{"id":2489,"date":"2019-03-29T20:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T03:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=2489"},"modified":"2019-03-24T20:49:49","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T03:49:49","slug":"1kings_15_9-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1kings_15_9-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Let Your Past Define You"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Kings 15:9-24 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 15:9-24.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 15:12-14 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made.
\n13\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
\n14\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 9-15:\u00a0 These verses summarize the long 41 year reign of Asa king of Judah.\u00a0 What I love most about Asa is that he deliberately chose not to follow the evil practices of the generations before him.\u00a0 His father Abijah was an idol worshiper who did not follow the Lord.\u00a0 His grandmother Maacah was as well.\u00a0 Yet Asa did not allow his past to define his future.\u00a0 He did not let his ancestors’ idolatry determine his relationship with God.\u00a0 Rather Asa took deliberate steps to remove idolatry not just from his own life but from Judah as a whole.\u00a0 Verse 14 says “Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life”.<\/p>\n

Likewise, don’t let the past define you.\u00a0 You may not have come from a Christian background.\u00a0 Your ancestors before you may not have followed the Lord wholeheartedly.\u00a0 But don’t let that determine your future.\u00a0 You can be an amazing worshiper of the Lord and a powerful leader in God’s kingdom.\u00a0 That is God’s destiny for you!<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Kings\u00a015:20\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n20\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah and all Kinnereth in addition to Naphtali.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 16-24: Here we see how Asa forms an alliance with Ben-Hadad king of Aram to help him fight against Baasha king of Israel.\u00a0 Here we see the power of partnership.\u00a0 When you’re up against an enemy that is too strong for you, it helps to have an ally who can help you fight.<\/p>\n

Is there a problem that is too big for you to solve on your own?\u00a0 You don’t have to fight alone.\u00a0 God is with you.\u00a0 Pray and ask God to help you find the right people who can partner with you in fighting your battle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for Asa, how he did not allow his past to define his future, and how he used the power of partnership to his advantage when facing an enemy that was too strong for him to beat alone.\u00a0 May I do the same, not allowing my past to define my future.\u00a0 May I take real, practical steps to remove idolatry from my life.\u00a0 And may I make the most of the relationships You have given to me so that I can experience more victory over the enemy.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 15:9-24.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 15:12-14 (NIV)\u00a0
\n12\u00a0He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made.\u00a0
\n13\u00a0He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley.\u00a0
\n14\u00a0Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses 9-15:\u00a0 These verses summarize the long 41 year reign of Asa king of Judah.\u00a0 What I love most about Asa is that he deliberately chose not to follow the evil practices of the generations before him.\u00a0 His father Abijah was an idol worshiper who did not follow the Lord.\u00a0 His grandmother Maacah was as well.\u00a0 Yet Asa did not allow his past to define his future.\u00a0 He did not let his ancestors’ idolatry determine his relationship with God.\u00a0 Rather Asa took deliberate steps to remove idolatry not just from his own life but from Judah as a whole.\u00a0 Verse 14 says “Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life”.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2491,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions\/2491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}