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July 25 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
9 Plays1 day ago
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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In today's reading we will cover Zechariah Chapter 4, 5:5-11, 6, and 8:1-6, 12-17, 20-23 and the Book of Ezra chapter 6:14-22. Today we will read about God sending a message to Zerubbabel to let him know that his power did not come to him from being strong; it came to him from God's Spirit. We will read about God reassuring the remnant of people that the streets would again be full with old people and young people, and that while it may sound surprising to the people, would God be surprised at what He would do? Nothing is impossible for our God! We will see the completion of the building of the temple and the people acknowledging that because they had obeyed God the result was that they prospered. During the observance of God's Holy Passover God filled everyone with joy because He had changed the heart of the king of Assyria toward them so as to strengthen their hands in the work on the House of God, just as He had told them He would.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about remembering that while it may be tempting to be proud of our successes and accomplishments, it is GOD'S SPIRIT who makes us strong and is responsible for every success, according to HIS will. We need to be careful not to assume responsibility when things seem to go in our favor, just like God told Zerubbabel that his power did not come to him from being strong; it came from God's Spirit.
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Transcript
Introduction and Community Shoutouts
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello Today is July 25th. You are here with Robin at In The Family Way Coaching and we are here for our daily Bible reading. I want to say thank you so much for following along, whether you are watching on video or whether you're following along on your podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm so glad that God has led you to this event. We have had so many new people lately.
Acknowledging Community Efforts
00:00:27
Speaker
shout out, big shout out to Maurice. You were such a joy to work next to me. We had so much fun laughing last night, especially when we had the empty room.
00:00:39
Speaker
pod, that there there were the empty machine that had no pod on it. That was so silly that we had a good time talking. And I just, God brings people into my daily life, ah even just at work. And it is just so amazing when God does that. God uses everyday events to bring you here with me.
New Followers and Special Stories
00:00:58
Speaker
Letty, haven't said hello to you lately, but Letty, I miss you. I haven't seen you for a little bit. I got to give you a ah text and say hello. ah Julie said that you were volunteering at the food bank and I'm just so happy to hear that ah God is bringing us all together. And I'm just so thankful for that.
00:01:18
Speaker
A big shout out Lex. I haven't said hello to Lex recently. He's mine of mine also one of my one of our newer followers. Shout out to you Lex. It's so good to see you.
00:01:30
Speaker
And Stevie, thank you for joining us. I don't know who you are, but you are following along. So thank you for being here. I'm so glad. Shout out for Cleo.
00:01:41
Speaker
I haven't seen you in a couple of days, but I miss you. And ah it's so good to see you all the time. So I just, I love Cleo.
00:01:53
Speaker
being connected to each one of you, that each one of you has a special story as to how you reached this
Encouraging Testimonies
00:02:00
Speaker
event. Giselle, if you are watching today, thank you for tuning in God brought us together through a freak accident involving my husband and her, and it's just God uses everything to bring people together. there So I i just I want to encourage you that no matter where you are in your life to talk about sharing God's word to spread the word about reading God's word, because you just never know so who God is going to bring to you so that you can be encouraging and to talk about sharing this event, ah which is not me. This is God's word.
00:02:40
Speaker
And I am just so passionate about it, and I'm so excited to see how God is growing it this year. There is a unique story for every one of you who are here, and I am so thankful for every single one of you.
00:02:56
Speaker
We are going through the Day by Day Kids Bible, which has been written by Karen Henley. Don't be discouraged if you are just finding this event and you are not somebody that I have spoken with recently.
00:03:08
Speaker
This is not just for kids. This is a chronological version and it's not every single detail, although we do go into a lot of times more detail than what is given in our daily reading.
Day by Day Kids Bible Overview
00:03:21
Speaker
but it gives us the whole story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in chronological order. A lot of times events are recorded in more than one book in the Bible.
00:03:35
Speaker
And so it can be difficult to understand what is going on when this version of the Bible consolidates all of the events into one continuous timeline.
00:03:46
Speaker
It will take parts from one book and another book and another book where the events have are the same thing that are going on, just recorded from different perspectives or ah different people.
00:03:58
Speaker
And it gives us a complete picture ah God's story for us. It is so awesome to see. I am really enjoying reading God's big story this year.
