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November 18 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
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If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
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Today we will read about Paul's speech of witness to the people and Jewish leaders in Jerusalem as well as his obedience to God to do the work God called him to do. Lastly, we will see the encouragement that Jesus himself gave to Paul to keep obeying and doing the work God gave him to do.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about how Paul told the Jewish leaders that he was doing what God wanted him to do every day, even up to that very day. This should be our goal, as well. We need to make obeying God and doing the work He has given us to do every day the biggest part of our daily lives. We will discuss how Jesus encouraged Paul to keep going and in the same way the Holy Spirit will bring us comfort and encouragement as we do OUR work for God, too! It can be tough to get through the hard times of obedience, but we can be encouraged to remember that if God is for us, who can be against us? In this case it looked like all of Jerusalem was against Paul, but even there God was for Paul and delivered him safely to Rome. God will take care of us, too, as we do the work He has prepared for us to do.
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:03
Speaker
and Hello, hello! Today is November 18th. We are here for our daily reading through the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley.
00:00:14
Speaker
I am so glad that there are so many of you watching. Thank you so much for coming back again. I'm glad that you're hungry again. i hope to feed your spirit today with our daily application and our daily reading out of that Day by Day Kids Bible.
00:00:29
Speaker
In case you don't already know, and this is just popping up on your feed somewhere, my name is Robin. I'm with In the Family Way Coaching. That's my little business. I am an appreciative Christian coach, and it is my pleasure this year to bring to you this daily Bible reading event.
Benefits of Chronological Bible Reading
00:00:47
Speaker
This particular Bible says that it's a kid's Bible, but it's really not just for kids. It is written in a devotional type style, so it has a daily entry for every day of the year.
00:01:00
Speaker
And it's not numbered one, two, three. It's numbered with our day and the and the month. And I love that. It is so easy to read. I picked up my copy on Amazon. You can pick up your copy there. They do have it available on the electronic version like Kindle or something.
00:01:18
Speaker
But from what I see in the reviews, for some reason, that particular version is done in one through 365 days. So I think it can be a little harder to keep track of your days that way.
00:01:29
Speaker
But this particular Bible is written in an easy-to-understand level at about a second or third grade level so that kids age about seven and up can read and understand the Bible.
00:01:44
Speaker
Now, since most of the time the kids are not going to be reading by themselves, I decided that this would be a great family event. And you know what? I've talked to a lot of different people, and a lot of people are very excited about an easier-to-understand version of The Bible.
00:02:01
Speaker
this doesn't dumb it down karen henley has done a great job of giving us the meat of the bible therere it does not include every single detail but it is giving us the big story of god's big bible and it does so in timeline order, chronological order.
00:02:21
Speaker
So we are reading the whole story as it was written originally, from Genesis through Revelation, so that we can understand the Bible easier. Sometimes when you're picking a book to read or you're reading through a book, especially in the Old Covenant, well, actually it's all throughout the Bible, events are recorded often in more than book.
00:02:43
Speaker
So sometimes it can be confusing to know if a similar situation, because history has a tendency to repeat itself, if you've already read about this event that you're reading about and it's already occurred, or if it's happening again.
00:02:59
Speaker
So this particular version, and quite frankly, any chronological Bible, which I didn't even know there was such a thing, but they are now putting out chronological Bibles, and I guess they have for a while, but who knows? I didn't know.
00:03:13
Speaker
It would sure make understanding God's big story easier if we read it in chronological order rather than in book order.
Daily Application of the Bible
00:03:20
Speaker
And then all those events that are recorded in more than one place are consolidated.
00:03:26
Speaker
So it takes all the details in our version, not all of them, but enough for the big story. And it consolidates them into one timeline. So this makes it easier to understand and retain what it is that's going on and when in the Bible so that we can understand the events in the old covenant that led up to but God bringing us Jesus with the new covenant and why it was necessary.
00:03:54
Speaker
And then when we read in the New Covenant, it can be confusing to know what Jesus did when. what What order did things happen in? I don't know about you, but for me, this year, reading it in this chronological Bible has really helped me bring everything together.
00:04:10
Speaker
Because it doesn't do us much good to read God's Word if we don't actually understand it So this event, hopefully you are finding that you have deeper understanding of God's word.
