by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II Kings 15-16
I don’t know about you, but I had to write down two columns with lists of names to keep up with the kings of Israel and Judah and their transitions. There were so many.
One thing, though, is clear. There were no good kings of Israel. Over and over, it’s certain that the kings “did evil in the sight of God.” It’s also clear that eventually the culture created by Israel and its rebellion caused the king of Judah to turn also.
And what caused them to be evil kings? Instead of remembering their history with God and heeding to the age-old traditions of His Word, they were influenced by the culture around them. They gave heed to the heathenish cultures and turned from the true God.
As we are reading this, I hope that all of us stop and think about what is happening in our world today. People are doing the same thing. They are allowing all of the humanistic and heathenish ideas to infiltrate the church and the lives of Christians. The standards are being lowered at an overwhelming rate.
There is a haughtiness which goes with this rebellion. People who are turning from God and who are holding to the societal whims consider themselves to be more sophisticated than those who are holding steadfast.
I’m sure that this was true in the days of these evil kings. Human nature has remained the same – even though traditions my change. So I’m sure that these kings who did evil just thought they were smarter than those who didn’t.
Another thing is also certain. As they turned away from God, the people were denying their covenant with Him. He had promised protection and provision as long as they remained faithful to Him. He gave them many years to repent, but the evil got worse and worse.
The kings of Israel had gone too far. Their land began to be peeled off by the Assyrians. While Pekah was king, the Assyrians captured all of the land of Naphtali and carried those people off into captivity. Judgment has begun.
So instead of taking notice, Ahaz gets pulled into the ploy also. As king of Judah, in order to please the king of Assyria, he gives him the treasures out of the temple. And beyond that, he goes to Damascus and admires an altar they use for their gods. He decides to redesign the temple in Jerusalem to be more “modern.” He copies the altar of the Damascun god.
What an abomination! After they had lived their years as chosen ones, the special seed of Abraham, God’s people, they decided that the rest of the world had something better to offer.
Sadly, the same abominations are happening today in the church of Jesus.
John 3:1-18
We come to the most famous verse in the Bible. John 3:16 has been printed on T-shirts and signs, painted on faces, and displayed on bumper stickers.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
This is the gospel in a nutshell. There are many other religions, but only one truth. All other religions have rules and regulations which are supposed to give you entrance into the blessings from that god, and entrance into heaven after death.
However, this one is different. Instead of rules and regulations, with Christianity we get a Savior who paid the price for our sins. Then He actually gives us a new life. He actually comes to live in our hearts by the power of His Holy Spirit.
This supernatural life allows us to talk to God and to listen to Him speak to us. His Word becomes alive like never before. He explains it from within our hearts.
The Greek word which is used for “life” is a different kind of word. It doesn’t mean just ordinary life, and it doesn’t mean just an everlasting life. This word is zoe and it means “God’s life.”
Zoe is described in Strong’s concordance as “the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through Him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature” (Strong’s 2222)
Do you get that? The absolute fulness of God’s life has been given to us when we get born again by receiving our Savior.
Absolutely amazing! If we can ever grasp the truth of this, we will never be the same.
I pray that you and I can delve more deeply into this truth and truly understand what our God has done for us. It’s huge!
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible, Uncategorized
II KIngs 13-14
Right in the middle of all of this kings – up- and- kings – down business, the Lord inserts a zinger. It’s a word for us when we are engaging the enemy on behalf of ourselves or our loved ones.
Elisha is about to die, and the king of Israel knows that he will miss the prophet’s ability to protect the nation.
So Elisha goes to him and demonstrates a principle he will need.
He tells the king to put his hand on the bow, and then Elisha puts his hands on the king’s hands. He says, “Open the window toward the east and shoot.”(13:17) Then Elisha tells the king to strike the ground with the arrows. The king strikes three times and stops. At that, the prophet is angry. He says, “You should have struck the ground five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.”(V.19)
So what is the big deal? First of all, the prophet opens the east window, and the east is the sign of new beginnings. He is saying that this is a new day. A new beginning.
Then when the king is to strike the earth, he is to do it until his job is complete.
That’s a big sign to us. Do you have a problem with which you have dealt for many years? Maybe there have been times when you have thought you would never win this victory.
Take a cue from Elisha: open the east window – a new beginning – and don’t stop striking until you see the victory. So many of us give up – we are not persistent.
Be persistent. The lord is on your side, but sometimes the promises He has made to us take time. Especially when others are involved.
