August 2, 2017: SOAP #2799: 2Kings 21; 2Chronicles 33; John 4

Scripture:  2Kings (NIV) 21:9 But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

Observation:  Israel’s ONLY hope was in the promises God made to Abraham and to his descendants.  If not for those promises, Israel would have gone the way of all the wicked nations surrounding them.  We only read about those nations in history books.

But how different for Israel.  We can read about their continuing history.  We even see them today!  Manasseh was not the end of Israel.  “They did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed” yet God did not destroy them.

What was their hope of a continuing history?  It definitely was not their goodness for they were more evil then the others.  Their hope then is the same as their hope today.  Their hope: God’s faithfulness to His Word.  Man may be unfaithful, but God never!   He cannot deny Himself! Because of His promise to Abraham, God punished Israel but did not destroy Israel.  He corrected them to preserve them.

Application:  I have no hope for my own righteousness.  I must rely totally on God and His faithfulness to His Word!   The Living Word came to fulfill the Spoken Word which is revealed in the Written Word.  As Israel’s hope is founded on the words Father God spoke to Abraham, so my hope is founded on the words the same Father God spoke to Jesus, His Son.  John 6:39  “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  What a hope!!!

Prayer:   Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word!  …and thank you for Your faithfulness to your Word! Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!

August 1, 2017: SOAP #2798: Isaiah 65-66; Psalm 62; John 3

Scripture:  John (NIV) 3:34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

Observation:   The center of God’s presence and plan for the earth is Jesus, His Son.  Jesus had emptied himself of His own “God-ness.”  Although He remained God, He walked on earth only as a man.  Not a man like other men—a man like Adam was—a man without sin!  And yet, not like Adam—a man like Adam could have been if he had eaten from the tree of life and not from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Jesus walked in the full empowering of the Holy Spirit.  There was no sin in Jesus to limit the working of the Holy Spirit from flowing through Him.

Everything revolves around Jesus.  Eternal life or God’s wrath depends on accepting or rejecting Jesus.  How could God the Father not be angry when people reject what Jesus did for us.  The Father loves the Son, and will hold people responsible for rejecting Him.

Application:  God does not hide the importance of Jesus.  It is clear for all see.  It is also clear that Jesus should be the theme of my life.

Prayer:    Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, the center of your plan.  I make Him the center of my life!  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!