1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4; Acts 24:1-27; Psalm 4:1-8; Proverbs 18:16-18 Hope. Hope is a necessary ingredient to endure the trials of life. Without hope our hearts can easily shrivel up and die. The genealogies of 1 Chronicles may seem like a strange place to find hope but it is scattered like breadcrumbs throughout the list. The focus of the names is the line of Judah, the family of promise. Before th...  Read More

1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17; Acts 23:11-35; Psalm 3:1-8; Proverbs 18:14-15 A young woman we know told us that one morning she had three of her four children in their van on the way to school. She was trying to make a left-hand turn out of their community, but the road was busy as usual, and she found herself growing impatient and angry. Finally, in frustration she decided just to pull out, only to find ...  Read More

2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13 It is interesting that as we celebrate the founding of America and freedom today, we read about the destruction of Judah and the end of its freedom. We read of multiple kings being imprisoned, the nation being exiled and Paul’s bondage in Acts 22-23. Despite the physical bondage of these people, true freedom is not granted by any ...  Read More

2 Kings 22:3-23:30; Acts 21:37-22:16; Psalm 1:1-6; Proverbs 18:11-12 Be a tree. No, this is not a call to be a background character in a children’s play but the exhortation of Psalm 1. We are called to place our roots in an ever-flowing stream of water and produce lives of abundant fruit. The thing which our roots are to be connected to is Scripture. Psalm 1:2 tells us to “delight in the law of th...  Read More

2 Kings 20:1-22:2; Acts 21:18-36; Psalm 150:1-6; Proverbs 18:9-10 Often our actions have unintended consequences. We see that in 2 Kings 20 and Acts 21. Hezekiah had just been healed and when an emissary from Babylon came with a gift he was more than happy to show off the wealth of Judah. Only afterward does he find out that this distant nation would be the one that would exile the remnant of Juda...  Read More

2 Kings 18:13-19:37; Acts 21:1-17; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 18:8 Hezekiah was in distress. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had sent three officers, who through psychological warfare, threatened Hezekiah and the people of Israel within ear shot of the wall. The officers emphasized the number of nations Sennacheribhad toppled and placed doubt in the people’s minds about Yahweh’s ability to deliver ...  Read More

2 Kings 17:1-18:12; Acts 20:1-38; Psalm 148:1-14; Proverbs 18:6-7 As a young child I attended several rodeos and my favorite, most frightening event was bull riding. The bull would fly out of the chute, leap in the air, and try to unseat the cowboy. When the bull was successful, he would lower his horns, paw the ground with his hooves filling the air with dust, and charge at the cowboy as he scram...  Read More

2 Kings 15:1-16:20; Acts 19:13-41; Psalm 147:1-20; Proverbs 18:4-5 In Acts 19:13-41 we come across three powers. The first is the power of the demonic. A group of Jewish religious leaders had a ministry of exorcisms, but when they began to use the name of Jesus to perform these, they were beaten up by a demon possessed man. Their fake Christianity was exposed by a demon.A second power is that of m...  Read More

2 Kings 13:1-14:29; Acts 18:23-19:12; Psalm 146:1-10; Proverbs 18:2-3 What do you want the final description of your life to be? In the short biographies of the kings of Israel and Judah we are introduced to a great variety of people. Some, like Jehoash, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Others like Jeroboam “did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins…”...  Read More

2 Kings 10:32-12:21; Acts 18:1-22; Psalm 145:1-21; Proverbs 18:1 Joash is made king at the whopping age of seven. Obviously, at that age, his rule was mediated by others, specifically Jehoiada the priest. Without these leaders in his life, Joash probably would have functioned like someone running for elementary school president where he is demanding soda out of drinking fountains and pizza every d...  Read More

2 Kings 9:14-10:31; Acts 17:1-34; Psalm 144:1-15; Proverbs 17:27-28 2 Kings 9 & 10 is an extremely bloody set of chapters. We see Jehu clean house in Judah and Israel too; hopefully, restoring the nations back to God. For this to occur, the nations essentially have to get a restart. We see this idea of a restart happen multiple times in the Bible; yet they never stick. We have God restart with Noa...  Read More

2 Kings 8:1-9:13; Acts 16:16-40; Psalm 143:1-12; Proverbs 17:26 Today’s readings brought my attention to two things. First, we witness Elisha predicting things about future events which all come true. God has proven again and again that in his omniscience he knows the future. I often tell our students there are about 3,000 prophecies in the Bible that have already come true. We serve this same God...  Read More