This text is found in Matthew 7:3-5. Now read it in conjunction with Matthew 16:17-18. He's building...the question is, are we supplying the planks He desires to build His Church?
Pastor Fred
Monday, November 15, 2010
Matthew 7:3-5
Have you ever considered that Jesus calls the one sin a plank and the other a speck of saw dust, not because the plank is the more egregious sin but because the eradication of the plank from the one has the greater potential to build the Church? You can't build a house with saw dust but you can create quite a structure with planks.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Privately
In Matthew 24:3, Mark 9:28, Mark 13:3, and Luke 10:23 we are compelled to ask ourselves if we are close enough to Jesus to have private conversations.
Think of all the people you know. How many of them are casual acquaintances vs. close personal friends? How awkward would you feel to ask a casual acquaintance for a private conversation? Which is Jesus for us? If we feel awkward having a private, intimate conversation with Jesus, it is a sure sign our life with Him needs to move into the arena of friendship (John 15:14-15).
Let's go deeper in love with Him together!
Pastor Fred
Thursday, November 4, 2010
What Are You Wearing?
Matthew 22:1-14 is one of those parables that if we are not attentive, not prayerful, not inquisitive, we will not only miss the truth God intended for us to have, but also, embrace a false truth that will be damaging.
A cursory glance at this text leaves us feeling as though God is unfair, lacks compassion, is compulsory, impulsive, egotistical, legalistic...a very dangerous path of interpretation. We see the judgment toward those who reject the king as being fair and righteous; however, his judgment towards the one who came, who accepted, who abandoned his other pursuits to be with the king but is "simply" wearing the wrong clothes appears to be treated unnecessarily harshly, cruelly.
Let's look more closely at those who didn't come. If we dig a little, this too seems a little unfair. In what way? Well, to include the three noted in the same list. Doesn't it seem unfair to list a person who simply returned to work, another who returned to the farm with the one who mistreated innocent people and in a fit of rage, murdered them? Really? Jesus is teaching us something deep...that the sin is in the rejection of God, not in the alternative choice. How are you rejecting Him today?
As we continue, we come to the wrongly dressed guest. How could his situation warrant such a brutal response from the king? Because in the parable, the king is God and coming to Him, choosing Him is not enough. We must come to Him on His terms. Clothing in this parable represents righteousness and the clothing being worn by the guest, self-righteousness.
Read Isaiah 64:6, that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags or as one translation puts it, polluted garments. Just because we are at church does not mean we have fully chosen Him! May we be ever mindful that being present is not fully choosing the King. We must answer His call AND embrace His ways!
Pastor Fred
Friday, October 29, 2010
The End
One of the keys to the Lazarus text is remembering that our definition for "end" is seldom the same as His.
In John 11:4, Jesus proclaims that "...this sickness will not END in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." I know for me, the END is typically felt when my circumstances appear to make that for which I had hoped no longer attainable. END is about limits, about the realm of possibility, about reality. Lazarus breathed his last and his family concluded he had come to his END.
Are you in the midst of a situation that feels as if it is over? There is a fine line between denial and faith. Oh God, may we live there...that still your Son may be glorified through it. May we risk denial for the possibility of hearing Jesus say again, "Come out!" Bring us to an END so we can stand in the midst of one of your miraculous beginnings.
Waiting at an END...
Pastor Fred
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Same God?
Have you ever read Luke chapter 12, verse 32 and verse 47 and asked how this can be the same God? Because reading them alone can leave two entirely different impressions.
Verse 32 reads, "Do not be afraid, little flock, your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom." Wow, that makes me feel accepted, loved, cared for...chosen! I'm great, celebrating, dancing even!
Then, I get to verse 47, "That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does do what his master wants will beaten with many blows." In the verses prior, Jesus states in the parable that a servant can be assigned to a place with unbelievers! Okay, now I am very, very afraid! I find this such a striking contrast because the consequence is not just the Kingdom being withheld, but in addition, a very real punishment being exacted.
This is why we read the whole Bible and use phrases like, "We understand all Scripture texts in light of the whole of Scriptural texts." If I only read verse 32, I have a perception of God that no matter what, the Kingdom is ours if we are His. If I only read verse 47, I am constantly trying to survive, just trying to avoid wrath with no hope of favor.
Jesus left these two insights into the heart of God next to one another, not to confuse us, but rather to complete us, to ensure that our understanding of the Father is whole.
May we all be given fully to His will, His ways, walking out of consequence and walking into favor!
Pastor Fred
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Malachi
Be careful to not let certain books and certain texts get "type cast." This happens to actors frequently. They become so identified with a certain character, casting them in a different role becomes difficult because viewers only see them as a particular character. Malachi is often cast in our consciousness as the "tithe" book. But it is so much more!
One of the greatest gifts Malachi is to us is the lesson of self-reflection through the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 16, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. In Malachi 1:2 reads, "...but you ask: How have You loved us?" In 1:7, "...yet you ask: How have we despised your Name?" And again in 2:14 and 2:17 respectively, "Yet you ask: For what reason" and "...yet you ask: How have we wearied Him?" And in 3:7, "...but you ask: How can we return?" And in 3:8, "...you ask: How do we rob You?" In 3:13, "...yet you ask: What have we spoken against You?" Seven pressing questions!
God wants to have a conversation with us, one that is prompted by the Holy Spirit, self examination! Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "...examine yourselves..."
What questions are the Holy Spirit asking of you today?
Pastor Fred
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Psalm 126-128
There are some great "proverbs" in these three Psalms! Let's start with Psalm 128...
Verse one proclaims, "How happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways!" I have a saying, as goes the husband/father, so goes the whole house. This first verse is speaking directly to the Dad and the "everyone" in verse one refers to the family. We see this as we continue to read. Verse three speaks of the wife and children, and then in verse six, the grandchildren. We must not let a secular society deceive us into believing the fallacy, "If I'm not hurting anyone else, leave me alone." We are always hurting someone else if we are not walking in His ways... especially our families!
Psalm 127 reminds us that no amount of human effort alone will succeed in walking in His ways. We have been in a series at our church entitled "Am I?" It is a play on words with Jesus' seven I Am statements in the gospel John. The idea is that if He is in us, and He most certainly is for everyone who has made a vow of devotion to Him (John 14:20), then we should be becoming more and more like Him throughout our lives. His I Am's should inspire us to ask Am I? This is the truth of Psalm 127, we are desperate for who He is in us to empower us to become like Him. He is in us not just to reveal the standard of life up to which we fail to measure...but to change us! As we yield to Him (Psalm 127), He will enable us to walk in His ways (Psalm 128).
And as we walk on this journey of transformation, may we not be surprised by the hardships and trials that await us. Psalm 126, verse five speaks plainly, "Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy." Bruce Wilkinson unlocks John 15 like no other in his book Secrets of the Vine. God's use of discipline and pruning are essential to our personal transformation.
Psalm 128, verse 5 wraps it all up...
"May the Lord bless you... so that you will see the prosperity... all the days of your life!"
Pastor Fred
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
1 Chronicles 23-27
Every, every, every, function that supports the corporate worship service of your church is sacred, from the person singing to the person in the nursery!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 110
In this Psalm we find the reference that Jesus uses in Matthew 22:41-45 to declare His pre-existence, meaning life for Him did not begin within Mary. He presses the religious leaders who are questioning His divinity to explain Psalm 110. If David speaks of the Messiah as being his Lord, then how can they deny the divinity of the Messiah? The Messiah is the son of David through human lineage, Matthew 1:1-17, but His being as always existed, John 1:1-14 and Philippians 2:5-11.
How do you see Jesus? If it is as anything less than divine, press further into the Holy Texts given to us that we may all see Him as God!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 108-109
Imprecations. We need to understand that these texts are not given to us to give permission to us to seek the destruction of our enemies but rather instruction to us as to what we are to do with such strong feelings we will most certainly encounter at times in this life. An imprecation is a classification of Psalms where we speak of our feeling of deep hatred for another, our desires for their destruction. The only way we will ever be able to fulfill God's expectation that we love our enemies, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on The Mount in Matthew 5-7, is to take our feelings of anger and hatred to God. We give them to Him in prayer, prayers of imprecations, not because we hope to see them fulfilled, but rather to experience them being exchanged, hate for love, revenge for forgiveness, anger for mercy. We give Him the feelings we know do not belong in our hearts and He in turn gives us what belongs, the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26).
Pastor Fred
Psalm 30
In verse 12b of this Psalm, we are pressed to an intriguing question. The text reads, "...I will praise your forever."
