Category Archives: Daniel

2 Chronicles, 2024, Daniel, Hebrews, Repentance, Salvation

People, GOD loves People!

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In early June I came here with a conversation springing from my reading of 2 Samuel, saying I was reading through the Bible slowly, Book by Book. I am continuing.

Today I finished 2 Chronicles. Yes, that’s pretty slow but it’s steady.  😊

2 Chronicles 36. In particular verses 15 – 27.

15 Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, 18 who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials. 19 Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.

20 Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

21 So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.     source 

The first thing I want to call your attention to is again and again The LORD. Did you see that? Again and again The LORD sent His Messengers with His Message. And what did the people do?

Does that sound familiar to you? Do you know a people who are doing that today? Is it you?

What happened after the again and again and the mocking? Yes. The wrath of The LORD was stirred up beyond remedy. What does that mean? It means the kindness and goodness of GOD did not bring them to repentance so the only remedy left was for them to reap what they had sown. Is such a day coming again for a mocking people? We can be sure it is. What form will it take? That remains to be seen.

But this is not all I want to show you.

Do you see what happened next to the Sanctuary, the House of GOD?
Do you see what took place there?
Perhaps, the people ran to the Sanctuary when the judgment began,  but it was too late and they died there.
That’s not all. All the articles of the House of GOD were taken away. (Those articles were gold, silver, bronze – very costly!)

Now to my point. If you know from Scripture how meticulously and splendidly GOD gave instructions and made provisions for the building of His House, you might think He would certainly protect it.  He didn’t.
What was He more interested in? THE PEOPLE.
He wanted the People to return to Him. When they rejected His kindness and long-suffering, He took out the Whip. Do you think He has changed?

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

No.
PEOPLE are what matter to GOD.
People, GOD loves People!
Everything else is just stuff!

GOD LOVES PEOPLE.

Which means GOD LOVES YOU!

He is not who you have likely been taught He is.
Read His Word and find out for yourself who He is.

Let’s read the last verses of the Book and see what happened next.

22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

23 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.

Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and may he go up.’”

For some in Exile, they humbled themselves and returned to The LORD.

By the way, if you are interested DANIEL lived through this exile of 70 years and He loved GOD all the way through. You can read all about it in the Book of Daniel. I hope you will.

 

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Until next time, holy hugs, Kathie

1 Peter, 2023, Christian Living, Daniel, Proverbs, Questions, You Tubes

Nebuchadnezzar(s)

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Worship.

We talk about it. We go to places of worship as we call them. We sing songs of worship, as we call them. I wonder does GOD call it worship? Do you ever wonder that too? 

But are we worshipping The One True God? And how can we know if we are or are not? 

What is worship anyway? 

All good questions. Can we answer them here? I don’t know, but we can seek answers here for sure. 

Daniel 3

Are you familiar with the story of Nebuchadnezzar, his statute, and his demand of the people in the plain of Dura? If you are not I hope you will use the link above and read Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel.

There were three (3) Hebrews in the province of Babylon named, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Those were their Babylonian names. Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, respectively.  (If you are interested in a little more about their names, click HERE.)

So what was going on in Babylon? 
Nebuchadnezzar. Poor guy. He was so messed up but GOD loved him -and he was not even a Jew. Chapters 1 through 4 of Daniel tell the story of Nebuchadnezzar. I am thinking he finally got it right and I am thinking we might get to meet him in Heaven. I am hoping so. 

But I’m off point. 

In Chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar is so full of himself, that he had a statute of himself erected and he demanded to be WORSHIPPED. 

That set me off on this trail. 

Nebuchadnezzar, in my humble opinion, was set on controlling the people. And that meant obedience. I mean you can’t control the people, unless they obey you. Can you? 

It seems to me man is never satisfied as long as he wants to control other men (please understand this includes women too – as all mankind). There’s just something about people that causes them to want to control other people. And it causes so many problems. But I’m slightly off-point. 

