This is how Christ in a person thinks:
“…saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
Focus on Christ, not things of this world, but the work of the Holy Spirit in the testifying to the lost souls seeking The Truth of Christ Jesus!

Look what happens when in 2 kings 22 The Word of the Lord was found..AND READ:

8 And Hilkiah (meaning portion of Jehovah) the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

Notice Hilkiah didn’t just put it next to his bed, or find a place for it on his bookshelf – he read it. Then after He read it he – shared it!

10 And Shaphan, the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.

11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

Do we read The Bible and tear our clothes? we should. The King saw things and wanted more so he said:

3 Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

The King read and believed and enquired of others to please the Lord as he knew that they had not followed the “words of this book” nor had done “according unto all that which is written concerning us”.

Do you read, believe and enquire how to do Gods will?

Then what happened? I know your dying to know!

God spoke: 15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,

If you read, believe, and enquire of God He will speak. If you haven’t heard Him speak in a while perhaps you stopped reading The Bible, believing and enquiring of God of His will, not just asking Him for things for yourself, family, or friends.

God wants us to enquire of Him, the things of Him, the things of His relationship with Him, and you. When is the last time you sought to look for the face of God, look into God’s eyes, and see the reflection looking back at how He sees you under His Authority?

If your like me: Not often enough. What are we waiting for? Today is the day for salvation and relationship with our savior Christ Jesus. It can’t wait one more day, not one more hour, not one more minute!

This is Gods response to finding His Word, Believing His Word, Enquiring of Him:

18…Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;

19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.

20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
Those who find His Word, Believe, and Enquire as to how to please and have a relationship with God will “be gathered into thy grave in peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place”

Each man and woman will be saved into the Kingdom of God on their own relationship with God. The King found a new relationship in the root of his heart for God and was saved – not from death but from eternal damnation. None of us will be saved from death, though that fills many of our prayers to stay in this yucky world as long as possible and stay out of heaven – doesn’t really speak much of confidence in what awaits us as described in the Bible.

The Kings faith in God did not save the people (in this case) and the people couldn’t suck off the Kings faith to gain what they did not go to God for themselves, on their knees, tearing their clothes because of their sin and humbling themselves and enquiring more of Gods Will and making that relationship with God, not just a prayer to God – but a relationship.
We might want to examine as this King did when he was brough the Truth, that it broke his heart because of the power of God and his sin that was brought to his attention. The King didn’t kill the messenger of Truth but embraced Truth and wanted a relationship with Truth.

Do we want a relationship with Truth? or want to hide out behind a faded relationship with Jesus Christ, as Jesus can only be Truth for He can not be a liar. The devil says Jesus is a liar, that Jesus isn’t The Word, The Way, and The Life and that surely we will not die in our sin. The Bible says the Truth, whether you want to read it or not.

Just because we don’t read it, doesn’t make it not true. Just because we don’t read it, it doesn’t save us from Truth being Truth and the punishment for sin being death and eternal life in the lake of fire.

If you been looking for another truth, you may have put yourself under the authority that can not save you, that does not love you, that did not die for you to give you the “opportunity” to go to Heaven. There is only one Name, one Authority that can save and that Name and Authority is Jesus Christ and His character, nature, will and authority are alive and active in The Word of God we have in our possession called The Bible.

Some perhaps believe when they read the Old Testament that it’s like back in the dark ages, the people were so bad. That we are so much better today. Just to prove that is a lie of the devil let’s continue our look at the Bible reading for today and let us see if we are worse than the people thousands of years ago from the “dark ages!” I know Trump is not a King, but He is the head of our Country so I use this as an example of the leadership then and now.
2 Kings 23:1 And the king (President Trump) sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 …and the priests, and the prophets, and ALL the people, both small and great: (WHITE AND BLACK, RED AND ORANGE) and he (President Trump) read in their ears ALL THE WORDS of the book of the covenant (the one written by GOD, not a man or woman) which was found in the house of the Lord.

3 And the king (President Trump) stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. AND ALL THE PEOPLE STOOD to the covenant.

MAYBE WE SHOULD GO BACK TO THOSE “DARK AGES” BECAUSE NONE OF THAT WOULD HAPPEN TODAY. We are too busy separating ourselves FROM GOD and doing EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD CONTINUOUSLY. We live in sin, welcome sin in our churches, in our homes, in our schools and we make excuses for sin and call it “love” and it seems that we will never stop sinning nor obey God as we love our sin more than God.

