as your God. A small price to pay for all the benefits that a follow receives.

Psalm 76

As we continue in the Psalms written by King David’s worship leader Asaph, we come to Psalm 76 which is a song he wrote about God’s power. He starts it by recognizing that the name of God is well known in Israel. The people there understand how great God is because it was part of their history that the Red Sea was parted, the ten plagues that was a direct assault against Egypt’s false gods happened, he provided them food from nothing, and the manifestation of God can be seen in their tabernacle. The people of Israel had no problem understanding the power of God and had a respectful fear for Him.

The United States use to have that same understanding and fear of the power of God, not because they saw what He had done in the wilderness, or because it was part of their history, but because they understood that every word of the Bible, and what it says about God, is true. But that is not the case for many Americans today. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some of us that truly believe what the Bible says and wants to follow the One and Only True God, but our numbers are getting smaller. Today, people want to be entertained, they want fast paced worship and a God that does not make them feel uncomfortable.

2 Timothy 4:3 tells us that one day the church will be filled with people who do not want sound doctrine but instead want their ears tickled with pleasant things from the Bible and not the whole truth. Yes, God loves us and sent His Son to die for our sins, but it does not mean that He accepts the sin in us. As Psalm 76 continues, Asaph talks about God’s anger towards the nations burning and that it is a lasting anger unless it is satisfied through the right paths. For the unsaved, the only satisfaction for God’s wrath is to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior.

For the saved, we need to seek a forgiveness in our relationship with God, and we do that by having an honest discussion with Him. Like King David in Psalm 51, we acknowledge our sins and confess them to God as the one that we have sinned against. We admit that He has the correct verdict in our wrong doings and He alone has the ability to judge right from wrong. Whether you are saved or not, you must come to the understanding that we are not better than others and we definitely fall short of God. We must not seek for what we can get out of God, because forgiveness is already more than we deserve, but instead ask God what we can do for Him.

Psalm 73

As we finish up the last couple days of the Book of Psalms, we will be looking at the Psalms writing by Asaph, the appointed worship leader of Israel during King David’s time. In Psalm 73, he is contrasting God’s interactions with the righteous and the wicked. It is true that God does interact differently according to your status in Christ. If you reject the gift that is the finished work of Christ on the cross, then you will be treated as an enemy. Like a person that has told God you do not need Him in your life and that you can be your own decider of what is right or wrong. But a person who knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is held in a totally different light in the eyes of God. John 1:12 tells us that all who believe in Christ as Savior is given the right to become the children of God. But as imperfect as a child we can be, we are still in the family.

In Psalm 73, Asaph starts off telling the reader that God has been good to the people of Israel, those that are pure at heart. Right off the starting line, he is distinguishing between those that are followers of God and those that are not. God had never promised to look upon a person because of what nation they are a part of, but how their heart is. It goes to show us that there is only two ways God sees a person, either sinful or pure of heart. Never does God say in His word that a good effort is recognized, or that a person that did so many good things in their life has paradise coming. He says either you are a child of God, or you are not and that decision is made individually according to your status. This is not because your parents were Christian or that you were born in the right geographic location. It is all based on your decision of who Jesus is according to the Bible.

As Psalm 73 continues, Asaph tells us that the guilty wear their sin as a necklace proudly. Pride is the sin behind the rejection of Jesus in your life. For you to tell the Creator of the universe that you know what’s better for your life and eternity, is arrogance and misguided. For example, I have put together many pieces of Sauder furniture over the years for myself and others. There was this one time that I was putting together a TV stand for an elderly neighbor and thought I had done enough of them, that I could do it without instructions. As I was coming to the end, I realized that there was one piece that for some reason I could not get in place. As I reviewed the directions from the manufacturer of the stand, I realized that there was no way this would fit where it needed to be at this stage of the build. It actually needed to be installed at step #3, and I had to dismantle the whole thing to get back to that step. I use the manufacturer’s instructions from then on.

That is the way it is with salvation. There is an instruction book, the Bible, and there is no way a person is going to get to Heaven unless they follow the directions from the Manufacturer. As the Manufacturer of all that is, God knows what it takes to become the finished person that He calls a son or daughter. As the One that made it all, He has that right to set the standard. And like Asaph says at the end of the Psalm, “But for me it is good to be near God”. No truer words have been said.

Psalm 143

If you were to go to a good movie or seen your favorite singer in concert, you would not be able to contain yourself when you met your friends the next day. You would start from the beginning and give them a minute-by-minute account of the experience. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s natural to take something you are passionate about and want to share your excitement with anyone that will listen. This is how King David is about the things of God in Psalm 143.

In verse 12 he says that he will make known to others the mighty deeds God has done. He has had a life full of things that God has done and can firsthand testify to His goodness. As a result, David loves to tell anyone and everyone that will lend him their ear what God has done in his life. Over the past few weeks we have been talking about the life of David, and consistently he would be overcome in worship to God, and we also see God do things to deliver David from harm because of His love for him. This is a relationship we can have with our God if we choose.

Not that we want a closer relationship to God to gain favor or things, but that we desire to please Him in a way, that it is so pure in motive, that in return He blesses His children like a good father does (Matthew 7:11). If you doubt me about this, then put it to the test. For the next 30 days truly give yourself to God and ask what He would like from you. Maybe He is asking for you to be more kind, or more active in the local church, more generous with your time and finances, or with whatever you have been holding back from Him. Give your all to Him and see what he does with it and then watch as your testimony grows day by day till you have such a story to tell that you cannot wait for someone to listen.