The question is, could doing anything the Bible commands ever become tedious, especially, in the context of eternity, once we breathe our last breath and find ourselves in heaven where we will most certainly be praising God forever, among many other things undoubtedly, but nonetheless, praise will be an integral part of our existence in our eternity with Him in the New Heaven and New Earth...could we grow board of the repetition of praise?
Revelation 21:5, we hear Jesus saying, "Behold, I a making everything new..." This most certainly is filled with meaning but in part I believe is this, He has the power to make everything He asks of us just as fulfilling the millionth time as it was the first. That He is not bound by the law of diminishing marginal returns! There is no sense of repetitiveness in Heaven because He makes all things new, always! I believe as well that if we obey the mandates of Scripture with the right motives, one to please God and embrace the abundant life that He longs for us to possess, that we bring that same promise of newness to us in this life...that the study of Scripture, prayer, generosity, accountability...never becomes monotonous because of His power to bring "first time fulfillment" to every moment!
Pastor Fred
2 Samuel 24/1 Chronicles 21-22
Here is a link found by our church's worship leader explaining the perplexity of these chapters...I would add as well, that here again we see Joab stepping in and pressing David as any good core leader must do, challenging respectfully the mistakes of the lead person, as he did for David in 2 Samual 19.
Pastor Fred
Psalm 97-99
Ask yourself if the praise you are bringing at the next church service you attend rivals these Psalms... specifically 98:8, are you bringing a praise that rivals the river's clapping hands and the mountain's shouts? I don't exactly know what a clapping river sounds like or a shouting mountain... but I have been white water rafting, I have stood on on a precipice overlooking the Shenandoah Valley... and I would have to say together they conjure up images of something deafening, majestic, glorious, and inspiring to everyone present... is this the kind of impact our praise is brining in the service we attend?
Pastor Fred
Psalm 95
This is the Psalm that the writer of Hebrews references in Hebrews 4:3. What is the rest of which God speaks? It is the rest that comes from working to pursue our purpose, the rest these Israelites never knew because they were not allowed to enter the Promise Land and work to secure the nation that would give the world our Savior! It is hard to think of rest in connection with work, until we realize that the rest of our physical bodies is not the only sort of rest we were created to have. Hebrews 4 gives us four kinds of rest: Paternal Rest, Purpose Rest, Physical Rest, and Perpetual Rest.
Paternal is the rest that comes from being reconciled to God through Jesus, Purpose through using our energy and talents to build His Kingdom on earth, Physical by practicing a weekly Sabbath, and Perpetual by heading the call of Colossians 3:1 and being heavenly minded, living in light of the eternity that awaits us! With all four, we are WELL rested!!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 57
Verse 11..."God, be exalted above the heavens; let Your glory be over the whole earth!"
May this be our prayer today!
Pastor Fred
2 Samuel 22-23
You are a king, of your dominion, your life, your realm of influence...rule well!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 5/38/41-42
The first two Psalm are a great companion study. Psalm 5 is the song/prayer of an innocent person while Psalm 38 is that of person suffering in the consequence of their sin. The beauty we find is that God's love and compassion is the same for both as long as the suffering sinner is repentant. His protection, His grace, His mercy, His power is for the innocent and the repentant!
Moving on to 41 and 42, we are reminded that there is only one way to spiritually navigate our depression, to praise our way through! Our bodies may need the aid of something prescribed to aid in the restoration of our chemical balance, our minds may need counsel and instruction to re-anchor back to truth, but our spirit always needs one thing, an outpouring of praise and adoration to Him which in turn buoys our inner person to a place of complete restoration, full hope, displacing our despair.
I want to comment on verse 7 of Psalm 42, where find a phrase that is often quoted, "deep calls to deep..." I often hear this used to speak of how the eternal part of our inner person is only ultimately satisfied by the eternal depths of God. That is most certainly true but I do not believe this is the intent of this particular text. The consequence of misusing a certain text is that its original intent is lost, displaced. I believe the the true application of this verse is that there are times when we are caught up in despair to the degree that we feel as helpless as we would be if we were trapped under a pounding waterfall, dropping from immense heights of above, continually driving down into the bottomless depths of the water below. The geographic reference in verse 6 tells us this is speaking of the waterfalls that drop from Mount Hermon and become the Jordan River.
Listen to the text, the latter part of verse 7, "...all Your breakers and Your billows have swept over me." Here we see that the situation is one of that of drowning, and a crisis even attributed to the very hand of God, "...Your breakers...Your billows..."
But then hope comes, in verse 8 we find these words, "The Lord will send His faithful love by day, His song will be with me in the night -- a prayer to the God of my life." It is a prayer because this hope of which the Psalmist speaks has yet to be realized. In verse 9 we find this phrase, "Why have you forgotten me?" In verse 11, "Why am I so depressed?" The Psalm ends with, "Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God."
I love the word "still." This reminds us that even when we are trapped in the waterfall of depression that drives us further and further into the depths of despair, we must praise Him still in our prayers for rescue! Our praise must never be motivated by our circumstance but rather driven by our revelation of God! I reference verse 9 above but the phrase that precedes the question "Why have you forgotten me?" is "I will say to God, my rock..." We speak honestly of the feelings of despair we have but always in the context of an unshakeable belief that our rescue comes, from a God who never fails!
Pastor Fred
2 Samuel 19-21
In chapter 19, verses 1-8 we are reminded that there are times when those who lead need to be pressed by someone on their core team as we see Joab pressing David. The lead person must be willing to let those they trust speak to them as Joab spoke to David. We all have blind spots, moments of weakness, etc and must trust that those closest to us will speak honestly to us.
But in chapter 20, we see the vulnerability of someone on the core team, a weakness inherent to being one of the trusted persons of the lead person. We can begin to covet our influence more than our love for the one leading. We see this same dynamic between Abner and Ishbosheth in 2 Samuel 3.
Moving on to chapter 21, these verse are truly perplexing. Why would God punish a whole nation for the sins of Saul, who himself had already suffered judgment, indeed his whole house has already suffered what seems to be ample judgment commensurate to his many sins? In addition, why would God allow those who appear to be innocent to take on the sin of others, to His ultimate appeasement (see verse 14b)?
Because we are temporal in our thinking, overly bound to this life, thus leading to our being perplexed by such texts. May we never see being chosen by God to be a prophetic picture to the world of Jesus' death, in His complete innocence, but still His ultimate destruction, in exchange for our freedom...as being accursed by God. The sons of Rizpah and Merab are some of the most highly honored of all of Scripture, the picture of Jesus slain on a hill (see vs. 9) for the people of God to be restored to their Father.
There is also a broader stroke of truth as well in chapter 21, in looking at verses 1-14 in conjunction with verses 15-22, we learn that there will be no victory over the giants in our lives until we are first reconciled to God through Jesus!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 61-62,64
I love verses 5-8 of Psalm 62, reminding us that we need to know how to minister to ourselves! Here, the psalmist is speaking to himself, preaching to himself, leading himself! Our souls need to be led, not followed by our wills! Verse 5 states, "Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him."
Minister to yourself today!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 3-4/12-13/26/28/40/55/58
In each of these Psalms, you find "LORD" being used to reference God. According to the Apologetics Study Bible, there are six primary uses of phrases referencing God. When you see "God" the Hebrew is Elohim, "Lord" is Adonai, "Lord GOD" is Adonai Yahweh, "LORD of Hosts" is Yahweh Sabaoth, "God Almighty" is El Shaddai, and finally, "LORD" is YHWH. A study note states, "in some older English translations, YHWH is rendered Jehovah, a form derived from combining the vowel sounds of Adonai withe the consonants for YHWH."
"LORD" is found in each of these Psalms and has its origin in Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3). Moses asks whom shall he say has sent him when he comes to the Israelites, asking that they follow him out of slavery in Egypt, God gives him the name "YHWH" which best translates "He Who Is" or "He Who Causes to Be."
These Psalms remind us that we need a YHWH revelation of God, that He Is and that nothing that exists is beyond His realm, His power, His hand. But even deeper, a YHWH revelation means that one has had a personal encounter with Him, a living, loving Father. Just as Moses knew of God but had yet to have an encounter with His presence that culminated into a passion filled, life defining, moment by moment governing relationship with Him, so too we need such an encounter. Thus making our prayers and praises not to a God, but to our God, YHWH!
