by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
I Chronicles 4-6
We see something here. As all of the names are listed, we stop at one: Jabez. Remember the book, The Prayer of Jabez? A few years ago, many were reading this little book – all based on two verses – I Chronicles 4:9-10.
Doesn’t it astound you as you are reading, that one man gets so much attention? I am reminded of the verse in II Chronicles 16:9 “Now the eyes of the Lord move to and from throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
Jabez stands out from the crowd, because his heart is completely the Lord’s. He is a true believer in the midst of the crowd, “more honorable than his brothers.” (4:9)
When he calls upon the Lord, “Oh that Thy hand wouldst bless me indeed and enlarge my border. and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep me from harm, that it may not pain me.” (4:10), the Lord grants his request.
That’s our Father. He doesn’t just look at the crowd; He looks at the individual. We may be in the middle of a crowd of scoundrels, but if our hearts are truly His – and if we have the nerve to believe Him, we will certainly see our prayers being answered.
It makes you want to dig in more to be closer to Him, doesn’t it? Do you want to be like Jabez – to have your borders enlarged and God’s hand with you?
I want that. I want to stand out from the crowd – not for men to see me, but for God to notice me. And He does indeed notice each person who is committed to Him.
John 6: 1-21
The supply is sufficient.
We see once more this story of multiplication. As the crowd of five thousand men (plus women and children) need food, Jesus takes the five loaves of bread and two fish and He divides them up for the crowd. Amazingly all are fed and there are twelve baskets left over.
Twelve baskets full remain – for the twelve disciples. I think He is saying something here.
Of course, we have the miracle of multiplication for the crowd, but there’s more. After their ministry of feeding the crowd, each disciple has a basketful left over.
He is saying that when we take His Word and break it to share with others, there is plenty left over for ourselves. As we meet the needs of others, our needs will be met. As we pray for others, our prayers will be answered. As we share the Word, our understanding will be increased.
It is a privilege to share with others whatever we have available – whether it is food, or prayer , or the Word – whatever we have. And as we share, we know that our needs will be met also. He is looking out for us.
“Give and it shall be given unto you – good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”(Luke 6:38)
That’s the Lord’s way of doing things. Makes me want to be a giver!
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
I Chronicles 1-3
Name after name after name. It can seem boring, but these genealogical dissertations say something about our God. He is a covenant-keeping God. Names are important.
This should be encouraging to those of us who are praying for our children. When we are in covenant with our God, they have a benefit – even greater than the children in the Old Testament.
Under the old law, the people did not have the Holy Spirit living within them. He could only come after Jesus had paid the price for our sins and had sent the Holy Spirit back to live within us.
Now that He is here, living within us, we have an advocate who helps us to bring about God’s covenant in a more powerful way. We can pray and ask the Father to deal with our children. He can, and does, give them dreams and visions. As we pray he also leads the right people to come across their paths.
The Holy Spirit of God knows our children – young and old – better than we do, and He will fulfill this covenant if we continue to press forward in prayer and obedience.
When I say obedience, I mean that He will direct us as to how to pray and He will impress upon us certain actions we must take to get the job done. (For instance, if there is a grown child who is abusing drugs or alcohol, He may direct us to stop enabling and be more direct).
He will direct our steps if we listen, and He will fulfill our covenant in the lives of our children.
The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)
Our families are important to our God. Believe it and see it come to pass.
John 5:25-47
Jesus speaks in a way that only those who receive Him can understand. And why? Because the One who bears witness to Him is the Holy Spirit of God. Only those who have His Spirit can truly understand Him
He rebukes the Pharisees because they are supposedly keepers of the Word of God, and the Word speaks of Jesus coming to the earth throughout, but they don’t “get it.” Their hearts are not right.
Jesus says something which we should take to heart. How can you believe when you seek glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory which is from the One true God? (V.44)
When people during that time or during our time seek to be approved by men rather than God, they run into trouble. In doing this they remove the standard – the plumb line. Men can take the truths of God and change them to meet their own interests and selfish desires. So they cloud their vision and understanding.
If we truly want to be God’s people, we have to seek His approval, even if others disapprove. Integrity before Him is sometimes not easy, but it is so rewarding.
I would rather be found faithful by God than to be honored by other men. Ultimately, His assessment is the only one that matters.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
by Suellen Estes
II KIngs 24-25
Well, the end finally comes.
This is the nation which was started by God Himself, in covenant with Abraham. He had faithfully fulfilled all of the plan that He said He would.
God had supernaturally brought these people out of the land of Egypt- by mighty signs and wonders. Just think about the magnitude of having more than a million people, with all of their gear, walking out of a country? And having the giant Red Sea part so that they could walk through on dry ground. This was huge.
Then, even though the Jews didn’t believe Him so that they could immediately go into their new land, the Lord provided for them in the wilderness. Manna fell from the sky and covered the ground every morning. They would gather each day what was needed. During those years, their clothes didn’t wear out and neither did their shoes. What God did for those people was so extraordinary.
Then when it was time, the Lord took them into the land of promise, driving out nations before them. His hand was so strong for these believers.
