September 20, Reading 1 – 1 Kings 12:1-24

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Rehoboam is not some twenty-year old. He is forty years of age! Yet he acts like a spoilt child. He loses control of nine of the eleven tribes with land. Remember the Lord’s word to Solomon: if you walk before Me in integrity of heart and uprightness.

SJA Notes

* Heavenly Father, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.

“What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.”

Barely a generation from great king David and we see Israel walking away, we see how quickly they fled the house of David.

Each king has had great trouble, so far. Saul, David and even Solomon. The divisions were there, ebbing and flowing.

As we today continue to go through tumultuous periods in our own lives, as the world beckons loud and strong – What portion do we have, what inheritance?

It is only in Jesus that any of us have an inheritance. In the great Son of the son of Jesse. His kingdom can never be split asunder or taken from Him!

What portion do we have in David?

The better question is, what portion do we have in Christ, David’s Lord?

In Him we have an inheritance not made by human hand, made of heavenly truths, realities only found in God.

Praise God, Hallelujah – What a Saviour!

* Lord God,

Thank You for the inheritance we have in You.

Thank You for promising us such a weight of heavenly hope that nothing else can compare.

Thank You for building the new heavens and new earth, a place where You and we will dwell together. You our God. We Your people.

Lord hasten that day!

Amen.

September 20, Reading 2 – Jeremiah 21, 22

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The king wanted God to do what He did at Exodus. The Word of the Lord (Jesus – John 1:1) tells the king in 22:2-5 that religion is not about God keeping you safe, but about Trust and Obey – there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus! The judgment of verses 28-30 did come upon Jeconiah. His heir was a very distant relative – Shealtiel (Matthew 1:12).

SJA Notes

* God Above, please open our ears to listen to Your word to us today.

“Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”

It is not the world that should be telling us how to act toward the fatherless and the widowed, to the stranger in our lands, to the one who has been robbed or beaten.

It is God who tells us what to do! And it is Jesus, God in the Person of the Son, who shows us what to do!

Unlike any other king or any other leader, Jesus judges the cause of the poor and needy, He built and continues to build His house in righteousness.

God sets down here great benefit for our lives, and for the world around us as well.

We can be encouraged to hear God’s call on us to behave as He wants us to, working justice and righteousness.

* Gracious Lord God,

Please teach us how to execute justice in the morning and righteousness throughout the day.

Please show us Jesus, who is our King that leads us in these things.

Amen.

September 20, Reading 3 – Colossians 1:1-20

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

There is a great awe of Christ behind verses 15-20. The fruit of salvation for our loved ones flows from His gospel. There are excellent guidelines for prayer here and the great statement of who Christ is.

SJA Notes

* Almighty God, please teach us today from Your word.

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Here we see loud and clear – Jesus is our King!

God the Father has saved us from darkness into light, and so we move from one kingdom to the other.

We have a king like no other.

He is unlike any other king or leader or power that ever existed.

He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation.

More – By Him all things were created.

More! These things that were created through Him, they are FOR Him.

He is before all things, and He holds all things together.

This is our King Jesus.

It is not foolish to say that He is the center and crux and pivot of time and history and creation itself.

He is the energy by which this world and all that is was made.

He is the power by which creation continues, even broken as it is.

And this King of Kings, God the Son, He came to earth and humbled Himself – Making peace by the blood of His cross.

What a King this is! The Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.

* Father God,

Thank You for Jesus, You in the Person of the Son, through whom we have redemption.

Please help us see Jesus a little better today. Please help us grow a little more toward You today.

Amen.