Wed.’s Devo - Cleansing Our Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 29:1-36; Romans 14:1-23; Psalm 24:1-10; Proverbs 20:12
Hezekiah became king and undid the evil his father Ahaz had done. Hezekiah ruled like David did. On the first day of the year which was Roshashana, he opened the doors of the temple and repaired them. He had the priests and the temple consecrated and got rid of all the evil and defilement that his father had brought into God’s house. They took it and threw it in the Kidron Valley. They worked on cleansing the temple from the first to the sixteenth day of the first month. The fifteenth was the Feast of Tabernacles which represents the fact that God wants to tabernacle or live with his people. Hezekiah was making a place for the Lord to live once more.
When it was all cleansed, Hezekiah had a huge celebration of sacrificing and worshipping the Lord. The priests were stationed in their places with instruments of worship and praise. They led the people in singing. The service of the temple had been reestablished and the people were glad.
In Romans, Paul deals with our habits and self-laws. Everyone knows their own weaknesses and they have to guard themselves to stay clean. What may be a stronghold to one person may not be to another. For example, I have never had an issue with alcohol so passing by a liquor store has no effect on me, but if I had had an addiction at one time then passing by a liquor store might bring forth memories and be an enticement or a temptation to me. If someone is with me who has had an addiction, I need to be sensitive to their temptations and not put them in a situation where they might fall.
It is a waste of time to argue our different freedoms when it is someone else’s struggle. Everyone must answer to their own life, it is not our responsibility to judge them by our own lives. That is like saying we are God. So Paul sums it up by saying that we are to make every effort to do what leads to unity and building up of one another. Even if it means that we modify our own lives to help someone else’s faith.
Lord, help us to be sensitive to other’s needs over our own. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit so help us to keep our temple cleansed.

Tue.’s Devo - Give us Godly Leaders

Read: 2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27; Romans 13:1-14; Psalm 23:1-6; Proverbs 20:11
It is so much more pleasant to read about the kings of Judah rather than the kings of Israel. The kings of Judah, at least begin worshipping the Lord. The kings of Israel begin worshipping idols and usually end worshipping idols.
Today we read about Amaziah’s son, Uzziah. He began his reign at 16 years of age and he followed the Lord as long as the priest, Zachariah lived. Then he became powerful and his pride caused him to want to offer incense in the temple like the priests. They tried to stop him but not before leprosy broke out on his forehead. Now he couldn’t even enter to the temple because he was unclean. He died a leper.
His son, Jotham became king at the age of 25 and did what was right in God’s eyes. As long as the king was following the Lord, the kingdom expanded, was fortified, and prospered. He also conquered the Ammonites who had to pay tribute to him. Sadly, he only reigned 16 years and when he died, his son, Ahaz became king. Ahaz did not do what was right in God’s eyes. He walked in the idolatry of Israel’s kings. So God turned him over to the king of Aram who defeated him and took many of Judah’s citizens to Damascus as slaves.
The king of Israel also came against him and won. They killed Ahaz’s son, took 200 of his family members captive and took much of their wealth back to Samaria. The prophet, Obed met the soldiers who were bringing back the prisoners from Judah. He told them to take them back because God was using Israel to punish Judah for their sins. But, Israel’s sins were much worse than Judah’s so they had no right to judge Judah. They listened to Obed and clothed, nursed and fed them before they sent them back home.
The Edomites and the Philistines were attacking Judah and instead of asking God for help, they asked the Armenians to help them. The Armenians were more hurt than help. King Ahaz did everything he knew except ask God for help. He raised up idol worship all over Jerusalem and closed the doors to the temple. He finally died and his son, Hezekiah was made king.
Romans 13 should be printed in the newspaper for all to see. God puts who he wants in authority and he doesn’t judge as man judges. He gives his people what they need. If we need a wake up call, we get a president that causes us to hit our knees. If we pray and repent, he gives us a man who will bless us. Our command is to always honor who God puts in the office of President, because our sins or our prayers put him there. We need to continue to pray that he will make godly decisions whether he is a Christian or not.
We should not live in debt but freedom to love. Our only debt should be to owe everyone our love. If we love God first and then our neighbor then we will by nature fulfill all the laws.
Lord, thank you that surely goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Mon.’s Devo - End Well

Read: 2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28; Romans 12:1-21; Psalm 22:19-31; Proverbs 20:8-10
Joash became the king of Judah at the age of 6 and followed the Lord as long as the priest, Jehoiada lived. Jehoiada had been his surrogate father who chose his two wives and advised him in all his decisions.
Joash restored the temple that needed repair. The Levites had not collected the offerings of the people to give it back to the king so he had them put a box with a hole in it. When the box was full, they had to bring it to the king to open it. He put all the money collected for the restoration of the temple.
Jehoiada died at the age of 130 and the officials flattered Joash into listening to them. They abandoned the work on the temple and enticed the king to worship idols. This caused God to become very displeased. God sent Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son, to tell Joash and the people to repent. Joash had him stoned to death. As he was dying, Zacharaih prayed, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.” God did just that.
The army of Aram came against Joash and killed all of Joash’s officials. Joash was severely wounded and the other officials killed him for killing Zachariah. Joash’s son, Amaziah became king.
Amaziah did what was right in God’s eyes but not with his whole heart. He executed the murderers of his father and recruited more able men for his army. He hired 100,000 men from Israel for 100 talents of silver to help him fight the Edomites.
God sent him a prophet who rebuked him for hiring the Israelites since they were his enemy right then. When he explained to God that he had wasted 100 talents of silver, God told him he could repay that easily. So, Amaziah sent the troops from Israel home. They went home very mad and humiliated. They were trained to fight and going home was a great insult to them. They left ravaging Judah’s land and people as they went.
Amaziah’s army killed 20,000 Edomites and came home carrying their gods with him. He set them up in the temple and started praying to them. God sent a prophet who asked the king why they would bring back gods who could not save their own people from God. The king had the prophet struck down as he was speaking.
Amaziah decided to meet the king of Israel face to face. Jehoash, king of Israel sent him a message that he needed to go home because Israel was much stronger than the Edomites. Amaziah wouldn’t listen so they proceeded towards Israel. Israel met them and captured Amaziah and sent the army of Judah running. He brought Amaziah back to his palace in Jerusalem and tore down a 600 foot section in their wall. They took the ark and all the silver and gold articles from the temple and hostages back to Samaria.
Amaziah survived 15 years after Jehoash’s death, but his own people killed him when he fled. Like his father, he had such a sad ending.
In Romans, Paul gives us the clue to living a successful Christian life. It is presenting your selves as a sacrifice to the Lord. That means giving him your plans, your dreams, your desires and letting him crucify them and resurrect what is to live. Only what he sanctions is worth living. We have all been giving gifts and we will be satisfied and fulfilled when we are walking in our gifts.
Paul gave us great advise for living so we can end well: be sincere in our love, hate evil and cling to good. Honor others above ourselves, be zealous and keep our spiritual passion burning. Share and practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Live at peace with everyone and don’t think yourself better than others. Don’t retaliate but do what is right. God is the one who will get revenge for us. Overcome evil with good. These are easy to say but harder to act out in every day living but this is our goal.
Lord, help us to do the things we know will give you honor. Help us to remember that we don’t live for ourselves but for the honor of Your name.

