Key Verse: Deuteronomy 17:19
And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes…

Moses predicted that one day Israel would have a king. The first three were Saul, David and Solomon. It may be that they failed to read the Word of God every day, and the direct result was that they multiplied wives, silver and gold for themselves, and more and more power for themselves. Early in their lives, they served God faithfully and from that time of faithfully fearing the Lord, we have many Psalms and Proverbs. God made one of His “exceeding great and precious promises” (read 2 Peter 1:3-14). Peter writes, “be even more diligent.” Diligence in reading the Word, fearing the Lord, and being obedient to Him will have results… “He may prolong his days….he and his children” (Deuteronomy 17:20).

Then there are the orders to stone certain offenders. We should be glad that Jesus changed the stoning procedure. He said, “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone” (John 8:7). Stephen was killed by stoning, and Saul, later Paul, supervised the stoning (Acts 7:58). Paul was, himself, stoned in Lystra (Acts 14:19), but survived. In Heaven, Stephen and Paul have likely discussed their experiences of being stoned. They are, I’m sure, rejoicing that Jesus changed things concerning stoning.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Thank You, Jesus, for Your pure love for the woman who was about to be stoned. You gave her a new beginning in her life. You gave me a new beginning too. Please help me to reaffirm again my commitment to Your instructions to us all, and in particular to leaders. I ask You to give me the grace of faithfulness in reading Your Word, as highlighted in our key verse. Amen!!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:
Frankly, I’m looking forward to getting into our next book, Romans. We’ll arrive there, God willing, on January 6th. The writer, Paul, was a highly educated intellectual. He took all those things we are reading in the Torah and presented the Law in the Jesus way. Hallelujah!

Concerning the temptations of leadership, I did not multiply wives. Thank You Jesus! Nor did I multiply gold and silver. However, I did multiply horses! At one point, the ministry of Crossroads had over 400 horses at 11 Circle Square Ranches, where horsemanship was the main activity. Crossroads has donated most of the Ranches to Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, where they are being carried on today, along with their existing Pioneer Camps. I would encourage my “100 Words” readers to send children and teens to camp next Summer. Christmas Day is tomorrow. What a great idea for a gift. Check out Inter-Varsity’s camps here.

Yours for “prolonged” days for each of us and for our children,

David

P.S. Here is a link to one of a series of fascinating Christmas videos from 100 Huntley Street programs. Moira Brown recorded these on location in Israel with renowned New Testament scholar, Dr. Craig Evans. The series is called “Unwrapping the Christmas Story”

http://www.100huntley.com/watch?id=221733&title=church-of-nativity---unwrapping-the-christmas-story