It’s human nature, however, to take everything for granted. Several generations pass and the Jews forget their covenant. They begin to worship the gods of the surrounding lands, and are no longer faithful to their one true God. So sad. How could they forget?
Now all of Judah is taken into captivity by the Babylonians, the temple is destroyed, and the walls of Jerusalem are torn down – then the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and every great house Nebuchadnezzar’s captain burned with fire. Only a few poor people are left in the area.
The rest of the people go to Egypt because they are afraid of the Chaldeans. Israel has already gone to Assyria. Now Judah goes to Babylon.
Sad days, indeed, for those who have discounted the covenant of God.
Hopefully we will learn some lessons from this. Let’s not forget our covenant with Almighty God.
John 5:1-24
Jesus is such an aggravation to the Pharisees! He has the audacity to heal a man on the sabbath one more time.
Here comes “religion” again. They are holding to what they consider the law, but ignoring the spirit of the law. Any of these Pharisees should have known the nature of their God enough to understand that He would want this man healed at any time. He has been paralyzed for 38 years!
What an extraordinary moment for this man. Healed, finally!
So the Pharisees get our their magnifying glass to see what else Jesus does wrong. What’s this? He is calling Himself the Son of God? Another strike against Him.
They just don’t get it. They don’t recognize the day of their visitation. The very Son of God is walking among them, and they are offended. Even jealous.
In this gospel, the spiritual side of Jesus’ walk with his Father is amplified. “The Son of God can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner…Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He wishes.”(V.19-20).
Jesus is once again alluding to the zoe (life of God) which comes into man at the new birth. He is also introducing the concept of being led by the spirit of God. This is a new concept to these Jews, but He is getting the point across. They will understand it better later.
After He is resurrected and sends back His Holy Spirit, His disciples will understand what He is saying. Just as with us, we are able to understand when we receive Him. “Oh, that’s what He meant.”
More life, oh Lord. More zoe.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
By Suellen Estes
II KIngs 22-23
Each man is accountable for himself. That’s obvious when we see each man who comes into power as king of Judah.
Hezekiah turns the nation back to the Lord, and sees great miracles from his God. However, his son, Manasseh, leads a disgusting regime.
You might say that Manasseh was an earlier version of a universalist. He had every kind of religion and every kind of horrible practice was encouraged. Putting children through the fire, making sacrifices to every outlandish god, astrology, witchcraft, divination, spiritualism…you name it, he had it.
Remember the adage we started with: the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. If we don’t look back at these passages with the eyes of a New Testament believer – in other words, with the eyes of the Holy Spirit, we miss a lot.
There is only one true God. We are either worshipping Him in truth, or we are not. When we look back at these chapters in history, we see that God’s plan of a special people who will bring the Deliverer to the world is being diluted and compromised by the cocky, self-centered ones who come into power. They think that they are too smart for God.
Well, they aren’t as smart as they think, and they are digging a hole for their nation.
Thankfully, Josiah arrives on the scene. At eight years old, he has a desire to return the nation to holiness. He tears down all of the shrines to other gods, and reinstitutes the Passover, which has not been celebrated for many years. (How does he know what to do? He reads the Book of the Covenant. How do we know what to do? We read the Book of the Covenant ).
Unfortunately, the nation has gone too far, and their time of contending with God has come to an end. So the Pharoah of Egypt kills Josiah. And when Josiah’s son becomes king, the Pharoah imprisons him so that he can not rule, and replaces him with another evil man – Jehoiakim.
These are sad days in the life of Judah. Their time is about up. God has sent prophet after prophet to try to keep these people on the right track, but they just will not honor and follow the one true God.
I pray that we will heed the lessons of those days. I pray that our nation – and indeed, our world – will return to the one true God.
John 4:31-54
It seems that everyday Jesus is introducing something new to His disciples.
For several centuries, the Samaritans have been considered second-class citizens. Their ancestors had intermarried with other cultures, so that they were considered unclean people by the Jews.
Jesus is about to draw the big line through the ages – the line which will change the covenant. He will cut a new covenant between God and man – a covenant which will allow the Spirit of God to live on the inside of man – the way it was with Adam. When that happens, God’s covenant of mercy will be to all people everywhere.
After all of those years of being told to stay clear of other cultures, these people can’t understand Jesus. He seems like He is breaking the law. His followers love Him and believe Him, but they are confused by Him many times. There are many things they will not understand until He sends back the Holy Spirit to them.
In the meantime, Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman at the well and she runs into town to tell many others. They beg the Savior to stay with them for a while, so He stays two more days, and many come to believe in Him.
After the resurrection of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost, when He sends His Spirit to His disciples, all of these actions will be understood. They will understand that the covenant is no longer just for the Jews, but for all who believe in Him throughout the world. Right now, there’s confusion.
These disciples could have decided that Jesus was in error – as did many Pharisees of the day. But instead, they put these things on the shelf until they could understand them.
Today, the Holy Spirit is here and available to all who desire to walk with Him. He will come to live on the inside of all believers in Jesus, and He will bring understanding to all confusion. Just ask Him to teach you, and He will.
Lord, today, I pray that the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened so that we will know You better and understand more of Your plan.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II KIngs 19-21
Right in the middle of all of those worthless kings, here comes one who trusts the Lord.
