Read the Bible in a Year (01MAY19)

1 CHRONICLES MOMENT – (01MAY19) There was a man from the clan of Judah who lived upright in the sight of God. He had other brothers who were a part of his family, but God considered him as being more righteous than they were. During biblical times, a man was known to live out the name that he had been given. So, due to the fact that his mother named him “Jabez” which meant “she bore him in pain,” he would have had a lifetime of grief and misery. Nevertheless, Jabez did not want to live up to his name. He knew that this name would forever brand him. Yet, there was Someone who could cancel the contract attached to his name. He called out to the One who could change his circumstances.

“Oh Lord, if only You would bless me. Please increase my territory; place Your hand of protection over me and keep me from harm.” Jabez prayed this sincere prayer to God and his request was granted. He was a normal man with an unusual request due to being named something that he had no control over. Yet, he had faith in God that despite what his family called him, God had the final say.

Have you been named, marked or branded by anyone? Have you had generational curses that have continued down your family for centuries?  Have you been the victim of abuse, rather physical and/or emotional, which distorted your view of yourself? Know this…God knew you before you were ever born, and He is the One who knitted you together in your mother’s womb. He did not base His love for you on what others think or say. He determined that He loved you from the beginning of time before you were ever born. Do not allow the negativity of others to determine who you are in Christ. Jabez did not want to live up to his name and God, in so many words, changed His name and declared that He was a Child of the King. God blessed him despite the name that his mother had given to him at birth due to her own pain. God will do the same for you. Your past does not have to represent your future, and your future does not have to relive the past. God knows you by name and the name that He has given you is…Child of the Most High God. Something to ponder…

QUESTION OF THE DAY – (01MAY19) In 1 Chronicles, we see how God fulfilled His promise to Abraham when He told him that he would be the father of many nations. God never stopped fulfilling that promise to Abraham long after he had died. Has God made a promise to you? Are you still waiting for it to be fulfilled? God is not a God that will forget, nor does He lie. God continued to be faithful to Abraham as well as David by leaving a descendant of his on the throne. The only thing is that when we are disobedient to God, we can forfeit or delay our blessings. Yet, God is a God who is faithful to all who are faithful to Him. His Word remains true forever. Do you believe in Him? Do you trust that all that God has spoken over you will come to pass? Don’t forfeit your blessings due to disobedience. Trust in God and He will never let you down. Something to ponder…

 

1 CHRONICLES MOMENT – (01MAY19) Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob’s children. Unfortunately, he did not honor his father and slept with one of his father’s concubines, Bilhah, who had borne Jacob children. Reuben thought that he was entitled and felt that since he was the firstborn son, he could collect on some of his inheritance early, but this was not the case. Reuben disrespected his father and later, when God gave ordinances as to how the Israelites were to live, He included that sons were not to sleep with their father’s wives. Therefore, Reuben’s birthright as the firstborn was taken away from him and given to Joseph and his sons.

Sometimes we can mess up our blessings by doing something evil. When God give us a blessing, we are to be grateful for what He has done. We are not to take it for granted that He has given us favor. Yet, there is another lesson that can be learned in this story that may be missed. Joseph had gone through a lot of hardship and his brothers had done him wrong, but God had not forgotten his troubles. God blessed Joseph to get more than he had lost, which included the birthright for him and his sons.

You may have gone through many challenges in life, but God has not forgotten you. He allows us to go through things to bring us to the place that He would have us. If it had not been for Joseph being mistreated by his brothers, Joseph would have never been in position to govern Egypt and to help them as well as his family through the famine. Your challenges are not wasted time, but they are there to prune you into the usable vessel that God would have you to be. Something to ponder…

Read the Bible in a Year (30APR19)

