Isaiah 7-11

Today in my daily Bible reading, Aram and the king of Israel allied, and marched out to fight against Jerusalem, with King Ahaz of Judah defending it. Isaiah took the word of the LORD to Ahaz and said that Jerusalem would not be taken by it's enemies. He also said, "If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." So cool and so true! Then God told Ahaz to ask for a sign, and Ahaz refused. Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Whoa!!! I believe this is the first time Isaiah had told anyone of this wonder. And from here everything hops and jumps subjects every few verses, so I'm going to list all the neat verses I found:

8:12 ~ Do not call conspiracy

everything that these people call conspiracy;

do not fear what they fear,

and do not dread it.

9:2 ~ The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow

of death

a light has dawned.

9:6-7 ~ For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty

will accomplish this.

One little thing about that set of verses that I'd never thought about before is that "He will reign on David's throne forever". God had told David of this - but not directly. In sending Jesus, God was also keeping a promise to David!!!! God never forgets!!!

Songs of Praise in a Song of Praise

Right here in this moment take my heart, take my soul.

I surrender everything to your control.

And let all that is within me

Lift up to you and say,

"I am Yours and Yours alone completely".

And I'm on fire when You're near me.

I'm on fire when You speak.

I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.

Be my light in this darkened room.

I'm on my face and I'm calling You.

I can's fathom all You've done for me.

Every time it finds me on my knees

Like sunlight in the winter cold.

Everything about You

It takes my breath away

Hallelujah.

Why in the world did you come after me?

Thank you, thank you.

Words aren't enough, but for now I can say

Thank you, thank you.

You consume me, you consume me

Like a burning flame running through my veins

You consume me moving through me

Anytime, anyplace you invade my space

You consume me.

Wholly devoted I immerse myself in you

Baptize me in your love

Cause drowning in the thought of you

Floods my soul

I’m taken by the things you do.

God, you know it doesn’t matter what I lose

I’m yours

I'm here again a thousand miles away from you

A broken mess, just scattered pieces of who I am

I tried so hard, thought I could do this on my own

I've lost so much along the way

It must be different through your eyes,
because You look at me
like it's the first time You've ever seen my face

And all I see, it could never make me happy

And all my sandcastles spend their time collapsing.

Let me know that You hear me.

Let me know Your touch.

Let me know that You love me

and let that be enough.

I was made to love You,

I was made to find You.

I was made just for You,

made to adore You.

You were here before me.

You were waiting on me,

and You said You'd keep me,

never would you leave me

I was made to love and be loved by You

I know that I'll never be alone

You will never let me go

You are my anchor

hold my hand while I'm sinking in the sand

no one else could understand

You are my anchor

Then I'll see your face
I know I'm finally yours
I find everything I thought I lost before
You call my name
I come to you in pieces
So you can make me whole

1 Kings 17-19

Ahab was a no-good king. God usually sent prophets to send word, so this time he sent... ELIJAH THE TISHBITE!!!! He told Ahab that there would be no rain in the next few years. After which he went to hide in a ravine, where God commanded the ravens to feed him. When the spring there dried up, God sent him to the house of a widow to ask for some bread. She said, "I only have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it - and die."

He said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have. Then make something for you and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.' "

So the widow really had no other choice. If I was her, I'd feel a bit iffy about the whole thing. She probably mumbled something about crazy prophets the whole time she was making the bread. When it was done, she brought it to him. Then trudged back to make some for her and her son she peeked into the jar, not sure whether to expect to find it full or empty. Sure enough - it was full! So was the jug! So the widow and her son and Elijah lived with plenty of bread.

But the widow's son soon became ill and died. The woman went to Elijah and said, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

Elijah took the boy and said, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" The widow had asked him, "did you do this? Is it your fault?" Then Elijah had asked God, "did you do this? Is it your fault?" He stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" And the LORD heard Elijah's cry and he lived. Elijah took him to his mother and she said, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth." It seems like she would've gotten a clue before, seeing as her flour jar was still full and there was still no rain on the land. But you know what? We all do that. We forget about the little things God does for us, and doubt him when it's time for him to make things work. When I was getting ready to go to Arkansas, we needed those little bitty toothpaste tubes to carry on the plane. My mom's into couponing, so we had free toothpaste all over, and we couldn't believe we had to go and actually BUY little toothpastes. But guess what we got in the mail as a Wal-Mart sample - free little bitty toothpastes. I was delighted! There was a lot of planes to catch next and lots of things that could happen that we could be delayed or not even go. But I didn't have a problem then because I figured if God could send us toothpaste, he could get planes where we needed. It's not like we didn't have $3 tops to get the toothpaste - God just knew we didn't want to have to buy them. If God can do little the little things that we don't even need - just want, He can DEFINITELY do the things we need!!!!

1 Kings 14-16

So Jeroboam had a son who got sick, so he said to his wife, "Go, disguise yourself, so you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam, Then go to Ahijah the prophet - the one who told me I would be king over this people. He will tell you what will happen to the boy." So she went to old blind Ahijah. But God had told her she was coming, and he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam, Why this pretense?" Heehee! He said to tell Jeroboam, "I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel - slave or free. As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good." Whoa, the baby was the only one good! "The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut offthe family of Jeroboam." It was true - the child died. And God did bring another king - a wild one. He did evil, but he did kill off every one of Jeroboam's people and family. After that, there was another king who did very much evil. God made him like Jeroboam. So there have been several bad kings BUT.... (drumroll) You ain't seen nothing yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here comes Ahab!!! He built a temple for Baal. He built an Asherah Pole. He married a devil woman. It says, "he did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him." And let me tell you - there have been some dandies!!! Tomorrow we'll meet Elijah! But here's a quick thing that was thrown in to my delight. It says right at the end of the chapter, "Heil of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun." Wait!!!!!! I just read about Jericho yesterday!!!!! Flip back!!!!!!!! Yup! In chapter 6 verse 26 it says, "'Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates.'" WOW!!!!!!! And this is happening HUNDREDS of years later!!!! Maybe even a thousand!!!!!!!!!! *I love fulfilled prophecy* God doesn't forget!!!!!

Joshua 6-10

This was a fun day in my Read-thru-the-Bible-in-a-year plan! The walls of Jericho have crumbled, but Rahab, who hid the spies was rescued. The Israelites were supposed to destroy it, and put some of the gold and silver and riches to the LORD. BUT there was one who disobeyed. Unfortunately, the Israelites didn't find that out until they tried to attack the Ammonites and got routed. Joshua fell facedown and said, "O LORD, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by it's enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your great name?"

God said, "Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?" Hang on. I stopped and thought about why God didn't want Joshua on the ground. It's kind of a funny line huh? But I thought about how I would feel if a people had tried to deceive me, then tried to honor me. Perhaps God found that ironic and a bit unacceptable. God told Joshua that Israel had violated the covenant. So the Israelites cast the lot until they found the man who was hiding some riches for himself - Achan. He was stoned for his sin, though he was repentant.

It's interesting reading in the Old Testement - before the Son and the Holy Spirit came to earth. Back then, if you did something very bad, YOU DIED FOR YOUR SIN. You were punished. Blood was the only remedy. Yours or someone else's. That's why they sacrificed so many lambs. There was no other way. Now we have an escape. "Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him." Now we have Jesus so we can be forgiven and not be detestable in God's sight!

Join me next Tuesday as the Israelites continue to wipe people out and clean house!!!

1 Kings 9-13

Solomon was wise and rich, BUT he was a sucker for foreign women. They led him away from God and he followed Ashtoreth the god of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. Molech was the god that people sacrificed children to. Almost every time he is talked about in the Bible, he's described as detestable. So it says, "The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice". After proof like that, how could he have gone and bowed to a pole? God said that he would tear the kingdom away from him and give it to one of his subordinates, but leave Solomon one tribe. But for David's sake, God said he would not do it in Solomon's lifetime. I can imagine David and God in heaven having a conversation.

"How's my son Solomon been doing lately Lord?"

"Not too good, he's been making me pretty upset. Those women he married are bringing him to Molech and Ashtoreth."

"Women huh? He probably inherited that weakness. What are you going to do?"

"Well, I'll have to do what I said - tear the kingdom away."

"*gasp* The whole thing? Is there no other way? How about a good civil war and he can have half?"

"I've been thinking that, because of the promise I made to your household, I will leave him a tribe or so."

"Why don't you just appear to him and set him straight?"

"I've already done that twice!"

"Oh, but please don't take it away from him!"

"But I said I would so I must."

"Well... how about not doing it during his lifetime? I mean, he's got a son that's been pretty crazy so far. Why not take it then?"

"Hmmm. That may be a plan. Since you spoke up, I will spare Solomon the shame."