We judged people on economic status, color and hate correction, we do not base our lives on what God deems to be the standard but which “group” whether they are 1% or 10% of the whole the maddest group WINS! And everyone else must bow down to them, while they refuse to bow down to God, the only Authority that deserves it. And the only Authority that will judge and save those who chose Jesus instead of the lies of the devil.

Isn’t this so exciting? With so much “demonic static” around us today, we need to turn back and “remember when”…: as Paul did in Acts 22 how once he was blind and now he did see…
13 came to me; and he stood and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that same hour I looked up at him. 14 Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. 15 For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

This is the secret weapon Paul had against the devil to keep Paul focused on Christ Crucified! Do you remember what your divine purpose is? With the media and fleshing screaming as they are going down to the grave aiming at taking us with them we need to remember as Paul remember:

‘The God of our fathers has chosen you;
that you should know His will;
and see the Just One;
and hear the voice of His mouth;
15 For you will be His witness;
to ALL men of what you have seen and heard.
16 And now why are you waiting?
Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

AND NOW, WHY ARE YOU WAITING???? MY BROTHERS, MY SISTERS!

Look what happens when in 2 kings 22 The Word of the Lord was found..AND READ:
8 And Hilkiah (meaning portion of Jehovah) the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
Notice Hilkiah didn’t just put it next to his bed, or find a place for it on his bookshelf – he read it. Then after He read it he – shared it!
10 And Shaphan, the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
Do we read The Bible and tear our clothes? we should. The King saw things and wanted more so he said:
3 Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
The King read and believed and enquired of others to please the Lord as he knew that they had not followed the “words of this book” nor had done “according unto all that which is written concerning us”.
Do you read, believe and enquire how to do Gods will?
Then what happened? I know your dying to know!
God spoke: 15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,
If you read, believe, and enquire of God He will speak. If you haven’t heard Him speak in a while perhaps you stopped reading The Bible, believing and enquiring of God of His will, not just asking Him for things for yourself, family, or friends.
God wants us to enquire of Him, the things of Him, the things of His relationship with Him, and you. When is the last time you sought to look for the face of God, look into God’s eyes, and see the reflection looking back at how He sees you under His Authority?
If your like me: Not often enough. What are we waiting for? Today is the day for salvation and relationship with our savior Christ Jesus. It can’t wait one more day, not one more hour, not one more minute!

WHAT THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: CONTAINED TODAY, RIGHT NOW IN YOUR BIBLE IT WANTS TO TELL YOU THE WAY TO RIGHTEOUS AND THE END OF THE UNGODLY:
Psalm 1 BOOK ONE
The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Ungodly
1 Blessed is the manWho walks not in the counsel of the [a]ungodly,Nor stands in the path of sinners,Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,And in His law he [b]meditates day and night.3 He shall be like a treePlanted by the [c]rivers of water,That brings forth its fruit in its season,Whose leaf also shall not wither;And whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so,But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
THIS WILL NOT BE ON THE EVENING NEWS, OR THE 24 HOURS NEWS BECAUSE IT CONTAINS SOUL SAVING INFORMATION – YES, TRUTH! YES, THAT SETS YOU FREE FROM BONDAGE TO THE LIAR, THE DECEIVER, THE MURDERER SINCE THE BEGINNING.

Today in Acts 8:14-40 we see something about how a Christian walk begins and continues…

First, we see Peter and John traveling to Samaria because some had received the Word of God. Today, we might think great they are saved so they are good with God. Today’s text shows two examples of why that is just the beginning, not the end.

v16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

So what were they missing? In some church circles just being baptized relationship with Jesus or not is the be-all and end-all. But we see the “non of them” the Holy Spirit was not in them.
Remember the Jesus told us that He would leave and send the Holy Spirit to teach us everything and dwell inside us. Jesus said it so it must be an important thing to being in the “way” of everlasting life and destination Heaven.
Has the Holy Spirit fallen on you? Not you fall on the ground, but do you feel
Side note: We see Simon here as he sees all this and he wants to buy some of this action, this power. We see this is the church today, people claim to have the power to do to heal and give the life-altering gift of Jesus Christ – If you just pay them some money. We will see Peter in this text rebuke Simon:
20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
And Peter prays for Simon:
22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
And Simon accepts the prayer, but doesn’t pray for forgivness himself… which kind of shows the Peter was right that his heart is not right….
24 Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.
That was the last of Simon. If Simon would have done great things God probably would have shown us but was silent and that silence is a teaching for us to know that our hearts have to be right… right where? In my sighte? no. In the sight of God – who is the just judge of everything.
Also, this text testifies about Philip and his ear that was tuned into the listening and obeying God. And about a eunich who was much like the people of Samaria that had received the Word and believed but were still missing the Holy Spirits presence in their lives.
This man had access and was in charge of all the Queens “treasure” which obviously included some scrolls of Esaias the prophet. This man was reading them. Imagine that. Reading the Word of God!
29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Philip listened not just to God but to the man and heard him reading and asked him if he understood it. Do we ask people if they understand it? Have questions?