Sun,’s Devo - Righteousness Always Prevails

Read: 2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21; Romans 11:13-36; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 20:7
Jehoshaphat died leaving seven sons whom he had given cities and authority. His oldest son, Jehoram was to be the king. When Jehoram became king, he had all his brothers killed. He was an evil king who married a daughter of Ahab and led Judah in idolatry.
Other nations that had been under Judah began to rebel because there was no fear of God in a leader who didn’t follow God. Edom was the first.
Elijah sent Jehoram a letter telling him that he had not rebelled like the other kings of Judah, but he had rebelled like the kings of Israel which was much more serious. Because of this, the Lord was going to hit his nation a heavy blow and he would die of a disease in which his bowels would fall out.
The Philistines and the Arabs rebelled and attacked Jerusalem and carried off more of their treasures and Jehoram died of the illness Elijah and predicted. The Philistines had carried off and killed all his sons except his youngest son, Ahaziah. He became king and his mothers’ name was Athaliah who was a grand daughter of Omri. Omri had been a ruthless killer who became the king of Israel by treason. He walked in sin, idolatry and vanity. His son was Ahab.
Athaliah encouraged her son to do evil and to align himself with Israel’s king Joram in a war with the king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. In this battle, Joram was wounded.
Ahaziah went to Jezereel so visit Joram after the battle to inquire for his health. This was the downfall of Ahaziah. Ahaziah and Joram went out to meet Jehu who they thought was on their side. Instead, Jehu killed them both.
Meanwhile, back in Judah, when Athaliah heard that her son was killed, she killed all of the other sons (except one) and relatives securing herself as the queen. Jehoram’s daughter took baby Josiah and hid him in the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled Judah.
In the seventh year of Josah’s life, the priests brought Josiah out. The high priest was Jehoiada and he had raised Josiah in the ways of the Lord so he could rule Judah. He gathered the commanders of the army, who hated Athaliah, to overthrow Athaliah and crown Josiah king.
Jehoiada armed the Levites and the priests with swords and shields. They surrounded Josiah and brought him out of hiding and took him from the south side around of the temple to the north side and crowned him, gave him a copy of the law, anointed him, blew trumpets and shouted, “Long live the king!”
When Athaliah understood what was happening, she tore her robe and shouted, “Treason!” The army men took her to the palace where they killed her. Jehoiada then began cleansing the land of Baal worship then cleansed the temple of the Lord and put the Levites and priests back in their places. Josiah was brought to the palace and placed on the throne.
The devil always overplays his role. Athaliah made herself queen but had no true followers. We are seeing a shift in our nation as people who have been duped into believing a lie are being forced to face the evil they once thought was okay. The far left is losing power because they are being exposed for what they really are - evil. It is not people that are our enemy, but they are being used by Satan to do his will. He is our enemy and he is overplaying his shot.
In Romans, Paul was speaking to the Gentiles as their apostle. He reminded them that their root was founded in Judiaism and they were grafted into the line of Abraham. God did this because the original branches rejected their own roots. Paul warned them against becoming arrogant, because they could be broken off just like the Jews were if they rebelled. One day, when the number of the Gentiles is complete, God would graft Israel back on to his tree.
Lord, your goodness is to all generations. Thank you for being our God.

Sat.’s Devo - The Battle is the Lords

Read: 2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37; Romans 10:14-11:12; Psalm 21:1-13; Provers 20:4-6
Jehoshaphat was rebuked two times in today’s reading and both had to do with times he aligned himself with Israel. God was angry that he had fought with Ahab and later, and later when Ahab’s son, Ahaziah asked Jehoshaphat to build ships with him. Those ships never sailed.
God had explained that he was mad at Israel and they were not on his side. They had abandoned him as their God so he had abandoned them. Other than those two incidents, Jehoshaphat followed the Lord. He trained men to judge the people fairly as unto the Lord. When an innumerable army came against Judah, Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast and stood before the people reciting what God had told them about what to do when they needed help. They cried out to him and presented their cause. God spoke through Jahaziel, the prophet and he told them that God had heard them. The battle would not be fought by them, but the Lord would fight it. They were to be courageous and go out and face the enemy because God was going to be with them.
The next day, Jehoshaphat appointed singers and praisers to go before the army singing thanks to the Lord. As they sang, the Lord set ambushes against the Ammonites and Moabites and all who were invading Judah and they were defeated. They fought themselves and all Judah had to do is clean up the spoils. They went home and had another great praise service. All the other nations heard about this and were afraid to attack Judah.
In Romans, Paul asked them how people would know to call on the name of the Lord if no-one came and told them. Paul blessed the feet of those who used them to go out and tell others. But he also reminded them of Psalm 19 where it says that all creation is also teaching the ways of God. God uses everything around us to bring us to him. He chose his people, the Jews, to put his name on and spoke to them constantly, but when they refused to hear, God started calling Gentiles who did answer and come. The Gentiles would be the very ones that would provoke the Jews to jealousy and they would return.
Lord, may we be a voice today that proclaims your goodness. Remind us when we are overwhelmed that we have a powerful tool called praise that we can use. It is always a good time to give praise to you!

Fri.’s Devo - Obedience and Faith

Read: 2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34; Romans 9:22-10:13; Psalm 20:1-9; Proverbs 20:2-3
When Asa died, his son, Jehoshaphat became king. He began his kingship cleansing the land further of idolatry, taking down the high places and the Asherah poles. He sent officials and Levites to teach the people in the towns about the law. Other nations saw the hand of God on Judah and wanted to be allies. The Philistines and the Arabs brought gifts to Jehoshaphat as his power continued to grow. He fortified and armed his towns with weapons and security. Then Jehoshaphat made a fatal mistake. He made a covenant with Israel and married Ahab’s daughter. Ahab was Israel’s king and he was evil.
Jehoshaphat went to visit Ahab and found Ahab wanting his help in attacking Ramoth-Gilead. Jehoshaphat agreed to help him but first wanted to ask the Lord if they would be successful. Ahab called his prophets in which were all Baal prophets and they said with much pomp and circumstance that he should attack because he would win. Jehoshaphat wasn’t convinced. He asked if there was a prophet of God and Ahab said that there was but he never told him anything good. They called for Micah and he came in and sarcastically agreed with the Baal prophets. When Ahab asked for the truth, he told him. He would not win and Ahab would die in battle. Micah was thrown in prison and Ahab rebelliously went to battle the next day.
Even in Ahab’s disguise, God directed an arrow to go right in between the folds of his armor and he died. God spared Jehoshaphat because when he was being pursued, he called out to the Lord.
Rebellion is nothing more than “going your own way”. Ahab’s pride would not let him humble himself in front of his men and fear the words of a man he thought was beneath him. It cost him his life.
In Romans, Paul explains that the Gentiles, who had been the instruments God had used in the past to bring wrath upon his people when they disobeyed, were now being used as instruments of his mercy and grace. God was putting his spirit in Gentiles and Jews alike and calling them both, his people.
The Jews were given the law, but it did not make them righteous because they didn’t mix it with faith. Instead, the law became a stumbling stone that kept them from seeing the revelation of the law. The Gentiles received the good news by faith and obtained the promise. The law was meant to bring a person to salvation.
Lord, thank you again for grace and faith. Increase our faith to believe the impossible because that is where you dwell.

Thurs.’s Devo - Chosen

Read: 2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14; Romans 9:1-21; Psalm 19:1-14: Proverbs 20:1
Judah’s king, Abijah died and his son Asa was made king. Asa was a good king most of his life. He got rid of the idolatry in Judah which caused Judah to prosper and be at peace.
When after 10 years of peace, the Cushites came against Judah. Asa called out to God for help and the Lord struck down the Cushites so that they ran in terror of God. How ironic since “terror” is the meaning of Cushite. Judah got much plunder from the Cushites and God sent Azariah, the prophet to explain to king Asa just what he had done for him. God had given them the victory and would always fight for them if they stayed close to him. This empowered king Asa to cleanse the land further of idolatry and prepare the altar of the Lord for sacrifices.
Many of the Israelites had started following Asa instead of the kings of Israel because they saw how God was fighting for Judah. Asa called all Judah to assemble and sacrificed 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep from the plunder they had gotten from the Cushites. They renewed their covenant to follow the Lord with all their hearts.
For 25 years, there was peace and prosperity in Judah. Then Israel tried to fortify Ramah which was a city that was the gateway from Judah to Israel. Israel wanted to keep their people from going over to Judah to worship the Lord. Instead of asking the Lord for help, Asa foolishly took gold and silver from the temple and used it to hire Ben Hadad’s army in Aram. Aram did help them stop the work at Ramah but God was not happy. God sent his prophet, Hanani to rebuke Asa for not asking God for help instead of hiring the Armenians. Asa got so mad at the prophet that he threw him in jail and lashed out at his own people. Asa ended up getting a terrible foot disease and dying refusing to ask God to heal him. Such a sad ending to such a good start.
It is so easy to look at the lives of the kings in retrospect and see how quickly they forgot what God had done for them. But how like us they are. This is a great reminder to remember the things that God has done in the past and believe that same God can and will do greater things in the future.
Today, Roman’s reading is beyond our comprehension of God. That God could create a person for destruction and another for grace is beyond what we want to believe about God. The truth is that the godly and the ungodly are his and he does with them according to what his purpose is. It should make us that much more grateful to be chosen. God has a people that he has chosen as his own and everyone else is here to help us get where we are suppose to get and do what we are suppose to do. It is not our job to figure out who is chosen or not, but to walk in the spirit and do what is before us to do. God’s law for us is to love others as Christ loved us.
Lord, help us to walk out our salvation in the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, may we hear your voice and obey. Thank you for choosing us.

