Posts
timewithgod.blog-city.com — June 2007
2 Corinthians 9 More about giving generously and God's economy
amazing
God's ideas on giving pour out of this chapter, and His economy is son incredibly more wonderful that ours. Some of the truths about it include:
--It's receiving back far out of proportion to the amount of the gift
--Our hearts' attitude is more important to Him than the size of the gift
--Giving is the language of loving, and it started with Him: "God so loved ... that He gave..."
--God promises that if a person really wants to be generous, He will see that he is given opportunities to do so
--God promises to multiply what we give
--God promises eternal rewards for our giving
--God promises that believers who receive from us will pray for us
--God promises that there will be strong ties of affection forged by our giving
I couldn't help but think of our upcoming trip to Ukraine, especially in verse 7, because I'd mapped out our expected spending and a gift to Josh's orphanage, but then He caused me to remember the amazing generosity of several families on our Ukrainian adoption email list who bought clothing and other items for the kids remaining in the orphanage while adopting their own.
He caused me to think about the family members that we will be meeting and Josh's two friends still in the orphanage.
In Ukraine, $80 is a month's salary for most people, so while it seems like a small amount here, it's incredible for so many over there.
At the same time, I also know that some might abuse any gift -- using it for alcohol or cigarettes -- and might be emboldened to plead for more in the future. I'll have to ask God for judgment as I decide what to do.
But God has revealed how to plan for this giving beforehand, so that I won't have an opportunity to give yet not have the resources with me to do so. In much the same way, my commentary tells us of a method for our own giving back here: "Consider what is necessary for you immediate needs. Think about just obligations which you will incur. But then above that, think of the needs of fellow Christians."
So many times, it's tempting to spend for everything we need or think we need, then decide out of what's left how much we should save, then that determines how much we should give. But here, it's "take care of your needs, not your wants, then help others with the rest."
Father, thanks for being a part of my planning for this trip. Please help those we meet to see You through us, and help us to lead others to know You on this trip. Give us wisdom and discernment in our giving as we go.
2 Corinthians 10-11 A very ugly mess
Watch for Satan's meddling in a church
I know there is more I'm supposed to get out of these two chapters, but what seemed to set most firmly in my mind is the ugliness that is thrown into an otherwise beautiful letter by Paul's need to defend his ministry. To think that men allegedly from God would resort to tearing down a valid ministry from God!
And if there is a problem with a leader, it's best to approach the leader first, not to instead smear him before a congregation. There also need to be valid, Biblical principles which have been violated. These critics are simply using his back as a step up the ladder!
I've felt this before, while serving on the pastor search committee which eventually brought Donny to our church. Michael Felkins was being considered by the committee, but he withdrew his name from consideration. Yet a committee member told me that someone had concerns that I might "run the church" if he became pastor. They'll never know how deeply that hurt me and how totally false that claim was. Though part of me wants to know who it was so that I could confront them, I've given up wanting to know in fear that I might harbor a long-term grudge against that person. I doubt very seriously that he or she (or them) were really a Christian, much as Paul doubts these false teachers who are causing him grief. The ugliness of the whole situation reeks of Satan's interference. I feel sorry for the person(s) being used by him who may be Christians, but who have no clue who's pulling their chains.
Father, please help me never to find myself on the other side of that fence. Please check any zeal that I may feel at times and help me to be absolutely sure that it comes only from You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Corinthians 12-13 Strength in Weakness
God gives it
Paul mentioned "a man who was taken up to the third heaven." My commentary says there is little doubt that it was Paul himself, but he was too humble to tie that to himself.
Then, in verse 7, he says, "So that I would not become too proud of the wonderful things that were shown to me ...." which seems to back it up. That's when he received his "thorn in the flesh."
My commentary said that "even divine revelations of the Lord do not correct the flesh in us ... We still have the old nature and are in danger of falling."
Also, my commentary had a paraphrase of this in the form of a word from God to Paul that was awesome: "I will not remove the thorn, but I will do something better. I will give you grace to bear it. And just remember, Paul, that although I have not given you what you asked for, yet I am giving you what you need most deeply. You want My power and strength to accompany your preaching, don't you? Well, the best way to have that happen is for you to be kept in a place of weakness..." It is when we are conscious of our own weakness and nothingness that we most depend on the power of God.
Enough said, Father. Thanks for my weakness. Use it to keep me humble so that You can work through me powerfully.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 1:1-2:11 Incredible faith meets answered prayers
God wants us to keep on keeping on asking of Him what He desires for us
There is so much to notice here that seems unique or way before its time!
