133 - "For What Do I Wait?" 1 Chronicles 6-7

It's terribly Quiet here at the Quarries.

For what do I wait this night?

Psalm 39:7

Do I wait for things to turn around?

I'm at the Hyde Park Track Banquet setting things up for the season awards.  By myself.

I am feeling worse as days progress.  

I hit an all-time low today with this job. 

Here is the tribe of Levi in today's reading. I Chron 6:1. It's a long chronicled list.  Here are names we recognize astonishingly with such respect:  

Aaron and Moses---instruments in God's Hand to deliver Israel.  Faith.  Forbearance.  Foreshadowing.  Moses the Prophet.  

Aaron the Priest.  And we know them.  

And they are right next to Abihu and Nadab in the genealogy---your remember the terror they brought, the very strange fire. 

One rebuilt the temple and lived for God; the other tried to rebuild their lives---and lived for themselves.   "Devote your first energies to rebuilding the temple, not your lives." 66LL.   To the exiled but still proud community in this list, God underlined sin.  To the restored but discouraged community in this list, God aroused hope.  66LL.  

That's it, God.  Arouse my hope.  I have it. 

We come down so hard on ourselves for being discouraged, but I wonder if the real question is this---do we have hope this day?  

We are no longer exiles. 

We are living in hope. Delivered. Adopted. Beloved. 

PHOTO: These two girls. Megan and Hannah have meant so much to me over their high school career.  We are all letters written not with ink but with heart. 1 Cor 3:2.  As the ink dries on this track season, may God pass on things from our lives that matter for Eternity.

132 - "The Fabric Rose; The Fabric Tugged" 1 Chronicles 3-5

132 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. #talkingtomyself

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.

131 - "This *One Thing* Made Him 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. 

130 - "Deal With What Is Happening In Your Own Soul" 2 Kings 23-25

130 All we can deal with is what is happening in our own soul. We can lead people but we cannot make them follow God, not even our own children.  We lay them in the lap of our LORD.  We can invite, intrigue, engage, entertain in sober ways what is holy and what counts in life.  

                                                                

The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord

to walk after the Lord, and

to keep His commandments and His testimonies, 

and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul

to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book.

 II Kings 23:3.  

And all the people entered into the covenant.  King Josiah had just heard from his God that he could not stop the ruin of Jerusalem.  All we can deal with is what is happening in our own soul. We can lead people but we cannot make them follow God, not even our own children.  We lay them in the lap of our LORD.  We can invite, intrigue, engage, entertain in sober ways what is holy and what counts in life.  Josiah led his people to abolish idolatry, serve God in righteous living, find true repentance.  Many of those he led were compliant hypocrites who will stand before God, alone.  While Josiah could rein in the wickedness, he couldn't change their very souls.  

Judah and Jerusalem overflowed with wickedness. Would our forefathers have thought that America could do the same and evolve into such an evil place?  I grew up with broken people who never locked their doors, fearing no break-ins.  No more.  We all live behind bars and locks and gates.  In Josiah's 18 years of exemplary service, he lived from a humbled heart.  Yet, he could not change his nation.  "The records of God's word teach that all the real godliness or goodness ever found on earth is derived from the new-creating Spirit of Jesus Christ." M.Henry

Through Passion and Passover, revival broke out under the good hand of Josiah. The Mighty Hand of God.  God rained on them His Presence, His Favor.  Josiah must have been beside himself.  But, it only lasted until the traitors cut off the life of Josiah to raise up the next king.  Evil reigns again.  And the point of the passage is t.h.i.s. ~ We must take care of our own souls to stand next to the pillars in our own lives, make a covenant, keep His Word, carry out His Words. And when we can't; when we don't; when we won't, take care of your soul and repent under the Holy Hand of a very Good God Who is always doing us good. Colossians 1:29. 

God of Jacob, such is the generation of those who seek your Face not your Hand.
May we be a generation of people who deal with what stirs in our own soul.
May we seek your Face not our own ambition, safety, personal peace.
May our decisions never be made apart from Your Face.
Psalm 24:6

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. 2 Kings 23:16

Never before or after---a king like him---yet his own son, Jehoahaz, could not be influenced.  I remember telling words about a decade ago spoken to me in angst.  "We will see who was right by the size of your ministry."  I didn't believe it then.  I don't believe it now.  Josiah's own son couldn't be swayed by the strongest of kings.  We will all individually give account to God for our lives not for how our sons and daughters and followers turn out. 