Wed.’s Devo - Victory

Read: 2 chronicles 11:1-13:22; Romans 8:22-39; Psalm 18:37-50; Proverbs 19:27-29
Rehoboam ruled Judah and Benjamin and Jeroboam ruled the other tribes. Since Jerusalem was in Judah, Jeroboam set up two golden calves for the people to worship so they wouldn’t travel to Jerusalem in Judah. He also set up priests that were not Levites to perform the sacrifices and the worship. The Levites that were dispersed throughout the tribes did a mass exit out of Israel and came to live in Jerusalem. Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought constantly but Rehoboam repented and trusted in the Lord, so God was on his side.
The king of Egypt, Shishak came against Judah and would have taken Jerusalem if Rehoboam hadn’t cried out to the Lord for help. They did take the gold shields and much of the treasury in the storehouses. Every time an enemy took gold objects, they were taking the glory and light of God away. The disobedience of the people caused them to lose their light. The same thing happens to us when we participate in evil - we stop shining.
Rehoboam died and his son, Ahijah became the king. Jeroboam came against Ahijah with 800,000 men against Ahijah’s 400,000. Ahijah stood on a hill and declared the sins of Israel while he declared that Judah had not forsaken the Lord. They still worshipped the Lord like he had told them to do and he was their leader. While he was talking, Jeroboam took half of his troops to the rear of Ahijah’s army and had them surrounded. When Ahijah realized what had happened he cried out to the Lord, the priests blew the trumpets and raised the battle cry. Israel fled before them even though they were twice the size of Ahijah’s army. God gave them the victory and they took back the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron. God struck down Jeroboam but caused Ahijah to grow in strength.
Romans puts what we read in 2 Chronicles all in perspective. We are all living for a resurrection we can not see with our eyes. We cannot see heaven or the people in it but we believe it is there. We don’t always know how to pray or even what to pray for but the Holy Spirit inside us does. So when we pray, we can ask the Holy Spirit to pray what we need to pray because he knows just what to say.
When we walk with the Lord, everything in our lives is working for us to conform us into the image of Jesus so it is always good. Nothing can stand against the power of God and nothing can separate us from God’s love for us.
Lord, thank you that you fight our battles for us when we trust in you and obey what you tell us to do. Help us to lean on the Holy Spirit’s voice to lead us.

Tues.’s Devo - Resurrection Power

Read: 2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19; Romans 8:9-21; Psalm 18:16-36; Proverbs 19:26
In Kings 11:3 we read that Solomon had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart. Today, in Chronicles we read that Solomon had one wife that was the daughter of Pharaoh from Egypt. He built her a special house because he could not put her in the palace his father, David had built because the ark had been there. This makes me think of so many things. For one, the ark, which in Moses’ day was not even allowed to be looked on except once a year by the priest, but David had made the ark public property. God’s presence was now out of hiding and into personal houses like Obed Edom’s and David’s. When David brought the ark back, everyone danced in the city around it. It was no longer a fearful awesome mystery. It was now the people’s ark. God was showing them that he wanted to be seen and known by everyone. It is like what happened on Pentecost when God’s presence came down to dwell with man.
Back to the queen, Solomon built her a special house because her gods would not mix with God’s. Solomon was definitely beginning his backsliding years. Then he invited the queen of Sheba into his palace and showed her everything. This would come back to bite him also. Solomon seemed to have a weakness when it came to women…obviously!
The wealth of Solomon’s kingdom was beyond description. It was a little picture of what we are entering into in the kingdom age. God wants to bring heaven down to earth like Jesus prayed in his prayer…” may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.
The sadness of it all was that it was very short-lived. Solomon did not train his son to carry on his wisdom or the weight of his kingdom. When Solomon died, instead of following the wisdom of the men who had spent years with the wisest person on earth, Rehoboam chose to follow the advise of his own piers. They advised him to tell the people he would even be more demanding and harder than his father had been. This caused all of Israel, except Judah, to rebel against him. This was the division of the kingdom that David had united. The rest of Israel followed Jeroboam.
Roman’s continues to teach us about the power we have within us to overcome sin. If we are a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, then the same power that was in Jesus is in us. God is our father just as he is Jesus’s father so we will experience suffering just like Jesus did, but we will also experience resurrection power. All creation experiences life and death because of the fall and all creation will be liberated along with us.
Father, today, may we live in your resurrection power.

Mon.’s Devo - Dedicating the Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10; Romans 7:14-8:8; Psalm18:1-15; Proverbs 19:24-25
Solomon stood on a bronze platform he had made before the bronze altar, spread forth his hands and prayed. He knelt before God in the presence of all Israel and prayed. He gave glory to God for being the only God and there was none like him. God loved his people and had kept all his promised to them. He proclaimed that he knew this temple could not contain God but prayed that it would be a place of receiving mercy and forgiveness. He prayed that God would hear every prayer prayed from this place and save his people when they repented.
When Solomon finished his prayer, God responded with fire consuming the burnt offering and the sacrifices. The glory of the Lord filled the temple and the priests could not enter the temple because the glory was so thick. The people saw the fire and worshipped the Lord and offered so many sacrifices that it took the whole seven days of the festival to burn them. This was the Feast of Tabernacles and when it was over, Solomon sent the people home.
Solomon completed the temple and his own palace and God spoke to him and told him that if the nation fell into sin and was being punished by a plague or famine that all they had to do was to seek Him and pray for forgiveness and He would heal their land. He told Solomon to continue to walk before him as David had and he would never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.
In Romans. Paul describes the war against sin under the law. It was a war to do what was right because everything about the nature of man was to sin. But, we don’t live under the law, we live under grace which is the power of the spirit. Under the Spirit our minds have been renewed and we by nature want to do what the spirit wants. Living according to the spirit brings life and peace.
Lord, help us to live under grace and not be tempted to be deceived by religion.

Sun.’s Devo - Completing the Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11; Romans 7:1-13; Psalm 17:1-15; Provers 19:22-23
Everything in the temple was to represent heavenly perfection. The furniture in the tent of meeting represented God’s glory on earth, but the temple represented God’s glory in heaven. So everything was magnificent and larger than life. The bronze altar which had been 7 1/2’ x 7 1/2’was now 35’ x 35’. The first one was 4’ tall where the new one was 17’ tall. The sea,now big enough for the priests to bathe in, had been the basin in the tabernacle which had only been large enough to wash their hands and feet. It had to be small enough to carry through the wilderness, but in the temple it was 17 1/2 feet wide and supported on the backs of 12 bronze oxen. Ten smaller basins were made to go on either side of the temple.
The Temple was lit by 10 menorahs instead of the one. The altar of incense, table of shewbread and all the utensils were made by Hunam. All the doors were overplayed with gold. The Temple shone the glory of God. The ark was brought out of the tent and placed in the Holy of Holies and the angels were placed on top of the ark of the covenant. On that day it was a huge celebration. Every priest presided and praised and worshipped the Lord. All Israel came to Jerusalem for it was the Feast of Tabernacles. Solomon stood and told the people once again their history and God’s purpose for them being on the earth. They were to be an earthly picture of God’s kingdom in heaven so all the world could understand who God was and his ways.
In Romans, Paul explains that when we were born we were born under the law and it was like a marriage contract. We were bound to it till death. But if the law dies, then we are released from it just like a wife would be released from a marriage contract if her husband was to die. Once we put the law to death in our hearts and we are free to receive the grace of Jesus. The law was not bad, it was good in that it showed man that he needed grace. It was God’s perfect plan.
Lord, help us to embrace the freedom to walk in righteousness without guilt or bondage.

Sat.’s Devo -Building the Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17; Romans 6:1-23; Psalm 16:1-11; Proverbs 19:20-21
Solomon met with all his officials and leaders and with anyone else who wanted to come in Gibeon. That was where the tent of meeting from the days of Moses was. David had only brought up the ark to Jerusalem, but the rest of the tabernacle was still in Gibeon. Solomon offered one thousand burnt offerings on the bronze altar. That night, God responded. He came to Solomon and asked Solomon what he wanted because it would be granted. Solomon thanked the Lord for being so kind to his father, David, and asked for discernment and wisdom to govern this great multitude of people.
God was so pleased with his selfless desire that he told him he would do that and add to it riches, honor, and wealth.
Solomon went back to Jerusalem and began building the temple and his kingdom. Everything in the temple was covered with gold to show the glory of God. It was to be a picture of the garden of Eden where God and man dwelt together as friends. There were palm trees, cherubim’s and chain designs. Even the nails were made of gold. Solomon had commissioned cedars from Hiram, the king of Tyre and a craftsman to do all his design work. In exchange, Solomon gave them grain, wine, and oil.
The manual labor was done by all the foreign captives from the battles they had won. Some carried the water and others cut the stones.
Two gold cherubim were carved to sit on the mercy seat. Their wings spread from one wall to the other in the Holy of Holies which gives us a visual picture of being under God’s wings.
In Romans, Paul gives us a better picture of grace. It is not the license to sin and be forgiven, it is the power not to sin. We were once enslaved to sin, but now through the blood of Jesus we have been given the power not to sin. So why would we go back to that lifestyle whose only reward is death and pain. God’s grace is the power to live an abundant life in Christ whose reward is life and freedom.
Lord, help us to live in your abundant freedom to walk in righteousness, not under the power of sin.

Fri.’s Devo - Completing the Work

Read: 1 Chronicles 28:1-29:30; Romans 5:6-21; Psalm 15:1-5; Proverbs 19:18-19
David had six sons born in Hebron and then moved to Jerusalem and continued to have more. Amnon was his first born in Hebron, and Solomon was his fourth born in Jerusalem. David passed through 9 sons to name Solomon the king of Israel. By naming Solomon his successor, he was atoning for the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah.
David spent the last years of his life preparing Solomon to rule Israel and providing everything he would need to successfully build the temple for the Lord and rule Israel in peace.
Solomon was probably from 17-19 years old when he became the king of Israel. David had taught Solomon to serve the Lord with all his heart and mind because God doesn’t just search his thoughts but the motive behind his thoughts - his integrity. God can not be manipulated or tricked. He reminded Solomon to be strong and courageous and not get discouraged because God was going to be with him and not fail him or forsake him until the work was totally finished.
This reminds me of what God is doing in us. He is building a temple in us and he will complete it. We don’t need to be discouraged or worried because God will not leave us or forsake us till he has completed the work that we have been created to do. God will use all his resources, which are endless, to make sure we come to the end of our destiny.
In Romans, Paul explained that God sent his son to die for us in our sin. No one else would have done that for us because we didn’t deserve it. Sin produced a great chasm between us and God and it reigned until Moses. Moses brought the children of Israel out of bondage and introduced circumcism which was a blood sacrifice. He also was given the law that would point out what was sin to God and give man the choice to obey. Sacrifices were started with Moses that covered the sins of the people and started giving them hope to be righteous. But all of this was a picture of a future day when death and sin would be atoned for once and for all in Jesus. We are blessed to live in that day!
Lord, the Good News is truly good news for us. Thank you for salvation and grace.

Thurs.’s Devo - Children of Faith

Read: 1 Chronicles 26:12-27:34; Romans 4:13-5:5;Psalm 14:1-7; Proverbs 19:17
David chose by lot the gate keepers from the Levites for the temple. There were six men to stand at the eastern gate, four at the northern and southern gates and on the western gate: two were to stand at the court and four at the road.
Other Levites were to guard the treasury rooms which housed the spoils of war dedicated to the Lord and all the freewill offerings of the people. Samuel and Saul had both dedicated gifts stored in these rooms and Joab and Abner had dedicated spoils from the battles they had fought.
Next, the scribe listed the men who served in David’s army as officers. They served for a month at a time. They each had 24,,000 men in their division.
There were other officers who were in charge of the royal storehouses in the different cities and towns. They presided over the watchtowers, the farmers, the vine dressers, the kings flocks, cattle, camels, etc. David’s kingdom ran like a well-oiled machine. David surrounded himself with good godly counsel and his faithful friend, Hushai.
In Romans, Paul continued to explain the law and grace. Abraham was the father of faith because he believed that God could give him and Sarah a son, even though their bodies were as good as dead. God came through.
Abraham knew that God had promised that through Isaac, he would make him the father of many nations. When God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, he did not think God had changed his mind, but that God was going to bring Isaac back to life. Against all hope, Abraham believed over and over again. He is our father of faith and we are the children of faith.
When we lean on our faith, we have peace. Our suffering produces perseverance; our perseverance produces character and our character produces hope and hope will not disappoint us.
Lord, help us to call things that are not as though they were. May we live by faith.

Wed.’s Devo -By Faith

Read: 1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11; Romans 4:1-12; Psalm 13:1-6; Proverbs 19:15-16
Aaron had had four sons to be priests after him. Two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord and were struck down (Leviticus 10). They died sonless. Aaron’s sons Eleazar and Ithamar continued Aaron’s line and carried on the priesthood. Eleazar’s sons multiplied more than Ithamar’s so David divided the two families into divisions to serve in the temple when it would be built. He used the system of lots so no favoritism could be used - it would be the Lord’s choosing.
Shemaiah, the scribe wrote all the names down. One would be taken from Eleazar’s family and the next from Ithamar’s and this would determine the order they would minister. Twenty-four leaders were chosen so one of each family would minister for a month at a time. This was God’s system of checks and balances.
David also took the sons of Asaph, Human and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying. They would do this with harps, lyres and cymbals. Their descendants numbered 288 who sang, played instruments and prophesied with their mouths and their instruments. Several times it mentions that age or birth order was not used to determine their worth. God chose with his standard.
In Romans, we see how God chooses. He chose Abraham because he had faith and believed what he was told by God. We are chosen by the potential of our faith. We grow based on how much faith we have. Abraham was the father of the Jew and the Gentile. Our blood line to Abraham is faith.
Lord, thank your for circumstances in our lives that cause us to have faith so we can grow and increase in faith.

Tues.’s Devo - Preparing for the Temple

Read: 1 Chronicles 22:1-23:32; Romans 3:9-31; Psalm 12:1-8; Proverbs 19:13-14
Yesterday we read that the plague stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah. This was on Mt. Moriah which was also the mountain that Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him. David saw the destroying angel with his sword ready to strike Jerusalem but stopped right on this spot. David declared that this was the very place he was to build the temple. Araunah offered to give David the land and the animals he would need for sacrifices but David had learned one thing…do it God’s way. The law says that you can’t offer a sacrifice to God that doesn’t cost you something and David repeated this statement. David had had to refer back to the Law many times during his reign because God was not going to honor man’s way.
David assembled all the people they had taken from other lands and made them the workers for the temple. They made the stones and the nails and got everything ready for Solomon when it was time for him to build. David had saved up and donated 100,000 talents of gold which is about 3,750 tons of gold. He also gave a million talents of silver and so much bronze it couldn’t be weighed and wood and stone. Then he told Solomon that he could add to it if he wanted!
David ordered his leaders to help his son in building the temple. He counted the Levites and there were 38,000. Of them, 24,000 were to supervise the work of the temple; 6,000 where to be officials and judges; 4,000 were to be gatekeepers; and 4,000 were to be on the worship team.
The Levites were divided into their three families which would do the same jobs they had done in the tent tabernacle only now, in the temple.
So much work went into preparing a place for God’s presence. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so I wonder what we should be doing to prepare our hearts to carry the presence of the Lord? We could get rid of things that clog up our thoughts like worry, resentment, frustration, fear, comparison, insecurity, etc. God deserves a peaceful beautiful place to dwell.
In Romans, Paul pointed out that all men are the same in their struggle with sin and their redemption is the same. The purpose of the law was to make man conscious of their sin, but righteousness could not be attained by faith in Christ. Sacrifices covered sin for a year, but the blood of Jesus took sin away eternally.
Lord, thank you for the blessing of living under grace and not the law. Thank you that you are building your temple in our hearts that we might stand to be a light to the nations.