00:04:11
Speaker
So if you are following along on your commitment calendar, go ahead and take that out and get your sticker ready or however you're marking that off because you're about to hear the Bible today.
Daily Application of Bible Lessons
00:04:26
Speaker
I got to tell you, I'm just, I'm so excited about the daily applications that God gives us in every single day's reading. I couldn't bring this stuff together on my own. These are these are not ah observations that, ah you know, these are not things that I am making up. I am just showing us what God is pointing out in our big stories.
00:04:47
Speaker
And today I'm just... so amazed at how God connects things. Our story is going to begin today with God telling us that our power does not come from us.
Discussion on Zechariah
00:05:01
Speaker
We are not strong because of our own selves.
00:05:04
Speaker
It is God's spirit. I don't usually give the daily application before we start, but then I want you to see how God brings this, how he bookends it.
00:05:15
Speaker
He's going to tell us this at the beginning of our reading, as well as at the end where the people confirm what God has said. and ah that that indeed that the power of the spirit, of God's spirit strengthened them and made it possible for these things to happen.
00:05:34
Speaker
We're also going to be seeing in Zechariah chapter 6. Yesterday we spoke a little bit about Joshua who is the head, the high priest. And we spoke about the parallel that God uses between Joshua the high priest and Jesus.
00:05:50
Speaker
And we said that we would be talking about seeing in Zechariah chapter 6 that God would be telling Zechariah to get a crown made for Joshua. And he would be crowned and he would be told that he would be both king and priest.
00:06:05
Speaker
And this also was the foreshadowing of Jesus, who is both our king and our high priest. So I just wanted to let us know what was coming so we could keep our eyes open for it to be amazed.
00:06:19
Speaker
I just love seeing these things. And God shows me the different connections so that I can bring them to you. So i hope you're as excited as I am.
00:06:31
Speaker
ah These, God's word is so, just to see everything that he's doing in and to feel like he is just opening up our eyes to these things, to have understanding of these things, it's just incredible.
00:06:46
Speaker
And there is so much depth there. to everything that is going on. It's just incredible. The readings that we're reading about today in Zechariah also are covered in Revelation.
00:07:00
Speaker
So we're going to also be seeing where God talks about two olive trees. And the reference for them is the olive trees for the two witnesses that John saw the vision of in Revelation.
00:07:15
Speaker
So it's just everything is tying together.
Prophecy and Divine Knowledge
00:07:19
Speaker
And God actually tells us in the book of Amos that he doesn't do anything without telling us about it first.
00:07:26
Speaker
And we've talked about that, but I didn't realize, although I had noticed that, I didn't realize that he had actually said that in the book of Amos, that God does nothing without telling us about it through the prophets first.
00:07:41
Speaker
god we God knows that we want to know what the future holds. We have a strong desire to know that. So I have to believe that he created this desire within us in order to fulfill it with his prophets, with his prophecies.
00:07:56
Speaker
However, because we have been given such an innate, which means born with, sense of wanting to know the future, People who are non-believers and even those who are believers can be tempted to try to seek people out like what we would call psychics or fortune tellers, people who read tarot cards, people who look in crystal balls type of a thing, anything, talking with spirits.
00:08:23
Speaker
in an attempt to learn what the future holds for us. And God tells us that these things are not the design by which he gives us the future. Those things are considered evil in his eyes. And so we are to abstain, stay away from those, not participate in those.
00:08:41
Speaker
But God does give us a way to know the future. He gave us his
Zechariah's Visions and Messages
00:08:46
Speaker
word. heard And that's what we need to focus on is that future and knowing that if we just seek his kingdom first, he will take care of everything else, which we talked about yesterday.
00:09:01
Speaker
So today, let's go ahead and head in. i just, I couldn't begin without that preface of just how excited I am when I see everything going on in God's word. hate I spent so much time today reading in the books and and reading Revelation to see where these things corresponded.
00:09:20
Speaker
And I just, we we could we could go on and on and on about it. But we do have ah what we talk about mostly is also our daily application.
00:09:31
Speaker
So you we will see how that ah works its way in as well, where God bookended that for us today. So keep your ears open. but Are you ready? We're going to get started now.
00:09:45
Speaker
We are covering Zechariah chapters 4 and 5 and 6, and then Zechariah chapter 8. eight Remember, we don't go in necessarily in order. We either won't cover chapter 7 or ah it will be placed in its correct time frame.
