MORNING BY MORNING

Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 8-9

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

This is the ancient Hippodrome at Jerash, where tourists can enjoy re-enactments of chariot races and play fighting. Recent excavations show that Jerash was already inhabited during the Bronze Age (3200 BC – 1200 BC). After the Roman conquest in 63 BC, Jerash and the lands surrounding it were annexed by the Roman province of Syria and joined the Decapolis cities. Jesus ministered here. These were non-Jewish cities. He cares for us all!

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verses: 1 Chronicles 9:27-28

And they lodged all around the house of God because they had the responsibility, and they were in charge of opening it every morning. Now some of them were in charge of the serving vessels, for they brought them in and took them out by count.

Names, names and more names are found in our readings. Perhaps this is tedious for some, but not for God. Every person is of infinite and eternal importance to Him, including each of us! The Chronicles are not written with a specific timeline in mind; rather it moves back and forth with the stories of various families. The key verse is not about the Temple of Solomon but about its successor built under the leadership of Ezra. This was the Temple, which was extensively renovated and enlarged by King Herod, in which Jesus would have worshipped. Notice the care given to the management and operation of the Temple.

Consider our responsibility to the sanctuary in which we worship. This is not the earthly building built for the purpose of meeting together as believers to worship corporately, to learn the Word of God, and to have fellowship one with another, but rather the Tabernacle “not made with hands.” The earthly building was a copy of that which exists in Heaven. It is to the heavenly building, the Church in the heavenly place, in which each one of us have the responsibility to serve every day. “Morning by morning” with consistency is so very important. Let us take the time, if possible, to read from Hebrews 9:1-28. Let us meditate on our place of service.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, even as those who served You in Your earthly building called the Temple, so I desire to take responsibility in serving in Your eternal building, the Church, which You, Jesus, said You would build. Please show me my specific responsibility, and I pray for grace to faithfully do my job. In the Name of the One who carries out His responsibility with total faithfulness, the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

Everyone reading this blog has a job to do, as did those who lived around the Temple in Jerusalem. I have some responsibilities currently at the Crossroads Centre here in Burlington. Every morning my job is to make sure you who read this blog actually receive it. Ron and Ann are a big blessing, making sure it gets done right. I’m determined to give top priority to my wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. My over-arching job is to serve in that Tabernacle “not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). I’m doing this now as I write this blog. Faithfulness in prayer, in meditating on God’s Word, in bringing others and their needs before God daily is my first job every morning.

Yours for faithfully carrying out our responsibility to God and to people,

David

P.S. In case you haven’t watched 100 Huntley Street lately, here’s the website where you can watch  online…www.100huntley.com.

Dubbed the “Pompeii of the East,” ancient Jerash is a Greco-Roman city located 80 miles north of Amman Jordan. The impressive, beautifully preserved ruins of Jerash include places of worship and other buildings from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and early Muslim periods. In this photo you can see the full length of the Hippodrome. The ruins of earthly buildings can be contrasted with the eternal importance of the true Temple “not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).