Those of us that live in the United States have the freedom to worship without fear of persecution. At the same time, many cannot say the same. Unfortunately, many of us are unaware of the suffering of others and mistakenly think that most nations allow their citizens religious freedom, but that is not so. Throughout the world, numerous nations do not permit its citizen to worship God as we do. These nations can fall into two categories: hostile or restricted.
Hostile nations can be defined as a place where Christians, because of their witness, often suffer persecution from political groups, community persons where they reside, friends, and family. This happens despite their governments’ attempts to keep them safe.
In restricted nations, the government, by their laws, encourages harsh treatment, denial of possessions, imprisonment, and death for Christians. Known Christians can be persecuted by any of these groupings: the government, extremist groups, family, friends, and community members.
Bibles are usually hard to obtain in hostile and restricted nations, and those fortunate to have one must keep it a secret. Additionally, small groups of believers must gather in secret in these nations.
I have over sixty hardcover Bibles in my possession, besides Bibles on audio tapes and mobile devices. I attend church services without fear, and I can evangelize the lost without reprisal.
Over time religious freedom in America may change, but for now, I am thankful to God that I was born in a nation that allows me to serve Him. With this privilege comes a responsibility to pray for and support those less fortunate than me. If you were unaware of the persecutions that Christians experienced in hostile and restricted nations and have been enlightened, I encourage you to pray for our fellow believers. Also, thank God continually for living in a country where you have the freedom to worship.
Nothing happens in the world that our omniscient God does not know. For that fact, He knew every detail of every event that would occur before He created the earth. When He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He knew that they would be disobedient to His instructions, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die“ (Genesis 2:16-17).
After their act of disobedient God told the serpent who beguiled Eve, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:14-15). Jesus was the seed that would bruise the head of the serpent, and the crucifixion would be the bruising of Jesus’s heel. Predictions in the Old Testament of the coming of Jesus were also made by Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea (Isaiah 7:14, 53:5-9; Micah 5:2; Hosea 11:1).
Finally, that greatly anticipated day arrived, and Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea to Joseph and Mary, An angel of God went to the shepherds abiding in the field and told them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2 10-11). When they brought the infant to the temple in Jerusalem, Simeon, a just and devout man, took Jesus in his arms and blessed God, saying, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” And Anna, the elderly prophetess, also gave thanks for the birth of Jesus, who would bring redemption to the people. (Luke 2: 25-32; 36-38)
At age thirty, Jesus began his earthly ministry and completed it within three years. John, the beloved disciple who accompanied Jesus during His earthly ministry, described Jesus’s ministry like this, “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:5a, 8). And Luke recorded in Acts 10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
At the completion of His ministry, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, scourged, mocked, struck in the face repeatedly, and crucified on a cross at Calvary. For three days and nights, He was in the earth, but on the third day, He was resurrected. Now He is sitting at the right hand of God, interceding for us and awaiting the command of God to come to the earth and collect His bride. So as we gather on this Easter Sunday while the world celebrates the day, we believers will praise, worship, and thank God for the birth, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, knowing His purpose was fulfilled.
From my reading of the scriptures, it appears that God meant for treasures to be in His house, and here is how I came to that conclusion
When the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, God told them to borrow jewels of silver and gold from their neighbor. Scriptures revealed the Israelites found favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so they lent them such things as they required (Exodus 11:2; 12:36). Thus when it was time for the Israelites to build the tabernacle, they were able to give of their possession willingly. They gave gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, red ram’s skins, badgers’ skins, shittim wood, oil, spices for anointing oil, sweet incense, and various stones for the ephod, and the breastplate. Furthermore, Exodus 36:7 revealed Moses sent a proclamation throughout the camp stopping the people from offering any more stuff because they had more than enough to do the work.
When David was king, he gathered treasure for his son Solomon to build a magnificent temple. David said in 1 Chronicles 29:2-5, “Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house. Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal: The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers.” Additionally, the chief of the fathers, princes of the tribes, the captains, and the rulers of the king’s work, gave five thousand talents of gold, ten thousand drams, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of brass, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.
