A Call to Consecration and Sanctification - Day 197 Through the Bible

Mt. Celo Church - near the Blue Ridge Parkway between Asheville and Boone, NC

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

A Return to the LORD / Reform in the Land - 2 Chronicles 30 and 31 - King Hezekiah realizes that the desolation and dispersion of the Jewish people and the divided nation are the result of the kings who trespassed against God and caused the people to sin until all were "acting corruptly". Idol altars are torn down, priests are called to consecrate, sanctify and purify themselves, and the prescribed Mosaic order of worship is reinstituted. Proclamations and runners are sent out by the king into all of Israel and Judah to encourage every Jew to return to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  They are met with mocking and laughter, but some do return to join the greatest Passover gathering since the time of Solomon.   The Levites have charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs rather than the heads of households because many of the people have not sanctified themselves.  Hezekiah prays for the atonement of the people in this sin, "May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.  The renewed worship leads to reforms in the land - destruction of all idol worship in Judah, the appointment of all the Levites and priests to their specified duties in the temple, and the establishment of tithes from the people for them "so that they might devote themselves to the Law of the LORD.  Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered."

Restore Us, Lord, and Revive Us Again - Psalm 85: 1-7   Lord, You have been favorable to Your land;
You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger. Restore us, O God of our salvation,
 and cause Your anger toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? 
Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation.

My Lessons and Applications - Do we remember the need to be consecrated, sanctified and purified before the LORD (1 Peter 1), that we are now a royal priesthood before God? (1 Peter 2) Are my prayers for the people of my nation, the world to turn to God, to restore us and revive us again as a kingdom of believers and myself individually?  Am I grateful for the favor God has shown to my nation - to me - regardless of our sin - of my sin?  Am I working within my church to restore true worship if that is missing?  Am I doing what is good, true and right before the Lord?

  Consecration means the continual separating of myself to one particular thing.  We cannot consecrate once and for all.  Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?  

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest