Read To Me Daily Semester 4Uzorak

2CHRONICLES 26-27:
King Joash didn’t end so well, did he?! He killed Jehoiadah’s son Zechariah. When Jesus mentioned killing prophets A through Z, that Zechariah was the Z that he mentioned by name. Time and time again Judah’s kings needed to learn not to be proud, and that certainly happened to Joash’s son Amaziah, who was assassinated like his father.

ECCLESIASTES 3:
Chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes ended with a significant conclusion or two:

Ecc. 2:24 GNT The best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have earned. And yet, I realized that even this comes from God.
25 How else could you have anything to eat or enjoy yourself at all?
26 God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him, but he makes sinners work, earning and saving, so that what they get can be given to those who please him. It is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

MATTHEW 16:24—17:
In Matthew’s Gospel yesterday we heard words that remind me of the famous quote from Jim Elliot’s journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” We’ll start by re-reading those words of Jesus at the end of chapter 16, so that we get a good transition to chapter 17.

Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we can certainly see the truth of what You said in Isaiah 55. There you said that Your thoughts are not like our thoughts, and your ways are different than our ways. And You said, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.” Without You revealing your amazing ways, there is no way even Solomon could find out all the truth. But because of being united to Christ and having the Spirit of Jesus, give us eyes to see more of your thoughts and ways. Dear Lord Jesus, help us to understand what You revealed to your disciples, and to recognize and correctly interpret the signs of our times. Guard us from human teaching dressed up in religious clothing. And guard us from Satan whispering lies to us. And may we do the thing most counterintuitive of all, which is: We’ll take up our cross today— counting our earthly life of no value, and we’ll follow You, the Son of Man. If it comes to the point of losing our lives for You, it won’t be useless, meaningless, or chasing the wind.