{"id":5992,"date":"2015-06-22T12:26:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T12:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=5992"},"modified":"2015-06-22T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T12:26:07","slug":"loving-the-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/5992\/loving-the-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving the Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love these thoughts from the latest Blog, John… they come from that “other” world.\u00a0 Where it’s not “yes” or “no”, but it’s Jesus!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the mind of God, Herod could have been just like Solomon, when he was\u00a0ready to\u00a0divide that baby, and had an answer that men would have marveled at.\u00a0\u00a0Had he answered with your wise answer,\u00a0and said that John the Baptist’s head was worth more than 1\/2 his kingdom, he would have gone down in history as a wise and righteous ruler. \u00a0Instead, he went down\u00a0in history as a despot, and a\u00a0fool.\u00a0 It’s all a matter of the heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, I love these thoughts, yes I do!<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WORTH MORE THAN HALF THE KINGDOM<\/span><\/p>\n

Herod, on his birthday, made a feast for his chief officials, the captains of a thousand, and the leading men of Galilee, and the daughter of [Herod\u2019s wife] Herodias came in and danced, and she pleased Herod and those banqueting with him.\u00a0 And the king said to the girl, ‘Ask of me whatever you desire, and I will grant it to you.’\u00a0 And he made an oath to her: ‘Whatever you ask of me, I will grant you, up to half of my kingdom!’\u00a0 So when she went out, she said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for myself?’\u00a0 And she said, ‘The head of John the Baptizer.’\u00a0 And immediately, she hurried in to the king and made her request, saying, ‘I want you to give me, right now, the head of John the Baptizer on a platter.’\u00a0 And the king was deeply grieved, but because of the oaths and those feasting with him, he would not refuse her.\u00a0 And so, the king sent an executioner and commanded that his head be brought in at once.\u00a0 And he went out and beheaded him in the prison, and carried his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Mark\u00a06:21\u201328<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If Herod wanted to give this dancing girl anything up to half of his kingdom, it was no one\u2019s business but his.\u00a0 It was perfectly lawful and permissible for him to do that, even if it was foolish for him to make such an offer because he enjoyed someone\u2019s dancing.\u00a0 Herod was probably drunk, having been at his birthday bash for a while before the girl danced; but again, the King was well within his rights as king to make that offer.\u00a0 Even one of Jesus\u2019 parables upheld the legality of a man doing whatever he wanted to do with what is his (Mt.\u00a020:15).<\/span><\/p>\n

But it was when the young girl, after being advised by her wicked mother, asked for the head of John the Baptist that Herod showed what a great fool he really was.\u00a0 A sane response to the girl\u2019s insane request would have been that John the Baptist was worth more than half his kingdom, more even than all of it.\u00a0 God certainly thought so.\u00a0 That is why He warned His people, \u201cTouch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm!\u201d (1Chron.\u00a016:22; Ps. 105:15).<\/span><\/p>\n

But Herod was a fool.\u00a0 He did not value John as he should have, and so, he foolishly fell into his wife\u2019s trap and assented to the ungodly request.<\/span><\/p>\n

The apostles warned us that there are people around us like Herod\u2019s wicked wife who will also lay traps for our souls.\u00a0 They hate the truth as she did, and those who speak it, and if we get drunk on the things of this world, they will take advantage of our weakness and get us to agree with something that we should not agree to.\u00a0 Our safety is in esteeming the things of God above everything in this life, all we have and even all that we are.\u00a0 When the love of God fills our hearts as it did the prophets, Jesus, Paul, and others, nothing can move us to say or do anything which does not please God.\u00a0 We will please God in everything, and keep our victory over sin.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love these thoughts from the latest Blog, John… they come from that “other” world.\u00a0 Where it’s not “yes” or “no”, but it’s Jesus!\u00a0 With the mind of God, Herod could have been just like Solomon, when he was\u00a0ready to\u00a0divide that baby, and had an answer that men would have marveled at.\u00a0\u00a0Had he answered with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}