After the temple was built, King Solomon brought in the silver, gold, and the vessels that David had dedicated and placed them among the treasures in the house of the Lord (1 Kings 7:51; 2 Chronicles 5:1).
When Judah’s disobedient kings and citizens sinned, God would allow the enemy to defeat them and plunder the treasures which were in the temple. Then when an obedient king was ruling, he would once again bring dedicated silver, gold, and vessels back into the temple (1 Kings 14:25-28; 15:11-18; 2 Chronicles 24:8-14; 28:19-25).
After seventy years of bondage in Babylon, King Artaxerxes allowed those who wanted to return to Jerusalem. He permitted Ezra, the priest, to carry silver and gold, which he, his counselors, the people, and the priests, offered willingly for the house of God in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:13-16; 8:24-30).
Finally, when Israel became delinquent in giving tithes and offerings for the temple, God addressed them and told them they were robbing Him. To remedy this, they were to bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there would be provisions in His house. For their obedience in following this instruction, God declared an opening of the windows of heaven and pouring of bountiful blessing to them (Malachi 3:8-10).
From Moses’s building of the tabernacle to the present, people’s offerings have supported the house of God. I firmly believe this mandate from God has not stopped; as people give, it shall be given to them. It takes the commitment of everyone involved, and whether a small or large congregation, God will cause treasures to be in his house as we willingly give. Today if you have been negligent or grudgeful in your giving, ask God to change your attitude and help you so you may be numbered with those that cause treasures to be in God’s house.
Yes, God has requirements, and there are consequences when they are unmet. God created us with free will; therefore, we must choose our actions wisely.
In this blog, I will be sharing from 1 Kings 15:9-24 and 2 Chronicles 14-16 the life of King Asa, the son of Abijam, who reigned as King in Judah for forty-one years. He is an example of a person who followed God’s requirements and was blessed, but in his latter years, he deviated from them.
When King Asa began his reign, Judah experienced ten years of peace, and during that time, he diligently tore down the foreign altars, pillars, high places, and Asherim in the land. Additionally, he encouraged his nation to obey God’s commandments.
Zerah, a Cushite and mercenary general of the Egyptian army, sought to engage Judah in battle. He came with 1,000,000 troops from Ethiopia and 300 chariots which was twice the size of Judah’s army. Knowing Judah would be defeated, King Asa prayed to God, for he understood God did not need a massive army to defeat Judah’s foe. As to be expected, with God on their side, the Ethiopian army was utterly destroyed, and Judah carried off vast quantities of spoil.
As the King and army were returning from the battle, God sent Azariah, the son of Oded, with these instructions, “Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded (1 Chronicles 15:2-7).”
Upon hearing this with zeal, King Asa took courage and expelled the shrine male prostitutes, removed all the abominable idols from the entire land of Judah, Benjamin, and the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim. He removed his mother, Maachah, from her position for her idolatrous worship of Asherah. He renewed the altar of the Lord and gathered all Judah, Benjamin, and the strangers from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon in the third month and the fifteenth year of his reign to offer offerings and renew their covenant to seek God with all their heart and soul. The result of this was that the Lord gave them rest for the next twenty years.
For thirty-six years, King Asa’s actions pleased God, but then he mistakenly stopped seeking guidance from God when Israel’s King Baasha geared up to war against Judah. King Asa used the treasuries in the Lord’s house to procure the military assistance of Ben-hadad of Damascus to fight Israel. God was not pleased and sent the prophet Hanani to confront King Asa for his actions. Instead of humbling himself and acknowledging his error, he became angry, imprisoned the prophet, and mistreated the citizens who opposed his sentencing of Hanani. Three years later, when King Asa became ill, he looked to the physician for healing which did not happen, and for two years, he suffered in pain until he died.
Sadly, in the scriptures, others like King Asa served God faithfully in their youth and stopped doing so when they got old. I pray we will not be deceived and follow King their example. To help us stay on track, I close this blog with these nuggets:
No one is exempt from fulfilling God’s requirements.
