{"id":3059,"date":"2019-05-09T20:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T03:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=3059"},"modified":"2019-05-09T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T04:54:11","slug":"2kings_8_16-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2kings_8_16-29\/","title":{"rendered":"God Is At His Best Even When You\u2019re At Your Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Kings 8:16-29\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 8:16-29.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings 8:16-18 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 16-18:\u00a0 Jehoram succeeds his father Jehoshaphat as the king of Judah.\u00a0 But instead of being a humble, wise, God-fearing king like his father Jehoshaphat was, Jehoram is said to have \u201cwalked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done\u201d (v18).\u00a0 In other words, like Ahab, Jehoram worshiped other gods.\u00a0 Why is it that despite being raised by a God-loving father, Jehoram still ended up walking in ways that were not pleasing to God?\u00a0 The only reason the author of 2 Kings gives is that \u201che married a daughter of Ahab\u201d (v18).\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0If you marry someone who does not love the Lord but who worships idols, prepare to be affected greatly by their idolatry.\u00a0 Christian, don\u2019t settle for partnering with someone who does not love the Lord. Find someone who sincerely loves God and puts God first.\u00a0 For if that person really does love God and puts God first, that person will love you better than any idol worshiper you can find, for the best lovers of God are also the best lovers of people too.<\/strong>
\n2 Kings\u00a08:19\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 19-23:\u00a0 Despite their king Jehoram not walking in ways that were pleasing to God, despite being troubled by a rebellion by the nation of Edom, Judah\u2019s lamp is not extinguished.\u00a0 And why is that?\u00a0 The reason the author of 2 Kings gives is that \u201cfor the sake of his servant David, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.\u201d (v19)\u00a0\u00a0Praise God that even in those times when we are at our worst, God remains at His best, faithful to His promises, hanging on to us even when we feel like there\u2019s nothing left to hang on to.<\/strong>\u00a0 So if you\u2019re not at your best today, you can pray: \u201cGod, please hang on to me today.\u201d\u00a0 And He will.\u00a0 Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness.
\n2 Kings\u00a08:27\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 25-29:\u00a0 Ahaziah replaces his father Jehoram as king of Judah.\u00a0 Like his father, Ahaziah did evil in God\u2019s eyes, walking in the ways of Ahab king of Israel and worshiping idols. Once again, the reason the author of 2 Kings gives is that \u201che was related by marriage to Ahab\u2019s family.\u201d (v27)\u00a0\u00a0It might sound like a broken record when you hear it repeated so often in 1 Kings and 2 Kings, but the lesson once again is: it matters who you marry.<\/strong>\u00a0 I\u2019m not the one making this up.\u00a0 Over and over and over the Bible warns against it.\u00a0 Yoke yourself to a non-believer and chances are good that you\u2019ll become one yourself.\u00a0\u00a0Yoke yourself to an idol worshipper and chances are good you\u2019ll become one yourself.\u00a0 Yoke yourself to a Christian who authentically loves God and loves people and chances are you\u2019ll become one too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, Your Word gives us so many cautionary tales about relationships that we are really without excuse when we choose partners foolishly.\u00a0 Thank You that nonetheless You remain wise and faithful, even when we are foolish and faithless.\u00a0 Thank You for always being at Your best, even when we\u2019re at our worst.\u00a0 You alone are worthy of worship.\u00a0 Hang onto me today.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 8:16-29.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 Kings 8:16-18 (NIV)\u00a0
\n16\u00a0\u00a0In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.\u00a0
\n17\u00a0\u00a0He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.\u00a0
\n18\u00a0\u00a0He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses 16-18:\u00a0 Jehoram succeeds his father Jehoshaphat as the king of Judah.\u00a0 But instead of being a humble, wise, God-fearing king like his father Jehoshaphat was, Jehoram is said to have \u201cwalked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done\u201d (v18).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3059","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\/3059","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=3059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3110,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3059\/revisions\/3110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}