Pastor Fred
2 Samuel 13-18
In these chapters, we are reminded of a critical leadership principle, sin at high levels of leadership that goes unaddressed by the lead person will always have a terribly destructive impact. Always deal with sin, regardless of who is the malefactor. Here, we see David did not deal with the egregious sin of Amnon, thus creating a leadership vacuum, a vacuum that was filled by revolt. If David had dealt with Amnon appropriately, his kingdom would not have been jeopardized. A lapse of strength by the lead person invites rebellion!
In chapter 15, verse 6, we learn another key principal. While the lead person must share the affections and loyalties of the people, careful consideration must be given to whether or not those leaders sharing in the affections and the loyalties of the people are allowing that attention they receive to displace their devotion to the lead person. Otherwise, a fracturing of the whole is inevitable.
Betrayal is certainly a recurring theme throughout the history of Israel. In leadership, we must constantly weigh who is being truthful, who can we trust. Here in chapter 16 we see David being fooled by Ziba. It appears as though Ziba is helping David but as we progress, ultimately coming to 2 Samuel 19:24-30, we learn that Ziba had been lying to David about Mephibosheth. Here is the principle to follow, trust the character of the person you know, not the story being told about them in their absence. David knew Mephibosheth's heart and should not have been so easily persuaded by Ziba's lies.
As chapter 16 continues, we find a perplexing statement by David, that Shimei's curses were from God? David is demonstrating something that every leader needs, self-awareness. As we follow the life of David, we see that his love of violence exceeded the purposes of God in establishing Israel, his deceptiveness, his lust, and his failings as a father. While we know God will not allow the repentant heart to be overcome by the consequences of their sin, reciprocity still envelops us for a time, for a season, to remind us that there is price for lawlessness, a price once paid that hopefully motivate us more fully to righteousness. Leaders must be especially conscious of this as a leader's missteps affect the whole of which they lead.
Finishing this section in chapters 17 and 18...that which we gain through deception and rebellion will always be lost to us in turn!
Pastor Fred
Friday, May 14, 2010
Psalm 32/51/86/122
In the first Psalm, we read a favorite verse, nine, of mine that compares our human heart to that of a horse or a mule, one that needs to be controlled by a bit. I enjoy this verse because when I think of a tamed animal like a horse or a mule, I always consider a bit to be a good thing, a sign that the animal is under the control of the master...but herein lies the wonder of this verse, God does not want us to be under His control but rather for His will to be the desire of our heart...we follow without a bit because our heart longs to be led by Him.
Psalm 51 carries forward this same sentiment, that when we sin, as David did which is chronicled for us in the companion to these Psalms, historical writing of 2 Samuel 11-12, there must be a re-surrendering of our hearts to our Master.
Psalm 86, which contains another favorite verse for me, verse 15, states that God, our Master is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, rich in steadfast love and truth. I remember memorizing this verse when I was a new Christian, soon after having made a vow of devotion to Jesus. I was reading The Book, a loose translation of the Bible and found this verse, often repeated in Scripture, to be deeply meaningful to me given my own life of debauchery prior to surrendering to my Master.
Then in Psalm 122, we find a song that Israelites would sing as they made their annual pilgrimages to the Jerusalem to celebrate the annual feasts. I love the pairing of this Psalm with the previous three because it reminds us that repentance does not just bring reconciliation with our Master, but with His whole house, the family of God, together...as Jesus said, that we would love one another as He has loved us!
Pastor Fred
2 Samuel 11-12/1 Chronicles 20
Hebrews 12:1 reads...
All of Heaven is always watching, always...
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Psalm 50/53/60/75; 2 Samuel 10/1 Chronicles 19/ Psalm 20
God's apparent lack of attentiveness, His seemingly unresponsiveness is the devil's deception of humanity...that God is unaware, unconcerned. The enemy of God and His creation preys on us a perception of a withdrawn God, manipulates our innate selfishness into expanding. What is so terribly sadistic about his scheme is that he knows it is a lie. He is not innocently misguided, on the contrary, he wants a multitude to suffer with him in the judgment he knows is inescapable. And in his evil nature, he takes pleasure in harm, in hurt, in destruction.
Truth must triumph over circumstances! We must immerse ourselves in Scripture throughout our lives so that when the enemy's lie comes in, tries to convince us that God isn't watching, that He isn't ever present, isn't conscious of our waywardness...these four Psalms flood our soul with truth and keeps our selfish nature in check and even more so, moving us forward in transformation.
When we turn to 2 Samuel 10 and 1 Chronicles 19, we find a great illustration in history for what is happening within us and in the spiritual realm in which we are all immersed. Hanun's leader's counsel is untrue. It leads Hanun to making a grave error. He is deceived into rejecting the one, King David, who comes in peace. So too the devil in working in conjunction with our selfish nature, attempts to convince us that The One who comes in peace cannot be trusted. Who are you believing?
When we choose well, when we allow the truth of Scripture to be our voice of influence, when we allow the emissary of The One, who is the Holy Spirit, to be the most dominant voice in the court of our soul, we will choose well and finally, Psalm 20 becomes our song!
Pastor Fred
Monday, May 10, 2010
2 Samuel 8-9
Do you feel measured by a cord? Do you feel fate is your master? Do you feel like a cord is being stretched out over humanity and that where that cord may fall determines your life...a single length and you live, double and you perish?
Remember, if you are a child of God because you have made a vow of devotion to His Son, Jesus, you have related to the wrong participants in the text! You are not the captured, you are David, you are the Israelites, you are the one who is supposed to be doing the measuring! Don't let the devil trick you into seeing yourself in the line of the captives...you are the invading army, not the ones now captive!
Listen, God wants you to identify with this text as the one who has dominion over his/her life!! Rule your life in accordance with the wisdom of His word and you will vanquish whatever internal enemies remain!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 25, 29, 33, 36, 39
What a great groupings of Psalms to remind us that we are in a conversation with God, not a series of encounters. God is not a concert we attend to be entertained, thrilled, adrenalinized...He longs for us to be in a passion filled, life defining, moment by moment governing, loving, covenantal relationship with Him, our Father! These Psalms remind us as such.
Psalm 25 is bringing to Him our needs, our cry, our desperation, our reality and then come on...Psalm 29 gives reveals how our conversations with God flow, He answers! But He doesn't answer in ways that are difficult to discern if it is in fact His voice, He is unmistakeable! His voice "shatters the cedars...flashes flames of fire...shakes the wilderness."
We must not over-elevate Elijah's post Carmel encounter with the voice of God. We must remember that the WHOLE of Scripture is our truth, not in part. The great truth of Elijah in the cave is that He speaks to us in a manner that is unmistakeable, which sometimes for us, as it was with Elijah, is a still small voice and yet other times as it was for David...universe splitting volume!
Then as we progress through these Psalms, we come to 33, a great praise and celebration in response to our hearing His voice. We celebrate, we declare, we proclaim, we worship!
But as conversations go, they have moments where they rise and fall in feelings, in volume...and even flow in subject matter. These Psalms remind us that while we may find His voice in response to one prayer and in turn rejoice in our having heard...we have other matters outstanding. Like a masterfully written novel, our God conversation is filled with concurrent plot lines, characters, both friendly and foe...our lives are complex...we move back into other needs, others situations for which we are equally desperate for His reply.
The final Psalm is a great capstone to this look at a God conversation as it reminds us that even though we should engage these conversations as if we are God's only child, engage these conversations as if our needs are His only concern! His love is so grand that we are made to feel as such, but we must never forget that this life is but a mere moment of our eternity and whatever may feel unresolved, unanswered is never because we have lost His attention or that He has reached His capacity to respond concurrently to so much of humanity or that...but only and always because in perfection and sovereignty, our waiting is a result of sovereign intentionality. Our impatience is oftentimes because we fail to see how our finite story is so wonderfully woven into the infinite purposes of our Father! But remember, na epiphany of the brevity of life and the smallness of our humanity is never to belittle us but rather give us a greater revelation of His love, we being so small yet still His love for us so very great.
How's your God conversation going?
Pastor Fred
Friday, May 7, 2010
2 Samuel 7 / 1 Chronicles 17
These are parallel texts to one another and I want to work out of 2 Samuel 7, specifically verses 11b - 17. This is wonderful example of where God is speaking to both the actual events of history in the immediate future as well as prophetically of what is to come centuries later. Here, God is speaking of both Solomon and Jesus. The relevance to Solomon is self explanatory if you are familiar with the coming history of Israel. Let me overlay though the relevance to Jesus...this is beginning with 11b through 17, adding my commentary to reveal its prophetic relevance...
