Wednesday, April 28, 2010
April 29 ... II Kings 23 - 25 "Evil Is Real and It Is in You"
II Kings 23:25 "There was no king to compare with Josiah—neither before nor after—a king who turned in total and repentant obedience to God, heart and mind and strength, following the instructions revealed to and written by Moses. The world would never again see a king like Josiah." In the midst of a multitude of evil kings who sacrificed babies and had sex on the altars, here's a lone soul with the bookends of evil on either side of him, his dad and his sons. Yet, somehow, Josiah reached way down deep to take a stand just like Manasseh finally did. "When you find yourself overcome by evil, take heart. Repentance leads to Restoration." 66 LL. Humble yourself! "Evil is real and it is in you!" Crabb talked about how we talk more about "wounds and the promise of therapy. We see people as more insecure than bad and affirm them to build their self-image." Am I disgusted with the sin of other people without dealing with my own heart? Am I being changed from within or dealing with the same stuff over and over? Unchanged lives---whoa, that's not where I want to be. Praise God HE is changing me, even in the midst of dark days. I think about what I was dealing with in November and I'm not there anymore! So grateful! This chapter ends with Judah being carried off into captivity and the author quotes the verse in Lam 1:1 "How lonely sits the city that was full of people." How sad. Look at what they created. It didn't have to be that way but they decided to live for themselves. Braggadocious Kings. Self-Obsessed Leaders. Lord have mercy! So, as we close this book of unsurrendered, unchecked kings, what lingers with you from 2Kings? For me: "My plan is moving ahead in the worst of times. Don't make it your goal to change bad times to good. Pray for that and do all that you can to improve the world in which you live. But above all else, seek to Know Me Better and Represent Me Well in every circumstance, no matter how you feel." 66 LL. Oh my LORD, that's my ending prayer for all of us---may we seek to know YOU better and represent YOU well, no matter what is going on with our husbands, our children, our world!
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I've had some computer issues for a few weeks now along with finishing up some projects so I've been mostly off of the internet. Finally posted something today on my other blog about Blair---I know one of you was hoping to hear.
ReplyDeleteCici---everything okay? You've been silent! Michele H.===everything going well, been praying for you!
All the evil in these last books has been eye-opening for me ...heart-opening..."For the line between good and evil does not run between us and them; it runs through each one of us." 66 LL. There's such HOPE for the evil in each one of us! "Failure is an opportunity." Evil cannot stop God and His Plan A. HE is so moving in my mess!
2 Kings tells us what happens when we put anything before God, when we align ourselves wrongly, and how we can be so desensitized as not to see our sin. Thankfully, God is always there ready, willing and able to help us as we seek to change for His Glory.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that all the repentance in this chapter didn't appease God's white hot anger.
ReplyDeleteInnocent blood shed by Manasseh had sizzled this anger in God. And nothing appeased it.
How God's white hot anger must be glowing against us now.
Let's go to a theater this Friday night and see what Christians pay there money to watch. Is it what a follower of Christ should be viewing?
Let's look at the community of faith this Sunday morning and see where the Christians are. At the races? At the sporting events? At Walmart? Or in their place of worship?
Let's go to the doctor's office and see who's paying for an abortion. Is it the girl from the hood or is it the girl who sits in church on Sunday morning?
Now let's visit the church. Watch who tithes. Watch who hatefully gossips. Watch who spreads lies about pastors. Watch who refuses to serve.
And how in the name of God are we as a community of faith sacrificing our own children to the enemy of darkness? I keep pondering this...because I know every sin that Israel committed, we are just as guilty today. How are we sacrificing our children?
Is it the markings or tattooing on their bodies?
Is it the unsupervised trashy behavior exposed on youtube by our youth...even our christian children?
I don't know!!!
I'm just trying to see through our blindness to evil and open my own eyes to my own evil.
We must expose it. We must rip our hearts in total disgust...just like Josiah ripped his robe.
Bev, what impression am I left with after this book of the bible?
It's not what I've learned from all of this, it's how I feel.
I feel dirty. I feel exposed. I feel distant from God. I feel humbly repentant.
I may not have sacrificed at an altar to an idol, but I have sinned against God. My God.
And I am so very sad for my own sin. Not for my wounds, insecurities and failures needing therapy...for my sins needing forgiveness.
