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The Holy Spirit will speak to you as you read God’s word. He will tell you things you need to know as it applies to you. He will also bring to your remembrance things you may have seen or heard before, as they apply. So, I have noticed how God reacts to a humble spirit. I have surmised that it softens God’s heart when your spirit is humble. For example, one of the reasons why God used Moses was because of his humble spirit (Numbers 2:3).

II Chronicles 12 we read that Rehoboam is now king after the passing of his father Solomon. We see in verse one as Rehoboam built his kingdom, he forgot God. So, this is one of the patterns or themes throughout the Bible. I believe it is a caution to us. As we move through life and start using “I” in reference to our achievements, our possessions, etc., we become prideful, which God hates. Glaringly, God has not been shy in his Word in telling us what he will do for us if we obey him and what He will do if we do not.

I am convinced God LOVES it when we talk about Him and acknowledge Him in all that we are and what we have. He is right! A humble spirit recognizes we are NOTHING without him. A prideful spirit has a difficult time acknowledging that because it wants to think, well I must have done something to make this happen for me. What about God leading and guiding my footsteps in all that I am and what I have. I’d say you can’t go wrong with that sentiment. A humble spirit is wat God loves! When God looks at you does he see a prideful spirit or a humble spirit? Love & Blessings!     

God asked me to go back and read his word again fall 2021. We are approaching fall 2022 and I am almost done completing the reading of the entire Bible. The things I have discovered in reading His word has been jaw dropping for me. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget, dismiss, or simply do not want to submit and obey those things God has asked of us. Supernaturally, as we read God’s word, the Holy Spirit will reveal, illuminate, highlight, and speak to our spirit, if we are open to Him. These are some of the reasons the importance of each of us in reading the Word for yourself. Invariably, Satan will try and lie to you and discourage you by telling you it is hard to read and you will not understand it.

God will speak to you on your level to understand it! Astonishingly, the beauty is as God is helping you, He will take you deeper and deeper into the things of Him, if you let Him. However, He will not force Himself on you though. He wants us to love Him willingly and to get to know Him intimately. Ultimately, this is what our relationship with Him is all about. Why is this important for us to come to God willingly and have an intimate relationship with Him? Because He wants us to KNOW him as He knows us! This is what relationship is all about.

I want to go back to II Chronicles 7: 13. God talks about the things He can do. He talks about sending no rain, calling locust to devour the land, and sending pestilence among the people. This is not new because in previous books in the Bible we see God using these methods before. So, nothing is new to God, he has seen it all. COVID was new to the world though. Frustratingly, we were scrambling trying to figure out what was going on, what it was, and how to combat it.

COVID is our modern-day pestilence. When you look at everything that is happening in our country and in the world and us flaunting our sins in front of God as if He does not exist, and is not seeing and hearing everything, who is not to say that COVID is a pestilence that God sent. God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. We know that He does not change. Jesus was not sent to give us a pass on our sins. He came to save us from our sins, but it does not absolve the consequences of our sins. If God, did it back then, He can do it today. Love & Blessings!

Reading the Bible should bring much JOY! It should bring us joy because the same God of the Bible is the same God we serve today! I am encouraged when I read the Bible because the same things He did for people back then are the same things He is capable of doing today! Assuredly, I believe this was one of the reasons why God sent me on this mission to read His word, the Bible, again back in the fall. It has been quite the journey! It has built my relationship with Him and has given me a deeper and richer understanding of Him. Graciously, I believe this really pleases God.

In my book, Where Is God!? Blessed Are The Pure In Heart For They Shall See God, I talk about how God knows us inside out. He knows everything there is to know about us. Thankfully, our opportunity to get to know him intimately is through reading and knowing His word. It also serves as protection for us, too, when Satan tries to throw his lies at us.

So, God made us for progress. Wonderfully, there is always something more He has for us. We can say it is the, “Next Best Thing”, he has for us! That is exciting! I have gathered from my readings of the Bible that when we seek God with all of our hearts, not only will we find Him, but He will reward us, too! Sometimes in life, things can get stagnant. We get tired of the same old humdrum. Or maybe we are transitioning from one life changing event to another. Needless to say, we often wonder or ask the question what is next? Even with this, we should be seeking God and pose this question to Him.