00:10:03
Speaker
And then we will also read and the rest of Ezra chapter 6.
00:10:10
Speaker
Our first section is entitled, A Gold Lampstand. Now these are actually what they are referring to with the menorah. These golden lamp stands are a menorah with seven lights.
00:10:25
Speaker
The angel who talked with me came back. Remember Zechariah is in the middle of a vision with angels, one of which is Jesus. So the angel who talked with him before, who was Jesus, came back.
00:10:39
Speaker
He woke me up. It was like waking up somebody who is asleep. The angel gave me this message from God to Zerubbabel.
00:10:52
Speaker
Your power doesn't come from being strong. It comes from my spirit. Zerubbabel's hand started building the worship house.
00:11:04
Speaker
His hands will finish it.
00:11:08
Speaker
The angel asked, What do you see? I see a gold lampstand, I said. There's a bowl on top, and there are seven lights on it.
00:11:21
Speaker
Two olive trees are beside it. One is on the right side, the other is on the left side.
00:11:31
Speaker
What are they? I asked. Don't you know? asked the angel. No, said. The seven lights stand for God's eyes.
00:11:47
Speaker
They look all over around all over the earth. What do the olive trees mean? I asked. Don't you know? asked the angel.
00:11:59
Speaker
No, I said. They are the two who are chosen to serve God, he said. Look up, he said.
00:12:13
Speaker
What is coming?
00:12:17
Speaker
What is it? I asked. It's a basket, he said. Think about it as if it is filled with the people's sins.
00:12:30
Speaker
The heavy metal cover of the basket was lifted off. A woman sat in the basket.
00:12:37
Speaker
Think about this as sin. said the angel. He pushed the woman back inside the basket. He closed the heavy cover.
00:12:51
Speaker
Then I saw two women in front of me. They had wings that looked like a stork's wings. The wind was in their wings. They picked up the basket and they took it up into the sky.
00:13:07
Speaker
Where are they taking the basket? I asked. To Babylon, he said. They will build a house for it there, and that's where they will put the basket.
00:13:20
Speaker
Chapter 6, Zechariah. Four Chariots.
00:13:25
Speaker
Then I saw four chariots coming. They came from between two shiny brown metal mountains. Red horses pulled the first chariot.
00:13:38
Speaker
Black horses pulled the next one. White horses pulled the next one. And spotted horses pulled the last chariot. All the horses were very strong.
00:13:53
Speaker
What are they? I asked. They are heaven's four winds, said the angel who was with me. They stand in front of God.
00:14:07
Speaker
They are going out into the world. The black horses are pulling their chariot north. The white horses pull their chariot west.
00:14:22
Speaker
The spotted horses pull their chariot south.
00:14:28
Speaker
The horses were pulling forward. They were ready to go through the whole earth. Go! said the angel. Go around the world.
00:14:40
Speaker
So the horses headed out. Look, the angel said. The horses going north let God's spirit rest in the north. Then God told me this.
00:14:55
Speaker
Get silver and gold from people who have come from Babylon. Then make a crown out of the silver and gold. Put the crown on the high priest, Joshua.
00:15:10
Speaker
Tell Joshua what I say. i say that here's the man who is called the branch. He will build God's worship house.
00:15:22
Speaker
He will sit on the king's throne. He will be a priest on the king's throne.
00:15:30
Speaker
Then God said, People will come people will come from far away. They will help build the worship house. And this will happen if you are careful to obey me.
00:15:45
Speaker
Will it surprise me?
00:15:48
Speaker
Is this name of our next section? God spoke to me again. I want my city. I will come back and live in Jerusalem.
00:16:01
Speaker
It will be called the City of Truth. My mountain will be called the Holy Mountain.
00:16:11
Speaker
Here is what God says.
00:16:14
Speaker
Old people will sit in Jerusalem's streets. They will have canes in their hand. Boys and girls will play in the streets. That might surprise people who come back, says God.
00:16:29
Speaker
But will it surprise me?
00:16:32
Speaker
Seeds will grow, said God. Vines will grow fruit. The land will make crops. Rain and dew will come from the sky.
00:16:44
Speaker
All of this will be for my people. I planned to bring trouble to you, said God. Your
Rebuilding and Celebration
00:16:54
Speaker
people from long ago made me angry.
