Isaiah 1:21-5:30.  “Faithful Judgment” “God is a judge who is perfectly fair” (Psalm 7:11a).  Today’s passage testifies repeatedly of God’s coming judgment.  Israel and Judah were to be dealt with according to their disobedience.  There are actually four things to remember as you read this passage.  Number one, the judgment is warranted by the accused.  Israel rejected God and everything He asked ...  Read More

2 Kings 17:5-41; 18:9-12; Isaiah 1:1-20; 28:1-29.  “Faithful Treatment” Isaiah 28 closes with a wonderful poetic parable.  The parable describes how a farmer deals uniquely with each crop.  The farmer knows what each of his various sections of land will produce the most of a specific crop.  He knows what tools will prepare the land the best.  He knows what each crop will require in order to produc...  Read More

Hosea 9-14.  “Faithful Always” Under Nevada state law, any county with a population of fewer than 700,000 is allowed to legalize prostitution in brothels if it so chooses (which all rural counties have had at least one legal brothel in operation at one point or another).  Escort services offering sexual entertainment consume 140 pages of the Las Vegas yellow pages.It’s disturbing to even talk abou...  Read More

Hosea 2:14-8:14.  “Faithful Love” I performed a wedding ceremony a few weeks ago and not once were there promises of unfaithfulness.  In fact, I’ve never been to a wedding where a couple vowed to be unfaithful.  Yet Hosea knew his wife, Gomer, would be unfaithful.  God had told the prophet this and had told him why.  Hosea’s life was a living love story and illustration of Israel’s love story with...  Read More

2 Kings 15:30-31; 16:10-18; 17:1-4; 18:1-8;  2 Chronicles 28:16-25; 29:1-2; Isaiah 12:1-6; 17:1-14; Hosea 1:1-2:13.  “Faithful Expressions” Faithfulness is the theme of the week.  We will see illustrations of God’s faithfulness to us and the people’s faithfulness to Him.  We will also read vivid real-life examples of what it means to be unfaithful.  We will see what God thinks of being unfaithful,...  Read More

Faithfulness is the theme of the week.  We will see illustrations of God’s faithfulness to us and the people’s faithfulness to Him.  We will also read vivid real-life examples of what it means to be unfaithful.  We will see what God thinks of being unfaithful, and we will also see how He responds to it (believe it or not, faithfully—both in love and judgment).  Read More

Isaiah 8:1-11:16.  “No Fear” There is something about refusing to show fear that is a rite of passage for boys as they seek to become men.  I remember wanting to have a persona of having no fear in high school so badly that I wore shirts that even said “No Fear” on them.Isaiah was told in chapter 8:11-14 that he was to only fear the LORD Almighty.  This message holds true for us today as well.  If...  Read More

2 Kings 15:32-16:9; 2 Chronicles 27:1-28:15; Isaiah 7:1-25; Micah 1:1-16. “Testing God” “Do not test the Lord your God” (Matt. 4:7).While in the wilderness, Jesus quoted the above verse from Deuteronomy 6:16.  His purpose in quoting it was to fend off the temptation from Satan.  Satan wanted Jesus to test God’s promise of protection (Psalm 91:11-12).  In Isaiah 7, King Ahaz is in a similar situat...  Read More

2 Kings 14:28-29; 15:6-29; 2 Chronicles 26:22-23; Isaiah 6:1-13; Amos 7:1-9:15.  “Fear of Santa” Like many kids, my son had a paralyzing fear of Santa Clause when he was younger.  I find this phenomenon very curious since there is nothing about this character, even if he were real, that is to be truly feared.  The worst he could do would be to give you coal in your stocking instead of toys.The fea...  Read More

Amos 1-6. “Declared Righteous” I want you to think of that one person or that particular group of people that you know for certain deserves God’s judgment.  For God’s people that would have been the surrounding nations against whom Amos declared God’s judgment.  How popular Amos’ message must have been as he spoke of the very thing God’s people wanted to hear.  And then that all changed as God tu...  Read More

2 Kings 13:12-13; 14:1-27; 15:1-5; 2 Chronicles 25:1-26:21; Jonah 1-4. “Too Familiar” We are all very familiar with the story of Jonah; it is after all a whale of a tale.  Sorry, I know – bad joke.  But seriously, I encourage you to look at the story with a fresh perspective and consider for me, if you will, the use of irony in this historical story.Jonah, a prophet of God should model a proper f...  Read More

2 Kings 12:17-13:11, 14-25; 2 Chronicles 24:23-27.  “Why Fear God?” “Have no fear, have no fear, said the cat in the hat.”  I read that line today at lunch in the book I was reading to my daughter.  As I was reading it, I thought about our theme this week and the subsequent mess that the cat in the hat made.  Fortunately for the children in the story, the cat cleaned up his mess, but life doesn’t ...  Read More

