Posts
timewithgod.blog-city.com — August 2007
2 Samuel 13 Deafened by Lust
The chemicals make it tough to hear God
It's tough watching David's own words jumping up to bite him. When Nathan had told the story to illustrate David's sin, David's reaction was that the man should pay back fourfold. For Uriah's life, it's cost David the life of his newborn son and now the life of his firstborn son, Amnon. The other two deaths aren't far away, either.
David's lust and its horrible result had become well-known, and how he must have wondered if his own actions with Bathsheba may have led his son to rape his half-sister. Those actions probably made him feel that he couldn't discipline Amnon either -- his moral authority had been lost. Plus, all these half-brothers and -sisters came about because David chose to have multiple wives rather than the one wife that God desired for him.
As a result of all this accumulated sin, it looks like we are viewing his family tree through cracked glass -- the lines ending wherever a crack crosses them. If David could have seen the effects first, he might have never committed the sin. Satan has perfected the art of blinding us to the consequences of our sin by overriding our rational thoughts with the heave drumbeat of our lust.
Father, please turn up the volume on your warnings to me whenever I'm being deafened spiritually by the effects of the complex cocktail of hormones that lust creates in our bodies. Help me to clearly hear Your voice, and give me the strength and the willpower to say "No!" when every fiber of my being is screaming "Go!" Without Your protection, I wouldn't stand a chance!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 14-15 Taking Care With Our Kids
Preventing a break in our bond with our kids
Absalom was a patient schemer. He'd bided his time as he planned his half-brother's murder. Then he'd been self-exiled in Geshur, living with his grandfather to avoid prosecution for the murder charge.
Joab could see that Absalom's absence was weighing on David, and he schemed to prod David into giving Absalom a pardon. He was most likely working both sides of the street, currying favor from both the current king and his heir apparent.
Although David allowed Absalom to return, he refused to see him for another two years. It's hard to imagine how this lack of fatherly love on a daily basis would affect a young man. In Absalom's case, it fueled a seething anger that led him to brashly electioneer for his own run at the kingship.
Before he knew it, David was once more on the run, heading to the Jordan River as his pardoned son rolled into Jerusalem to take his father's office.
Father, I pray that You will guide and direct my sons to respect You and to keep sin out of their lives. Help me to always maintain a close relationship with them, despite anything that happens. Remind me to support them in victory and in defeat and, besides You, keep me as the one constant in their lives. As they grow into teenagers, please allow us to not pull apart in the way that so many fathers and sons do. After all, You've worked miracles to put us together, and You've bound our souls by Your love and mercy.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 16-18 Adversity
Look for what God is trying to teach us through it
How quickly things changed for David! One minute he's on his throne and the next he's fleeing the country, his son has taken his throne, and he's being cursed! In the course of only a few days, his son Absalom would claim the kingship, horribly dishonor his father by having sex publicly with David's harem girls, and be killed in battle.
Our natural response to such adversity is to ask the question "Why??" In my sidebar, Charles Stanley said, "Adversity related to our personal sin is usually easy to identify. Beyond that, though, things begin to run together. We certainly do not want to rebuke the devil for something God is behind." The writer had noticed that "Why??" prayers rarely seem to be answered. "Far more important than the source of adversity is the response to it. Why? Because adversity, regardless of the source, is God's most effective tool for deepening your faith and commitment to Him. The areas in which you are experiencing the most adversity are the areas in which God is at work.... the best way to identify God's involvement in your life is to consider your response to adversity. God uses adversity, regardless of the source. But your response to adversity determines whether or not God is able to use it to accomplish His purposes....As much as we all want to know the answer to the why question, it is really not the most significant question. The real question each of us needs to ask is, "How should I respond?" To spend too much time trying to answer the why question is to run the risk of missing what God wants to teach us."