Be a positive example for others.
Encourage others to serve God all their lives.
Your relationship with family members may be affected when you do God’s will.
When you trust and rely on God, He works on your behalf.
Prayer changes situations.
God-orchestrated victories brings rewards.
God will send warnings to remind you what He requires.
With God as your protector, there is no need to fear enemy threats.
Ungodly alliance displeases God.
Putting your trust and confidence in the arms of flesh is not beneficial.
When in error, humble yourself and ask God for forgiveness.
Causing harm to the prophet of God and His people will not work in your favor.
In your senior years, do not turn from God.
God is your healer; ask him to heal you as needed.
The other morning as I was thinking about some personal issues, I heard these three words in my spirit, “rehearse former victories.” As I contemplated the implications of these words, I knew it would be the title of my next blog. Additionally, I knew my reference point would be the children of Israel’s journey in the wilderness.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the forefathers of Israel, had a relationship with God; however, during Israel’s four hundred and thirty years in Egypt, the Israelites forsook their knowledge of Him, and many turned to idol worship.
Through Moses and the ten plagues that occurred in Egypt, God reintroduced Himself to His chosen people. He intended to display to the Egyptians that there was no God like Him and to Israel that He was mighty and able to care for, protect, and provide all that they may need.
Despite the loving care and divine guidance provided for them while exiting Egypt, the continued miracles of the parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of Pharoah’s army, the defeat of the Amalekites, the cloud by day, and a fire by night, the daily Manna, and water to drink these stubborn, rebellious, stiff-necked people, complained about His provisions. Rather than rehearse former victories and let them be the stimulus for trusting God, these ungrateful people wished they were back in bondage. The wilderness experience was their classroom, and they failed miserably in it.
If they rehearsed over and over the positive actions of God toward them, maybe their faith in Him would not have wavered. Perhaps they would have realized their God loved them and would take care of them in every situation.
Since I understand that the Bible is to be used as a teaching manual, the lessons that I learned from the Israelites in their wilderness journey is I can trust God’s care for me, and to make sure I remember this, I need to rehearse former victories. If I do this, I will not complain; more importantly, I will not anger God and suffer the consequence of doing so.
According to the scriptures, life on earth is described in the following ways:
Psalm 90: 5a-6, In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
Psalms 144:4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
Psalm 103:14-16 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Isaiah 40:6b-7 All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
Hopefully, these verses reveal to all who read them that life on this earth is a short pilgrimage; thus, what you do while living on it matters.
There are those that believe in reincarnation, and others believe after death, if you end up in purgatory, your family can pray for your release from there. However, Hebrew 9:27 states, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Readers, there is no do-over; you go into God’s presence or hell once you die. So, the question is, “Are you ready?”
Daily, young and older people die accidentally, tragically, unexpectantly, prematurely, and intentionally. People are here today and gone today. The next moment is not promised to any of us. So, why are people hesitating to choose to serve God? The answer may be found in Paul’s word to the Corinthian church, “ The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Let us pray that we are not found in this group for others and ourselves.
Choosing to serve God and become a citizen in His kingdom provides us with earthly benefits and makes us eligible for eternal life beyond with Him. I assure you this is what you want, and your answer to “Are you ready” will be a resounding “Yes.”
This past Sunday, the Lord blessed me to see another year of life. Therefore I can say, like David in Psalms 37: 25, “ I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” God is good to me, and I am thankful for daily loading me with benefits.
I have experienced several surgeries, and each one ended successfully without complication. In 2011 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had surgery and radiation treatment, and now I remain cancer-free eleven years later.
In 2014 I was scheduled to have a cyst removed from the bottom of my foot, and the day before the surgery, the doctor had me come to her office. After closely examining my foot, she discovered the cyst was no longer there, and the surgery was canceled. I was already informed that it would take me several months to recover from this surgery, so I was thrilled and grateful to God for His divine miraculous healing.
