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I am receiving a richer and deeper flavor of the importance of us reading the Bible. As I have shared, God sent me on a journey to reread his Word to enrich my relationship with Him. When I was a child and a Sunday School student, I remember thinking to myself, why are we going over these same stories again and again… I already know them! Now as an adult, I know the importance. Because when life starts to happen, as it will for all of us, Satan will swoop in to kill, steal, and destroy any memory we have of the good things that God has done for his people and for YOU!

1 Chronicles depicts the names of anyone with a title and how many of them they are. I came to the conclusion it is why this book is called Chronicles. It chronicles just about everyone! In Chapter 28, David is talking about building a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant. David wanted to build this house himself. However, in verse 3, David said God told him because he had been a man of war and had shed blood he could not build the house for him.

Let’s park here for a moment. Undoubtedly, there are some lessons to be gleaned from this. Number one, David was listening to God. He was open to hear what God was saying to him. Had David been operating in the flesh he could have ignored God and did it his way. Number two, David humbled himself before God. It must have been a shock to David’s ego because he came up with the idea and he had the desire to do it. Yet, David humbled himself before God and allowed God to have his way. Are you allowing God to have his way in your life? 

As we move along in this chapter, David is sharing this information with princes, tribes, captains of the many companies. So there were many people gathered to hear David share his faith and declaration to God. It was clearly about God and not about him. David shares that God chose Solomon, of all of his sons, to build this temple unto Him. And David shares the great inheritance that will be upon Solomon as he takes on this task that God shared with him.

Verse 9 is so piercing when you read it. It is the best advice a father could give to his son, a parent to their child, a friend to a friend. David urges Solomon to know God as his father, serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind because God searches ALL hearts and understands ALL imaginations of the thoughts. Folks, this is rich and deep! I encourage you to read this verse for yourself. David goes on to tell Solomon if you seek God you will find him. Then comes the caution, if you forsake him, he will forsake you. Wow! Then he encourages him to take heed of what he has told him and to remember God has chosen him to build this temple, so be strong and DO IT! Glory!

What great advice! This is the best advice ever… even for us! We have to remember that God knows our hearts and our minds, thoughts and imaginations. That is all encompassing. It is EVERYTHING. God knows us through and through. AND, if we seek Him we will find Him. David ends this advice by telling Solomon to be STRONG and DO IT…Enough said… Love & Blessings!

David was a man after God’s own heart. However, David did some things over and over and over again God did not like. Why do you think those things are mentioned in the Bible? It is for us to learn the lessons of David’s mistakes. Not to give us permission to do the same as some people seem to think when they try and justify their wrong doing. God is putting it out there for us to exercise wisdom and caution in our own lives. 1 Chronicles 21:1 clearly states that Satan provoked David to number or conduct a census on Israel. Verse 7 in that same chapter tells us that God was displeased with this and smote Israel.

Consequences were sent for David’s action. The next verse shows David acknowledging his sin. This was an act that God did not ask David to do and showed David’s prideful behavior of wanting to know how much power he had in the land. God hates pride. It separates us from Him and we start to think we can do things independently of God. This is very similar thinking of what happened to Satan and how he separated himself from God.

God sends Gad, David’s seer, to tell David He has three things, or consequences, He can do unto him. We love to focus on God’s mercy and love for us, which is good, and we should. God does not want us to be afraid of Him; He does want us to respect Him as the God of the universe. He has already told us He is a jealous God. He LOVED us so much that He sacrificed His son, Jesus, which is something we should not take lightly. However, Satan wants us to take it lightly and brush off our sins as simply asking for forgiveness and Jesus will take care of the rest. Jesus does cover our sins for those who have accepted Him, but it does not absolve the consequences.

Satan does not want us to think our actions through to the point of consequences. He wants us to think it through just enough so we can satisfy our flesh through pleasure or getting someone back through word or deed. In the Bible we see, uncannily and unsettlingly ways those sins came back and hurt those giants that we love so much in the Word. Moses, David and Solomon, are a few. You can read throughout the Bible how some of these sins did some of them in. In the New Testament, Jesus describes how He will dismiss some of the religious leaders saying He never knew them as they try to make it into heaven. There are many mysteries in the Bible we cannot explain, but God has given us enough to let us know those things we should stay away from.

