by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
I Kings 16-18
The kings of Israel get worse and worse, until we come to the abominable Ahab, who marries Jezebel, daughter of the Sidonian king. She slaughters all of God’s prophets and has Ahab build altars to Baal throughout the land.
Thankfully, the Lord raises up a prophet in the land – and not just any prophet. Elijah is one of the greatest prophets of all times. He knows his God and he believes Him.
Elijah speaks the Word of the Lord and calls for a drought on the land – and it happens. Of course, without rain, the brooks dry up and the crops can’t survive. Thus there is famine.
In the midst of the famine, however, God protects Elijah and miraculously saves the widow who helps the prophet.
After three years of drought, it’s time for a showdown, and Elijah meets 450 prophets of Baal up on Mt. Carmel. As they prepare their sacrifices, the true God is to answer by fire and consume His sacrifice. The 450 priests of Baal jump around, cut themselves, and yell loudly, but nothing happens. Then Elijah ups the ante by pouring water all over his wood.
It must have been a dramatic moment when all of the people see fire come from heaven and burn up Elijah’s sacrifice – even licking up the water he had poured. What a display of God’s might. The people turn back to God … and the rains come.
It seems sometimes that our world is in the place of Israel. The prevailing voices in the land seem to say that there is another god besides the true One. These voices want to proclaim their own laws and reasonings which go against God’s wisdom.
Yet there is only One true God and He is the One we should heed.
My prayer is that in the days to come, He will show Himself strong to our society. I pray that there will be a mighty breath of His Spirit across our land, causing hearts to turn back to Him – to realize that He is the One and the only One.
Luke 22:47-71
Do you sometimes wonder how Judas could have betrayed Jesus? I do.
To think that he walked with Jesus, listening to the teaching and seeing the miracles. He partook of His love, just like the others. Yet he betrayed the Lord and led the chief priests and temple officers to Him by night, so that they could take Him away for crucifixion.
It’s reminiscent of Lucifer, the beautiful archangel who rebelled against God and turned into Satan. Even in the midst of heaven itself, there was betrayal. Judas seems to have fallen into the same vein.
In contrast, we see Peter. He too falls away – out of fear. Yet when he hears the cock crow, just as Jesus said it would, he goes away and weeps bitterly. He can’t believe that he has denied his Savior.
Judas will not recover from his betrayal, but Peter will from his denial. Peter is repentant, and later will become one of the Lord’s strongest apostles.
It’s all about the heart. It’s always about the heart.
Peter denied Jesus because of a weak moment during his time of temptation, but his heart wanted to stick with the Lord. Judas, out of a cold heart, betrayed Jesus because he wanted some money. He was cold, calculating, and deceitful – as he kissed Jesus on the cheek.
There was no hope for Judas.
As the many voices of our generation try to deny our Lord and his Word, we should stay girded up. We want to continue as a strong voice of redemption in the land. There are many who have been sidetracked by false doctrines and phony “believers.” They need to hear our voices of the pure gospel.
I want to be one of those voices, and I know that you do also.
Forever upward!
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
I Kings 14-15
There seems like there is no hope for Israel and Judah.
It’s been about 450 years since Joshua led these people into the Promised Land. They have been taught to remember the covenant and all of the miracles which God had performed on their behalf. He had delivered them from Pharoah with many signs and wonders, and had led them into this land. They had an unprecedented history with their Creator.
Of course, they didn’t have the Bible as we know it, but they did have the Law of Moses and all of the traditions handed down by the priests. The kings had been taught about the God of Israel and the importance of remaining faithful.
Yet what a mess! The kings are going after every heathen god imaginable, and observing their practices. All of this is an abomination.
In 14: 25-27 there seems to be a prophetic statement when the king of Egypt comes and steals all of the treasures out of the house of the Lord. These treasures were all of the gold implements put there by Solomon. There were shields, cups, vases, and many more works of pure gold. Rehoboam replaces the shields with bronze.
It seems that this is symbolic for the true worship of God being replaced with artificial. No longer real, but phony – a substitute for the real.
Unfortunately, there will never be another good king in Israel, which consists of the majority of the great covenant-people of God.
However, God keeps his covenant with the one remaining tribe. He still will lead Judah, because He had promised David that He would watch over his throne.
Then, too, the Lord needs to have a people who will be faithful so that they can eventually bring the Savior on the scene for us.
It’s hit or miss on Judah’s kings, but there is a hit on Asa. He removes the cult prostitutes, and he even removes his mother from being the queen mother, because she is worshipping Asherah.
As we are moving through this history of Israel, it’s a good idea to relate the incidents to modern times. A secular culture is always trying to penetrate the church and its teachings, and hearts are always being swayed.
We can learn some lessons, if we pay attention.
Luke 22:21-46
The hardest moment of Jesus’ life is about to come. For the first time in all of eternity, He is to be separated for His Father.
As He prays in the garden, sweat drops of blood fall to the ground. The stress is tremendous.
Several years ago, the Lord awoke me in the middle of the night and had me go into my den. He began to teach me from these passages, as He took me to every account of this Gethsemane experience, and He showed me what was happening.
