He Is Lord

II Kings 20: 9-11

Isaiah said, "This is your sign from the Lord that He will do what He promises. Do you want the shadow to go forward ten steps or come back ten steps?"
Hezekiah replied, "It's easy for the shadow to extend ten more steps forward. No, let it come back ten steps."
Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow that had gone forward on Ahaz's stairway to back up ten steps.

Here's something God did that was impossible--He made the Sun go backward ten degrees on the sundial! That means that He added time to the day. 

This is the Stairway of Ahaz which was a westward-facing flight of stairs which served as a sundial. The setting Sun's shadow would go up on the stairs as the Sun went down, but the shadow went back down ten steps before going back up again. 

How could God do this? Did He stop the Earth? Did He move the Sun? We don't know how He did it, but whatever He did, it affected the whole Universe, because NASA's scientists found the anomaly in Time in their calculations. 

Hezekiah thought he would die of this serious boil, but God told Isaiah to make a poultice of figs to put on it (v. 7), and he was healed, to live another 15 years (v. 6). 

Nothing is impossible with God. He is God, He is the One Who made everything, and designed it all to run like clockwork. Since He made it, He can also mess with it, without causing a mess in it. 

We think that if the Earth stopped or went backward, that the inertia would cause everything to go haywire! But God is God, we are not, and if God wants to suspend the operation of His rules a little, who can say He can't? He's Lord, He's the Boss! 

Just like when my son made his villages and castles with Legos, he could move them around and remake them anyway he wanted, because they were his creations. He was the boss of them, just like God is the Lord over what He made.

This blows my mind! God can do anything He wants, even fool with Time! 

O Father, You really can do anything! And what You do is always good, because You are good. You can mess with Time without everything crashing and colliding, because You hold us all in Your hand. Your power goes beyond anything I can imagine. 

And You love me more than I can imagine. Thank You, Daddy, for making me Your little girl. Thank You for Your power, for Your greatness, for Your goodness. Thank You for calling out from every Nation, from every people, from every language, from every family line, to be Your own children, born spiritually into Your own family. 

Thank You for telling me about how You will help me whenever I'm at the end of my rope; teach me to call on You before I reach the end. Let me turn to You first, not make You my last resort.

And thank You for telling me about the wonderful future You are preparing for me right now. I look forward to that indescribable time I will have with You in that eternity future. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

"Spread It Out Before The Lord"

II Kings 19: 32-33

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, "He shall not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; neither shall he come before it with a shield, nor throw up a mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city," declares the Lord. 

Rabshakeh came from the king of Assyria with a letter to Hezekiah that equated the Lord God with all the idols the other Nations worshiped, that they had destroyed.

So Hezekiah spread the letter out before the Lord, admitting that this foreign king really had conquered all those peoples, and destroyed their temples and idols. And he thought he could do the same here; but the Lord God is not anything like any of these idols, He really is God.

So God told him He would take care if this guy. And He did. 

The Angel of the Lord struck 185,000 men in the camp (v. 35), so King Sennacherib went home to Nineveh. There he was murdered as he worshiped his god Nisroch (vs. 36-37). 

When we pray, and lay out before Him whatever it is we need help with, He will always answer. He loves to fight our battles for us. 

The better we get to know Him, the better we understand His ways, then the more we'll trust Him to do what He wants to do for us. 

We never need to be afraid of Him, but have the "fear of the Lord" that is a reverential awe for His greatness and power and ability to do everything. There is nothing He can't do, even if it's impossible for us. 

O my Father, thank You for Your greatness and Your gentleness, thank You for Your justice and Your mercy, thank You for Your lovingkindness and Your grace. 

Father, You are the Creator, and You made us in Your image, so we are creative, too. You are intelligent, and You gave us intelligence, too, to understand Your ways. We are Your imagination, and You have given us imagination also, so we can imagine You and what You have planned for us. 

Whatever we can imagine, though, what You are preparing for us, is beyond anything we can imagine. I find that fact so exciting! O Father, You love me so much more than I can imagine, my future with You will be beyond exquisite, beyond wonderous, beyond any words I have to use. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Cleaning Out The Filth

II Kings 18: 3

And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

This is high praise from the Lord. 

King Hezekiah was Judah's last "good" king. He was Ahaz's son, and he tore down all the competing altars and broke down all the idols and places where these were worshiped with incense and infant sacrifice. 

Would that the Lord would send us a Hezekiah to tear down and break down all the ideologies that are causing us to be worshiping the idols and demons and sacrificing our babies before they're even born. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Lifestyle

I John 5: 8

We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He Who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him.
(KJV: he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.)

This means that no one who has been born-again will allow himself to be caught up into a habitual sin, a sinful lifestyle. 

Even when we may fall back into doing that foolish thing again, we will feel so bad about it that we will confess it and turn from it.

This is because God’s Spirit dwells in us, giving us the strength and the power to break that bad habit and replace it with good practices.