129 - "Cut Me Off From the Wild Olive" 2 Kings 21-22

He was only 8 years old when he began to reign...and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. 2 Kings 22:1. He was a mere child who inherited a wicked rule. He had nothing to do with the state of affairs. He had everything to do with Kingdom affairs. "Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left." 2 Kings 22:2. It's my prayer for our children. God did for this child king: Romans 11:24 God cut him off from the wild olive and grafted him into the good olive. Nothing is too hard for that Grace to do." Josiah walked the narrow middle road. He took care to repair the temple. He took care to watch and wait in the Word of God. 

Oh Father, start with me. Cut me off from the wild olive. Graft us in today. May we take deep care to the place where we have been called. May we wait in Your Word this day, always!

PHOTO:  Narrow Paths.  May we find that narrow path, the walk of life and truth and love and God.  Thinking this day about doing what is right in the eyes of God.  Thinking about being grafted into the good narrow path.  

128 -- "Spread Your Dilemma Before The Lord" 2 Kings 18-20

 

This picture of Hezekiah going to God with his problems is cemented in my heart. 2 Kings 19:14. I'll go looking for Hezekiah in heaven to tell him just how much his story of spreading his problems before God's Eyes meant to me over my lifetime.  I've smoothed out sheets and asked God to sit in the hospital bed next to me.  I've smoothed out paper and invited Him to write a different script.  I've smoothed out sin-sick souls and sat next to them and wept.  Whatever we face, spread it before the One Who is the Author of all.  Isaiah 37:14 - Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:  “O Lord of hosts, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see..."

Spreading before the LORD what concerns us this very day. Oh God, incline your ear.

Romans 5:3-5 Rejoice in Suffering...How do you do that?
And God moves...
Endurance
Character
Hope 
Love poured into our hearts.

PHOTO: California. Whether cemented in splendor or surreal or surprise or senseless, spread it out before the Lord.

127 - "They Practiced Secrets Not Surrender" 2 Kings 16-17

We can appear religious and be far from it.  "Even though the Israelites were worshipping God, they were far from God. They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger." 2 Kings 17:16-17

These Israelites were dead serious!  

Reminds me of today's suicide bombers with ISIS.

Selling themselves.

Sacrificing their sons and daughters.

Oh my!

The Israelites followed kings not the King. 

They became faithless not full of faith.
They practiced secrets not surrender/

"And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right."  2 Chron 17

2 Chronicles 28:3 Infamous Ahaz —incredibly! indulged in the outrageous practice of "passing his sons through the fire."  That is unbelievable.  Verse 19 says:  Arrogant King Ahaz, acting as if he could do without God's help, had unleashed an epidemic of depravity. I have been thinking a lot about our moral choices.  We read the Charity chapter in Mere Christianity in class on Friday.  When I led the discussion, one student responded that Lewis' words proved "love is a choice."  But we must always allow God to reveal the motives and intentions of our hearts as we love.  Sin is way more than just making a wrong choice to not love or do the wrong thing.  

It brings to mind a quote from Crabb:  "Sin is more than wrong choices, more than bad behavior, more than wrong understanding.  And it is not a reaction to felt need that deserves tender compassion and patience.  Sin cannot be explained, but it can be defined.  Sin is defiantly walking past the living water God provides in relationship with Himself and proudly digging wells with one's own resources in the futile and foolish hope of providing for oneself the water needed for a meaningful and secure life."  Jeremiah 2:9 -13

John Piper calls it "sweet idolatries in which the longing heart embraces the wrong satsifaction."  What are my deep satisfactions this night?  Is it my children responding right to me?  Is it my husband not "missing" me?  Is it my friends responding like I want them to?  Is it my God coming through for me?  What do I most want?

PHOTO:  The Hill Country of Texas. 

126 - "In the Midst of Evil Times, God's Plan Is Moving Ahead" 2 Kings 14-15

                                                             

These kings in their palaces!  Ruthless.  Out-of-control.  Massive murderers.  

Yet, they did exactly what they wanted to do.  I just read a quote from C.S. Lewis:  "In each of us, there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.  It's not a question of God 'sending' us to hell.

Such a telling thought to throw a woman out of the window to her death.  God moves and works in ways we don't understand.  Wondering what they thought of this story in that day?  Wondering what we think of this forcible forthright dealing with sinful natures.

May we not take lightly the things we do.

2 Kings 15:1 - What is it that these kings continually failed to get rid of the sex-and-religion shrines that were popular with the people...wonder what these kings wanted more than the love of their God---their own popularity?? 

