Love with Expectations, Part 2

Love is not provoked, or easily angered. Someone behaving in love does not “retaliate.” “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing,” 1st Peter 3:8-9. “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all,” 1st Thessalonians 5:15.

The Holy Spirit, Part 10

The final mention of the Spirit of the Lord by name in 2nd Chronicles occurs in 24:20. We read “Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people and said to them, ‘Thus says God: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He also has forsaken you.’’”

The Holy Spirit, Part 9

The result was that Asa heard and took the message to heart. He felt encouraged to dismantle the systems of false worship that had sprung up like weeds in the garden of his God. Isreal was a tree that was meant to bear fruit to God, fruit that would be shared with the nations for their healing and reconciliation with Israel’s God. In time the corruption of pagan influences, ruled by demonic principalities, had infiltrated Israel’s worship and they had turned to polytheism, pantheism, or even animism and astrology. Asa caused a restoration of true worship, calling back people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon as well as provoking Benjamin and Judah back to proper worship when they witnessed that God was with him, 2nd Chronicles 15:9.

Love with Expectations, Part 1

What is love? And what does it mean to love? These are questions that have been attempted to be answered by poets, philosophers, intellectuals, religious people and the average person for millennia. As it happens, most everyone tends to have a different definition of what love entails, or what love looks like. But what about love’s obligations? Once love enters a relationship, any relationship, are not certain expectations aroused that must be upheld by both parties?

The Holy Spirit, Part 8

Looking into 2nd Kings, we find that Elijah finally enjoyed the kind fate that Obadiah was afraid would overcome the prophet in his day: “Then they (the prophets) said to him (Elisha), ‘Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley,’” 2nd Kings 2:16. We know that God made His angels to be flames of fire and spirits, Psalm 104:4. They were likely the chariots of fire that separated Elijah from his protégé.

The Holy Spirit, Part 7

Moving on to 1st Kings, we find mention of the Spirit of the Lord yet again. Elijah has finally been commanded to reveal himself to Israel’s idolatrous king, Ahab. Obadiah, a God fearing servant of Ahab’s had found him and Elijah commanded Obadiah to fetch Ahab for him. Part of Obadiah’s response to the prophet was this: “And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the Lord will carry you to a place I do not know; so when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me,” 1st Kings 18:12. The Holy Spirit often led men of God, either directly or indirectly, throughout Scripture. He moved upon Samson early in that judge’s career, Judges 13:25. The Holy Spirit literally moved Ezekiel the prophet about to reveal certain things to him, Ezekiel 3:12, 14, etc. The Holy Spirit “led up” (Matthew 4:1) or even “drove” (Mark 1:12) Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days.