2 Chr 29: 1-11

Hezekiah was the next king to ascend the throne from the line of Ahaz. According to the Scriptures, Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. And he ruled for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah. I guess that was pretty significant given she was the prophet's daughter and perhaps was very instrumental in his upbringing and in how he was to perceive the kingdom as well as his relationship to God. It shouldn't be surprising that he went "old school" and back to basics of restoring the temple and the kingdom back to a level of prominence. It seems he started right away in restoring the temple and it started with the Levites and making themselves holy and acceptable for service. He then started on the physical appearance of the temple and had it cleaned up from the rubbish that as accumulated since the building was basically abandoned. He recognized the importance of the relationship between Judah and the Lord and thus he made it his primary goal to restore that with the people by giving the facts of what had occured and how to rectify it. According to the commentary: Hezekiah intended to turn back to the LORD. He wanted to start again the worship of God in the LORD’s temple. He told the priests and the Levites to do the tasks that the LORD had called them to. Then he believed that the LORD would not be angry with them.

A refreshing read after a dismal few chapters...

Spent another great day with GG and took it at a lot easier pace than the other two. Still got up @ 4:30 MT to keep some semblance of my East Coast head clock and did the same today. Hopefully the jet lag will be minimal. After getting the free tickets for today's game for GG, we headed to mountains and the casino area - very pretty drive as we border a stream/river for the drive. The casino had a so-so brunch buffet and we then proceeded to contribute to the economy. Actually, I did relatively well netting 8 cents for the day. Never knew that penny slots could be so fun and actually hit the jackpot (with $2.42 left) and paid off my losses in the quarter slots. Still it was a good day to spend with him. Went to his church for a 7 PM service - I am so glad he's going to a more local church and is going regularly to that service since his weekends are wacky. Also glad to hear he's been tithing there as well - give to the church that is currently blessing you. Speaker concentrated his sermon on Matt 18 - short but concise and with impact.  The dinner was really good at Texas Brazilian meatfest - a little pricey but well worth it spending that time with him and watching him enjoy it as well.  The weather last night was miserable and Denver's seen perhaps more rain in these past few days than they have seen in a month of Sundays. Glad he was driving since the roads were water logged to say the least.

Looking forward to heading back but I do treasure this week with him and want to do this as long as he's out here. We both felt it would be good for us.

Praise for today: But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. Psalm 3:3