Maybe you are praying for your marriage, or your health, or your children. You have seen in the Word of God that certain things are His will, but you don’t see them with your eyes in your life. Don’t stop striking the earth with the Word of God. Don’t stop believing that His will is coming to pass. Keep it up and you will see the victory.
In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never give up!”
John 2
Do you feel that your life is tasteless and colorless – like water? Do you feel that you are unimportant to God or to others? Do you feel that you have nothing to offer others which will benefit them?
If so, you may be standing there like one of the pots of water at the wedding feast. When they ran out of wine, Jesus had the waiters fill the pots with water – and then He turned the water into wine.
On the first level, this is a miracle – much like we have been seeing in Elisha’s life. Jesus brings provision when there is none.
On a deeper level, this is symbolic of the influence Jesus can have over our lives if we let Him. He can turn the tasteless water into wine.
He can turn our colorless lives into lives of great joy. He can give us a fresh start and a fresh purpose.
Sometimes we can be encountering difficulties which seem too hard to bear. He will give us strength and He will give us the ability to see beyond the present. He will cause us to love our lives just as they are, and faith for a better future. He will bring comfort to the dry places.
Ask Him, and He will show you in a magnificent way that you are important to Him.
He can turn the water into wine.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II Kings 10-12
The two nations, Israel and Judah, continue to put down and set up kings.
In Israel, Jehu finally gets rid of the house of Ahab and Jezebel, the darkest rulers in a nation which should have known God.
As usual during these times, everything seems so gory. And as usual, I relate these things to our current day battle against demons and forces of darkness in heavenly places.
Jehu cut off the heads of all the heirs of the evil king. I think of totally destroying the influence demonic forces have over me.
If there is an area in our lives where we once had trouble keeping holy, we should totally eradicate that influence from us. For instance, if you once had trouble with alcohol or drugs, then certainly don’t partake of them at all – and even stay away from those who may influence you to do so.
If pornography was a problem, then don’t even look at the magazines in the grocery line. If you once had trouble with gossiping, stay away from gossipers. That’s what I call “cutting off the head of the king”” in our lives. Not allowing the devil to bring temptation to us in areas that were once weak.
Even though Jehu eradicated the Baals, “he still didn’t walk in the law of the Lord with all of his heart; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam.”(10:31) So from that time, the Lord began to cut off portions from Israel.
After the evil Athaliah tried to usurp the throne of Judah, a holy child, Joash, was hidden from her. When he was seven years old, this young boy became king of Israel.
He had a mentor, however, who told him what to do. Jehoida the priest “made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord’s people, also between the king and the people.”(11:17)
They definitely weren’t perfect, but some at least were trying to be God’s people.
The flame was dim, but at least there was in the earth a flame of God’s purpose to eventually bring His Son. I’m thankful for that.
John 1: 29-51
John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin, so surely he had seen Him as they were growing up. However, John obviously didn’t realize that He was the Son of God until the day He was baptized.
God had told John that “He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.”(v.33) So when the Spirit descended like a dove and remained on Jesus, John recognized Him as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”(v.29)
All of those centuries when the Jews were sacrificing animals God was teaching them that some day He would provide a perfect Lamb to be sacrificed. John recognized that the time had come. Jesus was the Lamb of God. It gives you chills, doesn’t it?
Jesus deals with lots of imagery. When Nathanael comes to Jesus, amazed that He has seen Him under the fig tree, Jesus has quite a reply. He says, “You shall see the heavens open and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”(V.51)
Do you recognize what He is saying? Do you remember when Jacob had the dream of a ladder into heaven with angels ascending and descending? He said this is truly the “House of God and the gate of heaven.”(Gen. 28:17) It’s a portal into heaven – a ladder with angels ascending and descending.
Jesus says that He is the ladder into heaven. He is the portal. He is the Way that we can get there. And he is the way that we can partake of God’s presence while we are here on earth.
Meditate on this for a while. Jesus is the only ladder set up by God for us to partake of His presence and power.
It’s so significant to get this. I pray that you do.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II Kings 7-9
These times in history seem far removed from what we think about today. The societies were much less sophisticated, and most people seem to be just be seeking survival. Very dark times, indeed.
In fact, it seems that the only people who are truly committed to the Lord are the prophets and a few kings.
These times are similar to the dark ages of the Christian church. Roughly from the 6th century to the 15th century, the Christian church went into great darkness. There was a lot of corruption in the church, and lots of heretical teachings which took away the true power of God. In fact, the lay people were not allowed to read the scriptural texts for themselves; they had to have the priests tell them what they said.