00:04:22
Speaker
And I always love the fact that no matter what I read in God's Bible, that it has daily application for me. And I've been so excited about that for so long.
00:04:33
Speaker
And to be able to put that together, God really put that on my heart this year. Well, last year, this has been building up for a couple of years before I actually got to it this year, to be able to show us how every single day's reading has daily application in our lives today.
00:04:53
Speaker
I love that. I love that about God's Word. It's not just general application. It's how God is going to use this today. So amazing.
00:05:05
Speaker
Well, if you are using the motivational calendar tool that I have out on my site, it's time to go ahead and take that out. It's time to get that sticker ready, your crayon, your marker, your pen, whatever you're using to cross off those days, because we're going to finally hear the Bible today.
00:05:24
Speaker
Today we are going to be reading Acts chapter 22 and chapter 23.
Paul's Story in Acts 22-23
00:05:30
Speaker
And as we left off yesterday, Paul had just been taken into custody by the ah guards, the centurions there in Jerusalem.
00:05:40
Speaker
And Paul had asked if he could address the crowd there. There was a lot going on. People were shouting. Everybody was upset. Some people were claiming this. Some people were claiming that.
00:05:51
Speaker
And quite frankly, probably just like as we saw previously when there was a riot, probably nobody knew exactly why he was there. The guard even thought that he was somebody else, that he had been a rebel from Egypt who had taken people out into the desert.
00:06:07
Speaker
And Paul said, no, I'm not him. I'm a Jew. So today i'm going to give us a little bit of a blending of our ah day by day kids Bible. And then when i really feel that there are some details that need to be included, because a lot of us here are grownups as well. And quite frankly, I know that you kids can hear and understand the details that we're going to include too, because God's word is speaking to you.
00:06:33
Speaker
I know it is. And it's not too complicated, these parts that I add. I just really love the additional details that it includes. And we know God is in the details, don't we?
00:06:46
Speaker
So let's begin. We left off yesterday that Paul began to talk to the crowd in their own language, which our big Bible tells us was Aramaic. So Paul was speaking Aramaic to them.
00:07:00
Speaker
Listen to me, Paul said. Now the crowd heard their own language, so they got very quiet.
00:07:09
Speaker
I am a Jew, said Paul. I grew up in this city. I went to school here. Gamaliel was my teacher, and he taught me the law.
00:07:22
Speaker
I worked hard for God and his law, said Paul. I worked hard just like you do. And I was hard on the followers of Jesus.
00:07:33
Speaker
I was hard on this way. I had many of them killed. I took men and women to jail. And I even went to Damascus to catch more of them.
00:07:48
Speaker
Now I was on my way to Damascus to do just that, said Paul. And then about noon, as I was traveling, a bright light shone on me from heaven.
00:08:01
Speaker
I fell down and I heard a voice. The voice said to me, Saul, Saul, why are you hurting me? Our big boy, big Bible says, why are you persecuting me?
00:08:19
Speaker
Now, Paul, i'm going I'm going to insert this part from our big Bible.
00:08:27
Speaker
Verses 8 through 16. I answered the voice. I said, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting or hurting.
00:08:43
Speaker
Now those who were with me, they saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. So I replied and said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Get up and go to Damascus.
00:09:02
Speaker
There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do. But since I could not see because of the brilliance of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me.
00:09:18
Speaker
And I came into Damascus. Then a certain Ananias, a devout man, according to the Torah, well spoken of by all the Jewish people living there.
00:09:31
Speaker
He came to see me and he said, Brother Saul, look up. And in that very moment, I looked up and I saw him.
00:09:43
Speaker
And he said to me, the God of our fathers handpicked you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear an utterance from his mouth.
00:09:59
Speaker
For you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.
00:10:13
Speaker
Now, he continued on. Why are you waiting? Get up and be immersed and wash away your sins, calling upon his name.
00:10:25
Speaker
Now, it happened that when I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying at the worship house, said Paul. Now, I was awake, but it was as if I was dreaming. That's what we call a vision.
00:10:38
Speaker
I saw the Lord and he was talking to me. He said, quick, leave Jerusalem right away because they will not believe what you have are going to say about me.
