Mon.’s Devo - David Establishes His Kingdom

Read: 1 Chronicles 16;37-18:17; Romans 2:1-24; Psalm 10:16-18 David assigned 68 Levites to be in charge of guarding the Ark. Obed-edom was one of them because he had done such a good job of housing the Ark. David also assigned priests to guard the tabernacle in Gibeon where the altar was. Heman was over the music. Then, the people returned home with the gifts David had given them of bread, raisins and dates. *** When David got home he looked around at his nice palace and felt convicted that he had this nice house when God’s house was a tent. He told Nathan that he wanted to build a Temple for the Lord. Nathan told him to do it, but then the Lord visited him and told him otherwise. *** The Lord told David that he appointed him to be king and was going to build a house for David. He and his descendants would rule Israel forever and his name would be famous. It would not be David who would build His house, but his son. *** David was not upset with what the Lord said, but humbled and extremely grateful. He submitted to God’s will. *** David subdued all his enemies: the Philistines, the Arameans, and the Edomites. Those he didn’t kill, served him. Other nations gave him gifts and honor. *** The people of Israel loved David because he brought justice and treated them right. He raised his sons to be his assistants. *** In Romans, Paul chastised the church because they were doing the very things they told others not to do. They were not purifying them selves and conforming to the image of Christ. They would be judged for their wickedness. But, for those who did good - they would be rewarded. He explained to them that if they were going to be teachers they needed to be doing what they taught. A good word for us. The way we live our lives may be someone’s only knowledge of God. *** Lord, may our lives glorify you and please you. May our nation be an example to other nations of what the kingdom of God looks like.

Sun.’s Devo - Return to God

Read: 1 Chronicles 15:1-16:36; Romans 1;18-32; Psalm 10;1-15; Proverbs 19;6-7 In David’s building projects he included a tent to house the Ark. Once it was built he had the priests and Levites consecrate themselves to bring up the Ark. Only they could participate in bringing the Ark to Jerusalem. All Israel was invited to the celebration. There was much singing and music and dancing. David dressed as a priest and led the way in praising the Lord. *** David’s wife, Michal, saw David dancing from her window and despised him for making a fool of himself in front of the people. She was Saul’s daughter. She stood for Saul’s lineage who tried to control the people to worship him instead of leading the people to worship God. Sometimes our greatest critics come from our own household. But, fortunately, we will read later that she was not able to have children because of this, so her control was stopped and not allowed to bear fruit in David’s posterity. *** David had written a song and gave it to the priests to deliver to the people. It praised God and gave him thanks for all he had done for them. In it, he invited all the nations to join them in worshipping the Lord. *** In Romans, Paul explained how people can know God just by observing nature. They can understand the godhead by meditating on what God has made. Since men chose not to worship or thank God for who he was, they made up in their imagination what they thought God was like. They made idols of things God made and worshipped them instead. God turned them over to their perverted minds and let them suffer in their bodies for their perversions. The list of all their offenses is given in verses 28-32. All of this was because they had traded truth for lies. *** Lord, thank you that our nation is turning back to God and that we have a President who honors and fears You. May your kingdom come to earth like it is in heaven.

Sat.’s Devo. - Making David King

Read: 1 Chronicles 12: 19-14:17; Romans 1:1-17; Psalm 9;13-20; Proverbs 19;4-5 Many from Saul’s army defected to fight with David. We are given a list of how many from each tribe. Even 3,000 defected from among Saul’s relatives. It was recorded that this army was like the army of God. *** When Israel learned Saul had died fighting the Philistines, over 350,000 warriors met at Hebron to make David their king. Their wives and relatives brought food to celebrate for three days. David asked them if they wanted to invite all Israel to their celebration and have the priests and Levites bring the Ark of God back to the center of their lives in Jerusalem. They all agreed since it had been neglected during Saul’s reign. With great pomp and circumstance they put the Ark on a new cart and rode it from Kiriath-jearim towards Jerusalem. The oxen stumbled along the way and Huzzah stuck out his hand to steady it. God’s anger struck him down and he died. This put a great halt to the ceremony and the Ark was put in care of Obed-Edom where it stayed for three months. A blessing fell on his house because of the Ark. *** David then concentrated on building his palace with the help of King Hiram from Tyre. He had 13 more sons from different wives. *** David fought the Philistines one more time and God gave him the strategy to defend them. All nations feared David and his fame spread far and wide. *** In the New Testament we begin Paul’s letter to the church in Rome before he lived there. He commended them on their faith that had been talked about all over the world. Paul wanted them to know that he always had them in his prayers. Paul was eager to come bring them encouragement and a gift. It took some time, but Paul did get to Rome eventually. The church at Rome was full of mostly Gentiles so Paul went to great lengths to teach them the fundamental tenets of their faith. *** Lord, thank you for faithful men who wrote down their sermons so we can benefit from their wisdom. May we be living epistles for others to see. may we reflect your glory.

