John 3:1-13 ~ Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit

John 3:1-13

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.


Well, can't we all relate some - Born Again Nicodemus wants to visit Jesus comfortably - not to be committed. And if you look at the passage with seeing Jesus is recorded as Wisdom, laughing at creation, you see Jesus was being a bit snippy with Nicodemus. And you have to hand it to Jesus, when Jesus is firm with someone He has style and form and zest and verve.



So Nicodemus looks in a mirror and discovers his own verve. Christians are expected to grow up. Believed a lie so everything that I know, Knew I wasn't who I wanted to be I was living life the way that I wanted But my eyes reminded me I'm not free


John 7:49-51
But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”


Really Grow Up. This is what it is, this is who I am
This is where I finally take my stand
I didn't wanna fall but I don't have to crawl
I met the one with two scarred hands

John 19:39
Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.


So... the horror of being born again. Because we are supposed to grow up. And if we bent five degrees this way, embrace a hands up high posture, with bunny ears on, and stand on one left foot....
Our better self will do better.

What a laugh. God gives us talents. To be who we are. He does not ask us to be turned inside out. He asks us to make decisions knowing we are transparent to Him. Our Christian path should be envisioned with great longing. God would not parent us by thunking us on the head. My mom moved her seat up in the car as far as she could and raised it up a foot. For all practicality, she actually looked as if she was riding on the hood. And she was thrilled to be there. I was annoyed and didn't even know why. My immediate reaction was to say to myself - if you were a better Christian - your initial reaction would be more gracious. That's so wrong. It is genuinely annoying to have someone block your total vision when you are driving. And we don't give ourselves room to have thought processes sometimes.

God isn't hoping we become St. Augustine. He is hoping we grow into loving people. To deal with Gonna tell you what I believe, This is what it is, this is who I am. And say I'm a Child of GOD. 

God, our Father, the One who Loves us best, really is not interested in "Stepford Wives" Children.  Or last generation bunny-eared tv contortionists trying to reach 'a signal'. God is a real parent. Loving us to do as good parents tell you, "Give a good, firm handshake, look the person in the eye, try your best. Best foot forward." 

We die to self, but Live to Him is not "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." And, please, GOD, not Homer Simpson's neighbor howdy doodle. Instead is like Moses, being so filled we radiate light. Remember the Nativity pictures you've seen where Jesus the Baby radiates Light? That is what Living to Him is about. Would Moses have turned down this experience???

Giving Him the best of
Everything that's left of
The life inside this man
I've been born again

Life continually deals us examples of less than perfection. One of my entertaining Pregnancy Assistance Center friends said her daughter has glow in the dark shorts that are a joke left over from "Phantom of the Opera". The shorts say, as they glow in the dark, "Come to the Dark Side. We have Cookies."

And you know that's funny & we all enjoyed that. Unfortunately, the cookies are the kind your computer eats and then you have more than indigestion. And on and on and on. Be careful what we direct our lives toward. (Um, Like Video Games Alexander - that's just dreadful for someone with such artistic talent.)

Yesterday I wrote of some fine examples, in real life that were the glossy side. I had two grandmothers who insisted on being called Grandmother. One was not going to be outdone by the other. And they were very different and very much the same. Missing out on knowing each other in pride alone. Well, you have to hope they made up in Heaven. Anyway, one Grandmother was so good and so holy and so always right and always letting you know - finally you quit telling her your life because there was always "the comment." Forget it. Nevah mind.

The other Grandmother was a lovely woman who had three of her four great-grandchildren named after her. She was the one who would go in and sit beside you and look. Until you woke up and you were overjoyed to see her again and that made your parents mad because they didn't want you awake in the middle of the night, but she kept telling you, with sincerity, "I'm so proud of you." "You do this well." "God bless you." - for every time you sneeze and then sometimes a rather surprising long prayer. And she had an amazing, astonishing passage to going HOME. And she just spoke to HIM saying, "I'm ready to go Home now Father" in her very southern, receiving line.

I'm here to tell you both Grandmothers were amazing women to HIM. But we learned far more from the Grandmother who knocked herself out to be love. Knowing full well the other Grandmother was a saint.

An Example of God. He has gone back to Heaven, creating a NEW Heaven for us. (Sheol was the Heaven before the New Covenant. God has knocked Himself out to be Love.) And we think we have to dour up and lean to the left and stand on one foot to be more pristine for Him.

