Posts
timewithgod.blog-city.com — September 2007
Romans 15-16 Hope in the midst of despair
are you moving to unify us, Father?
In verse 4-6, I read:
"The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope. Patience and encouragement come from God. And I pray that God will help you all agree with each other the way Christ Jesus WANTS. Then you will all be joined together, and you will give glory to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
That tells me that the church in Rome that Paul was writing to was needing both patience and encouragement. In fact, they were needing hope. They were at a point where maybe things were looking "hope-less". Paul was specifically praying to God to help all of the members there to agree with each other, and he could see that such a division as currently existed was not what Jesus would have wanted. When God helped them to come to a consensus, they would in fact have the hope they longed for and be unified spiritually as Christ wants. At that point, they'd be giving glory to God for what He'd done.
Father, this has been a difficult quiet time, and such a struggle, because I'm feeling the way these people were evidently feeling, and I sense that many, many others are struggling in the same way. We have waited patiently as best we can and we are in need of encouragement, which You so abundantly supplied the Sunday after the flood. Father, I know You have a man or woman already selected for our church who will be perfectly suited to our needs in worship. Yet in Your wisdom You have not yet revealed him to us. Are you wanting to help us "all agree with each other" that we have indeed moved much closer to You in our worship over the years than we have realized, to the point where we can agree as a body that our worship must be vital, alive, and meaningful, and not stale, ritualistic filler, repeated by rote simply to fill a time slot? I believe we are there, Father. Help us to know that we aren't simply "pleasing only ourselves" by these desires, as Paul mentioned in verse one, but instead doing things "the way Christ Jesus wants" in verse 5. I don't believe You want us to feel the way we feel now.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1st Kings 1 & 2 -- The end results of a failure to parent
family fighting
David had Solomon anointed as king before dying. He also gave him specific, wise words about following and obeying God. In what we might think of as very uncharacteristic Christian behavior, David also advised Solomon to eliminate several people for actions they'd taken against him earlier in his life. Once Solomon became king, he fulfilled his father's wishes.
My commentary gave some additional insight regarding what otherwise might seem to indicate that David was harboring a grudge:
"If David in exile typifies Christ in His rejection during this age of grace, Solomon typifies Him as the King, reigning in millennial glory. When He returns to set up His kingdom, His first act will be to destroy His foes and to purge out of His kingdom everything that offends."
Also:
"Thus Solomon made his kingdom secure by aggressively removing all whose hearts were not with him. Thereafter his reign was one of peace. The Christian will know the peace of God as he puts out of HIS life the things which oppose the reign of Christ within."
My sidebar brought up something else that really rang true with me:
"Although David served well as a king, he often failed as a parent. We can be successful in our public life and a failure in private. Our families should be our first ministry priority .... As Christ's submission to His Father meant also His submission to the needs of His disciples, so a father's submission to a Heavenly Father means submission to the needs of his children; in other words, sacrifice and humble service, always the conditions of Godlike authority... If you are a parent, take time with each child today: listen, talk, and care."
Father, I can see through David's life the terrible toll that his failure to parent took on his sons. I ask that You continually remind me of that and help me to grow up my sons in You, praying for them and spending time with them, and in doing so, imparting what You have shown me to help them to love and serve You as well.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1st Kings 3&4 -- Be careful what you ask for
think it through first
Solomon asked God specifically for "an obedient heart so I can rule the people in the right way and will know the difference between right and wrong." God agreed to give him "wisdom and understanding to make the right decisions."
I noticed three things about all of this:
a) Solomon already had a problem and was asking for help with it
b) God didn't grant him an obedient heart, and
c) we have to be careful what we ask for.
Solomon had already broken God's law by marrying not only outside of his faith, but also an Egyptian. God had warned Israel several times about not trusting Egypt and not going back there. Solomon also had thousands of horses, which was in direct violation of God's law. He'd also allowed worship to continue on all of the high places (later the centers of idol worship) rather than at the one place God had designated. So definitely he was feeling the need for an obedient heart.
But I think that may be one thing God won't grant us totally, for if we were made to have an obedient heart -- to be 100% obedient 100% of the time -- God would have effectively removed our free will.
Solomon had asked what he did so he could rule the people in the right way. In other words, he'd asked it for his work and not for his family. Our priorities are supposed to be God, family, and then work. As a result of his request, Solomon therefore could easily decide the case between the two women claiming the same son, but he failed miserably in parenting his own children.
