Category: Uncategorized

1 Kings 8:22-24 (3 Kingdoms 8:22-24)

You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth, and fulfilled it with Your hand, as today. Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, so long as your people guard and keep their ways to walk before Me, as you walked before Me.’ So now, O Lord God of Israel, let the word be confirmed You spoke to Your servant David my father.

Encouraging Words

One of the encouraging results of reading through the old testament is seeing how many times God makes a promise to His people and how He always follows through with fulfilling His promises. Even when the people would not hold up to their end of the bargain, God always does. This is a characteristic of God that we can hold on to. Glory be to God.

Mark 9:23-24

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Personal Challenge

There are two very important lessons in these two verses. The first is what happens in our lives. If we believe, truly believe, that Jesus is the incarnate and resurrected Son of God and that He can do anything and everything, without any doubts, then we will see that all things are possible in our lives. What kind of things? Healing. Changing of people’s hearts. Resurrections from spiritual death. Things that both Jesus and His apostles did. The second lessons is the honesty of the father proclaiming that He believed in Jesus but that he needed Jesus to help him to believe more. That is something that we can all claim in our walk with Jesus. Glory be to God!

2 Samuel 24:24 (2 Kingdoms 24:24)

Then the king said to Orna, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with something that costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Personal Challenge

This is a very interesting passage in the Old Testament with a very valuable lesson for us to learn. Israel had been going through a time of plaque due to the the sins of the people and King David. David was commanded to build an altar and give a sacrifice to God to show remorse for their behavior. He went to the threshing floor owned by Orna as the place to build the altar and do the sacrifice. Orna offered the threshing floor and all the things needed to David for free. David rejected the offer and insisted that he must pay for the items. He indicated that he must not give a sacrifice that doesn’t cost him anything. The lesson for us here is that we too must be paying a price to our Lord. None of this earns our salvation. Only God can give that to us through His Son. It is our service out of gratitude for this salvation that we offer to God. If it is not given out of a loving heart and costing us a price, then it is not a sacrifice. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Mark 8:34-35

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Personal challenge

It is not that difficult to proclaim to be a follower of Christ. What is difficult is to actually BE a follower of Christ. We must be willing to lay aside our entire life that we have built here on earth in order to take up our cross and follow Him. It may be all that knowledge that we have gained by reading books about God and Jesus. It may be that blog or podcast that we have so many followers on in order. But have we really just been a clanging symbol about Him? It may be that position in life, whether in the church, or our work, or the community, that we worked so hard to get, but which stands between us and Jesus. Jesus asks us to sacrifice everything for Him because that is what He did for us. Are we really ready to lose our life for Him or will we walk away as so many others have done? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

2 Samuel 22:2-3

And he sang:
“O Lord, my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
My God will be my guardian, in whom I will trust;
My defender and the horn of my salvation,
My protector and the refuge of my salvation;
You will save me from unrighteousness.”

Encouraging words

What a wonderful proclamation of who God is in our lives. He is our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer. He is our guardian in whom we can put our trust. He is our defender and salvation. He is our protector and our refugee. He, and He alone, will save us from our unrighteousness. Glory be to God!

Mark 8:11-12

Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”

Personal Challenge

It is amazing just how blind and insensitive we humans can be. Leading up to this passage we have seen Jesus performing miraculous feats and basically performing sign after sign that He was truly the Son of God. And yet, the leaders of the church of His day, His chosen people, would not accept Him unless He showed them a sign of their choosing. What more did they really need? Just like so many of us today, Jesus gets put into a box that we have defined and if He does something or teaches something that doesn’t fit in our box, we reject Him. This is a dangerous thing to do because Jesus, the Son of God, does not fit in any box. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

1 Samuel 16:7

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Have no regard for his outward appearance, nor for the maturity of his stature, because I have refused him. For man does not see as God sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord sees into the heart.”

Personal Challenge

We have become so good at “judging” the “quality” of a person by what we see. They look good so they must make a good elected official. The sound good so they must be intelligent and gifted. They are always doing something at church so they must be godly. What we don’t see is the content of their heart. Why do they do what they do? What is the purpose that drives them? Only God knows the true nature of what is in our heart. That is what He measures us by. Glory be to God!

1 Samuel 15:22 (1 Kingdoms 15:22)

Then Samuel said, “If only the desired whole burnt offerings and desired sacrifices were equal to the Lord, as compared to one who heeds the voice of the Lord! Behold! Hearing is better than a good sacrifice and obedience than the fat of rams.

Personal Challenges

We are beginning to see a trend in our churches and parishes, which is an increase in the number of services performed. In some cases, the driver behind this is the belief that the more of these that we attend, the closer we are to God. This is not a new phenomenon. Here we see Samuel chastising King Saul for this very issue. What God wants is us to be listening to Him. He wants us to be obeying Him, which today means loving Him and loving our neighbor. When we are treating those around us with contempt or demeaning them because they are not joining all the services like we are, then we are not obeying God. He wants us to be loving and caring. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!