One Year Bible, June 30

2 KINGS 17:1-18:12                                                                                                         
CAPTIVITY!  Licentiousness and idolatry ALWAYS lead to captivity.  It says that HOSHEA was not as evil as the kings before him, but it was TOO LITTLE TOO LATE.  They served heathen idols and gods, and disregarded the prophets God sent to warn them.  They "rejected God's statutes and His covenant that He made with their fathers..."  They used divinations, human sacrifices, left ALL God's commandments - and so God "God rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of His sight."   The King of ASSYRIA besieged Samaria (Israel's capital) for THREE YEARS, and in 723 BC he carried 27,280 captives into Assyria as slaves and scattered and dispersed them there, so that they got absorbed. They are known as the "Ten Lost Tribes" to this day. The Assyrians then occupied Samaria themselves.

CAPTIVITY? Being in captivity does not necessarily mean you are demon possessed.   It DOES mean that you have been captured, mastered, or subjected to obedience to something other than what you want.   Romans 6:16 says you are in the power of the thing you choose to obey.   For most of usit is our own FLESH, or SELF.   Influencing and empowering SELF is the antichristian world-spirit that "hates God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom 8:7)   The Book of Romans describes our complete liberty from sin and death, from the flesh, and from external religious laws (because they have been replaced by relationship with the Lawgiver and internalized).   BUT, sin leads to self-justification and then self-deception.   And sin ALWAYS ends in "death"- darkness, chaos, and separation from God's Presence.   That is what captivity is like! God's Word concerning the antichristian world-spirit is simple: Don't fear. Don't bow. Don't serve. Don't sacrifice.

HEZEKIAH: King of JUDAH.  His primary prophets were Isaiah, Micah and Nahum.  He came to the throne at 25 years old and reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years.  He was a GODLY KING and brought the first great REVIVAL reported in the Bible.  He opened the doors of the Temple, cleansed it and made atonement at the altar.  He smote the Philistines and GOD beat back the Assyrians for him. "after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him."   He "held fast to the Lord" and "the Lord was with him."

RESPONSE:  Idolatry is also called "whoredoms and adultery" in the Bible. Because Israel continued in their sin - God DIVORCED THEM.   He wanted them OUT OF HIS SIGHT! Judah, on the other hand, lasted another 125 years before they, too, were carried away captives. God is long-suffering toward us, and desires repentance. What are we to repent from? From getting sucked into the mindset of the world around us.  From our INDEPENDENCE AND IDOLATRY! Man never changes with God's intervention.  Repent from our substitutes for God.  Repent for seeking fulfillment and happiness without God.

ACTS 20:1-38                                                                                                                      
THE LOVE AND CARE OF THE CHURCH: Paul EMBRACED them and gave them MUCH exhortation. He was affectionate, generous (taking offerings to the saints, not himself), generous with his time (preached ALL NIGHT), generous in giving of himself ---he walked when he could have gone by boat, in order that those who loved him could accompany him partway (20-30 miles).   Paul was JOYFUL, and unmoved by anything that would take him off-course and hinder him from finishing what God gave him to do.   He withheld nothing from the church, but modeled the Christian walk, and taught it.   He never did any ministry for money, and at times he paid his own way entirely.

"THE WORD OF GOD'S GRACE":  Another definition of grace:  That "which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."  God's grace is EMPOWERMENT.

"IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE."  Do you want to know the Truth about what this means?  It means that a person grows faster spiritually by giving sacrificially of himself, than he does by receiving the spiritual ministry of others!

RESPONSE:  Haven't you heard that line when you were being exhorted to give?  But if you look at its context, you will see that it is used to exhort us to "support the weak” - by giving OURSELVES.  "To be blessed" is to prosper spiritually´- or to go forward in our lives, to grow and to gain spiritual strength and power.  We do that by GIVING MINISTRY, NOT BY RECEIVING MINISTRY!  And certainly not by the giving or receiving of money!

PSALM 148:1-14                                                                                                                

JOINT PRAISE: HEAVEN AND EARTH TOGETHER.  Key word here: "PRAISE". What does it mean to "praise the Lord"?  The word used here, "halal" means "to be clamorously foolish", but to do it loudly, clearly and distinctly so that people know exactly Who you are talking about, and what you are saying.   It means "to make a fool of oneself", "to act like a madman". "To make a show", "to rave and celebrate".   Apparently that's how it's done in the heavens by the angels, the heavenly armies, the stars, the sun and moon.  And everything in the earth does it too.   Even the mountains and the weather formations.  "His glory is above the earth and heaven."

PROVERBS 18:6-7                                                                                                           
"A fool's mouth invites a beating."   His mouth is his undoing, his lips bring him strife, and are a "snare to his soul."

RESPONSE:   A fool is ruined by his own reckless and thoughtless speech. Whenever he talks, he causes trouble. And the more he talks, the more tangled up he gets. He invites correction when he opens his mouth! (not that he accepts it)  It seems to me that a fool should just keep his mouth shut!