115 - "Effective Management Trumped Holiness" 1 Kings 10-11

115 Solomon may have been the wisest person to ever live but he wasn't holy. "Effective Management trumped holiness."L. Crabb 

                                                              

Solomon, one of the wisest men to ever live, the one who people all over the world came to speak with, the one with 700 foreign wives and 300 concubines.  How could that be?  And the Word says that the women led him astray.  That's a lot of influence on one man.  How could he even remember their names?  1,000 names.  Now, who are you again?  And he built high places to detestable gods.  Oh my.  And God replies in I Kings 11:11 --- "since this is your attitude, and you have not kept your covenant, I will tear your kingdom away from you..."  How could this happen in the midst of infinitesimal wisdom?  What about in my own life?

IKings 11: 9-10  "God was furious with Solomon for abandoning the God of Israel, the God who had twice appeared to him and had so clearly commanded him not to fool around with other gods. Solomon faithlessly disobeyed God's orders."  Solomon was obsessed with women and power and managing his kingdom. Maybe Solomon had wisdom, but he wasn't holy.  66LL "Effective management trumped holiness." God never intended for us to be obsessed with anything but Him!  We all deal with the depravity of man. Every one of us is obsessed with something or another person at different times. Yet, He is knocking on the door of our hearts, Rev. 3:19-20, offering us this moment an opportunity for Him to come in and fellowship with us as we repent from our lives "curved in on ourselves."  

Every day we move to live and love either self-obsessed or God obsessed!                                                

He is always about the beauty of detaching us from anything that we have come to depend on for our life, our joy, our peace.  

He is attaching us to Himself if we don't abandon Him in our minds, our motives, our management.  He is freeing us up from demandingness and that's so good!  When we made our big move to Austin, a friend gave me a "Me & Ro" necklace that is inscribed with the word "fearless."  It's from Phil 1:20 in the Moffat version.  It's my prayer for you this day.  My hope is that you not feel ashamed but that you may honor your Christ in your own person with "fearless courage."

One Day, the heavens and earth will pass away.  

White-hot stars will melt to a crisp, 

the stunning shimmering sun will melt forever. 

And it will happen in a blink. 

Another lovely generation of generations passes away.  

PHOTO: The sunrise over our heads today as generations pass on.

114 - "No One Is Out Of His Reach" 1 Kings 8-9

143 No one is out of His Reach. We cannot escape the Eyes and Heart of God. #talkingtomyself

It's a Grand House.

The Berth and Beauty still holds a judgment.

Day and Night God's Eyes watch His Temple.

These words of ours are near to Him night and day.  

Never a Moment gone by that God was not hovering watching.

"There is no God like You, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart."  I Kings 8:23.

This happened scores of years ago.

But Solomon is speaking to us today I Kings 8:57-58.

May The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. 

So, God, let these words of mine be near to You, our God, Day and Night.

God hears Solomon's prayer and responds: "I have consecrated this House" in I Kings 9:3. Only God can make a place holy. Only God can make our hearts holy. Living temples. He puts His Name, His Eyes, His Heart there perpetually. How beautiful is that to know this day.

And Solomon, "If you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, then I will establish your throne." I Kings 9:4. God knew. He perceived. He saw Solomon's heart.

And we know the rest of the story that Solomon would not repent (like his father did) of what is drawing him away from God---the love of this life. His father, David, broke in half when confronted with his sins...and David repented with great sorrow over the wrongs done before a Holy God. David did not live in guilt although forgiveness never took away David being a murderer, an adulterer. Forgiveness took away David's sentence, his guilt.

This "house is high"---I Kings 9:9--- but not out of reach of the Judgment of God. We will all give account. No one is out of His Reach. The grandeur, the splendor, the beauty cannot save the day. C.S. Lewis once said that prostitutes see a little more clearly, more quickly, than the proud and the mighty, the arrogant. Was Solomon full of himself? Am I? What's my bent? Bent on doing what I want to do. Bent on living like I want to live. Bent on being what I think is right.

PHOTO:  Night falls this night.  Night and Day.  God watches.  Be near to Me, O Word of God,              Night and Day.We cannot escape the Eyes, the Heart of the God Who is and is to come.

