To God be the Glory

(Source: myinvisibletwinflame)

(Source: imgfave)

bookmania:

“Top 10 Most Read Books in the World”. Visual News makes a bar chart to compare the top ten books in the world, based from a report from the website Squidoo. The infographic shows that 3.9 billion Bibles have been printed and the Bible is the most read book in the world.

scripture-sketches:

1 Kings 20 - Macabre “Mercy”

Big Idea:

• Ben-Hadad king of Aram prepares an army and sends a message to King Ahab: “Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.”
• Ahab meets these demands.
• So Ben-Hadad sends a second message, saying that he is going to plunder Ahab’s house and the houses of his officials.
• On the advice of his elders, Ahab refuses this second demand. 
• Ben-Hadad prepares to attack.
• A prophet tells Ahab that God will give him victory over Ben-Hadad with the junior officers. So Ahab goes to battle.
• The Arameans retreat from the advancing Israelites, and Ben-Hadad flees. Israel defeats Aram.
• The prophet tells Ahab that Ben-Hadad will try to attack again.
• Ben-Hadad decides that he must have lost the first battle because, “[Israel’s] gods are gods of the hills… If we fight them in the plains, surely we’ll be stronger.” He marches against Israel a second time.
• The prophet tells Ahab that God will give him victory again to show Ben-Hadad that he is wrong about “Israel’s gods.”
• The two armies camp opposite each other for a week, and then finally meet in battle. Israel defeats Aram a second time, and Ben-Hadad flees to “an inner room.”
• Ben-Hadad’s councilors suggest he surrender since “the kings of the house of Israel are merciful.” Ben-Hadad surrenders to Ahab, and the two form a treaty.
• Two prophets are together, and God sends a message to one. “Strike me with your weapon,” he tells his companion. But the second prophet refuses.
• “Because you have not obeyed the Lord,” the first prophet tells him. “A lion will kill you.” Later a lion does kill the second prophet.
• “Strike me, please,” the first prophet tells a different man. The man does so and wounds the prophet.
• The wounded prophet disguises himself and waits by a road. When the Ahab approaches the disguised prophet tells him a story: Following a battle, the prophet was told to guard a captive. But the captive got away, so the prophet must now either die or pay a talent of silver.
• “That is your sentence,” Ahab says. “You pronounced it yourself.”
• The prophet removes his disguise and says, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life.”
• Angry, Ahab goes to his palace in Samaria.

Jesus:

• Ahab was condemned for forming a treaty with God’s enemy.
• And we are condemned when, through our sin, we do the same thing.
• But Jesus takes our condemnation onto Himself for us.

Note:

• If the prophet was going to tell a fictional story anyway, why was it so import that someone give him an actual injury?