The Simple Life

"But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” 2 Chronicles  7:19-20  (ESV)   God's blessing is contingent on my obedience. To ignore God and then expect Him to bless, intervene, heal, or even hear my voice when I cry out is absurd. God is one whose mercy is unfathomable, and His grace available to all, yet His justice demands actions on our part to obtain His mercy and enjoy His grace.   Those who find fault with God never find fault in themselves, and, therefore, are never positioned to enjoy God. Those who are His children and try to manipulate Him will be disappointed and frustrated.   God's will will be accomplished with or without us. If we obey, we will be a part of it. If

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.” 2 Chronicles  7:13-16  (ESV)   Humble people pray and seek God and desire to turn from wickedness, not to look for loopholes. The humble have positioned themselves for God to work. The proud often use God, and the humble are awed by God. The proud seek man's approval, and the humble seek to be in God's presence and love to point to God.   The "formula" given here is not complicated to understand or impossible to achieve.   Troubled times will come and go, but we do not need to have troubled minds because we know the one who is greater than our sorrows loves us

As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 (ESV)   What a fantastic response to God's unmistakable presence and action. What is our typical response to God's evident presence and action? Is there anything that has caused us, literally or in our minds, to bow down, face the ground, and worship God?   If not, we have not been hanging out with the right crowd. In order to see God work, we need to be in a position that is conducive to Him working. Immersing ours

"If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,' if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.” 2 Chronicles 6:36-39 (ESV )   All have sinned, and all will sin. God's desire is reconciliation, not punishment. He has made provision for our sinfulness; we must be prepared to us

"But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you….” 2 Chronicles  6:18-19  (ESV)   Those who know and love God act as if they know and love God; however, those who act as if they know and love God may just be performing an act. The fact that God would choose to dwell in the believer is incredible.   Those who are Christians today, who have placed their trust in Christ, are the very dwelling place of God on earth. We are the place God has chosen to dwell. We need to live our lives in accordance with this reality.   Christ got rather worked up in the New Testament when the temple was misused. His disciples remembered that the Scriptures told of the "zeal" for God's house consuming Him.   Today, in this New Testament ag

Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, and said, "O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.'” 2 Chronicles  6:13-16  (ESV)   It is good for leaders to know God, humble themselves before God, and do it in public.