Tag: 2 Chronicles

Pursue Godliness

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This past Sunday we kicked off a brand-new series called Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World.  For the next few weeks, with the story of King Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16 as our guide, we’re going to talk about this very thing.  How can we be bold followers of Jesus in a culture where such a thing isn’t nearly as acceptable as it once was?  In this first part we lay the foundation for what follows.  If we’re going to run after Jesus, it’s going to take looking like God.  Thanks for reading.

Pursue Godliness

This past week was an anniversary of sorts, although probably not one you’ve ever heard of before.  Fifty-five years ago this past Friday, Walter Ciszek was released from prison in Soviet Russia and returned to the United Stated after more than 20 years in captivity.  As a young man in the 1930s, Ciszek, a Catholic, felt a call to ministry.  Specifically, he felt a call to the mission field.  So, stepping out on his faith, Ciszek headed for the U.S.S.R.  He was in Poland training for the work to which he had been called when Russia invaded.  Recognizing how perilous was the situation he was facing in Poland, Ciszek did what any bold, young missionary would do in his position, he head further east to serve in the Ural Mountains in central Russia.  In 1941, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison—much of it in solitary confinement.  While serving this sentence, he was sentenced to an additional 15 years in the Gulag, several years of which included hard labor.  Even once his hard labor term was complete, however, he was still held as a prisoner, now forced to work as a mechanic. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 2 Chronicles 14:11-12

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“And Asa cried to the Lord his God, ‘O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.’ So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This is a simple point, really, but one worth repeating over and over again because of how easily we forget it. When we face problems that both seem and are in fact beyond what we can handle, we need to turn to the Lord in prayer. There and only there will we find the hope and help we need to overcome whatever is before us. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: 2 Chronicles 33:12-13

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“And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.  He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.  Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Manasseh’s story should give us a great deal of hope.  He was the most evil and overtly pagan of any of the kings to rule over Judah.  He essentially took his father Hezekiah’s legacy and turned it on its head.  If there was some practice that would offend the Lord, he jumped into it with both feet.  He led the whole nation astray and primed the pump for terrible judgment.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: 2 Chronicles 26:16

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“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.  For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Uzziah’s punishment can seem awfully big in light of his apparent offense.  I mean, he burned a bit of incense in the Temple.  Why should that have drawn a punishment of leprosy?  But, the light external offense was only a symptom of the much more dangerous internal issue.  As faithful as he had been throughout his reign as king, he eventually started to see himself as the source of that success.  Once he did this, his downfall was nigh.  <!–more Read the rest…–>

This poses a stern reminder for all of us.  The perils of success are great.  We should run after it with all we have, but if we begin worshiping it as our god, it will lead to our doom.  We never escape the necessity of being wary of this temptation.  Pride, or a belief that we are sufficient in and of ourselves for, really, anything, will always eventually lead to our undoing, and not only ours, but often for all the people who have attached themselves to our wagon as well.  This is never pretty.  Instead, let us always remember who is God and remain humbly reliant on Him; constantly aware that apart from Him we are nothing.