And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Inquire first for the word of the Lord." Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?" And they said, "Go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king." But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?" And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil." And Jehoshaphat said, "Let not the king say so." 2 Chronicles 18:4-7 (ESV) We often choose who to listen to based on who reinforces what we want to hear. The book of 2 Timothy, chapter 4, speaks to this issue, as does this passage in 2 Chronicles, and our general observation of life. Choosing who you listen to is not ...
“Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?” Job 15: 8-9 Sometimes, I think that I am the only one listening to God. I am wrong. It is so easy to fall into the pattern of using God's name in vain, or using God's name to add power and authority to what I believe. Miriam, Moses's sister, had this attitude, and God struck her with leprosy. Job and his buddies differed in their understanding. There must have been a reason why God pointed Job out to Satan and not to Eliphaz. It is easy to justify whatever we want and even claim that God has directed us to think this way. It is easy for us to elevate ourselves to "God" status and believe that because we think it, so must God. Reality is not a game, and there are no "house rules." Eliphaz was "sort of" correct, which made him all wrong. How right are you? How do you know? https://...
"The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes. We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. Nehemiah 10:28-30 (ESV) When you walk in God's ways, you separate yourself from those who do not. You cannot "accept" what they do, for what they do is destructive. To normalize evil is to be evil. The Bible consistently teaches that we need to love God and each other and that this quality will distinguish us from the Godless cultures in which we live. https://www.podbe...
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