Month: September 2025

But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them . . . 1 Kings…
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Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. 1 Kings 8:63 Far from being a perfect father, I made more than my share of mistakes while my kids were growing up. Early on though, I…
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Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day. 1 Kings 8:61 Most of us, as teenagers, experienced infatuation in some relationship. We had overwhelming emotions that dictated our reality. . . until those emotions just wore off. Then, for…
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The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. 1 Kings 8:57-58 I wish…
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When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants . . . 1 Kings 8:35 My parents tried…
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If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin . . . 1 Kings 8:46 At an airport a few years ago, some random guy approached me with a gospel tract, asking if I knew where I’d go if I died suddenly. His was an adversarial approach, claiming that I was…
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Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. 1 Kings 8:1 I may…
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Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house. 1 Kings 7:1 As I was mowing my lawn yesterday, contemplating today’s passage, I imagined what my neighbors must think of me and my lawn. Last fall, with new construction, we had a giant mud hole, so before the snows arrived,…
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Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake…
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Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work. 1 Kings 5:15-16 Years ago, someone gave me a sailboat. I saw this as a grand gift, as I pictured myself sailing…
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