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  BIBLE READING: Zephaniah 1-3             "The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."                                                                                                                     Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV There is a beautiful verse in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah that talks about God singing over his people; and it is the only place in the Bible where this thought is expressed in this unique way.   Prior to that, God had the prophet Zephaniah deliver a message about God’s judgment on his people because of their idolatry.   But then, the prophet looks ahead to the restoration of the remnant of Israel; and he comforts God’s people by telling them how much God loves them. Before the Lord tells them, through Zephaniah, that he will rejoice over them with singing, he says, “I am your God; I am with you and I will quiet yo

  BIBLE READING: Habakkuk 1-3                 “ I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected”.                                                                                                                                                       —  Habakkuk 2:1   NKJV             God says: Never ignore your struggle with how I do things. Ask every question that rises in your heart as you live in this world. But prepare yourself to struggle even more with My response. You must stumble in confusion before you dance with joy. Know this: those who live by faith will struggle in ways that those who live to make their lives work will never know. It is that struggle, to believe despite desperate pain and confusion that a good plan is unfolding, that will open your eyes to see Me more clearly. Is that what you want? Will you pay the price?             The price is this: you will tremble in ag

  BIBLE READING: Nahum 1-3                 “ Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away.”                                                                                                                         - Nahum 1:13 God wants to break and destroy those things which afflicted his people and are a bondage to them. There is a similar prophecy in Isaiah, “In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat” (Isaiah 10:27). God longs to see his people free. Free from those things which are burdens and weigh them down. For the Israelites, it meant warfare, fighting against a physical enemy to achieve freedom from oppression so they could live in peace. For us, it might be painful memories, regrets from the past or fears for the future. Yet generally God’s methods are not what we anticipated.                 Farmers would yoke the oxen before they were full

  BIBLE READING: Micah 1-4                 Micah isn't exactly a household word. Too bad. Though obscure, the ancient prophet had his stuff together. Eclipsed by the much more famous Isaiah, who ministered among the elite, Micah took God's message to the streets. Micah had a deep suspicion of phony religion. He saw greed in the hearts of the leaders of the kingdom of Judah, which prompted him to warn the common folk not to be deceived by religious pretense among nobility. In true prophetic style, Micah comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. He condemned sin. He exposed performance-based piety. He championed the cause of the oppressed. He predicted the fall of the nation. And he did it all at the risk of his own life. But Micah didn't just denounce and attack, leaving everyone aware of the things he despised but none of the things he believed. Like rays of brilliant sunlight piercing charcoal-colored clouds after a storm, the prophet saved his best wor

  BIBLE READING: Obadiah & Jonah                 Obadiah’s name, meaning “worshipper of Yahweh,” offers an interesting counterpoint to the message of judgment he pronounced on Edom, Judah’s neighbor to the southeast. As a worshipper of Yahweh, Obadiah placed himself in a position of humility before the Lord; he embraced his lowly place before the almighty God.             That God sent a man named “worshipper of Yahweh” to the people of Edom was no mistake. Edom had been found guilty of pride before the Lord (Obadiah 1:3). They had thought themselves greater than they actually were; great enough to mock, steal from, and even harm God’s chosen people. But the “Lord GOD,” a name Obadiah used to stress God’s sovereign power over the nations, will not stand idly by and let His people suffer forever (1:1). Through Obadiah, God reminded Edom of their poor treatment of His people (1:12–14) and promised redemption, not to the Edomites but to the people of Judah (1:17–18). The nation

  BIBLE READING: Amos 7-9                      The end of the book of Amos includes visions that the Lord shows him about His judgment of Israel.  While each has its importance, there is one that always fascinates me.  It’s the one about a plumb line.  If you’re unfamiliar with what a plumb line is, it is a device used in surveying land, or construction, or measuring the depth of water.  It consists of a string with a weight attached to it.  Often, it will be suspended by a tripod, but once it is allowed to become still, it will show the true vertical position and a straight line simply based on gravity alone.               In Amos 7:8, God tells Amos, “…Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.”  Just as God was setting a plumb line up against the Israelites to see who was truly following Him, and who needed to be punished, God sets a plumb line up against us.  It is up to us to continue to pursue and see how vertical,

  BIBLE READING: Amos 4-6                         A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.  Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, "Jump in, I can save you."  The stranded fellow shouted back, "No, it's OK, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me."  So, the rowboat went on. Then a motorboat came by. "The fellow in the motorboat shouted, "Jump in, I can save you."  To this the stranded man said, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."  So, the motorboat went on. Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."  To this the stranded man again replied, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."  So, the helicopter reluctantly flew away. Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He wen

  BIBLE READING: Amos 1-3 The story is told of a very generous farmer.  Approached by his friends one day, they asked him, “We don’t understand you.  You give more than the rest of us, but you always seem to prosper more than us.  How is that?”  The farmer replied, “I keep shoveling into God’s bin, and God keeps shoveling more and more into mine, and God has the bigger shovel.” James Reston was a syndicated columnist for the New York Times for more than thirty years. In his final column for the newspaper, he wrote: “In America, we have learned something about how to deal with adversity since the great Depression, but not much about how to deal with prosperity. We are very rich, but we are not having a very good time. We are producing so much food that we don’t know what to do with the garbage, while half of the human race goes to bed hungry every night. Humans have a great difficulty of learning to live when prosperous.  It doesn’t always bring out the best in us.  The book of

