Author: Dave

June 26, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

1 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 17

Common Theme
God honors faithfulness and judges wickedness. While Israel’s kings continue to follow destructive, idolatrous paths, Judah’s King Jehoshaphat seeks the Lord and leads with integrity.

Questions

  • What distinguishes Jehoshaphat’s reign from the kings of Israel?
  • How does God respond to the choices of leaders who reject Him versus those who seek Him?

God Shot
God is just—He brings down corrupt kings like Baasha, Elah, and Ahab who lead Israel into sin. But He is also a rewarder of those who seek Him, as seen in His blessing and establishing of Jehoshaphat’s kingdom because Jehoshaphat delighted in the ways of the Lord.

June 25, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

1 Kings 15; 2 Chronicles 13-16

Common Theme:
God honors wholehearted devotion and trust in Him, even in times of conflict or uncertainty. When leaders rely on the Lord, He grants peace and victory, but when they turn to human solutions, even good beginnings can falter.

Questions:

  • What does it look like to fully rely on the Lord in both personal and national crises?
  • How does past faithfulness impact our future trust in God?

God Shot:
God reveals Himself as a defender of those who trust in Him wholeheartedly, as seen in His deliverance of Judah under King Asa and King Abijah. He loves to strengthen those who are fully committed to Him and actively seeks such hearts (2 Chronicles 16:9).

June 24, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

2 Chronicles 10–12

Common Theme:
Rebellion and humility both lead to consequences, but God’s mercy is present in both judgment and restoration. Israel’s division reveals human pride, while Judah’s partial repentance shows God’s grace amid discipline.

Reflection Questions:
– What does Rehoboam’s response to correction teach us about pride and humility?
– How does God’s response to Judah’s partial repentance shape your understanding of His justice and mercy?

God Shot:
God is just—He allows division, defeat, and discipline when His people reject His ways. But He is also merciful—when Judah humbled themselves, He relented from total destruction, showing that He desires repentance more than punishment.

June 23, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

1 Kings 12–14

Common Theme
These chapters show how quickly God’s people turn from His ways when leadership is driven by fear, pride, or convenience. Both Jeroboam and Rehoboam lead their kingdoms into sin, and God responds with warnings and judgment.

Questions

  • What does this passage reveal about the danger of self-protective leadership?
  • How does God confront idolatry among His people?

God Shot
God is the sovereign King who sees the heart and responds with both justice and mercy. He sends prophets, gives warnings, and remains holy even when His people are unfaithful.

June 22, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

Proverbs 30–31

Common Theme
Both chapters contrast the limits of human understanding with the enduring value of godly wisdom. Agur humbly acknowledges his lack of knowledge apart from God, while Lemuel’s mother teaches that wisdom is shown in upright leadership and virtuous living.

Questions
– How does Proverbs 30 challenge self-reliance in favor of dependence on God’s revelation?
– What qualities in Proverbs 31 define true strength and honor from God’s perspective?

God Shot
God is the source of all wisdom and the one who defines what is truly noble and praiseworthy. He exalts humility, justice, and faithful stewardship, and He delights in those who fear Him above all else.

“Wait for the LORD.” — Psalm 27:14

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian doesn’t learn without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier for God’s soldiers than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, doesn’t know what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait.

Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the situation before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul on the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God.

But wait in faith. Express your unshaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if He keeps you tarrying even until midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not linger.

Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the situation as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying,

“Now, Lord, not my will, but Yours be done. I don’t know what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until You shall halt the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if You keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon You alone, O God, and my spirit waits for You in the full conviction that You will yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower.”

Attribution: Morning by Morning by Charles H. Spurgeon, August 30 entry.

June 21, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

1 Kings 10–11; 2 Chronicles 9

Common Theme:
Solomon’s reign displayed extraordinary wealth and wisdom, but his heart strayed as he pursued foreign alliances and idolatry. God’s blessings are not a substitute for obedience—true faithfulness requires an undivided heart.

Questions:

  • Why did Solomon’s wisdom not prevent his downfall?
  • What does this reveal about the danger of compromise in our spiritual lives?

God Shot:
God is generous with wisdom and favor, yet He remains holy and just. He will not allow divided devotion to go unchecked—His heart desires love that is loyal, not distracted by power or pleasure.

“Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed.” — Jeremiah 17:14

“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.” — Isaiah 57:18

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease.
Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by mortals, but even then the honor is to be given to God who gives virtue to medicine, and bestows power to the human frame to cast off disease.

As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone.
He claims it as His prerogative, “I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal”, and one of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah Rophi, the Lord that heals you.

“I will heal your wounds,” is a promise which could not come from the lips of a mortal, but only from the mouth of the eternal God.

On this account the psalmist cried to the Lord:

“O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony,”
and again,
“Heal me, for I have sinned against You.”

For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying:

“He heals all our diseases.”

He who made us can restore us; He who was the Creator of our nature can new create it.

What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”

My soul, whatever your disease may be, this great Physician can heal you.
If He is God, there can be no limit to His power.

Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you to health.

None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord.
Legions of devils have been made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled.

All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you shall be one among them, my friend, if you would just rest in Him this night.

— Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (August 30, Evening)

June 20, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

Ecclesiastes 7–12

Common Theme
Life under the sun is fleeting and full of paradoxes, but fearing God and keeping His commandments is the only true foundation for wisdom and meaning. The Teacher concludes that while much in life is uncertain and beyond control, God remains the ultimate judge and source of purpose.

Questions

  • What does it look like to fear God when life feels futile or unclear?
  • How do you reconcile the call to rejoice in life with the reality of death’s certainty?

God Shot
God is the righteous Judge who sees every deed and will bring all things into judgment, both good and evil. He desires reverence and obedience, not because life is simple or fair, but because He alone gives life meaning beyond the vanities of the world.

June 19, 2025 – Bible Recap Journal

Ecclesiastes 1–6


Common Theme:
Life under the sun appears fleeting, repetitive, and ultimately unsatisfying when pursued apart from God. The Teacher exposes the vanity of wealth, wisdom, toil, and pleasure, pressing readers to fear God amid life’s apparent meaninglessness.

Questions:

  • What do I pursue that promises meaning but ultimately proves empty?
  • How does the fear of God reshape my perspective on life’s limitations?

God Shot:
God is the sovereign giver of time, toil, and enjoyment, placing boundaries on human understanding to humble us. He alone grants satisfaction, showing that even joy is a gift, not a guarantee. It is rooted in His sovereign purpose, not our striving.