And I don't want to leave my first Grandmother out here. She had the most amazing lightning show the Dallas Morning News reported as never seen before. She was that kind of faith to Him. And she trembled at many things. It was her faith that was so important to her. She just didn't relate that well to explaining beyond raptures of exclamations. And then when we buried her next to my grandfather, after fifty years of wearing a wedding band for a man who'd gone on HOME, the flowers of the Texas plains were astonishingly beautiful. A carpet of yellow and bright blue sky, gentle breeze, gentle light.

Jesus told us pray mightily. He said even a corrupt Judge would listen to pleas continually made. How do we really think Jesus is going to show up.... Jesus is going to meet us exactly were we truly live. And HIS Love reaches to the back of the universe, beyond ...

Knowing we make the best of circumstances far from perfection where a King of Kings is born in a barn, placed in a feeding trough. Where people refused to house a pregnant young mother tired from traveling. For a government not of their choosing. Not even when a star shown so brightly, they were bound to be awake anyway...  No red carpet at all.

Giving Him the best of
Everything that's left of
The life inside this man
I've been born again

This is who I am
I didn't wanna fall but I don't have to crawl
I met the one with two scarred hands

2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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Psalm 122 ~ I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
2 Our feet have been standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem!

3 Jerusalem—built as a city
that is bound firmly together,
4 to which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for[a] Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 There thrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
7 Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
8 For my brothers and companions' sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.


Phillip Phillips - Gone Gone Gone Lyric Video has a few lyrics that don't quite fit, and yet...
the Life and Verve of the Song!!!

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Abundant Life..

Jesus knew something of Rock...vacationing or traveling to Caesarea ...

Matthew 16:18
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

I've done Youth Ministry for ten years now. And volunteering at the Pregnancy Assistance Center, I meet people just as they actually are. And find most people are rather, bumbling around. Looking for fulfillment. Some are bored. Actually a lot of people are bored.

What amazes them is the story of one of my favorite people, Jeremy. Jeremy's parents got marred when he was 10 years old. His dad came to realize his woman, mother to his two children, was basically dying from a needle stick. She was a nurse who contracted Hepatitis from giving a patient a shot. An accident. Then a car accident where she struck her head violently to have Seizure Disorder.

The family of four came to Clark and asked for him to marry the couple. Clark worked to do premarital counseling, baptized three of them and the couple married.

Jeremy was hit by a truck as a Freshman in High School, almost died and as he recovered, his mom died. He struck out on his own after High School and found his fast food career could get him a car payment, rent, insurance, but he could not afford to pay for college tuition. He wasn't one of the fortunate kids who went off to college -

Jeremy stopped in to see the Navy Recruiters. The officer was nice to Jeremy but expressed doubt a slight built young man with a rod in his leg could qualify. Jeremy told the officer frankly - the people left from High School were drug dealers and he really had never hoped to be a drug dealer or run with dealers. That made the Recruiting Officer rather quiet. The Officer said, "Jeremy, there is no way a smoker, built like you, could run ten miles, but when you can, call me and I will run with you - then we will talk about enlistment. What do you think, son, about a year to learn to run ten miles?"

Jeremy went back in weeks. And he ran that ten miles and talked that officer into placing him en route to paramedic training.

Jeremy dated his, now, wife by telephone for three years. And Jeremy chose to find a career, find hard work, go where the roll of the dice took him. (Christians would say God's will.)


Young people are usually quiet when I tell them about Jeremy. A few of them say, "Wow". And I tell them that is what is required. We have to build a life with deliberation and determination.



There is a well known Hymn. In one of the lyrics ... For His Church He fought and died. That might be a bit controversial, but God honors His Church. And the people the Church houses. Being in Church requires some deliberation, not blind obedience, but the determination to make the time.

I've met people who say part of their trouble is the need for more meaningful gatherings and people to meet.

And I have a solution of you.... keep deliberately deciding to go to Church. Sure, we understand physical hunger, but Spiritual hunger is easily mistaken for less enduring things.

Jesus Christ and His Church. Two Thousand Years later... like a drum baby.. never stop beating...

