Ezekiel 26:7 (KJV) King of Kings

Ezekiel 26:7 (KJV)
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people.

I was struck by the phrase, “king of kings.” This term is used three times in the Old Testament. Each time it refers to one of the kings of Babylon. It’s the first of the four great empires of Daniel’s vision and, as such, none of those after it rival it. As much as Alexander the Great may have aspired to it, He never reached the greatness of the Babylonian kings, especially Nebuchadnezzar. 

My real interest, however, is in the contrast between this and a similar New Testament phrase. The Bible gives Jesus a title similar to that of Nebuchadnezzar:

1 Timothy 6:15
Which in his times he shall shew, who isthe blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; 

Revelation 17:14
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him arecalled, and chosen, and faithful. 

Revelation 19:16
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 

The differences between the Old Testament title and the New Testament one may seem subtle, but they are of unbelievable importance. Nebuchadnezzar seemed like a king of kings. He might have been a king among kings. He could have been the most powerful of the kings of his day. 

But Jesus is King of kings and KING OF KINGS. 

He is the God of all kings, the authority of every king. 

• Every king[1]ought to aspire to His character. 
• Every king ought to submit to His authority. 
• Every king ought to bow before His presence. 

But no king will ever replace Him, defeat Him or compare to Him. 

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[1]Or, for that matter, any leader of any title or office.

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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Ezekiel 26:7 (KJV) King of Kings

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Luke 18:7-8 (KJV) God Avenges His Own

Luke 18:7-8 (KJV)
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

There is a promise, a challenge and a doctrine in these verses:

The promise
God will avenge his own speedily. He won’t delay. He won’t be late. His answer, His presence, His help will be on time and sooner than we can imagine.

The challenge 
His own are to “cry day and night”. It’s the application of the parable He began with.

• Importunity 
• Praying without ceasing 
• Praying and not fainting 

The challenge is not to quit. 

The doctrine 
God bears long with us. It’s not that He withholds His answers long but that He endures so much from us. We may wish to be avenged (that implies an enemy) but we are little better than the one we call an enemy. We may have been wronged but we have certainly wronged someone. We may have a case against another, but surely God has a case against us. 

What a blessing to know that God hears, God answers, God provides, God blesses, yes God even avenges us. 

And to know He does all that though we would be undeserving if it were not for 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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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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Luke 18:7-8 (KJV) God Avenges His Own

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Luke 17:22-23 (KJV) We Can’t Follow You

Luke 17:22-23 (KJV)
And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.

The days will come when some people will desire a thing from the Lord whose time is not yet come. They will follow after something that looks good, looks proper, looks like it is from God, but it is not.

Jesus taught His disciples not to go after it with them. 

Recently a friend took his own life. I just learned that, before committing the act, he wrote out his funeral plans. He gave instructions what he wanted said. Apparently, the minister read his words verbatim. My friend, a student of mine two decades ago, had come home from the mission field to serve in a local church. He had led that church further and further down the road of progressivism until the church decided he had gone too far and fired him. I had lost track of him. I don’t know why he came home from the field or why he went after the progressive model of Christianity. I do know that those I know who have done so, did it because they were dissatisfied with the results of fundamental Baptist doctrine and practice. They wanted more. They believed more waited for them inside the progressive church movement. My friend claimed that the reason he had taken his life was that, when he needed them most, his friends had abandoned him. He wrote that his friends would have to live the rest of their lives with the burden that his death was their fault. This simply isn’t true. He had abandoned us. What upset him is that we didn’t follow. 

Remember the parable of the prodigal Son? His father did not follow after him. He waited patiently, lovingly, longingly for his son return but he didn’t chase after him. 

To my friends who have gone after enticing things. We love you. We would be happy to welcome you back. But we can’t follow after you. 

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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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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Luke 17:22-23 (KJV) We Can’t Follow You

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Luke 16:2 (KJV) How’s Your Report?

Luke 16:2 (KJV)
And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

Here’s the thing. God always hears about our stewardship. The question is not how the lord found out, the question is why the steward had been unjust. 

This last weekend we had a missionary in our church. He said that the pastor of the first church he planted in the field sends him a report every week:

• What was the attendance
• What was the offering 
• What were the results 

He doesn’t require this report of him. The pastor just wants to give it to him. 