While in the garden, Jesus knew that He was going to pull off the most extreme measure in the history of the world. He was going to be separated from His Father, as He died and paid the price for our sins. He was going into hell for three days, and then, after paying the full price to the devil, the Holy Spirit would come into Him and lift Him up from the dead for the greatest feat known to man.
The only assurance that this feat would work was Jesus’ faith in God’s plan.
You and I might be striving to enter the rest of faith as we undertake our challenges, but we’ve never faced anything like this. Think about what Jesus was going through.
He is a forerunner for us. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not by any means saying that what we do is as significant as what He did. I am just saying that there is a pattern here.
There are times when we know that God’s best is not being performed yet in our lives. As we pray and meditate on the Word, there are times when we know that our faith needs to improve. We just aren’t really believing what we have read yet. We are saying, “Lord, help my unbelief.”
As we follow the leading of Jesus and continue to pray, we will come through to a bright moment when we will know deep down within ourselves that we have what we are believing for. We won’t see it with our eyes, but we will know that we will be seeing it.
Our faith has become a reality.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
I Kings 12-13
So the kingdom is split. Sad, sad, sad. To think that just a generation ago Israel was the greatest nation of all time so that people would come from afar to see the wealth and wisdom. Now look at it.
Solomon’s sin causes God’s favor to wane and Jeroboam rises up to take most of the nation to himself.
Now we have two nations. Judah and Israel. Judah remains with Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, and Israel is ruled by Jeroboam.
If the division isn’t enough, Jeroboam wants his people to have a place to worship, so he has two golden calves installed in his territory. The inhabitants are encouraged to worship the calves instead of Jehovah God.
The fires of revival have to be tended. That is true today as well as in these Biblical times. When one generation gets lukewarm, the next generation could be totally cold. That’s what seems to be happening in Israel and that is what is threatening to happen in our world today.
I pray that the bellows of the Holy Spirit will blow on the coals of awakening in our land. We need a fresh fire from God – to wake us up to the truths of His Word.
Blow, Holy Spirit, blow!
Luke 22: 1-20
Jesus and His disciples partake of the “covenant meal” before His crucifixion.
He is introducing a new concept to them; He is introducing a new covenant. These Jews have known for many centuries that they were in covenant with God through their father, Abraham. God and Abraham made a covenant, and all of Abraham’s descendants would be blessed if they would keep their part of the covenant. (The laws and principles laid down by God through the Law of Moses).
This is different. I wonder what’s going on in the minds of these disciples as they drink the wine and take the bread with Jesus. This is a new covenant.
Jesus is saying that when we eat the bread and drink of the wine (or grape juice), we are ceremoniously agreeing to the covenant He is making.
See, the covenant Jesus is making is not like the one that Abraham made. Abraham made a covenant that required bulls and goats to be sacrificed every year for remission of sins. Once was not enough. During those years, our Father was pointing to the day when He would make His own sacrifice for our sins.
That day is here, as Jesus lifts His cup and drinks with His disciples. I’m sure that it’s difficult for the disciples to understand this new concept.
Jesus is going to the cross to make a final sacrifice for all time. The final sacrifice for our sins. He is God’s lamb, and all of the animals which were slain over the centuries were pointing to this one moment – the final sacrifice.
The revelation of what is happening cannot come through someone’s mind. You can hear about it and talk about it, but only someone who has received the new birth can actually begin to understand. It’s understood only by the Spirit of God.
I pray that my spiritual eyes, and yours, will be opened more and more so that we can come to know Him better. The tremendous gift given to us through Jesus is more than a human mind can comprehend. Only God can show us glimpses of what He has for us.
I pray that you and I will be some of those who truly walk with Him and comprehend all that He wants to share with us. It’s amazing.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Deuteronomy 11-13
“For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden….But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.” (Deut. 11:10-12)
That’s your life now, as a Christian. Before you came to the Lord all you had was striving and striving in your own strength, but now, you know that God’s eyes are upon your life and your Promised Land. He is watching over you in all that you do.
Sometimes it may not seem like it, but it is true. What you and I have to do is reach out for that promise, just like the woman with the issue of blood or blind Bartimaeus did with Jesus. They reached out and received what He had, when others just watched Him walk by. Now it’s our turn. We too can reach out and receive this promise from our Father. (more…)
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Leviticus 17, 18
The life is in the blood. That’s the concept to which we are introduced in chapter 17. I don’t think anyone ever reaches the full understanding of just how significant this is. I say that because we can approach an understanding, but then we sense that there is more to it.
Our entire covenant with Jesus rests on the life that was in His blood. That life was pure, sinless, and Holy – coming from the Holy Spirit of God. His blood was pure because He was truly God’s Son.
That pure, Holy blood was poured out at the cross for us. The perfect Lamb.
When the laws were written, the people had no understanding about what would eventually come. They were just taking whatever God said at face value. Many times, they may have wondered why this or that was so necessary.
When you think about it, we get more enlightenment from these laws than these early recipients. We get to see them through the prism of our new covenant. (more…)
