Sometimes I Preach - 1 Kings 18 and 19

A friend yesterday was lamenting the state of the world today and the pressures and difficult life circumstances that youth today grow up with.  Of particular concern was the cycle of addiction or alcoholism that is often associated with abuse and results in perpetuating the cycle of numbing and other ways of acting out and evokes anxiety and fear and anger in the next generation.  His eyes were recently opened to the pervasiveness of such circumstances in his son's high school.  His grief over the current state of affairs and grief over those he loves that suffer themselves was palpable.  

I found myself wanting to share with him some biblical hope.  What came to me was the story of Elijah and the time that he ran from God and wanted to die because life had become so ungodly and crazy around him.  This is not what generally comes to mind as one considers Elijah. Usually the thought of Elijah brings to my mind the picture of a mighty prophet who did mighty acts in the power of the Holy Spirit and guided the people of Israel and was brought into heaven not through death but in a chariot of fire.  Surely it would be the mighty man image that brought hope right?  As is often the case in God's economy, the strength I found was in Elijah's weakness and God's response to him by showing Elijah His very presence.  

Here is the background story in simplified terms (read 1 Kings 17).  The nation of Israel is adulterous and involved in the worship of Baal and Asherah.  The king at the time was Ahab and the queen was Jezebel.  Elijah had been in hiding because he had brought about a famine at God's decree as a judgement on the idolatrous nation.  During the famine, the Lord had fed Elijah supernaturally first by ravens and then through God's miraculous provision from a widow in Zarephath (a gentile!).  In time, Elijah also raised this widow's only son from the dead.  

When the time for the famine to be over was near, Elijah came and showed himself to Ahab and set up a contest between himself as the prophet of God Almighty and the prophets of Baal and Asherah (read 1 Kings 18) to show the people that the God of Israel had power and the prophets of Baal and Asherah were false prophets with no power because their gods were merely idols.  A bull was to be offered as a sacrifice and the fire to consume the sacrifice was to come as an answer to the prophets' plea.  The prophets of Baal and Asherah were unsuccessful even with dry wood but Elijah called upon the Lord and he consumed the sacrifice with a raging fire even though Elijah had made the wood wet.  The result is that the people were convinced that the God of Israel was the true God and saw the idols were not gods at all.  The prophets of the idols were then slaughtered.  After that Elijah prays for rain to end the drought and famine and the rain comes.

Wow!  What a win for God!  God had shown his power and provision to the people.  Where did Elijah go from this victory?  He runs away because he is scared that Jezebel will kill him in revenge for her prophets being slaughtered.  I guess even Elijah had hit a breaking point.  He sat under a Broom tree praying that he might die.  "I have had enough, Lord" he said, "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." (1 Kings 19:4)  Again God supernaturally provided for Elijah to make a journey to Mt. Horeb to meet God.  Elijah's estimation of his situation was "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.  The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death by the sword.  I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." (1 Kings 19:10)  God then sends an earthquake and a fire but God is not in the earthquake or the fire - God came in a gentle whisper.  Elijah responded by putting his cloak over his face and meeting God at the mouth of the cave where he had hidden him.  

After coming to Elijah in the gentle whisper, God shows Elijah that he is not alone, that God still has work for him to do, and leads him to find an assistant who will be his successor.  He also learns that God has carved out for himself a faithful remnant in Israel, over 7000 people that have not worshiped Baal.  

So what is the hope?  The hope to me is that God is all powerful and very present.  The circumstances of this world and the things that are against His heart and His Word do not catch God by surprise.  He has a plan.  The plan is already set in motion and we see that even more clearly living on this side of the cross.  God has made a way for us to live in His Kingdom both now and eternally because Jesus paid the price of our sin on the cross and has redeemed us if we have accepted his salvation.  He also empowers us to live counter-cultural lives and to help those caught in darkness to see His Light.  

