Key Verse: 2 Kings 17:18
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.
God gave the 10 tribes of the north every opportunity to repent. He sent mighty prophets like Elijah and Elisha, but the leaders and the majority of the people did not listen and change their ways. God does not always strive with us. However, He does seek to move us to Himself in a variety of ways. If we do not respond, the time comes when God must put the emphasis on righteousness and His holy nature must eventually seek justice and judgment. Genesis 6:3 tells us that God said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man forever.” The Apostle Peter picks up this theme of Noah and God’s judgment in 1 Peter 3:18-22 and 4:1-8. Our salvation is secure in Christ! But in the north of Israel, those who were following God closely were swept up in the destruction and relocation actions of the Assyrian King. War and destruction is happening in our time. It is absolutely essential that we seek to be salt and light in our entire country, as well as the whole world.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your ministry to the people who lived in the north such as the Samaritans who descended from those who were relocated there by the Assyrian king. You care about people everywhere! I pray that I will love and seek to bless all people everywhere in every way I can. Most of all, Lord, may I witness to Your Salvation and may I support world missions in a generous and sacrificial way. In Your Name I pray, Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
There are Christian missions all over the world. Brian Stewart, for many years the senior foreign correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, tells of his camera operator somewhere in Africa saying approximately, “I wish that just once we could go to a remote place where a missionary does not walk out of the jungle to greet us.” This witness brought Brian back to his childhood faith which he had set aside during his university years. Countries such as South Korea have become powerful missionary-sending countries. It is impossible to follow Jesus closely without caring deeply about world missions.
Yours for living right in God’s sight, sharing God’s love, and teaching in word and deed the person of Jesus Christ,
David
Up Next in Year 1 | May
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100 Words - YR1 May 22 - GOOD DECISIONS
Key Verse: 2 Kings 18:5
“He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any who were before him.”Hezekiah stands out as a shining light. He served the Lord completely, destroyed false religion in the land, even to breaking up the imag...
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100 Words - YR1 May 23 - HEZEKIAH PRA...
Key Verse: 2 Kings 19:19
Now Therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.Our reading begins with the statement, “Hezekiah …. went into the house of the Lord.” The tearing of Hezekiah’s clothes and the...
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100 Words - YR1 May 24 - A MIRACLE AN...
Key Verse: 2 Kings 20:4b-5
The Word of the Lord came to him saying, “Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people,Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father; I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.”God added 15 more years to Hezekiah’s life by a c...