In my lifetime, I earned an LPN degree, an AA Degree in Sociology, a BA in Sociology and Psychology, and an MA in Social Work. Additionally, I completed three years of post-graduate study in Family and Marriage Counselling. In these educational endeavors, the Lord blessed me and allowed me to find favor with people that willingly paid for most of my education.
This September will be my fifty-sixth wedding anniversary which I share with my husband Leo C Smith Jr., and through the challenges of life with God’s help, our marriage remains intact.
Besides all of these experiences, most of all, I am grateful for salvation. I do not know how many years I have to live, but I do know that I have the assurance as I strive to keep my relationship with God, I will live with Him in eternity.
God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, filled with every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. Also in the midst of this garden was the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God instructed Adam, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:16-17). According to Genesis 2, it is after this that God made Eve.
The scriptures do not reveal how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden before the information shared in Genesis 3. In this chapter, the record of a conversation between the serpent and Eve is revealed. In their conversation, the serpent questions and lies to Eve concerning the instructions given to Adam. Eve’s response after this conversation was stated in verse, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Whether Adam was present during the conversation between the serpent and Eve was not stated, but when she took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate it, he was there because she gave some to him, and he also ate of it.
1 Timothy 2:14 says, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” The dictionary defines deceived as a person causing someone to believe something that is not true, typically to gain some personal advantage. I understand in the case of the serpent and Eve; the serpent was the one that gained a personal advantage for through deception, he caused Eve to open the door to unbelief and disobedience. These acts caused man to lose dominion, and sin entered the world.
Additionally, Adam, the head of the household, the person given authority by God to subdue and have dominion, knew Eve’s action was not right, yet he was cooperative. Adam had the opportunity to speak the truth and subdue the serpent, but he did not. It is each of our responsibility not to accept the lies, insinuations, and promptings of the enemy.
We have the Holy Spirit that leads and guides us. We have the Spirit of Might and the Spirit of Counsel to assist us further. Allowing these attributes to have preeminence in our lives and sharing truth with those in error can cause great spiritual success when needed. Therefore, with boldness at the appropriate time, say these words, “Don’t accept it.”
Portions of the words that God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5,10 can also be seen in the life of Samson, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. Instead of a prophet, God chose Samson to be a Nazarite and judge in Israel, and he was to pull down the Philistine nation by delivering Israel out of their hands.
Samson’s parents followed God’s instructions on how to raise Samson; however, when Samson became an adult, he was driven by the lust of the eye and flesh. When he saw honey in the carcass of a lion that he had killed, he ate some of it and gave some to his parents. He did not share the fact with his parents that he was doing something forbidden by the laws of God.
When he saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, he coerced his parents to arrange for her to be his wife and when his parents voiced their concern, he insisted that they make the arrangements. Regrettably, this arrangement ended in the death of the intended bride and her father.
Years later, Samson became intimate with a Gaza harlot, again putting his life in danger, but he escaped his enemies due to his strength.
His final, fatal act was with Delilah from Sorek. When the Philistines found out Samsom was regularly visiting her, they arranged with her to betray him for eleven hundred pieces of silver. In Judges 16:6, Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.” Three times Samson lied to her about this, and he was able to escape the trap to ensnare him. Unfortunately, after being continually pestered by Delilah, Samson told her the secret of his strength. She was able to lull him to sleep as he laid his head on her lap, and while asleep, she had the seven locks shaved off of his head. When she prompted him to wake up and said, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson,” he did not realize his hair and strength were gone. Consequently, the Philistines finally captured him, put out his eyes, and made him their slave.
In his lifetime, Samson made costly mistakes, and despite his mistakes, God still used him to kill the Philistines. However, I believe if he had followed God’s laws, God’s purpose for his life would have still been fulfilled without the tragic end.
Samson’s life warns us of the following:
- Lusting after the wrong thing eventually imprisons you.
- You are deceived when thinking violations of God’s laws are permissible.
- The enemy will find out your vulnerabilities and attack them.
- The enemy will strip you of your strength and take your vision.
- Compromising God’s plan for your life leads to consequences.
- Feeling comfortable laying your head in the lap of a temptress reveals your naivety.
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