Worship. 
We can attend a song service, sing every song, raise our hands, and jump a pew, but if we are not yielded to consistently, daily, obeying GOD, we are not worshipping Him. Instead, we just may be worshipping the traditions of men. 

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah understood obedience. They understood that bowing down before that statute was an affront to The One and Only Holy Holy Holy GOD.  And they refused to do it. 

Worship.  I made a note in the margin of my Bible. 

True worship is yielding to the CONTROL of GOD. 

Am I yielded to being controlled by GOD?
Daily, consistently?

Am  I ever growing more and more obedient to Him?
Am I more and more obeying what I read in the Bible, practicing the commands and precepts found there?
Practicing them in my home? Practicing them in public?

More and more times are coming to afford us opportunities to choose to worship (obey) GOD or the traditions of men.

Today we can examine ourselves and we can pray, for ourselves and each other. Not a one of us is exempt from the distractions, snares, strategies, and traditions set in place by the evil one. Let us guard our hearts and all our senses so that we will grow more and more obedient and thereby worship our GOD with every breath.  1 Peter 5:7-9, Proverbs 4:22-24

It’s not the music. It’s not the song. It’s not the sermon. It’s not the place. It’s OBEDIENCE.

Nebuchadnezzar wanted to control the people, he lusted for worship. And from the majority, he got it. There are many Nebuchadnezzars in our world, sometimes they are people, sometimes, just things. 

WORSHIP GOD.
Only HE is worthy.
HE is the ONLY safe One to worship.
The only safe one to unconditionally obey. 

Until next time ~~~ Shalom, Kathie 

2023, Daniel, Questions

A Fine Privilege

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Would you classify yourself as an avid reader?70ea7e3860ac448144cfac9e721a03ce--reading-posters-reading-books

I have more books on my list to read than I will get read in 2 years, much less this year of 2023.

How many minutes a day do you allot for reading? Or do you not have a daily allotment dedicated to exploring books?

Do you prefer paper and ink in hand or is digital reading your preference?
Of course, I do the on-screen reading every day but I prefer a paper and ink book in my hand.

What was the best book you read last year? 
Do you read a variety of genres of books or have you pretty much found your reading niche?

I didn’t read as much in 2022 as I should have and I plan, LORD willing, to read much more this year. reading1
Do you have reading recommendations for me?  I have received 2 title suggestions so far and have both of them on order — they should arrive soon.

What’s my point with this unusual type of post for me?
Just a little conversation.  Just an effort to hear from you from the other side of this screen.

Please consider with me how highly favored we are to be able to read. There are yet people in this world who do not have this fine privilege.
And consider with me that GOD has enabled us to be well-read.
Let us not waste it.

Daniel 1: 17 To these four boys God had given knowledge and skill in every aspect of learning and wisdom; moreover, Dani’el could understand all kinds of visions and dreams.  source 

Perhaps you will read Daniel 1 and discover the place and time of these young men who were indeed well-read.

Introduce your children to reading early — preferably while they are still in the womb. reading

Love, Kathie

2022, Daniel, Gospel of Luke, Revelation

Ownership?

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Question.
Have you read Luke 4 lately?
Did you read it yesterday?

Luke 4 

5 The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world,
6 and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose.
7 So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Worship Adonai your God and serve him only.’”  source 

Did you notice, YESHUA did not dispute Satan’s ownership? 

When Satan makes this offer to the antichrist, he will not answer the way YESHUA did.
He will drop to his knees and worship that evil being. 
The antichrist with full knowledge and undeceived will worship satan for power and stuff he will only get to keep for a very few short years. 
And thereafter — well, let’s see his fate. 

(KJV) Revelation 20:10  “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”  

And this one:

Revelation 19: 20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone.  source 

Did you catch that? 
THROWN ALIVE into the lake of fire. 

They will not have company in that fire like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had when they were thrown into the king’s fiery furnace for their refusal to bow to any god but THE GOD.
Check out Daniel 3, particularly verses 25 and 26. 

Loving JESUS here is costly but eternity is forever.