1 CHRONICLES MOMENT – (30APR19) 1 Chronicles helps to fill in the missing events that were not included in the books of Samuel and Kings. It starts out with giving the genealogy from Adam to Noah and then from Noah to Abraham, which also includes the kings of Edom. God destroyed the world during the time of Noah because the earth was full of wickedness introduced by the fallen ones (angels) who slept with human women resulting in the Nephilim being born, and man’s total disregard for God (Genesis 6:1-8).  Therefore, God destroyed the earth by water with the exception of Noah, his wife and three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with their wives, and some of the animals, and other living creatures that God allowed onboard the ark. Despite God having cleansed the earth, man still had wickedness in his heart and later, was made evident through their outright defiance as Nimrod, the son of Cush, who was a descendant of Ham – a mighty warrior who is often accredited to being the architect and mastermind behind the building of the Tower of Babel. 1 Chronicles 1:10 takes a break in its genealogy list to specifically mention Nimrod. Why is this? There must be some importance to him being highlighted in this text and it may actually be due to his possible involvement in the Tower of Babel’s rebellion. The Bible does not actually name him as such, but Christian scholars have based this on research that was done archeologically to make this connection. Regardless of if Nimrod or some other unknown person was the constructor, man has always found the need to rebel against God.

Even so, we can see God’s grace and mercy all throughout history. Despite Him destroying the earth, God gave man a second chance to get things right and yet, we have failed miserably. We can easily have hindsight in pointing out the mistakes of generations past, but we seem to never learn from them as the human race. We tend to think that we know more than God as if we are responsible for our own creation. Yet, God could have ended the world a long time ago and did not have to allow the generations to continue, but He loves us so much that He has allowed the world to remain, so that we may have a chance at salvation. Nevertheless, probation is coming to a close. God has been patient with man, but one day, all that we know will cease to be. God will make new heavens and a new earth. “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17). What a glorious day that will be when Jesus returns to take His children home. All that we have gone through on earth will be a thing of the past – never to be repeated or relived again. Something to ponder…

QUESTION OF THE DAY – (30APR19) 1 Chronicles 2 lists the sons of Israel which were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. This chapter goes into their genealogies, but it takes a moment to mention Judah’s firstborn son being wicked resulting in him receiving the punishment of death from the Lord. Why is this important? Judah’s firstborn son died without leaving his wife, Tamar, any children. Consequently, this caused a chain of events after his death. His brother did not fulfill his duty in reproducing with Tamar to carry on his brother’s name. Therefore, God killed him as well. Judah failed to give Tamar his youngest son to reproduce with for fear that he too would die. This caused her to take measures into her own hands by disguising herself as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah where she was finally able to have children – twin boys (Genesis 38).

The author shows by making mention of Judah’s son being wicked that God wants us to be obedient to His commands. Yet, we also see His mercy and grace in our lives because God does not destroy us as quickly as He did in Old Testament times. He patiently waits for us to turn from our wicked ways and accept Him into our hearts. We must all ask ourselves the question, “If God were to come to our names today, would He be able to say, ‘Well done thou good and faithful servant,’ or would He say, ‘Depart from me you worker of iniquity into the fires of eternal hell and damnation?’ ” What would He say to you? Something to ponder…

1 CHRONICLES MOMENT – (30APR19) 1 Chronicles 2:7 takes a moment out of is genealogy list to mention Achar (Achan) who brought trouble on Israel by taking things that were forbidden. God had given Joshua instructions concerning His plans to give them the victory over Jericho. These instructions included His warning of punishment for anyone who would take things for themselves from there because everything was to be destroyed with the exception of the silver, gold, bronze and iron which were to go into the Lord’s treasury (Joshua 6:18-19). Achan, from the tribe of Judah, disobeyed God and caused Israel to be under God’s judgment.

