Favorite Pastor Quotes 8

Favorite Pastor Quotes 8

When a Nation Turns Its Back on God

2 Chronicles 33

Hezekiah was a god-fearing king who brought about reformation among the Israelites. His son Manasseh, however, was an evil ruler. He had watched his father walk with God and live according to Scripture. Yet he chose to ignore the Lord.

Manasseh worshipped false gods, even to the point of sacrificing his sons by fire in order to praise Molech. He practiced much evil--including witchcraft and sorcery-- and led Israel astray, thereby provoking God to anger. The king, along with the people, paid a high price for his rebellion.

This story illustrates the Lord’s intolerance of a nation’s disregard toward Him. Now consider our country. We, too, are a nation that pushes God aside--one that has turned away from the only true God and embraced idols. Perhaps these aren’t statues of stone, but we worship money, sports ability, fame, and reputation, to name a few.

The United States of America was founded on biblical principles with the intent to guarantee freedom of worship. But over time, we have removed the Lord from many aspects of public life. Prayer in schools, for instance, was deemed unconstitutional. What was once a “nation under God” has turned into a country that tolerates a growing number of sins and yet belittles absolute truth.

If a nation turns its back on the Lord, His judgment is inevitable unless the people repent and make Him Lord once again. As believers, our responsibility is to pray that God would draw the heart of our country back to Himself--and to help the gospel and truth spread through our land.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

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Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 28; John 9:24-41

Today’s Thoughts: One Thing Will Remain

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Matthew 24:35

Time passes and life goes on, but there will come a day when the world as we know it will cease and pass away. Heaven and earth will be gone. In Noah's day, even as he built the ark and told the people of what was to come, they continued on as usual. They ate, drank, married and did all the things in life just as they always had done. Then the rains came, and within 40 days every living thing was under water, except for Noah and his family. Noah's family was safe in the ark. They listened to God's words and were saved.

The Bible is filled with prophecies concerning the last days. Many biblical scholars who study prophecy fully believe that we are in the last days and that at any moment our lives will be forever changed. Jesus could return at any moment. Are you ready? Or do you think that your life will just keep going? God did promise us that one thing would continue. He told us that His Word will never pass away. His Word through His Son, Jesus, will save us. All we have to do is believe in Him to live forever with Him. Our bodies will die but our eternal life will go on and on. We need to live for that day when we hear the Lord say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord' (>Matthew 25:23).

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

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Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well, sing to it!(Num 21:17)

This was a strange song and a strange well. They had been traveling over the desert’s barren sands, no water was in sight and they were famishing with thirst. Then God spake to Moses and said:

“Gather the people together, and I will give them water,” and this is how it came.

They gathered in circles on the sands. They took their staves and dug deep down into the burning earth and as they dug, they sang,

“Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it,” and lo, there came a gurgling sound, a rush of water and a flowing stream which filled the well and ran along the ground.

When they dug this well in the desert, they touched the stream that was running beneath, and reached the flowing tides that had long been out of sight.

How beautiful the picture given, telling us of the river of blessing that flows all through our lives, and we have only to reach by faith and praise to find our wants supplied in the most barren desert.

How did they reach the waters of this well? It was by praise. They sang upon the sand their song of faith, while with their staff of promise they dug the well.

Our praise will still open fountains in the desert, when murmuring will only bring us judgment, and even prayer may fail to reach the fountains of blessing.

There is nothing that pleases the Lord so much as praise. There is no test of faith so true as the grace of thanksgiving. Are you praising God enough? Are you thanking Him for your actual blessings that are more than can be numbered, and are you daring to praise Him even for those trials which are but blessings in disguise? Have you learned to praise Him in advance for the things that have not yet come?
--Selected

“Thou waitest for deliverance!
O soul, thou waitest long!
Believe that now deliverance
Doth wait for thee in song!

“Sigh not until deliverance
Thy fettered feet doth free:
With songs of glad deliverance
God now doth compass thee.”

~L. B. Cowman~

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Taking Responsibility

In the devotional yesterday, we saw how it is okay when we experience loss to weep and to grieve.  I want to point you to verse 6 of that same passage to learn another important lesson related to experiencing loss.  1 Samuel 30:6 says,

Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.  But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him.  David was not only grieving for the loss of his own family, but he was now being blamed for the whole thing.  In fact, they were blaming him to the point that they wanted to take his life.

When you experience troubles, do not be someone who always wants to blame others.  I know that it is human nature to want to point the finger and to lash out at somebody else when we are in trouble or when we have experienced loss.

In fact, I think blaming others is just part of our fallen fleshly DNA.  Just take a look at what Adam and Eve did in the garden when they messed up.  When God turned up and asked what happened, Adam said, "Well, it's the woman that You gave me.  She gave me from the tree, and I ate."

And when God asked Eve what happened, she replied, "Well, it was the serpent.  It was the snake."

So Adam blamed his wife, and blamed God who gave him his wife, and Eve blamed the snake.  Neither Adam nor Eve took personal responsibility.  It was somebody else's fault.

If the problems you are experiencing today are your fault, take responsibility, and do not blame others. 

~Bayless Conley~