I've been reading 1 and 2 Chronicles this past couple of weeks and a verse jumped out at me.
2 Chron 30:18 Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart on seeking God — the Lord, the God of his fathers — even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." 20 And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. NIV
What really struck me was the phrase, "May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God." And the Lord heard Hezekiah!
These people had broken the rules-- they ate the Passover without purifying themselves in an eagerness to seek God. Instead of saying, "You're not doing it right", Hezekiah seeks grace from the face of God.
Too many stand as gatekeepers to the fellowship of the saints saying, "You're doing it wrong" rather than praying for the grace of God to be shed on the eager believers.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Suffering and Jesus
This is from the Joel International Newsletter.
It's often in the midst of suffering that people find God, and sometimes God even uses terrorists for the good. This week in our regular edition we published the stories of two people who were kidnapped by notorious FARC terrorists in Colombia. They spent six years in the jungle under humiliating circumstances. But Jesus met them right there.
American Marc Gonsalves recalls that he didn't expect to survive captivity until he felt God's presence in the midst of a life-threatening bomb attack by Colombian military jets. "I was physically shaking, and I just called out to God to protect us," he said. "The next morning I woke up and I felt different." A Colombian hostage gave him a Bible, which he often read and discussed with fellow hostage French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt. After her release last year Betancourt said: "Without Jesus at my side I would never have managed to survive the pain. Being a hostage places you in a situation of constant humiliation... faced with this you can either allow yourself to become ugly and bitter, filled with hate and vindictiveness, or you follow the other path, that is shown by Jesus, who said 'bless your enemies'." Both captives consider their release a miracle.
It's often in the midst of suffering that people find God, and sometimes God even uses terrorists for the good. This week in our regular edition we published the stories of two people who were kidnapped by notorious FARC terrorists in Colombia. They spent six years in the jungle under humiliating circumstances. But Jesus met them right there.
American Marc Gonsalves recalls that he didn't expect to survive captivity until he felt God's presence in the midst of a life-threatening bomb attack by Colombian military jets. "I was physically shaking, and I just called out to God to protect us," he said. "The next morning I woke up and I felt different." A Colombian hostage gave him a Bible, which he often read and discussed with fellow hostage French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt. After her release last year Betancourt said: "Without Jesus at my side I would never have managed to survive the pain. Being a hostage places you in a situation of constant humiliation... faced with this you can either allow yourself to become ugly and bitter, filled with hate and vindictiveness, or you follow the other path, that is shown by Jesus, who said 'bless your enemies'." Both captives consider their release a miracle.
Newsweek, Revival and 2 Chronicles
I'm reading 2 Chronicles this week. I've also read the Newsweek article on America not being a Christian nation. Here's some thoughts.
1.Nations fall away and repent and fall away and repent. Israel with more rapidity than the US. They could repent and by the end of a king's reign have fallen away again.
2. It has happened several times in American history. If Strauch and Howe, Generations, are to be trusted, and I think they are, this is not the worst time in American history. There are at least 4 other times when we were less godly than now.
3. James Orr in his history of revivals in America documents: "Take the liberal arts colleges at that time. A poll taken at Harvard had discovered not one believer in the whole student body. They took a poll at Princeton, a much more evangelical place, where they discovered only two believers in the student body, and only five that did not belong to the filthy speech movement of that day. Students rioted. They held a mock communion at Williams College, and they put on anti-christian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down the Nassau Hall at Princeton. They forced the resignation of the president of Harvard. They took a Bible out of a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey, and they burnt it in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on campus in the 1790's that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and kept their minutes in code so that no one would know.
4. Out of moral decay and despair comes revival. When the only place to turn is to God, we eventually wake up.
5. Even if America goes away from God, God is still on his throne and will save.
1.Nations fall away and repent and fall away and repent. Israel with more rapidity than the US. They could repent and by the end of a king's reign have fallen away again.
2. It has happened several times in American history. If Strauch and Howe, Generations, are to be trusted, and I think they are, this is not the worst time in American history. There are at least 4 other times when we were less godly than now.
3. James Orr in his history of revivals in America documents: "Take the liberal arts colleges at that time. A poll taken at Harvard had discovered not one believer in the whole student body. They took a poll at Princeton, a much more evangelical place, where they discovered only two believers in the student body, and only five that did not belong to the filthy speech movement of that day. Students rioted. They held a mock communion at Williams College, and they put on anti-christian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down the Nassau Hall at Princeton. They forced the resignation of the president of Harvard. They took a Bible out of a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey, and they burnt it in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on campus in the 1790's that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and kept their minutes in code so that no one would know.
4. Out of moral decay and despair comes revival. When the only place to turn is to God, we eventually wake up.
5. Even if America goes away from God, God is still on his throne and will save.
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