In our Sunday School Hour, we reviewed our memory verse of the week: First Kings 8:23. Solomon reminds us, in his prayer at the dedication of the newly-built temple in Jerusalem that there is no God like the Most Holy God of Israel. No “so-called god” in the heavenly realms can match God’s wisdom, majesty, power, and might, much less any “pretender god” on earth. The God of Israel keeps covenant with His servants. He shows mercy to them as well. How are God’s servants identified in the verse? They are the ones “who walk before [God] with all their hearts”, that is, they are obedient from the heart to the revealed word of the God–the God they so highly prize above all else.

After our time of sharing in prayer requests and in public prayer, we finished our overview of Second Samuel, beginning with chapter 14 through chapter 24.

Major points to remember from our outline

• chs14-18: Absalom overthrows his father David; dies by Joab
• ch19: David’s return to the throne in Jerusalem
• ch20: Sheba leads Israel to rebel against David; dies by Joab
• ch21: Israel’s 3-year famine for Saul’s bloodguilt against the Gibeonites
• ch22: David’s psalm of remembrance & thanksgiving to God
• ch23: David’s list of mighty warriors
• ch24: David numbers military-age men & sins against God in doing so

We were going to check ourselves in a few months to see how well we remember a bare skeleton of Second Samuel. We can remember it this way:

The Book of Second Samuel is divided into two major sections:
(1) David’s Triumphs, and
(2) David’s Troubles.

Under (1) David’s Triumphs we would break this down into two more simple sub-sections of:
(a) King over Judah in Hebron, and
(b) King over all Israel in Jerusalem.

Under (2) David’s Troubles, we would separate these into three sub-sections of:
(a) David’s personal troubles (starting w/Bathsheba),
(b) David’s family troubles (sons Amnon, Absalom), and
(c) David’s national troubles (uprisings, famine, pestilence).

Next Sunday, March 3, we begin our overview of First Kings. We encourage all to attend.

In our Bible Lesson during Morning Worship, we looked at the first two verses of Hebrews 12. You can visit our “Sermons” page to access the mp3 and PDF of slides for that message.

Major points to remember from the message

• We have a real connection with past runners in the race of faith
• We must run the race as God prescribes it
• Our entire focus while running is on Jesus
• “You cannot live with God forever unless you are His kind of holiness.”
• “If you are born again of God’s Spirit, God conceived you and you came into being. You did not conceive yourself.”
• “When Jesus was at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, dead Lazarus didn’t pray. Jesus did.”
• “As we lie upon our deathbeds if God so wills it, we all may need a ‘Hopeful’ next to us to remind and encourage us to look unto Christ.” (referring to the character Hopeful who encouraged a nearly-drowning Christian to look to Jesus when they were crossing the River toward the Celestial City.)
• A worthy quote from C.H. Spurgeon: “No faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs through adversity. Tested faith brings experience. You would never have believed your own weakness had you not needed to pass through trials. And you would never have known God’s strength had His strength not been needed to carry you through.”

Our Afternoon Study concluded the study in Sketches in Church History with chapters 49 & 50: “The 19th Century Church on the Continent of Europe” parts one and two. Next Sunday, March 3, we will begin a 5-part DVD series entitled: “The Spreading Flame – 1,000 Years of Church History” and will be followed up in the beginning of April with our new Banner series on “Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically.” Again, we encourage all to attend one or all of these opportunities to publicly gather for worship and instruction.