Israel suffered a military defeat at the hands of their enemies and Joshua did not understand the reason (Joshua 7). He went before the Lord to get an answer and the Lord told him that Israel, speaking of Achan, had defied him by taking forbidden things and placing them with his own possessions. Israel was told to consecrate themselves in preparation for what the Lord was about to do because Israel was not going to be able to defeat their enemies until the sin was out of their camp. They found out that Achan was guilty of taking a robe that had come from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold, all of which were hidden in his tent. Israel stoned Achan and his family as well as burned everything that he owned including his cattle, donkeys, sheep and stolen items. They were then able to successfully defeat their enemies.

We find time and time again that the Lord requires for us to be obedient before Him. He wants us to honor Him in all that we do and say. God may not have us being stoned and burned today, but He in no less wants His children to act out of love in obedience to Him. One day, all who have rejected Him will burn for their sins, but we have a work to do in helping to spread the Gospel to the lost, and ensuring that we do not be like Achan in having no regard for God’s commands. We must not set the wrong example before others – ultimately, causing their destruction as well. Something to ponder…

Read the Bible in a Year (29APR19)

2 KINGS MOMENT – (29APR19) King Josiah did what was right before God. When he heard the Law of Moses read to him, he immediately went into action. He had all the people to gather at the Lord’s temple so that he would read the Covenant to them. He destroyed all the detestable altars, place of worship, idols, male prostitution shrines, altars made to Molech for child sacrifice, and even killed the priests who served as idol worshipers. Josiah did a total cleansing of the Land, so that it could be returned to God. Unfortunately, Judah’s sin had gone too far with what they did with Manasseh, and God had determined that He was going cast Judah away from His presence. Yet, he honored what Josiah had done and considered him as being faithful to him more than his predecessors and successors.

We see once again that in order to rid the land of sin, it is not good enough to do a partial cleansing, but a total cleansing is needed across the land. Many Christians are celebrating the fact the states are implementing the Heartbeat Bill when it comes to abortion. Do they seriously think that God is pleased with this? Life does NOT begin when the heart starts to pump. Life begins at the moment of conception because God is weaving that baby into His image even before the heart takes shape. When we settle for serving and obeying God halfway, we anger God in the process. He wants us to serve and obey Him completely. This is why Jesus told the Laodiceans that if they were lukewarm, He was going to spew them out of His mouth. Lukewarm represents being halfway in Christ – not wanting to fully commit to being cold, nor being hot. If we cannot commit to living for God 100%, then we are doing Him no favor by throwing Him out a few crumbs every now and then. Something to ponder…

QUESTION OF THE DAY – (29APR19) Nebuchadnezzar took hold of Jerusalem and took everything from inside the temple. All of the temple’s artifacts where now in possession of Babylon. The people were no longer free to live as they chose with the exception of the very poor whom he left in Judah. They had to pay a high price for their disobedience and the temple could not save them because they were not loyal to the One whose Name was on it. Why is it that we often have to learn the hard way when it comes to obedience? Why are we as humans determined to do things our own way instead of following God’s way? The enemy tends to make his way more enticing than serving God. Unfortunately, when we fail to follow God’s way, we will always get the short end of the stick when it comes to the enemy’s deceptive tactics. It is best to trust God completely and be obedient to His will rather than living our own way and following our fleshly desires. Something to ponder…

 

2 KINGS MOMENT – (29APR19) God allowed Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to overtake Judah and all that was within the city walls. Babylon was a foreign nation who worshiped foreign gods, and yet, they are given access to Judah by the Lord himself. Many may ask the question as to how God could let a nation more wicked than Israel and Judah overtake them as a nation. The answer is that God expect more from those He blesses and makes covenants with. Israel was to be a beacon of light to the rest of the world and show them by example the greatness and goodness of God. Yet, they fell into doing the same things that their heathen neighbors did which did not set them apart from the rest. Similarly, we are living the same way.

We are to be lighthouses for Christ so that the lost world can see Him through us. It is important that we remain separate and yet be close enough to witness about His salvation. Time is of the essence and is quickly running out. There is no return for the nation of America, because she will fulfill Bible prophecy, but there is still hope for lost souls to receive salvation. Something to ponder…