When life leaves you high and dry
I'll be at your door tonight
If you need help, if you need help.
I'll shut down the city lights,

(The day we found out our daughter Isabelle would die, Clark arrived to just visit for an hour. He would return later with Tricia, his wife, and we sat and just wept. Tricia would later invite me to our Needlepoint Group - widening, strengthening, deepening my heart.)

When enemies are at your door
I'll carry you away from war
If you need help, if you need help.
Your hope dangling by a string
I'll share in your suffering
To make you well, to make you well.

(When Hurricane Ike approached our city, Dee and Cindy arrived to place their hands on my huge tummy to pray for a very silent Isabelle. We all knew I couldn't leave because birth was imminent. We prayed for the safety of the house. And Edward survived going upstairs to put pans in the attic as the tornado was ripping up trees. The house and Edward were safe.)

Give me reasons to believe
That you would do the same for me.

(I've seen men give up half of their year long vacation to make sure air conditioners and lights were ready for a new Church. Mornings given up 52 weekends a year, so Church could be made ready.)

And I would do it for you, for you.
Baby, I'm not moving on
I love you long after you're gone.

(I still drive by streets, now not housing loved ones like Randy Mantai, remembering how a Church drew together for a fund raiser to make sure his huge hospital bill was covered. Remember "Grumpy Old Smokers" making sure people could stay and have a delicious meal together. Remember a man who couldn't stand easily, but greeted all the people in the same loving fashion. Remember Randy finding a way to fix the air conditioner in our car. Randy's gone Home to be with His Lord. But he is still loved.)

For you, for you.
You will never sleep alone.
I love you long after you're gone
And long after you're gone, gone, gone.

(Randy was worried about leaving Julie behind, but he's in paradise. And Julie can count on being with Randy again, believing His promises.)

When you fall like a statue
I'm gon' be there to catch you
Put you on your feet, you on your feet.
And if your well is empty
Not a thing will prevent me.
Tell me what you need, what do you need?

(Bob Harris went on home to Detroit and then he went on HOME after a drunken driver took his life; after starting a Prison Ministry I'd have to say we were all a little too immature for. And in stead, in steadfast love, he has Judy remembering Bob with love. Yet there is a wonderful, warm legacy left. Bob would go to his daughter's house, fly in, rent a car, go to the grocery and fix her a meal she would return home from work for. Bob had some wilder younger years, but he did Grow up, Grow towards Him and Go Home. Leaving a memory we will love long after he has gone.)

I surrender honestly.
You've always done the same for me.

(Honestly, we have to be the people not just meeting and greeting the ones who are polished on the surface. The portion of the Word of God saying "I never knew you" is for the people of God turning people away for not being His willing Heart.)

So I would do it for you, for you.
Baby, I'm not moving on,
I love you long after you're gone.

Matthew 28:20
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

For you, for you.
You will never sleep alone.
I love you long after you're gone
And long after you're gone, gone, gone.

Romans 10:9
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.


You're my back bone.

Exekiel 37
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.'

You're my cornerstone.

Ephesians 2:20
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone

You're my crutch when my legs stop moving.

Ezekiel 29:6
You and your nation refused to help the people of Israel and were nothing more than a broken stick.

You're my head start.

1 Samuel 15:17-19
And Samuel told him. “When you started out in this, you were nothing—and you knew it. Then God put you at the head of Israel—made you king over Israel.

You're my rugged heart.

Ezekiel 36:26
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

You're the poultice that I've always needed.

3 John 1:2
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.


Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.
Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.
Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.
Like a drum my heart never stops beating...
For you, for you.

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Baby, I'm not moving on.
I love you long after you're gone.

Matthew 24:13
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.


For you, for you.
You will never sleep alone.
I love you long after you're gone.

John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me

For you, for you.
Baby, I'm not moving on,
I love you long after you're gone.

1 John 2:6
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

For you, for you.
You will never sleep alone.
I love you long, long after you're gone.

John 5:30
I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me

Matthew 16:17-19
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”


Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.
Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.
Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.
Like a drum my heart never stops beating for you.

And long after you're gone, gone, gone.
I love you long after you're gone, gone, gone.

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Luke 21:19
Stand firm, and you will win life.

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2 Kings 17:24-41 ~ He will deliver you

2 Kings 17:24-41

24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

34 To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.

41 So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

Israel and Judah are in chaos. And really only have peace when they trust God to make sense of their environment. We could even say the Kingdom is in Middle Age and leaning towards Glory.