The story of Elijah reminds me that God is personally concerned about each of us individually.  Our lives matter to God.  When we feel despair and think we are the only ones trying to live a godly life and wonder if it even  matters or if God even cares about what is going on, He comes to us.   We need to be still and quiet and rest in Him so we can hear his gentle voice.  The earthquakes and fires may rage and call to us to busy ourselves with their distractions, but when we meditate on His Word and seek Him in stillness, He brings us peace, a new direction and even help when we need it.  And he shows us that we are not alone.  He is with us, and He has many others who are seeking to live out His Kingdom even now.  

Ezekiel 11: A Prayer for Today

My devotional reading for today brought me to Ezekiel 11.  God is giving a vision to Ezekiel about the exiles who have been scattered to other countries and their subsequent return both to Jerusalem and to God Himself.  I think this prophecy will find its ultimate fulfillment in the millennial kingdom for the Jews, but I was struck by the language used to describe their transformation.  I decided to personalize the language and use it as my prayer for today and I also wanted to share it with you. This is adapted from Ezekiel 11:16-20. 

O Lord, be my sanctuary.  Remove every trace of idol worship within me.  Give me a singleness of heart and fill me with the Holy Spirit.  Take away my heart of stone and give me a tender heart with a desire to obey Your laws.  You alone are my God and I want to follow you completely.  Amen

Sometimes I Preach - The Fruit of the Spirit

Oh the fruit of, the fruit of the Spirit is
love and joy, joy and peace, peace and patience and kindness too, tenderness, faithfulness, self-control and goodness for you.  Oh the fruit of the Spirit is ..... cha cha cha!

This is the song that taught me the fruit of the Spirit in a way that I could memorize and I think I learned it when I was age 35.  I guess that is the joy of having children and trying to raise them in a Christian home in a different denomination than the one in which I grew up - I get to learn new songs.  Now if only I could remember the addresses.  I still have to look them up every time. 

Galatians 5: 22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Of course, against things there is no law!  These things are ideal and unfortunately, opposed to our flesh - that very human part of us that is in conflict with the Spirit of God, also within us as believers (Gal 5:17).  The good and bad news, is that it is obvious which side is winning that battle at any given time.  The acts of the flesh are obvious (Gal 5:19).  

So how are we to live?  We are to live in step with the Spirit.  What does it look like?  Well, I think it means that we recognize that we can't be these ideal things on our own and that even seeing these good things in ourselves or others can provoke us to more fleshly reactions like conceit or envy (Gal 5:26). 

So where does that lead us?  It leads us back to grace.  It leads us back to Jesus who makes us righteous by His death for our sins.  He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  He made us right with God.  He has placed His Holy Spirit within us to give us the power to live a live that is crucified to the flesh (Gal 5:24).  And He continues to give us grace when we fall.  1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, by daily yielding to the Spirit and walking in the grace of forgiveness and acceptance, we find that little by little we have more fruit from the Spirit in our life. This is my prayer for all of us.  

Dear Lord,  

Please give us the desire and the power to walk in the Spirit.  May we see your power and fruit in our lives.  May our hatred and indifference be replaced by love that comes from You.  Let the joy of the Lord replace our sadness and despair.  Let Your peace rule in our hearts and replace our anxiety and unsettled feelings.  May Your patience replace our impatience and Your kindness replace our unkindness.  Lord, we are unfaithful, please teach us Your faithfulness.  Replace our roughness with Your gentleness and grant us self-control.  And somehow use our struggles to show others your grace.  Amen.   

Sometimes I Preach - Leviticus 6:1-7: Sins Requiring a Guilt Offering

God's timing never ceases to amaze me.  He knows what I need and when I will need it. I finished a one year Bible in April (I guess I was on the 16 month track!) and I picked up a One Year Chronological Bible to use for daily quiet time over the next year or so.  So yesterday, I was reading February 17th which included this passage from Leviticus. Obviously, it is June and not February, but God knew I needed this message now.  I felt the prompting to write about how He ministered to me through His Word because I really doubt I am the only one who needs this today.
  