Psalm 141

In verse five of this Psalm, King David says it quite plainly that the righteous accepts rebuke. That if he is found doing something wrong, someone that is a righteous person can correct him, and he would consider it as kindness. To be rebuked by that person is like anointing him into correct relationship with God and he accept it. David knew the importance of having people that are right in God’s eyes close to you. They are the ones that when things are going down a dark path, they will be there with outstretched hand ready to pull you back onto solid ground.

I can tell you that my friends are that type of friend. Don’t get me wrong, if I fell off a roof and could open my eyes, they would be laughing while trying to ask if I am ok in-between breaths, but when the time comes, they will be in my corner trying to help me see the errors of my ways. And don’t feel sorry for me, I would be laughing just as hard if it was one of them instead of me, that’s just the way it is with us, and I wouldn’t change a thing about that. I would hope and pray that all of you will find friends like this in your life.

Another part of this verse is that you would be willing to accept the rebuke. Proverbs 9:8 says a wise man will love you for rebuking them. If you have a Brother or Sister in Christ pointing out the errors of your ways, this is a good thing. It may not feel like it at first, but this is good for you. To be in a right relationship with God is always better than the temporary enjoyment you will get out of sin. I will tell you from personal experience that when God uses a godly friend to correct your actions, it is better than God having to tell you directly.

In Proverbs 12:1, the Bible tells us that a person who loves correction loves knowledge, but a person that hates correction is stupid (it’s words not mine). Don’t show others your mental state by your willingness, or unwillingness, to correction. There are so many other ways a person can show them that.

Psalm 139

The Lord does not make a mistake in anything He creates. In today’s Psalm, King David tells us that our God is there even in the womb. That there is no limit to His investment in each and every one of His created people. In verse 7, David asks the question “where shall I flee from your Spirit?”. It’s not a question that he is looking for an answer, but one of a rhetorical nature due to our God being all-knowing and all-present, that there is no where He is not. This is not to be something fearful, but as we read in verse 10, God holds us in His right hand as a loving father would.

As we continue in the Psalm, David describes the intimacy between God and His creation of you. It says in verse 13 that God knits us together exactly the way He intends. Wonderful is His handiwork and deep down we know that He made us in love. Even before we took shape, God saw who we can become. And precious to Him is every thought of who we are. We were made for a purpose, and God does not make mistakes.

Imagine how devoted we would be if someone in our life told us that when they think of us, they hold every thought captive due to its worth to them. We would be overwhelmed with flattery that the very thought of us could do that to another person. Well, we do have someone that is telling us that, in this Psalm. God loves you and cares for you. He does not see your deformity or disorder. He knows the mistakes you will make and the damage your body will take. He knows that your thoughts will be far away from His and the pleas he puts on your heart to return will be ignored so many times.

But He still loves you more than you can ever imagine, and all He wants is to restore the relationship that He intended to have with us before sin entered this world. He does not care what you look like, what you have done in the past, what horrible things you have said about Him before, all he wants is you. To have you as a member of His family with all your faults and troubles. There is nothing between you and God except your own resistance.

Psalm 109

The theme of Psalm 109 is King David crying out to God to pass judgement against those that falsely accuse him of wickedness to turn the heart of others against him. His enemies may know that they cannot right out defeat him with God, and others, on his side so they try to eliminate one of them from the equation. If they can turn his allies against him, then maybe he will lose hope and become venerable to attacks. This tactic is still used today by those that oppose the people of God. But there is a reason that this is one of their first attacks against believers, it’s from their father the Devil.

The title Devil comes for the Greek origin of diabolos which means accuser. One of the Devil’s main attacks against Believers is to accuse them of wrong despite if it's true of not. In Zechariah 3, the Devil is standing there accusing Joshua of his wrongdoing to the angel of the LORD to disqualify him from service to God. But fortunately, it is not how the Devil sees us but how God sees us that matters. As the chapter progresses, the angel (most likely preincarnate Jesus) tells Joshua to remove his filthy clothes as He forgave his sins already. When people try to accuse us of wrongdoing, they are trying to get others to see us dressed in dirty clothes that do not exist anymore.

I remember my early years as a Believer; I spent so many years thinking about the dirty clothes I had worn before Jesus. It made me feel that I was unworthy to be used by God effectively. This is why the Devil uses this tactic, it’s effective. As long as he can have others remind us of who we were, then we may start to believe we are of no use in God’s kingdom. Nothing is further from that, God has made us a new creature, the old is gone and we are wearing clean clothes. God does not only see us as useful, but He sees us as worthy to be a champion in His army. So, remember that when the false accusations start coming your way, you are not what they see but who God says you are that matters.

Psalm 101

This Psalm contains nine “I will” statements by King David as he describes his walk with God. He starts off with “I will” sing and play music. In this first part of his walk, he is praising God with the talents He gave him. David was known as a great poet and musician, and he used this talent often in his worship to God and recorded several for us to read in scriptures. This form of worship came easy to him and felt as natural as waking up in the morning, but he also understood that worship didn’t stop there.

As he continues in the Psalm, he says that he intends in searching out the ways that are right to God and pledges, “I will walk with integrity”. This is a form of worship that many people do not think about, the worship of obedience. To find out what pleases God and then follow it is just as much worship as singing. In John 15:10, Jesus tells us that if we keep His commands then we abide in His love, and if we keep the Father’s commandments we abide in His love. This tells us that an expression of our love for God and how we make His ways our ways. This is where the rubber meets the road in our worship.

Then David states, “I will” keep those that are wicked far away and gather other Believers close to him. There is something to be said about not forgetting your worship together, Hebrews 10:25. In this Psalm, David knows that spending time with others that do not believe the same way can have a negative impact in his behaviors. To have others that want to lift you up in the Lord instead of bringing you down into the mud, you need to have fellow Believers by your side, and to have many together in worship is a great place to recharge your batteries. Do not get me wrong, you will have unbelievers in your life in one way or another, but they are your mission field and need to see the love of Jesus in your life, which is hard to do if you look more like them than your Lord.