31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
The man needed to know who was this many that Esaias was writing about? Doesn’t everyone????

34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?

And Philip “opened his mouth” Do you open your mouth? Is your mouth prepared in season and out of season to exhort with longsuffering and correct Biblical doctrine or just your feelings?

35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

Philip “preached unto him, Jesus”. Jesus is Truth.

Then Philip baptized the man at his urgent request.

We need to be ready to tell others that need to go the next step in relationship with God, not just in doing ministry work or duties at church. We’ve gotten things a little backward nowadays where it matters more what ministry you do than if you actually read your Bible. Is it urgent that you read Truth each day? How else can you answer the questions from people that God sends you each day? If Gods sending nobody, perhaps He’s still waiting for you to get ready.

Sure perhaps you know where the food pantry is and the hours but what about where the bread of life is contained? You know where the face masks are so they won’t get covid19 but what difference does it make if either way mask or no mask they don’t know Jesus and are going to Hell?

Maybe your answer is to tell them to call pastor? God sent them to You. You are to be prepared not to stuff their dead bodies with food but to feed their souls with the Word of God.

God tells us we are in a spiritual battle for our souls and the answer is being armored in the FULL armor of God not just in your favorite books of the Bible – sometimes.

If God has told you read the WHOLE BIBLE and you refuse because you got other things to do, then you are rebelling against God, and against what God has written (which is truth probably the only truth you and I read all day is going to be the Bible) He wrote this to save us. Don’t ignore what God says, it’s the wrong heart.
Are you ready? 2 Timothy 4
It is written:
I CHARGE THEE! This is an order. Sounds important. It is. Why? Because Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick (quickened by God, whom is the Word) (alive), and the dead (dead people walking towards hell) at his appearing (after your last breath) shall appear before God to be judged. Not if you said a prayer… but if you followed in The Way, HIS Way, not devily’s way. God will judge if you have the heart that He tried to put in you or not.
The devil can convince us that we have a heart for God because we did this or that, but devily is a liar and murderer. God will know the truth about our hearts. And each day we need to search them to see if contained therein is anything that is wicked and repent and be changed.

Why is that? v 3
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine… “
Sounds like god is talking to the CHURCH – He is. He’s talking about the guy or gal that says they are “good with God”, that has been beguiled by the devil into a lie.

What is the opposite of sound doctrine? God tells us “.. but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears…”
I don’t know how many times I hear someone tell me they don’t like the Jesus of the KJV bible they like another version that has a nicer Jesus, a non-judgemental Jesus.

They choose a fake Jesus…why? because the fake Jesus makes them feel better about their sin, their hard hearts, their death they are walking in because of the lies of other Jesus’ in the church. The jesus frauds.
The Bible says Ye shall be Judged… that’s the way it is.

v4 “…And they shall turn AWAY their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables…”

You can’t go to heaven folks if you’ve turned from the Truth because the Truth is the REAL JESUS. And if you have you’ve turned to the Jesus of Fantasy Land.

And despite what the world taught us Fantasies are selfish lies which put us as the boss when Jesus says we are the servant.

Some people like fantasy land and which to spend eternity there… Well, it didn’t turn out too well for Pinnochio.

For those who love truth, we need to look to the race and Pauls words:
v7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished course, I have kept The Faith.”

Notice the word course? It’s not just running like wild men and women our own paths, through darkness and light and chasing our tails around with works, it’s God’s course, the one that He has for you not the one you made up today because it felt better to your wicked heart. Seek daily Gods course and beware of devily’s detours to hell.

Keep keeping the Faith in the real Jesus and turn from the fake Jesus that we see in the Hollywood movies of people who wear a cross and do ungodly things and music that they preach and sing about a Jesus that is reckless and holy water which does not exist anywhere in Gods Word.
Keep the Faith!