00:16:57
Speaker
i didn't feel sorry for you. But now I plan to bring good to you. So don't be afraid. Here is what you should do.
00:17:10
Speaker
Tell the truth. Be fair. Don't plan bad things for your neighbors. Do not love lies. Those are things I hate.
00:17:24
Speaker
Many people and many nations will come to Jerusalem. They will pray to me. People from all nations will hold on to one Jewish person and they will ask to go with that person.
00:17:38
Speaker
They will ask to go and say, we have heard that God is with you, they will say.
00:17:45
Speaker
The leaders kept building. Good things came to them. They listened to the teachings of Zechariah and Haggai. And the people finished building God's worship house.
00:18:00
Speaker
Then they had a great holiday for God. They offered many bulls, rams, lambs, and goats to him. They also had their Passover holiday.
00:18:13
Speaker
This was their holiday of flat bread. All God's people who had come back home had this holiday and it lasted for seven days. God filled everyone with joy.
00:18:29
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today.
00:18:34
Speaker
But we're going to look at the Big Bible to get a few more details because the details are wonderful. Did you see our daily application? Did you see how God put it at both the front and the back of our reading today?
00:18:49
Speaker
In the beginning, God told us that the angel, who was Jesus, who came gave this message from God, and he was giving it to Zerubbabel to make sure that he knew that your power doesn't come from being strong.
00:19:09
Speaker
It comes from my spirit. Our power does not come from ourselves. We are not strong because of ourselves. It is God's spirit who makes us strong.
00:19:23
Speaker
At the end, we're going to read some more detail so that we can have a ah of more full picture of of what God said for this. But it says that the leaders kept building and good things came to them.
00:19:38
Speaker
They listened to the teaching of Zechariah and Haggai. And God filled everyone with joy. So in the beginning of that but reading, it starts in Zechariah.
00:19:55
Speaker
chapter ah five.
00:20:01
Speaker
And it tells us.
00:20:08
Speaker
Oh, actually, it is.
00:20:15
Speaker
Chapter six, where God told the angel told Jesus to say that.
00:20:29
Speaker
Chapter four, not chapter five or six, verse six. that's it Sometimes I get those numbers confused. ah There are so many chapters and verses. In Zechariah chapter four, the ah the angel spoke and when he saw the olive trees, and when Zechariah saw them, and he said,
00:20:52
Speaker
This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord God of hosts.
00:21:05
Speaker
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands will also finish it. And then you will know that the Lord God of hosts has sent me to you.
00:21:18
Speaker
Then we will read in Ezra, chapter six, I believe it is. Yes. Ezra chapter six
00:21:33
Speaker
in verse.
00:21:39
Speaker
We're going to start up above where he talks about how things were, he was going to be returning the people there.
00:21:51
Speaker
And that is in...
00:21:57
Speaker
Oh, no, it's just... Yes, here we go. Verse 14. So the elders of the Jews continued building and prospering through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah.
00:22:11
Speaker
They finished building according to the command of God of Israel. and according to the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.
00:22:23
Speaker
Then the temple was completed on the third day of the month, which was in the sixth year of the ring of reign of King Darius. And then he says, then the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.
00:22:40
Speaker
For the dedication of the house, they offered a lot of animals. And it says that they celebrated the the Passover. And in verse 22, it says, they celebrated the feast of Matzo with joy for seven days because the Lord had given them joy and had changed the hearts of the king of Assyria toward them.
00:23:06
Speaker
So as to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel. So God was in charge the whole time. We talked about that before as well.
00:23:18
Speaker
But the not by power or by might, but by God's spirit. God changed the heart of the king. And it says that he strengthened their hands in the work of the house of God when they were rebuilding.
00:23:36
Speaker
Just as God had told Zechariah to Zerubbabel, it would not be by his own power. It would be by God's spirit. And that's exactly what we saw.
00:23:46
Speaker
And we saw that the people prospered. Did you hear that part? It says that
00:23:56
Speaker
the elders of the Jews continued building and prospering. So when they when we obey, we prosper.
00:24:08
Speaker
And when we ah do what we are told and we are successful in what we do, we are not successful because of our own power and our own might and our own wisdom and our own strength.