Worship is more than a song or a verse, it’s a lifestyle. And in all that you do you are in worship. Whether is it singing in the car, reading your Bible, listening to a message from the pastor, or even when you realize that the clerk gave you too much change and you give it back to them, so their drawer is not short at the end of the night. All that is good and all that is right is worship. So, the next time you are cut off in traffic, remember that you can be in a state of anger or a state of worship, your choice.

Psalm 64

In Psalm 64, King David is talking about the plans his enemies have against him and talks about their tongues being like a sword and words like an arrow. It’s true, one’s words have the power to lift up another or to tear them down. They can bring joy or sorrow. They can make a person feel valued or valueless. The words that come out of our mouth has more power in another person’s life, especially those closest to us, than most people realize.

Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences”. We know this to be true today when we see the number of people committing suicide because of things said by others. Words have real power in this world and people need to learn how to use them correctly. Our words are to be the life giver, to help lift another up when they are down. Too often people are relying on that old saying of, “You have to kick em’ while their down.”, when dealing with people in need of a kind word.

The Apostle Paul was great at making lists in his writings. He would list off the Fruit of the Spirit, list things that are a blessing when in God’s will, and list sins that are highly offensive to others. It comes to a surprise to some that when he is listing things like murder, sexual sins, stealing, etc., he also includes one who gossips. That is how dangerous a tongue can be. Today, lets pledge to use our tongue to lift up, not to tear down.

Psalm 46

If you have been keeping up on these devotions, you may have noticed that there was nothing posted for 5/11/26. Little did I know that a Psalm I was considering doing a devotion about the other day would become real yesterday. For no apparent reason, my wife developed an extreme form of dizziness and needed rescue workers to help her off the floor. The doctors do not know the source of it and there is no certain trigger that brings it on, so it is a mystery as of this writing. But that’s not how the day started.

I had made plans for yesterday, that I thought, was already a full day’s worth. First, I would meet a couple guys at 6:45am to golf, then I would go home and relax before starting my devotions and sermon prep. From there I would get cleaned up and ready for lunch followed by getting my grandsons, like I do every weekday after school. After they left, me and the wife would probably go to town or maybe just sit till it was time to go to the grandson’s baseball game. From there I would eat dinner, continue sermon prep and then relax for the rest of the evening. No part of my plans involved caring for my wife’s elderly mother who she is the caregiver for. It seemed so simple, till it wasn’t.

I was at the 16^th hole of my plan when the call came in from the wife that she was having a medical emergency and I needed to come home immediately. As I reached my driveway, I was met by the ambulance and that’s when my prayers reached 2^nd gear. I will not go into detail about the incident but will tell you that my plans for the day were not on my mind anymore. It is replaced with prayers, getting the mother-in-law situated and resting, getting someone to pick up the grandkids, and getting to the hospital ASAP. As we spent the next few hours having them run tests, scans and IV’s, it could have turned into a time when intrusive thought would enter the equation and we begin to question why.

But that is not what King David tells us in Psalm 46. David tells the reader that our God is our refuge and strength in such a time as this. He is our help in trouble, and with Him, our fears can be quieted. Yesterday when it was all starting, it felt like verse 2 & 3 when David says though the earth be removed, thought the mountains be carried into the midst, through the waters roar with trouble, and the mountains shake. But it wasn’t like that, there was a certain calm in the storm, and although we still have no clue why it is continuing today, the rest of the truths in Psalm 46 stand strong. It tells us not to fear, God is in the midst while we go through the storm, He is our refuge and strength, and He tells us that we can be still because He is God.

Today we don’t have answers, and tomorrow there may be more questions than today holds, but no matter with that day brings God is still standing with us.

Psalm 62

In verse 1 & 2, King David is telling the reader some truths about what it means when he says, “God alone”. God alone does my salvation come, God alone is my rock, God alone is my fortress, in God alone I will not be greatly shaken. These words are true on so many levels that I have experienced myself, so I know it to be so. As a teen and young adult, not knowing the Lord, I chased a lot of different things in this world to try and calm the storm that was inside. My emotions were unstable, my mind leaned to thoughts of self-harm, my finances were a wreck, and I was making the people I loved miserable. My whole life was not stable like a rock but was like the sands that moved beneath one’s feet at the beach.

Then one day it happened, I felt something I never felt before, something was speaking directly to my heart. As I watch the play called “Heaven’s Gate and Hell’s Fire”, I could feel something changing inside me. I knew at that moment there was something I needed to do and do it fast. As I sat there for the rest of the play, I told myself that whatever they told me I had to do, I was going to do it. Then the time came, they announced that if anyone wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior to step up to the stage. Before you could say, “Hey, where did Ron go?”, I was in the aisle and at the stage. I was so fast that I sat at the back of the auditorium but was the first in line to do what I knew was the only thing that could help me.

That night I accepted Jesus into my life, and I never regretted that decision. The road was not a smooth payment to travel, but it had its bumps and hills as my flesh tried to fight for the old life. Looking back, I can see how unstable life can be in those “not best of times” that comes our way, but I can definitely tell you that once I quit resisting God’s work on my life, I had my rock. My ground started to solidify, and I can feel that there is nothing this life is going to throw at me that my God cannot calm the unrest trying to start in my body. He really is the solid rock, the fortress in hard times, and in Him alone can I trust with my eternity.

Psalm 53

In this Psalm, King David tells us a person that denies the existence of God is a fool. The word fool here is not one of a light jab or some kind of hyperbolic language to state they are just mistaken. The word used here means a person that is morally corrupt and is unwilling to seek after God. The Psalm continues to call their deeds corrupt and vial, and that the heart of mankind does not want to be accountable for their actions. Verse 2 states that God looks down and cannot find a person that understands and seeks after Him.