Father, both yesterday and today, I've sensed You speaking to me about my relationships with my boys, and Josh had even mentioned our lack of time together the day before. The strain of work plus recovering from the flood plus managing an estate plus running a home plus the boys' homework plus their Peewee Football is leaving us with so little time together to just play together, and it's also depriving me of sleep, which I read just yesterday in something You had to have placed before my eyes will add up over time to irritability, and I can see all that having an impact on my relationships with them and theirs with me. Please give me wisdom to schedule in time just for us, not as part of anything else we are doing, and help me to regularly get the rest I need, all so that I can be the father I need to be to my precious boys. Thank You for nudging me yesterday to sit with Josh as he caught up on his required library book reading. Help me to be jealous of the time I spend with both of them.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 5-6 What Lies Beneath
our service to God is for His eyes only
It's awfully easy to get bogged down in all of the technical details of the Temple's building plan, and it's going to be that way for quite a few chapters. My commentary brought out something amazing to me, which Charles Spurgeon wrote about:
The foundation stones were cut and polished at a remote quarry to such fine specifications that they were being assembled onsite in silence -- no sounds of iron tools were heard. The precision of the offsite cutting must have been phenomenal. But once completely assembled, the stones were never again seen, for they were completely covered with cedar boards on the walls and ceilings and pine boards on the floors. These boards were intricately carved with creatures with wings, and I'm sure the beauty of that cedar, imported from Lebanon, was incredible, with its fine grain and reddish-pink hue, along with the wonderful alpine smell. But the wood was not visible after construction either, because Solomon covered it all with pure gold!
So why be so meticulous about something that would never be seen? Spurgeon said, "God would have everything which is done for him done well. He cares not so much for that which meets the eye of man. He delights Himself with the beauty of those living stones of His spiritual temple which are hidden away from observation."
Our service to God is not meant to be noticed by man -- only by God. We should never let Satan try to coax us out into the light by the sin of pride. God is the only one who can see the beauty of the most integral parts of His spiritual temple.
Father, the gold may have gleamed, but it was only a thin veneer, and contributed nothing to the stability of the Temple. I pray that You will help me to remember the value of what lies beneath, and allow me to live a life that supports Your work on earth.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 7 & 8 Spiritual Truths in Solomon's Benediction
well worth remembering
After the Temple was completed, Solomon threw an elaborate festival to celebrate. When the celebration was almost over, he prayed a benediction that my commentary pointed out as revealing "an immense appreciation of great spiritual truths," which include:
"1) God is utterly reliable -- not one word has ever failed.
2) the past (with Him) guarantees the future -- since God is unchanging, we can build upon the fact that what He has shown Himself to be in times past He will be to us.
3) Man needs God's help in the life of discipleship
4) We stand in daily need of the assistance of God
5) God's care for His children is never for their selfish enjoyment, but that others might come to know Him.
6) In view of all this, can we give less than our absolute loyalty to Him?"
Father, it's such a shame to hear Solomon praying these spiritual truths and yet later failing to finish well in his life. It almost seems that what he knew, he forgot. Help me to ever be mindful of Your power and holiness and my desperate need for You in my life every day.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 9 & 10 Being Careful What You Ask For
if it becomes more important than God, it's trouble
The Lord appeared to Solomon again. Most folks would have been honored and amazed to have Him show up just once in their lives in person! Speaking about the Temple, God said, "I will be worshipped there forever and will watch over it and protect it always."
Knowing as we do that the Temple was destroyed by Rome around AD 70, many people rush to say the God wasn't a promisekeeper or was less powerful than Rome. But this wasn't an unconditional promise. God had named several things that Solomon had to do:
1) Serve God as his father David had.
2) Obey all that God had commanded him.
3) Keep God's laws and rules.
4) Help his children to follow God and obey the laws and commands.
5) Not serve or worship other gods.
Solomon never stood a chance. He'd already acquired a taste for foreign women and horses, and he was beginning to trust in foreign alliances. All of that was against God's will and clearly communicated to him. The headiness of wealth and fame was claiming more and more of his time, leaving less and less of it for God. The very thing he had asked of God -- wisdom -- was causing him to move farther away from God, much as happened when Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Many times, we can be too smart for our own good. We have to be careful what we ask for.
Father, I know that I have to watch so very carefully what I put into my mind, because I've seen what a quest for knowledge can do. Left unchecked and based on anything other than You, knowledge can be a deadly tool of Satan, for he will tap whatever is more important to us than You and use it against us. Help me not to make that same mistake again.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 11 Long-term ramifications
be careful what you support
The wisest man in history had a weakness, and it was women. Seven hundred of his wives resulted from "royal alliances" he'd made with other countries. He'd been trading his soul for peace and prosperity. Plus, he had 300 slave women as wives for the sole purpose of becoming pregnant! I cannot imagine the jealousy, rivalry, envy, and hard feelings this must have caused! If he limited himself to devoting time to only three of them each day, it would take almost a year to see them all! Most importantly, time spent with his wives apparently left no time for him to be with God, if he even still had a desire to do so. The man who'd zealously spent 7 years building a magnificent temple to God where He had chosen to be worshipped now found himself out on the Mount of Olives building places of worship for the idols his wives worshipped. Even if Solomon himself had not actually worshipped those idols, we see here that even supporting that worship in any way is wrong in God's sight.