Samuel's father is a devoted man, yearly taking his family to Shiloh to make sacrifices to God. He has special affection for Samuel's mother, making sure that she gets a double portion of the meat remaining from the peace offering. Yet he has two wives (a practice reported in the Bible but never condoned by God), and the constant belittling by the other toward Samuel's mother is never stopped by him! Instead, about all he can ask is, "Don't I mean more to you than 10 sons?"
It never says that he is praying for her infertility, but Hannah certainly is, and has been for some time. She has boldness before God, saying, "Remember me and don't forget me!"
Then there's Eli the priest -- a model of pastoral care -- who sees her praying silently and fervently and rather than letting his heart go out to her, assumes the worst and chides her for getting drunk!
Once Hannah pleads her case, he stumbles through a hurried blessing to save face, probably never realizing that his blessing would dovetail with what God is about to do: Hannah believed right then and there that God was going to answer her!
What amazing faith she must have had a few years later to take her recently-weaned son Samuel back to Eli at Shiloh and turn him over to Eli as a gift to God -- keeping her promise to Him! Especially with Eli's track record in raising his own sons!
Her prayer upon doing this shows no remorse -- only intense happiness in the Lord and evidence to us that God had revealed Himself to her as a result of her faithfulness.
She notes His separateness from us:
"There is no one holy like the Lord.
There is no God but You;
there is no Rock like our God."
At a time when the Bible showed no record of anyone having been raised from the dead, Hannah demonstrates a faith like Abraham's:
"The Lord sends death and He brings to life.
He sends people to the grave, and He raises them to life again."
Also, at a time when Israel had never had a king (only judges), she declares:
"The Lord will judge all the earth.
He will give power to His king
and make His appointed king strong."
Sounds like Jesus to me!
But would she have ever dared to guess that Israel would enter a time of war and that God would raise up her little boy to not only lead the nation, but also to anoint the first two kings of Israel? Her fervent prayer availed much and leads us today to continue asking God for what He has not yet answered for us.
Father, You have answered so many of my prayers in such an awesome way! It is so amazing to see You at work. I pray that You will continue to give me the desires of my heart -- not what I want, but what You want me to desire, and that You'll lead me to stay the course in prayer until I see You answering it. You enlarge my faith every time You do!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 2:12-3:21 Lives wasted
failing to turn to God
For whatever reason, Eli the High Priest had failed to bring up his sons "in the fear and admonition of the Lord." They had been given priestly roles, but "they did not care about the Lord." That would seem to me to be a miserable existence, akin to a Christian having to find work in a distinctly nonChristian profession. In their case, they hated their Boss, they robbed people of their offerings, they dishonored God by their actions, and they let their appetites have priority over the claims of God by roasting instead of boiling the meat.
It says so much about Samuel's character in that he wasn't swayed from following the Lord, having been brought up in such an environment. And this is the family situation of the supposed spiritual leader of Israel!
In Eli's old age, he was even receiving reports of his two sons having sex with women who served at the entrance to the meeting ten! He didn't choose to fulfill his obligation under the Law to put them to death, but instead only weakly said, "Why do you do this?... The Lord's people are spreading a bad report about you..... God can help you..." By then, it was too little too late. God had judicially hardened their hearts and set in motion their early deaths.
A "man of God" later told Eli that God said, "I will honor those who honor Me, but I will dishonor those who ignore Me.... I will choose a loyal priest for Myself who will listen to Me and do what I want."
That's when God began to speak to Samuel. In my commentary, it talks about how the spiritual condition of the country was reflected in the circumstances of Samuel's calling: "Night reigned, the lamp of God was going out in the Temple; the High Priest's eyes were grown dim so that he could not clearly see, and both he and Samuel were asleep."
In 3:7, it says that Samuel did not yet know the Lord. He was already obeying His laws and worshiping Him. He'd just never heard Him speak directly before. What a shame that his first received message was a message of doom for the one who had raised him!
This whole thing just goes to show that we can be "doing church" and be far from God. And if we wall Him off from our hearts, He may decide to judicially harden them, letting us have what we appear to so want. He honors our bad choices by letting them happen but there may come a time when He decides He's had enough rebellion from us. And when that point is reached is entirely up to Him.
Father, You could have done that to me, but You kept the light on and pursued me, bringing me back to You again. That You for Your mercy and grace and longsuffering. I'm still so sorry that it took me so long to listen to You. What years I wasted! And I too remember a time when I couldn't hear Your voice. Thanks for showing up everyday, helping me to know You more!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 4 - 7 Remaining mindful of the holiness of God
we cannot control God
The nation of Israel thought they could have it both ways. They'd ignored God's instructions and picked up foreign gods (idols) and Ashtoreth idols, just as they had carried Egyptian idols with them on the 40-year trek through the desert. Since the adults who'd left Egypt had died enroute, they must have passed their idolatry along to their children.
