It’s always good when my husband, Ken, visits with us on Joni and Friends.
All this week I’ve been offering a little booklet entitled “Speaking God’s Language” and it’s all about praying the Word of God. Well, the Word of God is something pretty central in my marriage to Ken…
KEN: Joni, you know the last three years have been just phenomenal and I think one of the reasons why it has been phenomenal is because you and I have been reading the Bible together at night.
JONI: I love it. Ken, there is nothing I enjoy better than turning my head on the pillow and watching you pull the chair up by my bedside, open up your Bible, take out your glasses and start reading, even if it’s 1 Chronicles.
KEN: Even if it’s 1 Chronicles – all those names!
JONI: Lots of names – you do such a great job of pronouncing those names.
KEN: You know one of the things that I’ve discovered? The God of the Old Testament is still the same God of the New Testament, but boy he was an angry God in that Old Testament.
JONI: Well, angry against people who rebelled willfully against him – so much sin. We were reading last night about the sacrifices the Israelites did when they offered their own children to the Baal gods – how awful!
KEN: Unbelievable! It was a terrible time then to realize that they would have human sacrifices.
JONI: And you know that so many of those same kinds of sacrifices are happening today with the intentional abortion of so many unborn children or even newborn infants with disabilities?
KEN: Exactly!
JONI: I think of all the kings we have read about – kings of Judah, kings of Israel (I think of Hezekiah).
KEN: Oh, man, he was the best!
JONI: He really was the best. He got rid of all the astropolis and the Baal worship. And he also – this was amazing, I have never read this before, I don’t know how I missed this – but it was Hezekiah who broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made when he…
KEN: Well you know why, Joni, because people were starting to worship the serpent…
JONI: Yes, they were burning incense to it, and I think it is also amazing that even though that bronze serpent – and it had survived hundreds and hundreds of years since Moses had made it – Jesus still referred to that bronze serpent when he spoke of his own crucifixion. He said, “If I be lifted up like the bronze serpent was in the wilderness, I will draw all men to myself.” So it’s like Jesus ignored the fact that people had abused that bronze serpent and made it a relic of worship and burned incense to it and he just referred to its real purpose that if people would but look, lift up their heads and see their salvation, they indeed would be rescued.
KEN: Well, you know, Joni, I think that applies to us today, that bronze serpents still live on today. They take on different forms: they may be a credit card, it could be a brand new car – it could be a lot of different things.
JONI: The point is don’t make it a bronze serpent! Well, apart from Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat and Asa, he was also a pretty good king, I think what has blessed me is just reading the Word of God, because a promise accompanies that persistence in reading his Word. We will be blessed as we read the Word of God – even all those names in 1 Chronicles.
KEN: I think the most important thing, Joni, is that we are doing it together as a couple.
JONI: Yeah.
KEN: During the course of the day, how many times do you really speak to your wife? This is an intimate time, as intimate as you can possibly get when you can share the Word of God with your wife. Your focus is on God’s Word, but it is also a chance to be able to share that with the one that you love the most.
JONI: That’s right.
And, friend, don’t forget this is your last day to get your copy of “Speaking God’s Language,” a little booklet which highlights how you can employ verses of Scripture into your prayer time. For your copy, just visit me today at joniandfriendsradio.org. And until next time on behalf of my husband, Ken, thanks for listening to Joni and Friends.
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