00:10:52
Speaker
And I said, Lord, they know how I hurt your followers. When they killed Stephen, was glad. I guarded their coats for them while they did it.
00:11:05
Speaker
But the Lord talked to me again and he said, go, am sending you far away people who are not Jewish, the Gentiles, he said.
00:11:17
Speaker
Now up to this point, the crowd had been listening to Paul until he had said that. Then they yelled, get rid of He's not good enough to live.
00:11:28
Speaker
And they threw their coats off and they tossed dust into the air. Now the captain told the guards to take Paul into the army building. And the captain said that they were to beat Paul.
00:11:42
Speaker
They were trying to interrogate him by by way of torture, by beating him to find out what was going on with him. And then he asked Paul why people were shouting at him.
00:11:55
Speaker
And so the guards got ready to beat him.
00:12:02
Speaker
But when they stretched him out with straps, Paul said to the centurion standing there, Is it legal for you to whip a man who is a Roman citizen without due process?
00:12:16
Speaker
Or what our version says, without being shown that I have done anything wrong? Now the guard went to the captain and he said, This man is a Roman.
00:12:29
Speaker
What are we going to do? So now the captain went over to Paul and he asked him, are you really a Roman? Yes, said Paul, I am.
00:12:43
Speaker
I paid lots of money to become a Roman, said the captain. But I was born a Roman, said Paul.
00:12:57
Speaker
Therefore, because Paul had said that he was born a Roman, those who were about to interrogate him or question him intensely instantly drew back from him. And the commander, he was also afraid when he found out that Paul was a Roman because he was the one who had tied him up.
00:13:16
Speaker
Now the captain still wanted to know what the Jews were blaming Paul for doing. So he asked the Jewish leaders to get together. The council called the Sanhedrin. And then he brought Paul to that Sanhedrin.
00:13:30
Speaker
When Paul arrived at the Sanhedrin, he looked right at the leaders. He said, I know that I have done what God wants me to do.
00:13:42
Speaker
And I have even done what he wants me to do today. Now the high priest told the people who were standing nearest to Paul to hit him. He told them to hit Paul on the mouth.
00:13:57
Speaker
You are a fake, said Paul. You are the one who will get hit and God will do it because you sit there to judge me by the law, but you are breaking the law by telling them to hit me.
00:14:11
Speaker
The people who were nearest to Paul said, How dare you talk that way? That is the high priest you are talking to. Paul replied to them and said, I did not know he was the high priest.
00:14:25
Speaker
The law says not to say bad things about the ruler of God's people.
00:14:34
Speaker
Now Paul knew that these leaders often fussed with each other. They fussed about what they believed.
00:14:42
Speaker
we're going to insert our big Bible version. Paul recognized that among the Sanhedrin, there was one group who were called Sadducees and the other group was the Pharisees. So they were both present there.
00:14:57
Speaker
So Paul began crying out to the Sanhedrin portion of the group there. And he said to them, brothers, I am a Pharisee. I am a son of Pharisees.
00:15:09
Speaker
And I am on trial today because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead. I am in here because of what I believe.
00:15:20
Speaker
I believe that the dead will come back to life again.
00:15:26
Speaker
Then the leaders began to fuss with each other because some of them, the Sadducees, they do not believe that the dead come back to life. Whereas the others, the Pharisees, they do believe that there is resurrection and people come back to life.
00:15:44
Speaker
Some of them, like the Sadducees, did not believe in angels or spirits and the others, the Pharisees, did. So now there was a lot of noise and it wasn't directed at Paul.
00:15:56
Speaker
Some of the leaders believed like Paul did, and they stood up, and they said, Nothing is wrong with this man. What if a spirit has talked to him? What if he has heard from an angel?
00:16:09
Speaker
Now the fussing was starting to get out of control, and the captain was afraid that Paul, in the process, would be torn to pieces. So he told the guards to take Paul back to the army building.
00:16:22
Speaker
Now the next night, Jesus came to Paul. He said to Paul, Be brave, Paul. You have told the people in Jerusalem about me, and now you must tell the people in Rome also.
00:16:41
Speaker
Now the next day, the Jews got together. There were more than 40 of them, and they made a promise to each other that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul.
00:16:55
Speaker
They told their Jewish leaders about the promise that they had made to one another. They said to ask the captain to bring Paul to them, and then say that you want to know more about him, and we will kill him before he even gets there.