People were taught that they had to go through the priest to reach God, and much advantage was taken of the people – large sums of money to “pay” for their sins.
In the 16th century, Martin Luther, a German monk was reading the scriptures when he realized that people are saved by faith and not by works. He wrote 95 Theses stating arguments against the Catholic Church and nailed them to the door of the monastery at Wittenburg. Of course, he came under great persecution, but Luther set a fire in the hearts of men which led to the Protestant Reformation.
Throughout the Dark Ages, God still had people who truly believed him and kept the fire in their hearts, even though it wasn’t reflected in society as a whole. It was the same during these days of Jewish history in II Kings. It seemed that only the prophets were believers, but God spoke to Elijah and said, “There are 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal.”
We are to learn lessons from these scriptures. First we are to see how easy it is for each succeeding king to go with the flow of culture and leave God out of the story. (That’s a warning to us). Then next it is easy to see that God is a rewarder of those who truly seek Him – even in the darkest of times. Right in the middle of the darkness, we see miracles and His hand working on behalf of those who honor Him and believe Him.
We also see that, even though they seemed far removed from Him, God still had His hand on his covenant people. Our God never forsakes a covenant He has made.
He does the same with us.
John 1:1-28
John’s gospel is my favorite. The three gospels we have read so far are called the “synoptic” gospels. They are similar in that they all cover the natural accounts of what Jesus did and said as He ministered on the earth. They recount His miracles and His teachings. Yet they make very little mention of what these things might mean.
John’s gospel is different. He shares an understanding of the deeper revelation of just who Jesus is.
John starts by saying that Jesus was the Word – and all things which came into being came through Him. This may be hard to understand, but if you and I will ask our teacher, the Holy Spirit, He will help clarify the concepts we are going to learn.
This concept reflects back to the beginning of the Bible when we see that God said this and that to create (or recreate) the world. He literally spoke the world into existence. Jesus was the One who spoke the Word. The Word of God is the most powerful thing on the earth. It has the power to create!
Then, too, when Gabriel came to Mary and spoke the Word to her, saying that she would give birth to the Son of God, she said “Be it done to me according to your Word.”(Luke 1:38). The Word spoken to Mary became flesh within her womb and Jesus was born into the earth.
I can hear the Star Wars music going off in your ears right now, but hang in there. This is good – and this is true!
Then Jesus is called the “light.” He came to shine in darkness. As the light, Jesus came to set off the light bulb within each of us. That ah-ha moment, when we realize that He really is the Son of God …that God really does love us …and that God really did send Jesus to die for our sins.
So all the healings and all the teachings Jesus did were to turn on the light in the hearts of people to let them know that God is on their side – if they will get on His.
Yet The gospel says that “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be called the children of God.”(v.11-12) “Those who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”(v.13).
This second birth – the born again experience – is truly the greatest occasion of anyone’s life.
We’ll be reading more about this as we continue with the book of John. In the meantime, meditate on these things as you go about your day. When you truly grasp what is being said here, your life will be changed forever.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II Kings 4-6
What does a double portion of God’s anointing look like? I think that we see it here.
Elisha lives a supernatural life. He is a man, of course, but a man whose faith level is so great that he taps into the power of God for those around him.
When there is famine, he multiplies the oil and meal. When a woman is barren, he opens her womb. When a child dies, he brings him back to life.
Elisha sees and hears in the spirit realm. He knows where the king of Aram is taking his army. He knows who is coming to see him, trying to take him away. And the prophet sees in the spirit realm when armies are around him, so that he sees the angels who are assisting him.
I love what he says during that last incident. “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”(6:16) He says this when an entire army has surrounded the city and his servant is afraid. Yet when the servant’s eyes ae opened, he sees a mountain covered with horses and chariots of fire. The angels are working on Elisha’s behalf.
Remember, it isn’t this man, but God Himself who is doing the work throughout all of these accounts. Elisha is a man who knows God, believes Him, and obeys Him.
His life is entirely consecrated to God. So he operates in a realm known only to a few.
If you will notice, though, the miracles he performs are similar to the miracles that Jesus performs. Elisha multiplies oil; Jesus multiplies loaves and fish. Elisha raises the child from the dead; Jesus raises a lady’s son from the dead. Elisha knows what others are thinking; Jesus knows what they are thinking.
Of course, Jesus accomplishes much more than Elisha, but this prophet is as a foreshadowing of what Jesus will be like.
