{"id":4274,"date":"2017-07-14T22:06:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T04:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=4274"},"modified":"2017-07-14T22:06:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T04:06:35","slug":"setting-up-the-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=4274","title":{"rendered":"Setting up the Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our day began early. The alarm went off at 2 a.m. and we got up to travel to the airport for a flight to California. We will join Christian and Bridget and grandchildren for a week in Palm Desert. It has been since 2001 that we have been here. At that time Debbie&#8217;s aunt and uncle lived here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY&#8230;<\/strong>\u00a0<em>&#8220;<span class=\"text 2Chr-36-22\">Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,\u00a0that the word of the\u00a0<span class=\"small-caps\">Lord\u00a0<\/span>by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,\u00a0the\u00a0<span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>\u00a0stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span id=\"en-ESV-12017\" class=\"text 2Chr-36-23\"><em>\u201cThus says Cyrus king of Persia, \u2018The\u00a0<span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the\u00a0<span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>\u00a0his God be with him. Let him go up.\u2019\u201d \u00a0<\/em> \u00a02 Chronicles 36:22,23 ESV<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever come to the end of a book or a movie and you can tell the way that the story ends that it is set up for a sequel. In other words, there is more of the story to be told. The final chapter and outcome has not been revealed or recorded.<\/p>\n<p>Such is the case with the end of the book of 2 Chronicles. This repeated account of what is recorded in 2 Kings focuses only on the Kingdom of Judah. It is the chronicles of Judah&#8217;s kings and their history and the record of their idolatry and God&#8217;s judgment and the eventual captivity in Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>But that was not the &#8220;end of the story.&#8221; Judah would not be like the tribes of the northern kingdom Israel, who were conquered by the Assyrians and became referred to as the &#8220;lost tribes of Israel.&#8221; The Lord had promised David a lasting dynasty. A dynasty that would include the &#8220;one&#8221; who would <em>&#8220;reign over the house of Jacob [David] and of His kingdom there would be no end.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>(Luke 1:33)<\/p>\n<p>The last verse of 2 Chronicles do not end with God&#8217;s people in captivity, but with an indication of the fulfillment of the hope and future that the Lord had promised His people at the end of 70 years.<\/p>\n<p>The simple message for our lives is that the Lord provides a sequel for that which we experience and for our journey with Him. In the words of baseball great, Yogi Berra, &#8220;It ain&#8217;t over, til its over.&#8221; God is continuing to work out the &#8220;story&#8221; of our life. We may feel at a dead end, we may feel that our &#8220;life is over&#8221; due to hardship or heartache. But the Lord is getting ready to &#8220;write the next chapter.&#8221; He is showing us the He is continuing His work for &#8220;His good purpose in our lives.&#8221; (Philippians 1:6; 2:13)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today&#8230;..\u00a0<\/strong><em>Lord thank you for the sequels to the story of our lives. Allow us to believe and see that You are a good who is continually working in our lives and accomplishing Your good purpose in and through us, until You &#8220;write&#8221; the final chapter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our day began early. The alarm went off at 2 a.m. and we got up to travel to the airport for a flight to California. We will join Christian and Bridget and grandchildren for a week in Palm Desert. It has been since 2001 that we have been here. At that time Debbie&#8217;s aunt and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4275,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274\/revisions\/4275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}