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July 15th
The Bible reading today is in 2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16,17.
To the text...“Yet the Lord “warned” Israel and Judah by every “prophet” and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments...”
2 Kings 17:13
In love, God sent preachers to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and to the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin.
God “sent them”. You know, God still has His preachers today. He still calls them. He still speaks to them. He still trains them, and He still sends them.
I remember it like it was yesterday, a Sunday evening worship service at Highland Baptist Church in Denton Texas. Beverly and I were newlyweds. And the first thing we did after moving to my college town was to start looking for a church that taught and preached the Bible and had a passion to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
That Sunday night, Jack Boggs, our pastor, shared his testimony of God calling him to preach. Bev and I had been praying that God would show us what He had in store for our lives. Brother Jack said that God was still calling people to preach the gospel all over the world. He challenged our church family that night to listen for that special call from God.
I bowed my head and heart that night and told the Lord that I would be His witness and share Christ with everyone He brought across my path. I thought that conversation with God would take care of the butterflies in my stomach. But it did not.
So I told the Lord that I didn't know much about preaching, but if He was calling me to preach the Word to His people, would He then give me a sign, like He did with Gideon.
“Lord, this call upon my life will include my wife. If You’re calling me, then please have Bev to grasp my hand”. Almost immediately Bev clasped my hand. I whispered to her that I believed that God was calling me to preach. She said, “then you need to go forward to speak with Brother Jack. I'll go with you.”
And the rest is history. 49 years a witness of Christ and a preacher.
God sent prophets/preachers to Israel in the days of Ahaz, king of Judah. The text says that the preachers shared God’s message with God’s people. But the people would not listen. Their hearts were stubborn, they would not turn from their evil ways and back to God.
G. Campbell Morgan said, “Israel’s sin was first against law, but finally it was against patient love.”
God sent preachers to Judah for 16 years, during the reign of wicked Ahaz of Judah. And for 16 years, for the most part, the hearts of God’s people were divided and hard toward God. It was God’s love that sent the preachers to call His people back to Himself.
There was a need for a spiritual revival among God’s people. They needed to be broken before God, humbled, repentant, and in love with God again.
Oh Lord Jesus...revive Your church...make Your preachers mighty in Spirit...they will need You to burn hot and passionately in their hearts...inorder to light the fires of revival in America and around the world...so be it!
Have a great day.