Fri.’s Devo - God’s Favor

Read:1 Chronicles 11:1-12-12:18; Acts 28:1-31; Psalm9:1-12; Proverbs 19:1-3 All the people of Israel met at Hebron and declared David their king. David made a covenant before the Lord with the elders. He was anointed king just like Samuel had prophesied. David led his men to take Jebus which became Jerusalem. They captured the fortress of Zion and named it the City of David. ***At Zion, Joab became his army commander because he led the attack. Joab was David’s nephew. *** David extended his territory and became very powerful because God was with him. ***David had three mightiest warriors. Two of them were mentioned by name and their exploits were described. The other one is not named. The leader of his thirty was also a nephew of David’s. Benaiah became captain of his body guard. *** I hope you read each name of the thirty. Uriah the Hittite was one of David’s mighty men who he had killed so he could have his wife. After David repented, God redeemed the situation causing Bathsheba’s next son, Solomon, to sit on David’s throne. God can redeem all of our mistakes no matter how large they are. *** Many of Saul’s relatives defected to David’s army when he was fighting Saul. Also, many of Gad’s famous warriors defected to David’s army. They became officers. *** In Acts, Paul’s ship had broken apart and it was each man for himself in getting to shore. The island they landed on was Malta. The people were friendly and built a fire to welcome them. As Paul and the men were gathering sticks, a snake bit Paul. The islanders saw it and superstitiously thought it meant he was a criminal, but when he shook it off and nothing happened to Paul they thought he was a god. *** The island chief, Pubius, took them into his home where they stayed three days. Pubius’ father was very sick. Paul prayed for him and God healed him. Others who were sick came to have Paul pray for them and they were healed. When they finally left, they left with everything they needed for their trip. What a blessing Paul was to that island and to his own men. *** All the way to Rome, Paul was honored and taken care of. When he reached Rome he was welcomed by all the believers there, too. Paul’s favor continued in Rome. He was given his own private lodging with only one soldier to watch him. He was able to meet with fellow believers safely. He told them his story. They were eager to hear his teachings because they had not heard them. A meeting was set up and many came to hear about the Kingdom of God. He went through the scriptures and the prophecies explaining how Jesus fulfilled them. Some of them could see it and others were spiritually blind. Paul told them that this salvation was being offered to the Gentiles and they would accept it. *** Paul was able to preach unhindered for two years. He was even allowed to support himself with working. *** Lord, thank you for your favor on our lives. Thank you for giving your salvation to all who call on your name. You are our strong tower.

Thurs.’s Devo - God is Faithful

Read: 1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14; Acts 27:21-44; Psalms 8:1-9; Proverbs 18:23-24 The Chronicles skipped to the return after the exile. The scribes chronicled all the people who first returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple during Cyrus’ reign in Persia. The return was voluntary. The priests, Levites, Temple servants, and other Israelites opted to be of the first who returned. They had been gone 70 years and many had been born in captivity. Most were from the tribe of Benjamin and Levi who had been musicians and gatekeepers and priests. *** Chapter 10 skips to the day King Saul was killed in battle and David became king. The writers of the chronicles were the priests so they made it clear that the reason they went into exile was because they rebelled against the Lord. Also, the reason Saul died was because he was unfaithful to the Lord. *** In Acts, Saul’s right standing with God saved him and all the men on his ship. An angel had assured him of this. Right before they reached land, Paul had all the sailors eat a meal together and give thanks to God. *** They finally saw land, but their ship hit sand and was stuck. The waves destroyed the ship but the captain of the ship stopped the soldiers from killing the prisoners and all made it safely to shore. God did exactly what he said he would do. *** Lord you are faithful. You stand by all of your promises and fulfill them. We thank you and love you.

