Stephen De La Vega

  Leave your rifles in the rack. You won’t need them when the battle is insurmountable. Has anybody ever told you that? Sometimes we can go to battle without breaking a sweat or calling upon those heroes who are somehow larger than life. But, of course, we should call on the Almighty Hero. God will be our Hero when we let Him. This is the 3rd  post about kings and kingdoms within our larger series of New Years Resolutions based on every 20:24 and 20:25 verse in the Bible. Regarding kings and kingdoms, we first resolve to stand for God’s government . When we do so, we support His choices for who sits in office, and we ultimately trust and obey His commands. Then we are prepared to step forward, and follow Him through the highs and lows of life, including battles we can't win. We can remain committed to His plan despite any difficulty or hardship because our battles are God’s battles when we lean into Him. He will go before us and do the heavy lifting if we let Him, which is...

  A mountaintop high. Indescribable. The view. The air. The freedom. Above it all. Breathe in… Exhale…   Now step back down for a moment. Let’s consider the mountain top high of a despicable king who somehow decided to obey God. In our walk through every 20:24 and 20:25 verse in the Bible, we find ourselves in the middle of a 3-part look at our responsibility to God as we consider kings and kingdoms in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Part 1 was the prior post: I Will Stand for God’s Government . Next time, we will Let God Win Our Battles . Today, we resolve to Follow God through Highs and Lows . Our story is found in 1 Kings 20 . At this point in history, Israel has been a divided nation consisting of a northern kingdom called Israel, and a southern kingdom called Judah. Jerusalem was the capitol city of Judah, and Samara was the capitol city of Israel where King Ahab reigned as its seventh king. He was ungodly – not a role model in any way for the king...

  This intro is a disclaimer: I recognize there is significant dissatisfaction with governments across the globe. It is not uncommon for citizens to distrust and even despise certain government officials and government organizations. I don’t intend to discredit our varied opinions, positions, beliefs, value systems, or ideologies. I also am not writing to promote one political position over another, or even to promote a political position at all. However, I do intend to share, at least in part, a biblical perspective on God’s involvement in government and how we should respond in light of it. Resolution #6: I Will Stand for God’s Government Our 20:25 verse in this resolution brings us to 2 Samuel . (Remember, I am walking through every 20:25 verse in the Bible, and a few 20:24 verses since I started this last year.) 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel were originally written as one book. The same is true for 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. These books were so long, early scribes coul...