  BIBLE READING: Joel 1-3                        Out of all the prophets, we probably know the least about Joel.   We also have trouble indicating the time frame in which it was written, because unlike the other book of prophecy, Joel gives no information of his time frame.   There is no mention of being with other prophets and there is also no mention of any kings that would have ruled.   A possible explanation might be due to a period in Judah’s history when they had no king, but a queen.   Athaliah was the only ruling queen of the nation of Judah and upon her death she was succeeded by her eight-year-old son Joash.   Since Joash was so young, the priest Jehodia ruled in his place until he came of age.   It could be that this is the time frame in which Joel lived and preached, since it was more of a caretaking period instead of an actual rule.                 One of the main thoughts of his writing is centered around the day of the Lord.   Using a recent tragedy of the day, a

  BIBLE READING: Hosea 5-9                 How important is the daily study of God’s Word to my life? What benefit is there of having a thorough understanding of God’s laws? How does a lack of knowledge of God’s Word affect me? These are questions that we can get answered as we look at the ministry of the prophet Hosea to God’s people. Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel during a time of economic prosperity for God’s people, but a time of spiritual decay and corruption. In fact, things in the northern kingdom of Israel were so bad that God warns the southern kingdom of Judah not to have anything to do with their northern brethren: “Though you, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah offend…” (Hosea 4:15). Furthermore, God adds , “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone” (Hosea 4:17). How had the people of God turned into such a degenerate people in rebellion against God?                 During His ministry Jesus had warned, “ Most assuredly, I say to you, who

  BIBLE READING: Hosea 1-4                 How much does God love me? To what degree is God still willing to demonstrate His love to me despite my many failings? Through the prophet Hosea, we learn of God’s great love for His people. The prophet Hosea ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel during the days of the reign of Jereboam the son of Joash. From an economic standpoint the nation was enjoying a time of prosperity and growth (cf. 2 Kings 14:23-29); however, from a spiritual standpoint moral corruption and spiritual adultery permeated throughout God’s people.                 To illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and to show God’s unfailing love for His people, God gives Hosea a unique instruction: “"Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Hosea’s relationship with his wife Gomer (Hosea 1:3), who formerly had been a harlot and who would be unfaithful

  BIBLE READING: Daniel 10-12 “Then he said to me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come."                                                                                                                              -Daniel 10:12-14 Daniel had sought God to help him understand a vision. He had every reason to expect an answer. He had served God and faithfully witnessed in the face of strong opposition. He had been a man of prayer and had good motives and a clean heart. Yet he did not receive an answer! Day after day, he must have won

  BIBLE READING: Daniel 7-9                 Believing in God is a blessing beyond compare. The joy and hope that we experience when we give our lives to God is beyond words. But as children of God, we have an enemy that tries to destroy our faith in many ways. Sometimes he uses our families, governments, or life events to shake our faith in God. If we could see the future, how would we react? What would we do? Would we try to change it? The prophet Daniel, while at Babylon, was given a glimpse of the future. In his dreams he saw great beasts and powers that contended against one another. One of them however became a persecuting power over the children of God. A power described as terrible and strong was to oppress the children of God so much that it would wear them out and defeat them. Today, if one of us were to see a revelation of the future like Daniel’s, what would we do?             Our enemy is trying to destroy our faith by any means necessary. Through the popular media

  BIBLE READING: Daniel 5-6                 Daniel knew what he was doing. He knew the law. Daniel knew that praying to his God would get him into trouble. He remembered the persecution his people had faced under Nebuchadnezzar and he knew the Persians could be just as ruthless. He would not get away with this. Calmly, Daniel walked up to the upper floor of his house, cast open his windows and faced the remnants of God’s temple in Jerusalem. Knowing the danger full well, Daniel got down on his knees to defy the king and pray. You see, Daniel did not just know the danger he faced, he also knew the promises of his LORD. As a boy, Daniel had heard the stories of God’s great protecting hand, from Noah to Moses to David. Daniel remembered when three of his friends had been thrown into a fiery furnace and emerged unharmed. Now an older man, Daniel could look back and see God’s guidance in his own life as had been brought to his high calling.   How could the same God who had sustaine

  BIBLE READING: Daniel 3-4 “It takes a village to raise a child”             The intent of this African Proverb means that it takes an entire community of people to help raise its children to be a productive member in their environment.   Although its origin is unknown, its meaning has reached much farther than its original intent; such is the case with our reading today.   In Daniel 3, we find King Nebuchadnezzar at the apex of his Babylonian Empire.   In his pride he constructs a golden statue of himself.   Whether or not he realized that in erecting such a statue, he was fulfilling Daniel’s prophecy.   Nevertheless, the king issued a decree that when the special music was being played, the residents of Babylon were to bow down and pay homage to this statue.   Failure to do so, resulted in being tossed into a furnace and burned alive.   Of course, we know that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three of the Jews that were taken from Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar seize, refuse