Father, forgive me for how I've failed you. Create in me in a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. May I be disgusted with sin. I choose You, God. Thank You for showing me the ugly evil in me. I love You. I worship You. I am undone in Your Presence. I literally abhor the evil that is in me today. Let us walk on, because we have work to do. Your plan continues even in the evil times of today. I want to be like Elijah, Elisha, Hezekiah and Josiah. I want to be like Daniel. Spirit, invade me to live victoriously in evil times. In the precious name of Jesus I pray. amen.
I'm here! I've been reading the posts. I've just run out of time in the days this week to log back in to comment once I've collected my thoughts. Lots to think about!
ReplyDeleteLoved today's comments. Deborah - you articulated SO WELL what I'm feeling after reading this book. Dirty. Exposed. Sad.
I feel very scattered and disorganized and deconstructed. Yet I am convinced it's from the Lord, encouraging me to examine what I believe, what I do and why, and what evil looks like in me.
My husband tends toward the self-condemnation side, while I tend toward the making-excuses-for-myself side, and God knows it. (We're quite a pair!)
But God is asking me to examine my heart and not justify what He already sees there. Attitudes, motives, excuses, etc. With the busyness of life with two little ones, I could just ignore it all, but this reading won't let me. While it's hard emotionally and spiritually, I'm grateful for the conviction, for God not letting me stay where I am.
As I read about Josiah, I was amazed that his complete obedience didn't remove any of God's anger at Judah. Reminded me how serious God is about the consequences of sin and evil.
Ultimately, what I'm left with is the same quote from 66 LL: "But above all else, seek to Know Me Better and Represent Me Well in every circumstance, no matter how you feel."
Arriving here a little late today, but extra blessed by your comments! I just read out loud to Mike the 66LL quote: ..."For the line between good and evil does not run between us and them; it runs through each one of us." We are both humbled by our capacity for evil, always assuming our hearts represent good and evil is simply who or what stands against us. How careful we must be to guard our hearts from this deception--another form of evil in its presumed innocuous disguise. And not only to guard but purify our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the dark deceptions we tell ourselves--excuse making, insecurity, "we meant well..." whatever. I'm disgusted with my own heart and so thankful for the True Hope that resides within that didn't just come to live within but to take over this self-centered mess of a heart.
ReplyDeleteAs for Josiah, God saw and recorded in His Book the highest of accolades for him--never before or since would the world see such a repentant and obedient king as Josiah. He had a great reward, apart from what heaven provided. He led well. He couldn't make up for the whole Judah, but he did a good job. Judah was a mess for a very long time--I am worn out just reading these past weeks of the evil--but like you all, feel a need to really let God clean the evil out, the impurities within which lurk in the deep recesses. I have enough on my own plate to worry too much about what everyone else is doing. The whole world is full of sin, evil, and dispicable things that must burn anger in God today. Frankly, I am busy, busy just trying to deal with my own stuff "the fray of my own heart" as Bev says, to be an acceptable vessel for Him to use in any Kingdom purpose at all. I don't pray "Use me mightily" anymore. Maybe it's a weak prayer, but I just pray, "make me acceptable in Your Eyes that I may be found in You." No grand dreams, but the grandest of Hope that He can and will do this. Because I know if I am in Christ, I am in His Power and useful to His Kingdom in any way He chooses.
I so love your comments. He must be pleased with the depth of your struggles working out these hard things in your little corner with Him each day. Thank you for taking the time to stop by here.
Whew....I've been out of town these past few days, and just getting caught up on my commenting with our reading.
ReplyDeleteI was so relived to get to Josiah and his way of renewing the Convenant with God. Chapter 23 really spoke to my heart, because it reminded me as I spring clean my home, I need to also really evaluate the "spring cleaning" I need to do with my spiritual life, and to look at what I am feeding my spirit.
This is always so hard to do, but my desire is to draw closer to the Lord, and to do that I must rid some things that truly are not glorifying to Him. Josiah recognized sin, eliminated sinful practices, and attacked the causes of sin. This HAS TO BE the approach I must take, to not only remove sinful actions, but to also eliminate causes for sin (such as relationships, routines, and patters of life that lead me to the door of temptation.)