1 Chronicles 21:12, God gave David the choice of three consequences for his sin. The choices were three years of famine, three months to be destroyed by his enemies, or three days of pestilence in the land. Wow! So, we see God uses famine, war, and pestilence to chastise or punish his people. We also hope our sins do not bring about harsh consequences. We cannot sit down and try to figure out why things happen the way that they do. We cannot sit around and judge people on their actions. God has called us to love him, trust him and do good to all, even our enemies.  We also believe ALL things work together for our good for those who love God and who are called for His purpose. So, in the hustle and bustle of living our lives, lest not forget about the consequences for our actions… Believe me, Satan does not want you to think about this. Love and Blessings!

In 1 Chronicles we see that David is made king after Saul’s death. We get a description of the valiant men of David’s army and the companies that came before David (1 Chronicles 11 10-47). In the transfer of power, if you will, the Ark of the Covenant must be transferred as well. There is no doubt that David had a love for God. Skillfully, God had been preparing him for many years to take the throne, but not before his time, which is also a lesson for us. We never want to get ahead of God’s plan s for our life.

In the transferring of the Ark of the Covenant we see in 1 Chronicles 13:7, they are using a new cart to transport it. Uzza and Ahio are the drivers of the cart. David is enthusiastic and wanting to do things the “right” way. So, sometimes when we become so enthusiastic in what we are doing we occasionally forget procedures and protocols. Subsequently, when the Ark was about to tumble over, Uzza reached out and touched the Ark, which was forbidden by God. God had given Moses instructions long ago on how the Ark was to be handled. This angered God and He smote Uzza; he died before God (1 Chronicles 13:10). In turn, David was afraid of God and did not know how to handle the Ark (1 Chronicles 13:12).

David became perplexed and did not know what to do. After, this event, David went up against the Philistines and God showed favor upon him (1 Chronicles 14:10). God gave David more instructions and showed favor on how to defeat the enemy in battle. After receiving these instructions from God, David realized his mistake with transferring the Ark. Then, David gave new instructions for the Levites to carry the Ark as was instructed by God with Moses (1 Chronicles 15: 1-15). This is significant because once again, we see the importance of doing things the way God has instructed.

David got a do over in transferring the Ark. They had a huge celebration with singer and instruments of music. It was a joyful, festive celebration. It is a lesson for us that when we go before God and acknowledge our wrong doing, asked for forgiveness, and repent, the Lord will redeem us! Praise God! … We get do overs, too! Love & Blessings!

Have you been able to see the lessons or the things God wanted you to know during this COVID pandemic? With a world-wide pandemic, it certainly gave us ALL a moment to pause. COVID slowed our pace of life for most of us. In a sense, it gave us a time of rest from the normal. In the Bible we see that Jesus took time to get away from the normal, the crowds, to spend time with our Father, God. I believe sometimes we forget that the same God of the Bible is the same God we are serving today! God wants us to spend time with Him. Satan does not want us to embrace that in our spirits. Again, he tries to kill, steal, and destroy the things of God in our lives.

Fortunately, God has given us a day of rest. He gave us seven days in a week and out of those seven we should be taking at least one day of rest. Are you taking one day of rest? We actually should be communing with our Heavenly Father throughout the day, for the Bible says we should be praising and worshiping God from sunrise to sunset (Psalms 113: 3-5). Satan does not want you to know that either because doing this is one of the things that build our faith. So what does this look like? It can be playing worship music, singing, talking to God, meditating on things of good report, asking God for his help, etc. It is a life that shows its dependence on God!

I believe one of the reasons for COVID was to draw us closer to our God. Yes, God is calling us and He wants us closer to Him. We can never be too close. This world, Satan’s kingdom, will swallow you up if you let it. COVID also should have allowed us to assess and reassess what is going on in our individual lives. COVID exposed many things that are going on in our lives, if we are honest. It showed us what needs to remain, and what needs to go. It showed us what needs to be fixed and what needs to be readjusted.