 And God would be correct in His assessment of the heart of the people. Without God intervening in in the state of our heart, we would not seek Him but rather continue to do what is right in our own eyes. John 16:8 tells us that the Holy Spirit of God prepares our hearts to accept the truth of our sin and His holiness. Without the Spirit revealing this to our hearts, we would remain in the desperately wicked state that Jeramiah 17:9 tells us we are in before salvation, and we would be incapable of knowing anything different.

This is the great blessing that God gives to each and every one of us, the knowledge that we need a savior. That our condition is desperate and eternal without something being done to remove the stain of sin from our hearts. I do believe in free will and that the decision to come to Jesus Christ was mine to make, but I also understand that this belief was only because God awoke my heart to the reality of my condition. This doesn’t take away from my salvation but makes it much more precious because He sought me.

The God of this universe allowed me to understand my condition so I could come to Him freely and accept the work that Jesus did on the cross so we can be together forever. God could have chosen to ignore the heart of mankind and leave us to our fate, but He didn’t. As Romans 5:8 states, while I was still a sinner (His enemy), He allowed Jesus Christ to pay the penalty I deserved. His mercy is limitless and is available to everyone.

If you are reading this and you have never asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior so you can have this too, please pray now something like this:

Dear Jesus, I know that I have fallen short of the holiness that God expects due to my sins. I also believe that you have paid the penalty for the sins of everyone that trusts in you by dying on that cross. At this time, I ask you to come into my life as my Lord and my Savior. To have my sins forgiven and my name written in the Book of Life guaranteeing that one day I will be with you forever in Heaven. Please give me a life of purpose and that desires to do what is right in your eyes. Amen.

If you have prayed this prayer, I would love to hear from you and help you find a true Christ following church to start your life of growing in the joy of being a Believer. You can email me at pastor.gbc.tecumseh@gmail.com

Psalm 37

As I was reading Psalm 37 written by King David, it became very clear that some of the teachings in this Psalm are also found in the Book of Proverbs. It should not come as a surprise knowing that the writer of Proverbs is David’s son Solomon. For example, in verse 16 it tells us that having little and righteous is better than having much and wicked. In Proverbs 16:8 it says better is little with righteous than great gain with injustice. Or like in verse 23 when David tells us that the Lord directs our path and the same is said in Proverbs 20:24. There are others example, but what they say is not the point of this devotion, legacy is.

In comparison, many values that David held, Solomon wrote throughout the Proverbs. This is evidence that when we tell our kids something, they do hear us. The same can also be said about what we do in front of them and then watch them grow up to imitate it. When Proverbs 22:6 tells us to train up our children so they will not know what is right as they reach adulthood, it does not say to do this in word only. Kids are like sponges, they soak up everything around them including the words and actions of the adults in their life. My wife told me a story about a child that did not appear to be listening to the Bible story that day, only to watch as they took chalk and drew the whole point of the story on the pavement accurately. They are always aware, maybe not completely but enough, that they do retain what is happening around them.

The old saying, “Do as I say and not as I do”, never held any water. Kids will watch, they will add it to their memory, and they will imitate some form of this action you demonstrated to them when they were young. Are you leaving the legacy you want to leave with both your words and actions? If not, take a long look at the little one that will one day grow up with some of your traits instilled in their life, and ask yourself, “What training will I give them today?”. The rest of their life will thank you for the good training you give them now.

Psalm 32

In Psalm 32, King David is rejoicing at the forgiveness of his sins by God, and for good reason. Starting in the Garden of Eden, the penalty of sin is death. Yes, there is a physical death that will be experienced, but more importantly is the eternal death of separation from God. John 8:24 quotes Jesus telling the disciples that unless people believe He is the Son of God that was sent to take away the sins of mankind, they will die in their sins. To be separated from God means the person is condemned to hell for eternity, to remember the One that you rejected and suffer the pain and torment of your decision.

And don’t fool yourself by thinking that you have been doing just fine without God so far, so what is an eternity more without Him. The truth is that you have never experienced a single moment without God’s presence in your life. You may choose to not recognize it, but He has been right there in the good times and bad times. Showing you mercy along the way of not making you pay for every wrong thing you have done in this life. All He wants in return is for you to accept the gift He has waiting for you of salvation through His Son Jesus.

Looking at this Psalm, David starts off telling the reader that happy is the person that is forgiven, the one that their sins will never be counted against them, the person that shouts for joy because their heart is made clean. David also has advice in verse 5 for the ones that have already asked Jesus to be Lord and Savior of their life when he says that he acknowledges his sin to God. Our relationship with God is like our relations on earth, in that, when we do something wrong against another person, we need to ask for forgiveness to bring some mend to back to the relationship. Not that your salvation was ever at risk, but your day-to-day relationship is strained under the pressure from the Spirit’s conviction of your sin.

This is where 1 John 1:9 comes in, when it tells us to ask for forgiveness and God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleans us from all unrighteousness. But unlike our relationships with other people, God fully restores our relation to Him 100%. He does not hold any of it against you or bring it back up in a later argument. He forgives it fully and never brings it back to your attention later on. And a person with their sins forgiven and their relationship with God fully intact, joyous indeed is that person.

Psalm 27

In Psalm 27, King David is singing praises to God to express the faithfulness he has experienced in his life. He starts chapter 27 out by stating that he does not need to fear anything because God is his light in a dark world, and the rescuer when times get hard. He understands that the victories in his life against his enemies, like the giant Goliath, was delivered to him by God. Knowing the history of the battles in the Old Testament, there are enough of examples of victories because of God intervention in a battle, that we can also take comfort in knowing that He can intervene in our struggles today. There is a confidence in this life that comes from knowing that God has your back during the hard times.