I noticed as I worked in my twenties and looked at various businesses in Dallas, employers tend to really take care of the workers with them from their youth and as they hit middle age, they begin to see their employees as replaceable cogs. God is upset with these times, for good reason Chapter 17 starts out with In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, and Ahaz has built a foreign altar to decide his fate and has sacrificed his son to a god of prosperity.

When my mother visits she esquires about all the people she has met in her decades here, mostly the news is bumpy about the people we know. Leading to my mom remembering what we routinely put up with in today - is the horror of her youth. People starting families without marriage. People passing on. The times, events of life will swirl you.

We can draw from these experiences. Come to the Word of God and draw deeply. We have times in our lives we feel pressed down. Other people not living the dream. And c'mon when we say living the dream, these days we mostly smile in understanding, rather than the V victory sign.

Out of these times... out of this pressing down... the bad parental advice...the politics...the monetary situation ... the hopelessness... the next King of Judah... will be the most prosperous and aligned with God - ... Hezekiah. Hezekiah has endured. Ahaz, evidently, did not sacrifice Hezekiah to his god. Hezekiah, with the help God has given him in Isaiah, Isaiah's Third King, - is going to form such a working relationship with God that even archaeology today has riches to see and to be in joy this occurs.


Psalm 57

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

We all get a choice, go with the flow, or rise up in expectation that God Reigns. These times have so much to yearn for old days, and have glories in true Worship - we just did not see.

You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

2 Kings 18
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.


5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. 



For he held fast to the Lord.!!!

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Psalm 105 ~ They asked, and he brought quail, and gave them bread from heaven in abundance

Psalm 105

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
5 Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
6 O offspring of Abraham, his servant,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,
10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as your portion for an inheritance.”

12 When they were few in number,
of little account, and sojourners in it,
13 wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them;
he rebuked kings on their account,
15 saying, “Touch not my anointed ones,
do my prophets no harm!”

16 When he summoned a famine on the land
and broke all supply of bread,
17 he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 His feet were hurt with fetters;
his neck was put in a collar of iron;
19 until what he had said came to pass,
the word of the Lord tested him.
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of the peoples set him free;
21 he made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to bind his princes at his pleasure
and to teach his elders wisdom.

23 Then Israel came to Egypt;
Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And the Lord made his people very fruitful
and made them stronger than their foes.
25 He turned their hearts to hate his people,
to deal craftily with his servants.

26 He sent Moses, his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them
and miracles in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and made the land dark;
they did not rebel against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
and gnats throughout their country.
32 He gave them hail for rain,
and fiery lightning bolts through their land.
33 He struck down their vines and fig trees,
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
young locusts without number,
35 which devoured all the vegetation in their land
and ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their strength.

37 Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold,
and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
for dread of them had fallen upon it.

39 He spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light by night.
40 They asked, and he brought quail,
and gave them bread from heaven in abundance.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed through the desert like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham, his servant.

43 So he brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with singing.
44 And he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples' toil,
45 that they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord!

Was there a third Exodus? Actually yes. The Lord did not rise up to be Moses of Israel. He asked the disciples to stay to receive the Holy Spirit, but eventually the disciples left Israel.

Read the passage again, this time knowing this could be speaking of Exodus, this is the story of Peter, swimming to greet Jesus.

A time of great uncertainty ended with Peter being reunited with Jesus is His Paradise.

So he brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with singing.
And he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples' toil,
that they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord!

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1 Kings 21:17-29 ~ Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go

1 Kings 21:17-29

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. You shall say to him, "Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?" You shall say to him, "Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood."

Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, 'The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.' Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat."

(Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.)

When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth over his bare flesh; he fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster on his house."



Ahab is remembered for being an evil man and king. Elijah brought him The Word of the Lord, but Ahab didn't like Elijah and thought of Elijah as his enemy. The Lord was more impressed that Ahab reached beyond the messenger to hear The Word. We can be glad that the Lord hears our prayers, even sinners have the Lord's compassion.

However, we can always hope not to just have one encounter with compassion, but to foster the way of our lives bringing more Heaven to earth.

Ahab down. Compassion forward. With this willing of a heart, makes you wonder what Ahab would have done with meeting Jesus. Lord, if You will - Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will".

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