God had been faithful to warn them not to be swayed by the idols they would encounter as they entered the Promised Land, and not to leave any of the inhabitants in the land, because they'd rejected Him and would cause the Israelites to sin. Again, they'd failed to obey God. Now that lack of obedience was catching up with them. They were in their land, but they were being attacked by those they'd failed to force out.
They brought out the Ark of the Covenant, believing they could harness God's power by simply controlling the Ark. That was irreverent and disrespectful. We cannot control God.
God allowed them to be defeated, and the Philistines took the Ark. But as my commentary noted, "God would defend His honor in the midst of the Philistines, but He would not defend the Israelites when He was in their midst because they had ceased to honor Him.
The Philistines suffered terribly while in possession of the Ark, and it was moved from place to place as people wanted to be away from God's power. Finally the Philistines sent it back in a humble way. My commentary said, "What a sight -- two unattended cows bringing the ark of God back to Israel."
Samuel set up the Ebenezer -- "the stone of help" as a spiritual marker of the turning point in Israel's history . They began again to be repentant, to turn back to God and to shed themselves of their idols. They were learning to make their plans fit God's, and not the other way around.
Father, I pray that in all that I do, You will direct my paths, and that I will never try to control You. Keep me humble before You as You plan my life. As it says, "Who can stand before the Lord, this Holy God?"
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 8 Tar in the Eyes of God
that's what we really look like
As I read this chapter, my heart was so saddened for God. The people He had chosen as Hi very own and brought out of Egypt and into the Promised Land had at first appeared righteous in their intentions, wanting different leaders than Samuel's two sons who seemed to have been raised in the same way that Eli had raised his sons. Samuel, too, had failed to turn his sons from their evil ways.
But what the people were actually asking for was worse, not better. They wanted a king like other nations. They were saying, "We just want to be like everyone else!" The only thing was, they were rejecting the one King they'd always had -- God Himself. They were succumbing to envy and jealousy.
Samuel told God all about it, and I imagine he was quite surprised by God's answer: "Give them a king."
This people, whom God had set apart and made His very own, were now rejecting Him as King. As I read that, my heart was so saddened for God. But then my commentary told me to check out Deuteronomy 17:14-20, which had been written (and told) by Moses just before he died and they entered the Promised Land.
I don't know why I was so surprised, because God certainly was not. He'd seen it all coming, though I'd forgotten.
In His mercy and grace, God had even directed Samuel to warn them about exactly what would happen if they chose a king. But they'd caught the fever. They had to have what all their neighbors had.
I don't imagine that they looked too pretty to God right then. The image that came to mind was tar. It doesn't matter if it's heated and in liquid form, or cold and solid, it's still ugly and it stinks. You can't dress it up to make it anything but tar.
That's when the chapters about God's holiness from the Downpour Bible study kicked in. We must all look like tar compared to God in our sinful condition, and just when we think we can't get any blacker, colder, and uglier, we freely commit another sin and kick it up (or down, actually) a notch.
It's amazing to me, therefore, how God can look at us and see His Son. All I can imagine is a cold hard lump of tar and I can't see how any kind of flame could ever start within it, much less thrive. That image causes me to be disappointed in myself. How did God feel when I carelessly snapped at one of my boys yesterday? Or when I failed to stop and play with them when they came bounding into my study? I don't even want to mention several thoughts I had yesterday.
Father, even on my very best days I fall far short of Your standards and Your desires for me. I now that I look worse than tar and my sins are, to You, really no different than those of Israel I read about today. I want my smallest sin to be as big of an affront to me as it is to you. I want to see my life through Your eyes and to make corrections before I make mistakes. And I want to turn my boys away from evil and not fail as Samuel and Eli did. Give me the wisdom to do that, Father. Help me because I know that they are watching me and, intended or not, they will grow to be like me. I want them to be like You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 9 God makes donkeys wander for a reason
He is sovereign over all creation
How does God put two people together? In this case, He sets donkeys to wandering. It made me wonder if the donkeys knew they were being used by God and were delighted that they could "tour the land" on their "mission".
God had Saul's father task him along with a servant to track them down, and the donkeys led them straight to Samuel. God had also told Samuel to be expecting to see the first king-to-be of Israel and even told him the date and time of their meeting.
Saul and his servant went into the town to find Samuel to help locate the donkeys, little knowing that Samuel was already looking for Saul. With probably unintended spiritual insight, the servant had told Saul about Samuel and suggested that Samuel could tell them something about "the journey we have taken" rather than "the whereabouts of the donkeys". In modern terms, we'd be learning about "how God brought us to this place".
God reaffirmed Saul as His choice for king, so Samuel approached him and invited him to a feast, saying, "Don't worry about the donkeys you lost 3 days ago, because they have been found." There's no mention of Saul having told him about the donkeys already, and how strange for a traveler like Saul to be invited to a prepared meal with meat that had already been set aside just for him!
Saul was puzzled by something else Samuel had said, "Soon all the wealth of Israel will belong to you and your family." Saul must have been eve more puzzled the next morning when Samuel asked him to send the servant on ahead so they could talk about a message from God.
Saul was in the middle of his normal life, doing what seemed normal to him, when God stepped into his life in a huge way. He went looking for donkeys yet found a message from God.
That's so true about our lives as well. We live ... and God speaks. Through what the world casually calls "circumstances" God uses His sovereignty to bring us to divine appointments with those He intends for us to impact. To think of what we'll miss if we fail to stay in intimate communication with Him to discover who we're meeting!
Father, I've watched You do this hundreds of times over the past 15 years. You continue to amaze me, even to the extent that even the stories of these encounters impact others for You. Help me to help others to learn to be watching for their divine appointments as well. And keep me in close communion with You as I seek out Your next divine appointment.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 10 God included a verse JUST for YOU!
what real men of God should realize
Samuel privately anointed Saul, conferring kingship on him. Perhaps because Saul was doubting, Samuel gave 3 signs that would prove to Saul that he had indeed been chosen. They were all fulfilled that same day.
Samuel further underscored the point by repeating Saul's private conversation with his servant about what Saul's father must be thinking since they'd been gone for so long.
I wonder what Saul thought when Samuel told him, "The Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you.... and you will be changed into a different man." After all, most of the people who knew him seemed to think that prophesying was greatly out of character for him! My commentary didn't see this as a true conversion, but instead God using who He would, based on Saul's later actions. It was probably very unnerving for Saul to start prophesying if this was the case. And that may be why Saul was so uncomfortable with his new position that, when the public "choosing ceremony" was held, Saul was found hiding among the baggage.
Samuel publicly reminded the people that, in choosing to be ruled by a king, they were rejecting God. God gave them exactly what they'd asked for, and right away they were becoming dissatisfied. How opposite that is from our reaction when we get exactly what God planned for us!
Finally, something Samuel said should ring true in the heart of every man who seeks after God. Verse 24 says, "See the man the Lord has CHOSEN. Thee is no one like him among all the people." Each man who commits himself to God is chosen by God for a unique purpose, and no other man on earth can fulfill that purpose like the one He has chosen. We are each uniquely suited to the ministry God has given us, right where we live, and to do otherwise is to cheat all people out of God's best for them.
Father, thank You for helping me to see my uniqueness in Your service. There is nothing special about me. Your indwelling of Your Spirit is what does it. Help me to always make myself available for whatever You have planned. I don't want to miss anything!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Samuel 11 & 12 -- A Wake-Up Call To Me About Praying
it's been long enough
One verse particularly caught my eye this morning, in light of the Bible study lesson I taught last Sunday. 12:23 says, "I will surely not stop praying for you, because that would be sinning against the Lord." My commentary added, "Prayerlessness is sin and not just carelessness."
Last Sunday, I'd told the guys I teach in Bible Study about a study called Disciple's Prayer Life that Michael and I had done years ago. It taught about making a prayer list with reminders of people to pray for on various days of each week. I'd really gotten into it, and I'd listed the guys in our youth group -- one grade in school per day -- and even had specific prayer requests from many of them. I also had listed friends, family, and even "enemies".
Adopting Josh and Joseph seemed to eventually cause my "concentrated prayer time" to be squeezed out as I had to stop my quiet times around 7am to get them ready. My quiet times were at the same time getting longer as I began using my new commentary. And quite honestly, I'd gotten to where I just didn't feel like praying for that many people anymore. I had my two boys to pray for.
But something clicked both last Sunday and yesterday. For yesterday I found that I could and should have been praying for one particular boy in our youth group who is very special to me. If I had, perhaps it might have made a world of difference. Through him and through this verse, God is telling me to get back to it.
Father, You know my schedule now, and You know how it can be adjusted to accommodate concentrated prayer time again somehow. Please reveal that to me and give me the "want-to". Many need my regular prayers for them, and I too need regular prayers for me and for my sons. How well I remember the close bond that formed when guys knew that I was praying for them on a specific day each week. Help me to start afresh to be a spiritual warrior for my guys. Open their hearts and help them to ask me to pray for specific things for them.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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