God's Heart and Dedication

Tuesday, December 15, 2015
2 Chronicles 30:5-12 KJV 

5 So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done [it] of a long [time in such sort] as it was written. 6 So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7 And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, [who] therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. 8 Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers [were, but] yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. 9 For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children [shall find] compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God [is] gracious and merciful, and will not turn away [his] face from you, if ye return unto him. 10 So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. 11 Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. 12 Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What decree was established and proclamation declared throughout Israel? Why? (v.5)
2) What posts went to the king and his princes throughout Israel and Judah? (v.6a)
3) What did the letters say? (v.6b-9)
4) How did the people of the land respond upon hearing and reading the posts that were dispatched? (v.10-11)
5) What did God do in Judah? (v.12)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
6) What is the Lord calling you and/or your local church to do during this last hour? 
7) Are you doing what the Lord has called you to do?

LIFE LESSONS
8) The Lord grants His people discernment to know what He is doing, or about to do, among us. We would be wise to heed His directives.

God Abandoned Shiloh

Saturday, August 8, 2015
Psalm 78:56-62 NIV

56 But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. 57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. 58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols. 59 When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely. 60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans. 61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. 62 He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) How did the people of God "put God to the test"? (v.56)
2) Who did the psalmish compare them to? Why? (v.57)
3) How did the Lord feel when His people rebelled against Him and what did He do about their transgressions? (v.58-62)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) What difficulties (hardships) has the Lord allowed in your life when you willfully rebelled against Him?

LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord allows His rebellious people to be afflicted to correct us (to bring us back into alignment with His will for our lives).