"The Lord declares to you: The Lord Himself will make a house for you (The Church). When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendants, who will come from your body (Matthew 1:6-7,16), and I will establish His kingdom (Luke 1:32-33). He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever (Matthew 16:18). I will be a father to Him, and he will be a Son to Me (Matthew 3:17 & Mark 9:7). When He does wrong, I will discipline Him with a human rod and with blows from others (not that Jesus ever does wrong but rather that He dies for the wrongs that we have committed, His substitutionary death...Colossians 1:19-20). But my faithful love will never leave Him as I removed it from Saul; I removed him from your way (we are powerless to remove the obstacles that separate us from God, mainly our Saul like heart, a heart that is inherently self-serving and although we deserve a graceless response from God like Saul received, we receive His grace because of Jesus, Isaiah 53 & Romans 3:23, 6:23 & Ephesians 2:8). Your house and kingdom will endure before Me forever, and your throne will be established forever (Acts 2:29-35).
If we believe that all of Scripture is God breathed, what does it mean to you if God, knowing He had limited space, chose to repeat something? I say because there is something in there that is important to Him! When we come across such texts, don't say, "I've read this before..." We must on the contrary say, "Lord, clearly this is important to you, may it be as important to me, help me see what it is that you long for me to know!"
The Holy Spirit is our teacher, our ever present revelatory power (John 16:5-16 & 1 Corinthians 2:9-16) and He wants such revelation to be imparted to us! God's heart is one to reveal, not to hide, find Him and His truth always!!
Pastor Fred
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Psalm 96/101/32
As I have blogged before, we trying to stop using the term "contemporary worship" to describe the music and singing the opens our corporate gatherings with praise and adoration to God. Truly, it is ancient! I think David scoffs in Heaven every time he hears someone use the term "contemporary worship." He says, "Hey, take 3,000 year ago look and see what we were doing!" Their worship was expressive, loud, joyful, celebrative, instrumental, corporate, dance filled, shouting, enthusiastic...3,000 years ago! The only argument we can make is that we have electricity, so maybe we can justify the use of a term like "technologically modern" but I don't think that term will catch on any time soon! Our worship is Psalmic, Davidic, ancient...
Pastor Fred
Psalm 89 / 105
In verses 28-37, we first need to understand the term "horn." This refers to one's lineage, their coming genealogy, the family tree that will flow from them. A common perception of God's favor in the Old Testament was that one's family would be both numerous and prosperous. But we also need to remember that often God's promises are prophetic, speaking to the future and spiritual, meaning that the fulfillment of the promise is within a heavenly kingdom and not a natural one. And here, while there is certainly a temporal application to God's promise regarding David's political kingdom, the greater application is a spiritual one, the Kingdom of Heaven. Much of God's promise regarding the "horn" of David is referencing Jesus. Read Matthew 1:1-17 and find how Jesus if from David's line, his "horn."
Our inability to recognize the eternal perspective of much of God's promises can lead to disappointment. This is where verses 38-52 come in to play. David is lamenting the reality of his circumstances in light of his perceived promise from God. He is unable to reconcile is present life with the promises of God. But much of his disappointment is due to his lack of grasping the prophetic nature of God's promise. What if David had known what God was planning with his "horn." What temporal circumstances could have begun to displace his joy, his excitement? Nothing! As with Abraham, the promises of God to him seemed so much more grand than the temporal fulfillment Abraham witnessed...because their ultimate grandeur was to be fulfilled spiritually, not practically.
Psalm 105 is one of my favorite texts that speak to providence, God's had at work in history, advancing His divine will. Read this Psalm and see how many "He..." statements you can identify. For example, verse 41 reads, "He opened..." He is at work in your life equally intentional!
We too struggle with disappointment, but we need to view the reality of our moment in light of eternity. Too often we find our circumstances irreconcilable to what we perceive to be His promise to us...remember His promise is far beyond our generation, He is always working to fulfill the future and sometimes the tenor of our day feels incongruent with our expectation of Him, just as David expressed in Psalm 89.
In those moments, recall Isaiah 26:4, "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the Rock eternal."
Pastor Fred
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Psalms 15/22-24
First a thought about Psalm 22. Just in case you feel the temptation to minimize the prophetic significance of this Psalm by saying Jesus was just quoting what He knew had already been written, may we not forget the Romans who crucified Him certainly were not following a Hebraic script. In verses 16 and 18 we see David speaking prophetically the manner by which Jesus would be sacrificed and also the soldiers casting lots for His garments...if you are looking for a great study, check out the Thompson Chain Study Bible identification of all the Old Testament prophetic moments in speaking of Christ.
Here are some thoughts as you study these four Psalms...
(15) He sets our goal...will you let Him?
(22) He takes our place...will you let Him?
(23) He guides our path...will you let Him?
(24) He rules our lives...will you let Him?
Pastor Fred
Psalm 1-2/101
I grew up in a rural community and building fences were not done by landscapers, it was a family affair. Long before HGTV romanticized home projects, in Varina, it was known as Saturday! My father would make sure the lawn mower passed by our bedroom windows if we were still enjoying slumber...the every reliable briggs and stratton alarm clock!
But putting up a fence was not just for any Saturday. You wanted a Saturday when the week prior had ample rain. Soft ground, water saturated, soil loosening, dirt unbinding rain for days prior. I see rental equipment advertised as they lay in parking lots, catching the attention of people driving by; I always look longingly at the augers, the oversized cork screws with a motor. Then check my hands, certain there must be a lingering blister there from decades before...we had a post hole digger.
What does Psalm 1 and 2 speak to me? They say, saturate yourself in God's presence. He wants to sink some posts deep into our hearts, posts that He will in turn use to build boundaries, truth fences, not to rob us of meaning and pleasure, on the contrary, but to release us more freely into the depths of eternal life.
In the Apologetics Study Bible, Psalm 101 is entitled "A Vow of Integrity." Make this vow, fences up!
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
2 Samuel 6:1-23
We must not see Uzzah or Ahio as innocent. They were Levites. They knew that it was not to be carried on a cart (Numbers 4:15; 7:9). Interesting that it came to them on a cart (1 Samuel 5 - 7:1) and how they allowed something they observed to displace what they knew to be God's will, His way.
We also know that within the tribe of Levi, certain families had specific duties and it was the Aaronic priests who were the caretakers of The Ark. I see Uzzah and Ahio here as prideful, coveting a ministry to which they had not been called, not been given. They should have instructed David in what needed to be done. They should not have succumbed to the temptation of prestige. Psalm 106 comes to mind...obedience leads to life...disregard for His ways leads to...Uzzah.
Let's jump to verses 12-23...I have listened to far too many people use these verses to justify their being conspicuously different in their worship expression in a group, creating a distraction, drawing attention to themselves. They misread the text. How? Because the forsake the context. They forget verses 14-16. David was part of a massive assembly, all of whom were dancing, singing, shouting, sacrificing...a parade of worship! The focus of the text on David's individuality was to reveal his wife's lack of deference to yield herself to worship where we abandon ourselves to His presence, not to imply that David was the only one. In group settings, we should always be in step with the group as led by whoever is presiding over the gathering. We must not let the rebellious and attention grabbers prostitute God's Sacred Word for their own self-exaltation...where are the scholars of the house?
Pastor Fred
2 Samuel 5:11-25
I love this story of the balsam trees! What a picture. Can you imagine the feeling that coursed through their hearts as they lay there in silence, listening, waiting? Then, it happened. There was a sound in the tops of the trees, the sound of marching. They all knew what this was, the coming of God! Sound a lot like Acts 2!
When you gather in worship with your church, are you listening...He still wants to move today, to route the evil that has taken up residence in the people's lives, to route the shame that robs people of their courage to fully embrace authentic relationships, to route insecurity that keeps people from serving in areas of ministry to which they have been call by God and anointed for service, to route fear that lies to people that change will never come in the dark places for their hearts, to route cynicism that robs people of their faith that God always loves, always accepts, always forgives...are you listening, wait I hear it...marching in the tops of the balsam trees!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 107
"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He rescued them from their distress."
Pastor Fred
Psalm 106
Verse 14 speaks to a "craving" that caused the people to test God, their capacity for "craving" that God had given them to hunger and thirst for him had become a means for an appetite of self-indulgence.
We must remember that God has gifted us with many capacities that Satan in turn uses and perverts to lead us astray.