Wed.’s Devo - Genealogies

Read: 1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40; Acts 27:1-20; Psalm 7:1-17; Proverbs 18:22 Issachar had four sons which grew into 87,000 who were mighty warriors when the census was taken. *** Benjamin had three sons who grew into 17,200 fighting warriors. Chapter 8 continues to talk about Benjamin’s line and it says he had 5 sons. Benjamin’s first born was Bela in both stories. One of his descendants, Shahariam had two wives that he divorced named Hushim and Baara. Hushim had had two sons by her husband before he divorced her and one of them went onto have at least 5 sons. All of the leaders of Benjamin’s clans lived in Jerusalem. *** King Saul came from the tribe of Benjamin. *** Naphtali was given one sentence. He had four sons. It reminds us that Naphtali was from Jacob’s concubine Bilhah, who was Rachel’s servant. No mighty warriors came from Naphtali, Manasseh, or Ephraim’s line. *** Manasseh had an Aramean concubine who his line came from. It seems they had trouble having sons but had plenty of daughters. *** Ephraim’s line had tragedy when two of Ephraim’s sons were killed. He later had another son. His daughter built three towns. Joshua, who became Israel’s leader after Moses, came from Ephraim’s line. *** Asher had mighty warriors and outstanding leaders from his line. *** In Acts, Paul was on his way to Rome in a ship with Roman officers and several other prisoners. The main Roman officer was Julius and he gave Paul great favor and let him visit with his friends on stops to different ports along their way. *** They lost a lot of time because the wind was against them, so the season for sailing was coming to an end. Paul warned them about continuing on. He saw the future full of shipwreck and danger and warned the officers. The ship crew decided they would try to make it to Phoenix and spend the winter there but they were met with a typhoon. Just as Paul had warned them they had to throw out cargo and the ship was held together by ropes. It looked like they were all going to drown. Stay tuned tomorow for the end of our story. *** If the men had listened to Paul, they would have saved their ship, their cargo and all the hardship they met. It is our job to tell people the truth, but we cannot control them or make them heed our warnings. Sadly, their bad decisions many times affect us also. But, God will always get glory from the end result. *** Lord, may we trust you in the good and the bad. When we are not in control, we know that you are. You cause everything to turn for the good of your purposes. Thank you!

Tues.’s Devo - Paul’s Defense Was the Gospel

Read: 1 Chronicles 5:18-6:81; Acts 26:1-32; Psalm 6:1-10: Proverbs 18:20-21 Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh stayed on the east side of the Jordan. They faced the Hagrites, Jeturites, Naphishites and the Nodabites. It was their command from God to drive them out and take the land. They cried out to the Lord for help when they were in the midst of fighting and God gave them victory. They came away with much spoil. *** The tribe of Manasseh grew to be very large and spread out across the land but they and other two tribes soon forgot the Lord and took up the gods of the nations around them. The three tribes on the east were eventually taken captive by King Pul of Assyria. *** Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Moses and Aaron were Levites. From them came the workers in the Tabernacle and the priests. When David came to the throne he assigned the Levites to play the music for worship. Heman from the clan of Kohath was in charge of the music. His two assistants were from Gershon and Merari. The other Levites had jobs in the Tabernacle, and later, in the Temple. Only the sons of Aaron became priests and could offer sacrifices and offerings on the altar. *** The Levites were scattered amongst the tribes and given cities within every tribe to live and influence them with the law. *** In Acts, Paul was in trial before Agrippa. The opposition had been given their chance to give their side and now it was Paul’s turn to defend himself. He began with his pedigree and his impressive background. Then he went into his testimony. He had started out persecuting the Christians but then “saw the light” and became a believer of the very thing he fought so violently against. When Jesus spoke to him he told him to go give the message of salvation to the Gentile so that was what he had been doing from that time till today. *** Felix became quickly uncomfortable and shouted out that Paul was crazy. So Paul appealed to Agrippa and told him surely he had heard about Jesus and salvation by faith. He asked Agrippa if he believed the prophets. Agrippa began to feel uncomfortable also and they all stood and walked out. They discussed Paul’s defense and all concluded that he had done nothing worthy of death or being in prison. They would have set him free if he hadn’t have appealed to Caesar. *** Lord, thank you that you are our judge and defense. You see us through the blood of Jesus and we are innocent of sin. Thank you that you paid the price to set us free.