Month: November 2018

Morning Musing: 2 Samuel 12:5, 7

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“Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. . .Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the easiest things to do is recognize sin and injustice in someone else or a situation other than ours. Our vision of right and wrong is never so clear as when we are looking outside of ourselves. One of the hardest realizations we will ever face is when our own sin is firmly set before us. David was sitting confident and proud in his judgment on this other man, blissfully unaware that he had just pointed a finger firmly in his own face. Read the rest…

Worship and Surrender

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In this fourth part of our series, Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World, we move in a direction that is perhaps unexpected given the assumptions of our culture.  When Asa and the people were busily moving in the direction of God against the grain of the culture around them they did something most people wouldn’t have done then or now.  As for what this is and what it means for us, keep reading to find out.

 

Worship and Surrender

Have you ever used a Chinese finger trap?  Unless you’ve spent the last 30 minutes stuck in it and are waiting to get loose, grab the one you were handed this morning as you came in.  Go ahead and stick your fingers in it.  Now, try and pull them out.  The natural reaction when you stick your fingers in and can’t immediately slide them back out is to pull harder.  But, as perhaps you have already discovered, pulling harder won’t get your fingers out of the trap.  There are times in life like that, aren’t there?  Times when more pressure isn’t going to get the job done.  There are situations in which we have to learn to stop fighting if we’re going to manage to get anywhere good. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 2 Samuel 11:26-27

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“When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”  (ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

If the story of David and Bathsheba were a horror film, this would be the part of the movie when the main character thinks he has defeated the monster and breathes a big sigh of relief. Just when we think the climax has passed and we’re on to the denouement, though, the ominous music swells and we see the monster’s hand burst through the pile of stuff under which it was buried. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Samuel 4:7-8

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“When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and put him to death and beheaded him. They took his head and went by the way of the Arabah all night, and brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron. And they said to the king, ‘Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life. The Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.’”  (ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

Have you ever done something foolish to impress someone? What was it? In high school I participated in a summer arts program that included a trip to Santa Fe, NM. Walking around the hotel where we spent the few days we were there, some of the friends I had made during the summer goaded me into stealing a hot water sign from in front of a carafe in a hospitality station. It was wrong on many levels, not to mention just stupid, but I wanted to be cool. What a dummy. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 2 Samuel 11:10-11

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“When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house,’ David said to Uriah, ‘Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.’”  (ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

There’s nothing so much like righteousness to reveal sinfulness for just how ugly it really is. David had raped a man’s wife—this man’s wife—and now he’s trying to get Uriah to unwittingly help him cover up his evil deed. But Uriah just won’t play along no matter how hard David tries. And the harder David tries to cover his sinfulness with Uriah’s righteousness, the worse he looks and the deeper into it he falls. Read the rest…