Here is the passage from the New Living Translation:

1 And the LORD said to Moses, 2 "Suppose some of the people sin against the LORD by falsely telling their neighbor that an item entrusted to their safekeeping has been lost or stolen. Or suppose they have been dishonest with regard to a security deposit, or they have taken something by theft or extortion. 3 Or suppose they find a lost item and lie about it, or they deny something while under oath, or they commit any other similar sin. 4 If they have sinned in any of these ways and are guilty, they must give back whatever they have taken by theft or extortion, whether a security deposit, or property entrusted to them, or a lost object that they claimed as their own, 5 or anything gained by swearing falsely. When they realize their guilt, they must restore the principal amount plus a penalty of 20 percent to the person they have harmed. 6 They must then bring a guilt offering to the priest, who will present it before the LORD. This offering must be a ram with no physical defects or the animal's equivalent value in silver. 7 The priest will then make atonement for them before the LORD, and they will be forgiven.

This passage ministered to me personally because of a situation I am dealing with currently that has caused a lot of hurt and resentment that I needed to deal with to have serenity in my own life.  I don't wish to share that situation in this forum, but I will share another story that illustrates the principles.  I just don't want people to see this and think God's timing is amazing because of a 20 year old story!  


When I was a senior in high school, I went on a Spring Break trip to Panama City, Florida with a group of friends.  On our way down to Florida, we stopped overnight in Georgia.  Several of us were piled into a motel room and I didn't want to bring in all my stuff because there wasn't room and we would be leaving again early the next morning to hit the beach.  So I brought in my overnight bag and left my suitcase in the van.  During the night, the van was broken into and my suitcase was stolen, along with another girl's suitcase.  A situation like that will immediately reveal what is important to you.  There were many things in the suitcase, like clothes and swimsuits and money and other personal items.  Losing these things left me feeling violated. It was inconvenient to replace them so I could be properly outfitted for my vacation.  I was angry that this had happened to me.  The money, and the clothes and the personal items, however, were not the big loss for me.  They could all be replaced.  I was devastated because Pinky was in the suitcase.  Pinky was my security blanket.  It was a gift to my mother at a baby shower for me so I had literally had him since I was born.  I had slept with him nearly every night and had my parents searching for him so I could go to sleep on more than one occasion when I was small.  To the thief, I am sure the money was a much bigger prize, but to me, it was my blanket.  The same blanket that was probably immediately tossed because it had no value.  I am not sure why Pinky wasn't in my overnight bag.  Maybe it was full.  Maybe I didn't know all of the girls on the trip well and didn't want to break out the blanket on the first night in a crowded motel.  One thing was sure, I thought he was safe in the car.  I was wrong.  

The first lesson in the passage for me was that all sin is ultimately against the Lord.  "Suppose some of the people sin against the Lord by falsely telling their neighbor...."  The passage doesn't ignore the loss to the neighbor, but first and foremost says that the sin is against the Lord.  When it is time to make restitution, the restitution must be made both to the neighbor and to the Lord.  The restitution to the neighbor is based on the value of what was taken.  The object must be returned or paid for plus a penalty of 20%.  The guilt offering to the Lord was always the same.  He required an offering of a ram with no physical defect to be sacrificed by the priest for the forgiveness of the sin.  

A couple of things stood out to me about this guilt offering.  The first was that it was public.  A public acknowledgement of guilt by bringing a guilt offering to the priest at the temple. The second was that it was expensive.  It is likely that the guilt offering would be more costly than the restitution in many cases.  It made me think of a parent telling a child "this hurts me more than it does you."  What a thought.  My blanket was practically worthless in the eyes of the world, even if returned with a 20% penalty, but God says that the sin requires the same guilt offering as a much bigger theft.  It wasn't so much about what was taken but more about the sin.  The coveting, the stealing, the breaking of God's laws and I believe about the breaking of a heart.  As a parent, I know the pain it brings to me when my child's heart is broken over a loss, especially one that is unexplainable.  The pain of a loss that is the result of a sinful act of a neighbor, or a friend or a family member.  It is always worse when the loss is at the hand of someone you know, and not just a theft by a stranger like the one illustrated in my story.  And this passage shows me that God's heart is broken when the heart of his child is broken.  


