Read for This Week’s Study: Jer. 16:1-13; Hos. 1:1-3; Jer. 27:1-18; Dan. 4:25; Jeremiah 28:1-17; 2 Tim. 4:3-4. Memory Text: And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me (Luke 9:23). As we have already seen, God’s prophets … Continue reading –>
Wesley Banda pastored several villages in Malawi. The family lived in a two-room house. Because the area had no electricity, Mrs. Banda prepared the family meals outside over an open fire. One evening after dinner Mrs. Banda returned to her fire to prepare the morning meal of sadza (a thick porridge of cornmeal). Her husband … Continue reading –>
As the lesson stated, the depth of corruption that had befallen Israel can be seen in the kind of reforms that Josiah had to undertake. How, though, could the nation have fallen so far? In one sense, the answer is easy: it’s because humanity has fallen so far. Just how far humanity has degraded was … Continue reading –>
Despite the forewarning of doom, Josiah was still determined to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Maybe disaster couldn’t be averted, but in announcing the retributive judgments of Heaven, the Lord had not withdrawn opportunity for repentance and reformation; and Josiah, discerning in this a willingness on the part of God … Continue reading –>
The renovation of the sanctuary, long the center of Israelite worship, was important, but renovation of a building wasn’t all that was needed. The most beautiful and elaborate structure, though designed to help worshipers sense something of the power and grandeur of the Lord, in and of itself isn’t enough to evoke piety among the … Continue reading –>
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and … Continue reading –>
A preacher once said, Be careful what you pray for. You just might get it. Israel had asked for and longed for a king, just like the nations around them. They got what they asked for, and so much of Israelite history after the era of the judges was the story of how these kings … Continue reading –>
However much we like to talk about objectivity, about viewing things as they really are, as human beings we are hopelessly subjective. We see the world not so much as the world really is, but as we really are. And because we are fallen and corrupted beings, this corruption is going to impact our perceptions … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Chronicles 33:1-25, Hab. 1:2-4, 2 Kings 22, Phil. 2:3-8, 2 Kings 23:1-28, 1 Cor. 5:7. Memory Text: Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law … Continue reading –>
After completing high school, I worked as a literature evangelist for three years. One day I visited a hospital, and there I saw someone who looked familiar. I barely recognized him, but it was one of my former drinking buddies, my childhood friend. He was dying of TB and AIDS. I stared at him in … Continue reading –>
