8 February 2009: 5th Sunday of Epiphany

I Chronicles 17:1-19

We are told: 3 The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed. He did not consult the Baals 4 but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. 5 The LORD established the kingdom under his control; and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honor. 6 His heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.

God is in the business of blessing. When we as a nation and culture, learn to truly follow God, the blessings will be with us. The lesson tells us, the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because...he walked in the wasy his father David had folled. The kingdom was full established under Jehoshafat, and later on we are told, that the fear of the Lord fell on the surrounding kingdoms, they didn't make war and the Phillistines and Arabs paid him tribute.

Not bad for a little kingdom the size of Israel. When a country, or nation or peopel obey God, the blessing will follow. In the USA we have been blessed for many years because of the faith of our forfathers, men and women who came to be able to worship freely. Even thosse who did not come for religious reasons, thanked God for his providence in the new land. These blessings may or may not carry on. Our land is turning against God. We have a new president who voted yes to a law stating that if an aborted baby was born alive, he or she should be left to die. We are getting ready to kill fetuses for stem cell research. Some preachers are afraid to proclaim the Biblical truth about homosexuality. More and more children are born out of wedlock, so that millions of children are robbed of the opportunity to see the icon of marriage as an image of the relationship between God and his people.

We must learn to care for the poor and helpless. We need to discared the vain grip that money has on our hearts. Spend our selves into debt, and into derpression,and the goverment thinks we can borrow our way out of it.

We truly do need a change. A change in borrowing habits, in spending habits, in who and what we put first in our lives. The government has not said, but we need to learn to save and live in our means, a radical change from life in the last 20 years where we lived on credit. It means that there will be changes, there will be suffering, but if we start lining up our money and enonomy for saving, the long term result will result in a more fiscally disciplined country, one that can survive.

If we as a nation want God's blessing, then we as a country need to bless God, through obedience, money, lifestyle, through marriage and a return the the Christian agenda. If we continue in the path we are follwongg, it is well probable that God will withold his blessing.