APRIL 15, 2022

 “But so much of what is beautiful and valuable in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine.”

― Malcolm Gladwell

1 SAMUEL 17-18

45David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. (17:45-46)

LUKE 15:1-10

3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

JOURNAL

The story of David is a fascinating one and it is my favorite part of the Bible. This is the most well-known story and has been used in movies and told countless times throughout history especially when someone is facing incredible odds. Yet upon further inspection...the story is really not about defying the odds but rather about David's trust of himself and the talent God gave him.  Malcolm Gladwell discussed this in his book, David and Goliath . For "slingers" were known to be deadly and really an unfair match for anyone wielding a sword. So David actually had the advantage...that's not what makes the story so remarkable but rather that David so easily defied convention, shed Saul's armor and faced Goliath in the way that worked for him. 

David trusted himself and the ability God gave him. He didn't let the criticism of his brothers, his age, size or inexperience deter him.  He does not consider failure, he simply steps up and does what needs to be done. It doesn't matter that he doesn't comply with fighting the way Goliath fights, it doesn't matter that he doesn't have on acceptable armor. For David he simply does what he knows works best in order to accomplish the task at hand...killing Goliath.

God's ways are the same. God does not care how or why or if his grace goes to those most deserving...in worldly terms. God's grace goes to those who need it, want it and are readily willing to accept it. Jesus shows this very clearly in the parable of the lost sheep. It would have been considered foolish to leave the 99 and go after the one...yet God continually makes camp in the ways of fools, rejects and those that society says are undeserving. 

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

MARK 2:15-17 

APRIL 14, 2022

 “In the thoughtlessness of my incessant hurry, I have made God an ‘addendum in’ my life verses the ‘agenda of’ my life. And what I need to hurry up and realize is that with these priorities positioned as such, what I am hurrying to is my own demise.” 

― Craig D. Lounsbrough

1 SAMUEL 15-16

7But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”(16:7)

LUKE 14:25-35

27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

JOURNAL 

Saul continues to seek his own way. Jesus makes the claim that each must bear their own cross.Saul was not performing evil when God rejected him. He was just making compromises...he looked more to the people and his own desires rather than seeking God. It wasn't that he opposed God, but rather that he just never fully obeyed. However, because he was rationalizing and not fully selling out in obedience to God, he lost God's favor. Jesus doesn't simply ask his disciples to make good choices, or to make wise ones. Rather Jesus asks his disciples to completely sell out and to consider the consequences of those actions.  

Often in reading scripture, I find that it's not easy or pleasant or full of joy. There are some really tough scriptures. They cause me to struggle in understanding and matching what I believe is God's heart of love with his demand for devotion and perfection. Yet although some scripture can be troubling...in the end I am confronted with the fact that God is God and I am not. He ultimately asks that I seek him with my whole heart and obey him. Why is that a struggle? Because it's hard and the truth is that  I let laziness, fear etc. overcome a heart of devotion and obedience. In this, I am no different than Saul. Thankfully though Jesus has paved a different path, one that allows forgiveness and one that calls me back from my wayward ways. 

Jesus tells me that I need to bring all of who am to him...my burdens, my hangups, my waywardness...my cross. He promises that he will take all of it and transform it into something beautiful. But I must truly surrender and not make the mistake of Saul and think that lip service and a remorseful moment makes for a redeemed heart. Again my ultimate goal cannot be comfort and blessings, but rather joy in obedience and winning the hard moments.

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

1 SAMUEL 15: 22

APRIL 13, 2022

 “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.” 

―West Point Cadet Prayer

1 SAMUEL 13-14

    8Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. 9So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. 11But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, 12therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” 13Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14“But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”(13:8-14)

LUKE 14:1-24

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.33In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

34“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

JOURNAL 

Saul's faith was not in God. Saul's faith wavered and and he chose the easier path. Jesus warns his followers of the cost of discipleship.

