1 Kings 5, Bible reading and Devtionals.

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Max Lucado Daily: Stiltsville

Perhaps you don’t know about Stiltsville, the village, so strange but so true…
For each evening at six they meet in the circle for the purpose of sticks,
Tall stilts upon which a Stiltsvillian can strut and be lifted above the less and the least,
the Tribe of Too Smalls, the not cools who want to be tall—but can’t,
because in the giving of sticks, their name was not called.  They didn’t get picked.
(from the children’s book, Tallest of the Smalls)

Ah, there it is!  We fear nothingness, insignificance.

But if you pass your days mumbling, “I’ll never make a difference; I’m not worth anything,” guess what?  You’re disagreeing with God.

Psalm 139:14 says, “You were fearfully and wonderfully made.”  God’s idea.  His masterpiece!  God sees you and loves the you he sees!

Stiltsvillians still cluster; crowds still clamor, but more stay away.  They seem less enamored since the Carpenter came and refused to be stilted!

1 Kings 5

Solomon Asks Hiram to Help Build the Temple

 1 Hiram was the king of Tyre. He heard that Solomon had been anointed as king. He heard that Solomon had become the next king after his father David. Hiram had always been David's friend. So Hiram sent his messengers to Solomon.
 2 Then Solomon sent a message back to Hiram. It said,

 3 "As you know, my father David had to fight many battles. His enemies attacked him from every side. So he couldn't build a temple where the Lord his God would put his Name. That wouldn't be possible until the Lord had put his enemies under his control.

 4 "But now the Lord my God has given me peace and rest on every side. We don't have any enemies. And we don't have any other major problems either. 5 So I'm planning to build a temple. I want to build it for the Name of the Lord my God. That's what he told my father David he wanted me to do. He said, 'I will put your son on the throne in your place. He will build a temple. I will put my Name there.'

 6 "So give your men orders to cut down cedar trees in Lebanon for me. My men will work with yours. I'll pay you for your men's work. I'll pay any amount you decide on. As you know, we don't have anyone who is as skilled in cutting down trees as the men of Sidon are."

 7 When Hiram heard Solomon's message, he was very pleased. He said, "May the Lord be praised today. He has given David a wise son to rule over that great nation."

 8 So Hiram sent a message to Solomon. It said,

   "I have received the message you sent me. I'll do everything you want me to. I'll provide the cedar and pine logs. 9 My men will bring them from Lebanon down to the Mediterranean Sea. I'll make them into rafts. I'll float them to the place you want me to. When the rafts arrive, I'll separate the logs from each other. Then you can take them away.

   "And here's what I want in return. Provide food for all of the people in my palace."

 10 So Hiram supplied Solomon with all of the cedar and pine logs he wanted.

 11 Solomon gave Hiram 125,000 bushels of wheat as food for the people in his palace. He also gave him 115,000 gallons of oil that was made from pressed olives. He did that for Hiram year after year.

 12 The Lord made Solomon wise, just as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon. The two of them made a peace treaty.

 13 King Solomon forced men from all over Israel to work hard for him. There were 30,000 of them. 14 He sent them off to Lebanon in groups of 10,000 each month. They spent one month in Lebanon. Then they spent two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the people who were forced to work. 15 Solomon had 70,000 people who carried things. He had 80,000 who cut stones in the hills. 16 He had 3,300 men who were in charge of the project. They also directed the workers.

 17 The people did what the king commanded. They removed large blocks of fine stone from a rock pit. They used them to provide a foundation for the temple. 18 The skilled workers of Solomon and Hiram cut and prepared the logs and stones. They would later be used in building the temple. The people of Byblos helped the workers.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Philippians 4:1-9

1 My brothers and sisters, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord's strength. I love you and long for you. Dear friends, you are my joy and my crown.

Do What Is Best

 2 Here is what I'm asking Euodia and Syntyche to do. I want them to agree with each other because they belong to the Lord.
 3 My true companion, here is what I ask you to do. Help those women. They have served at my side. They have helped me spread the good news. So have Clement and the rest of those who have worked together with me. Their names are all written in the Book of Life.

 4 Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful. 5 Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon.

 6 Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. 7 Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood.

 8 Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things. 9 Do what you have learned or received or heard from me. Follow my example.

   The God who gives peace will be with you.