Then the evil one, our enemy, cannot lay hold on us or attach himself to us or grab us (touch). 

God knows we are but dust, and we cannot continually walk in His ways without His help. So He puts His own Holy Spirit into our spirit as the deposit, the down payment on the eternal life He gives us. He is always with us, and when we do something that is not according to His ways (sin), He lets us know that He is not pleased with that and we feel guilty.

Before we were born spiritually, our sinful lifestyle didn’t bother us. But now God’s Spirit in us shows us His ways, and leads us into better lifestyles, that won’t harm us or bring harm to others. 

O my Father, thank You for knowing me and loving me anyway. Thank You for choosing to call me to Yourself and place Your Spirit in me. Thank You that he He is always with me and guides my steps.

Teach me to know His voice when He whispers in my spirit, to follow His direction and form those good habits and lifestyle that will benefit others and bring glory to Your Holy Name.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Will I Let

Ezekiel 36: 37-38

Thus says the Lord God, This also will I let the House of Israel ask Me to do for them ...

Wow, God “lets” us ask of Him! 

He teaches us His ways, then He lets us ask Him to do for us the very things He wants to do! The things He planned to do from the start. 

From the very beginning, God made this beautiful Earth, put it into this beautiful galaxy, in this beautiful Universe; then He made us of it to live here and enjoy all the good things He does for us.

And He gets all the credit, all the glory, because He planned it all out and designed it to function smoothly, when we just follow the “Owner’s Manual,” the “Manufacturer’s Instructions.”

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

My Holy Name

Ezekiel 36: 21-36

21 But I had concern for My holy Name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. 

22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act,  but for My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.

23 And I will vindicate the holiness of My great Name ... Then the nations will know that I am the Lord God, when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.

God is holy. He will always vindicate His holy Name. He is concerned for His reputation: He wants everyone to know Who He is.

26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

This is when Jesus returns, all Israel is saved, and King Jesus has set up His throne to rule the World  from Jerusalem. He will return Israel to the Land and the whole Land will flourish as never before.

32 I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Lord. ... Then they will know that I am the Lord.

As God regenerates His own people, both Israelis and gentiles, He puts His own Spirit in us, and we do, we want to, follow His ways; then He blesses us: We get the benefit and He gets the glory!

36 Then the nations that are left round about you ...

Not only Israel,  but people in all the rest of the Nations of the World will be preserved, kept from receiving the sign of the beast in their forehead or right hand, and will also see Him as He arrives on His “white horse” to fight the Battle of Armageddon and set up His throne. 

All those people will see Him as He appears and recognize Him as the Messiah, the Lamb of God, and the King of the World; and will be saved, to go into the Kingdom in their flesh, along with all of us who have been raptured at His appearing. 

God will do all this to vindicate His Name. 

He wants everyone to know Who He really is, what He’s like, His character and personality.

There is so much deception in the world, our enemy distorts God’s beautiful Truth to try to keep us from knowing God. His Name is Who Hie is: His authority to rule, along with all His attributes that give Him that authority. It includes His goodness and His beauty, His grace and mercy and justice, His wisdom and knowledge—everything He is. When we get to know Him, we do love Him, because He is eminently lovable. 

He loves us more than we can even imagine, because He is Love. 

And He will make sure that His Name is vindicated. Everyone will see Who He is, and either oppose Him, fighting against Him in the Battle of Armageddon; or accept Who He is,  be saved, and enter into this Earth’s Golden Age. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Exact Truth

Luke 1: 1-4

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account ... Who from the beginning were eyewitnesses ... It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it all out for you in order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you might know the exact Truth about the things you have been taught.

Doctor Luke was a man of science, who was very careful with discerning the Truth. Since "many" others had also compiled records of Jesus' life, Luke wanted his friend to be sure to know the actual Truth of all these accounts, many of which did not make it into Scripture because of inaccuracies. So he carefully investigated, interviewing the very people who were involved, to get down to the nitty-gritty of His life. 

He wanted to make everything clear to his friend, and he also did so for all of us today, too. 

O Father, You are so wise, so generous, so open with us. Thank You for having Luke state how meticulously he investigated to find out all the facts. Thank You for leading him in his search to write for all of us an accurate account of the Man Christ Jesus. 

Thank You for leading Matthew, Levi the tax collector, who walked with Jesus, to show Him as our King, the King of Israel and the King of the World, and the Universe.

Thank You for having Mark, who travelled with Paul, and was personally acquainted with Jesus' family, for showing us how Jesus was our Servant, so we also will serve one another.

And thank You for having John the Beloved, who leaned close to Jesus at the Last Supper, laying his head on Jesus' breast, to record the life of our Lord God Himself in human flesh. 

Thank You, Father, for overseeing the compiling of the New Testament with the very writings that will show us You and Your ways, to teach us how to order our thoughts, which direct our words and walk our daily lives. 

Help us all to learn Your ways, think Your thoughts for us, use our words to build up others, and live our lives to Your glory.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!