00:17:12
Speaker
Now Paul had a sister and she had a son and her son heard about the Jews plan against Paul. And so he went and he told Paul about it.
00:17:25
Speaker
So Paul called one of the guards over and he said to the guard, this young man has something to tell the captain. So the guard took the young man to the captain and the captain took his hand and they stepped away from the others.
00:17:42
Speaker
What do you want to tell me? The captain asked him. The young man told him, the Jews will ask you to bring Paul to their leader tomorrow, but don't do it because more than 40 men are going to be waiting to kill Paul.
00:18:01
Speaker
Don't let anybody know that you have told me this, the captain told him. The captain called over two guards and he told the two guards to get 200 soldiers ready and get 70 soldiers who ride horses and also get 200 soldiers who have spears and send them to Caesarea at nine o'clock this evening and give Paul a horse.
00:18:27
Speaker
You are to take him safely to Governor Felix. Then the captain wrote a letter to Governor Felix. To the best, Governor Felix.
00:18:39
Speaker
Hello. The Jews were going to kill this man, but I saved him with my guards because I knew he was a Roman.
00:18:51
Speaker
I wanted to find out what the Jews' problem was, so I took this man to the Jewish leaders, and they blame him for doing things that are against their law, but he did not do anything that he should die for.
00:19:03
Speaker
He did not even do anything to be put in jail for. Now I found out that the Jews have planned to kill him, so I have sent him to you right away, and I told the Jews to come see you about it.
00:19:18
Speaker
From Claudius Lysias Now the guards followed the captain's orders. That night, they took Paul part of the way, and then the next day, the soldiers who were on horses took him all the way to Caesarea.
00:19:34
Speaker
And there they gave the letter to the governor and they also gave Paul to him.
00:19:42
Speaker
Need to insert our verses out of our big Bible here.
00:19:48
Speaker
Now upon reading the letter, the governor asked what province Paul was from. And Paul told him that he was from Cilicia. So the governor Felix said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers have arrived also.
00:20:03
Speaker
And then the governor sent Paul to Herod's palace, and he ordered the guards to watch over him there. And that is the end of our reading today.
Prophecies and Paul's Obedience
00:20:18
Speaker
I thought today's reading was very exciting. I don't know about you. We have fulfillment of the Holy Spirit's prophecy that exactly that Paul would be stretched out, that he would be bound on his hands and his feet.
00:20:34
Speaker
And he was stretched out in order to be whipped. And so I wanted to be sure that we read that out of our big Bible so that we could see the details that the Holy Spirit had prophesied about.
00:20:48
Speaker
Now, and I'm drawing a blank after that. Agabus. Agabus is the one who made that particular prophecy. And he also said that he would be sent to people who were not Jewish.
00:21:01
Speaker
And here, that's exactly what we have seen happen. So I wanted to first point out that what we see is God's spirit is truthful. God is spirit and and he must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
00:21:16
Speaker
So when his spirit speaks, he never lies. Everything God says he will do, he does. We cannot get in the way of that. We cannot stop him. We can't mess it up.
00:21:30
Speaker
Paul knew because he had been encouraged to go and to do what he had been told to do. And we hear to- today that by his testimony, that he was told when Jesus came to him from the very beginning, that he was to be a witness to the things that had occurred to him.
00:21:50
Speaker
And so he was faithful. And he told the leaders even that he was faithful to obey, that he was doing everything God had told him to do. And we talked about that yesterday, didn't we?
00:22:02
Speaker
That would would someone, when the other people who had heard that these things were going to happen to Paul, they discouraged him from going to Jerusalem. And we talked about how similar that was to Jesus when Peter said, no, Lord, this shall not happen to you.
00:22:17
Speaker
And Jesus said to Peter, shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me? Paul was willing to do whatever he needed to do in order to obey. He said he was willing to be in chains and he was ready to even die.
00:22:33
Speaker
And so here he was, he was put in chains and he was fulfilling the witnessing appointment, his job that he was being given to do. We all have work that God is giving us to do.
00:22:47
Speaker
And so our daily application today is to be faithful, to do the work that God has given us to do. We see that the Holy Spirit had warned him and he was strengthened.