We might not see it or sense it, but it would be wise for use to realize that God has a report of our service for Him. 

Is your report a good one?

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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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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Luke 16:2 (KJV) How’s Your Report?

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Luke 15:4 (KJV) How To “Go After”

Luke 15:4 (KJV)
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

There is quite the contrast between the first two of these three parables and the last. 

• In each case something was lost
• In each case the loss was painful 
• In each case the thing was found

But in the first two the loser was aggressive in his search. The aggressive search is not so apparent in the last. 

The first is an animal. 
Once he is found he may be forced to return and penned to prevent his leaving again.

The second is inanimate. 
The house is swept and searched until the object is found and reclaimed. 

The last is a human being. 
He has a will of his own and that may not be infringed upon. The father does not hunt him down. The father does not force his return. Rather, the father submitted to his demands and allowed him his will. 

But this does not mean the father did not seek for his return. We know that the father spotted him returning from a long way off and ran to meet him. 

• I imagine the father looking for him every day. 
• I imagine him praying every day. 
• I imagine him hurting every day until his son came home. 

The shepherd went after his sheep until he was found. The father teaches us how to go after the lost soul until he is found. 

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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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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Luke 15:4 (KJV) How To “Go After”

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Ezekiel 20:6 (KJV) The Glory of All Lands

Ezekiel 20:6 (KJV)
In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands:

God gives His opinion[1] of the Promised Land twice in this discourse.[2] God said that He had personally “espied” the land for them. He had searched it, evaluated it, discovered its riches and determined its dangers. God Himself had called it a land flowing with milk and honey. He claimed it to be “the glory of all lands.” Because God is not limited by time or space, I accept this opinion to include all of the earth and not just the Middle Eastern region of the world. 

No wonder history has been forever focused on this tiny piece of Mediterranean property. 

Perhaps mankind cannot even conceive the reasons we are so drawn to it.[3] I consider the glories that exist in the United States:

• The snow peaked mountains of the Cascades
• The rivers and waterfalls
• The valleys and Grand Canyon
• The fertile plains

In my personal estimation the glory of all lands must be right here, somewhere. That’s because all I know is here. God has espied it all and frankly says it’s Israel. 

I believe Him. Therefore I support God’s people there. 

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[1]Does God even have opinions? If He thinks it, it is right.

[2]See also vs 15

[3]Or the enemy is so set against it.

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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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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Ezekiel 20:6 (KJV) The Glory of All Lands

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Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Ezekiel 19:5-6 (KJV) Young Lions

Ezekiel 19:5-6 (KJV)
Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

Years ago, I heard someone suggest that this chapter might be a prophecy concerning the United States. It seems incredible to many that America, as prominent a place as she has played in world history, would not even have a hint in the Bible. Maybe America doesn’t play as prominent a place as she thinks!

I use this today more as an exercise in the imagination, perhaps as a demonstration how the mind, that wants to contrive a thing, can do so if it pleases. We should stick to the plain meaning of every Bible text unless the Bible text clearly tells us to do otherwise.

The lion has long been a symbol in England. England has historic ties to Israel dating back, I think, to the first century. England’s history concerning liberty, her Christian influence, her missionary efforts, her revivals could have given hope of spiritual greatness. Indeed, there were those who believed England was God’s second Israel.

But she has failed. Today she is in need of missionary work and is overrun with ungodliness. She might represent the first whelp. 

But from England sprang a second young lion, the United States. Very early on it appeared that the U.S. would take up where England had left off in the spiritual world. The revivals of England rocked the U.S. and at the same time shaped her. Indeed, it is possible to credit those revivals with the Revolution that brought her to independence. 

America quickly set the standard for missionary work. The wealth created in the U.S. saw churches rise and missionary money raised. Revivals continued in the United States even as we fought our own demons. The US has been the greatest friend to Israel and may have been considered her savior. Alas, the U.S. has begun a spiritual decline that, if we were to take the prophecies of this chapter into account, it looks like this decline will end in her eventual dissolution. 

We must never make too much of types we find in the Bible, especially those that have no secondary Biblical support. 

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 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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.

My books are available at:
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http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie

My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Ezekiel 19:5-6 (KJV) Young Lions

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Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.