Passing on the torch day4

From the very beginning, God had one burning desire, to create a community of people rightly related to Himself and rightly relating to one another in such a way that their presence would be a blessing to the surrounding world. And sometimes, God’s strategy for fulfilling His plan to create a special community of people who will bless the surrounding world seems very strange indeed.

God chose to pursue His goal by lighting a torch and handing it to a human being, with the understanding that the person holding the torch would, in turn, pass it to someone else before he died. Abraham passed it to Isaac who passed it to Jacob. Moses passed it to Joshua. Eli passed it to Samuel. Jesus would eventually pass it to the Twelve. Late in his life, Paul would pass it to Timothy.

More than likely, you’re reading this blog because someone passed the torch to you. And the question you must answer is now. Will you pass it to someone else before you die?

In their conversation in the cave, YHWH told Elijah it was time for him to pass the torch to someone else. So that’s precisely what he did with Elisha, even though Elisha was something of an unlikely candidate.

When Elijah found Elisha, the latter was ploughing in the field. The prophet went to Elisha and handed him a cloak as a way of inviting him to be an apprentice. This was probably difficult for Elijah for a number of reasons.

First, it meant that Elijah would no longer be the only prophet. Up until then, Elijah had been the man of God, now he would be one of the men of God. You have to figure that required some humility on his part.

It might also have been difficult for Elijah because of Elisha’s great wealth. Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe was from the other side of the tracks, and sometimes not having much can breed suspicion about wealthier people.

Elijah had depended on birds to bring him food. He had relied on a widow with just enough flour and oil to make a single loaf of bread. It might have been easy for him to look at Elisha and say, “God, You’ve made a mistake. There’s no way this guy is going to give up all that stuff to pursue the lifestyle of a prophet. I’m not even going to ask.”

But he did ask. Because the man of God stopped one day to have a conversation with a wealthy farmer about volunteering for a ministry, widows and servants and kings and whole armies were changed forever, all because he simply asked.

Is there someone in your life who you think is such an unlikely candidate for God’s program that you’ve been saying no for them?

Maybe that person is the best choice of all.

 

Dear Lord, I ask for the grace to be winsome and attractive to others who wish to know You better. May they sense the fragrance of Christ in me and see increasing evidence of the fruit of Your Holy Spirit in my life. I know this is only possible as I pursue You and apprentice myself to Jesus by following Him wherever He leads. Show me the people You want to touch through me, and grant me the willingness to love and serve them with no hidden agendas or manipulative expectations. I wish to impart what You have so freely given me to the people You have called me to bless. May I become a conduit of Your love and grace and never an end in myself. I know that as I give myself to others I will discover the true satisfaction and spiritual wealth that You encourage me to pursue.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Passing on the torch day3

Elisha had it pretty good. He was the son of a wealthy landowner. When Elijah found him, he was plowing in a field with 24 oxen. Most families at that time would have been lucky to own a chicken or a goat! Owning an ox was like driving an SUV, and having 24 oxen was almost unthinkable. Elisha came from a family of means.

But there’s more to life than comfort and affluence, and Elisha, rich as he was, recognized this.

He had no idea what exactly he was getting into when he agreed to become Elijah’s protégé, but he knew it was something bigger, something better, than just living for the moment, living for a wage slip.

He left behind a comfortable life (even burning the ploughs and cooking his oxen as a sign of his total commitment) to pursue God’s calling on his life. The life he was choosing would be difficult. He would challenge powerful people and be hunted by entire armies. He would live hand to mouth, sometimes not knowing where his next meal would come from.

Elisha did not believe that following God would keep him well-fed and wealthy, and he had no guarantee that things would turn out well, that he would be rewarded in this life. He must have known the potential danger he might encounter by choosing the narrow path.

But Elisha chose it willingly because he valued the calling of God more than he valued the comfort of this world.

Embracing an eternal perspective like that is never easy, but it’s often especially difficult for people who have an abundance of material possessions, in other words, the vast majority of people reading this blog (including the author). We may not feel wealthy, but statistically speaking, we are. That wealth is one of the primary reasons we have a hard time valuing the unseen calling of God over the tangible benefits and comforts of “the good life.” It’s quite a risk to let go of everything we’ve been taught to clamour after!

But at some point in time, a thoughtful person must ask, “What do I really want?”

People are sometimes fooled into believing that they want status, prosperity or popularity. Elisha had all of these things in spades, but he knew something was missing, or at least he recognized when an opportunity to find out presented itself. Ultimately, our pursuit of things leads to emptiness and a lack of fulfilment. As counter-intuitive as it seems, the pathway to the life we’ve always dreamed of, a life of true freedom, meaning and purpose, is found in the conscious choice to pursue the things of God, even when that pursuit brings us to difficult circumstances, trials or hardships, even when it calls us to give up everything.