00:23:00
Speaker
And we see that Paul even was given encouragement by Jesus himself when Jesus told him.
00:23:11
Speaker
Let's see. He said, be brave, Paul. You have told people in Jerusalem about me, and now you must tell people in Rome too.
00:23:23
Speaker
How wonderful. Paul was very blessed to be visited by Jesus so many times. We have read about three times today alone that Paul was visited by Jesus personally.
00:23:35
Speaker
One, for his initial conversion, to tell Paul to stop doing what he was doing. He was being redirected. Two, when he got to Jerusalem, he told Paul to leave and Paul obeyed And he told Paul that he was going to be sending him to the Gentiles, to people who were not Jewish.
00:23:55
Speaker
And now, once again, he is being told by Jesus that he will be sent to Rome to tell and witness about him there. So he is being encouraged by Jesus.
00:24:07
Speaker
And in that same way, although we may not be visited personally by Jesus, Jesus uses the Holy Spirit with which God has given us to comfort us. Part of the role of the Holy Spirit is our comforter.
00:24:21
Speaker
We've learned about that recently too, where Paul taught us that the Holy Spirit prays for us.
Encouragement for Listeners
00:24:28
Speaker
When we do not know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit does.
00:24:32
Speaker
He prays for us. and he intercedes for us to pray for us, to pray for what we don't even know that we need. Our big Bible puts this, that he intercedes with groans that are too deep for us to understand.
00:24:49
Speaker
But our day by day kids Bible version explains that to us, telling us that the Holy Spirit prays for us when we don't even know how to pray for ourselves. When we are stuck in difficult situations and we don't even know what to ask for, we can ask the Holy Spirit to pray for us because he knows what to pray for, even though we do not.
00:25:14
Speaker
He is our comforter and he will send us comfort the same way that he that Jesus himself comforted and strengthened and encouraged Paul to go to Rome and do exactly what he was supposed to do.
00:25:30
Speaker
So let us not be afraid to do the work that God is giving us to do, because he will strengthen us to do it. He will enable us to do it.
00:25:41
Speaker
He will make us able to do all that he has set out for us to do. Just like we talked about yesterday, where we mentioned that he is not setting us up for failure. He is setting us up for success.
00:25:53
Speaker
And if God is for us, who can be against us? It looks like everybody is against Paul, doesn't it? It doesn't matter. Paul is winning.
00:26:04
Speaker
He is doing exactly what Jesus is and God are telling him to do. And that is what matters. It matters that we do what we are told.
00:26:16
Speaker
Just like Paul said today, I have done everything that God has told me to do, even up to today. And that is our goal today.
00:26:28
Speaker
Our daily application is to do what God is telling us to do every day, including today. Well, I promised you that today's daily reading would have daily application for us this very day, not just in general, but in every day.
00:26:46
Speaker
And that is what Paul is telling us today, is that he has obeyed God every day, including today. So that is my prayer for you, that you will be encouraged and strengthened, knowing that God is for you and he will give you the ability to do whatever work he has called you to do today.
00:27:05
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining me. I hope that you feel that God has lit your light today. i know I always feel like God is lighting my light. So we need to take that light and hold it up high on a hill, not put it under a bushel.
00:27:18
Speaker
And when we click those light buttons that look like a heart, they look like thumbs up, they look like a share, they look like a follow or a subscribe. But really, if you look again, that's our light.
00:27:32
Speaker
This helps us to attract more people to the event, not for me, but so that we can spread the word about reading God's word. That is the goal of this event, that other people, more people would hear God's word and be encouraged by it and to seek him in all that they do to make God the most important one in their lives, in your life, not just today, but every day.
00:27:56
Speaker
And this helps us to be encouraged to do so every day.
Conclusion and Invitation
00:28:00
Speaker
I hope you have a blessed rest of your day, whatever day you have gotten around to watching or listening to today's November 18th daily reading out of the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley.
00:28:11
Speaker
And I hope you come hungry again tomorrow because we will have another meal for us tomorrow. And if you are hungry for more of God's word today, do be encouraged to head up your big Bible and check out Acts chapters 22 and 23. That is where our reading comes from today.
00:28:29
Speaker
So until I see you again, hope you have a wonderful day.