Mon.’s Devo - Counted

Read: 1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30; Romans 2:25-3:8; Psalm 11:1-7; Proverbs 19:10-12
When God wants to deal with a nation he will stir up the conflict. God wanted to deal with the Ammonites so he caused a misunderstanding between Israel and the Ammonites. Their king, Nahash had died and David wanted to pay his respects so he sent some men to comfort his son, Hanun. Hanun was persuaded that David’s men were just spying out their land to come back and take it so, they shaved David’s men and cut off their uniforms. This was very shameful for them.
The Ammonites knew that David would retaliate so they hired the Armenians who had chariots and were trained for war to help them against Israel. They surrounded Israel’s army so Joab split his army and fought from both sides. They sent the Ammonites and the Armenians fleeing. The Armenians returned and fought Israel again losing 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. When they lost their commander, they ended up making peace with David and becoming his subjects. They were never willing to help the Ammonites again.
Chapter 20 tells the story of when Joab fought the Ammonites but David stayed home. Chronicles doesn’t tell us that this was when David stayed home and was tempted by Bathsheba and fell into horrible sin against her and her household ( 2 Samuel 11:1).
Once David repented of his sin (2 Samuel 12), Joab was able to take Rabbah and took the crown from the king of Rabbah and brought it home and gave it to David who wore it. The Ammonites were captured and brought to Jerusalem to build the temple.
The Philistines fought with Israel and they had giants. Israel fought many of them and finally brought the Philistines under their control.
David once again forgot to read what the law said about taking a census and let Satan entice him to take count the people. The law says that when you take a census, you are to have the people pay for the souls of the ones counted or a plague will come on the people. David did not do that so a plague came on the people.
To count the people is a picture of judgement. When judgment comes we will be judged or counted and our fate is then sealed. To count them without requiring the price to be paid is to cause them to die with no hope. Jesus paid the price for us and bought us out of judgment.
It was not the fact that David counted them but the fact that he didn’t know to let them atone for their lives first.
The redemption is that the angel of the Lord stopped the plague on the very hill that Jesus would die on and redeem us from the curse once and for all.
In Romans, Paul had just pointed out the hypocrisy of the Jew and their sins. He proved how their lifestyle caused the Gentile to blaspheme their God. Their obedience to be circumcised did not do them any good if their lifestyle was full of sinful acts. Paul challenged them with this question: If the ones who were not circumcised actually lived righteously, wasn’t that better than being circumcised and living like hell? Righteousness had to do with the heart much more than it had to do with some outward ritual.
What Paul was saying to them was like asking us the question: does going to church make us righteous if we live like the world all week. It is not going to church that makes us holy. Holiness is the outward manifestation of the condition of our heart. If we love God then we will want to live for him 7 days a week.
Lord, help us desire you above everything the world has to offer. Let us walk in a way that we are always prepared to be counted.

Sun.’s Devo - Don’t Judge

Read: 1 Chronicles 16:37-18:17; Romans 2:1-24; Psalm 10:16-18; Proverbs 19:8-9
The ark, and all the priests and Levites that attended it were left in the city of David which was Jerusalem. After the celebration of bringing the ark back was over, all the people returned home including David. David had had his palace built but he realized that there was no home or house for the Lord. David was living in cedar and the Lord was living in a tent. David wanted to build a temple for the ark to dwell in, so he told his prophet Nathan his dream. Nathan told David to do whatever was in his heart but as Nathan was leaving his visit with David, God spoke to him and told him to go back and tell him what He said, not what Nathan thought was right. God said that he had never been contained to a house, but had moved with his people. He had never asked for a house. He reminded David of how he had chosen him from being a shepherd and exalted him to be the king of all Israel and Judah. As for David, God would build him a house and his offspring would build a house for the Lord. The one coming after David will be nothing like his predecessor, Saul. In Solomon, God would establish David’s throne forever.
David was overwhelmed at this revelation that Nathan brought him. He couldn’t believe that God would honor him and his offspring in such a way.
David went on to defeat all of his enemies and take spoils. He took all the gold, silver, bronze and precious gems and had his craftsmen use them in making all the furniture to go into God’s house.
In Romans, Paul gives us some great revelation. When we judge others, we are only doing ourselves harm. Our judgment will come back to judge us. I try to remember that every time I say something bad about someone, someone will say something bad about me. I think that this is one of the hardest things not to do. Paul reminds us that it is not our job to judge. Everyone will be judged in the end. Those who sought to do righteousness and lived in repentance will be raised to eternal life and those who were not repentant are just storing up wrath against their own selves.
Paul goes on to explain that we aren’t all brought up under the law of Moses as Jews, but we all have a conscience which becomes our law. When we defile either one of those, we have to repent. We can only be judged for things that haven’t been put under the blood of Jesus. So, our only hope is to stay repentant. When we find ourselves judging others, repent, and it won’t be held against us.
Lord, help us not to defile our conscience but to live in humility and forgiveness of ourselves and others.

Sat.’s Devo - Brining Back the Ark

Read: 1 Chronicles 15:1-16:36; Romans 1:18-32; Psalm 10:1-15; Proverbs 19:6-7
In the three months that the ark stayed at Obed-Edom’s house, David did his homework about how to move the ark. He came back prepared with Levites to carry it and all the priests in their places. He had gathered the people to celebrate, had all the divisions of the Levites, the music for worship and the animals for sacrifice. David came dressed and ready to praise and worship the presence of the Lord represented by the ark. He did it with much pomp and sincerity of heart. David had written a song for this occasion to teach the people so they could together praise the Lord.
In David’s song he reminded them to seek the Lord always and remember all he had done for them. God doesn’t forget and he is faithful to do everything he told Abraham he would do. He reminded them of how the Lord kept them safely when they entered the land of Canaan and how he wouldn’t allow any nation to touch them as long as they looked to him. God is the only God and He is worthy of praise. Then he invited all of God’s creation to praise the Lord with them.
The people sang the song and agreed with it.
In Romans, Paul talked about God’s creation also. He taught them that all man is inexcusable in their unbelief because creation itself proves and shows the Godhead.
Those who refused to see God or believe him were given over to delusion in every direction of their heart. God is the god of order and peace but to reject him is to rebel against nature and what man was created to be. Men turned to homosexuality, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice they became gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, and they invented ways of doing evil, they disobeyed their parents, were senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless and they deserve death so that they would not be able to continue doing the sins they were doing.
It doesn’t take much of an imagination to realize we are seeing this everywhere. We now have hate crimes because people have become haters instead of lovers. This is the exact opposite of God’s kingdom.
Lord, help us not to be tempted to join in the sins of those who turned from you. Help us to remember your promises and live in expectation of what you are going to do.

Fri.’s Devo - Establishing the Kingdom

Read: 1 Chronicles 12:19-14:17; Romans 1:1-17; Psalm 9:13-20; Proverbs 19:4-5
Once Saul was out of the way, soldiers from the different tribes started defecting and joining David’s army until his army was like the army of God. I don’t know what that means but I would guess that it means that it was powerful and had all its positions filled. Over 318,000 men arrived at Hebron armed and ready to fight to make David the king over all of Israel. (He was already the king of Judah.)
David’s first move as king was to bring back the ark of the Lord since Saul had not consulted it once during his reign. The people thought that would be a great idea too, but no one knew the law well enough to know that the ark had to be carried by poles on the shoulders of the priests. David ignorantly purchased a new cart and put the ark on it. When the cart almost stumbled, Uza put forth his hand and steadied the ark and lost his life for it. That put the fear of God on everyone so David stopped the whole process and let the ark stay right there until he could find out what went wrong. It was near Obed-Edom’s house, so David asked if he would house the ark for a while. God blessed Obed-Edom’s house because of the ark.
Everything else in David’s life was blessed. Hiram sent him cedar from Lebanon to build a house for himself. God established David’s kingdom and blessed him with 13 sons.
The Philistines found out that David had became the king of Israel and planned an attack. David sought the guidance of the Lord and He told him to attack because He would hand them over to him. The Philistines fled leaving their gods for David to burn.
The next time the Philistines attacked, David asked the Lord what to do and He told him to circle around to the back of their army and attack from behind. God caused the locusts in the mulberry trees, before the Philistines, to sound like an army. It was the sound of God’s army. They turned to run and ran right into David’s army. All the nations feared David because the Lord was on his side.
Today we start writing Paul’s book to the church at Rome. Many of Rome’s new converts had been Gentiles who had attended the synagogue and knew about the law somewhat. There was a huge conflict over who the Jews were and what their role in the new covenant looked like. The Gentiles questioned whether the Jews were the chosen race anymore and the Jews questioned whether the Gentile should be grafted in. Paul wanted to set them all straight so he wrote Romans.
Paul started out by saying how glad he is to finally make it there since he had tried for a while to get there. He was grateful for all his fellow Jews and Gentiles that helped him along the way. His goal was to bring unity among the church and unite the Gentile and the Jew as one body. The first point he made was that the only thing that makes a person righteous is his faith in Jesus.
Lord, help us to desire to live as one body even when we disagree over doctrine. Help us to carry your presence correctly and be scriptural and wise.

