1 Chronicles 28:9 "...know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought ..."
This was David's charge to his son, Solomon, as he prepared to turn over the kingdom of Israel. I just really liked how David characterized a life that is open to the Lord, especially the part about the "willing mind."
I wonder sometimes how willing our minds are. In our world today there are many whose minds are anything but willing when it comes to the things of God. They hear God's Word and dismiss it because it doesn't seem to jive with science or political correctness. Even Christians can find themselves unwilling to in their minds to accept that God is who He says He is. We tend to believe our minds before we believe the Lord.
My challenge to us today is to allow your mind to be open and willing to be taught, challenged, and changed by God's Word.
Pastor Tom
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Judgment And Mercy
There is a really interesting story in 1 Chronicles 21. It's the story of one of David's greatest blunders which the Lord turned around into a wonderful act of mercy.
David ordered a census of Israel. I won't go into why this was wrong but suffice it to say that God did not order it or want it. So when David went ahead there as judgment to pay. God gave David a choice: three years of famine, three months of a foreign enemy, or three days of "the sword of the Lord."
David chose the three days of God's judgment saying "Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great" (1 Chronicles 21:13). Those three days were terrible, with 70,000 of Israel perishing.
Now get this scene: the angel of the Lord (many think this represents the pre-incarnate Christ) is poised over Jerusalem to destroy it. God has mercy as David cries out his guilt "It is I who have sinned and one great evil" (vs 17). Instead of destroying, God orders David to set up an altar.
He buys the threshing floor of Ornan. Though Ornan offers it for free David says "I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
This altar becomes the site of the Temple.
The Temple then becomes a picture of the sacrifice for all sins that Jesus would make. So here you have Jesus who bears both the sword of judgment and the altar of mercy. This is a good picture for us to remember. We will all face Jesus. You will either face Him as the Lamb who allowed the judgment of God to fall on Him for you, or you will face Him as the judge who not spare those who have sinned outside of His grace.
The next time you feel God's judgment gathering like a sword over your head, remember this section and give your heart to the mercy of God through the sacrifice of Jesus.
Pastor Tom
David ordered a census of Israel. I won't go into why this was wrong but suffice it to say that God did not order it or want it. So when David went ahead there as judgment to pay. God gave David a choice: three years of famine, three months of a foreign enemy, or three days of "the sword of the Lord."
David chose the three days of God's judgment saying "Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great" (1 Chronicles 21:13). Those three days were terrible, with 70,000 of Israel perishing.
Now get this scene: the angel of the Lord (many think this represents the pre-incarnate Christ) is poised over Jerusalem to destroy it. God has mercy as David cries out his guilt "It is I who have sinned and one great evil" (vs 17). Instead of destroying, God orders David to set up an altar.
He buys the threshing floor of Ornan. Though Ornan offers it for free David says "I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
This altar becomes the site of the Temple.
The Temple then becomes a picture of the sacrifice for all sins that Jesus would make. So here you have Jesus who bears both the sword of judgment and the altar of mercy. This is a good picture for us to remember. We will all face Jesus. You will either face Him as the Lamb who allowed the judgment of God to fall on Him for you, or you will face Him as the judge who not spare those who have sinned outside of His grace.
The next time you feel God's judgment gathering like a sword over your head, remember this section and give your heart to the mercy of God through the sacrifice of Jesus.
Pastor Tom
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Where Do Blessing and Victory Come From?
I've just returned from a couple of weeks on holiday - a great relaxing time to rejuvenate and recuperate. As I got back into 1 Chronicles today I was struck by the way God worked in and through King David.
In chapter 16 we see David bring up the Ark of the Tabernacle and set it up in Jerusalem. I noticed that in verse 4: "Then he appointed some of the Levites as minister before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord."
I like that, by the way. We too should ask God's presence in our daily lives, thank him and praise him for what he has done and is doing. David then launches into a wonderful psalm of praise.
Directly from that he thinks "Behold I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Lord is under a tent." (17:1). He wants to build a temple but Nathan tells him that is Solomon his son that will build it. Then the Lord tells David that he will establish his throne forever (vs 12). What a promise!
What does this invoke in David? Humility. Later in chapter 17 he says "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?"
After this, in chapter 18, David defeats the Philistines and subdues them - something Israel had tried to do ever since arriving in the Promised Land.
So the pattern we see here is: worship that leads to blessing, blessing that leads to humility, humility that leads to victory. A great example for us to follow!
Pastor Tom
In chapter 16 we see David bring up the Ark of the Tabernacle and set it up in Jerusalem. I noticed that in verse 4: "Then he appointed some of the Levites as minister before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord."