I love the reminder for us in verse 7 & 8 when David says he cries out for God to be gracious and give him answers to which God responds, “Seek my face”. This is the thing that so many get wrong in their walk with God. They cry out for help when times are hard but forget God the rest of the time. God wants you to keep seeking Him, even in the good times. If you go back a couple verses, we see David praising God for hiding him from the trouble coming. If we seek God even in the good times, then we may find that we have less hard times because He has hidden us from them. But remember, this is still life and we will have hard times. And we are not to seek God in the good times so that we never feel hard times, we seek Him because He deserves it.

In verse 10, he finds comfort in knowing that even if the people in this world are undependable, God will never cast him away. This is probably one of the most important points a Believer needs to understand, God is not like the people in your life. As Believers, we cannot judge what God will do based upon experiences we have had in our past with other people. People can break promises, God cannot. People can be unnecessarily cruel, God loves you. People can abandon you, God will never leave you or forsake you. God is not like anyone you have even met in this life, so when you are seeking Him in the pages of the Bible, rid yourself of preconceived notions of how you think others see you and let God tell you how precious you really are in His eyes.

 

Psalm 23

This is considered to be among the most beloved chapters in the Bible by many. The imagery of this chapter is one of peace and comfort no matter what the situation. To start out with “The LORD is my shepherd” tells us that God has everything in His hands. The shepherd of a flock would ensure leading them to good feeding grounds, fresh water and to protect them from other wild animals. The flock knows the voice of the shepherd and runs when they call. I know this first-hand with my cows. All I have to do is whistle and they come running because they know that I have something good for them today.

As the chapter goes on, it tells us that God restores our soul so that we have the strength and energy to take on the day, no matter what that day may bring. And when He has given you the strength to carry on, He can direct your steps so that you overcome it in the right way. Sometimes the easy path is not the path that brings honor to God or yourself. I have walked the path that if I had taken the easy way my trouble would have disappeared in a matter of months. But the easy path would not have led to a testimony of God’s goodness and a real lasting outcome that was 100% better than the easy way, but it did take years to accomplish. In the end, it was well worth all the work to do it the right way.

It also tells us that in our dark times, those times that we suffer loss, hurt, persecution, sickness, or any other thing that tries to steal joy from our life or even our life itself, God is still with us. Because He is with us along the whole way, we do not need to fear what the world throws at us, because no matter what comes our God is bigger and we as Believers have already won the war. God anoints Believers as His sons and daughters and wants good things for us. All that we have is a blessing from God including the people in our life. We may not always feel the blessing, but as a Good Father, He wants to give you good gifts, so look for the good in it instead of searching for what you believe is wrong.

King David ends with “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”, which is so true. Again, we as Believers may miss the goodness and mercy of our life if we believe we deserve more. The fact that God saved us through Jesus’ finished work on the cross, is already more than we deserve (mercy). But he still gives us food in our belly, people that love us, pleasures in this life, and a closeness to Him if you seek it (goodness), that you will not get from this world. But nothing tops the end of the Psalm when he says that he will “dwell in the house of the LORD forever”. There is nothing that can be compared to the fact that we will be in God’s presence forever and ever when we trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and if that is not enough to keep the joy in your life then you may be missing the point.

Psalm 15

In this Psalm of David, he describes a person of godly character for the reader’s benefit. This can be considered a shopping list of what a person should strive to be and what to look for in another person they want to associate with. He starts with acknowledging that we should be humble in our understanding that God alone is holy and to come into His presence on our own merit is impossible. In verse 2 he is telling us to be a person of integrity and honesty. A person that when it is time to make the hard choices to do what is right instead of what is popular, we choose what’s right to God first.

To be a person that does not use their speech to hurt another because we know that sometimes words hurt longer than a physical pain can. We are not to lie about another person’s character nor turn on our friends who have been there for us when we needed them. In verse 4, David describes a person that conducts themselves with dignity and has a proper understanding who God is and shows Him the respect He deserves as Creator and Savior.

At the end of verse 4 he tells us that when we make a promise, we are to honor that promise even if it costs us something to do so. For us, to be known as a person of our word is worth more than some inconvenience or loss of time or material items. Verse 5 he informs us to not be a person that loans out money to make money from interest nor takes a bribe to show favor to one person over another. And then he ends the Psalm by letting us know that these are the things that please the LORD, and when we please Him, we stand on solid ground.

Psalm 7, 10 & 11

Throughout these Psalms, there is a common thread which is stated plainly in Psalm 7:8 “The LORD judges the people”. As we dive into these Psalms, we find that God is the only one that has the right to judge due to the wicked heart of humans. We as people tend to look at another in judgement of their actions, mostly so we can distract ourselves from our own, but the lens we use is cracked and a righteous judgement cannot be performed. At best, we can only compare our flaws to their flaws and see if society looks more favorable upon what we have done compared to the others.

Matthew 7:5 tells us to take the beam out of our own eye before telling another of the speck they have in theirs. This is why when we approach another about a sin they are involved in, first we must clean our house of our wrong doings, and then we are to approach with what God says about it not what we think instead. It is then that we let God be the judge of their sin and if it goes right, it will awake them to what the Holy Spirit has been trying to tell them all along. And a must for these situations, you are to approach the other person in love and not in a judgmental way.

I know that telling a fellow Believer about their sins is uncomfortable and feels like we should mind our own business. But to allow them to continue in their sin is not showing them love but is allowing them to continue in chastisement (discipline) from God. If you love another, you will want them to be free of their actions and to start enjoying the blessings described in these Psalms for those that do what is right according to God’s standard. You may not believe it at the beginning of this process, but they will thank you for it in the end.

