Tag Archive: Human Condition


Peekaboo

Filed under: Articles, Breaking the fourth, Daily Devotional Thoughts, Love, Religion / Religious — Leave a comment
July 3, 2021

Whenever we go before God we should go with expectation. Each day when I read the Bible I expect God to show me something because I pray and ask Him to do so. I will ask Him to give me a word that I might learn and share it with others. I ask that I will love Him more and love people more. There are some times after I have listened and read the reading for the day that I have only a few words. Tidbits of information that I’ve gleaned. It’s important to me that I “get something” out of my daily reading because then I believe that I am growing in the Lord.

After today’s reading, I didn’t feel like I had gotten much that I could impart. In reading about King Menahem and the atrocities that he committed (2 Kings 15:16), I realized that we read of evil in the Bible to help us understand that, despite all the evil that we do, God loves us. I thought upon people I’ve known who have pointed out horrible things in the Bible and blamed them on God, perishing for a lack of understanding. I wondered about the reigns of the “evil” kings we read of and what’s in “the book of the annals of the kings of Israel” that would tell us more? These and those for Judah are books that are lost to us today. If those writings were ever uncovered would we read them? Would they matter?

As I read about King Ahaz, of Judah, I marveled that this man, who sacrificed his children (2 Kings 16:3, 2 Chronicles 28:3), was the same man who the prophet, Isaiah, prophesied to about the birth of Immanuel, that is Jesus, born to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14-16). Our focus is so often on the things that are happening now or those things that we are worried about, like Ahaz, concerned about being attacked by Rezin and Aram (Isaiah 7:4-11), that we forget the big picture that is the plan of God.

I read about Hosea, who God told to marry a promiscuous woman, and the faith required to do such a thing (Hosea 1:2). I chuckled at the name of Hosea’s wife, Gomer, because I always think of Gomer Pyle from The Andy Griffith Show. I thought of Hosea’s children and their names. “Lo-Ruhamah” and “Lo-Ammi” mean, “not loved” and “not my people”, respectively (Hosea 1:9-10). Can you imagine? Those names were chosen by God as a message to the peoples of Israel and Judah. They would be both a reminder to them, of their sin and how they failed God, but also a reminder of God’s covenant. “The Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God'” (Hosea 1:10 NIV).

From King Menahem, Ahaz, and all of the evil kings of the Bible to Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi, God shows us that there are always two sides to every story. The human side, filled with all the joy and pain of humanity, and then God’s side, brimming with love, hope, and eternal promise.

Do you know God? God knows you and He loves you. He sees you as significant because you are. Nothing is insignificant to Him. He’s with you today, right now, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus died for your sins and mine so that we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him. Eternal salvation is just a prayer away.

Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.

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Snake Eyes

Filed under: Articles, Breaking the fourth, Daily Devotional Thoughts, Love, Realization, Religion / Religious — 1 Comment
June 17, 2021

Scripture

1 Kings 22:34 (NIV)

But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”

Observation

There is no such thing as luck. There is no force, outside of the will of God that directs things to happen, for good or ill. The word, “luck,” though, has seeped into our vocabulary. What is luck, though? How do we define it?

Merriam-Webster defines luck as

1 a: a force that brings good fortune or adversity.
b: the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual.
2: favoring chance.

Just as there’s no such thing as luck, there’s no coincidence, happenstance, or anything else that happens that doesn’t happen outside the will of God. When we, as Believers, think that an event is by chance then we are denying the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God. In this passage of 1 Kings, we see a disguised King Ahab hit by a “random” arrow. Let’s back up a moment though and look at the two types of will that belong to God.

There is an active will of God that involves God causing something to happen. In King Ahab’s case, the nation of Israel and Aram had been at peace for three years. A spirit from God goes to the prophets of Ahab to incite Ahab to attack Aram (1 Kings 22:19-23). This is to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken against the house of Ahab by the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 21:17-24). Thus, God causes Ahab to be in the position to be struck by the arrow that “randomly” kills him.

There is the passive will of God that allows things to happen. This can appear to happen by chance, such as the passage here where King Ahab is hit by a “random” arrow.

When someone comes to mind that you haven’t thought of in a long time, ask God why. When you just happen to “bump” into someone thousands of miles from home, there is a reason. Ask God. When our minds become trained to recognize God’s hand in all things then we can be better stewards of all that He brings into our lives.

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He Said, She Said

Filed under: Articles, Breaking the fourth, Daily Devotional Thoughts, Love, Religion / Religious — Leave a comment
June 12, 2021

Scripture

1 Kings 13:16-22,24 (NIV)

16 The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. 17 I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ ”

18 The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (But he was lying to him.) 19 So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. 22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’ ”

24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it

Observation

We’re never so close to God that we cannot be deceived if we allow it. Whether you have been a Believer for one day or fifty years, a preacher, teacher, or as we see here, a prophet you have to be careful about what you believe and how you receive a “word from the Lord.” We know that God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Here we see a prophet of God deceived by a false prophet.

As Believers, we need to be on guard against any manner of false teaching that sets itself up against God (2 Corinthians 10:5). It’s important to know the character of God. When we know His character then we can see the difference between false teaching and a word from God. We know that God doesn’t contradict Himself and He doesn’t change His mind (Numbers 23:19). Therefore, anything that is contrary to the word of God is not from God. We know that God will not tell you to sin. Furthermore, we know that there are not going to be any new revelations (Calvin, Revelation 22:18-19) . Many people incorrectly use the word, “revelation” when they see something new to them in Scripture. The Holy Spirit can reveal things previously unknown to you but this is illumination for you, not a revelation. 

We need to be mindful of how the word of God is used. Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and we know that Jesus was tempted by Satan using the word of God in an attempt to deceive Him (Luke 4:10-13). Therefore, we need to be discerning in how we receive the word of God. If you have a smartphone then you have access to a Bible. If you are reading this then you have access to the Bible. You need to:

  1. Read the Bible regularly. 
  2. Check the Bible. 
  3. Cherish it.  

When we read our Bibles regularly we become more attuned with the character of God. When we know God better we will know ourselves and we will have discernment that allows us to travel through life making good decisions.

As human beings, we are prone to making mistakes. That preacher or teacher of the Word is just like you. If there’s a reference to Scripture then check the reference for yourself (Acts 17:11). 

The Bible is the inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). These are words of life that instruct us in how to live our lives. Nothing has ever been written that is more important than this so cherish it. By keeping the word of God close to our hearts it will permeate our very being and change who we are. 

There’s one last course of action that I believe the man of God could have taken instead of going with the false prophet. He could have prayed and asked God about the situation. This is something that anyone can do. God isn’t far away. He’s near to every one of us. 

Would you like to be saved from the fear of death? Knowing that when you die you will be in an eternity filled with love, joy, and peace where there is no longer pain and suffering? Would you like to walk free of guilt today? To have your sins forgiven by the grace of God and to know true peace, here and now?

Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.

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Them

Filed under: Articles, Daily Devotional Thoughts, Love, Religion / Religious, Urbanism — Leave a comment
June 5, 2021

Scripture

Ephesians 2:3

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath (NIV).

Observation

Sometimes I think it’s easy to sit in the church amongst other Christians and look down on the world. We shake our heads, look to the heavens and lament wicked ways and say, “The people of today.” We thank God that we aren’t like them. We believe that the world is getting worse. Are the sins of the world greater now than when we walked around in it sinning? Do we have eyes that see, now? That see the sin since we are saved? Do we? Or are we that Pharisee who prays “‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector'” (Luke 18:11 NIV)? Or are we more like Jesus’ disciples who saw the blind man and asked, “‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'” (John 9:1 NIV) We know “’It was not because of his sins or his parent’s sins,’” (John 9:3 NLT) that the man was born blind. He had been born blind “‘so the power of God could be seen in him'” (John 9:3 NLT).

When our eyes are focused on sin then they aren’t focused on God. We need to stop looking at the sins of the world and start looking at the world with love. The state of sin in the world is no different today than it was thousands of years ago. Paul wrote in Romans 1:30, “they invent ways of doing evil.” Does that sound like the world today? The Psalmist writes:

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:1-3 NIV).

Let’s face facts. The world is going to continue “eating and drinking, [and] marrying” (Matthew 28:38 NIV) until it is no more. Jesus tells us, “‘whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father'” (John 14:12-14 NIV). What are “these” that Jesus is referring to? “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor [in spirit]” (Matthew 11:5 NIV). If Jesus said that this is what we would do then we can do it. We can’t do it though, with eyes that see sin. We need to change our perspective.

The only hope we have of changing our perspective and seeing the world with love is to ask God to change our hearts. We need to see with an eternal perspective. We need to repent for seeing people as vessels of sin and see them as our family. It doesn’t matter if they are a Christian or not. Jesus Christ died for all of us. They are the prodigal son, the prodigal daughter, you and me. We are all the same. We are all children of God.

Do you know God? He loves you, and He wants you to know Him. He already knows you and He would rather die than not have you in His family. Jesus died for your sins and mine so that we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him.

Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.

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