December 13 – Seek to Find

“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” – 1 Chronicles 28:9  (NASB)

The books of First and Second Chronicles have much of the same historic accounts found in the books of the Kings. Today’s verse is an account of King David’s charge to his son Solomon as the throne of Israel is assumed by Solomon. David’s spiritual charge to Solomon resembles the Lord’s exhortation to Joshua (Joshua 1:6–9). Solomon asked God for and received the very “discretion and understanding” his father, David, desired for him. We have wonderful promises in these verses and perhaps one of the most potent ones is the promise that God will be found by those who seek Him.  Many times when non-believing people mock or ridicule God and our belief in His existence it is because they have never truly sought God. We believe the dual positive/negative promises here are absolute. Those who seek to find God will find him and that finding is the work of God. Those who forsake the search for God will find they remain as rejected as they ever have. Those who seek, find. Those who ask, receive. Those who knock, the door is opened. That is all it takes and it is God’s doing that saves us.

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September 23 – Desired. Planned. Invited.

“For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.”  1 Samuel 12:22 (NIV)

Often our promises are from the Old Testament of our Bible.  We realize that many of these promises were given to the people of Israel as a nation but we believe that we are justified in applying them to ourselves.  The promise we look at today was written by the prophet Samuel.  We are thinking especially today of the last words of this verse.  We believe that it was God's idea to make us His own and to call us to become members of His family.  For we who are children of God today, the process of bringing us into His family was not originally our idea.  We are His children today because God wanted it to be so and He made all the plans to provide a way that it could happen for us.  This included sending His Son to live among us and experience life as we all do.  This also included His Son becoming our Savior through His death and resurrection.  To all that God has planned and done, He invites us to come to Him and accept the offer by faith believing.  Of all who believe, none will be rejected, that's a promise. 

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July 5 – Believe to Know

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  1 John 4:16 (ESV)

One of the important messages of the Bible is that God loves His creatures.  This love for all the people of the world is the reason God sent His Son to become our Savior.  As we read this verse, we can notice two important verbs.  First of all, God wants us to KNOW that He loves us.  That is why He sent Jesus, His only begotten Son to our world, to live as a human without sin and so take our sin away when he died on the cross. That is why he has given us the Bible to tell us of His love in many ways.  He wants you and He wants me to know and experience His love.   As we learn about God's great love we come to BELIEVE on His love and to depend on it for all our needs.  We must believe in order to know and receive what Jesus has done for us.  We must stop rejecting and refusing to believe and we must change our minds toward believing and receiving His gift of salvation.