Lessons from a King – Manasseh

Suzanne Benner

 Take today’s next step: People often ask, “How can God forgive a murderer?” This video helps to answer that. Share it with your friends.

“Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.” (2 Chronicles 33:13b)

The Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles provide a history of the kings of Israel and Judah. The records remain to teach and warn us. We remember Manasseh as an evil king who worshiped idols and desecrated God’s temple with altars to other gods: “Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end – besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” (2 Kings 21:16a)

The LORD then spoke to Manasseh and His people, but they paid no attention: “So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.” (2 Chronicles 33:11)

When We Miss the Target

Max Lucado

Do you deal with undeserved feelings of guilt? We are here to pray with you.

Read the first verse of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus knew David’s ways. He witnessed the adultery, winced at the murders, and grieved at the dishonesty. But David’s failures didn’t change Jesus’ relation to David. The initial verse of the first chapter of the first gospel calls Christ “the son of David” (Matt. 1:1 KJV). The title contains no disclaimers, explanations, or asterisks. I’d have added a footnote: “This connection in no way offers tacit approval to David’s behavior.” No such words appear. David blew it. Jesus knew it. But he claimed David anyway.

He did for David what my father did for my brother and me.

Back in our elementary school days, my brother received a BB gun for Christmas. We immediately set up a firing range in the backyard and spent the afternoon shooting at an archery target. Growing bored with the ease of hitting the circle, my brother sent me to fetch a hand mirror. He placed the gun backward on his shoulder, spotted the archery bull’s-eye in the mirror, and did his best Buffalo Bill imitation. But he missed the target. He also missed the storehouse behind the target and the fence behind the storehouse. We had no idea where the BB pellet flew. Our neighbor across the alley knew, however. He soon appeared at the back fence, asking who had shot the BB gun and who was going to pay for his sliding-glass door.

Experiencing the Cross: A Glimpse of Hell

Julie Barrier

I had the most remarkable encounter with God today. I was meditating upon Jesus on the cross, and, after decades of being a Christian, God revealed to me an aspect of Jesus’ suffering that I never understood or even considered. What was it truly like for Jesus to experience “hell” on the cross?