113 - "Don't Mistake Notoriety for Spiritual Progress" 1 Kings 5-7

#113 The fabric of the Temple was all built in silence. No hammers. No chisels. No iron tools. it Rose like an "exaltation"---so we too live our lives in quiet and confidence. 

The Temple was built in silence. 
No hammers | No chisels | No iron tools were heard.

I Kings 6:7.
It rose like an "exhalation," says one commentary.

"No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung.
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung." Reginald Heber

The fabric rose in silence in the Old Testament. I Kings 6:7.

The fabric of the Sanctuary - roof, walls, floor. 
The fabric tugged in silence in the New Testament. Mark 5:27.

The fabric of the Savior Himself - his robe. 

We are to live out our lives in quietness and in confidence. Isaiah 30:15.
Thy Kingdom Come. 

Never an Observer. Always a Participator.

But that still small Voice.
The One we hear behind us, saying, this is the way. Walk in it.

And the commentary speaks to me:  "Don't mistake notoriety for spiritual progress."                                  The Kingdom went unnoticed by the Caesars and the philosophers of the day.                                                       The commentator said it grew silently like a baby in the womb, unheard, unnoticed, unknown.                   But this New Kingdom.  

Changes people 

in degrees, 

radically, 

publicly, 

inches. 

This new humanity was not so sudden.

“Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you." No better thought. No better plan.

PHOTO:  I have tugged at His fabric for as long as I can remember.  Even as a Catholic school girl.  Sacred Heart was my first invitation to the Savior.  But the real tug came when I was in my junior year at LSU and wild as the winds of a tornado.  I knew there had to be more.  A whole lot more than what I was experiencing.  And I found Him. And I turned to a whole new life. And I raised up a generation of kids offering them the Truth I found. Trying to live it out my troubled past before them every day. This is a grandkid.

112 - "This One Thing Makes Me Fall" 1 Kings 3-4

He loved the LORD, only this...
Can it be said of us. Only but this one thing. I Kings 3:3.

Let's lay aside that "only" one thing and run the race before us.

Solomon knew that God showed great favor to his father, David.

"Ask what I shall give you."  I Kings 3:5.
"Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” I Kings 3:9

This pleased the LORD that Solomon didn't ask for himself but for his calling. 
May this very day, we see through what "only" we can do.

And David ends with a prayer for Solomon. Psalm 72:6. May he be like rain falling on the fresh mown grass. An answer to the drought in so many lives.  

Father, cause us to live like rain failling on a parched land.  Empower us today with the Energy that stirs so powerfully within.

PHOTO:  It's rain.  Falling in the Hill Country.  Let Him fall all over me. 

111 - "When Your Desire to Succeed is Greater Than Your Desire To Be Holy" 1 Kings 1-2

                                                                    

Do not fret because of those who are wrong. Do not envy those who do wrong. Because. Like the grass, they will soon wither one day. Psalm 37:2. Trust in the Lord and do good.

Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Trust in Him and He will do this. Psalm 37:3, This is a sermon, says the commentaries, 'calculated not for our devotion, but for our conversation." It is Maschil---a teaching psalm. Fall Forward in Faith. No matter how bleak. No matter how black. It shall be "well with the soul of those who fear God." 

Last words: Be Strong. Show what you are made of. Do what God tells you. Keep an eye out for the signposts.

I Kings 2:1-4  When David's time to die approached, he charged his son Solomon, saying, "I'm about to go the way of all the earth, but you—be strong; show what you're made of! Do what God tells you. Walk in the paths he shows you: Follow the life-map absolutely, keep an eye out for the signposts, his course for life set out in the revelation to Moses; then you'll get on well in whatever you do and wherever you go." 

Last words make you so want to listen to what they have to say about real life. No formulas from David, just beautiful rhetoric from a man who lived a dangerous, courageous life with a heart for God. I wonder what David thinks at the end of his life about his failures to trust God.  

66LL says about this book of I Kings: "Your desire to be effectiver, to depend on biblical principles for success in your family, church, career, and friendships is legitimately strong." Okay, stop right there.  I would say that my Christian life was spent depending on biblical principles and it was legitimately strong. 

But.... keep reading this:  "But when that desire is stronger than your desire to be holy and to depend on My power for becoming more like My Son, whether you succeed or fail in other ways, then you will not advance my plan...." 

