Author Archives: chadzaucha

Seven months down!

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 29:1-36; Romans 14:1-23; Psalm 24:1-10; Proverbs 20:12.

Psalm 24:1 (NIV)
Of David. A psalm.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;

I don’t own anything.  I am simply a steward of God’s resources.  Even my ability to earn an income is given by God.  Am I spending God’s resources on selfish temporal pursuits, or am I re-investing them in God’s Kingdom for eternity?

Some day we will give an account of our stewardship.

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27; Romans 13:1-14; Psalm 23:1-6; Proverbs 20:11.

Romans 13:1  Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. (NLT)

One of the keys to victorious spiritual warfare is living in right relationship to God’s authority.  You cannot exercise God’s authority if you are not properly aligned with God’s authority–including the authority He has delegated to institutions here on earth.  When we rebel against the authority God has established, we forfeit His authority in the spiritual realm.

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21; Romans 11:13-36; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 20:7.

²² Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.

God is love.  So very true.  We hear this attribute emphasized more than any other–often to the neglect of God’s other attributes which are equally as true.  For you see, in addition to God being love, He  is also holy and just.  As we see here in Romans 11:22, God is kind, but He is also severe.  Too often I hear people say something like, “My God….” and then they go on to describe a creation of God in their own image–the God they want to serve.  Or more accurately, the God they want to serve them.  God is God.  His character is revealed in His Word.  We cannot pick and choose the attributes of God we like and discard the rest.

“When we don’t get what we want, we are more acutely aware of eternity.  We are more apt to remember God.  We learn what it really means to trust him.  We remember the bigger story.  When we don’t get what we want, we have to deal with our inner restlessness.  We have to face ourselves and our addictions.  We have to deal with the various “medications” we use to cope with life.  When we started these changes at Oak Hills, we put spiritual formation on the front burner, and the first thing that we saw that needed to be transformed was this raging desire to always get what we want (117) .”

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34; Romans 9:22-10:13; Psalm 20:1-9; Proverbs 20:2-3.

2 Chron. 18:4 (NIV)
But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord.”

How many times have I failed to apply this wise advice.  God is the source of ultimate wisdom, yet we so often neglect asking for His counsel.  How much hardship could be avoided in our lives if we would seek Him in every situation.

“Perhaps our greatest lesson from the past decade is that it is spiritually formative to be dissatisfied and unable to resolve that dissatisfaction.  In fact, there is hardly a better catalyst for transformation than to not get what we want.  Sitting in the dissatisfaction, without frantically trying to resolve it, can do wonders for the human soul (117).”

Here is today’s Bible reading:  2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14; Romans 9:1-21; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 20:1.

Romans 9:20 (NIV)
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”

I am learning to surrender my life to absolutely whatever God intends for His glory.  He is the potter and I am the clay.

Here is today’s Bible reading:  2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22; Romans 8:22-39; Psalm 18:37-50; Proverbs 19:27-29.

Lots of good stuff today:

Psalm 18:46 (NIV)
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!

Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:31-32 (NIV)
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:37 (NIV)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

2 Chron. 12:6-7 (NIV)
The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is just.”
[7] When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.

Here is today’s Bible reading:  2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19; Romans 8:9-21; Psalm 18:16-36; Proverbs 19:26.

Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”
(2 Chronicles 8:11 ESV)

Solomon tries to do what we often do:  compartmentalize our lives into categories such as “sacred” and “secular”, “spiritual” and “day-to-day living”.  But in God’s eyes, everything is spiritual.  Everything is to be worship.  Everything is to be done as unto Him.  If a wife isn’t good enough to live in the palace in Jerusalem, then she probably ought not be his wife.  If something that we are doing can’t be done as unto the Lord, it ought not be done.

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11; Romans 7:1-13; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 19:22-23.

Proverbs 19:23 (NIV)
The fear of the Lord leads to life:
Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

I have heard it said that if you truly fear God (seek Him, trust Him, worship Him, obey Him) then you need not fear anything else. Said another way, if God is for us, then who or what can be against us?

Psalm 17:6-7 (NIV)
I call on you, O God, for you will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.
[7] Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.