Walk Away From Worry

May 3, 2012 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Be anxious for nothing. —Philippians 4:6

A few years ago, our Bible-study leader challenged us to memorize a chapter of the Bible and recite it to the group. Internally, I began to protest and groan. An entire chapter, in front of everyone? Memorization had never been my thing; I cringed as I imagined long silences while everyone watched me, waiting for the next words.

A few days later, I reluctantly leafed through my Bible, looking for a set of verses to learn by heart. Nothing seemed right until I landed in Philippians 4.

I read this verse in silence, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (v.6). That’s when I knew which chapter to memorize, and how to walk away from my anxiety about the assignment.

God does not want us to agonize over future events, because worry paralyzes our prayer life. The apostle Paul reminds us that instead of fretting, we should ask God for help. When we continually take this approach to anxiety, God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds (v.7).

Someone once said tongue-in-cheek, “Why pray when you can worry?” The point is clear: Worry gets us nowhere, but prayer gets us in touch with the One who can handle all of our concerns.

When you feel the tension mounting,
And across the busy day,
Only gloomy clouds are drifting
As you start to worry—pray! —Anon.
It’s impossible to wring our hands when they are folded before God in prayer.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 3, 2012

Vital Intercession

. . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . . —Ephesians 6:18

As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.
It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. And the greatest destroyer of that confident relationship to God, so necessary for intercession, is our own personal sympathy and preconceived bias. Identification with God is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with Him it is because of our sympathy with others, not because of sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our intercessory relationship with God, but sympathy will. It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, “I will not allow that thing to happen.” And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God.
Vital intercession leaves you with neither the time nor the inclination to pray for your own “sad and pitiful self.” You do not have to struggle to keep thoughts of yourself out, because they are not even there to be kept out of your thinking. You are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests and concerns in other lives. God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Prescription For a Weary Worker - #6604

Thursday, May 3, 2012

When Walt Disney animated the story of Snow White, he created seven memorable, even if short characters - the seven dwarfs. I'm not one of them! Now, I'm not going to ask you to name them; we'll save that for a game of Trivial Pursuit or something. But I always loved that little song they sang on the way to work.

And well, they didn't exactly work in an environmentally controlled office building. They worked in a mine all day. Not the greatest place to work! But each day they would merrily march off to work singing, (I won't sing it for you, but here we go.) "Hi-ho, it's off to work we go." Well, what a great way to approach your responsibilities. I mean, anyone who does is no dwarf; he's a giant.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about a "Prescription For a Weary Worker."

Now, I attended a meeting of people who are very busy in Christian ministry, and one woman expressed a feeling that, as it turned out, everybody in the room agreed with. She said, "You know, people are working for the Lord around here, and they get very discouraged or they quit because of one word - weariness." And I watched a lot of heads nodding in that room.

Now, there are a lot of men and women who have spiritual responsibility and they struggle with a deep weariness, and it's far beyond physical. They're just tired of pushing, and of being sometimes the one of the few who care. They're tired of little results for a lot of work, and maybe not being appreciated. Some of you might say, "Well, how did you know?" Because there are a lot of us that serve the Lord that start to feel that way sometime or another.

Okay, our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 12:2-4 - "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men..." And then notice this, "...so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

And then the writer goes on to say, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Okay, there's this weariness that we talked about that some people who are listening can identify with; that deep, emotional kind that saps your physical strength too. And there's discouragement; the kind that results in a mechanical kind of service - just kind of crank it out. And honestly, more and more frequent thoughts of quitting.

Weariness, according to Hebrews 12, seems to result from taking your eyes off Jesus. Maybe you're weary because you've been doing God's work in your strength. You know better, but you've gone from God working through you to the crank-it-out weariness of you suddenly working for God. Oh, you're doing the same things, but it's not Him through you. It's you for Him. Or it could be that you've been looking at the results you're getting instead of the Savior you're serving. He gives the results; He gives the rewards, people don't.


Is it time to get your eyes back on the Jesus whose love compelled you to serve in the first place?

You know, when Jacob had to work seven years to earn the right to marry Rachel, I love what the Bible says, "They seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." See, love makes the difference. See, then you'll be able to join that saint who served the Lord for 70 years and who sang that song, "Since I started for the kingdom, since my life He controls, since I gave my life to Jesus, the longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows."