Creative Space for Wanderers
Read: Restore Church JAX Launches Today Zoë and I are in Jacksonville, NC, to support Roger Burns and his team as they launch a new church. As part of the team, I was privileged to serve as Roger’s project manager, essentially handling the nuts and bolts of legal stuff to support the business entity, but …
Read: and Jehoshaphat was a strong leader that loved the Lord with all his heart. In all my years hearing sermons, reading the Bible and other teaching, I don’t recall a sermon series on Jehoshaphat, but much is to be learned from this king that rules over Judah during a tumultuous time in history. His …
Read: I woke up too early this morning to admit, but once again, I find the presence of God richly blesses the time when I simply stop to read his word and listen to the Holy Spirit. This morning took an unexpected turn from ancient kings to nearly forgotten hymns. I hope you spend time …
Continue reading “Abijah, Asa and Jehoshaphat; Come Thou Fount”
Read: and Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. Three times in Psalm 80 we see this petition: Restore Us, God Almighty. So many times I’ve prayed for God to heal our land, to show his strength and reverse the tide. I want an immediate response in biblical …
Typical lessons on Sunday use references from the New Testament. One of the benefits I find with studying the Old Testament is simply this: those who lived with Jesus knew these stories well. In many ways, their society was defined by the narratives of the people and places we tend to overlook as we focus …
Read: Today we read the unique account of preparations for building the temple, unique in that these details are only included here in 1 Chronicles, not in 2 Samuel. This is a quick read that includes details and lists of many who were called by name for this great work. Chapter 22 – Preparations for …
Continue reading “Temple Preparations, Peaceful Organization; David’s Death”
Read: Much of this narrative was covered in earlier posts David and Bathsheba and David’s Kingdom Reestablished; The Census from 2 Samuel. However, it’s interesting that the writer of Chronicles, presumably Ezra, chooses not to elaborate on Bathsheba or Absalom (in particular), but David’s Census–not that we need to discuss twice! (see ). Instead, we focus on …
Continue reading “David’s Census; Property Bought From a Jebusite”
Chapter 13 provides the narrative of David’s desire and attempt to return the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. Ezra (assuming he’s the author of Chronicles), places this narrative out of sequence, up front, perhaps to emphasize David’s heart and desire to please God and the people. The first few verses show that everyone agreed this …
Chapter 10 quickly covered the end of Saul’s life to clear the way for David to ascend to the throne. The remainder of 1st Chronicles adds details to 2nd Samuel’s coverage of King David’s life in many interesting ways, most notably, naming the valiant warriors alluded to in 2nd Samuel. Second Chronicles does the same …
and Cruising through the first 10 chapters of 1 Chronicles we read the long list of names from Adam to Abraham. Quite remarkable when you think about it, especially when you remember God’s restart with Noah. Then we read the two branches of Abraham’s family: Isaac and Ishmael, Esau and Jacob (aka Israel). The kings …