Okay, that makes me so want to stop and evaluate. I think there was sin in my life---distance from people, jealousy over other's success, being so hard on myself I was really unkind to myself, and the laundry list goes on...---my heaviest point is that there was relational sin I overlooked all the time cause I couldn't straighten it out with my family or friends.......... nor could I walk out or walk away from the relationships I was in.  I never really took a look at how I came across to people nor did people really tell me. I was more focused on how they treated me.  I thought everything in life was okay until 18 years ago when I hit a crisis I couldn't overcome. The Great Divide. I hadn't been naming my evil.  Really didn't know how.  I was more interested in succeeding and I was in most ways. I've been an overcomer my whole life.  But success is not the signpost that everything is all right.  "Success is not greatness."

110 - "God Speaks Words Into David" 2 Samuel 23-24

We all live with ourselves.
We really know what we are like, what we think, what we do.

And we have a glimpse from this book of the things David did.
Evil.  Wicked.  And some Glorious.
David was self-aware of what his sins were.  He took ownership of the stormy seas.
He threw out an Anchor for his soul.  We waddled and waded through the mire, the quicksand.

And it was the Word of God breathed into David that he spoke.
2 Samuel 23:2. 
They knew that it was not their minds conjuring up great advice to give away.
These are God's Thoughts that David writes.
“The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue.
The God of Israel has spoken;
David dawns on them like the morning light,
like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth."
The Word of God has spoken.

And His Word still speaks today.  To you.  To me.
God speaks by me. 

PHOTO:  The Quarries Lake.  It's a silent spot I go to often to listen to God's Word. This lake has heard all of your names, all of my secrets, all of my cries.  

109 - "Man's Greatness and Wretchedness" 2 Samuel 21-22

Royal Ruin ... Not Much Left

From the Wretchedness in David's Life to ... 

A Brand New Chapter Every Day of a Glorious Ruin

David fainted but he didn't flee from his battle with the Philistines.  He was a noble man with flaws just like you and me.  But this time, he didn't run away from what was in front of him.  II Samuel 21:15.  "Man's greatness and wretchedness are so evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us that there is in man some great principle of greatness and some great principle of wretchedness."  Paschal.  Paschal's take allowed for both wretchedness and glory in the truth and rationality of Christianity.  "Rumors of glory" (Cockburn) are in all of us.  What stirs deep within our center?  Fierce words like in II Samuel 19:43?  Soft answers like in Proverbs 15:1?  We are all defaced in some way but never erased.  Within our origin is Divine Glory.  May we deal with this present moment and allow God to make us into the men and women He has called us to be.  For His Name's Sake.

The historian draws his conclusion of David's reign. It is David's weighty words as he ends his life on earth--- and they are spoken by inspiration. And he refers to his seed who will live forevermore. 

David settles the crown on Solomon's head;                                                                                                  he settles his treasures upon the temple which was to be built by the next king.                                     Here. Worthy words to be remembered to this very day. His house is right with God. He was raised up on high to see further than his neighbors.  

PHOTO: Not Much Left.

108 - "Love Those Who Hate You & Hate Those Who Love You" 2 Samuel 19-20

108 What is this---you love those who hate you and hate those who love you? 2 Samuel 19:6. Never hold on to what was not meant for me. To love deeply is what is meant for you. For the Messianic Presence hears all of it. John 1:29. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

                                                         

And they confront David: You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. 2 Samuel 19:6.

How do we do the very same things? O God of Mercy! That I may learn to truly love. To never hold on to what was not meant for me. To love deeply what is meant for me. 

Joab was the spokesperson brave enough to say to David:  I repeat 2 Samuel 19:6 cause this is so powerful. "What is this—loving those who hate you and hating those who love you? Your actions give a clear message: officers and soldiers mean nothing to you...you knocked the wind out of them."  

Why did David grieve his son Absalom at the expense of those alive around him?  What were his tears really for?  Himself?  David prayed in Psalm 25:18 "Lift this ton of sin."  I have so felt the weight of previous sin this week.  Lift the ton, O God!  

God lifted it and immediately David goes back to war with Sheba followed by even more enemies with 24 fingers and toes.  And David prays:  "When I call, give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room.  Now I'm in trouble again: grace me! hear me!"  Psalm 4:1

"You have listened to my troubles and have seen the crisis in my soul." Psalm 31:7.  The Messianic Presence hears every word. 

