B. A. D. (Be A Disciple) Student Ministries

A Nation Reborn Nehemiah's Journey to Deliver the People of Israel Maybe you've just been catching up on the Bible through the quick summaries I post, which is fine! But I highly recommend reading Nehemiah when you get the chance.  Nehemiah begins by rebuilding the temple against the will of all the other leaders. He convinces them all to allow the Israelites to rebuild anyway. (Nehemiah 4:14--Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes.)  He helps the poor, who were forced to pay a hefty tax, and give their land to the kings. They continue to rebuild. Nehemiah commissions Ezra (the scribe from yesterday's reading) to read aloud the Book of Law, where we hear, "Do not grieve. For the joy of the Lord is your strength," (Nehemiah 8:10).  Nehemiah 9-10 is what we've all been waiting to hear! The repentance of the Israelites and their ...

Return to Jerusalem  Putting God Back in the Forefront  Today's reading begins with a few more kings and ultimately, the fall of Jerusalem. Then Cyrus, the king of Persia, was appointed by God to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, and calls the followers of God to go to it. Moving on  to Ezra: After Cyrus's proclamation, the number of descendants who return to help rebuild the temple are listed, totaling nearly 50,000. The people began to build the altar and the temple, and sing praises to the Lord of his enduring love. Some of the enemies began to oppose the building of the temple, and tried to convince everyone to stop working on it. When Xerxes comes into power, he sends a letter to Artaxerxes making accusations against the people of Jerusalem and Judah. He said they wouldn't pay taxes, they would dishonor the king, and that they would cause much trouble since they were rebellious people. Artaxerxes responded by ordering the archives to be searched, which...

Continuing with 2 Chronicles Remembering the Kings Our reading today begins with Jehoiada taking a stand in the name of the Lord--bringing His people back to Him, followed by Joash rebuilding the Temple of the Lord. After the temple was rebuilt, the sons of Athalia broke into the temple--and began using the sacred objects within it to worship their false gods--namely, the Baals. And Jehoiada placed a chest at the entrance of the temple where people could place their tithes, which were used for repair of the temple and to compensate for it's upkeep. After Jehoiada's death, the people went back to their wicked ways--even though the Lord sent many prophets to try to bring His people back to Him, one of them being Jehoiada's son, Zechariah. Joash then killed Zechariah without any regard for the kindness Zechariah's father had shown him. Amaziah took over as king of Judah, where he was initially with the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. Amaziah wrongfully attempt...

Fighting Our Battles What 2 Chronicles Has Taught Us about War and Peace Our reading starts off with a summary of Solomon's reign, remember that? It then moves through Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ahab, Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah. If you want more detail on what happened there, check out some of the previous posts, it's a lot (namely, day 24-day 28--all under the Week 4 label).  Today, since we've already gone through a lot of the information that was presented in today's reading, I'd mostly like to highlight some of my favorite verses, and discuss them briefly.  2 Chronicles 13:18 "The men of Israel were subdued on that occasion, and the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers." I love that this verse shows how relying of your love of the Lord can bring you to victory, can bring you through a battle unscathed.  2 Chronicles 15:2 "The Lord is with you when you are w...

One-Third of the Way There! What were the others doing during Kings? So, today I'm going to try something different: I'm going to type out my thoughts as they come across while I'm reading. Today's reading provides some context as to what the people other than the Kings were doing during the last three chapters.  1 Chronicles 24-27: I actually didn't realize how many people David had appointed during his reign as King of Israel. Not only as priests, but also as singers, musicians, gatekeepers, as well as so many officials like treasurers and army leaders. The army leaders was really surprising, especially considering there were 24,000 men in each division of the army. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that sounds like a lot of people.   1 Chronicles 28-29: 1 Chronicles 28:9-12 really speaks to me. Here, David is commanding his son to become a true man of God. To follow the Lord in all of his ways, to make good on his promises and t...

CliffNotes of the CliffNotes  Remembering David's Reign Upon going through today's reading, you may have realized that much of what we read is just a summarized version of the reign of King David over Israel. You also may have realized that that's what I tend to write about, so today is a summarized version of a summarized version of David!  Just kidding! I will be highlighting a few things, but I'd really like to focus on 1 Chronicles 16.  Our reading today started out with Saul's death, followed by David's rise to power. It continues to detail some of the battles David fought and some of his accomplishments, including bringing back the Ark to Jerusalem.  Once the Ark is brought back, David delivers a psalm (song) of praise to the Lord. This psalm is every thought we had during Kings. David thanks the Lord for all of his mercies, for delivering the Israelites from Egypt and being with them in battle. It lifts God above all other go...

Dissecting the Family Tree A Journey through 1 Chronicles So, if you didn't fall asleep during today's reading, you might have noticed there were quite a few names. If you're ever looking for baby name inspiration, you may want to consider checking out 1 Chronicles!  In all seriousness, I did find it really fascinating to read the family tree from the beginning of the beginning all the way up to the end of yesterday's reading. (Actually, if you paid super close attention, you may have noticed we have a family tree slightly beyond what we read yesterday in 1 Chronicles 3:17-24.)  It was difficult to get through all of those names though! Some of them were incredibly long, and it took me a while to figure out how my mental voice wanted to pronounce them. But I generally found it cool and interesting, and it sort of solidified a lot of things I had just assumed from previous readings.  It may seem pointless to be reading all about these dead descenda...