Interesting observation, in Colossians 3:1, where Paul writes that should "seek things above" the word for seek in the Greek is zeteo (zay-teh'-o). Got any guesses about its meaning...it means to seek something with the a strong intention to find it, to crave, to desire.
How are you doing with your capacities? Has our capacity for enjoyment for food become gluttony, capacity for pleasure within the confines of marriage become lust, capacity for stewardship of material wealth become greed, capacity for worship of God become idolatry of things...how are you doing with your capacities? Ask the Holy Spirit to bring revelation where there needs to be deliverance!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 102/103
Verse 3a of Psalm 102 and verses 15-16 in Psalm 103 read as follows...
For my days vanish like smoke...
As for man, his days are like grass --
he blooms like a flower of the field;
when the wind passes over it,
it vanishes,
and its place is no longer known.
Unless we are careful, we slip into an Ecclesiastes mindset, that this life is meaningless. Remember, Ecclesiastes is given to us as an example of the misery into which one is destined if one chooses to disregard the life of obedience to God they fully understand and have rejected, namely what Solomon did, the author of these woes. He gave us Proverbs, the wisdom he knew to follow, but instead gave himself to temporal pleasures...and found misery. As my spiritual mentor, Pastor Carter Goolsby once said, in your Bible above Ecclesiastes, write, "Don't try this at home!"
These Psalms are NOT to say to us that this life is meaningless but on the contrary, priceless, exceptionally valuable. Scarcity determines value so how precious is a life that passes in moments? In addition, the brevity of this life brings the enormity of eternity into focus. This is not our home...Hebrews 11:16, Colossians 3:1.
Pastor Fred
Monday, May 3, 2010
2 Samuel 5:1-10 / 1 Chronicles 11 - 12
We find some profound insights in these particular texts about the timing of destiny and also church leadership.
With destiny, when the will of God is revealed, our next question should be, "How God would you have me walk this out and when, the timing that is, what will that look like?"
For David, it came in these: The Bethlehem Step, The Adellum Step, The Judah Step, and The Jerusalem Step. All of these steps, as best we can estimate, occurred over a period of just over 30 years.
The Bethlehem Step was his being anointed as the next king of Israel in his home town of Bethlehem by the prophet Samuel. This is approximately 1025 BC. This was the "what is God saying" moment, the revelation of His will, the destiny epiphany. The step that David took was to "step" into God's call by faith, accepting His call and believing that God would in time reveal a path there.
The Adellum Step, approximately 1005 BC, is not what we expect to follow the Bethlehem Step but as we can probably all witness to personally, it is often the step that follows...the step that seems to move in the complete opposite direction one would assume given the revelation of His will for our lives. Instead of David being on the precipice of receiving the throne, he is running for his life and hiding in the caves that give us the name of this step. The "step" David took here was to trust that God was still in control and that because his adversity was not the result of any wrong doing by David, his adversity found him in innocence, that he had to embrace the journey that was unavoidable, deferring to the sovereignty of God.
The Judah Step was to be willing to accept progress towards the fulfillment of the ultimate destiny, 1000 BC, but not be greedy in demanding it all immediately. Sometimes, after coming out of the season of our Adellum Step, we develop a sense of entitlement, that we deserve it all now because we endured "the caves." Not David, nor should we make that mistep. He accepted the step towards the throne, again trusting in God. He accepted being king over Judah, he "stepped" into progress God had provided, was content, patient, but also remained expectant.
Finally, we see The Jerusalem Step, 993 BC. It is beautiful isn't it! Finally, he "stepped" into his destiny, over 30 years in the making and then ruled as king for 40 years.
Then we see some wonderful lessons about leadership. One, that David did not come as a dictator; he recognized that he needed the support and cooperation of the elders of both Judah and Israel. This is a beautiful lesson for churches today. Lead Pastors need to esteem and value the role of Elders and Elders need to esteem and value the role of the Lead Pastor. In the text, the elders did not expect to rival the kings’ authority but too, the king showed deference to the elders in understanding that without their support, no kingdom initiative he pursued would be ultimately successful without their influence. How different would churches be today if they followed the wisdom of this text.
We also read, in verses 22-28 of 1 Chronicles 12 that great leaders are always able to bring a great diversity of leaders together under the banner of one common vision.
May we let these Sacred Texts, Holy Scripture be our mandate for life, even the life of the governance of The Church!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 133
Life forever...eternal life as we read in the New Testament. Here in this Psalm we see that in verse one, brothers living together in unity, in reciprocal, covenantal relationships is "good" and "pleasant." Then verses two and three go on to draw a wonderfully poetic picture to support the beauty of relationships of brotherly love in the greater context of a common love for God.
Then, finally, as the Psalm concludes, "For there.." which is a directional statement, not however geographically but relationally, meaning "there" in a relationship of brotherly love where there is shared love and devotion for God. And then it comes, "life forever."
My life message is eternal life...and I believe the five components of eternal life are devotion to Christ, intimacy with God, care of one another, appetite for personal transformation, and diligence in ministry. You show me someone who is ever increasing in these five "practices of righteousness" (Biblical terminology) and I will show you someone discovering the depths of eternal life, a life not just measured on the time continuum but the depth continuum as well!
Psalm 133, life forever, eternal life, discover the depths!
Pastor Fred
Friday, April 30, 2010
Psalm 78
How does the story of your life read?
As we read this Psalm recounting the history of Israel with God, I believe we have a tendency to wonder how they could have ignored so great a testimony of His love, His power, His divine intervention that was so frequently manifested? Then, the conviction comes, so do we.
James 1:22-25 so eloquently compares reading Psalms like 78 and not allowing it to be a reflective moment, seeing our own story in the mirror of the truth of His Word, we as James puts it, "deceive ourselves." So much of the accounts in Scripture are not just for a history lesson but for the benefit of our own history, our own history with God.
How has God made Himself real to you? How have you found Him to be real in the lives of people you know and trust? Are you still holding a passion filled, life defining, moment by moment governing relationship with Him at arms length?
Let Him in!
Pastor Fred
1 Chronicles 10
Verse 7 reads...
"When all the men of Israel in the valley saw that the arm had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them."
This for me is a powerful picture of the spiritual state of humanity. There is no vacant "city" of the immaterial part of who we are, the "inner man" as the term so often found in the Epistles, or my favorite, the "hidden person of the heart."
Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 12:43-45
43 "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."
There is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. Unfortunately, Hollywood has shaped our beliefs about demonic influence in people's lives rather than Scripture. I will leave the "possession vs. oppression" distinction to far more intelligent people than myself. The simplest way I know to say it is that everyone's "will" (the part of our inner man that chooses) has a dominant spiritual influence. The seat of influence within you and me is never empty. And even once the enemy has been evicted and the Holy Spirit fills that seat when are born again (John 3) through a vow of devotion to Jesus (Romans 10:9-10), we should not be so naive to believe that the enemy is not continually posturing to regain his seat (1 Peter 5:8)!
Who occupies your cities within?
Pastor Fred
Psalms 81/88/92-93/104
We were at Busch Gardens recently and our oldest is turning ten this summer and is able to ride some roller coasters that were previously beyond his reach. He was on Apollo's Chariot with some friends of ours and turned around to tell them how awesome the ride had been (they were sitting in the row behind him) not realizing that around that last turn was NOT the end of the ride but rather another huge dip. You should have seen our friends re-enacting his expression as the car began to drop unexpectedly!
These Psalms are the spiritual equivalent of Apollo's Chariot...just when you thought things were calming down! There are times we feel so full of faith that we are ready to try and cast that mountain into the sea (Matthew 21:21). And, there are times when we feel as though we are despairing of life itself (Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:45-46)...and sometimes, they are all in the same day!
I would certainly say that such swings should not characterize our lives, meaning that such swings should not define our lives as a fully devoted follower of Christ. But when they come, and any student of Scripture cannot deny that they will, we must have a plan, as David did, even as Jesus did, to settle ourselves.
Psalm 104 is the settler. Immersing ourselves in who He is, what He has done, all that He is capable of, and realizing that He will leverage all the power of heaven for one child, you, me...peace floods our soul, calm is restored, all is well...until the next turn!
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Psalm 84
verse 10a and 12...
Better a day in Your courts
than a thousand anywhere else...
Lord of Hosts,
happy is the person who trusts in You!
Pastor Fred
Psalm 49
verses 6-7...
They trust in their wealth
and boast of their abundant riches.
