Many people believe there is more than one way to heaven. As long as you are a good person, you think about others, you do your best, then why shouldn’t you be in heaven? In fact, that’s what we hear in our culture today. There is no absolute truth. But that is the direct opposite of what God tells us in His word, the Bible. The Bible is absolute truth. It’s a GPS beacon that leads us along the path towards heaven. Let’s study a story about Hezekiah and what he did to be faithful to GodContributor: Christie is going to share with us about how even though she was a Christian, there were some “high places” in her life. Find out what woke her up to her spiritual condition and how the Holy Spirit led in her life!

Many people believe there is more than one way to heaven. As long as you are a good person, you think about others, you do your best, then why shouldn’t you be in heaven? In fact, that’s what we hear in our culture today. There is no absolute truth. But that is the direct opposite of what God tells us in His word, the Bible. The Bible is absolute truth. It’s a GPS beacon that leads us along the path towards heaven. Let’s study a story about Hezekiah and what he did to be faithful to GodContributor: Christie is going to share with us about how even though she was a Christian, there were some “high places” in her life. Find out what woke her up to her spiritual condition and how the Holy Spirit led in her life!

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Starting with Jesus

Heather Bennett

Reflect and Renew April 2023

Hezekiah, the Praying King

Treasure Found in the Temple

Katie Chitwood

Joash, the Boy King

God’s Special Messengers


Never did it occur to me that I was leading a double life or that I was steeped in idolatry. And then 1 day in my early 30s, I found out I was soon to become a mother. With a new life growing inside, the world suddenly looked different to me. Welcome to Reflect and Renew. Hey, I'm Katie.

I'm so glad that you'll be joining me today. We will be learning and growing together in our walk with Jesus. You will surely be encouraged and challenged as we study week by week and hear from the experiences of others. Have you ever met someone who believes that there are many different ways to heaven? You do your thing, I do my thing, and you know what, as long as we're good people, then we'll all be fine.

My husband and I are currently working in Arizona on the Navajo Nation. The Navajo people have some amazing values that we can all learn from. Family is important. It's actually number 1. The whole society revolves around the family, helping the family, supporting the family, celebrating the family.

They're also very open to God and they value spiritual conversations. When they're going through a hard time, they'll call up my husband and ask him to offer a prayer for the situation. But for many, they do have an openness to spiritual things that leads them to also think that there are many different ways to God. The Christians have their way, the Mormons have their way, the Catholics have their way, and traditional beliefs are another way. So in their thinking, if we just do it all, then surely we'll get to heaven some way, somehow.

Is that what we hear in our culture, in our society today? There's no absolute truth. There's no direct way to heaven. That is the direct opposite of what God tells us in his word, the Bible. The Bible's absolute truth, you could think of it as a GPS, a beacon that leads us along the path towards heaven.

But today we hear from all sides that we need to follow our hearts. We need to follow our feelings. That's what Hezekiah was dealing with in our Bible story this week. Have you checked out the weekly devotional Renew by Merle Poirier? We use this devotional each week as a springboard for our discussion here on the Reflect and Renew podcast.

If you want to join us as we read the devotional, go to startingwithjesus.com forward slash renew. Or you can write to us at renew at starting with Jesus dot com and you can just let us know and we'll email the devotional to you directly. Sennacherib was an Assyrian king and he was pestering Hezekiah. He wanted to be in charge. So you know what he did?

He told Hezekiah that God isn't happy with the reforms that were happening in the land of Judah and rather than following God, they needed to follow him. Sennacherib, who could bring about a strong society. Does that sound familiar? You don't need to follow God, there's other ways of experiencing peace and joy in your life. Yeah, we hear that, don't we?

Well, let's back up a bit. When Hezekiah came to the throne, he knew that God had outlined specific guidelines that would lead his people to peace and to prosperity. He wanted to follow those directions, so he tore down all the high places. He worked hard to eliminate idolatry from the land. Not only did he destroy the places of idol worship, but he also destroyed some of the relics that were part of the history of his people.

Remember when the children of Israel were being bitten by fiery serpents? God commanded Moses to make what? A bronze serpent. He was to set it high on a pole, and the people, all they had to do was just look at it, and they would live. Now fast forward to Hezekiah's day.

His people were now worshiping that same serpent. They gave it a name. They burned incense to it. They turned it into an idol. Hezekiah knew that he needed to destroy it and he did.

Hezekiah was not afraid to get rid of or to destroy the things in his kingdom that were blocking his relationship with God. He knew that Satan would use anything he could to tempt and destroy God's people. So Hezekiah, he did a house cleaning. He got rid of anything and everything that allowed Satan a foothold. What about us today?