God had in mind David. But then here is the problem...so it's normal here to try and compare Saul and David. If you make the comparison based on their "sin", then God's favoring of David makes very little sense. David inevitably makes some pretty horrible mistakes...David ends up murdering one of his best friends in order to cover up his own sin and affair with Bathsheba. Looking at it on paper it seems that David is the worst of the two. Saul just seemingly got impatient, whereas David was calculating and committed murder. 

I believe it comes down to what they do "right" rather than what they do wrong. Saul seemed to always try and find the easy way, the shortcut. Whereas David continually sought and won the hard moment. While David did make some horrible mistakes, yet when it came down to it, David would choose right in the end. When Nathan approached him regarding his sin...he owned it, and didn't make excuses, he could have had Nathan executed and no one would have ever known. Instead he chose to admit his sin and humble himself before God...the harder right. 

Jesus addresses this when he warns the people to count the cost of being a disciple. His question here is "where is your heart and what is your true devotion".  This is not a one day in the future, when it's convenient, when I feel like it endeavor. This is a lifetime call to give our best and surrender our hearts to God. Doing so means to live passionately, withholding nothing. It means to moment by moment choose the harder, better "right". It means to not just follow God and obey him when the conditions are favorable, but rather to follow and obey him even when following costs and hurts. 

I really believe that is the secret. God promises that ultimate joy and happiness comes from choosing to follow him regardless of the circumstances. I face those moments every single day...do I seek to follow God in choosing the harder right or do I seek the easier wrong and try and justify it. Is my goal in the end to find comfort and an easier life or is my goal to follow God and glorify him in winning  the hard moments by choosing the harder right? That's the ultimate question!!

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

ROMANS 12:1-2

APRIL 12, 2022

 

“What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it.” 

 ~ John Bunyan

1 SAMUEL 10-12

20“Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. 22For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. 23As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. 24But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. 25Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.” 

LUKE 13:22-35

22Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”He said to them, 24“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’26“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’27“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

JOURNAL

From Samuel to Christ...the message is crystal clear.  Obey God,  love him with all your heart and therefore love others.  There is no other way.  So what is the problem? Obviously the answer is sin, selfishness, greed, laziness, jealousy and all the toxic ways in which we hurt each other and ourselves. 

In teaching 7th graders it is easier to see how all of this plays out in our lives. The need to assert identity through comparison and shame is a constant theme that continues into adulthood...just in more sophisticated ways.  The ultimate message often is that if we don't stand out and succeed in comparison to our peers then we are somehow less, whereas if we achieve...we are more. Identity seems to inevitably be linked to this message. 

Yet the message of scripture and the creator is that none of that really matters. Jesus death and resurrection proved that relationship with the creator through humility, is really the key. Man...that so changes things...if only we really believed it and then lived it!!

 6And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 

LUKE 14:25-27

APRIL 11, 2022

 

“I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to 

give things up. Sometimes you even have to give 

them up.”  

- Lauren Oliver

1 SAMUEL 7-9

6But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”...19Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us. 20Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles.”21Samuel listened to all the words of the people and repeated them in the hearing of the LORD.22“Listen to their voice,” the LORD said to Samuel. “Appoint a king for them.

LUKE 13:1-21

10On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.14Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”15The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”17When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

JOURNAL

Everything comes at a cost...the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too" is so true of life and is represented over and over throughout scripture.  The Israelites desire for a King, comes with a cost.  God's desire to heal and save his people comes with a cost.  Willingly accepting the cost and accepting the price of obedience is necessary cost in following Christ.

There is a key phrase in Samuel “We must have a king over us. 20Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles. The Israelites seemed to forget all that God had done for them, all that he had brought them through and instead wanted to be like the other Kingdoms that they had been defeating and destroying. This makes no sense but in really thinking about it...it's human nature, we want what we do not have and we want to be like others rather than being content with who we are.

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 

LUKE 14:25-27