Few people on their deathbeds lament, “I wish I’d accumulated more money, more land, more wealth, more status.” People at death’s door know they can’t take any of that to the ultimate show-and-tell.

When we value calling and character over comfort, we find out what real comfort is. We find a better comfort than we could ever have imagined for ourselves.

If you don’t believes me, wait ‘til you get to heaven and ask Elisha.

 

Lord God, every day I wrestle with the visible versus the invisible, the now versus the not-yet, the goods of this world versus the currency of the next world, the temporal versus the eternal. As I reflect on the things the world system tells me to pursue in its definition of the good life, I understand that none of them can satisfy my soul, because I was made and meant for so much more. I must admit that no amount of wealth, pleasure, success or prestige can ever contend with even the simplest gift that comes from Your hand. You are the architect of true pleasure and satisfaction; these things flow out of the personal knowledge of You. What I really want is You, because I realise that when I seek first Your kingdom and righteousness, everything else will fall into its proper place.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

 

Elisha had it pretty good. He was the son of a wealthy landowner. When Elijah found him, he was plowing in a field with 24 oxen. Most families at that time would have been lucky to own a chicken or a goat! Owning an ox was like driving an SUV, and having 24 oxen was almost unthinkable. Elisha came from a family of means.

But there’s more to life than comfort and affluence, and Elisha, rich as he was, recognized this.

He had no idea what exactly he was getting into when he agreed to become Elijah’s protégé, but he knew it was something bigger, something better, than just living for the moment, living for a wage slip.

He left behind a comfortable life (even burning the ploughs and cooking his oxen as a sign of his total commitment) to pursue God’s calling on his life. The life he was choosing would be difficult. He would challenge powerful people and be hunted by entire armies. He would live hand to mouth, sometimes not knowing where his next meal would come from.

Elisha did not believe that following God would keep him well-fed and wealthy, and he had no guarantee that things would turn out well, that he would be rewarded in this life. He must have known the potential danger he might encounter by choosing the narrow path.

But Elisha chose it willingly because he valued the calling of God more than he valued the comfort of this world.

Embracing an eternal perspective like that is never easy, but it’s often especially difficult for people who have an abundance of material possessions, in other words, the vast majority of people reading this blog (including the author). We may not feel wealthy, but statistically speaking, we are. That wealth is one of the primary reasons we have a hard time valuing the unseen calling of God over the tangible benefits and comforts of “the good life.” It’s quite a risk to let go of everything we’ve been taught to clamour after!

But at some point in time, a thoughtful person must ask, “What do I really want?”

People are sometimes fooled into believing that they want status, prosperity or popularity. Elisha had all of these things in spades, but he knew something was missing, or at least he recognized when an opportunity to find out presented itself. Ultimately, our pursuit of things leads to emptiness and a lack of fulfilment. As counter-intuitive as it seems, the pathway to the life we’ve always dreamed of, a life of true freedom, meaning and purpose, is found in the conscious choice to pursue the things of God, even when that pursuit brings us to difficult circumstances, trials or hardships, even when it calls us to give up everything.

Few people on their deathbeds lament, “I wish I’d accumulated more money, more land, more wealth, more status.” People at death’s door know they can’t take any of that to the ultimate show-and-tell.

When we value calling and character over comfort, we find out what real comfort is. We find a better comfort than we could ever have imagined for ourselves.

If you don’t believes me, wait ‘til you get to heaven and ask Elisha.

 

Lord God, every day I wrestle with the visible versus the invisible, the now versus the not-yet, the goods of this world versus the currency of the next world, the temporal versus the eternal. As I reflect on the things the world system tells me to pursue in its definition of the good life, I understand that none of them can satisfy my soul, because I was made and meant for so much more. I must admit that no amount of wealth, pleasure, success or prestige can ever contend with even the simplest gift that comes from Your hand. You are the architect of true pleasure and satisfaction; these things flow out of the personal knowledge of You. What I really want is You, because I realize that when I seek first Your kingdom and righteousness, everything else will fall into its proper place.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Passing on the torch day2

Elijah invited Elisha to volunteer for a life-changing ministry.

Elisha said, “Let me go home and tell my folks goodbye first.” This may have been a polite way of saying, “Give me some time to think about it.”

“Hey, take as much time as you want,” Elijah replied. “Don’t worry about it.” And then he let Elisha leave and go home. He didn’t feel the need to say, “But if you don’t volunteer, think of what you’ll miss out on. And if you don’t volunteer, think of what you’ll be depriving others of.”

He didn’t say any of that. He didn’t pressure Elisha or coerce him or manipulate the deal at all. He didn’t use guilt. He didn’t use any sales tactics. He didn’t insult Elisha by soft-peddling his offer or reducing it to something that involved low levels of risk. (“Hey, why don’t you just try it for a while? If it doesn’t work out, you can go back to ploughing in the field. No hard feelings.”)