1 Kings 2

As the death of King David approaches, he takes time to instruct his son Solomon one more time to follow God’s ways. Proverbs (the book of wisdom) chapter 22 is written by Solomon many years into his reign as king of Israel. In verse 6 he is telling his children to train up their children in the way they should go, and when they grow old, they will not depart from it. Was Solomon remembering the times that his father gave him direction to follow God, and now is doing it for his children? Probably so.

When I look at my own time growing up and my father giving me directions on how to do something or how I should conduct myself, there are many things he taught that I still live by. Your kids will remember what you say and do in their development. That is why it is so important to teach them in what God says while they are growing. The things they learn from God’s words will stick with them the rest of their life. It does not mean that they will never make a mistake or rebel, but it could help them from getting into too much trouble.

 

1 Chronicles 11 & 2 Samuel 23

In these two chapters, they list the 37 mighty men that were the champions in King David’s army. They were the ones that were sent out when the big projects needed to get done. Their bravery and strength were unmatched. For example, Benaiah killed a lion at close range. What made it impressive is that he followed that lion into a pit on a snowy day which would have given the lion all the advantages, but Benaiah was still victorious.

Like David, we need to surround ourselves with mighty men, the difference is that they need not be the strongest, bravest, or biggest, they just need to be strong in their walk with the LORD. In this world, there are many chances to do something to displease God, and if you are not with fellow Believers then your support in the battle is not there. There is strength in numbers, but the key is that those numbers must be on your side.

It would not have turned out good for King David if he would have surrounded himself with mighty Philistines. They were his enemy and would have taken this opportunity to kill him. The same is true in our spiritual battles. If we surround ourselves with people that are doing what we do not want to do, then most likely we will end up doing it too. But, if you surround yourself with others that are strong in their walk, and do not want to do the things that you are trying to stay away from, then you will have each other to lean on and support in the avoidance of that thing.

I like to use the example of clean shoes and mud. If you are a clean pair of shoes and you walk in mud, chances are 100% that you will get mud on you. If you think that you are such a clean pair of shoes that you would rub off the clean onto the mud and make it clean, you would be sorely mistaken. Same is true for the people you surround yourself with. It is so much easier for you to have the wrong things to rub off on you than it is to get those wanting to do wrong to change their ways just by being around you.

1 Chronicles 28-29

At the end of chapter 28, King David comforts the about to be king, Solomon, to be strong and courageous, which is reminiscence of Moses to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:23. Both times the charge was given to the one that would be taking over as leader of the people of Israel, but in Solomon’s case there was a twist. When Moses told Joshua to be strong and courageous, Joshua was about 84 years old. For Solomon, he was about to become the king of Israel at the young age of 12.

I remember myself at age 12, and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was not the age for me to own a fish and definitely not the age to start leading others. While it is true that kids had to be more grown up during this time due to the conditions and traditions, 12 is still young to become king. This may be the reason that David went on to say not to be afraid or dismayed because God was with him and promises to never leave. As comforting as that is, Solomon still had to be wondering if he could really do the job.

As we keep reading to the end of chapter 29, we see that Solomon’s rule was blessed by God and no other king was prosperous like him. Solomon proved that age is just a number, and that being young is not a sign that you are not capable. In 1 Timothy 4:12, the Apostle Paul tells a young Timothy to not let his age be despised. In another words, he is not to let his leading of the church be lessened because he is young, but that he is to be bold in fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for him.

There is something to be said about the Christian with more time behind than ahead as far as the wisdom they bring to the table, but equally, there is something to be said about those that have their youthful energy and enthusiasm to do the work of ministry and make it look easy. In the end, it takes both the go-get-em youthful approach with the we have tried that before and it did not work, to get things done while avoiding the landmines of ministry. So, when it comes to a spiritual leader in the church, whether it be the pastor, elder, or that one the people trust they know what the Bible says and they lives it, but it proves that it is not a person's age that is important but the strength of their walk with God that is.

1 Chronicles 23-26

In these chapters, King David appoints the Levites to the service of the temple once it is completed by Solomon. When he finished appointing them, he had 24,000 to oversee the work of the LORD, 6,000 as officers and judges, 4,000 as gate keepers, and 4,000 musicians to play instruments. It took 38,000 Levites to do all that the temple required for its day-to-day service year-round. I do not know of any church that needs that many volunteers to make everything happen in service to God.

But it does take many hands to provide the programs and services that Jesus would ask us to do for our community. Both inside and outside the walls of our churches are many ways we can reach the people of our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we need the hands and feet of Believers to make it happen. Yes, the pastor is the paid person in the church, but there is no way he can do it all alone, it takes volunteers too.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, states in James 1:23-25 that if you are a Believer then you will be a doer of good works and be blessed for it. He also goes on to say in chapter 2 that faith without works is dead. This means that you can be a Believer, but if you are not doing anything with that faith, then how will others know you are a Believer? It is by good works that we witness with our lives that we believe in the saving power of Jesus and we use our talents to share that with others. As James said, be doers of the word not hearers only.

1 Kings 1

God always has a plan that man tries to subvert, but that never slows Him down. In 1 Kings 1, the beginning of the end for King David has started. As his health continues to decline, his son Adonijah tries to make himself king while David is still alive. He grabs all the necessary things such as the sacrifices, the priest and the witnesses to the ceremony. The problem with this is it was going to be an illegitimate anointing, and was missing the most important components to it, King David’s appointment and to be a part of God’s plan.

