Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Reflection: Today we see two disasters that could have been avoided had the leaders listened to the voice of the Lord.   In Chronicles, we see despite a few good kings, king after king failing to listen to God’s voice through the prophets who had been sent. He sent messenger after messenger because he had pity on the place where His Name was supposed to dwell.   But it says in the text at a certain point, “there was no remedy.”   Paul warns the people on the ship that disaster awaits them if they continued their current course.   But the centurion listened to the pilot and the owner of the boat and when they met the impending storm our passage ends today with the words, “we finally gave up all hope of being saved”.   Of course the “we” represents not only Paul, but the writer of the two volume companion of Luke/Acts, Paul’s companion, Luke. In the case of Judah, they were in captivity for 70 years according to the prophecy given by Jeremiah and then King Cyrus issued a dec

Reflection:   There is something powerful when we all gather for big service like on Easter or Christmas Eve.   We recount the central tenets of our faith of the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.   There is a special sense of God’s presence when God’s people gather together for big celebrations like this.   Today, in Chronicles, we see at the height of King Josiah’s reign, he arranged for a celebration of the Passover that hadn’t been done like this since the days of Samuel and King David.   We can see all the preparations that had to be made to do it right.   The 30,000 Passover lambs and goats, other cattle, and other burnt offerings were all prepared in accordance with the Law that had been given to Moses, as he led the Israelites out of the desert.   The Passover was enacted in order to celebrate the central saving act God had done for the Israelites by delivering them from their enemy the Egyptians. Every time the Israelites celebrated the Passover, they we

Reflections:   Today we have the tales of two kings.   One king humbled himself when the Book of the Law was read in his presence.   He tore his robes in response to the revelation and the possibility of their being a remnant left in Jerusalem, before God poured out his anger for their disobedience according to the covenant he had made with them.   Then, we have another King Agrippa who after hearing Paul’s clear testimony said, “You are out of your mind!”   Paul calmly responded the king knows these things they have not happened in the corner.   “You believe the prophets right?”, he asks the king.   As we hear the Word of God we have two choices as well. We can listen and obey and/or think that it would be insane to listen to God.   The psalmist David reflects in Psalm 31 of the surety of putting his faith in the Lord, his rock.   He asks God to come to His rescue for the sake of His name.   He knows that trouble is front of him but he firmly rests his confidence in the Lord

Reflections:   In today’s lessons we hear of 4 kings and the apostle Paul; and 4 out of the 5 of them give testimony to when they cried out to God for mercy and he heard their cry.   King Manasseh was twelve years old when he started his reign in Jerusalem.   It didn’t start out too well for him as he followed the destestable practices of the nations around him unlike his Father, Hezekiah. He even went as far as to sacrifice his own children in the Valley of Ben Hinnom.   After literally being enshackled with a hook in his nose, the passage says, “He humbled himself greatly before the Lord.”   Just the sheer nature of his punishment would be enough, but Manasseh sought God in deeper ways and like David cried out for mercy. Then God brought him back to Jerusalem and it says Manasseh knew He was God.   Even though God had spoken to him and he hadn’t listened, God was still merciful when he cried to him for help.   Such is the nature of our God. When we refuse to listen to him an