Even in Hamlin today, we find ourselves constantly bombarded with fundraising efforts from many different causes, groups, and churches. While our first response is to readily help (since we often find ourselves on the selling end of fundraising), I find that I must also stop to ask whether anything I might be supporting falls outside of what God's will may be for our community and even for this world. For instance, buying a meal from a church with a significantly different view of scriptures than what God has led me to understand and believe might someday have the tragic effect of making one of my own sons change his beliefs about God. How I would regret having ever given them a dime!
Father, give me discernment in my assistance and giving to others. Help me to sort through what is of You and not of You. Keep me ever mindful that supporting something monetarily, no matter how small, could in the long run amount to worship and idolatry.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 12 -- Getting what we deserve?
Godly leaders needed
Solomon may have brought glory to Israel and set it high upon the world stage, but at what cost? The staggering taxes and forced labor necessitated by his government extravagance was taking its toll, and the people had had enough.
After his death, his son Rehoboam could see that was the case, I think, but his pride caused him to listen to his brash young counselors who convinced him that he had to prove his manhood at the outset if he wanted to retain his control.
God had already been at work raising up three men with regional popularity, who stirred up dissent among the people, and one of them -- Jeroboam -- stepped up to become king of the breakaway tribes. Being politically astute but spiritually bankrupt, he planned and implemented a separate and distinct religion based on idols in order to insure that his subjects did not desire to travel back to Jerusalem for the various festivals, fearing that their religious ties might eventually win back their hearts. To him, power was more important than God. Unfortunately, America still sees its share of politicians who concur with him.
This whole episode reminds me so much of the 1992 presidential election and the 2006 congressional election. The disgruntled masses decide that they want a change -- any change, even at a terrible moral cost to the nation, never considering that they are selling their souls in the process.
Just as this schism eventually led to the downfall of Israel as a nation, so I fear that God will not deal lightly with a nation like America for morally repugnant choices in selecting its leaders.
Father, as the nation readies itself for the next presidential election, I pray that You will show us Your choice for a moral leader. Don't give the disgruntled masses what they want, but instead give them what they need. Remove the blinders which cover the eyes of voters and give us discernment to choose our leaders wisely.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 13-14 Obeying the very last thing God told you
it's important not to let others open our mail from God and read it to us
God sent word to the northern king, Jeroboam, through a prophet from Judah, about how his disobedience would result in the eventual destruction of his people. God was very angry with him. This prophet had been given very explicit instructions from God. He was not to eat or drink anything while in the rebellious kingdom, and he was even to return to Judah by an alternate route.
With his message delivered, he was heading home when an old prophet from the northern kingdom caught up with him, apparently hoping to show him hospitality in an effort to get him to retract his words.
The man of God protested that he could not disobey God by joining him for a meal; then the older prophet lied, telling him that an angel from the Lord had appeared to him and instructed him to bring the prophet home for a meal.
Assuming that this was a fresh word from God, he complied. He did not validate this man's standing with God, nor did he apparently even question why God would tell him one thing and someone else another.
For his disobedience, God sent a lion to attack and kill him as he traveled home. My commentary said, "If this seems harsh or severe, we should remember that God deals more strictly with those He loves, with those who are His spokesmen, and with those who are greatly privileged."
I'm reminded of something that really stuck with me from Experiencing God: "When you don't know what you should do and aren't sure that you've heard from God, keep doing the last thing God told you to do." It would have been wise counsel for this man.
God's instructions to him showed that "he was to do nothing to indicate the slightest tolerance of Jeroboam's evil reign." When we tolerate sin, we are condoning it and we become part of the problem.
Father, I know it can be awfully hard for me to speak out in love against someone else who is sinning. I've always been more about grace than judgment. Yet I pray that, if You direct me to speak out, I will do it boldly and unflinchingly, knowing that You are acting out of great love and a desire to have that person come back to You in repentance.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 Kings 15 & 16 -- Mediocrity is a sin
not serving God with all our hearts
My general impression after reading these two chapters is that mediocrity is a sin because it means we aren't serving God with all our hearts. The list of kings for both the northern and southern kingdoms had little worth noting about their lives for the good, except Asa. Yet even his reign wasn't one sold out to God, for he didn't remove the "high places" for idol worship.
It almost reminded me of periods in American history where little of noteworthiness was accomplished by those in power, making it tough to memorize the names of those who served as president during those years.
I think the quality of the leaders also reflects on the quality of those they rule, for the people put up with what brought their nations down, when they should have overthrown those rulers. It reminds me of the Clinton years which speak so poorly of Americans and serve as an embarrassment to our heritage.
Father, please call the people of our nation back to You. Let us not tolerate moral indifference or outright sin in those who would dare to run for office. Help us to hold our leaders to high standards. Place You hand on the candidate You would choose for the good of our country.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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