Are there things in our lives that block our relationship with God? Are there things in our house that gave Satan a foothold or you could think of it like an excuse to be there. Even as a Christian we can still have these what I would call high places in our lives. My family and I are very sensitive to this because we had an experience not long ago where Satan was wreaking havoc in our home and so we did a thorough housecleaning. Nope, not with Clorox or with scrubbies but we looked for items, We looked for behaviors that were giving him, giving Satan, a right to set up camp right in the middle of our house.

And it wasn't until those things were gone that we experienced peace once again. This week we hear from Christy as she tells us about how even though she was a Christian, there were still high places in her life. Find out what woke her up to her spiritual condition and how the Holy Spirit led in her life. While I grew up in the church and called myself a Christian all my life, there have certainly been times where I worshipped everything but God. Like the children of Israel, I have gone to the high places, in search of peace, joy, and healing, when in reality my choices left me empty, anxious, and more miserable than before.

Ever since a young child, I sought escape from reality in movies, TV, and music. This onslaught of media was intoxicating to me and the love affair only deepened with age. Anxious and alone at home? Turn on MTV. Broken-hearted over a boyfriend?

Play some music that validated my emotions. Worn out from a day at work? Jet over to the nearest movie theater to escape reality. Laughable as it seems now, I actually believed I could get relationship advice from romantic comedies. I lived, breathed, and ate media.

These silver screen stories began their malicious work of shaping my view of the world, my neighbors, relationships, and God. And even though I still played church and warmed the pew most weekends, I could hardly wait for the evening sun to set so I could relish in my favorite pastime. Never did it occur to me that I was leading a double life or that I was steeped in idolatry. And then 1 day in my early 30s, I found out I was soon to become a mother. With a new life growing inside, the world suddenly looked different to me.

I began to pause and question what I ate, question what I drank, said, and even question what I did. Little seeds of biblical truth that I had picked up over the past 3 decades started to flash into my mind. I recognized how my core beliefs as a Bible-believing Christian were being attacked by the very characters I beheld on the screen and in the lyrics I loved to listen to. Somewhere deep in my heart, the Holy Spirit was patiently and softly whispering that he was still there after all those years and desired to help me escape these chains of sin. He began to stir a desire in my husband and I to have regular worship together in the evenings.

He encouraged me to start praying to Him for real and watered a growing desire to know what His Word actually says. Like the peeling of an onion, layer by layer, He gently held my hand and walked me down from the high places and into his holy temple. He opened my eyes in so many ways. Yeah, the journey was painful at times, but exactly what our home needed. At the right time, God faithfully brought information to us through independent ministries that spoke truth and exposed the darkness of Hollywood and its demonic agenda.

The History and power of unholy music was unmasked before my eyes, and as we gave allegiance and glory to God in our home, guess what? The idols lost their power over me. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Today, more than a decade later, God is my media partner. He helps me filter and prioritize media to help guard my time and energy.

And when I fall, He picks me up. He dusts me off and gives me a warm hug and I am so glad he loves us so much to speak the truth in love at the right time. Praise God for holding my hand while I unplugged the TV and connected to him. I want you to examine your own life. Are there things in your life that are giving Satan access to your home?

Maybe it's a Netflix show, maybe it's a video game that your child has, maybe it's a relic in your home. I want you to pray, I want you to ask God to show you if there are any high places in your home that are blocking your relationship with him, that are giving Satan a door right into the heart of your home. Speaking of prayer, that's what our challenge is for this week. Focusing on prayer. Hezekiah prayed a beautiful prayer in 2 Kings chapter 19 verses 14 through 19 and there's a pattern for us to follow.

You can look it up. I'm just going to go through kind of the 3 main points of his prayer. The first part was adoration. He prayed and he told God how much he appreciated him. Then, explanation.

He explained to God what was going on. And finally, supplication. Asking God for help. Can you use this template in your own prayer time? Why don't you try it?

Start by telling God what you appreciate about him. Tell him what's going on in your life and then finish by asking him for help. You can also use a prayer journal and write down your prayers. That's always fun because as God answers, you can write down those answers to prayer and have evidence of seeing how God is working in your life. Let's pray together.

Lord, thank you so much that you are a God who cares. We are so grateful. This story about Hezekiah has so many lessons for us today. Please be with us as we think about those lessons, as we think about what your will is for our lives, how you want to guide us, help us to be centered within your will to follow you to tear down any high Places that we might have in our hearts or in our homes Give us the courage give us the strength and the power in Jesus name. Amen This podcast is sponsored by Starting With Jesus.

To find out more about other programs, or to find out the links that were shared in this podcast, just check out the description box below.

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Reflect and Renew April 2023

Hezekiah, the Praying King

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Other Teachings in Series

Hezekiah, the Praying King

12m

Treasure Found in the Temple

20m

Joash, the Boy King

16m

God’s Special Messengers

11m

God’s Special Messengers

11m

Sound Doctrine