APRIL 18 – Prosperity

APRIL 18 – Prosperity

2Chronicles 26:4  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did. 

5  And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper. 

How often today we hear of prosperity from the pulpit and the people. It is only natural for the ungodly to seek the money that most people consider prosperity. Some align themselves, in a religious manner, with prosperity being wealth and health. God’s Word addresses prosperity in II Chronicles 26. Here we find the story of Uzziah when he is made king. It is said of Uzziah that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. This is a tremendous commendation for a person to have. “He did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” Now here is the commendation from God. “… God made him to prosper.”

What does that mean? In what way did God make him prosper? The inspired word says that he “prospered in warriors.’ He prospered in battles. He prospered in building protection for the cities. He invented machines for the protection of the cities. He prospered in digging wells to sustain the people. I do not see anything about health or wealth and prosperity in this chapter. His prosperity was in caring and protecting the people.

Sometimes the benevolence and prosperity that God shows toward His people bring about a change in them. The Scriptures say that when he was strong his heart was lifted up. He had a moral failing called pride. What a terrible thing pride causes us to become. Because of his pride, he intruded in the office of the priests. He, apparently decided that he would burn incense upon the altar. What could possibly be the attitude here? Surely God would not reject my worship. Certainly, God looks upon my heart and sees my intent that I do this to worship Him and He will accept it. The pride fooled the mind of Uzziah and hid his eyes to the truth that God had prescribed a way for the incense to be offered and proscribed any other way.

The high priest and fourscore priests of the Lord withstood him. God punishes those that allow pride to cause them to sin against the plan and instructions of God. The king became a leper and was a leper till he died. Leprosy was a disease that called for a person to be ostracized from others. A Godly man that was made to proper in several areas of life was punished by God with a heinous disease.

God hates pride. God will punish pride. Let us prosper in the Lord, not health, even though we want good health, not in wealth, even though we want to pay our bills, but in obedience to God and helping others.

141 — May 21- This Day in Baptist History Past

 

A Good Man with a Good Testimony

 

 1st Meeting House

 

They accepted (exemptions) in prosperity, what their Baptist forebears refused under persecution

 

Elisha Callender was as it is written of Enoch: “. . . . he had this testimony, that he pleased God”

 

The Baptist Church in Boston built a new church edifice in 1680, and in 1683 John Emblem from England became their pastor; after serving them for fifteen years, he died in 1699, when Ellis Callender succeeded him. He was followed by Elisha Callender and Jeremiah Condy, until Samuel Stillman took charge in I665. By the time that the second Callender became pastor, the spirituality of the Baptists had so commended them to the respect of the better portion of the community that the three principal clergymen in Boston, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather and John Webb, not only consented to be present at his ordination, but Mr. Mather most cheerfully preached the ordination sermon, May 21st, 1718.

 

And what was as noble as it was remarkable, he had the manliness to select as his subject, ‘Good Men United!’ In the face of the whole colony he condemned ‘the wretched notion of wholesale severities’ These he called ‘cruel wrath,’ and said roundly: ‘New England also has, in some former times, done something of this aspect, which would not now be so well approved of, in which, if the brethren in whose house we are now convened met with any thing too unbrotherly, they now with satisfaction hear us expressing our dislike of every thing that has looked like persecution in the days that have passed over us.

 

Spiritual prosperity attended Callender’s ministry as pastor of the church in Boston. Scarcely did a month pass without some professions of faith. In his twentieth year of ministry, he was cut down by death.

 

In 1729, because of the testimony of men like Elisha Callender, that the bitterness of the General Court of Massachusetts was so far relaxed against Baptists as to exempt them from paying the parish ministerial taxes if they alleged a scruple of conscience in the matter.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History Vol. I. (E. Wayne Thompson and David L. Cummins) pp. 207-208

 

                                                              

 

 

 

 

NOAH’S WISDOM

Noah Webster understood what it means to claim Christ as Lord of his life. He understood the term “Lord” meant ruler of his life. Not just while in the house of God but applying Godly principles to every aspect of our life. No decision should ever be made without going to the Lord about that decision. When Christ is “truly” Lord of our life, our every decision is dependant upon His doctrine, and His principles. Few want to live such a dedicated life. Our Nation is in a terrible condition, economically, spiritually and morally because we have chosen to elect men that are spiritually and morally bankrupt and therefore they are bankrupting our nation and states. We have done this for personal gain but have been led to the place we did not really want to go. We must draw closer to the Lord and incorporate Him into every aspect of our life and elect men that have these same principles.

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