Daily Devotional For Saturday, June 13, 2026
Good morning Southside! Yes, it is time to take some time to focus on your relationship to Christ. Thank you for joining us on this. Today, we are in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18-19. These passages give us the death of the wicked king named Ahab. God says this in Numbers 32:23b, “. . . and you may be sure that your sin will find you out” (NLT). The debt of sin always has a pay day – either sooner or later. We see this finally in the life of that wicked Israeli king, Ahab. He and his wicked queen, Jezebel, hated Yahweh and led the people of God to worship and make sacrifices to the pagan gods Baal and Asherah.
The worship of these idols included temple prostitution and even infant sacrifices. Jewish babies, all descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were being slaughtered and sacrificed for some pagan gods. While we might find this appalling, disgusting and evil, we see in the world today. Women sacrifice innocent lives in the womb for the idol called a “woman’s choice,” the idol called “inconvenience,” the idol popularly known by the name of “abortion.” While we may be upset with Ahab and Jezebel, we should be equally upset at those who sacrifice their baby to the idol, to the god called Abortion.
It seems that God’s patience with Ahab has run out. In a freak accident, he is hit by an arrow in battle and later dies. This is all due to his sin of not killing the Aramean king Ben-hadad for taking the Jewish city Ramoth-gilead in the Golan Heights. Ahab had agreed to this in exchange for a peace treaty with the Aramean king. Ben-hadad had agreed to turn all the Jewish cities conquered over to the Jews. For 3 years he did not do this. Yes, there was peace, no war between Israel and Aramea. But just like King Saul had not killed King Agag when commanded by God, Saul lost his kingdom, the life of his sons and then his own life. Pay day comes, folks.
In this time, there were Jews who worshipped Yahweh, but they also were synchronistic – they also worshipped Baal and Asherah and mixed both together with the worship of Yahweh. We see some of the same kind of synchronistic merging of Christianity with our American culture and other religions today also. America is not a Christian nation — to say that implies that every single person in America is a Christian. Our form of government and democracy are founded on Christian principles.
America is a melting pot of a multitude of people, races, religions, and ideologies. Christianity is no longer the prevailing ideology. Why? We have legalized gay marriages, abortion, transgenderism, couples living together instead of getting married, universalism (all good people go to heaven), a refusal to exercise the death penalty. All of these now prevailing ideologies are an abomination to God.
There is real danger when syncretism permeates the Christian faith. There are “Christian” churches that sanction all of this all in the ideology of being inclusive, accepting and loving. These are not churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are pagan religious institutions that have been corrupted by the devil and his lies. They are not Christian either. The word “Christian” means followers of Christ and His Word. Nowhere in Scripture does God ever accept or tolerate any of these prevailing paganistic and demonic ideologies. All of them are condemned by Him. Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (NASB).
They can mock God now, but pay day is coming. They can mock God today, but one day they will be severely judged by Him. The Old Testament is full of stories of God bringing judgment on people for mocking Him – Sodom and Gomorrah, Jericho, and even His own Jewish people. God punished the Hebrews when they made a golden calf – which was an act of both syncretism and idolatry. The people in The Promised Land worshipped idols made of gold.
Ahab died for his rebelliousness, idolatry and for leading God’s people to worship these idols and sacrifice their babies to them. After 3 years God finally killed Ahab. Those pastors and churches that lead their congregations to violate God’s Word will be dealt with by Him in time. Their day is coming. No amount of accommodation, inclusivity, acceptance, and love will get them any sway with the Lord. Their fate will be that of the rich man in Hades in Luke 16:19-31. No mercy – just unrelenting and eternal damnation in the fires of hell. Old Testament scholar John Woodhouse writes this about “religion”:
“There is a widespread view in today’s world that “religion” is simply a matter of taste. It is an aspect of “culture,” like music and food. No one should be critical of another person’s “religion,” any more than we should judge another’s musical or culinary preferences. There is no such thing as “good religion” and “bad religion,” let alone “true religion” and “false religion.” Multicultural societies (like Australia, America, England) must welcome and appreciate the many “religions” that belong to the different cultural backgrounds of our people. So it is very widely believed” (Source: John Woodhouse, Preach The Word, “1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World,” p. 508).
Woodhouse’s point is that multicultural societies are obligated to welcome, accept, and appreciate any and all religions and cults as good for their nation. These afterall consist of our good citizens who only want what is best for our nation, right? How can any Christian accept the religion of abortion, the religion of homosexuality, the religion of living together, the religion of universalism? The religion of victimhood? The religion of blame? We can’t, if our allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Reflection Assignment: Take a moment and ask yourself, “Is there any part of my life where I have allowed the syncretism of pagan and demonic ideologies to affect my Christian faith?” Ask yourself, “Am I compromising my faith before anyone just to be liked, accepted, approved and loved?” Confess it and repent from it..
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. (38) This is the first and greatest commandment. (39) A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself (40) The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments’” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, help me to rid my life of any and all syncretism in it. I only want my allegiance and loyalty to go to You. The only kingdom that matters to me is Your kingdom and Your righteousness (Matt. 6:33). I know I am to obey my government (Rom. 13:1-7) as long as it does not ask me to disobey You or Your Word. Help me not to be synchronistic, or fatalistic or humanistic or naturalistic or pluralistic but eucharistic – willing to pour out my life for You as You did for me to win others to only truth that matters – Jesus Christ. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly