Heeding the Voice of God

He did not take seriously the words of Necho which he had received from God. (2 Chronicles 35:22)

I was really struck by this passage of scripture this morning. Josiah was a remarkable king. He was a man who followed hard after God and desired righteousness. When he heard the Law of God, he was cut to the heart and followed God's law to the very letter.

No king before or after repented before the LORD as he did, with his whole heart, soul, and being in accordance with the whole law of Moses. (2 Kings 23:25)

And yet in the end, he died ingloriously in a battle that he should not have fought. While he obeyed the Law of God, he did not heed God's voice.

Gripped By Eternity

It is a beautiful spring day with beautiful clear skies, a light breeze, and just a hint of the cool of night still lingering in the morning air. You hear a knock at the door and go to answer it. You find a nicely dressed young man with a warm smile who speaks with utmost calm: "Hi, my name is Jason Jones. Do you have time to talk?"

You've never met the young man, but he seems pleasant enough. You invite him inside, offer him refreshments, and settle into a nice conversation about current events and the weather. He slowly warms up to his intended topic and calmly and casually says: "There is a tsunami coming to our city this morning. It is already on its way. A group of us are forming a group to talk about it and what we should do."

You stare at the young man in disbelief as he quietly sips his coffee, the warm smile still present on his features. There is no fear and no urgency in his voice.

Financial Faith - The Nature of God

For part one of this series, I encourage you to read Financial Peace - The Foundation

In reviewing my introduction to this series, I realized that I have gotten ahead of myself. Before continuing on in the lessons of living the truth of Financial Faith, it is vital that we lay a deeper foundation. We need to remember fundamentally who God is and why it is that we can trust Him. Unless you have a proper view of the reality of God, you will never be able to have the implicit trust necessary to live a life of faith in His providing hand.

And so we will go back to the beginning. Who is God? The best description comes from the mouth of God Himself:

Moses said to God, "If I go to the Israelites and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' — what should I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM that I AM." And he said, "You must say this to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
(Exodus 3:13-14 NET)

Getting into the Scriptures

Now is the time when you are exhorted and encouraged to set forth your New Year's resolutions. Doubtless many of you have in years past made the decision to read through the whole Bible in a year. "This year will be the year!" you declare. Inevitably, it seems, within a month or two, you are already hopelessly behind and frustrated at your failure.

I believe one of the key reasons why so many fail is because we are setting the wrong goal. Our goal is not to read the whole Bible. Our goal is to deepen our relationship with God by reading the scriptures.

Perfect Love and Fear

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love. (1 John 4:18 NET)

This verse is often quoted to refute the need of the fear of God. It is asserted that since perfect love drives out fear, we need to get rid of the fear of God so that we can have perfect love. But this is completely misunderstanding the point of this passage and reverses the order of what is actually happening. We are told that we do not need to fear God because our love has been perfected, but our love can only be perfected by a fear of God. This is a process, and the perfecting of our love must come first before we can have complete confidence before God.

Think About It: Miracles

This is the first of what might turn out to be a series of questions or statements intended for contemplation.  The statement may or may not be correct, but it might challenge your beliefs a bit.

Think about this statement:

Don't call it a miracle: that would give God too much credit.

What do you think?  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?  

Approaching God

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:16 KJV)

When we hear the word "boldly" in America, we think of striding in without fear or concern.  The definition of "boldly" is "fearless or daring" or even "brazen or impudent".  But that is not what the writer of Hebrews intended.  More modern translations use the word "confidently", but even here our American culture gets in the way.  You see, we like our rugged individualism.  We like to assert our own personality and will.  We call it freedom, but it is really just the sin of pride.