Yet these cannot redeem a person
or pay his ransom to God --
Has your ransom been paid? Have you been redeemed? If you have not had your desperation revelation (I am separated from God) and the subsequent desperation revelation (There is nothing I can do of my own ability, my own power to be with Him) then Jesus is waiting for you. Accept His offer, embrace His gift...in my vow of devotion to Him, He becomes my atonement (at one with God), He becomes my redeemer (rescues me)...I am now a child of God, with which all the riches of this world cannot compare, the treasure of belonging to Him.
Pastor Fred
Psalm 44/73/77
These three Psalms are great companions for us when we are having feelings of being abandoned by God. Psalm 44 gives a wonderful, permission giving example to voice our complaint to God, 73 and 77 are a picture of how the sentiment of our heart begins to change as we inevitably find a restoration of hope in His presence, and of what we are to do in the aftermath, give witness!
Psalm 44 are some of the strongest words we find in Scripture of a prayer of complaint towards God, even expressing the feeling that maybe God has forgotten Israel, has become inattentive, even sleeping! If we are feeling this way, the one to whom we should take these feelings is God...He does not want us to be guarded with Him. It is in the freedom and authenticity of our expressions in prayer that we take the first step toward our hope being restored.
In Psalm 73:15 we are admonished to be careful though about venting these emotions to others. If they are people who look to us for leadership, we may be over-burdening them, possibly even spreading our dismay. We must be wise with whom we are emotionally vulnerable. Clearly we need people in our lives to whom we can go to share such sentiments. I love the New Testament example that was first pointed out to me at a Promise Keepers rally years ago during a session on discipleship, that we must have a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy in our lives -- someone as a mentor, someone as a peer, and someone we are in turn mentoring. Our mentors and sometimes our peer are the safe place for us to air our grievances so as not to harm others.
So many people make the mistake of justifying the revelation of their feelings to everyone with no regard to the impact it may have on the recipient. That is selfishness, not honesty. Ephesisans 4:29 lays down the ultimate standard as being whether or not our words are edifying or build up the person with whom we are speaking. People say, "Well it's true isn't it?" Maybe you have said that in defense of yourself. But truth is not the only benchmark for our outbursts. There in that same chapter, Paul admonishes us that we must speak the truth in love. In love also means with the right people! How do we know this, because the context of this statement is made within the explanation of how the family of God is rightly connected to one another.
Psalm 73 and 77 begin to give us some of the wise steps we take to find our hope restored. We need to put ourselves in an environment where we are awakened to His abiding presence. One of Rob Bell's most impactful insights on me came from his book Velvet Elvis. I don't fully endorse every one of his positions but may that never stop us from embracing the wisdom of others where we can! He talks about how our language betrays our beliefs. If we believe that God is everywhere all the time, why are we continually inviting Him and His Spirit into our gatherings...isn't He already here! For me, and our church, we now pray, "God, help us to be awakened to your abiding presence, we know you are here, waiting for us, Holy Spirit, help us to hear Him, see Him, sense Him..." What awakens you? Worship music, reading, a walk in nature...find that place, discover His presence, He is there waiting on you!
Next, the Psalms talk about how we are to reflect, meditate on who we know God to be through the revelation of His Word, the history we have with Him, the testimony of others...remind ourselves just who He is. Why? Because truth trumps circumstances! We see in these Psalms too where we are to praise Him, celebrate Him, recommit our trust in Him. Reflect on where possibly we have been disobedient and reaffirm our covenant vow of devotion to Him.
Then, we are to begin to prophesy over our own circumstances. Remember, the foretelling of the future from a supernatural revelation given to us by God is only one part of prophecy. Prophecy is also declaring God's promises over our future and our present, long before the circumstances of our situations have begun to change.
Finally, we are too begin to share with others our journey, where before we are admonished to be careful with whom we share our pain and doubt. Now however that our pain and doubt have given way to faith and hope...who doesn't need to hear that! Tell your story! Share your journey! It might just be that your journey is just what someone else needed to hear to not give up as they are still stuck in Psalm 44.
Take some time to read these three Psalms and see if you can identify some of the steps noted above as you read and prayerfully reflect on His Word!
Pastor Fred
Friday, April 23, 2010
1 Chronicles 1-9
You life touches every generation that comes after you, what kind of touch will that be?
Pastor Fred
Psalm 8-10, 14, 16, 19, 21
As you read through these Psalms, ask yourself which person you are. Are you the enemy of which someone else speaks? Are you the person who thinks that your disobedience to God will never catch up to you? Are you the one who cannot stop singing God's praises? Are you the one who struggles with doubt? Are you the one celebrating victory over you circumstances? Are you one praying humbly to your God? If we are honest, there is something of all of these in us at times...may it be that we are more often these that follow...
16:11
You reveal the path of life to me;
in Your presence is abundant joy;
in Your right hand are
eternal pleasures.
19:14
May the words of my mouth
and the mediation of my heart
be acceptable to You,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Pastor Fred
Psalm 6
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
I love these two verses! Have any enemies? If you do, you have probably experienced that often they are not interested in what you have to say which is usually for your good because typically the emotions in our heart are not such that we should be talking to them yet anyway! So what do you do with all the words building up inside you? Get them out in prayer...there is no safer audience than your Father!!
Pastor Fred
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
2 Samuel 1-4
I have a tendency to forget this portion of Israel's history. I always remember picking up with chapter 5 and David become the king after Saul. This is a great example of why we never stop reading! It also helps us understand how the kingdom united under David so easily fractured with Rehoboam and Jeroboam, so few generations after David. Solomon inherited the throne from his father David and Rehoboam from his father Solomon.
I want to focus in on three deaths that seem to be unfair, unjust. The Amalekite who brought Saul's crown to David, Abner who was killed by Joab, and Rechab & Baanah who found a similar fate in the hand of David as did the Amalekite.
First, it would seem that the Amalekite would have been rewarded by David for recovering the crown and the arm band of Saul which should have been handed to his successor, who we know to be David. In addition, the Amalekite appeared to do Saul a great service so as to keep him from being tortured by the Philistines. But I believe that the Amalekite was an opportunist. He was not not noble. He was not compassionate. This is an important lesson to us that even if we do what is right, we are only credited based on the motivation of our heart. And that the seed of our motivation is what produces a harvest through reciprocity. The Amalekite's death was because he took pleasure in killing the anointed of God to find favor with man and advance his own station in life.
Now Abner. Here he comes in good faith, on a promise from David that no harm would come to him. He had every reason to believe that all of David's agents would be subject to this pledge. Joab knew this would be Abner's assessment and used it to betray him and take revenge for his brother's death, Asahel whom Abner had killed justly on the field of battle. But after Saul's death, Abner took Saul's son, Ish-bosheth, and made him king. But did he do this to honor Saul? No. He did this to set up a kingdom where he could be enriched. In chapter 3, verse 6 we find Abner's true motivation, "...Abner kept acquiring more and more power in the house of Saul." In addition, once Abner and Ish-bosheth were at odds with each other, Abner was readily willing to give his allegiance to David and confessed he knew that David was the rightful king chosen by God. Verse 18 of chapter 3, Abner confesses that the Lord had spoken that David was to be king. Yet, even still, Abner gave his support to Saul's son. He disobeyed the expressed will of God for his own material and influential gain. As Joab's knife sank in, Abner was no innocent.
Finally we have the Beerothite brothers. Note to self, learn from the mis-steps of others...namely an Amalekite, the account of which they would have surely known.
What are your motivations? Even in the good that we do, may our motivations be pure.
Pastor Fred
Psalm 121, 123-125, 128-130
This is a compilation of verses taken from these wonderful Psalms...
I raise my eyes toward the mountains.
Where will my help come from?
My help comes form the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
I lift my eyes to You,
the One enthroned in heaven.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Those who trust in the Lord are
like Mount Zion.
It cannot be shaken;
it remains forever.
How happy is everyone who fears
the Lord,
who walks in His ways!
Since my youth they have often
attacked me,
but they have not prevailed against me.
I wait for the Lord; I wait,
and put my hope in His word.
Pastor Fred
Psalm 18
Verse six reads,
I called to the Lord in my distress,
and I cried to my God for help.
From His temple He heard my voice,
and my cry to HIm reached His ears.
In that first line, insert Psalms 11, 59, 7, 27, 31, 34, 52, 56, 120, 140-142, 17, 35, 54, and 63 (chronologically referenced) as these are his psalmic prayers of distress that are referenced in verse six.
I wonder sometimes if we would see more results from our prayers if we pursued God in greater earnest as we see here with David as opposed to a flippant, half-hearted expression that resembles a leaking mind more than the stalwart, faith filled prayers of David, prayers that rise to the standard of James 5..."effectual and fervent."
