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Could Death be the Consequence of Living?
Have you ever been called by God to do something that might cause your death? It you just think about the Lord doing that, would you continue in the doing?
Biblical Ground Work: 2 Kings 11:1-20; 2 Chronicles 22:11
Judah and Israel were on shaky ground once more because of their pagan worshipping. King after king was leading Israel away from the Lord so the Lord allowed kingdom after kingdom to invade them but this invasion was not from another kingdom. It was from within.
Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah, took control of Judah by force destroying the royal heirs minus one. Jehosheba, sister of King Ahaziah, took Joash, the kings son, and hid him away with his nanny within the temple for six years.
She has access to the temple because Jehoiada the priest is her husband. It is him that creates the rebellion against Athaliah. He makes Joash king and has her killed.
Biblical Life Lesson: The Lord is worth living for even in the face of death.
Jehosheba was in a position to give her life by doing something that she knew was the right thing to do. Did the Lord promise her He would keep her safe while she kept a covenant king alive? Not that we read.
She went forward not knowing whether it would cost her life or even her husbands life. I am sure that she did not regret one single moment of her private rebellion but I am sure that she was scared.
Join us Tuesday’s at 6pm EST for a live discussion in The Bible Gals here.
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Death Makes you Alive
Have you had a near death experience or heard one that changed you?
The Widow of Zarepath thought she and her son would die but then her son actually did die. This experience could do nothing but change her forever.
Our Biblical Background: 1 Kings 17
Elijah, a prophet of God, rose up in the Land of Israel to tell Ahab there would be a famine in the land for three years. Ahab had allowed his wife Jezebel to set up Baal and Asherah high places for people to worship.
The Lord fed Elijah with the birds until the water dried up then He sent him to a widow in Zarepath, a suburb of Sidon. She was at the gate collecting twigs when Elijah showed up. He asked for a drink and a morsel of bread. She told him she had only a little and then her and her son were going to die.
That was not part of God’s plan for her so she lived. Elijah stayed with her but while he was there her son took ill and died. Elijah brought him up to his room and begged the Lord to put his soul back inside him. The Lord answered him and the boy lived. A miracle offered to all of us.
Our Biblical Lesson: Living begins when our old self dies.
The widow was willing to die physically when Elijah got to her but was her old self willing to die as well. The death of the widows son was enough sorrow for her old self to take up her cross. All the teachings Elijah gave her during the time that he was with her were confirmed for her.
As Jesus followers we understand this concept and can get behind it but are we living it? Are we carrying our old self around with us and giving her licence to lead? Are you alive in Christ or are you dead in self? Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
Join me in The Bible Gals Monday at 2pm EST to discuss the Biblical Power Tools for how to live for Christ and die to self.
I have exciting news for you as well. I am running a FREE Biblical Goal Bootcamp to help you plan a future with Jesus in The Bible Gals from February 22-26th. You can learn how to set biblical goals even if you don’t know your vision from God yet. Sign up here and make sure you join The Bible Gals.
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The Strong Survive
The Animal Kingdom
While watching Animal Kingdom Leola was given a revelation from God. Among us in the church there are the strong and there are the weak. Thank the Lord we don’t eat each other although we do try to consume each other. What is it making one person strong and the other weak? She asks herself, “Am I strong or am I weak?” Then God asks here clearly, “Which do you choose?” Good questions. Of course she would choose strong but that is so much easier to say than to do. Strength doesn’t come from how well she can control others it comes from how well she can control herself. It comes from how well she does what the Lord has assigned for her. It comes from how much she knows Him. The strong, she thinks, survive what God has in store for them! There are two very prominent character traits of the strong, trust and courage. They are interchangeable daily. Strong people trust God to do what He says He will so they stand before the daunting task with courage. Every time they act with courage and survive they trust more. The strong have the courage to do what God tells them to do because they trust Him. Every time they trust Him they acquire more courage. How often does our Lord say, “Fear not and take courage!” Trust Him and stand before the task with courage to do what He wants us to do is the main theme. Can we learn this from the animal kingdom? No, we cannot, Leola tells herself! Their strong survive by instinct, size and fierceness! They fight for dominance and they win by fighting to injure, maim or kill. For the animal kingdom winning is living but for the Kingdom of God the strong are dying to live!
Only the dead will survive in the Kingdom of God. It is not about animal strength or instinct or even reasoning, it is about how well we kill ourselves and fill our lifeless bodies with God. In the Kingdom of God it is about giving others your food not eating it yourself. It is giving away our riches to provide for others. It’s about becoming foolish to gain wisdom. It’s about getting to the back of the line to be first in line. All of this goes against the grain of our world. It goes against the grain of our own soul. This is a fight we can only win when we concede. When we concede our strength becomes boundless.
The Kingdom of God
The people who are in the Kingdom of God kill themselves. They don’t wait to be killed by the dominant animal in the group or by predators. As they kill themselves God dominates them and that is when they become strong. They are not surviving by instinct and they don’t have to chase down their prey – God supplies it. This is the most peculiar concept in the world for Leola who is fiercely independent. God bids her to want the Kingdom of God by proving He can be trusted! Leola is killing what God tells her to kill because she trusts He will replace it with better. She improves what He tells her to improve because she trust He is going to use that someday. She only has the courage to do any of it because she trusts God to keep her safe. God knows Leola will survive in the Kingdom of God because He gives her His strength to survive.
It is not easy to trust God enough to kill yourself but to survive in the Kingdom of God we must learn to trust Him. The more we put our own life on the line the more courage we get because we tap into the strength given to us by God to do what He wants us to do. He created us knowing we would be filled with fear and doubt and He told us over and over He would be our strength. He has proven Himself to be faithful to us therefore we should prove ourselves to others to be strong enough to survive.
Meditation Verses for this week: Psalm 8 (HCSB Version). This versions speaks directly to this. Believe verse four when it says that we were created a little lower than God because the original Hebrew uses the word Elohim. Another verse to prove this out is 1 Corinthians 6:3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? We are made a little lower than God – does that make you feel strong enough to survive. I hope so?
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Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