God had already determined that King David will not be the one to build the House of God due to the blood that he has shed during his reign as king. God did tell him that his son would, as the next king, be a man of peace and build the House of God. We know that Adonijah could not be that son if he was willing to scheme to get the throne and was so overly ambitious that he would most likely continue to grab territory just like his father did. We know that David picked Solomon to be that king when the profit Nathan told Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, to go remind David of his prior decision and to announce it quickly to the people.

God knew what kind of king He wanted over Israel to accomplish the tasks ahead, but once again, a person thought they could change what God has set in motion. God has a plan, and the faster we realize that He has a specific task for us to do, the faster we can fall into His will and get the job done. I know this to be true in my own life, and thanks be to God that I followed His path that led directly to Grace Bible. I have seen what it looks like when a person kicks open doors of opportunity, and the outcome rarely goes well. We are called to be the followers of God, not the doorbusters.

2 Samuel 24 & Psalm 103

In 2 Samuel 24, King David has let self-reliance creep into his heart by having a censes done so he would know the strength of his army before the next campaign. Forgetting that God has delivered enemy after enemy in miraculous ways, even with small numbers in the past. Being self-reliant can be a dangerous place to be for a Christian. In the book of Revelation, we find the church of Laodicea thought themselves to be self-reliant and that made them lukewarm towards the truths in God's words and Jesus tells them the He will vomit them out of His mouth. We should always be in the position of leaning on the Almighty God for all our needs. I have found on countless occasions that when I depend on God to see me through a situation, it goes much smoother than when I rely on my own understanding.

I would like to share one such incident about a time I was working on the car's master brake cylinder. By no stretch of the imagination am I a mechanic, but I did not have the money to get this done, so I figured "How hard can this be?". An hour and a half later of trying to get the cylinder to bleed so the brakes would receive the fluid they need to work, I was at a spot of knowing that I do not know what to do next and this being our only car, I needed it badly. It was then that I stopped, and in tears, I cried out to God to let me know what to do because like I said, I did not have the money to get help. It was immediately after crying out to God that an answer came to my mind of what I would need and how it is to be done. This was not me but God that placed that thought and minutes later, I had fully working brakes.

Like David in his self-reliance, he repented of his actions and so did I. We have a God that created the universe and the physics that make it all work together perfectly, so of course He can help us by giving you the answer. The key was to humble myself and ask. And when we find ourselves relying on our own strength, we need to ask for forgiveness and become reliant on the One that made you. It is then, what David wrote in Psalm 103 rings true, God will separate you from that sin as far as the east is from the west and a right relationship will be restored.

2 Samuel 22

King David has expressed his feelings into a song about the goodness of God. It is a song of God delivering him from his enemies and keeping him as king of Israel. In the beginning it tells us that God is his rock, his fortress and his deliverer. He then goes on to state that death was approaching, and he called on God for help. Then verse 6 happens. God from His place in heaven hears David's voice. There is some truth in that verse for all Believers.

When times get hard, we can cry out to God and He will hear us every time. We do not serve a God that can only listen to a few people at a time, but a God that hears all His children all the time. Just as an earthly father recognizes their child's cry in a crowded playground, God can hear us no matter where we are. Hebrews 13:5 says that God will never leave us or forsake us. This assures us that He is always just a cry away, so you can take comfort in knowing that God is always listening for your voice. He is a Good Father, and he can recognize your voice among the billions of other voices and will be there in your time of need.

2 Samuel 19

In 2 Samuel 19 we see that despite the victory over the rebellion led by his son Absalom, King David is in heavy mourning over his son's death. Not that he can be blamed, he loved his misguided son and gave orders not to harm him. Mourning is sometimes thought as not allowed for Christians, and with good intentions other Believers try to help by quoting scripture and tell them it will be alright. But what if a Christian does not feel like it's going to be alright?

We see many times in the Bible of people that mourned over their circumstances, and there is even has a book called Lamentation which means "the passionate expression of grief or sorrow". God gave us the ability to love others, and it is because of that love we hurt so much when they are gone. But God is love, and He will make a way for the sun to shine again. I know what you are thinking, here he is with a scripture and telling me it will be alright. Nope, I going to tell you to mourn, but not to forget God in the process.

In a time of heavy mourning, it is easy to block out everything else including God. The one person that is truly bigger than any situation you can face. And when a Christian cannot seem to get a foothold on their mourning, it is ok to seek help from professionals. There are some really good Christian counselors that want to help people, like those who are mourning, see that never forgetting is ok and that there are calmer seas ahead. Yes, life will never be the way it was before, and the pain of the loss will always be a part of your memory of them, but the seas will get calmer and the waves of pain will get smaller.

In Lamentation 3, the prophet Jeremiah is in mourning for his people and expresses it by writing his soul is far from peace, he has forgotten good times, and his soul sinks inside him, but he then follows it up with verses 22 through 24: Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” As bad as the day may feel, God is there still and is protecting you from becoming consumed by the situation in your life. His is love, He is mercy, and He is faithful, and He is waiting for His children to run back into His arms. 

2 Samuel 18

The problems between King David and his son, Absalom, are coming to an end in this chapter. So, for a quick recap, Absalom was trying to win the people of Israel over to make him king over David. It came close to working too, but God intervened and Absalom was caught in a tree by his neck and some of David's men killed him there. Make no mistake, Absalom was looking for the death of his father so that there would be no challenge to the throne in the future. With that being so, David still gave instruction not to harm Absalom if his people saw him which was clearly ignored by some. 

David was demonstrating love to his son despite his son choosing to be his enemy at this time. David was showing the heart of a godly parent in this situation. David knows that Absalom wants his life, and he knows leaving Absalom alive risks him attempting this again. But at the risk of his own life, his love for his son is too great to allow harm to come to him. At the end of the chapter, David says that he would have died instead of Absalom because of his love for him. Does this sound familiar? It should, this is what Jesus Christ did for us.