Jeroboam was a worker in charge of the house of Joseph, because Solomon was pleased with how he did his work. One day, Ahijah the prophet met him, wearing a new cloak. He cut it into twelve pieces and gave Jeroboam ten of them. He said, "This is what the LORD says: 'See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes But for the sake of my sevant Daivd and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes in Israel, he will have one tribe." When Solomon found out, he tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam hid in Egypt until Solomon died - leaving his son Rehoboam as king.

The people came to Rehoboam and said, "Lighten the load your father put on us, and we will serve you." Rehoboam asked the elders what he should say to them, and the elders said, "If you give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants." Then he went and asked his friends that he had grown up with what he should say, and they said, "Tell them, 'My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier." It was probably ended with, "Dude, ya gotta tell them that you're in charge, and they gotta do what you say." So 3 days later, the people came for an answer - and Jeroboam was there too. We all know, Rehoboam listened to his friends' advice. So the people yelled,

"What share do we have in David,

what part in Jesse's son?

To your tents, O Israel!

Look after your own house, O David!"

It was the same thing Sheba son of Bicri had yelled when he was leading the rebellion against David. So most of Israel ran, but the tribe of Judah stayed loyal to Rehoboam.

Jeroboam fortied Shechem, and devised a way to snatch Israel up, saying, "If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam." So he made to golden calves and said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." The same thing Aaron had said when he built the calf and didn't wait on Moses. The people dove right in just like they had then. Jeroboam did not wait on the LORD, and felt like he had to do something to help God along instead of trusting him to fulfill his promise. And therefore did a very wrong thing.

Soon a prophet came to Jeroboam as he was sacrificing and prophesied that a son named Josiah would be born to the house of David, and would pretty much whoop up on everybody who sacrificed to these idols. But after that, Jeroboam STILL didn't change his ways. It says he "appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people." Anybody who wanted to. We'll see tomorrow what happens to him, because he didn't trust God.

1 Kings 4-8

Of course, we all know that God appeared to Solomon and asked him what he wanted. Solomon asked for wisdom. God gave it to him. Today I read about just how wise he was. Two women came and argued before him about whose baby was alive and whose was dead. He said he'd cut the baby in two so that they could each have half. The real mother said "No, don't kill him!" so he knew that it was her baby. But we all know about that one. It goes on in chapter 4. It says, "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East" Hold IT!!!! Men of the East that are wise? That should ring a bell! When Jesus was born, these WISE MEN OF THE EAST were so wise that they saw and identified the prophecy of Jesus's birth in the stars. And you bet it was really there! If you haven't seen the production THE BETHLEHEM STAR, you must!!! Jesus's birth and death are all there in the stars - along with the big one that the Magi followed!!! It's amazing, but that's off the subject:P Anyway, Solomon's wiser than these, and wiser than all the wisdom of Egypt. "He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls." Whoa wait!!! This guy wasn't just wise - he was smart! He was knowledgeable of PLANTS!!!! God didn't just give him wisdom on how to rule the country, like he'd asked - He gave him the blueprints of plant life!!! AND in the next verse it says, "He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish." He taught about them!!!! TAUGHT!!! THAT'S why in Ecclesiastes, it opens up with, "The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem"!!!!! WOWEEE!!!!!!!! Ya know, everybody should blog about their Bible Time - it brings a lot more to your attention!!!

Then what do we know about Solomon? He built the temple of the LORD! In chapter 5 it says, "When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David". I flipped back to see if he was mentioned in the life of David, and sure enough! This guy provided the materials for his palace (I'm such a character nerd, I get excited about this stuff)! Solomon asked to buy some cedar trees and guys to help build a temple. I guess all the cedar trees are in Tyre. So Hiram got the message and said, "Praise be to the LORD today for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation." Then he wrote a letter back saying, "I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and pine logs. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household." Lovely negotiations. So Tyre and Israel made a treaty, Solomon built the temple, and they brought the ark there in a big parade! It must have been an incredibly amazing moment when the cloud of the LORD filled the temple for the first time! Solomon dedicated it to the LORD, and started out with, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on the earth below - you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way". Neato verse! It was a long dedication, and when it was done God appeared to him and said, "I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever." Whoa. That reminds me a lot of when I look in my God journal and 90% expect to see black writing right there by my last entry answering the question! It also sounds a lot like what Hiram said, "I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want..." Wowee!