00:24:20
Speaker
But it is by God's spirit. God makes us strong. We talked about that the other day, where we are strong in him when we are weak. And God wanted us to be sure and know that not to become arrogant, that when we are successful in things, it is God's spirit who has made us who made us strong and that things have been achieved by, not by our own power and by might.
00:24:46
Speaker
We saw also
Empowerment Through God’s Spirit
00:24:47
Speaker
even in the prophesying that ah when we saw the great list of kings that were going to come to an end and that would be very powerful and that it would not be by people.
00:25:02
Speaker
It would be by God who would take these kings down when they were doing terrible things in the future. So we want to remember as our daily application today that it is God who makes us strong. It is God that we achieve things with. It may look like it is us, but all things are possible through God.
00:25:23
Speaker
And God told the people today, as he encouraged them, he said that,
00:25:31
Speaker
People will sit in Jerusalem's streets. They will have canes in their hands. Boys and girls will play in the streets. And that this may seem hard to the people, but it's not it's not hard for him. I'm going to turn to that here.
00:25:49
Speaker
Zechariah chapter 8.
00:25:53
Speaker
He says and starting in ah verse three, he says, I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
00:26:05
Speaker
Then Jerusalem will be called the city of truth and the mountain will be called the holy mountain. Once again, old men and old women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in his hand because of his age.
00:26:21
Speaker
And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. There were only a very few people at this time. These were the remnant. These were the leftovers.
00:26:33
Speaker
This was not a huge number of people. And so to them, it didn't seem... Like it was ever going to be full again. The streets had very few people. It was like they were they were just starting over. They were just starting out.
00:26:47
Speaker
Even when God initially led them to the promised land, They had far more people with them then than they do now at this remnant time. So for them, it looks like this everything is just empty and that they're rebuilding, but it's it's just for a small number of people.
00:27:05
Speaker
And so God is is telling them. He knows their hearts. He knows what they are feeling and thinking. And God tells us in verse 6, Thus says the Lord God of hosts, It may seem difficult in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, but will it also be difficult in my eyes?
Promise of Restoration
00:27:28
Speaker
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west. I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem.
00:27:40
Speaker
They will be my people and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.
00:27:48
Speaker
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, let your hands be strong. You who hear these words spoken by the prophets who were there the day the foundation of the house of the Lord God of hosts was laid so that the temple may be rebuilt.
00:28:13
Speaker
See if there was anything more. That was pretty much it. We could go on, but it's just be more detail where he repeats the promises that we read. So we want to see that and and nothing is impossible for God.
00:28:25
Speaker
What seems like it may be difficult to attain because we are just one or two people. i am just one person reading God's word. And yet look how many of you have been brought to this event, not because of me and my strength and my power, but because of God leading you.
00:28:44
Speaker
I love that. So when I see all of these connections and how everything fits together so perfectly, i just, i can't help but share that with you. So thank you for joining me today, however you came upon this event.
00:29:00
Speaker
I'm so glad that you are joining me and hearing God's word. I want to encourage you to spread the word about reading God's word, because just in the same way that God is using me to draw people to this event,
00:29:12
Speaker
God is going to use you too, because it's not this event that's important. It's the hearing and understanding and knowing God's word that is important.
Engagement and Access Across Platforms
00:29:22
Speaker
And this is hopefully an easy way to do that.
00:29:26
Speaker
Easy to hear, easy to understand, easy to watch, easy to access. This event is available wherever people like to listen to podcasts. It's available on Apple Music,
00:29:38
Speaker
Spotify is available on YouTube for video, YouTube music for audio. It's on pod bean cast off overcast.
00:29:49
Speaker
It's on pod friend. It's wherever people like to listen and you can even go directly to my site and that's
00:30:03
Speaker
And click on the tab for Read the Bible in one year. So you could even do this next year if you've just started joining us now and you want to pick up next year to hear the beginning. It will still be up there.
00:30:16
Speaker
And click on the the tab for whichever, at under the drop-down menu, you will see under Read the Bible in one year, you go down and you can find your month, January through whatever month we happen to be in. Right now we're in July and you have the option for listening on audio or on video for most of the months.
00:30:36
Speaker
And so it's very important for me to get the word out about reading God's word, not just to read it and hear it, but to understand it and see how God's word has daily application in our lives every single day.
00:30:49
Speaker
So thank you for being here with me. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day. And until the end of this year, at least, I will be here again for you tomorrow.