Romans 5:8 states that God loved us so much, that while we were still an enemy (sinner) Jesus died for us. The physical manifestation of God took our place on the cross because He knew that this was the only way that we could become His sons and daughters. If you are a parent, think about the love you have for your child and what you would do to protect them from harm, and then magnify it by an endless number. That is the love that God has for you, and if you let Him, He will protect you. As that hymn from Anthony J. Showalter titled "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", we sing that we are safe and secure from all alarms when we are leaning on the everlasting arms of our God.

Psalm 3

King David is writing this Psalm during the time that his son Absalom is trying to take the kingdom from him by trickery and force. He starts out in verses 1 & 2 talking about the number of his enemy and they would believe that not even God can deliver David this time. But then the rest of the Psalm is David acknowledging that the numbers of the enemy is nothing in comparison to the might of God. He calls God his shield, provider of strength, supplier, source of courage, and savior in hard times. It would have been easy for David to give up hope because the numbers were growing in support for Absalom, but he did not waiver.

This is a good lesson for us to learn in our own lives. There will be hard times. Times when the enemies will be attacking us. Times when things don't make sense and the solution seems too far away. And there are even times that are so desolate, that no one would blame you is you lost hope. Even Job's wife told him to curse God and die to find relief from all that had happened to him. But for every Job situation, we can have David faith. The faith that not only saw him through his current situation, but the faith in what God can do in that as a young man he approached a giant with a sling and a stone.

For all the giants in our lives, God has our sling and stone waiting for us to face it with confidence and strength. And although the situation one day will be one that we will not see the other side of in this life, God will resolve all our troubles in the next one thanks to the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. But until then, remember that our God is the Creator of all, sustainer and provider of our needs, and our security in troubled times, and with God on our side, the giants of this life seem a lot smaller. 

2 Samuel 8 & 9

In 2 Samuel 8 & 9 we see accounts of the wars of King David with the surrounding nations. At first look, it sounds like David is the only one fighting in these battles. In 2 Samuel 8:13 it says that David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites. Surely, he did not strike down 18,000 Edomites by himself, but that he took his army with him to accomplish this victory. He may have come up with the battle plan, but it was his whole army that executed it. In 1 Chronicles 18:12 it is confirmed that it was not just David conquering those Edomites. 

This is true for ministry too. It is not just a one person show, or even a team of people doing the work for Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12 uses a body to demonstrate the need for many people to do what God has for the local church to accomplish. It states that there is one body but there are many members that make up that body. I know this firsthand from my time as a Volunteer Coordinator of a church. It did not matter how passionately the pastor and leadership wanted a ministry to start up, if there were no volunteers for it, it was dead at the planning stage. The body need the parts to do the work, and if the parts are missing then the body is not a whole. 

This is why, if God directed you to a church, He has a plan for you at that church. Something He wants you to accomplish for Him with the people there. It is usually something that He has gifted you to do like playing music, being a prayer warrior, teaching kids or adults, etc. It may be a something that takes a lot of time or just a few minutes, but it is all important to God and the people of that church. So, when you are thinking about what you get from your local church, don't forget to also ask what you can do for God's mission there too. You are special and gifted in ways that fit perfectly where you are, and when you are fulfilling your purpose at that church you will know that Jesus is saying "Well done, good and faithful servant". And there are no sweeter words that can be heard than those when you are in ministry.

2 Samuel 7

In 2 Samuel 7, King David comes to the realization that while he is living in a comfortable cedar home, God still had His home in the Tabernacle (tent). A structure that is not permanent and always in need of repairs. While a home is warm and protective, a tent can be cold, and creatures can find their way into it. For thousands of years, God's Tabernacle was this temporary tent able to be moved at a moment's notice, but still not a permanent structure among the Israelites.

Sometimes this is a good picture of how we can be with God. We want to pull Him out when we are having hard times. Times when things don't make sense or we need to make a big decision. We sometimes like Him being in a tent so that when things are going well in our life, we can move Him out of the way and take control. But God wants a permanent residence. A place in your life that is front and center. A place that when you look at life and others, you see it though His eyes. 

We find the lumber to use in the building of this permanent home for God in our lives through Bible reading, prayer, meditation on His words, fellowshipping with other Believers, and an earnest desire to want Him to be front and center to everything we do. If you still have God living in the metaphorical tent of your life, today's reading will remind you that God belongs as a permanent part of all you do.  

Psalm 96

Psalm 96 is a great Psalm to motivate a person to witness to others the good news of God. Verses 2-3 say "Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, all his marvelous works among all the peoples!" (ESV). It's true! God has been good to all the people, it's just that some do not recognize it (yet). It is our mission as Believers in Jesus Christ to help them open their eyes to God's goodness, even in the hard times. This is what's called mercy. Getting something we did not earn or deserve. We as humans have disobeyed God, rejected Him, and sometimes told Him we know better, but instead of God displaying His wrath He shows us mercy. Like Romans 5:8 says, God still showed us love even when we were still sinners and that He allowed Jesus to die for us while we were in that condition. That same act was for all that choose this gift, so we as the saved are to share it. 

Some other truths about God from Psalm 96: He is glorious, marvelous, great, creator, strong, holy, ruler, judge, and to be exalted. These are just a few of how great the Bible describes our God. We serve a great God, full of power, grace, mercy and love, and He wants the opportunity to be that for all people. He intended it from the beginning in the Garden of Eden, and He will recreate that paradise again one day for all those that accepted that free gift of salvation. If you are not sure what to say to someone to share how to become the saved, invite them to Grace Bible where they can hear it there every Sunday. God bless and enjoy the day that the LORD has made!