1 Chronicles 28 bible reading and daily devotionals.

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Max Lucado Daily: Chosen Children

There’s something in you that God loves!  Not just appreciates or approves—but loves. You cause God’s eyes to widen, his heart to beat faster. He loves you and accepts you.

Don’t we yearn to know this?  God, do you know who I am?  In the great scheme of things do I count for anything?  So many messages tell us we don’t. We get laid off at work, turned away by the school.  Everything from acne to Alzheimer’s leaves us feeling like the girl with no date to the prom.  We react.  We validate our existence with a flurry of activity.  We do more, buy more, achieve more.  Always, wrestling with the question, “Do I matter?”

All of grace, I believe, is God’s definitive reply.  “Be blessed, my child.  I accept you.  I have adopted you into my family.”  Adopted children are chosen children!  Trust God’s love for you!

“But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!  Galatians 4:4-6?

From GRACE

1 Chronicles 28

David’s Plans for the Temple

28 David summoned all the officials of Israel to assemble at Jerusalem: the officers over the tribes, the commanders of the divisions in the service of the king, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the warriors and all the brave fighting men.

2 King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. 3 But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’

4 “Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the tribe of Judah he chose my family, and from my father’s sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel. 5 Of all my sons—and the Lord has given me many—he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6 He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. 7 I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws, as is being done at this time.’

8 “So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.

9 “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”

11 Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. 12 He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. 13 He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the Lord, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service. 14 He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: 15 the weight of gold for the gold lampstands and their lamps, with the weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for each silver lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand; 16 the weight of gold for each table for consecrated bread; the weight of silver for the silver tables; 17 the weight of pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers; the weight of gold for each gold dish; the weight of silver for each silver dish; 18 and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and overshadow the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

19 “All this,” David said, “I have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan.”

20 David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. 21 The divisions of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work on the temple of God, and every willing person skilled in any craft will help you in all the work. The officials and all the people will obey your every command.”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: 1 John 2:12–17

12 I am writing to you, little children,
    because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
    because you know the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God abides in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

The Circle Of The Wise

December 13, 2012 — by David H. Roper

I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. —1 John 2:13

I used to serve on the elder board of a church in California. One elder, Bob Smith, who was older than most of us, frequently called us back to the Word of God for guidance.

On one occasion we were discussing a leadership shortage in the church and had spent an hour or more working through various solutions. Bob was silent throughout the discussion. Finally, he said quietly, “Gentlemen, we’ve forgotten Jesus’ solution to our leadership issue. Before we do anything, we must first ‘ask the Lord of the harvest . . . to send out workers’” (Luke 10:2 niv). We were humbled, and spent the rest of our time praying that God would raise up workers and send them into the field.

C. S. Lewis said, “The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.” Proverbs 1:5 says, “A man of understanding will attain wise counsel.” Bob’s comment is just one example of the value of wise men and women who “have known Him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13-14) and whose minds are saturated with the Word of God.

Let’s take to heart the counsel of those who have lived in the Lord’s presence and are mature in His wisdom. They are God’s gift to us and our churches.

The older saints who trust God’s Word
Have trod the paths that we now walk;
They’ve fought the battles we now fight—
Their wisdom teaches truth and right. —Branon
That one is truly wise who gains wisdom from the experience of others.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 13, 2012

Intercessory Prayer

. . . men always ought to pray and not lose heart —Luke 18:1

You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up . . . [with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.

As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.

Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.

What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Closer They Get, The Better You Look - #6764

Thursday, December 13, 2012

It takes a real romantic klutz to ruin himself with four girls at one time. (It was me...) Oh, I did a pretty good job of that when I was in high school. See, it was Christmastime, and I decided I that I wanted to write kind of a romantic masterpiece on the back of this Christmas card to a girl named Wendy. The problem was that I was actually interested in three other girls too.

And after I finished writing that masterpiece, I said, "You know, this is so good, I think I'll put it on a card to the other three girls too." Only I did change the name. It was okay as long as they didn't get together and compare notes. Right? That wasn't going to happen.

Who could have guessed that those girls would decide to get together for a slumber party the day after Christmas, and bring their Christmas cards and compare them! Call me Roasted Romeo.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Closer They Get, The Better You Look."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel 12. In my Bible heading it says Samuel's Farewell Speech. This great leader for God is now about to turn over the leadership of Israel as their last judge to the first king, King Saul. And he says this very daring statement in his farewell speech, standing in front of these people who have known him for years. He says, "Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and His anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right."

Well, they replied, "'You have not cheated or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from anyone's hand.' And Samuel said to them, 'The Lord is witness against you, and also His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.' And they said, 'He is witness.'" This is an incredible exchange, and the issue here was integrity. Samuel says, "Now, you have watched my life. You have watched my ministry. I want you now to testify against me and tell me any inconsistencies that you have seen." Wow!

Samuel didn't get up and say he had integrity. He lived in such a way that he could asked those who knew him to actually testify against him, and they couldn't. If all the people around him compared notes, they couldn't find any inconsistencies or deceit or question marks. Now, I didn't fare so well when those girls compared notes that day after Christmas. But we should live in such a way that we have no fear of being found out, no fear of discovery, no fear of investigation or scrutiny.

There's such tremendous freedom in living by three words: nothing to hide. What does your family think of your integrity - the people who know you best? Do you talk one set of values and live another at home? Those you work with or serve at church with, or those who see you make decisions or handle money or treat people? Do they see a consistency between the public you and the private you? What if you said to them, "Go ahead; testify against me." Would they say, "We have found nothing"? Wow!

Live your life in such a way that you have no fear of scrutiny or discovery, or people comparing stories. If you tell the truth and do all things as Jesus would do them, the light will only show your authenticity as it did Samuel's. It can be said of those who live without secrets and without deception, "The closer people get, the better you look."