Father, I can certainly testify that You've taught me a lot about Your love and faithfulness through my adversity. Help me to always remember my first Christian concert t-shirt: "Why Ask Why? He Holds The Reason Why", with the picture of Jesus' hand pierced with a nail. Keep me from doubting You, and help me to learn what You are trying to teach me through my circumstances.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 19-20 How personal decisions can be interpreted in many ways
we have to be careful
It seems like politics can make a mess of just about anything. It was certainly starting to happen with David. He was mourning the death of his son, Absalom, who had tried to steal David's throne. His army had returned from the battle victorious over Absalom, but David was crying so much over the death of his son that they couldn't celebrate the victory.
David's commander, Joab, told him to shape up and get out among the people and stop mourning the death of a traitor. He also threatened to withdraw his army's support if David didn't.
As the Israelites began to realize that their former king was in exile and their chosen replacement was dead, they began preparations to restore David's monarchy. David was incensed that his own tribe, Judah, wasn't taking part. They had heavily supported Absalom.
Their response was so immediate and overwhelming that it seemed to the other 11 tribes that Judah wanted David all to themselves. The backbiting went on for awhile, probably sowing the seeds for the eventual breakup of Israel into two nations.
David also faced some personal decisions and his poor handling of them probably only fueled the discussions about his fitness for leadership. As he reentered the country, the man who'd spouted vile curses at him during his hasty retreat -- Shimei -- came up bowing and scraping and begging forgiveness. The consensus seemed to be that Shimei should die, but David overruled them, saying that no one would die in Israel on the day of his returning.
Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, went out to meet David as well. He'd clearly been in mourning since David's departure, yet David was brusque with him, saying, "Why did you not follow me?" Mephibosheth revealed the deception of his servant Ziba, to whom David had deeded all of Mephibosheth's land during the retreat in Mephibosheth's absence. David didn't restore all of the land to him, instead awarding him only half. Mephibosheth showed his true loyalty by offering to even decline the land, just glad that David was still king. How awkward that must have made David feel as well!
David also decided to remove Joab as commander of his armies and appointed his nephew, Amasa, to replace him. Amasa had sided with Absalom and led the attacks against David! It surely seemed that David was punishing loyalty and rewarding rebellion. As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows.
Father, I pray that my motivations, intentions, and actions will be clearly discerned by others and that there will be no shadow of doubt that will ever lead to hard feelings. Please let my yes be yes and my no be no. Help others to see me as a man in whom there is no guile.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 21-22 David as a warrior ... God prepared him for battle
maybe I've been prepared for battle as well
Israel was suffering a 3 yr drought, and David had been praying to God about the reason for it. God finally revealed a broken covenant. Joshua had centuries before promised to protect the Gibeonites, and even though the treaty had resulted from deception, he'd bound Israel to it. Saul had later tried to exterminate the clan, in violation of the treaty. Now knowing the problem, David set about working on the solution. In the same manner, we should inquire of God when we find a problem in our own lives, to insure that we too are on the right track. Only then should we proceed.
The second thing I noticed was that David was a warrior right in the middle of God's will. It seems that was what he'd been tasked to do. This "man after God's own heart' did things (apparently in God's will) that we would shudder and second-guess if we'd read them about Jesus. In chapter 21, he handed over 7 male descendants of Saul to the Gibeonites, who killed them to make up for what Saul had done.
David even boldly claims that God Himself prepared David for conflict: "He trains my hands for battle so my arms can bend a bronze bow.... I chased my enemies and destroyed them. I did not quit until they were destroyed. I destroyed and crushed them so they couldn't rise up again..... You gave me strength in battle. You made my enemies bow before me. You made my enemies turn back, and I destroyed those who hated me. I beat my enemies into pieces..... I poured them out and walked on them."
I suppose that there is a very fine line between leadership and tyranny, and often perceptions are based on where it is that we are viewing it from. Certainly here the mothers of Saul's sons and grandsons would probably have felt trampled upon. Yet had God not directed David to search for the problem and to resolve it? I can only assume that, as distasteful as the solution might have been here, it was in God's will.
Father, You know that I don't like battle, nor do I enjoy conflict. I definitely need Your direction when I find myself in the midst of it. Yet You've also shown me today that conflict often erupts as growth and change is occurring, and it is not always something bad. Please lead me as I lead others. Help me not to go into battle unless You are directing it.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 23-24 God's watchcare over those He loves
It's amazing!