As I considered the passage further I have had a few more thoughts.  One is that sometimes it is possible that the guilty party doesn't recognize their guilt.  It says in verse 5, "when they realize their guilt" which indicates that there may be time when they deny their guilt or don't realize their offense.  Another thing that comes to mind is that I have to deal with my own loss whether or not I get restitution.  The only way I know how to effectively deal with my loss is to take it to the Lord and forgive the other person and then Let Go and Let God.  I don't need to stuff my feelings, but to acknowledge my hurt through pouring out my heart to God in prayer.  Putting my focus on God helps me to remember that whether the offender realizes their sin or not, God knows the details and all sin is ultimately against Him.  I know He can handle it.  Letting go through forgiveness helps me to live more peacefully without the resentment that only hurts me.  


And as so often happens, when I start to want to point fingers when reading the Bible, the finger comes back around to me.  I am thankful that as a Christian, I am no longer under the law but that the law has been fulfilled through Jesus.  He is the ultimate sacrifice for the atonement of sin.  It is because of His sacrifice that I can be accepted as a child of God.  I can trust Him to heal my hurts and to forgive my sins, and even to point out the ones that I don't recognize.  I do have a responsibility though - to forgive those who trespass against me.  He is there to help me do that in His strength when it seems too much for me.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Praise God that He is the God who Sees, Heals, Rescues and Restores!  My hope is that someone else who reads this may also be encouraged. 

Sometimes I preach - 2 Kings 16:1-19

I thought I might do something different today. Of course, that different thing might be making a blog post considering I have only posted 8 times before today! I have been reading through the Bible devotionally, and sometimes I read something that makes me think a bit more about how it is pertinent to life now. Maybe it happens when I have slept more soundly and am more awake at 6 AM to pay closer attention or maybe it is the Holy Spirit working. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I take that to mean that 2 Kings has application for me, even if the times were long ago and the practices somewhat foreign to our culture today. I thought I'd share with you the story and the questions that I began to consider after reading it. I urge you to read the story yourself because this is the condensed version according to Michelle, that admittedly does not have the clout of more established translations!

This is the story of Ahaz, king of Judah. He was an unfaithful king who was the son and grandson of relatively Godly kings. Ahaz sinned in the ways of Israel (who worshiped the golden calves at Bethel and Dan instead of worshiping God in the temple at Jerusalem as God had prescribed - this was in the period of the "divided kingdom" when Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom were ruled separately) and also in sinned in the ways of the nations that the LORD had driven out of the promised land. He basically worshiped everybody, everywhere.

Judah was being attacked by the king of Aram and King Ahaz bought the protection of the king of Assyria by sending him the gold and silver from the temple. The king of Assyria defeated the king of Aram for Ahaz. King Ahaz went to Damascus to see the king of Assyria and while he was there was taken by the altar where the king of Assyria worshiped. Perhaps he thought that worshiping at such an altar would also make him powerful. He had plans drawn up to make an identical altar in Jerusalem. He sent the plans back to Uriah the priest and Uriah built it for the king. Then Ahaz used that altar to offer his sacrifices. He placed it at the LORD's temple and even moved the bronze altar of the LORD so that his Assyrian altar could have center stage. He also made changes around other parts of the temple area based on what he saw in Assyria. Then you have this curious comment in verse 15 "but I will use the bronze altar to ask questions of God." Followed by verse 16 that says that Uriah the priest did everything as king Ahaz commanded him.

So here is what I got to thinking: Do I have two altars? Is the place I go about my life, offering my daily sacrifices, a place that I have made for myself based on what I have seen in the life of a person that I want to emulate or am impressed by or seems to have what I want? Would I go someplace different to ask questions of God? Or do I live life and offer sacrifices based on what God has required of me according to His plan? Do I try to re-arrange what God has prescribed based on my preferences or the preferences of someone I respect? Do I give God a token place of worship off to the side in case I need Him if my plans aren't going as I expected?

Another question is who does the person that serves as a priest in my life take direction from? Is the priest staying true to the LORD or has he decided to serve another king instead? Can I see the difference? One more thing- do I remember to take each person individually instead of relying on what I know about their family? Each person chooses whom he will serve and sometimes they depart from their family, for good or for worse.

That is enough preaching for today. I hope it gives you something to think about too.