1 Chronicles 4:9-10

“Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “’Because I bore him in pain.’ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.”

Tucked away in a sea of names, we find the brief story of a man named Jabez. From the bits of data recorded about him, we learn he was an honorable man who left a mark upon his world. His name reveals much regarding his upbringing. Jabez meant “to cause pain.” He received that name because of the difficulties surrounding his birth. It seems as though his mother never got over that trauma, because Jabez grew up…

Psalm 100:3  

“Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

Have you ever heard the phrase, “you should have known better”?  We use it when we view evidence so compelling that a particular conclusion is obvious. “I didn’t know that would happen!” This statement, response to throwing a firecracker into the barbecue pit, or bringing a handgun through airport security, is an unreasonable response;  “You should know better.” It seems equally as surprising to me, that the Psalmist would need to remind us that man is a creative work of God  and did not spring into being as a result of his own innate ability. As surprising, and even preposterous as it may be, we hear all of the time, how highly intelligent and well educated people will choose to believe that man is not a byproduct…

2 Kings 25:2

“So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.”

Imagine sitting on Mount Scopus just a little northeast of Jerusalem as the Babylonian forces surrounded the city. Before long, the walls were penetrated, and the city taken. First the leaders were gathered and executed, then the city was plundered and burned. What had once been a glorious testimony to the goodness of God, now told an entirely different message. All who watched the city fall should have learned the devastating effects of sin. Even after a contingency returned to rebuild the temple, Jerusalem would still bear scars from its fall.

For years, two different messages were being heralded within the city. There were the politicians who believed the secret to success was to form an alliance with Egypt and fight the Babylonians, while the prophets declared that it was time to submit to Babylon…

2 Kings 24:3

“Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done”

The final chapters of 2 Kings tell the story of the death of a nation. After having a glorious beginning, and being miraculously sustained for a thousand years, the nation of Judah is defeated, the Temple destroyed, and the people taken as prisoners of war. These chapters record their collapse from heaven’s perspective. It was not caused by economic failure, a weak foreign policy, or because Babylon was a superior foe. Judah’s demise was simply a consequence of national sin, “…because of the sins of Manasseh…”

Certainly our nation is facing some very trying times. While the economists, sociologists and politicians dispense reasons for the social calamities we are facing, heaven sees the same symptoms, with an…

Psalm 97:10

“You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.”

I find it striking that the Psalmist declares that hate is a necessary expression of true love. He explains that part of being in a healthy love relationship with Jesus is having a hatred for evil. Why is it necessary to hate evil? Why should we hate evil? I can think of at least three pretty strong reasons.

First, we should hate evil because of what evil does to creation. When sin entered the world, death entered and all of creation began to be in a state of decay. We observe this daily. People age and die, things deteriorate and break, everything goes from a state of useful to useless. Paul explains that creation itself even groans to be redeemed. If we could discern the…

2 Kings 22:2

“And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”

Josiah was the youngest king to reign over the nation of Israel. At eight years old, his father died and he ascended the throne. We read very little of the early years of his reign, but at eighteen, he began a campaign to reform the nation, and turn the people back to the Lord. Josiah would go on to become one of the greatest kings in the nation’s long history. His success is summed up in three simple statements: he did what was right, he walked in the ways of the Lord, and he did not allow himself to become sidetracked by other things. As his story unfolds, we see the application…

Psalm 95:6

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”

Paul declared, all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable. Every page of God’s Word has a purpose in the life of the believer. However, there are certain passages that have greater meaning to each of us, because of the impact they have had upon our lives. This is a particularly important text to me.

Years ago, when I was a relatively new Christian, I was invited to a weekend retreat with about 200 other teenagers. We all congregated at a retreat center in the San Bernardino Mountains, for times of worship, and the Word. I had been a Christian for about two years, but had never been to anything like that before. In fact, I had only been to church a handful of times. The first night, after a…

2 Kings 21:1-2

“​Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.”

Manasseh, king of Judah, will go down in history as the king who caused the fall of there nation. It was not his foreign policy, his economic plan, or his tax code, that killed the nation. Instead, it was his view of God and his stance regarding sin that would weaken the nation, and lead to its collapse. Later we read,

2 Kings 23:26 “Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.”

The…

2 Kings 20:6

“And I will add to your days fifteen years”

Imagine what this promise meant for Hezekiah. First, he was ill, so it meant he would be healed. Second, it meant he would have more time. Third, it meant a clock started that night, giving him an expiration date. Fifteen years from this promise, Hezekiah would breath his last. This promise has often made me wonder, “What I would do with fifteen more years?” How would you react, if suddenly you were given an expiration date? Let’s take a look at what Hezekiah did.

First, Hezekiah entertained delegates from Babylon. These men were impressed with him because he accomplished what no other nation had; he was victorious in battle against Assyria. We previously read how God sent angelic beings to do battle on behalf of Judah, defeating Assyria. Hezekiah, however, seemed to take credit for what the Lord…

Psalm 93:1

“The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.”

It seems to me, if one thing is certain in life, it is that things are constantly moving. We live on a moving planet. At the equator, the Earth is spinning at 1000 miles per hour, moving at 67,000 miles per hour around the Sun, and our entire Galaxy is moving at about 185 miles per second. Since this motion is constant, we cannot feel its effects. However, there is other movement that we do notice. The United States Geological Survey website lists dozens of earthquakes that have happened around the world in the past seven days. Earthquakes happen because the earth’s surface is like a thin crust. This crust is made up of many pieces, like a puzzle…