John 1:29-51.                                                                                                                                         Nathanael was home when Philip beckoned him to hear the glad news of the Messiah coming to their town. "We found the One." From Nazareth comes the "All Good." Nathanael goes quickly. He is both amazed and startled at Jesus' words to him---as if He knew him. "How do you know me?" asks Nathanael.  We have never seen each other before.  "I saw you under the fig tree," John 1:48--- in the deepest sense, the Messiah was there as Nathanael prayed and thought and wondered in his backyard under the fig tree.  There was an actual "Messianic Presence" in his inmost thoughts and yours too.  

I have to say the same.  As a Catholic schoolgirl for 12 years from 1956-1968, we went to Mass every single day Monday through Friday and every Sunday.  Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. 3200 Canal Street.  New Orleans. The presence of God was there for me in my innermost thoughts as I walked through the iron picketed fence protecting the shotgun house on Palmyra Street every day and scurried one block to Catholic school.  He was there. That was my fig tree and he heard all the heavy-weighing anxieties of my heart as I lived in fear of my mentally ill brother.  He saw my tremulous hopes for my life.  He answered all of my deep pleadings to be safe and sane. All those times I stood with my hand on the front doorknob of my living room waiting to escape and run to Colleen's house. A Messianic Presence waiting with me. The built-in sliding pocket doors separating the rooms. A Messianic Presence standing there. I would not know that Messianic presence personally until 1972.

But God knew me and loved me from the Beginning of the world. "In the beginning was the Word. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1:1-4 One philosopher said that these verses are "worthy to be written in letters of gold."  

PHOTO: My favorite spot on earth in Eatonville. I learned right here a tiny bit more how to love well. 

107 - "It Is Strangers Who Comfort Us" 2 Samuel 17-18

God would ride the heavens for you.

This is close to home.  Too close to home.  Absalom chases his father. But look who cares for David...not his family...a host of people we know not.  Strangers.  One of the commentaries says:  Observe how God makes up to His people through the comfort of strangers when they are disappointed in their own families.  

One of my darkest nights of the soul, God used that time to touch me deeply through strangers.  It wasn't just one time...it happened over and over and over...and it is still happening.  II Samuel 17:27 When David arrived at Mahanaim, they brought him and his people beds, basons, barley, beans...they knew.  

Absalom loses his life.  David loses his peace.  "We are apt to over-grieve for what we over-loved."  Matthew Henry.  II Samuel 18:33.  

PRAYER FROM PSALMS
Oh may our heart in tune be found,
like David's harp of solemn sound.
O God, when our hearts are out of tune,
please make what ails us right inside.
May our confidence be only in You,
just as David says in Psalm 3:2.
You are our Shield!
You are the lifter of our head. Psalm 3:3.
Defense for the defenseless
Glory for the despised.
Joy for the comfortless.
There is no God like the God of Jeshurun 
Who rides the Heavens to help.

106 - "Don't Pray Against the Person, Pray Against His Words" 2 Samuel 15-16

She's only in 3rd grade but she is learning about friends who have their own agenda.  May we all pray for our friends with grace-filled words. Pray against their actions not against the person.
David learns that one of his senator's is now a conspirator.  Against him and what David stands for.  So David prays these words in 2 Samuel 15:31 --- confuse the counsel of this senator.  David didn't pray against the person but against his words, against the advice of his soul.  And David prays with the strong knowledge of a Sovereign God Who holds all words and hearts in His Hand.  One commentary says we must second our prayers with endeavours.  And David did.  No man holds the corner of the market on truth.  We can think and live and move and love and still need forgiveness.  Yet, David!  Great in wisdom and patience when treated so cruel.  The David who had just sinned beyond his recognition.  May we follow the footsteps of the One and Only Who holds us tight, never to let go, never to fail.  

#prayer

God will repay not only our service but also our suffering. Here it is in this story of David and Shimei. David could have retaliated. David and his men walking through a prosaic valley. Empurpled Shimei walking on the mountainside. Throwing rocks; throwing words. David's men long to rid the world of Shimei. David's humility prevails---what if? What if he is doing me harm because God told him to speak these derisive words. What if? "It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today." 2 Samual 16:12. Someone has been trying to hurt me in my life.  What if?

PHOTO:  Ezri and the birds at The Aquarium.  We go there every week. Hey Ezri---pray against their words not against the person.