Living Right (Psalm 15:1)

Today’s Readings: Psalm 15

Eternal One, who is invited to stay in Your dwelling?
Who is granted passage to Your holy mountain?

The questions David raises in this psalm have been in the minds of men since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. How can we get back into the graces of God? How can we get rid of the load of guilt we feel because of our actions against our fellow man? How can we live with a spirit of freedom with God and others? It’s not about rights, but about responsibilities and right living. Being in harmony with God and others. So how do we do that?

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David gives us a list of characteristics that help us understand how to live rightly. Integrity, honesty, doesn’t wrong others or slander. Loathes the loathsome and honors the righteous. Keeps promises. Generous. Lends without gain. Doesn’t harm an innocent. Great characteristics. But there is a problem with this list. Men have tried to live them for centuries by their own strength and failed.

The requirements do not change. God doesn’t lower His standards for entrance into His holy domain. As a holy God, He abhors sin and doesn’t want it in His presence, but He made provision to make us holy. He planned a way to clean us up and free us from the guilt and pollution sin brings to our lives.

He did it by wrapping Himself in human flesh, living with us, experiencing all the trials of life we experience, becoming the perfect sacrifice for our sins by dying on the cross for us, then demonstrating His power over sin and death through His resurrection on that first Easter morning. All He asks of us is that we believe He is who He says He is. Believe Him enough to let Him direct our lives each moment. That’s all it takes.

David knew the way we need to live. God gives us the means to do it by the gift of His spirit when we say yes to Him.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Crowds, Trees, and Chaff (Psalms 1:3)

Today’s Readings: Psalm 1:1-6

You are like a tree,
planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry.
Your fruit ripens in its time;
your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun.
No matter what you do, you prosper.

The psalmist describes two kinds of people as he opens the songbook of Israelites. One group follows God, the other follows their own rules. One group listens to His word, the other listens to the world’s tune. One group knows where real success lay, the other assumes the temporal baubles the world gives means success. One the psalmist describes with the metaphor of a tree, the other he describes as chaff.

Let’s look at some of the differences between trees and chaff.
* Trees are alive and chaff is dead, just the husk of what used to be alive
* Trees bear fruit to give sustenance to others, chaff at best cushions your feet or fills a pillow if you collect it
* trees provide shade and protection from the scorching heat of the sun; chaff only sticks to sweat and makes you more miserable
* trees have value and can be used for a variety of things even when cut down; chaff, not so much, it’s trash

The psalmist doesn’t stop there, though. He reminds us those who follow after God prosper in what they do. Those who do not follow God will be judged and end in death. We see a significant difference between the two groups of people in Psalms 1. I think I want to live as one of God’s trees instead of chaff blown away by the next gust of wind. God promises His success. It may not come in the way the world would think, but eternal life with Him is a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

God’s tension between justice and grace (Nahum 1:2)

Today’s Readings: Nahum 1-3; Colossians 2

The Eternal One won’t tolerate anything that distracts from Him
and will avenge and settle the score on behalf of His covenant people.
The Eternal will serve up justice when His anger finally overflows.
He brings justice to those who oppose Him
And sustains His fury toward those who work against Him.

Have you ever know anyone with the character that says, “I don’t get back, I get even?” I never watched the program, but I heard that “Revenge” was the premise of one of those people. A criminal organization set up the principle character’s father and the state imprisoned and executed him for crimes he did not commit. As a result, his daughter exacted revenge on the group of men responsible for her father’s death.

The show followers the revenge meted out on each character and of course it portrays the typical action and adventure that befalls the good guy, bad guy serials we expect. Every episode, she almost dies as she goes after her next victim, but miraculously comes out the victor as each actor in her father’s demise gets the poetic justice he deserves.

It’s a common plot we’ve seen many times in many films and television programs. If anyone takes the time to read God’s word, you find many of the plots played out in scripture. This one included. We read it in the opening verses of Nahum as God gives His prophet a glimpse of the capital city of Assyria, Nineveh’s future. The city will fall captive to an aggressor God chooses and find itself completely destroyed in the same way it destroyed others.

The people of Nineveh will find themselves captives and slaves if not killed in the streets. Their housed and businesses will burn down around them. God’s judgment was on its way. He “will serve up justice when His anger finally overflows.” The good thing about God, though, is He is slow to anger. He gives us time to repent and find His grace.

As I read John’s Revelation, it appears to me that God’s anger nears its overflow point. The signs of the times seem visible with the increase in nature’s visible demonstrations – floods, earthquakes, famine, pestilence, and other signs mentioned in scripture. His grace is still available for those who take advantage of it, but His justice will happen. His word reflects both past, present, and future events as the God who is, was, and forever will be.

We can submit to His will and know our future rests in Him and His eternal love, or we can reject Him and face eternal separation from Him. The choice is ours. The one area in which He withholds His mighty power is our freewill, our moral choice. We choose our eternal destiny. I don’t know why God places such an important decision in our hands except that He loves us enough to let us decide for ourselves our love for Him. But in that one area of life, He lets us make our choices and suffer the consequences of that choice.

Like Joshua, “as for me an my house, I will choose the Lord!”

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

David, Joab, and cows can teach us a lesson about double-mindedness. (2 Samuel 19:5-6)

Today’s Readings: 2 Samuel 19-20; 2 John 1

Then Joab came into the king’s presence.