One verse really stuck out this morning. In 23:5, David said, "This is how God has cared for my family." As if to highlight that verse, Michael called right after I'd read it and we got to speak to each other for the first time since he returned from his mission trip to Africa, which ended with him being hospitalized for dehydration in Nairobi, missing the flights home, and having to stay several more days until flights opened up.
I thought about how He'd cared for Michael and Stacy over there with only one other person with them; how He'd cared for Sam, Alex, and Mac over here, particularly when Stacy's mom was taken to the hospital in the middle of the night with chest pains.
It helped me to understand all the more how He had protected Josh and Joseph and me in Ukraine, eating mostly Ukrainian food the entire time with no ill effects, and getting us another flight home when we'd missed our connecting flight in New York.
It all led me back to chapter 22, where David proclaimed, "The Lord is my rock, my protection, my Savior. My God is my rock. I can run to Him for safety. He is my shield and my saving strength, my defender and my place of safety .... He is a shield to those who trust him. Who is God? Only the Lord. Who is the Rock? Only our God. God is my protection."
That protection is not just physical, either. He protects those who trust in Him from what might have been had our lives not been turned over to Him. 22:37 says, "You give me a better way to live, so I live as You want me to." I've lived the other way, thinking at the time that I was living in freedom, but I can now see so clearly that it was instead bondage to sin, and He protected me even through the period of rebellion and did indeed give me a much better way to live.
Father, thank You for being active in my life and in the lives of those I love. Thank You for Your watchcare over us. Blessed be Your Name!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 1 -- A Way God's Wrath Is Revealed That I Hadn't Thought Of Before
debased thinking
My commentary did an awesome job of knocking the props out of all the "justifications" for sin that people use. In fact, it said that "Anyone who has Christ has the answer to the world's deepest need. He has the cure to the disease of sin."
Verse 17 makes it clear that "God's righteousness demands that sins be punished, and the penalty is eternal death. But God's love PROVIDED what His righteousness demanded."
A lot of people think that God's wrath is to be revealed sometime in the future, but in v. 18, my commentary says that it is revealed when "He gives men over to uncleanness, to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind." In other words, when we start down that slippery path of sin and find these things occurring in our lives, it's not simply a "new level" of sin we are discovering, but instead we're finding it because God is letting loose His wrath on us!
In v. 28, it mentioned, "It is not that the evidence of evolution is so overwhelming that men are compelled to accept it; rather, it is because they want some explanation for origins that will eliminate God completely. They know that if there is a God, then they are morally responsible to Him."
The list of sins in v. 29 produce alienation from God whenever the person is full of them, not just an occasional dabbler in them, my commentary adds.
Father, I look back on my own life and remember the time when I did not want to worship You, and I speculated about other gods and philosophies. And now I can see how Your wrath was revealed as my mind became incapable of seeing and hearing from You and instead I became ignorant. I did not want to be morally responsible to You. But thank YOU for not giving up on me -- for helping me to see how far away from You I'd traveled, and for bringing me back to You. I look back and can't imagine how I ever bought into everything I believed back then. I'm just so happy that You've helped me to regain and reinforce the knowledge of You which You've shared with me.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 2 -- What kind of reflection am I?
I need to always do better
My commentary says that Paul is writing to "self-righteous moralists who looked down their noses at others, considering themselves more civilized, educated, and refined....Things hideous and repulsive in the lives of others seem quite respectable in their own lives."
I love the view of God that Paul gives us in verse 4, despite our sins: "He has been very kind and patient, waiting for you to change, but you think nothing of His kindness. Perhaps you do not understand that God is kind to you so you will change your hearts and lives."
What love He shows to us! And it echoes the verse that reminds us: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Verse 5 starts with "But you..." which ought to make sure we pay attention: "But you are stubborn and refuse to change ..." As much as that should signal trouble for an unbeliever, it yet still strikes fear in the hearts of believers, for besetting sins can still haunt most Christians.
