{"id":258,"date":"2014-04-07T16:34:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T20:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=258"},"modified":"2015-02-21T17:10:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T22:10:25","slug":"if-we-were-a-bible-character-joash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2014\/04\/07\/if-we-were-a-bible-character-joash\/","title":{"rendered":"If We Were a Bible Character – Joash"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we were a Bible character; our life, men had read.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the pages of Scripture, just what would be said?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If God were writing our profile today,<\/strong><\/p>\n

To record in His Word; just what would it say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.\u201d II Chronicles 24:2<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am always saddened when I read this chapter of the young king, Joash. For, although he started out well, his real character was revealed after the death of Jehoida the priest, who had been a \u201cspiritual father\u201d to him. After Jehoida\u2019s death, we see King Joash turning from God to idolatry. \u201cNow after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.\u201d II Chronicles 24:17,18<\/i>\u00a0 <\/strong>When confronted about how he had forsaken God, he even went so far as to have the new priest (Jehoida\u2019s son) slain. Oh, how far his\u00a0sin had taken him!<\/p>\n

Although the above verses do not mention specific character traits\u00a0of King Joash, one thing we can learn from this king is the sad fact that he never learned to spiritually \u201cparent\u201d himself. \u00a0We have the following quote on our computer desk, \u201cIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one else is watching.\u201d\u00a0 Did King Joash only do right because of Jehoiada\u2019s presence? It certainly looks that way. \u00a0How vitally important it is that each of us, first of all, make sure of our salvation. \u201cExamine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?\u201d II Corinthians 13:5<\/strong> <\/i><\/b>\u00a0And then, after salvation, that we grow, grow, grow by feeding on and heeding to the Word of God, as well as talking to Him in prayer. A growing Christian will be one who is becoming less and less dependent upon others for their daily spiritual nourishment by learning to \u201cfeed\u201d themselves through their own personal time with the Lord. I think a good question each of us should ask ourselves would be, \u201cIf ________ were \u201cout of the picture\u201d in my life, would I spiritually survive? That blank may be filled in with a parent\u2019s name, a spouse\u2019s name, a pastor\u2019s name, a teacher\u2019s name, etc.<\/p>\n

Although all of us will have times of wavering and maybe falling, may our continual desire be to \u201cget up and grow up\u201d by taking on the responsibility of spiritually parenting ourselves. As those who may have been spiritual mentors in our life move out of the picture, may we continue on faithfully that we may one day be able to say, \u201cI have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.\u201d\u00a0 II Timothy 4:7,8<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

~ Rachel ~<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we were a Bible character; our life, men had read. From the pages of Scripture, just what would be said? If God were writing our profile today, To record in His Word; just what would it say? \u201cAnd Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.\u201d II Chronicles 24:2 I am always saddened when I read this chapter of the young king, Joash. For, although he started out well, his real character was revealed after the death of Jehoida the priest, who had been a \u201cspiritual father\u201d to him. After Jehoida\u2019s death, we see King Joash turning from God to idolatry. \u201cNow after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.\u201d II Chronicles 24:17,18\u00a0 When confronted about how he had forsaken God, he even went so far as to have the new priest (Jehoida\u2019s son) slain. Oh, how far his\u00a0sin had taken him! Although the above verses do not mention specific character traits\u00a0of King Joash, one thing we can learn from this king is the sad fact that he never learned to spiritually \u201cparent\u201d himself. \u00a0We have the following quote on our computer desk, \u201cIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one else is watching.\u201d\u00a0 Did King Joash only do right because of Jehoiada\u2019s presence? It certainly looks that way. \u00a0How vitally important it is that each of us, first of all, make sure of our salvation. \u201cExamine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?\u201d II Corinthians 13:5 \u00a0And then, after salvation, that we grow, grow, grow by feeding on and heeding to the Word of God, as well as talking to Him in prayer. A growing Christian will be one who is becoming less and less dependent upon others for their daily spiritual nourishment by learning to \u201cfeed\u201d themselves through their own personal time with the Lord. I think a good question each of us should ask ourselves would be, \u201cIf ________ were \u201cout of the picture\u201d in my life, would I spiritually survive? That blank may be filled in with a parent\u2019s name, a spouse\u2019s name, a pastor\u2019s name, a teacher\u2019s name, etc. Although all of us will have times of wavering and maybe falling, may our continual desire be to \u201cget up and grow up\u201d by taking on the responsibility of spiritually parenting ourselves. As those who may have been spiritual mentors in our life move out of the picture, may we continue on faithfully that we may one day be able to say, \u201cI have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.\u201d\u00a0 II Timothy 4:7,8 ~ Rachel ~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growing","category-guarding-from-sin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-4a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2026,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/2026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}