II Kings 15:16 - Menahem ripped open the pregnant women because the town didn't welcome him with open arms. They even indulged in outrageous practices of  burning their own children. 
These are really bad people..."all kinds of things on the sly."  "They threw out everything their God had told them." "They prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available."  In a lot of ways, it sounds familiar in some respects in our own country.  How incredibly sad! 

All I keep thinking about is the quote from 66 LL that says that in the midst of evil times, God's Plan is moving ahead.  "Above all else, seek to know Me better and represent Me well in every circumstance, no matter how you feel...You must understand the deceptive nature of evil.  [Evil today doesn't rear its head in outrageous practices in most Christian lives---it's more the deceptive evil that leads us astray. I will not be about burning my children but there's still cancer in my soul.)  Evil hides itself and does its destructive work slowly, beneath the disease of necessity, reasonableness, efficiency, pragmatism, even morality, even goodness."  So what is evil about my necessity, my efficiency, my morality, my goodness?  Praise God HE will show us this very day where we are out of His Will.  "I have a Plan to restore the Beauty of Eden, to create a community of men and women who live their lives in rhythm with My Holiness, who dance with Me into joy."  HE is a Beautiful God in charge and HE chose you!

PHOTO: A Castle. Courtesy of The Commons. 

125 - "Sin Cannot Remain Unchecked Unadmitted Unchanged" 2 Kings 11-13

We may not be able to break into social circles,
but always remember that your relationship with Christ places you
in the most important position you could ever have.

Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared." 2 Kings 13:17.

But there are so many sad tales in 2 Kings.  So many evil kings.  Like Jehoram, who yielded to the force of evil within him.  And then Manasseh, one of the most evil and longest-reigning kings of Judah.  God's love outlasted his hate. Manasseh turned back to God.  Sin in our hearts to this day cannot remain "unchecked, unadmitted, unforgiven, and unchanged."  Oh Judah! How lonely sits that city!

PHOTO:    Peering out of an airplane window at a summer sunrise.  Hard to believe we can live without thinking about God our Creator and what that means for how we spend our lives.  Hard to believe there is so much wrong with what we are doing.  Hard to believe "It's Me" is the problem.   

124 - "Something Growing Up In Each of Us" 2 Kings 9-10

 

These kings!  Ruthless.  Out-of-control.  Massive murderers.  Yet, they did exactly what they wanted to do.  I just read a quote from C.S. Lewis:  "In each of us, there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.  It's not a question of God 'sending' us to hell."

It's all about who we make covenants with.  2 Kings 11:17 "Jehoiada then made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord’s people. He smashed the altars and idols to pieces.  And the whole town became calm.  

May righteousness stir within us all. 

Jezebell asked the question to Elijah in 2 Kings 9 and so did others:  "Have you come in peace?"

Elijah didn't answer them, the perpetrators of evil.  He let them be. Had no mercy on their wicked ways.  

Such a telling thought to throw a woman out of the window to her death.  God moves and works in ways we don't understand.  Wondering what they thought of this story in that day?  Wondering what we think of this forcible forthright dealing with sinful natures.

May we not take lightly the things we do.  

Maybe, we think that we are doing all the right things.

Ministering.  Missional.  Madmen. 

How do we know we are right?

How do we know that what we do this day is really for God?

Jehu was anointed by God.  A madman ran in and told Jehu ... and ran right out.  Sometimes prophets are called a little out of their mind.  Jehu's life tells a compelling story---he destroyed the house of Ahab---so zealous for God. But there's so much more than living a zealous life, a successful life, a missional life.  We are here for God, not to build our do-good world.  There's a telling verse about Jehu, II Kings 10:31, reveals "Jehu wasn't careful to walk in the law of the LORD with all his heart."  Oh, how this makes me want to finish well.  Sin is never the way of peace ~ Isaiah 57:21.  

And the verse I take away from this passage and will hold dear:
It's a quote from the life of Jehu desiring to walk with his friend in unity.
It's a question we must ask ourselves.
“Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?”   II Kings 10:15

They bowed to starry hosts.

God never intended for us to worship nature more than Him.

They followed the practices of their peers.

God never intended for us to look sideways for direction.  Look up.

They even sacrificed their sons and daughters.

We may look very religious but are we doing it for ourselves?

In secret, they did things against their Lord, their God.

Things that were not right.

Do we?

Am I?

God, change us this moment as I reflect on what I do in secret.  Thoughts that may turn wild in motion, against the grain.  May I bring them captive to You.  May I look to You first, not my peers, never sideways.  Take these widdershin thoughts of mine and make them smooth as iron.  May I find You in this these 10,000 moments.  

Image:  Library of Congress. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.07478