Finished reading: Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments by Joy Davidman 📚
Thus and Thus You Shall Say to Her
2026-10-09 1 Kings 14:5 And the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.” This was meant for yesterday, 8th September 2026. I didn’t feel like I had much to write from 1 Kings 14, and this happens to be more of a brief personal reflection than it is an exhortation like most previous devotionals have been.
Jane Austen:
“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is, his duty; not by manœuvering and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.
The Lying Old Prophet
2026-08-23 Moulins au clair de lune, Schiedam by Johan Barthold Jongkind (Dutch, 1819-1891) 1 Kings 13:18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. I wonder why this Bible story isn’t so well known as one would expect any such bizarre and sad tale such as this to be.
Foolish Galatians, Only it's 1 Kings
2026-10-06 Lily (1896) by Kazumasa Ogawa 1 Kings 12:26-27 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.
God's Sovereign Rule Over All His Creation
2026-10-05 River Scene (1854)by Asher Brown Durand 1 Kings 12:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. This is still on Rehoboam, how that he didn’t listen to the old men who had served in his father Solomon’s council but instead followed the ill-counsel of the young men he had grown up with.
Charles Spurgeon, Mornings and Evenings, Morning October 5
Charles Spurgeon, Mornings and Evenings, Morning October 5: 1 Kings 19:8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. Even so the Lord feeds and refreshes our souls that we may afterwards use our renewed strength in the promotion of his glory
Joy Davidman Lewis
📚 Most of the ordinary people who lose their faith are not overthrown by philosophical argument; they lose faith because they Are disillusioned by the churchmen they meet. One sanctimonious hypocrite makes a hundred unbelievers. One little knot of gossips tearing a neighbour’s reputation apart on the church steps smashes the Sabbath to splinters. If we are to put it together again, we must be Christians indeed–must show the rest of the world that a Christian gets something worth having out of his worship.
Demons and Magic
Travis Wright To search other fields for what only the gospel can give is dangerous, as the story of Leverage illustrates. And while Leverage is a spectacular example, there is no reason to believe the will of malevolent powers is not enacted by the stuff of ordinary life: corporate fads and commercials, trending posts on social media, or especially, emerging technologies. I am not a luddite, but the internet is a very effective demon dispensary, and we are now witnessing an entire generation become captive to the egregore.
Rehoboam's Folly, and Ours Too (II), On Godly Counsel
2026-10-04 Where Rapids Roar Sir Alfred East (English, 1849–1913) 1 Kings 12:8 But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. When we were resuming school for our fifth year after the long break, and found out that we would start with Paediatrics, for most of my friends and I, the thought of Paediatrics being our first rotation was such an uneasy and worrying one.