Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 20, 2 Chronicles 2
Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God and dedicate it to him for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him, and for the regular arrangement of the showbread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening … The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?
2 Chronicles 2:4-6 ESV
Building a GREAT Temple for a GREAT God – FormerAtheist58
What an Awesome God – Phil Wickham
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 19, 2 Chronicles 1
If God asked you what you’d like Him to give you, what would you say? A big house? A good job? A long, healthy life? A skinny body and a beautiful face?
Here in 2 Chronicles 1, Solomon is beginning his reign as king of Israel. He senses the great weight of leading God’s people, and he recognizes his immense need for knowledge and wisdom.
Do we? Really, do we? Do we think a good college education is enough to equip our kids for life in this world? Do we think we can get all the answers we need from Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia, or from bloggers and influencers?
Food for thought today.
“Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”
2 Chronicles 1:10 ESV
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalm 19:7-11 ESV
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us Your Word. It is precious. It is the greatest treasure we could ever receive. Help us to know and understand it, every word, and to apply it correctly to our daily lives. Bless our families with knowledge and wisdom. We ask for this rather than fame or health or riches or long life because we know that wisdom and knowledge are more valuable than all these. Be glorified in us. Amen.
Wisdom Song – Laura Woodley Osman
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 18, 1 Chronicles 28-29
As David was nearing the end of his life, he wanted to equip his son and equip his people to continue worshipping God with their whole hearts and lives. What at your end-of-life goals?
“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Be careful now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”
1 Chronicles 28:9-10 ESV
“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.”
1 Chronicles 29:11-13 ESV
What’s that LAST thing You Want to Say to your Children Before You Die? – FormerAtheist58
Take my Life and Let it Be – Norton Hall Band
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 8, 1 Chronicles 7-8
1 Chronicles 1-8 is a listing of all the genealogies of the nation of Israel, yet Zebulun’s family isn’t listed. Why? Does it matter? Here are my thoughts:
Why isn’t Zebulun’s Genealogy Listed? Does it Matter? ✍️ 📖 – FormerAtheist58
He Knows My Name – Maranatha
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 7, 1 Chronicles 5-6
God scattered the families of Simeon and Levi because they’d impulsively massacred the men of Shechem. (See Genesis 34:24-30 and 49:5-7) Yet, God still worked in that scattering. My family, too, has been scattered. 💔 But I trust that God will use each of us in our own towns to be a blessing. How about you?
Heavenly Father, You are Almighty Lord, ruler over the whole world. I pray that You will use each of us in our cities and states and countries for Your glory. I pray that You would use our scattering to multiply Your glory to the four corners of the earth, that all creation might sing Your praise. In the Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
God Scatters Families – FormerAtheist58
The Sower’s Song – Andrew Peterson
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 28, Romans 7-8
Giving birth to my stillborn son, Tommy, was a completely different experience than giving birth to my living children, not merely because the physical pain was less, but largely because there was no expectation of joy to come.
It’s hard to watch a mother in obvious pain as she groans and struggles in the pains of labor and childbirth, but the pain she’s experiencing is not without hope. That mother has hope during her pain because she knows that in the end she will hold a precious little bundle of love in her arms.
A few years ago I saw this definition of hope penned on a dry erase board in a friend’skitchen. “Hope – expectancy with desire.”
Hope – Expectancy with Desire
Expectation without desire is mere drudgery. Desire without expectation is just wishful thinking.
Expectation, combined with desire, puts fuel in our tanks and joy in our hearts. Hope enables us to keep pushing forward through the pain.
Dear sisters, hope is found in Christ. He is infinitely more exciting, and infinitely more certain, than any pot of gold you may be wishing for. All of creation is groaning today, but by faith in Christ, everlasting joy is coming. In this world we do indeed have trouble but we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world. He has triumphed over sin and death. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you can be fully convinced that you will be raised from the dead, just as Christ was. This is our sure confidence and hope.
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit, Till released from flesh and sin, Yet from what I do inherit, Here Thy praises I’ll begin; Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by Thy great help I’ve come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood; How His kindness yet pursues me Mortal tongue can never tell, Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning, I shall see Thy lovely face; Clothèd then in blood washed linen How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace; Come, my Lord, no longer tarry, Take my ransomed soul away; Send thine angels now to carry Me to realms of endless day.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for the HOPE I have in Jesus, Your Son and my Savior. Lord Jesus, I’m looking forward to Your return with eager expectation and desire. In the meantime, may Your abundant mercy and grace bind my wandering heart to Thee.Amen.
I remember as a new believer in Christ, 30+ years ago, needing to be taught how to pray. Have you ever felt that way? Do you feel that way now? Do you wish you knew how to talk with God? The scriptures are a great place to learn, especially Colossians.
I’m praying for my children, but you might be praying for yourself, your husband, your future husband, or someone else altogether. I hope these words help bend your heart and life toward God.
Heavenly Father, thank You for each of the children that You have given me as well as their spouses and children. Each of them is a gift from Your good hands.
I pray that their hearts will be encouraged and knit together in love with one another and with You. I pray that they may reach all the riches of the full assurance of faith through the understanding and knowledge of Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Protect them from those who want to deceive and confuse them with worldly philosophy and plausible arguments. Give them insight through Your Holy Spirit and through Your written Word. Please, Father, be with them while we are apart. Put strong Christians into their lives. Help them to walk faithfully in Christ, being rooted and built up in Him, established in their faith as they have been taught, with hearts full of thanksgiving.
Grow their faith in Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church and all things, and in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells. Help them to hold fast to Him from whom the whole body is nourished and knit together that they might grow wise and strong in heart, mind, and body.
Help them to put off their fleshly desires and put on Christ, being clothed in His righteousness and made alive with Him. For Your glory and the building up of the body we pray, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Do you ever pray Scripture? Colossians is a great place to start.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Thank You for the sure and certain hope that is laid up for us in heaven by faith in Him. Draw my children to faith in Jesus Christ.
I pray that each of my children will be filled with the knowledge of Your will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they might walk in a manner worthy of You, Lord, living lives that are fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in their knowledge of You. Help them to study your Word each and every day, that they know You better that they would love You more. May they be strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with hearts full of joy and gratitude for Your saving grace.
For those who have not yet fully trusted in You for salvation, I pray that You would deliver them from Satan’s domain of darkness and place them securely in the kingdom of Your Beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Strengthen them to continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which they have heard from my own lips and from the pages of Scripture.In the mighty name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 118, 2 Samuel 18.
Even though Absalom had killed Amnon, David’s oldest son, out of revenge for him raping his sister, and even though Absalom had tried to take his father’s rightful place on the throne, David orders his army captains to deal gently with him during their battle against the Israelites (2 Samuel 18:5) And then when David finds out that Absalom is dead, David cries, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33)
That’s how good parents loves their children. Their love is unconditional. It’s love with no strings attached. No matter how your child disappoints you or angers you, you keep loving them. As 1 Corinthians 13:8a says, “love never fails.”
This is the kind of love our Good Father has for His children.
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13 ESV)
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV)
“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8 ESV)
“How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” (Psalm 36:7 ESV)
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your steadfast, faithful love. Love without end. Love that never fails. You are good. You are worthy. Make us more like You. Conform us into the image of Jesus Christ, Your perfect Son, who loved us even to the point of death. It is in His Name that we pray. Amen.
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