Murder and Conspiracy While the Birds Sing

I Samuel 18-20

I am sitting on our back porch in the darkness of early dawn.  The forest that surrounds me is dark and deep and filled with singing birds.   Why do birds sing in the dark?  It reminds me of this morning’s reading.  Saul is bent on killing David.  All three chapters record his murderous attempts as jealousy terminally infects him.  I am sure David has more than once asked God why?  I would!  David was a perfectly content young boy happily tending his flock in the peace and tranquility of the pasture, his faith being undergirded by the starry nights and still waters. Then the great day of his anointing by the Lord came and ever since his life has been filled with war, giants and murderous intrigue.  Doesn’t seem like God’s call was all it was stacked up to be!

Perish that thought!  God’s call is always that…God’s Call.  The call is issued to every human.  It is not a call to personal peace and affluence.  Think of it this way.  If President Obama called you to the Oval Office and asked you to perform a personal mission for the country, would you?  What if he said the mission was fraught with danger and disappointment, but he guaranteed your ultimate success and safety.  Wouldn’t you stand in that great Oval Office and agree to do it?  And more than that, you would do it with a personal sense of purpose and determination of cause.   That’s how we should each act in regard to God’s call on our life.  It’s how David did and it’s what makes birds sing in the deep dark woods of early dawn.  God called them to it!

Don’t you just love God!!!

“All You Need is Love”

I Samuel 15-17

Saul is rejected; David is anointed and two of the great truths in scripture explain it.  The first truth is found in chapter 15:22, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.”  What is the preeminent command of the Lord?  Love God with all we are and love our neighbors as ourselves, Matthew 22: 36-40. Our life of obedience which trumps all our religious exercises is to live a life of love. 

The second truth is found in chapter 16:7, “…for God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

And there’s the reality.  To love out of religious duty or any other duty, is just so much “burnt offerings and sacrifice.”  Love must be who we are not what we do.  Man is incapable of producing that divine love in his heart.  God, through His Son Jesus the Christ, is the only Author of that love. 

Here is perhaps the greatest “blog” ever penned.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.  When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then fact to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.  But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I Corinthians 13

Weeds and Satan

I Samuel 11-14

A very meaningful passage of coronations and power grabs as Israel stumbles toward nationhood under their new government.  One passage is very telling.  In chapter 13:19-22 we learn there are only two weapons in all of Israel, two swords in the whole nation.  How can you build a nation with only two weapons.  I mean America has H Bombs, Nuke Subs and Preditor Drones.  That caught my attention and made me wonder if our Pilgrims had any weapons when they came to America.  Maybe all they had were hoes and Bibles.  Depending on how you look at it, those could be the mightiest weapons on earth.

Funny thing about weapons, they’re designed based on who you think your enemy is!

I Pledge Allegiance…

I Samuel 7-10

These chapters record the greatest power shift in history.  Man has demanded that their allegiance be transferred from God to man.  They would rather be ruled by men than God and man has never looked back.  What a travesty.  

I Samuel 8:10-22 should be required reading for all Americans.  It is an eerie foretelling of our own history.  We are willingly transfering our allegiance to the government and expecting it to be as God to us. 

Governments can only rule over us by force of law.  They do not possess a conscious nor can they consciously act morally.  Governments will always act on their own best interest and will continually seek power to enforce and protect those interests. 

The only restraints to government are citizens who have found a way to act with moral consciousness.  These citizens then rule over and manage civic duties.  There is no way by which to make men act morally except through a willing acceptance of a universal moral authority.  That authority must be absolute and autonomous and always act on the basis of love to seek the betterment of others over Itself. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...” John 3:16

There’s an Authority that meets all man’s requirements.

“Daydream Believer”

I Samuel 3-6

The Lord has left the hearts of the people of Israel.  Some people make the grave mistake of believing: “If I stop believing in God, He ceases to exist.”  How foolish.  As if God depended upon us to make Him up.  (Remember what Nietzsche’s despair led him to?)  They’re like the old Monkeys’ hit “Daydream Believers”, acting as if they dreamed up God.   A good exercise that will convince you of the silliness of that thought is to try and do it.  Dream up an idea that is equal to God.  Not something based on God, “an all-powerful, space alien…” but a brand new thought that encompasses all of who God has revealed Himself to be.  A new, “you thought up”, idea that big.  It can’t be done.  God, the very idea, is too abstract for us to conceive.  So how did we conceive of Him?

Maybe He “daydreamed” us up… made each and every one of us and then revealed Himself to us! 

Perish the thought if He ever stops “daydreaming”!!!

Art's a Good Thank You Note

Ruth 4 – 1 Samuel 2

A marriage struck in heaven is destined to produce The King.   God gives a son; the happy mother writes a poem and young punk delinquents are cursed forever.  All these combine to make up our reading this morning.  We can’t cover it all so let’s stick to art.

A woman, long barren, cries out to God for a son.  God gives her a son.  The woman’s response is to write God a poem.  Art is often the best way to say anything to God and especially good when saying “Thank You."  Singing, dancing, painting, sculpture, poems and verse all give us a means to say, “Thank You!”  It’s a wonderful gift because “thank you's” are, more often than not, beyond mere words.  A poem is one of the best ways a sincere and grateful heart can write a thank you note to God.

The porch is a universe

And what does it hold?

Night begins to confess dawn

And rain presents it clean.

Squirrels trace bouncing lines

From one tree top to another

And birds fill the woods

With songs long remembered

Let him who has ears to hear

HEAR

For the song this a.m. is

God Loves You.

From Blood to Perfumed Pages of Love

Judges 21-Ruth 3

Romance’s sweet scent lies gently on the pages this morning.  It’s the earth’s scent, rich and aromatic and as ancient as Eden, born in the deepest of places and secured in the loves that Bibles are written of.

Care and compassion steep in the warm brew; “for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” 1:16

Honor and chivalry born in this aging heart, long single, deeply desiring the warmth of a women to stave off the cold years that lie ahead; “may the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” 2:12

Love is kindled with sandalwood, soaked tender; “wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes” 3:3

Hearts are willingly laid bare in hope that love will be planted; “I am Ruth your maid.  So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative.” 3:9