6/23/2019 No Nonsense Lifestyle
In Israel,
Hezekiah did right in the sight of the Lord.
Yet after Hezekiah’s death Manasseh, then Amon reigned, both of whom did
evil in the sight of the Lord for a total of 57 years.
2 Kings 22-23
Chapter 22
1-2 Then,
at eight years of age, Josiah was made king and reigned 31 years and did right
in the sight of the Lord, walking straightly, turning neither left nor right.
3-7 in 18th year of his reign, he
commanded that the house of the Lord be repaired.
8 During repairs, Hilkiah, the high
priest, discovered the book of the law.
9-13 Josiah has realized that Israel has messed
up
14-17 Hilkiah
and three others go to the prophetess Huldah, who explains God’s wrath will
come upon the place and the people (Israel). She also explains why.
18-20 But
tell the king because He humbled Himself and cried before Me (God), He will go
to his grave in peace.
Chapter 23
1-2 Josiah
had the book read before all Israel
3 Josiah
made a covenant with the Lord to walk before Him and keep the His commandments,
statutes and testimonies with all their heart and soul. And the people agreed.
4 All
vessels to Baal and other gods were brought out of the house of the Lord and
the groves and burned outside Jerusalem.
5 Got
rid of the idolatrous priests (fired, kicked out, slew)
6-16 a
complete housecleaning,
So, just why do we care?
Hezekiah discovered
the “Law”, after it had been ‘squirreled’ away for over fifty years. If you will, after reading, he probably said
“Whoa! Are we in trouble!” Or something
to that effect. He took what he found to
Josiah, the king, who probably came up with his own expletive. The king repented his ways and encouraged all
Israel to do the same. But Josiah didn’t
stop there. He threw everything
connected to other gods, which had been brought into the “Lord’s House”,
out. He cleared the groves of anything
connected to other gods. He ‘cleaned
house’, to make the house presentable to God.
We stopped
with the house cleaning here, but if you read a little farther, things went
pretty good for the duration of Josiah’s reign.
Unfortunately, if we read the books of Judges, Kings, the Chronicles and
the prophets, we see Israel was prone to repeat itself over and over through
the centuries. It would follow God then
fall away from God, much like a seesaw.
It also reminds me of Nineveh and Jonah.
Jonah came to Nineveh, and told them God was going to take them
out. They repented and changed their
ways – for a while (book of Jonah).
About few hundred years later, however, Nineveh had slid back into their
old ways and they fell to the Babylonians @ 612 BC.
Living a no nonsense lifestyle?
“Okay,” we
say, “but that was back then.” Was
it? The world AND the church have a
tendency to do just what Israel did.
Ever hear the expression ‘history repeats itself’? Man can learn, but retaining that which he
has learned seems to be another story.
We need to
recognize when we aren’t in alignment with God’s will. The Holy Ghost will convict us in our
heart. Father may also send someone else
to us to ‘clue us in. Are we listening?
What we need
to remember is:
We should always seek God’s kingdom first. Today is enough without worrying ‘bout
tomorrow (Matt. 6:33-34). When we put God first in the things in our
lives, those things seem to go a whole lot better. If you’ve tried it, don’t they?
However, when
we do mess up, we need to confess our sin, turn from it and be honest and
sincere about it (2 Chron. 7:14)
then Father will put our ‘atoned’ sins behind His back (Isa. 38:17). He forgets them
and so should we.
But we don’t
stop there. We renew our minds by
prayerfully reading the bible and spend quality time with the Lord. As we rejoice in the Lord, other people should
see good things like the peace of God, because we think on things like what is
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, what is virtuous and how we
can build other people up (Phil. 4:4-8,
1 Thess. 5:11). We focus on ‘doing
good’ and ‘thinking good’. We don’t have
time to tear things or people down when we’re trying to help to better them or
help them better themselves.
These things
are fruit of our covenant because we are seeking God first (Matt. 6:33). We are learning how to present ourselves a
living sacrifice to God because we are renewing our minds (Rom. 12:1-2). We are
bringing our thinking, our desires into alignment with Father. As this happens, we discover Father will
truly give us the desires of our heart (Psalm
37:4).
As we yield
to the Holy Ghost, we then bring our bodies into subjection of our will (Rom. 6:13, 1 Corinth. 9:27). Of course, our will should already be aligned
with Christ Jesus so our body obeys us and we obey the Lord. Get the picture?
Just saw the
commercial earlier today “when your car should break down (and it will)”, we
know that should we mess up, Car Shield isn’t going to come and rescue us, but
Father does give a way to get back on track.
We have to
confess our sins, speak it out before the Lord.
Nothing is hid from Him (Heb.
4:12-14). Our words are power, they
move the atmosphere. When God created
everything, He spoke and the Holy Spirit moved the surrounding atmosphere and
started producing whatever God was saying (Gen.
1:1-31, Prov. 15:1, Matt. 7:7).
We repent
(turn from) our sins so they might be blotted out (Acts 3:19). Because Jesus is
our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1)
and the Father forgets our sin, that is He puts it behind His back (Isa. 38:17)
Consider
what James says about sin:
First, God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He tempt us,
but when we are tempted, we are drawn away by the lust (which is still) in our own heart. When lust is conceived (once we make the decision to do it), it brings forth sin (we have sinned at that moment). And, of course, if sin is let go (not repented) it brings death.
Make no mistake, God gives us good and perfect gifts from
heaven. God is the Father of
lights. He is not wishy washy nor is He
inclined to change His mind from what He has said. He begets us with the Word of truth so that
we should a kind of (represent, be an
example of) the first fruits of His creatures. So we should be swift to listen and slow to
speak or become angry (James 1:13-18).
James says
that should w mess up, we do have a way to get back into proper alignment with
Father.
Then we should to what Father
does, set it behind us and do what Paul says, that is to press towards the mark
(eternal fellowship with God, Phil. 3:14). I may not be the first across the finish line
of this race, but I run as though I expect to be (1 Corinth. 9:24)
No nonsense
lifestyle?
Seek God above all else (put Him first)
When we sin,
confess them so we shall be cleansed of any unrighteousness
Get back on
track with Father (decide to seek and follow God from that point forward)
Jesus tells
us He will come back for us (John 14:2-3)
And He gives
us the Holy Ghost to help us stay on track for He abides with us and is in us (John 14:16-17) and He will lead us into
all truth (John 16:13)
Amen
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