Let’s backtrack just a little to see Hezekiah’s character. He had” removed the high places, broke down the sacred pillars, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made”(18:4. (The bronze serpent, which God had told Moses to make during the wilderness had become an idol. The people would worship the serpent, instead of God).
In fact, Hezekiah trusted in the Lord so that there was none like him of all the kings of Judah.(18:5)
Hezekiah of Judah watches as his brother kingdom, Israel, gets taken off to Assyria. He must have been in shock as he saw what was happening to them. After the Lord’s dealing with them for many years, He finally gives them up to the foreign army. Yet Judah is left.
Now the threat is knocking at the door of Hezekiah’s nation. Rabshakeh and his large army surround Jerusalem and taunt them. The priests ask them to speak in Aramaic, since they will understand and the common people won’t. But the bold Rabshakeh speaks louder in Judean, “Don’t listen to your king. He can’t save you, and his Lord can’t save you.”
However, through Isaiah the prophet, God speaks to Hezekiah. In addressing the Assyrians, He says, “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?…the Holy One of Israel.”(19:32)
Assyria had already overcome many nations around, and Judah seemed an easy prey. Yet God showed himself strong on behalf of His nation. In th middle of the night an angel of the Lord went out a struck 185,000 troops. So the king of Assyria departed and returned home…and as he worshipped Nisroch his god, some of his men came in and killed him.
So our Father is still blessing this nation.From all of the twelve tribes only Judah is left, but this remnant is God’s remnant and as long as they trust Him, He will be faithful.
You might look around and think that most people don’t believe or trust God. They see promises in the Bible, but they don’t believe them – why should you?
We serve an amazing God. He will be faithful to fulfill His covenant to those who believe Him. That’s the key, we have to believe Him.
John 4: 1-30
We meet the first woman evangelist.
The religion of the day didn’t allow for Jews to speak to Samaritans, and it didn’t allow for men to speak privately with women. The disciples were shocked when they saw their Savior breaking all the rules. What was going on?
Well, Jesus was showing the world that His love would overpower the sin of the world. This woman had had five husbands and now was just living with a man, but Jesus showed her God’s love and respect, which changed her life.
We get introduced to the “living water” which we will hear a lot about. Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit which will come into us when we believe on Him. He is likened to a “spring of living water which bubbles up out of us, giving us wisdom and life.”(V. 14)
He also introduces the concept of worshipping in spirit and truth. Our worship is not formulas and rituals, but a heart which truly follows after Him.
This woman, having received respect and God’s love for the first time, can’t wait to tell her friends. She runs into the city and tells everyone that she has met the Messiah.
An evangelist is born.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
II Kings 17-18
A turning point for Israel finally comes. The turning point is that they are totally ravaged by Assyria and they are taken into captivity.
The Lord had dealt with this nation for many years. He had sent prophets to them warning them. But they “did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.”(17:14)
If they would just believe Him and trust Him and be faithful to Him, their lives would be blessed. But no. They “followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like.”(17:15)
Now it’s becoming clear why the Lord was so adamant about His people not mingling with the nations around them. It’s just human nature for people to begin to accept whatever they see others doing. When the Jews saw those around them worshipping other gods and partaking of other customs, they too began to participate.
You can see that today. No one ever says to himself, “I think I will be a drug addict or alcoholic.” But people do become that. They begin to hang out with others who are doing such, and the behavior begins to seem normal. So they try it, again and again, and they too are hooked.
The Israelites were no different. They began to hang out with the other cultures and intermarry with them. Eventually they began to follow the customs of the heathens – and it seemed perfectly normal.
This is the reason that the Bible is so important. Just think if we had no Bible, and we had to make our judgments based on what we see and hear. Our beliefs would be totally different. We would be unable to determine the right course on many occasions.
I am so thankful for God’s Word. It explains to us the way to go, and the underlying principles. His Word is indeed a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.”(Ps. 119:105)
Back to the Israelis, they wouldn’t turn around and finally they nullified their covenant with God. A just God couldn’t continue to give special protection and consideration to people who wouldn’t be faithful to Him. So the Jews in Israel were taken into Assyria.
In the meantime, Hezekiah, king of Judah, tried to restore some faithfulness there. There’s a lot to say here, so we’ll take up that more tomorrow.
John 3: 19-38
“And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”(V. 19-21).
This passage really explains a lot. Do you wonder why Christians are hated by some people? This is it.
Of course, the people who are hating and mocking don’t realize who is pushing them to do it. Demonic forces behind the scenes who hate Jesus are influencing individuals to have this aversion.
Sometimes there are those who know what they are doing is wrong – and their conscience hurts them. Therefore, they avoid the “light.” They don’t want to be exposed.
The good thing about our Savior, however, is that when people want to turn from the darkness, He is always there – ready and waiting. Jesus is not judging them, but bringing them forgivenenss and empowerment to overcome the darkness which has invaded their lives.
Every individual judges himself by loving the darkness or the light.
I pray that our savior will enlighten our darkness, so that we can repent, receive forgiveness, and walk in the freedom of the light.
I want the brightest light, don’t you?