That's where repentance comes in. In my commentary it says, "Repentance means an about-face, turning one's back on sin and heading in the opposite direction. It is a change of mind which produces a change of attitude, and results in a change of action. It signifies a man's taking sides with God against himself and his sins."
And lest we stop with our actions, Paul mentions in verse 16 that God will also judge people's secret thoughts, and that agrees with what Jesus taught, that looking at a woman in lust amounted to adultery.
For Christians, all of this is incredibly important because the unsaved judge God by those who profess to be His followers. This quote from my commentary says a lot:
"If of Jesus Christ their only view
May be what they see of Him in you,
(Insert your name), what do they see?"
Father, help me never to make a practice of sin. Wipe out the besetting sins in my own life. Lead me always to repentance when I fail to see my sin, and make me ever mindful that others judge you by what they see in me.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 3 -- God's Plan In A Nutshell
salvation for free
Wow! There is so much here in this chapter. Though it filled just one whole page in my Bible, my commentary had six pages dedicated to it!
Trying to boil it down is tough, too. But when we do, we get the road to salvation.
"Sin is any thought, word, or deed that falls short of God's standard of holiness and perfection." And we've all done that and will continue to do that. But God has a permanent remedy. He declares us to be righteous if we believe in what His Son did in dying for our sins on the cross and rising again. That declaring is not something that happens in our minds but in God's mind. We don't feel it, but we know it happened.
We can't earn it, we can only accept it. When we do, we aren't just acquitted of our sins. They aren't just wiped out. Instead, we also gain God's approval.
Many people believe they can simply ignore the fact that they sin. But Jesus never treated sin as a thing to be ignored. He paid the debt in full.
Father, thank You for knowing us, Your creatures, so well that You knew we would sin and You took Your only Son and used His perfect life and His death to save us. Where would we be without Him?
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Romans 4 -- It's all about taking God at His word
I've been there
Paul would have made an excellent trial lawyer! It is absolutely incredible how God directed him to passages in the Old Testament that he could use to demolish the old belief system of the Jews and set up the new one with Christ -- showing irrefutably that it was always only about faith and not about works.
In verse 5, my commentary says that it's not the guy who always strives not to sin (strives to keep all the rules) who gets justified. Instead, it's the guy who acknowledges that there's no way he can (the ungodly man) who takes God at His word. The guy who tries to earn his way will never ever be quite assured that he's done enough. Instead, "when salvation is presented to us as a gift, to be received by believing, then a man can be sure that he is saved on the authority of the word of God."
Paul mentions how Abraham had received the promise from God 30 years earlier, when he was still able to bear children (he had Ishmael after that), and still believed when he was way past the age where he could. "The apparent IMpossibility that the promise would ever be fulfilled didn't stagger him. God had said it; Abraham believed it; that settled it. As far as the patriarch was concerned, there WAS only one IMpossibility, and that was for God to lie."
It continues: "Abraham did not know how God would fulfill His word, but that was incidental. He knew God and had every confidence that God was fully able to do what He had promised. In one way, it was wonderful faith, but in another way IT WAS THE MOST REASONABLE THING TO DO, because God's word is the surest thing in the universe, and for Abraham, there was no RISK in believing it."
For me, today's quiet time boils down to just one thing -- you've got to either believe God or not. Either you absolutely believe that He is a promisekeeper who will always do what He says, or He's a liar -- and that is the biggest impossibility of all.
Father, I will treasure for eternity what You saw fit to take me through, from going to Russia and hearing You tell me I would adopt, through everything I experienced and endured, to bringing home my son. Because You drew a line in the sand for me at some point and said, "Gary, either you believe Me or you don't." And I see that step of believing -- that crossing the line with total assurance that You are a promisekeeper, faithful to the very end -- as my "Abraham moment". It helps me to understand so very well about being justified by faith, for when things looked their darkest, I knew that You had spoken, and You would make it so, and the government in Ukraine just had to get out of the way! I wish everyone could have such a moment in their lives, because it makes my assurance in Your promise to save us through believing in Your Son's death and resurrection ever more clear to see.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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