Joab: Today you have shamed the men who saved your life, who have saved the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines, all because of your love for those who hated you and your hatred of those who love you! You’ve made it perfectly clear where your affections are—that your officers and men mean nothing to you, and that you’d gladly trade our lives for Absalom’s.

As I read these words today, I thought of James’ description of those double-minded members of the churches to which he wrote. You probably know a lot of those folks. It’s an easy trap to fall into if we’re not careful. David almost destroyed his army because of his double-mindedness. Only Joab’s intervention stopped it. Joab recognized that David hung on to his son, who plotted to kill him and take over the kingdom, more than he held on to the kingdom for which he held responsibility. The lives of thousands lay in his hands and he would rather sacrifice them than his wayward son.

Perhaps we can understand his feelings in some respects as parents, but when the lives of thousands are at stake, as in David’s scenario, life is precious. David was clearly wrong. Joab knew it and confronted him appropriately.

Our problems usually don’t rise to the level of David’s swapping lives for lives, but often I see Christians trying to hang on to things they know they need to leave behind from their former life, life before Christ. They love a habit or an activity or a pleasure like David loved Absalom and refuse to let go of it. Instead of recognizing the joy that comes from the Kingdom, they hang on the thing that wants to destroy their life, like Absalom wanted to destroy David.

When we, like David, keep looking back, longing for the things that will destroy us instead of putting our trust and faith in the Kingdom, we run the risk of losing everything. David had to figure out where his loyalty belonged. We must do the same. We must understand the things that God says will destroy us must disappear from our lives. We must let go of them if God is Lord of life.

When we hold on to the things that keep us from being fully committed to God, as David did with Absalom, others notice. For David, the soldiers came back from their victory and saw him sitting at the gate dejected and grieving over his son. They picked up his mood and the victory felt like defeat. Many Christians today carry a defeated feeling with them because they don’t leave their Absalom’s behind them. They grieve over the things that would destroy them rather than rejoicing over the good God gives them.

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We often act like the cow that gets its head stuck in the fence trying to get grass from the other side instead of recognizing the good pasture land if it will just turn its head and look at all the land available to it. We sometimes do the same thing as Christians. We try to hang on to things just outside the fence instead of going after the green pasture land God gives us to enjoy. If we will just turn toward Him and leave the world behind we will find joy unexplainable.

Don’t wait for someone to have to point it out to you. Search your heart with God’s spotlight and let Him show you the things you need to let go. Then get as far away from the fence as possible to enjoy the rich blessings God has in store for you.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Just do what you’re supposed to do! (2 Samuel 11:1)

Today’s Readings: 2 Samuel 9-11; 1 John 2

In the springtime of the year, the season when most kings took their soldiers out to fight, David stayed in Jerusalem and sent Joab out as general in charge of David’s men and the whole army of Israel.

One of the things I like about reading the scriptures is understanding the grace God gives us despite our shortcomings. The stories we read of men like David encourages us to know that God forgives when we return to Him repentantly. Chapter 11 recounts one of the most despicable acts of man’s nature. David sees a woman he wants, has an affair with her, gets her pregnant, lures her husband back from the war to try to cover his crime, has him killed when he doesn’t sleep with her, and quickly marries her to again cover his adulterous actions.

Talk about some evil intent and evil action. David tips the scale with his actions. But it starts with verse one of the account in the story. In the spring of the year, most kings took their soldiers out to fight. It was the best time of year to start a campaign against your enemies. You could get to the place you wanted to conquer and feed off the land without a problem. The weather cooperated during the campaign as the spring rains ended by the time the battles began so your campaign didn’t get bagged down by rain.

In the spring, the young men in the army tired of being cooped up in garrison camps and the training the captains drilled into them during the long winter months. They longed to get into the field and away from the confinement of the encampment. They wanted in the worst way to get to the fight and show their prowess on the field of battle.

But this king, David, stayed in Jerusalem. We don’t know what prompted him to stay. Maybe he decided he was too old to travel. Maybe he tired of living in tents and riding on donkeys and in chariots. Maybe he wanted to enjoy the plush life of the king he enjoyed in Jerusalem. Maybe he wanted to stay with all his wives. Maybe he tired of leaving his children behind not knowing if he would see them again. Maybe…

David could tell us dozens of reasons he stayed behind, but his place as king was with his men in the field. Instead he stayed in Jerusalem and his trouble began. He looked out over the roofs of the houses and saw Bathsheba bathing. Wanted her and sent his servants to bring her to him. They did, he slept with her, she became pregnant, he sent for Uriah. Uriah remained loyal to his duties, David saw that Uriah died in battle, and David took Bathsheba as his wife.

Still we know David as a man after God’s heart. We will learn more about him soon. But this incident happened, because David didn’t go where he should have gone. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. David’s place in the springtime, as king, was with his soldiers on the campaigns to conquer his enemies and defend his kingdom. Instead, he left the job to his general, Joab, and stayed at home in his comfortable palace, almost losing everything as a consequence.

From David, we learn to persevere in the service God gives us to do. When we have a task to do, we must do it. Consequences come with every action, good or bad. We can choose our actions, but we cannot choose the consequences. David discovered this truth too late.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard