2 Kings 20:4-5 (KJV) Set Your House in Order

2 Kings 20:4-5 (KJV)

And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

Some might accuse God of being fickle or petty because of this passage. The prophet made a bold and confident statement: “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” That sounds pretty definitive and settled. But no sooner had Isaiah left the room than Hezekiah began to cry and weep. Before the prophet could even get out of the house, God sent him back with a different message. Isaiah was instructed to turn around and tell the king that he would live fifteen years more.

We have to remember the purpose of these Old Testament accounts. The New Testament tells us they are for our learning and example. God is demonstrating—not merely doctrine—but His character in relationship with His creation, especially mankind. This account is recorded in the eternal Word of God not to show us that God changes His mind easily or trivially, but to teach us some very valuable lessons.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that life is brief. 

Most of us will never have a preacher tell us when we are about to die. It is best to keep our house in order.

Second, I see that prayer is effectual. 

I once had a man describe himself as a fatalist. “What will be will be,” he said. There is no use in fighting it, worrying about it, or attempting to correct it. In his case, he had cancer. He chose not to seek treatment because “what will be will be.” Whether or not to seek treatment was his business. But the truth is, God has given us means to affect the outcomes of life—not the least of which is prayer. Prayer is far more powerful than any of us can imagine, and we are often guilty of using it far too little.

Third, I see that our prayers ought to be tuned in with God’s will. 

Hezekiah did live, but the only time we see him clearly falter in Scripture came after his prayer was answered. I do not believe the lesson is that we can pray and God will grant anything outside His will. “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss…” God is not weak-minded or fickle. No one is successfully praying away the plan and will of God. But we can desire things from God that would ultimately harm us—and even affect our children and grandchildren.

Submission to the Lord is always the best choice.

#GodHearsPrayer #SetYourHouseInOrder #PrayerChangesThings #TrustGodsWill #BibleTruths

Set Your House in Order: A Life-Changing Lesson on Prayer and God’s Will

What do you think—did God change His mind, or is there something deeper going on in this passage? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear how this truth about prayer and God’s will has impacted your life.

For more Bible teaching that is clear, practical, and grounded in Scripture, visit marvinmckenzie.org. There are books, lessons, and resources there to help you grow in your walk with the Lord.

Don’t just read it—respond to it. Drop a comment and join the conversation.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 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.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
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2 Kings 20:4-5 (KJV) Set Your House in Order

2 Kings 19:25 (KJV) The Truth Atheists Won’t Admit

2 Kings 19:25 (KJV)

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

These are the words of God, by Isaiah, directed toward the Assyrian king.

First, in response to the threats and boasting of his general.
Second, in response to the prayers of Hezekiah following them.

God knows that Sennacherib knows from “long ago” what God has done. His anger, then, is not toward Jerusalem or Hezekiah, but directed completely toward God.

2 Kings 19:28 (KJV)
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

I am confident Sennacherib and Rabshakeh would both have denied knowing this. They would have denied having any interest in God at all, except to mock the Jews for Him. But God knew they knew what He had done.

I’m going to go out on this limb.

I’m going to believe God and His Word.

I’m going to insist, to my dying day, that the atheist, the skeptic, the mocker of all things Christian, has known all along that God is—that He is at work—and that their rage, anger, mockery, and fighting is an attack against the God whom they know to be and against whom they rebel.

But rather than being angry at them in return, I am going to take my cue from Hezekiah and spread out my prayers to Him—and for them.

I’d rather they be saved than eternally destroyed.

#GodKnowsTheHeart #NoOneIsIgnorantOfGod #PrayerOverPride #GodIsNotMocked

The Truth Atheists Won’t Admit (But God Already Knows)

What do you think—are people truly ignorant of God, or are they resisting what they already know? Drop a comment below and join the conversation.

For more Bible teaching, encouragement, and resources, visit marvinmckenzie.org—I’d love to have you there.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 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.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Kings 19:25 (KJV) The Truth Atheists Won’t Admit

2 Kings 18:6 (KJV) The Truth About Godly Living

2 Kings 18:6 (KJV)

For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

I am reminded that Hezekiah was not a perfect man. Still, the Word of God says, “he clave to the LORD…” and goes so far as to say:

2 Kings 18:5 (KJV)
He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

There are so many powerful lessons to be learned from the accounts of his life in the Word of God.

• He trusted the Lord, but he fought needful battles.
• He trusted the Lord, but he faced a looming enemy.

Godly living is not one of ease and absolute peace. There are always enemies—especially in our flesh—to contend with. Since none of us are without sin, none of us should make peace with sin in our lives.

There are enemies in this world as well. Because of the corruption of human flesh, we must be vigilant for personal and family safety and welfare. And we have been called, as Christians, to be witnesses to the lost.

Never assume that godliness is idleness and ease.

Beyond all of this, there is the looming reality of the judgment of God upon this world. As believers, we have escaped this wrath that is to come, but it remains an ever-present truth. The Word of God urges us to be mindful of it and to live each day as though this might be the day of that reckoning.

Trusting the Lord—cleaving to Him—is not ignorance of the times or idleness in the face of obstacles. Neither is it perfect faith, for none of us attain that in this life.

Trusting and cleaving to the Lord is settling with Him that He is God, not we ourselves, and leaning on Him as we step forward into life.

#ClaveToTheLord #TrustGodStandFirm #FaithInTheFight #BiblicalLiving #StandAgainstSin

The Truth About Godly Living: Faith Still Faces Battles

If this challenged or encouraged you, I’d love to hear from you—what stood out most? Leave a comment below and join the conversation. For more Bible teaching, resources, and encouragement, visit marvinmckenzie.org and stay connected.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 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.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Kings 18:6 (KJV) The Truth About Godly Living

Colossians 4:9 (KJV) Think You Understand the Bible?

Colossians 4:9 (KJV)

With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

Our passage helps demonstrate the interconnectivity not only of the people involved in the Word of God, but also of the various books of the Bible. Onesimus is the subject of the book of Philemon. He was a runaway slave, owned by Philemon, who was converted to Christ under the Apostle Paul while Paul was a prisoner in Rome.

After a period of discipleship and training, Onesimus was returned to Philemon, partnered with Tychicus and carrying letters to Philemon, the church in Colosse, and, I assume, also the church in Laodicea.

These letters, then, were not written in a vacuum—isolated and unrelated. It would have been obvious to everyone involved which letters were inspired by the Holy Ghost and which were not. The letter to Laodicea was apparently shared, but no one thought to preserve it. That indicates they recognized it as the work of Paul, but not as the work of the Holy Ghost through Paul. The fact that Paul recommended sharing the letter does not mean he viewed it as something more than it was. Many helpful things can be shared that are less than Scripture. An endorsement is not the same as a declaration of inspiration.

All of this is to say: if the Word of God was not written in a vacuum, neither should it be read that way. Context means more than just the verses before and after. It even means more than the context of the letter as a whole. All of the Bible must be studied in light of all of the Bible.

It is a big task—not suited for the casual or the unconcerned.

Biblical truth is for those who know the Holy Spirit, are engaged with the Word of God, and are in it for the long term.

#FaithfulBrother #BibleContextMatters #OnesimusStory #ScriptureInterconnected #RightlyDividingTruth

Think You Understand the Bible? Why Reading One Passage Alone Can Lead You Wrong

What stood out to you most in Onesimus’ story? Drop a comment below—I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts and how this challenged your Bible study.

For more clear, Bible-centered teaching that helps you go deeper than the surface, visit marvinmckenzie.org and explore additional resources designed to strengthen your walk with the Lord.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 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.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Colossians 4:9 (KJV) Think You Understand the Bible?

Colossians 3:14 (KJV) The One Thing Your Church Needs Above Everything Else

Colossians 3:14 (KJV)

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

Barnes writes (forgive the length of this quote), “The bond of all perfection; the thing which will unite all other things, and make them complete; compare the parallel place in Ephesians 4:3. The idea seems to be that love will bind all the other graces fast together, and render the whole system complete. Without love, though there might be other graces and virtues, there would be a want of harmony and compactness in our Christian graces, and this was necessary to unite and complete the whole. There is great beauty in the expression, and it contains most important truth. If it were possible to conceive that the other graces could exist among a Christian people, yet there would be a sad incompleteness, a painful want of harmony and union, if love were not the reigning principle. Nor faith, nor zeal, nor prophecy, nor the power of speaking with the tongue of angels, would answer the purpose.”

I refer you to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia for its definition of the word charity. ISBE says the word agape was probably used by Paul for the purpose of expressing the relationship of Christians in community—the local church.

Colossians says of this charity that it is “the bond of perfectness.” It is the thing that unites everything else in the gifts and graces of the Christian life. Without it, everything else becomes meaningless.

Most of us would think of this as belonging to the Christian as an individual, but the Bible is a book of community. Christians exist together. The thing that makes everything else in the local church work is our charity—our unique love one for another.

And this is the very thing I think we too often ignore and miss. It is the thing the devil has stolen from us through the idea of the invisible church. We do not cultivate and guard charity in the church as we ought. The result is a church filled with individualists. They might all claim to have love for mankind, love for the faith, and love for Christ, yet they often lack the kind of love for their church that brings unity, maturity, and complete “perfection” into it.

It is charity—fervent love for our church—that we need above all else.

#BondOfPerfectness #BiblicalCharity #LoveBuildsTheChurch #LocalChurchTruth #ChristianUnity

The One Thing Your Church Needs Above Everything Else: Is This the Missing Piece in Many Churches Today?

What do you think—has charity been overlooked in today’s churches?
Drop a comment below and share your thoughts or experiences.

For more Bible teaching, resources, and practical studies to strengthen your walk and your church, visit:
👉 marvinmckenzie.org

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 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.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Colossians 3:14 (KJV) The One Thing Your Church Needs Above Everything Else