All of these demonstrations of the supernatural are from the anointing – which is God’s Holy Spirit – working through them.
Today miracles are still happening for those who believe. So many today think they are too sophisticated for such, so they count themselves out. Yet for those who believe, Jesus is still working miracles.
Luke 24:33-53
Can you imagine the joy in that room where the disciples are sharing their encounters with the risen Lord?
Just days before these men and women were in such sorrow and disappointment. They had followed Jesus and believed in Him. They had seen Him overcome every attempt to discredit His ministry. They had also seen His wisdom, authority, and power. When Jesus had been taken and murdered not only had they lost a friend; they had lost a vision – a hope.
Now, here He is standing before them, explaining things just as He had always done. It’s too much for them to comprehend!
I love verse 44. “These are My Words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Do you remember early on in this study when we said, “The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New testament is the Old Testament revealed?”
That’s what we see here. Jesus is showing His disciples how everything that has happened was fulfillment of the Old Testament Word. He has fulfilled all of the scripture concerning Him.
The scholars of the Word were actually the ones who killed Jesus. They knew what the words said, but they weren’t able to understand it. Their hearts were hard and they held to traditions which denied them the ability to see the spiritual side of the Word.
It’s the same today. There are many scholars who think that they know what the Word says, but they really don’t. They take the supernatural of God and try to interpret it with their natural minds. But they can’t do that. The Word can only be understood by the Spirit of God.
So sometimes these “scholars” strip away the miracles and supernatural walk that is available today. They want everything to be done according to the intellect. Yet God is bigger than our brains. He is our Creator.
The humble will inherit the earth. I want to stay humble!
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II Kings 1-3
As we read through the history of Israel, every now and then we see times of great evil – almost too much to imagine coming from people who were supposed to know God. Yet during those times, we also see God move in unprecedented ways, demonstrating the reality of who He is.
Such times were those of Elijah and Elisha. They were men who walked in God’s power, and sometimes the outcomes seem strange.
I love the story about Elijah being taken up into heaven.
The kind of close walk these men had with God was not casual. They had to pursue that relationship with their whole hearts. Only someone who was fervent about the call would be able to withstand the alienation and persecution from those around them.
That’s why Elijah kept telling Elisha to stay where he was and not to follow him further. (2:2-6). It was a test to see if Elisha was intent enough on the call. Was he willing to pay the price? He proved himself worthy and he received the blessing he sought: a double portion of the anointing.
One more comment, however. Once he saw Elijah leave and once he saw the mantle being thrown to the ground, Elisha still had to pick it up. The mantle fell for him, but not on him.
That is significant for all of us. There are purposes of God on every believer’s life – some in pulpit ministry; some in marketplace ministry. But everyone has a call.
The call is there, and the mantle gets thrown to us. Yet we have to pick it up and walk with it. Our lives don’t just happen to us; we live them intentionally. We have free will.
Whatever your call, you have a choice. You may pick up the mantle and walk with it, or you may let it stay on the ground at your feet – and never fulfill what your Father has for you.
I want to pick up the mantle that is mine, don’t you? I want to live the life my Father has for me, and I want to fulfill my destiny in Him.
Luke 24:1-35
The Emmaus Road story is awesome. Jesus walks with two men on the road to Jerusalem. “Their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him,”(v. 16) but they begin sharing with Him about all that had happened concerning His death.
Then He talks: sharing with them how all of the scriptures from Moses onward had spoken of Jesus, the Messiah. He reveals to them the truth locked up in the Old Testament scriptures.
Later, after their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus, He disappears. They say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scripture to us?”(32)
The Word was being revealed by God’s Spirit to their inner man – the hidden person of the heart. That’s why they felt it so deeply. I have had a similar experience when the Lord was speaking to me about the Word. There have been times when I would literally feel it within my being.
God’s Word is deeper than our natural minds. Our spirits – and not our minds – are equipped to communicate with our Father, and our understanding goes beyond the realm of reasoning.
That’s why, when people don’t have spirits to understand, they think that Christianity is foolishness. They are trying to understand with their minds, and that’s impossible.
When I turned my life to the Lord and became born again, the Bible came alive to me in a miraculous way. Up until that time, I had read the Bible, but had never understood it.
If you are reading the Bible and feel that you are not understanding, ask God to reveal it to you. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you through Jesus. Ask Him to take the blinders off of your spiritual eyes wo that you might see the truth.
He is ready and willing to do it, if we just ask.
