Thought for November 10

History:

  • 1775: Second Continental Congress forms Continental Marines [later Marine Corps]
  • 1871: Henry Morton Stanley meets David Livingstone
  • 1885: Gottlieb Daimler displays first motorcycle
  • 1891; First meeting of Women's Christian Temperance Union
  • 1908: First Gideon Bible placed in hotel room
  • 1938: Pearl Buck wins Nobel for "The Good Earth"
  • 1950: William Faulkner wins Nobel for Literature
  • 1951: 1st long distance call without operator assistance
  • 1954: Marine Corps Memorial unveiled in Arlington
  • 1969: Sesame Street premiers
  • 1975: Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior
  • 1990: "Home Alone" released
  • 2020: Word of the year is "lockdown"
  • Born: Martin Luther, Claude Rains, Jane Froman, Mikhail Kalashnikov [AK-47], Richard Burton, Roy Scheider [Jaws], Donna Fargo, Gerry DiNardo, Sinbad, Miranda Lambert, Jon Rahm
  • Died: 461: Pope Leo The Great, Mustafa Ataturk [founder of Republic of Turkey], Harry Ford Sinclair [Oil], Stringbean, Leonid Brezhnev, Chuck Connors [Rifleman], Jack Palance, Norman Mailer, 
Thought: 

Yesterday, we looked at the passage that said trust in the Lord and succeed. As I turn through 2 Chronicles I see I have underlined 26:4-5, a verse about King Uzziah. You remember him from Isaiah 6. Isaiah's vision occurred in the year King Uzziah died. Notice the connection presented in these verses.

Verse 4 says that Uzziah did right in the sight of the Lord. Verse 5 says as long as Uzziah sought the Lord he prospered. Simple advice for Larry. First do right in the sight of the Lord. This verse reminds me that there is only one Right thing and only one Right way--the Lord's way. There is a way that seems right to man, but the end of that way is destruction. So what is right is not determined by human intelligence, human feelings, human knowledge, human standards---what is right is determined by the Lord. I think this may be the primary issue with Larry and with this world---we want to go our way and call it right. No matter how many times we call our way "right" it is not right unless it is the Lord's way. This is the way compromise and lies become "truth" in society. We say things are all right enough times and begin to believe what we are saying---a little bad language is all right; a little soft pornography is all right; a little lying is all right; a little sin won't hurt. C.S. Lewis got it right in the 1960's when he wrote the Screwtape Letters. At the end he points out that Satan will just change the definition of words and then he will have us. So "love" as lived by Jesus becomes "love" in the world---lust, like, agree with. We think we are loving because the definition has been altered. But we are not loving according to God's dictionary. 

Second, understand true prosperity. Like with "love", the world tells us that to prosper means to accumulate wealth, stuff. God tells us to prosper means to have a life filled with love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience, endurance. When we seek the Lord, we prosper according to His riches. Jesus said to seek His kingdom first. His kingdom is love, and joy and peace. 

Today, do what is Right according to His Way; seeking what's Right leads to prosperity in His kingdom. And His kingdom is forever. You can see this same truth a few chapters over in the life of King Hezekiah [2 Chronicles 20-21]

Blessings
Larry

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