2 Kings 13:19 (KJV) The True Sign of Wickedness

2 Kings 13:19 (KJV)
And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.

This is Elisha’s last living act. The very next event recorded is his death and burial. 

Elisha served in the northern kingdom and among leaders who were always wicked, some worse than others, but all wicked. It is a testament to the grace of God that he gave them such prophets as Elijah and Elisha. God was very good to them. 

I see in this event what I believe is the true sign of wickedness, the lack of passion for God. The man of God, known for his miracles and for the powerful message of God, had promised God would give Israel victory over Syria. He instructs the king to smite the ground with arrows as a symbol of what God would do to Syria through them. The king smote the ground three times and quit. 

• He wasn’t that interested in the promise of God
• He wasn’t that interested in the message of God
• He wasn’t that interested in the symbolism God provided

He wasn’t opposed. He did smite the ground as instructed. He just wasn’t sold out. 

The root of the wicked heart may have an element of faith. The wickedness is in that it is only an element of faith and not wholehearted.

. 

Matthew 22:37 (KJV)
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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2 Kings 13:19 (KJV) The True Sign of Wickedness

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2 Kings 11:14 (KJV) The Deceived Heart

2 Kings 11:14 (KJV)
And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.

How deceptive the human heart can be. 

Athaliah had, six years previous, killed all males of the royal seed.[1] She was the treacherous one. She, for the sake of power, had destroyed the family line that Israel had established as kingly. In this act, she, as an instrument of Satan had attempted to destroy the line from which God promised to give the Messiah.

She must have sensed, sometimes, the weight of her choices. There must have been times when, perhaps in the darkness of night, the faces of those she had killed haunted her. But in the end, her deceitful heart lied to her own soul and she thought it treason that the one royal seed she had missed should be on the throne. 

She cried treason. She was correct. But it was she who was treasonous, and it was she who paid the price. 

---

[1] Except Joash, who has been hidden from her.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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2 Kings 11:14 (KJV) The Deceived Heart

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John 9:5 (KJV) Light In The World

John 9:5 (KJV)
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

At first glance, a person might see this as an earthly promise. Something like, as long as Jesus is alive and walking the earth, He is the light of the world. 

That is not the ultimate fulfillment of the passage. He sheds light into the entire world: 

• Through faith in Him, 
• Through His Word and 
• Through the hope He provides the believing heart

Our world is increasingly pushing Jesus out, and with that, the world becomes increasingly dark. Sin, despair and unnatural affection are ills that only Jesus can cure. Just as sunlight often heals, so the light of Christ is a balm in a cursed world. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

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John 9:5 (KJV) Light In The World

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John 8:1 (KJV) The End of the Day

John 7:53 (KJV)
And every man went unto his own house.

John 8:1 (KJV)
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

The heading in my digital Bible on E-sword has the words, “The Woman Caught in Adultery” as a title beginning at John 7:53. Every man went unto his own house, but Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 

Consider how the natural man ended his day versus how the Son of God did. Consider the difference between the man of the flesh versus the man of the Spirit.

• One goes home
• The other goes to a place of communion with God

Would not our days end much better, and the next begin more rightly if we ended them as Jesus did?

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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John 8:1 (KJV) The End of the Day

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John 7:18 (KJV) The Same Is True

John 7:18 (KJV)
He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

Jesus is obviously referring to Himself in this passage. Barnes Notes says it teaches, “that he was not an impostor, and the evidence of this was that he sought not his own glory, but the honor of God. This evidence was furnished:
1. In his retiring, unobtrusive disposition; in his not seeking the applause of people;
2. In his teaching such doctrines as tended to exalt God and humble man;
3. In his ascribing all glory and praise to God;”

The passage is worded in such a way that it may also be offered as instruction for the witness of Christ. Would it not be wise for us to provide the same evidences?

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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John 7:18 (KJV) The Same Is True

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John 6:60 (KJV) A Hard Saying

John 6:60 (KJV)
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

This hard saying was John 6:57-58 (KJV)
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

Wow! That hard saying was simply a message eternal life. We have grown so accustomed to hearing about eternal life that we either, believe we already have eternal life or else we don’t believe there is such a thing as eternal life. Very few people seem concerned at all with the subject.

Here’s the hard thing, eternal life is not determined by: 

• Our work, 
• Our efforts or 
• Anything we do or don’t do

Eternal life is based only on our relationship with Christ. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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John 6:60 (KJV) A Hard Saying

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John 5:29 (KJV) Two Resurrections

John 5:29 (KJV)
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

It’s Christmas morning as I meditate upon this passage of God’s Word. I can’t help but think that, while so many are rejoicing in the promise of peace on earth and goodwill toward men,[1] that is but a small part of the Bible message and not the reality of the majority of mankind. Jesus said that the future reality is, for some the resurrection of life but for the rest, it is the resurrection of damnation. Further, in another place, Jesus said that few take the path that leads to life and the majority take the broad way that leads to destruction. 

I know we all want to hear a positive message today. That message can only be delivered to those who take the warning seriously so that they are converted. 

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[1] Though there are fewer who actually reflect upon those words in our day, preferring the more secular versions of Christmas cheer.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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John 5:29 (KJV) Two Resurrections

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John 4:54 (KJV) The Second Miracle That Jesus Did

John 4:54 (KJV)
This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

This second miracle was the healing of the nobleman’s son. Jesus healed him

• At a distance
• In an instant and
• Without the father’s knowledge 

Jesus healed him of an illness so desperate that they felt he would die. Jesus healed him and his whole house believed. 

How we need such healing today. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
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John 4:54 (KJV) The Second Miracle That Jesus Did

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2 Kings 5:3 (KJV) Stronger Evidences

2 Kings 5:3 (KJV)
And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

I am amazed to think that Elijah and Elisha, two of the most powerful prophets in the Old Testament, served the Lord in the Northern Kingdom of Israel and here, the Bible even says in Samaria. No doubt other prophets, such as Isaiah, who served in Jerusalem, have had as great of influence through their writings, but Elijah and Elisha, the miracle-working prophets, served in the rebellious land of Israel. I see in that the grace of God. To the hardest of hearts, God often gives the strongest evidences of truth. Even Naaman, the Syrian soldier, could find the grace of God in Samaria. 

We do walk by faith and not by sight. But those who are content with the Word of God, I think, tend to be given generous portions of the Word. Those who are more rebellious may tend to get stronger evidences of the reality of God.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

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My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
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2 Kings 5:3 (KJV) Stronger Evidences

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