2 Kings 10:32-12:16; 2 Chronicles 22:10-24:22. “Learned Helplessness” This week’s theme is the fear of the Lord.  This is an often puzzling subject and can be difficult to fully comprehend.  God loves us and we love Him in return, and yet we are also supposed to fear Him.  Sometimes this fear is a sense of awe and respect because of the holiness of God and the fact that He is so vastly different ...  Read More

  This week’s theme is the fear of the Lord.  This is an often puzzling subject and can be difficult to fully comprehend.  God loves us and we love Him in return, and yet we are also supposed to fear Him.  Sometimes this fear is a sense of awe and respect because of the holiness of God and the fact that He is so vastly different than we are.  Sometimes this fear of God is because, as the sovereign Lord, He is the one who judges our actions and thoughts and has the power and authority to save and to condemn at the same time.    Read More

2 Kings 8:23-10:31; 2 Chronicles 21:8-22:9.  “Obedient Conspiracy” Jehu was anointed by Elijah and Elisha and sent forth to destroy the family of the evil King Ahab.  He did so, obediently and faithfully.  He destroyed the idols and priests of Baal.In the end God told him he had done fairly well in doing what he was asked, but he “did not obey…with all his heart.”  He was a bit careless in what he...  Read More

2 Kings 5:1-8:15. “Hoping for the Loud” Have you ever expected God to answer a certain way only to find out He answered differently?  Naaman was angry when the answer he expected to hear from God’s prophet came back differently.  In fact, Naaman’s officers confronted him on this point.  They asked him why he was only looking for a loud and great reply, and not willing to listen to the simple and ...  Read More

2 Kings 2:1-25; 4:1-44.  “What Do You Hear Him Say?” A wealthy woman from Shunem sensed Elisha had a need and then took it to the next step and met that need.  There are several wonderful attributes displayed in her life.  First, in discerning a need she had to be sensitive and open to the hardships of others.  She was obviously a person of compassion and grace.  Secondly, she was obedient and res...  Read More

1 Kings 22:41-50; 2 Kings 1:1-18; 3:1-27; 8:16-22; 2 Chronicles 20:31-37; 21:1-7. “What If He’s Too Quiet?” God had been put on the back burner.  Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, barely made it over one year reigning as king.  After falling in his palace, he was seriously injured.  So, he sent messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub.  This god was thought to possess supernatural power and the power of prophec...  Read More

1 Kings 22:10-40, 51-53; 2 Chronicles 18:9-20:30.  “Unpopular Proclamation” After reading today’s passage, the bottom line has to be; “Sometimes people don’t like to hear what the Lord has to say.”  Micaiah’s prophetic messages from the Lord always irritated King Ahab.  In fact, he hated Micaiah for it.  There was never any “good news” for Ahab (no doubt something that would support his evil acts)...  Read More

1 Kings 20:23-22:9; 2 Chronicles 18:1-8. “Listening Amidst the Noise” Jehoshaphat was listed as “a good king, but…”  He fell short in seeing things through to the end.  He did not completely destroy idolatry in Judah.  He did not think through the long-term results of his decisions; be it allying with a wicked king, or allying his son in marriage to a wicked king.  His poor decisions resulted in ...  Read More

1 Kings 17:8-20:22.  “His Whispers” This week’s passage describes God speaking in a variety of rather powerful ways (fire from Heaven, famine, etc.).  However, Elijah discovered God’s typical approach: God spoke in a quiet whisper.  As you read these passages you may be convicted and/or enlightened as you consider how you listen for God’s voice. I can’t imagine too many ways God could have spoken ...  Read More

This week’s passage describes God speaking in a variety of rather powerful ways (fire from Heaven, famine, etc.).  However, Elijah discovered God’s typical approach: God spoke in a quiet whisper.  As you read these passages you may be convicted and/or enlightened as you consider how you listen for God’s voice.  Read More

1 Kings 15:16-24; 16:1-17:7; 2 Chronicles 16:1-17:19.  “Cost of Success” “If you just ignored your family you would have time to get it all done.”As I thought about this comment my wife jokingly made to me as we talked about the disheveled state of our van, I realized that she was right.  I could accomplish a lot more in life by ignoring all of the people that I cared the most about.  And in reali...  Read More

1 Kings 13:1-15:15, 25-34; 2 Chronicles 11:18-15:19. “Simplicity is not Guaranteed” We have been thinking some this week about the connection between obediently following God and living a simple life.  While it is true that our own sin often complicates life, it is not the only reason why life can be difficult and complicated.  It is no small thing to live a simple life that results from making w...  Read More