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 31
If you do not use a cross-reference study Bible, invest in one. Cross-references are notes that take certain verses and connect them to similar verse throughout the Bible. One of my favorites is the Thompson Chain Study Bible. In addition, you should develop the discipline of doing your own cross-referencing. When you read a verse that reminds you of another verse or find connection of some sort, make a note in both places that will aid you in referencing it in the future.
Here we find a fantastic one. In this chapter the men of Jabesh-gilead are mentioned. I will continue with some notes taken from New Unger's Bible Dictionary...
It's inhabitants wee severely punished because they did not respond to the call against Benjamin (Judges 21:8-14), every man being put to the sword and 400 virgins being given to the Benjamites. The city survived the loss of its males and is next heard from as being beseiged by Nahash the Ammonite...they appeal to Saul, whose raises a large army and defeated the Ammonites. This service was gratefully remembered...
If you don't have a copy of New Unger's Bible Dictionary, it is a great resource. I would add to their note that we shouldn't forget that Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin and that he had an ancestor who survived the tribe of Benjamin almost being completely obliterated (Judges 20 & 21). This ancestor would have married one of the virgins from Jabesh-gilead so we gain some insight as to why Saul came to their rescue and why they in turn risked themselves to recover his body after his death in the battle described in this chapter.
What do we gain from all this? In Judges 21 we read about a city whose leaders believed that they could remain neutral and not respond to an egregious injustice of their day. Ultimately, their neutrality was their destruction. Here in 1 Samuel 31, we see this same city's men transformed, seeing a cause and embracing their call.
Is there something that you have been avoiding? Is there a situation in a relationship or your community that you know God is asking you to lovingly confront? If you think that by choosing to not engage you are safer, remember the city of Jabesh-gilead.
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 29-30
God is always at work! Even when our circumstances are such that we are being denied something that we desire, remember Paul's words to the church of Rome, "...all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes..."
Here, we see that David was not allowed to enter the battle, one that he most certainly assumed would secure his throne over Israel. But God knew that his family and the families of his men were at risk from the Amalekites, and if David and his men had joined the fight, it is very likely that they would have lost all that was most precious to them.
Remember, even in momentary disappointment, look for God's ultimate good.
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 28
This is a study note out of the Apologetics Study Bible...
Did the medium of Endor really conjure up the dead prophet Samuel? Though scholars disagree on this question, the Bible suggests that she did. The Law of Moses sternly forbids consultation of mediums (Lv 20:27; Dt 18:10-12) but never says that communicating with dead people is impossible. Saul was seemingly able to speak with a figure that not only accurately repeated key themes from Samuel's previous private conversations with Saul, but also correctly predicted the deaths of Saul and his sons. This suggests that the king was indeed speaking with Samuel.
Occult practices are very real, and very dangerous which is why God expressly forbids them. Satan can in fact convey supernatural power and at first it seems as though we have been given a great gift...until we discover that these abilities came at the expense of spiritual bondage. He owns those who have taken from his hand.
If you have partaken in occult practices and have never been delivered from the agreements you either made willfully or naively, find a church that is equipped to walk you through a prayer of deliverance, a church that will often have a ministry operating like Cleansing Stream.
Pastor Fred
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Psalm 17/35/54/63
Psalm 35:11-15
Malicious witnesses come forward;
they question me about thins
I do not know.
They repay me evil for good,
making me desolate
Yet when they were sick,
my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled myself with fasting,
and my prayer was genuine.
I went about grieving as if
for my friend or brother;
I was bowed down with grief,
like one mourning a mother.
But when I stumbled, they gathered
in glee;
they gathered against me...
We find in these Psalms as David is on the run from Saul and those who seek his destruction a beautiful Old Testament precursor to the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus. Did not Jesus proclaim that we should love our enemy? This command is not just about His demand that we turn the other cheek, that we not respond to their provocation, that we not be drawn into a conflict, but also that we not resign to inaction. Jesus taught, and these Psalms did as well since they are all authored by the same Spirit, that we in fact act in response to contentious posturing against us, with love.
Paul exclaims in Romans 12:21 that we are not to be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good. Notice that the text does not read that we are to avoid being overcome by evil by retreat but rather with a different sort of advance than one would expect, an advance of goodness, active, intentionality that brings a tangible, measurable gracious response.
Often this is confused with allowing ourselves to continue to be a victim. This is not the case. The Holy Spirit will lead us into acts of goodness and graciousness that maintain appropriate boundaries so that we are not vulnerable to the unscrupulousness of others. In addition, this does not mean that we do not pursue justice. Remember, God Himself disciplines those that He loves. Sometimes loving our enemy means holding them accountable for their actions. But there is a vast difference between holding someone accountable with a loving spirit, a gracious heart, a kind countenance and a cathartic pursuit of vengeance. The former seeks the betterment of the offender, the latter the satiation of a sadistic, ungodly desire that takes pleasure in their pain.
What do we do with the feelings that will surely come, especially in the face of egregious offense, feelings that tend to motivate us toward an ungodly response? We do what we do with all else, we bring those feelings to God. When Paul in writing to the church of Philippi exhorted that we should not be anxious about anything but in all things through prayer...he really meant in all things! Sometimes the "all things" are feelings we know are dangerous and the only antidote is expression, expression safely released in the audience of Him. If not, they will take root in our hearts and bear fruit that is unbecoming of a citizen of The Kingdom, a friend of Jesus.
In reading Psalm 17, 35, 54, 63...can you relate to these cries? One of the lessons we are continually working on with our children is that the misstep of someone else is not a permission giving moment for you to respond in kind. May we love our enemy and give our hurt to the only one who truly heals and in doing so, discover the wonder of both the offender and the offended being made whole.
Pastor Fred
Saturday, April 17, 2010
1 Samuel 25-27
In chapter 25, we find a picture of how people are the benefactor of God's grace unaware. Nabal, his men, his flocks, his possessions were all protected because David and his men were encamped in the area. Thieves, neighboring enemies, even wild animals were deterred from harassing Nabal because Daivd and his men numbered about 600 and had a reputation for being a formidable foe. But Nabal, which means "fool" (who would name their child that!) arrogantly believed his good fortune was his own doing... dangerous.
As we progress into chapter 26, we find the plight of the one who arrogantly dismisses the truth their safety and prosperity is their own doing. Saul, in the very center of his camp, his most trusted generals beside him, and yet David and Ahimelech are standing right next to Saul! God had caused them all to fall into a deep sleep. What a powerful picture of how truly vulnerable we are a part from God.
Then finally, in chapter 27, we find two men showing us how exactly we find ourselves taking the first step out of our utter dependance on Him. In verse 1 the text reads, "David said to himself..." and then in verse 12, "So Achish trusted David, thinking (to himself)..."
May we forever first say to Him, think toward Him...seek Him...and then we will forever be in the grip of His grace!
Pastor Fred
Friday, April 16, 2010
Psalm 56/120/140/141/142
56:10-11, 120:1, 140:13, 141:3-4, 142:5
In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
In my distress I called the Lord,
and He answered me...
Surely the righteous will praise Your name,
the upright will live in Your presence.
Lord, set up a guard for my mouth;
keep watch at the door of my lips.
Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing
or wickedly perform reckless acts with
men who commit sin...
I cry to You, Lord;
I say, "You are my shelter,
my portion in the land of the living."
Pastor Fred
Psalm 27, 31, 34
We must never forget the context of time. Many of us are familiar with the concept of context as it relates to hermeneutics, the interpretation of the Bible. We have all heard some claim, "Hey, you are taking that verse out of context." Reading through the Bible in a year with a chronological reading plan, as I am doing this year, brings such rich insight into these life giving, eternal texts!
These Psalms were written as David was hiding out in the caves of Adullam and other various other locations has he stayed on the run from Saul and his agents. This sort of context is deeply instructive to us because we see that David's declarations of faith are not in hind sight. He is still in crisis. The outcome has not yet become history. They are truly expressions of faith...as the writer of Hebrews would one day write, "...the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen."
Psalm 34 is an all-star line up of truth!
"...blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."
"...but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."
"...and His ears are attentive to their cry..."
"...He delivers them from all their troubles..."
"...no one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him."
As well Psalm 27 ends with some of the best advice we can ever remember in times of trouble.
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
Pastor Fred
Psalm 7
Shiggaion. It is a term that translates "to reel about through drink" meaning emotion that rivals drunkenness. Feeling can be so powerful that it becomes disorienting, our expressions exaggerated, loud, disturbing. This is also found as a description of a prayer in Habakkuk chapter 3.
At our church, we are trying to stop using the term "contemporary" because the more we pour through the Psalms we realize that our style of worship is ancient! The ancients worshipped God with deep, deep feeling. They were expressive, often celebrative, jubilant and yes, if in crisis, shiggaion.
Let your heart be loud toward Him! In both celebration and sorrow, feel!
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 24
We find here a wonderful example of the complexity of people. We see Saul, a conflicted man, a person who I believe genuinely meant every sentiment expressed to David. There is a vast difference between a person who is deceptive, duplicity, insincere and one who is conflicted. Both are a broken existence and leave a wake of destruction behind. Saul loved David but he also loved his throne, his prestige, his power. He was conflicted.
Ultimately, there is only one sentiment that can break both deception and confliction and that is a love for God. Sadly, that is one love Saul had lost...so too he became, lost.
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 22/Psalm 52
Verse 2 reads, "In addition, every man who was desperate, in debt, or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader."
As leaders we must never forget that it is our calling that secures our success and never our resources. Thankfully, for me personally, I cannot relate to David as we are walking with God's best!
Verses 11-23 speak loudly to us, that it is better to perish with our integrity and enter eternity with our character in tact than to prolong this temporal life or try to enrich it with fleeting pleasures resulting in our forever being in jeopardy. If we see the citizens of Nob as the victims here, we mis-read the text. Doeg is truly the one who is accursed in this account.
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 21
Our faithfulness in the present becomes the provision for our future. Verse nine reads, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here..."
Slay your giants and store something up for your tomorrows!
Pastor Fred
Thursday, April 15, 2010
1 Samuel 20/Psalm 11 & 59
In verse 19 of chapter 20, we find the word Ezel, which translates departure. It is hard to "depart" from a fight when we are right, when we are the innocent. But may we remember that sometimes providence asks us to posture in a manner that may appear to the rest of the world as surrender, as cowardice but may we always remember that we trust God's direction, even if it means suffering public shame, always choose destiny, destiny that is possessed only through the guiding hand of providence. David had already been anointed as king. He had the support of the people, the support of the king's son, and the ability to win. Yet, he retreated out of obedience to God. How many times have we postponed our future because we were over committed to the moment?
Psalm 59:17 reads, "To You, my strength, I sing praises, because God is my stronghold - my faithful God."
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 19
May it be unto us, who can resist His presence! And may it be unto us, unlike Saul and his agents, that we would yield to transformation, a life that reflects our proclamation.
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 17-18
In verse 7 we read, "Saul killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands." We must not celebrate one's successes by demeaning the successes of others.
In verse 25, we read something shocking. But before we think we have far progressed from the barbarism of the ancient world, may we ask ourselves how brutal rejection is, how brutal betrayal is, how brutal prejudice is...we have far to go still.
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 16
Here is a great insight from the study notes in the Apologetic Study Bible on verse 14.
Scripture passages such as this seem to indicate that God sometimes behaves in demonic or evil ways (Jdg 9:23; 1 Kg 22:23; Jb 12:16; Ps 18:26; Is 45:7; Ezk 14:9; Mt 6:13; Lk 11:4; 2 Th 2:11). Such passages must be understood within the overall framework of the Bible's teachings about God. Scripture affirms that God is completely righteous...hates evil (Zch 8:17) and never does anything unjust (Rm 9:14). At the same time, God created a universe with built-in rewards and punishments that reinforce divine moral law. For example, when people disregard His moral order and abuse their bodies...they predictably experience health problems. Such problems can be interpreted as warning signs motivating us to give up bad behavior and do what is right.
Saul had lived a life of chronic disobedience to God, and therefore had opened himself to demonic oppression. While it was a form of punishment, because of Saul's disregard for God's moral order, it was also intended to drive him to repent and turn back to the Lord. God, Who is Master of all the created order, will use even demons, against their will, for redemptive purposes.
I would add to this note, remember that Saul's torment resulted in David being invited by Saul into his own court, his successor, unbeknownst to Saul, was training his successor to be king! Come on Lord, He orders the steps of the righteous! We should also remember that Satan himself had a prominent role in the redemption of the world by bringing Jesus to the cross...there is no power that exists that is not subject to His sovereignty!
Pastor Fred
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
1 Samuel 15
"Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice..."
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 14
"Do what is in your heart. You choose. I am right here with you whatever you decide."
There are no greater words a leader can hear. And they are only inspired with the character of a leader like Jonathan whose faith is...
"Come on...Perhaps the Lord will bless us. Nothing can keep the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few."
Another lesson for leadership is found in verses 24-26. Rash thinking and impulsive decisions always lead to trouble!
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 13
Although Saul reigned for 42 years, what some historians estimate to be just two years into his reign, his arrogance and lack of regard for God's sacred instructions, he lost his reign as he faced the Amalekites.
This raises the question of why God made him king? As we read further, God even expresses regret in having appointed him (which by the way is a source for a theological perspective called Open Theism which I do not support as I have written before, God's expression of regret does not give question to His foreknowledge but rather speaks to His passion, even in knowing, He still emotionally responds as if He did not, a deep, deep heart, a heart we should expect in divinity) as king.
I believe because God is seldom meeting the need of today but rather propelling history forward toward the culmination of His grand plan, a New Heaven and a New Earth where we will live with Him forever. We must not lose site of the eternal in understanding the temporal. Saul met a momentary need Israel had for courage, so they would not perish at the hands of their enemy who was committed to their destruction. This nation was destined to survive, as Paul says of his own ethnic origin, in Romans 3:2, "entrusted with the oracles of God." The Words of God needed to be preserved for each successive generation. An not only so, but to also give the Universe our blessed Savior!
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 12
Verse 15 tells us why David refused to dishonor Saul in any way, even when Saul did not deserve deference. The diatribe that so many Christians enter into with politics always disturbs me. Where is the respect for those in authority, not because they necessarily deserve it but because God allowed their ascension to power for a reason. When we disrespect them, we curse ourselves.
Too, in verse 23, we are reminded of James 4:17, that for the person who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it is a sin. I believe this is one the signs of spiritual growth, that our sins shift more and more out of the commissive category and into the omissive category.
So let us ask ourselves, to what sin do we need to give our attention to today?
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 10 - 11
In both of these chapters, we find a phrase that states the Spirit of God "took control" of Saul. We must remember that the Bible must be understood in light of itself. Meaning, that one interpretation of one verse cannot be held in contradiction to another verse. This means we have the wrong interpretation. I always loved those precious arguments with each of my children as they began to dress themselves. "Hey, your shoes are on the wrong feet." They would inevitably say, "No they are not." They had yet to recognize the blatantly obvious cues to mis-fitted shoes. We must not continue to fail to recognize the blatantly obvious cues of mis-fitted interpretations, the first of which is a contradictory verse elsewhere.
In 1 Corinthians 14:32-33, Paul exhorts the Corinthian church that the spirit of the prophet is always in the control of the prophet. So the next time someone says they couldn't help their outburst because they were in the grip, control of the Holy Spirit and reference 1 Samuel 10 and 11, lovingly take them to 1 Corinthians 14:32-33. This phrase "took control" I believe means that the Spirit of God was the dominant influence of their will, with no competing allegiances. So often our competing allegiance wins which is "what will people think of me" or "God has never used me in this way before" or "I'm not worthy of such a supernatural encounter" and etc.
Come one, let's be in His grip, for Him to take control of us, to be the most dominant influence on our will...but never out of control as that satisfies both texts!
Pastor Fred
1 Samuel 9
Here we read that Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. Stop and re-read Judges 20:47...only 600 men survived the battle, almost an entire tribe obliterated, so many genealogies ended, yet not Saul's, providence! When you read verse 21 of 1 Samuel 9, we understand why he said this of his tribe, it truly was the least, because of its history of treachery that had almost resulted in its abolition.
There is something else to be gleaned in this chapter. Listen to the description of Saul: "He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man. There was no one more impressive among the Israelites than he. He stood a head taller than anyone else." This gives us insight into why Samuel had so much reluctance when following God's lead in choosing a successor to Saul among Jesse's sons. He was looking for another "Saul" in physical stature.
We must remember that while God's timeless truths do not change, His methodology often does. Not understanding the difference between doctrine and methodology will lead to either legalism or permissiveness.
Pastor Fred
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