Can a leader be effective if there is jealousy, desire for renown, or blind ambition in a their life? In 2 Chronicles 21 and 22 the choice Jehoshaphat made to align with Ahab by marriage has an adverse effect on his sons. Did these wives taken from Israel by Jehoshaphat’s sons draw them away from God? Idolatry became the status quo for Judah just as it was for Israel. In the midst of Judah’s unfaithfulness God was not willing to destroy them because of His promise to David. Do you find encouragement inthe great faithfulness God proves continually? Continue Reading…
Tag Archive - Faithfulness
Faithfulness to God or harlotry to idols: 2 Chronicles 21 and 22
Systemic degradation of God fearing leadership: 2 Kings 15 and 16
Why are we given all of the these brief details about the different kings of Judah and Israel in 1 and 2 Kings? It sure seems a little repetitive at times. Does it truly matter that one king followed God while another did not follow God? What factors influenced a king to seek out and follow God? What influences drew some men away from following God? In 2 Kings 15 many different kings of Judah and Israel are listed. It is interesting how some men are said to have followed the example of their father by following God. Who are these men who followed God? At the beginning of chapter 15 we are told that Uzziah followed God like his father and at the end of the chapter Jotham followed God like his father. 2 Kings 15 is bookended by two kings of Judah who followed God while the kings of Israel listed all did evil in the sight of God. Continue Reading…
Rekindling the reverence, awe, and wonder of God: 2 Kings 1 and 2
How do you want to be remembered when you finally die? Who do you know that would be faithful enough to follow you wherever you go? When we seek out God in prayer do we actually expect God to listen and respond to our request? Is there a relation between Baal-zebub in 2 Kings and Beelzebul in Matthew? These are the questions that I asked as I read about two moments in Elijah’s life related in 2 Kings 1 and 2. The first moment we see is Elijah telling Ahaziah that he would die for honoring pagan gods above the one true God and the second moment Elisha replaces Elijah as prophet. Continue Reading…
David was to Mephibosheth as Jesus is to me: 2 Samuel 9 and 10
What quality of life and hope for the future was there for a cripple during the time of David’s rule of Israel? After the death of Saul everything happening within Israel was chaotic and in 2 Samuel 4:4 the story of Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth’s flight from danger is given with one simple verse. In all the urgency to flee after the death of Jonathan and Saul he was dropped by his nurse and became crippled in his feet at the age of five. Continue Reading…
Waiting for deliverance from God refines character: 1 Samuel 23 and 24
How often do you want to take revenge into your own hands because of the wrongs that you have faced? Do you ever feel that when you seek to do what is true and good you only find yourself in moretrials, tribulation, and problems? Does life teeter on a scale of equality and fairness that always need to be balanced out if situations do not seem fair? In 1 Samuel 23 and 24 David seeks to honor God in his choices and actions as he faces problems by seeking out what God would want him to do even if it was contrary to the natural inclination of men. Continue Reading…
Faithfulness in the midst of uncertainty: Ruth Summary
God has always been working and He will continue to be at work in the joyful moments of life, through the death of loved ones, and when you face a moments of uncertainty. The tale of Ruth happens during the turbulent time when judges ruled over Israel for two hundred years. In the midst of all the disobedience and unfaithfulness that was seen in Judges we have the story of Naomi and Ruth, a mother and a dauther-in-law, who lost everything they had in a foreign land only to find peace, hope, and redemption upon returning to Bethlehem. Continue Reading…
Faithfulness and obedience, the making of a King: Ruth 3 and 4
God’s faithfulness that was expressed to Ruth and Naomi in their journey from Moab to Bethlehem continues in Ruth chapters 3 and 4. With the disobedience that was continually seen in Judges so fresh in my mind I am encouraged to see that there were people still following God in the midst of the turbulent time of the judges. I am challenged to stand firm in my faith no matter what circumstances I find myself in even when there are ways that would seem to give me an easy way out of difficulty. I will never know if God will use my faithfulness today to bring great deliverance to future generations. Continue Reading…
First fruit offerings of love to God: Deuteronomy 25 and 26
This day the Lod your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.
Deuteronomy 26:16-19 NASB
Keys to effective and powerful leadership glimpsed: Numbers 27 and 28
How would you view the end of your life? When I die what will my thoughts be like? Moses’ life is coming to an end in Numbers 27 and God tells him to walk up a mountain to see the promised land and then he would be gathered to his people. Why do both Moses and Aaron climb a mountain to die? I suppose for Moses it was to gain a view of the promised land before his death. When I learn that death is close at hand how will I act? I yet to face the reality of my own death and I feel like my whole life is still before me with an unlimited number of things to accomplish. Moses had a full life of learning to depend upon God as the people of Israel were brought out of captivity in Egypt. Moses’ main concern was for the well-being of the people when he asks God to “appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” Continue Reading…
God’s faithfulness in Jubilee and hardship: Leviticus 25 and 26
The times seem so different now compared to the culture of the Israelites described in Leviticus 25 and 26. I am thankful for living in a modern society with all the amenities that I have grown accustom to but what is the cost to our relationship with God and our relationship with each other? In the agricultural of Leviticus did they feel the business of life I feel today? Can we live in dependance upon God in a truer way?
