Monday 7-20-15 (Home Modesto, California)
Scripture reading: 2 Chron 29-31 James 4
S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer SOAP
for the soul.
S. 2 Chron 29:3-5 Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the LORD and repaired them.
29:24 The king had specifically commanded that
this burnt offering and sin offering should be made for all Israel.
30:1
King Hezekiah now sent word to all Israel and Judah, and
he wrote letters of invitation to Ephraim and Manasseh. 30:10-11 But most of the people just laughed at the messengers and made fun of
them. 30:27 Then the Levitical priests stood and blessed the people, and God
heard them from his holy dwelling in heaven. 31:21 Hezekiah sought his
God wholeheartedly. As a result, he was very successful. NLT
O. The new king Hezekiah, 25 years old, decided to revive
the worship of the true and living God.
I was struck by five things:
·
He
cleaned all the garbage out of the abandoned temple, including idols.
·
He
included the other 10 tribes that had defected from Judah* and invited them to
the Passover celebration.
·
Even
though many scoffed at his invitation, he blessed those that came and even gave
them special privileges at the table.
·
When
the Passover was celebrated, God heard from heaven.
·
Hezekiah
went after God with his whole heart… and thus was successful.
*Although the ten tribes of Israel had seceded from the
nation and gone into total idolatry and had even had sent their armies and
fought against Jerusalem. Yet Hezekiah
now sent them heralds with letters of invitation. Good job, King Hezekiah!
A. There is much for me to learn from this
record of King Hezekiah’s revival. I
especially like the fact that he included “all Israel.” It would be something like inviting the Roman
Catholics to an evangelical revival and seating them in the front row. Many of these Israelites had not gone through
the cleansing ceremonies and thus were not in legal condition to partake of the
Passover. So Hezekiah prayed for them
and God received them anyway. God was
looking at the heart.
Yesterday, I arrived that the River Church that seats 3,000 at
10 AM, knowing that the service with Dante and Liliana Gebel did not start
until 11. Since I was early, I decided
to gas-up at the ARCO service station… the same station I used to manage at
night in 1953 to 55… exactly one block from the arena. Sandy was a pleasant young lady that took my
money. I noticed that she had a slight
Spanish accent and spoke to her in Spanish.
I pointed to the line-up of people forming all down the block 45 minutes
before the doors opened and invited her to River Church (Spanish speaking
church) where I would be participating in a few moments. “Do you do a mass there?” she asked. I told her we sing and worship the Lord and the
pastor preaches. Before I left to fill
my gas tank, Sandy told me that next Sunday she has a day off and she promised
me that she will come. I hope she does.
P. God, You know that I am not an ecumenical
freak, trying to lower the bar of Your message to include other religions. But I thank You that You open the door to
everyone. You know that I have often
thanked You for the Roman Catholics in South America, since, although they have
strayed away from many teachings of the Bible… yet they have left a deep hunger
inside their people to really know God.
And for this reason they often come running when they discover that the
door to Your presence is open for them through Jesus Christ without the
intervention of a priest. And You were
present with us yesterday as my little Felipe did his thing for the children
and adults and 3,000 Spanish speaking believers worshipped You for 2 ½
hours! Amen.
Ralph
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