Thurs.’s Devo - Taking Jerusalem

Read: 1 Chonicles 11:1-12:18; Acts 28:1-31; Psalm 9:1-12; Proverbs 19:1-3
With Saul dead, Israel needed a new king and no one was as worthy as David. The people knew that Samuel had anointed him king and it was just a matter of time before it happened since none of Samuels’ words fell to the ground. All Israel met at Hebron where they had proclaimed David king.
Hebron was the place they met because Hebron was the first land that Abraham bought in the promised land. He bought it to bury his wife, Sarah. It became a city of refuge and the place where David would live before he finally moved to Jerusalem.
Then they marched to Jebus and to take it from the Jebusites. David promised the man who led the attack to be his commander-in-chief. Joab went first, so he became David’s commander-in-chief. Along with a list of mighty men, they took the city of Jebus and renamed it Jerusalem.
Three of David’s men were known as his Three mighty men. Their exploits were given and then a list of his other mighty men. Interestingly, they had followed David when he ran from Saul and fought with the Philistines. They were also with him when his family was taken and all their possessions at Ziklag. The Lord helped them recover everything they had lost, but the most interesting thing about them is that they were kinsmen of Saul and from the tribe of Benjamin. Some soldiers from Gad also defected to follow David during this time.
In Acts, Paul’s ship had been completely destroyed during the storm and they had swum ashore of the island they were to learn was named Malta. Malta means “escaping”. It was definitely an escape for them.
The people of the island welcomed them and made a fire for them because it was cold and raining. As Paul gathered wood for the fire, a viper struck Paul on the arm and held on. Paul shook him off in the fire, and the island people watched in fear of his impending death. But Paul showed no signs of effect of the snake which made them now wonder if Paul wasn’t a god.
The chief of the island, Publius had them stay at his house for three days, but he was sick of a fever. Paul laid his hands on him and prayed for him and he was healed. Many others with sicknesses came to Paul and received healing. They left with honors and everything they would need to finish their journey, thanks to Paul, thanks to God.
When they finally did reach Rome, all the prisoners were put in jail, but Paul. He was given a house and a soldier to keep him safe. The only thing that kept him from being set free was his appeal to Caesar. While he was awaiting his audience with Caesar, the Romans and Jews asked him to tell them about his religious views. He preached from morning till evening, telling them the truth of Jesus and his own testimony. Some believed and some didn’t which was just what Isaiah had prophesied. Some hearts would be closed and some open. It made Paul more and more determined to get his message to the Gentiles.
Lord, I thank you for giving us hearts to receive you and not be hardened. Send us to the people you want to hear the good news and let us not worry about the outcome because that is your business. It is your truth that needs to be told.

Wed.’s Devo - A Time to Return

Read: 1 Chronicles 9:1-10; 14; Acts 27:21-44; Psalm 8:1-9; Proverbs 18:23-24
We just finished the geneologies before they went into exile and now we are getting the first count of the ones who returned after the exile. Nothing is given of the time in exile which is because Israel’s time clock stops when they are out of the land and begins again when they are back in the land.
The first to resettle were mainly priests, Levites and temple servants along with a few people from Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh who were listed in today’s reading. It totaled around 3,618 people. The temple leaders were men who walked with God and had ministered under the days of David and Samuel. They set back up the tabernacle and started the ministry of worship and teaching once again.
This is the way it is in our lives. When we get away from the Lord and go our own way, sometimes it takes a while before we get back on the right track. I’m sure in Babylon and Assyria they were inundated with idol worship until they were sick of it. They returned to their roots and established their relationship with the Lord first. It is the foundation of all rebuilding.
In Chapter 10, Ezra takes us back to the time when Saul and his sons died in the battle. Saul died in disobedience and his kingdom was given to David.
In Acts, Paul and his fellow prisoners and sailors were in a terrific storm. The sailers had battled the storm without food or sleep for days. One night Paul had a dream where an angel came to him and told him not to be afraid of the storm because he was to testify in Rome and God would save every man on the ship. The next day Paul told the men in the ship and they were encouraged. Paul told them that the ship would be destroyed but if they remained on it till the end they would all live.
The sailors were tempted to escape on life boats, but Paul told them they would die if they did and they believed him. Paul was able to have communion with the people on the boat and encourage them to eat because the next day, they would be on solid ground. It all happened as Paul had been shown by God. Paul’s favor saved the lives of the other prisoners.
Thank you Lord, for all the times you preserve us and protect us and we don’t even realize it. You are our defender and our strong tower!

Tues.’s Devo - Healing Waters

Read: 1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40; Acts 27:1-20; Psalm 7:1-17; Proverbs 18:22
Today we finish the geneologies of Issachar, Naphtali, Ephraim, Asher and Benjamin. In almost every tribe there was a significant person who made Biblical history. In Issachar it was Samuel. Issachar means “he will bring a reward” and is noted mainly for their soldiers who would bring a reward from the battle.
Naphtali which means “my wrestling” is the only tribe that only has four descendents and it made sure we knew that these were the descendants of Bilhah which was Rachel’s maid. Bilhah’s other son was Dan and he isn’t even mentioned in this list. Bilhah was the concubine that Reuben slept with that lost him his inheritance. It makes me wonder about Bilhah. Bilhah means weak and decrepit. Delilah means the same thing. I think they had the power to put their weakness on people they were associated and make them weak. Rachel died because she was not strong enough to live through child birth and Bilhah was her servant.
Joshua, the leader who followed Moses was from the tribe of Ephraim. Remember that Ephraim and Manasseh were not born of Jacob but of Joseph. Through his sons, Joseph became two tribes. Joseph means double fruit and his double fruit came through his sons. Joseph was Israel’s favorite son and his next favorite was Benjamin because they were Rachel’s offspring.
Asher was listed next. He was a son of Leah’s concubine, Zilpah. Asher’s line produced brave warriors and outstanding leaders.
Benjamin had a huge line of descendants and is a picture of the Ecclessia, the Church. In verse 8 it says that sons were born to Shaharaim in Moab after he had divorced his wives Hushim and Baara. Shaharaim means “double dawn” which looks like being born again to me. If you think of Benjamin’s line as a type of the the Church then to be reborn you would have to divorce your old wife (Romans 7). His wives had been Hushim and Baara which mean “violence” and “stupid, sensual, and having no conscious”. That sounds like us before we were born again. We have to divorce that to marry Jesus. His new wife was Hodesh which means “new moon” which is a picture of being reborn. In the meaning of Hodesh’s six sons we see the plan of God. Their names translate to say that tears will be shed but God will lead his people like a gazelle to his waters that will cause them to forget their devastation. They will take counsel in their King and he will take captive their rebellion. That sounds like deliverance!
Just a note to meditate on… I’ve heard it said that there are no tears in heaven but that is not what scripture says. It says that God will wipe away all tears so tears will be shed but then like the names of the sons, God will lead us to his healing waters and wash away the memory of every pain.
In Acts, Paul is on his way to Rome and has been put under the care of Julius. He must have been told that Paul was innocent because he gave him privileges he wouldn’t have been able to give a criminal. It is noted that sailing became dangerous after the Fast. The Fast is pertaining to Yom Kippor or the Day of Atonement where the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies to receive forgiveness for the nation and pray for atonement for the next year. Obviously, there was no atonement found since the nation had not received the only one who could atone for their sins, so the land and the seas were responding to this rejection. They faced storm after storm…sounds like our nation right now.
Lord, thank you for every trial we have to go through that makes us more refined and free.