We know that God has the BEST plan for our lives. I take refuge and pleasure in knowing I can go to God with the question of what is the next BEST thing for me. So, I do this with anticipation. I eagerly look for God to see what doors He is opening. Curiously, LI look at the doors He is closing, too. Without a doubt, I look for His favor and blessings in my life. Invariably, I recognize the things he has protected me from and the things he has spared me of. You see, for those of us who are seeking the abundant, victorious life God has promised us, He is with us ALWAYS. He will not forsake us because our hearts are very near to him.

We do not have to live defeated lives or lives that are living in the world and chasing after its trappings. We know what the end result that will be.  Remember, we live in the world, but we do not have to be of the world. God has the Next BEST Thing for us if we will continue to seek Him. Love & Blessings!

God’s creature the oyster! Do you like oysters? Tell me about your experience with oysters? Did you know that oysters can change their sex? Wow! So many wonderful things about the oyster. Listen to my video and click on “Photo Gallery” to ” Oyster Expedition Photos” on this website to see more! You can also find this on my social media page… Enjoy! Love & Blessings!

In last week’s blog we ended in II Chronicles 7 where God has acknowledged Solomon’s prayer. In reading the Bible has anyone noticed how God repeats himself over and over and over again? I believe God does this because what He is saying is very important to Him. No different from us. When we repeated ourselves, we want to make sure that people understand our message.

God emphasizes many things in acknowledging Solomon’s prayer. First, in verse 13 he tells him what He is capable of. Second, in verse 14 he gives him a prescription to how he can be blessed by Him. Then God starts repeating himself as He told David and the other mighty men before him, which was to walk before me, do what I command, observe my statues and judgements (verse 17). Further, God goes on to tell Solomon then he will establish his kingdom and will not fail him. However, in short, if you turn from me, if you forsake me, and serve other gods, and worship them, I will pluck them up by the roots by the land given to you, cast you out of my sight and use it as an example in the proverbs and bywords among the nation (verse19-20). Without hesitancy, God goes on to say people will wonder what happened when they see this and it will say because they forsook God and he has brought ALL of this evil upon then (verse 21-22).

Whoa! What a warning! Is this happening today? Yes! People do not want to acknowledge it, but maybe it is happening because we have forsaken God. People are in denial about this, too. But when you read God’s word for yourself and know what He is asking from us, it is clear. God reminds us in II Chronicles he can send pestilence. Is COVID a pestilence God has sent upon the world because of our disobedience? Hmmm… Love & Blessings!

Solomon was faced with the task of building a temple for the Lord to house the ark of the covenant. This was magnificent in all its splendor. David, Solomon’s father, gave him the instructions on how it should be built. II Chronicles 3 – 4 describes the magnificence of the temple.

Chapter 5 tells us once it was completed and how Solomon brought everything into the temple. David, who is now dead, dedicated all the items before his death. Upon completing the temple there was a celebration of feasting, singing, and sacrificing. Everything Moses had handed down through the generations was intact as we read in verse 10 of this chapter. And the glory of the Lord was present (II Chronicles 5:14).   

Solomon begins a most eloquent prayer starting in II Chronicles: 6.  It is a prayer of blessing, thanksgiving, remembrance, acknowledgement, and supplication. Solomon prays for verification and for forgiveness of sins that may be committed by the people of Israel. Solomon goes on and on in this extended eloquent prayer ultimately asking God to dwell in the temple and bless the people who seek after Him in the temple. Finally, Solomon ends his prayer in asking God for the mercies He showed to his father David.

God acknowledges Solomon’s prayer in Chapter 7! Verse 12 says God came to Solomon by night and told him he heard his prayer. He reminds Solomon he could shut up the heavens where there is no rain (drought); He could command locusts to devour the land (famine), or send a pestilence (virus like COVID???) among the people. God goes on to say if the people who are called by his name would humble themselves, pray, and seek Him, turn from their wicked ways, then he will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. There is more… will continue with this in next week’s blog! Folks, this is good stuff! Love & Blessings!

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!