How To Experience the Fire of the Holy Spirit

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 18:30-46.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

1 Kings 18:30 (NIV) 
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. 

On verse 30:  What does the writer of 1 Kings mean when writing that Elijah “repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins”?  It means that Elijah was re-establishing a culture of worshiping the Lord, a culture that had disappeared in the face of rampant and ongoing idolatry in Israel.  

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Don’t Play the Blame Game + When Sincerity Is Not Enough

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 18:16-29.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 18:17-18 (NIV) 
17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 
18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. 

On verses 16-18:  Ahab meets Elijah and contemptuously calls him “you troubler of Israel”.  Ahab was blaming the famine on Elijah, thinking, “This famine is all your fault, all because you prayed.”  Elijah retorts the root cause of the famine was not Elijah but rather Ahab and his family, and how they had led Israel to abandon the LORD’s commands and fall headlong into idolatry.

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Do THIS if you want God to move powerfully in your life

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 18:1-15.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 18:1-2 (NIV) 
1 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 
2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab…

On verses 1-2a:  God used Elijah to perform some of the most incredible miracles you will read about in the Bible.  Why Elijah?  I believe Elijah’s secret is not just that he was gifted, but that he was obedient.  Whenever God told him to do something, in faith he would obey.  As verse 2 says, “So Elijah went…”.  Remember that in this case God is telling Elijah to present himself to King Ahab, the very person who had been trying to kill Elijah for years.  Yet Elijah goes in faith and obeys God’s Word.  

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How’s Your “Miracles Memory”?

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 17:17-24.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

1 Kings 17:17-18 (NIV)
17  Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.
18  She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

On verses 17-18:  A mother experiences her worst nightmare: the death of her child.  In this case it wasn’t a sudden death but an illness which took her son’s life, one where his sickness got worse and worse until he was gone.  It’s not clear why the woman would blame her son’s death on Elijah, the prophet who was staying as a guest in her house.  Sometimes when we can’t understand why something is happening to us, we can be tempted to blame God for what we’re going through. 

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How to Experience God’s Supernatural Provision

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 17:1-16.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

1 Kings 17:1-6 (NIV)
1  Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
2  Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:

On verses 1-6:  God is the star of 1 Kings, and here we meet God’s best supporting actor.  He is the prophet Elijah.  Elijah boldly proclaims to Ahab that there would be no dew or rain in the next few years except when Elijah proclaims there to be (of course not by his own power but by God’s).  Knowing that Ahab wanted to coerce, manipulate and harm Elijah, God tells Elijah where to hide, tells him where he can find water to drink and provides ravens who send him food.

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It Matters Whom You Marry

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 16:29-34.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 16:29-33 (NIV)
29  In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.
30  Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.
31  He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.

On verses 29-33:  These verses summarize the 22 year reign of Ahab as king of Israel, although we will read about Ahab again in later chapters of 1 Kings.  One can make the argument that Ahab was the most wicked king in Israel’s history.  According to the writer of 1 Kings, Ahab “did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him” (v30) and “did more to provoke the Lord to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him” (v32).  He went even further than his precedent-breaking father Omri.

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How God Measures Success

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 16:21-28.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 16:21-28 (NIV)
21  Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri.
22  But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.
23  In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.
24  He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.

On verses 21-28:  These verses summarize the 12 year reign of Omri.  From a political and military standpoint, Omri was an impressive king.  Omri outlasted his opponent Tibni in a civil war (v21-22).  Omri built a new capital city for Israel called Samaria.  Ancient Assyrian records even refer to Israel as “the land of Omri” [1].

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The Dangers of Drunkenness and Sedition

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 16:8-20.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 16:8-14 (NIV)
8  In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.
9  Zimri, one of his officials, who had command of half his chariots, plotted against him. Elah was in Tirzah at the time, getting drunk in the home of Arza, the man in charge of the palace at Tirzah.

On verses 8-14:  Elah son of Baasha takes over his father’s throne and becomes king of Israel.  However, Elah’s reign comes to an end when Elah gets drunk in his administrator’s house and is killed by Zimri, one of Elah’s officials.  Zimri goes on to destroy Elah’s entire family, fulfilling Jehu’s prophecy earlier about what would happen to the house of Baasha (1 Kings 16:1-4).

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Don’t Let Bad History Repeat Itself

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 16:1-7.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 16:1-7 (NIV)
1  Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha:
2  “I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to provoke me to anger by their sins.

On verses 1-7:  Because King Jeroboam had turned away from the Lord to worship idols of his own making and led Israel to do the same, God sent a prophet to say that one day the kingship would be stripped from Jeroboam’s family and his family would be eradicated (1 Kings 14:9-11).  In 1 Kings 15, Baasha is the one who kills Jeroboam’s entire family and takes over the throne.  Yet soon after Baasha becomes the new king Baasha commits the very same sins Jeroboam committed. 

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Don’t Get Blindsided by an Inside Job

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 15:25-34.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Kings 15:25-28 (NIV) 
25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 
26 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit. 
27 Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar plotted against him, and he struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine town, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging it. 
28 Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of Asa king of Judah and succeeded him as king. 

On verses 25-28:  1 and 2 Kings is tale of two kingdoms, Judah and Israel.  After Judah and Israel separate to become separate kingdoms, the author of 1 and 2 Kings tracks the reigns of the kings of Judah as well as the kings of Israel, going back and forth between them.  Verses 25-32 summarize the short 2 year reign of Jeroboam’s son Nadab king of Israel.

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