Mon.’s Devo - The Levites

Read: 1 Chronicles 5:18-6:81; Acts 26:1-32; Psalm 6:1-10; Proverbs 18:20-21
The tribes of Rueben, Gad and half of Manasseh were the ones who wanted the land on the east of the Jordan and didn’t go into the promised land for their inheritance. They started out trusting in God to help them defeat the inhabitants of their land. God helped them become very prosperous but then their fame and achievements went to their heads and they started following the gods of the people they had conquered. So God sent the king of Assyria against them to take them into exile to Assyria.
The tribe of Levi were chosen to attend to the temple, minister to the Lord for the people and teach the people the law. They were scattered all throughout the land and given land in every tribe. Every tribe was to have several cities of refuge which were run by the Levites. They were not given a specific territory because they were gifts to the people. They were like the five-fold ministry of today (prophets, pastors, evangelists, prophets and teachers). Aaron and Moses were Levites.
The Levites were divided into three main divisions: the family of Merari, Gershon and Kohath which were Aaron’s three sons. They presented burnt offerings on the brazen altar and burned incense at the incense altar. They were in charge of atoning the sin of the people and the duty of carrying incense into the Holy of Holies every Day of Atonement. The other Levites were given other duties in the tabernacle.
In Acts, Paul was testifying for himself in front of Festus and Agrippa. He gave them his testimony and when he was through Festus thought he was insane. In his story he told of his commission to go to first his own people but when they wouldn’t believe he was to go to the Gentiles. I think that this was the part that made Festus think he was insane. To think that the Jews and the Gentiles could agree on religious terms was like us thinking there can be peace in Jerusalem between the Jews and the Arabs. It could only happen with an intervention of the Spirit of God.
What Festus and Agrippa did agree on was the fact that Paul was not guilty of anything worthy of imprisonment or death. They would have set him free had he not appealed to Caesar. If they had set Paul free at this point, the Jews would have killed him. His appeal to Caesar was God’s way of keeping Paul safely guarded so he could get to the center of the Gentile world and testify in His name.
Lord, your way does not always appear to us to be the safest or wisest way but you know better and your way is the safest and wisest way. Help us to blindly trust you.

Sun.’s Devo - Enlarge our Influence on the Earth

Read: 1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17; Acts 25:1-27; Psalm 5:1-12; Proverbs 18:19
I have to admit that I can get lost in the genealogies trying to figure out where everyone came from, especially Judah’s five sons who in chapter 2:3 were Er, Onan, Shelah, Pharez and Zerah. But in chapter 4:1 they are named Pharez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. I know that God killed Er and Onan because they were so wicked but what happened to Shelah and were they replaced by these other names? Who knows!
Then we have Jabez of whom a whole book was written called the Prayer of Jabez. God singled this man and his prayer out for a reason. His prayer was that God would bless him and enlarge his territory or his scope of influence in the earth and that His presence would be with him and keep him from sin. It is a great prayer and God thought so too because he answered it.
Judah’s family multiplied more than the other tribes so they received the largest territory. Judah’s family became the kingly tribe and their descendants attended to the throne.
Simeon’s family had to take the land of the Edomites and the Amalekites which they did as long as they trusted in the Lord.
Rueben lost his firstborn birthright because he went in to his father’s concubines and laid with them defiling his father’s bed. His birthright was given to Joseph who was Rachel’s first born. When Jacob (Israel) was on his death bed, he blessed Joseph’s sons to stand in both Joseph and Rueben’s place as a tribe of Israel. So Ephraim and Manasseh took the place of Rueben and Joseph. We are still given Rueben’s line up until the days when Jotham was king of Judah and Jeroboam was the king of Israel.
In Acts, Festus went to Jerusalem where the high priest and leaders of the Jews met with him and begged him to send Paul back to them. They planned to kill him on the way, but Festus refused and told them that they had to come to Caesarea for the trial.
Many did come and gave their slander against Paul. Festus asked Paul to give his defense and he said that he hadn’t sinned against the Jewish law, against the temple or against Caesar but he would not go back to Jerusalem. Paul did the only thing that would assure his being kept alive; he appealed to Caesar.
King Agrippa and Bernice came to visit Festus while Paul was being held there awaiting his trip to Rome. Festus told them about Paul and his dilemma. Paul had appealed to Caesar and he had to send a statement of why he was sending him when he didn’t understand himself. He could find nothing that Paul had done worthy of arrest much less death. Agrippa asked to meet Paul so he could help with writing his papers to Caesar.
This reminds me of what the Jews did with Jesus. They manipulated the Romans to kill him and now they wanted to do the same with Paul. The Romans were getting tired of being their pawns.
Lord, we pray that you would enlarge your name upon the earth through your Church. May we be blessed to bless the earth and may we not sin against you.

Sat.’s Devo- God’s Providence

Read: 1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4; Acts 24:1-27; Psalm 4:1-8; Proverbs 18:16-18
Today we are still reading about Judah’s line. We start with Caleb’s line who was Judah’s grandson. This is not the Caleb who brought back a good report of the land of Canaan. As we read his genealogy we see how out of one man, Judah came cities and multitudes of families.
Chapter three begins David’s lineage of kings. David had six sons in Hebron where he reigned seven and a half years. He reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years and had 13 more. Amnon was David’s firstborn and the one who everyone thought would be the next king. But he was born in Hebron which was a picture of the old covenant. When David moved to Jerusalem after six years it was a picture of the Church moving from earthly mode to heavenly mode. It happened 6,000 years after the earth was created. We are now living in “Jerusalem mode”. That means that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places while we walk on the earth. David’s forth son born in Jerusalem would be Solomon. He would be his successor. He had to be born in Jerusalem, the city of God. The number four stands for “heavenly rule”. On the forth day, God made the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night.
In Acts, Paul is safely living in Herod’s house awaiting his accusers. I can’t imagine how mad they were to find that he had safely made it to Rome and they had to travel five days to bring their charge. They were fueled by pure hatred.
When they gave their charge they said that Paul had come preaching a doctrine that they didn’t agree with and caused dissection among themselves… like the Romans cared!
When Paul gave his defense he said that all he did was to come to Jerusalem to pay his tithes and he didn’t cause any kind of disturbance or evil. He plead innocent. Then he explained that the real issue of their hatred was the issue of the resurrection of the dead which he believed in.
Felix had heard about Christians and wanted to wait until Lysias, the one who had brought Paul to Caesarea came back from where he had gone. Felix wanted to hear what he had to say about the matter since he saw it first hand. So, Paul was sent back to his safe quarters with visiting privileges. Paul was a Roman citizen so he had a huge advantage over his accusers. They should have thought about that!
Lord, it is so easy to see how you orchestrated Paul’s life and the lives of the patriarchs. Help us to see that you are orchestrating our lives in the same purposeful way. Your plan is the goal and it will prevail all the schemes of the enemy.

Fri.’s Devo - God’s Plan Trumps Man’s Plan

Read: 1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17; Acts 23:11-35; Psalm 3:1-8; Proverbs 18:14-15
First and Second Chronicles were probably written by Ezra, and the Kings were probably written by Samuel. Ezra sets David and Solomon up as a type of Moses and Joshua and looks forward to the kingdom of the Messiah. He follows the family line of David starting with Adam. Although the first 10 names in the genealogy had many sons and daughters, the first born are the only ones mentioned until it came to Noah’s children: Shem, Ham and Japheth. It is probably because through them all the nations would originate since everyone else died in the flood. Somehow they found wives and had children just like somehow Seth and Cain found a wife and had children. Japheth’s sons brought us Magog where the last battle will be fought and Ham’s sons brought us Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites and the Philistines which were all enemies of Shem’s line. Both Ham and Japheth had sons named Canaan which became the name of the land God would sent Shem’s descendent, Moses to take over many years later. Shem was Noah’s first born and from him would come Abraham and eventually the tribes of Israel and many years later, the Messiah. In verse 34, it calls the sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel instead of Esau and Jacob. Esau’s sons became the Edomites and the Amelekites which would also be enemies of Israel’s people.
Another interesting fact was that Judah’s first two sons were so wicked that God killed them. The third was not very mentionable, but Tamar’s sons Perez and Zerah were. They were birthed through trickery and lies. Judah’s line was the one that God would choose to redeem by sending his son through.
In Acts, God told Paul that he was sending him to Rome to give his testimony. Forty men made a vow not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul and told the chief priests and the elders of their vow. They involved them in a plot, but God had another plan for Paul. The Romans saved Paul and sent him that night to Rome protected by 470 armed soldiers. When they arrived at Caesarea, Paul was kept safe in Herod’s palace. I wonder if those men kept their vow and starved to death…I doubt it.
Lord, you are our deliverer and you have a plan that surpasses anything man can imagine.

Thurs.’s Devo- God is Faithful to his Word

Read: 2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13
I want to give us a quick recap: when Hezakiah was on his 15 year extension plan, he had pridefully showed the officers of Babylon every treasure in his kingdom. God promised that because he did this, the Babylonians would come back one day and take it all. All of his sons would be made eunuchs in the Babylonian court. His son, Manasseh had been one of Judah’s most wicked kings and enticed Judah to commit idolatry. God promised to wipe Jerusalem and turn it upside down. But, then Judah was given a most righteous king: Josiah who did away with all the idolatry in the land and brought the people back to the Lord. Josiah was killed by the king of Egypt in Megiddo. Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz reigned but he did not follow the Lord. Jehoahaz only reigned three months, when the king of Egypt took Jehoahaz to Egypt he was put in prison where he died. Next, the king of Babylon made Jehoiakim rule over Judah and be subject to him. He did evil in God’s perspective. After three years, Jehoakim rebelled against the king of Babylon, so God sent the Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Moabites and the Ammonites against Judah to destroy it. The words of the prophets were becoming true.
Jehoiakim died and his son, Jehoiachin ruled. After ruling for 3 months, the king of Babylon came to besiege Jerusalem. After 8 years of the siege, Jehoiachin and his family and his officers surrendered to Nebechadnezzar. They were carried to Babylon along with anything and anyone worth taking. Jehoaichin was enprisoned for 37 years. The rest of the people remained under the rule of a man named Mattaniah which the Babylonians changed to Zedikiah. Zedikiah was evil and rebelled against the king of Babylon. Nebechadnezzar came back and besieged Jerusalem again for 2 years. When they ran out of food, Zedikiah and his men tried to escape. They were captured and Zedikiah was made to watch his sons all murdered then his eyes were taken out. His last memories would be the death of his own sons that he was responsible for letting die. The Babylonians then returned to Jerusalem and burned it down. They left the poor to work in the fields and Gedaliah was made their rulers. The Chaldeans came and killed Gedaliah and the rest of the people were taken to Egypt.
For some reason, after 37 years, Jehoaichin found favor and was released from prison in Babylon and made to rule with the king, Evil-merodach.
In Acts, Paul was warned in a trance to get out of Jerusalem because they would not be able to receive his testimony. He was arrested and bound with the strap of a whip. When Paul questioned the guard about scoring a Roman citizen the guard was afraid. He asked Paul how much he had paid for his citizenship and Paul said, nothing, he was born a citizen. This frightened the citizen-bought guard and he made sure Paul was treated well.
The next day, Paul was brought before the chief priests and all their council. Paul perceived that there were both Sadducees and Pharisees so he brought up the fact that he was arrested over his stance about resurrection. The Sadducees were violently opposed to the doctrine of resurrection and of angels. The Pharisees believed in both so it caused a great dissension and they had to rescue Paul and brought him into the castle.
Lord, help us to see the rewards of following you and shun any idyllic worship we may unknowingly participate in. We pray to be trees of righteousness planted by the rivers of your stream.

Wed.’s Devo - Share Your Story

Read: 2 Kings 22:3-23:30; Acts 21:37-22:16; Psalm 1:1-6; Provers 18:11-12
Two hundred years before in 1 Kings 13:2, an unnamed prophet had prophesied that a king named Josiah from the house of David would offer the bones of the false priests on the Lord’s altar and today was that fulfilled. Josiah became king at the age of 6 and was given a copy of the law. He read it and cleaned house and got all the idol worship out of the temple and burned them in the Kidron Valley. He had all the people meet and listen to the words of the law and agree to follow them. He brought revival like no other king had done. He followed the worship of David in all that David had done and reinstituted the Passover.
They were going through the sepulchers of the false prophets, burning their bones when they came upon one that was very decorated and Josiah asked whose it was. He was told that it was the prophet who had prophesied about him so he told them not to burn his bones.
In Acts, there was so much confusion that the officer who arrested Paul thought he was an Egyptian. When he found out he was a Jew from Tarsus he allowed him to speak to the people. When he began in Hebrew, they stopped yelling to listen. He told them his story how he had been tutored by the famous Gamaliel as a child. Through Gamaliel he had learned the law of Moses and the scriptures. When Jesus’ followers started telling others about Jesus, who they said had risen from the dead and was the Messiah, he was the first to start persecuting them and killing them. Then one day on his way to kill more of them, a great light came down from heaven which blinded him. He was taken to a man’s house by the name of Ananias who was also a great believer in the law. Ananias prayed that he would receive my sight and he instantly was able to see again. He did this in the name of Jesus and told me to repent and be baptized.
There is nothing more powerful than a person’s story of redemption. Paul had a powerful one and so do we. It may not be that demonstrative but it is exactly what it is suppose to be for the people we will meet. God tailors our lives to fit in the place where he puts us in, so we just need to share it.
Lord, help us to be bold in sharing our story with those we meet. It is your story in us.

Tues.’s Devo - God’s Way is Always Best

Read: 2 Kings 20:1-22:2; Acts 21:17-36; Psalm 150:1-6; Proverbs 18:9-10
The story of the end of Hezekiah’s days shows us that we can bend God’s heart to change his mind but his plans are always best and it would go better for us if we kept them the way he wanted. Hezekiah was about to die of an infection when Isaiah came to tell him to get his house in order before he died. Hezekiah appealed to the Lord and begged him to change his mind, reminding him all he had done for the Lord.
The Lord did change his mind and sent Isaiah back to him to tell him he could have 15 more years. He must not have liked any of his sons enough to take his place because in the fifteen years he had left, he found a woman and had a son by her and when he died the son was 12. That son was one of the wickedest kings Israel had had. His wickedness surpassed the idol worship of the heathen nations and undid everything his father had done towards righteousness just like Isaiah had predicted. God saw the sin and said that he would bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that it would astound the heathen. He would forsake his remnant and give them over to their enemies.
Manasseh shed innocent blood which is just what American is doing as long as there is abortion. Don’t thing for a moment, that what they do in New York is not affecting the rest of our nation. It is. There were many people in Jerusalem and Judah that still worshipped the Lord during this time but what the head does is how the nation is judged. We need to keep our leaders in prayer that they would fear God and do the right thing.
Amon, Manasseh’s son became king at the age of 12, the same age Manasseh had been when he became king. He only ruled for 2 years until he was murdered by his servants. I guess they didn’t want another reign like his father’s. They made Josiah who was 8 to be the king. I’m guessing he was Manasseh’s son also. Josiah was a good king who feared the Lord.
In Acts, we see that their was so much misunderstanding in shifting from the law to grace. Every time there is something new God wants to do, there is tension, transition and misunderstanding in those who want to hold on to the old and those who want to embrace the new. In Paul’s day it became physically violent. Paul was the pioneer to bring in the new and fight for truth.
Lord, help us to embrace the new thing that you are doing in the earth. We are in a major shift in the spirit and we don’t want to be on the opposing side but the side that is flowing right into the new.

Mon.’s Devo - Trials

Read: 2 Kings 18:13-19:37; Acts 21:1-16; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 18:8
Today we read that the same Assyrian army came up against Judah that had come up against Israel. They had completely conquered Samaria and taken over their land and displaced their people. That was their plan for Jerusalem also. The difference was the king of Judah trusted in the Lord and the king of Israel trusted in idols.
The enemy came in with threats and intimidation. They reminded Judah that no other nation had been able to fight the Assyrians and win. They were taking over the world.
Hezekiah had told his people not to engage in conversation with the Assyrians and he sought Isaiah for advise. The king himself had clothed him and his kingdom in sackcloth and prayer. Isaiah told him not to worry because God would defend his own name. They had defied Him saying that their gods had been stronger than any of Israel’s gods, but they had not met the God of Judah.
Hezekiah took all their threats and laid them before the Lord and he took care of it. God came down with his army and killed 165,000 of their soldiers during the night. The king went home with his tail between his legs and was killed by his own men just as Isaiah had said would happen.
This story is so relative today. When we come against a trial that is huge…like cancer, adultery, divorce or death we can either look at how it affected others and think that is our fate or we can trust in the Lord and let him fight our battle for us. The condition of our heart determines our outcome. It doesn’t always mean that our outcome is the one we want, but we can be assured that it will be the one the Lord wants. His ways and thoughts are much higher.
In Acts, Paul was on his mission to Jerusalem but still visiting his churches on the way. Many of the people with prophetic gifts perceived the persecution awaiting Paul when he got to Jerusalem and tried to dissuade him, but Paul could not be deterred. He was not afraid of being bound, beaten or put in prison for the sake of the gospel of Christ.
Paul was such an example of what the true Christian is suppose to be. We are not suppose to be afraid of trials. They will come. This life is not where we end up. It is our school to prepare us for heaven where all trials will be gone and our reward is waiting.
Lord, help us to fight the good fight and finish our course trusting in you.