I like that, by the way. We too should ask God's presence in our daily lives, thank him and praise him for what he has done and is doing. David then launches into a wonderful psalm of praise.
Directly from that he thinks "Behold I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Lord is under a tent." (17:1). He wants to build a temple but Nathan tells him that is Solomon his son that will build it. Then the Lord tells David that he will establish his throne forever (vs 12). What a promise!
What does this invoke in David? Humility. Later in chapter 17 he says "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?"
After this, in chapter 18, David defeats the Philistines and subdues them - something Israel had tried to do ever since arriving in the Promised Land.
So the pattern we see here is: worship that leads to blessing, blessing that leads to humility, humility that leads to victory. A great example for us to follow!
Pastor Tom
Friday, May 11, 2007
Sinner or Hero?
When you read about David's mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11 and 12 you get pretty impressed. Guys like Benaiah who killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day and snatched the spear out of a seven and a half foot tall Egyptian guy. They weren't called mighty men for nothing. Thanks to them Jerusalem was conquered, the Philistines were overcome and Israel had peace from its enemies and a king was protected that was a man after God's own heart.
So its interesting to go back to the time when all these guys joined David. You wouldn't exactly call them "mighty" at that point. Back in 1 Samuel 22, when David was not king, but on the run from King Saul who was trying to kill him. David went and hid in a cave. Joining him there: "everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul." Sure doesn't sound like any "mighty men" to me. And yet these I think are the same guys that later are heroes of Israel.
Do you sometimes feel bitter or in distress or in debt? Do you feel like hiding in a cave and that God could never really use you? Take heart. God turned the disaffected into the mighty and he can do the same for you. How did it happen? These guys rallied around a man who loved God with all his heart. For us, we gather around one of David's descendants, Jesus Christ. Spend time with Him and He can turn you into a hero too!
Pastor Tom
So its interesting to go back to the time when all these guys joined David. You wouldn't exactly call them "mighty" at that point. Back in 1 Samuel 22, when David was not king, but on the run from King Saul who was trying to kill him. David went and hid in a cave. Joining him there: "everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul." Sure doesn't sound like any "mighty men" to me. And yet these I think are the same guys that later are heroes of Israel.
Do you sometimes feel bitter or in distress or in debt? Do you feel like hiding in a cave and that God could never really use you? Take heart. God turned the disaffected into the mighty and he can do the same for you. How did it happen? These guys rallied around a man who loved God with all his heart. For us, we gather around one of David's descendants, Jesus Christ. Spend time with Him and He can turn you into a hero too!
Pastor Tom
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Lost and Found
Have you ever lost something of great value? Most of the time you know it and you search frantically for it with that sick feeling in your stomach. But what if you lost something of tremendous worth and knew it not?
That's the position Israel and its king find themselves in. 2 Kings 23 finds Israel on the heels of the absolute worst king ever - completely evil and worse than the evil nations around them. A new king comes to power: Josiah. Josiah sends his staff to the Temple to find out what happened to the money given for the upkeep of the structure.
When there the men discover a book - but not just any book, but the Book of the Law. This book, God's Word, is carried very gingerly to King Josiah, because it contains the failings of the kings and the nation and God's retribution against those sins.
Josiah reacts correctly: 2 Kings 22:11 "And when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his clothes."
He repented and God relented and said he would spare Josiah from seeing the destruction and discipline planned for Israel.
So are you without something of great value to you and you don't know it? Perhaps for you, like Josiah, it is God's Word. Without the washing of His Word we too can drift off into sin. Also like Josiah, we should rediscover the book, blow off the dust, and let the words wash over us. Yes there might be hard words to hear, but they are also words of life and of great value.
Pastor Tom
That's the position Israel and its king find themselves in. 2 Kings 23 finds Israel on the heels of the absolute worst king ever - completely evil and worse than the evil nations around them. A new king comes to power: Josiah. Josiah sends his staff to the Temple to find out what happened to the money given for the upkeep of the structure.
When there the men discover a book - but not just any book, but the Book of the Law. This book, God's Word, is carried very gingerly to King Josiah, because it contains the failings of the kings and the nation and God's retribution against those sins.
Josiah reacts correctly: 2 Kings 22:11 "And when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his clothes."
He repented and God relented and said he would spare Josiah from seeing the destruction and discipline planned for Israel.
So are you without something of great value to you and you don't know it? Perhaps for you, like Josiah, it is God's Word. Without the washing of His Word we too can drift off into sin. Also like Josiah, we should rediscover the book, blow off the dust, and let the words wash over us. Yes there might be hard words to hear, but they are also words of life and of great value.
Pastor Tom
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