In the Bible, we see how God used plagues, war, and famine to call his people back to him. They kept turning away and turning away from him. He used these events to get their attention and most of them made the adjustments in their lives to put God first place in their lives. What has God shown you through COVID, this plague that has visited us? Love & Blessings!

Which are YOU…  A fan of Jesus or a follower of Jesus?

Are you a fan of Jesus or a follower of Jesus? This is a poignant and relevant question. Why? Jesus had many admirers. Today, he has millions of admirers.  He is known well and respected by others. Many people can tell you about the miracles he performed on the earth. Many can tell you how he suffered on the cross. Many can tell you how he was resurrected. Many can prophesy in his name. Many can heal the sick in his name. Many give lip service to Jesus. Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV reads “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew You; depart from me, You who practice lawlessness!’ Is this an example of fans of Jesus? What would make Jesus say such a thing to these religious folks? Could it be they never gave their hearts to Jesus?

Who would a follower of Jesus be? Well, I believe Jesus gave a clue in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus says those who do the will of my Father in heaven will enter into heaven. So, a follower is someone who does the will of Father God in heaven. God is not looking for perfection. That is why he sent His son, Jesus. He is looking for a heart that loves Him and His son and who is obedient to the Holy Spirit. Here lies one of the mysteries of God because only he can judge our hearts. However, a follower of Jesus goes beyond knowing everything about him, a follower is a reflection in his life of Jesus Christ and manifesting the Fruit of the Spirit. We can only do this when we choose to walk in the Spirit. Additionally, he is not practicing lawlessness. And when we do mess up we are Godly sorry and God knows it. No need to beat ourselves up about it. We confess and repent and move forward. Satan is the accuser and will tell us who we are not in Christ. God’s love for us and what Jesus did for us on the cross. That should empower us to do better and be the follower, not the fan of Jesus, we should be. Love & Blessings!

When Satan tries to convince you your peace, contentment, joy, etc., you have from living your life to honor God is bad or wrong, tell him he is a liar and keep it moving in Jesus’ name! Many times this will come in the form of people because that is who Satan likes to use most often. We see this in Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33 when Jesus tells Peter get thee behind me Satan when Peter tries to correct Jesus about His mission upon the Earth. Now, I don’t recommend calling people “Satan”, however, I believe Jesus is teaching us many lessons in these passages. Number one, sometime people in your inner circle will sometimes not understand your mission. Number two, sometimes you have to distance yourself from these people. I call it, “Love them from a distance.” If you happen to live with the person this is happening, know that God will give you the grace to deal with the situation until he decides to move or change things.

Additionally, Satan tried to convince Jesus all he had to offer him was much better than what God had to offer. That is LOL funny, but a lot of times we do not see this in the natural.  In, Matthew 4:1-11, we see that the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. Remember, when we are being tested it is to build our character and to prove our faith before God. So, Satan literally tries to lure Jesus in with the sins and enticements of this world we live in consisting of power, influence, and attack his identity and ego. Satan does the same to us, too, right?

Finally, in the end Jesus told Satan man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God. Jesus continually quoted scripture to the devil! He used the word of God to put Satan in his place… What an example for us! When Satan tries to convince us, and he will, that our choices for God have been in vain or fruitless, recognize it is from Satan and then feed back to him the word of God. Folks, this is the importance of US knowing the word of God for ourselves. It is one of the weapons we have to fight Satan when he comes prancing around in our lives. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve, did not have scripture to defend themselves, but they did have God’s direct instructions to them to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15) and today God tells us to stay away from the sins of this world.

God has sent us out as His modern-day disciples. Christians are modern day disciples or Christ followers.  As we go out and people do not receive what you are saying or doing, Jesus told the disciples to kick the dust off of your shoes and keep it moving (Matthew 10:14). In other words, we do not have to debate people about the word of God. Satan will use these people to disrespect you and try to lure you into conflict and strife with them. That is not our mission though. Our mission is to spread the word of God through the Fruit of the Spirit. Once you have said it and once you have done it, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to penetrate people’s hearts. Satan will try to discourage you when people do not receive what you have to say or do.  Remember, Satan is a liar! Do and say God’s word and let the Holy Spirit do the rest! Obey God and leave the consequences to Him. God will honor your love and obedience to Him. Love & Blessings!