Elijah didn’t do any of that.

Many years later (in another Bible story), a rich young man comes to see Jesus and asks, “What do I have to do to be one of Your followers?”

Jesus tells him, “You know the Law. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t commit adultery. Honour your parents. All that stuff.”

The guy says, “I know all that. I’ve done all that since I was a kid. Anything else?”

Jesus says, “Well, there is this one thing. You need to trust Me more than you trust your stuff. So go sell everything you own, give the money away to the poor and then come follow Me.”

And here’s what happens next. The guy walks away. And Jesus lets him go (see Mark 10:17-30).

Jesus doesn’t use manipulation. He never uses guilt. He also doesn’t lower His standards. (“Hey, did I say everything? What if you just start with half? Or 10 percent?”) Jesus doesn’t stoop to those kinds of tactics. Neither did Elijah.

And neither should we.

But we should remember this. There is a window of opportunity for each of us. God, in His grace, opens a window for us, giving us each the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to join our meagre resources with His abundance, the prospect of partnering with Him in the greatest adventure of all time.

How long that window will stay open, no one knows. But it does expire. And on the great day of reckoning that is to come, when all accounts are settled and all the questions answered, the only words sadder than “If only …” will be “Too late.”

 

Lord, You have given me the great dignity of inviting me to participate in what You are doing in the world. I realize that I cannot contribute anything to You, because You lack nothing and have no needs. Yet you call me to participate, and You affirm that this decision will have everlasting consequences. I do not want to miss out on Your call or wait until it is too late. But I also know that it will take a real risk on my part to treasure and implement Your call, especially because there are so many visible alternatives that compete for my allegiance. You lead me in graciousness without compelling or coercing me to do what You know is in my best interests. I am willing to do Your will, and I ask for the power and spirit of obedience and trust that I need to realize Your loving intentions for my life during my earthly sojourn.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Passing on the torch day1

I KINGS 19 

If only Elisha had stayed where he was, he could have experienced a nice, comfortable life. He was from a wealthy family and had a nice job. Life was pretty good for him. 

But God sometimes calls, and, if we have the courage to respond, He leads us in paths we never would have created for ourselves. 

Elisha was out working in the field when Elijah came walking by. There was just something about that moment; no words were needed. Elisha knew that God was calling him to leave everything comfortable and familiar to follow this mysterious miracle-worker into an uncertain future. 

Elisha had no idea that he would receive twice as much power as his predecessor, Elijah. He could not have known the great things he would do and see, the miracles, the healings, the visions. He could not have imagined the pain he would feel when he pleaded with his fellow Hebrews to repent and return to this God who does such amazing miracles, only to find his message falling on deaf ears. 

He only knew that God was offering him the opportunity of a lifetime, and he wanted that more than anything else. 

In that moment, Elisha chose to follow. He chose to leave affluence and security behind and become part of a lonely line of prophets that God used to call His people back to Himself. And that one decision marked a turning point for Elisha. His life would never be the same. 

Elisha was able to see things other people could not see. But he had no idea that gift would be his when he first signed up to follow God’s call. He only knew that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he ignored the invitation. 

He watched as his mentor was taken up into heaven by a fiery chariot and horses. He raised a young man from the dead, caused an axe handle to float on water, took a small amount of bread and multiplied it to feed 100 people, and healed an important Syrian general of leprosy. He even foiled a foreign army’s attempt to invade Israel by asking God to strike them all blind. 

The strangest miracle involving Elisha happened after he was already dead and buried. A group of people was burying a friend when some bandits from Moab sprang upon them. In their haste, they dumped their friend’s corpse into the grave containing Elisha’s bones. As soon as the body touched the bones, it sprang back to life. 

Strange things happened to Elisha. If only he had stayed where he was, he could have experienced a nice, comfortable life. But he would have missed out on the life he always wanted. 

Father, Your ways are mysterious and past finding out. I cannot comprehend Your purposes even for my life, but I know that You have implanted deep longings within me that correspond to Your intentions for the life I should live before You. The world is too much with me, and it is difficult for me to hear Your voice amidst the din of activities and obligations. May I learn the wisdom and sanity of solitude in which I retreat long enough from the claims and lures of this world to hear Your voice, Your call. I am willing to follow You into the unknown, I acknowledge that You really have a better plan and purpose for my life than I do. As I renew my mind with Your truth during these times, give me the grace to respond to Your invitation and turn away from the things that keep me from becoming the person You want me to be. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Just a regular guy day4

Everybody prays. Some people pray because they know they’re supposed to. Some people pray as a way of covering their bases, just in case it might work. Some people pray because they desperately need something and they don’t know where else to turn.

Everybody prays. But not the way Elijah prayed.

Still, everybody could.

If Elijah really was just a normal, average, everyday kind of person (and not “a strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men”), then that means normal, average, everyday kind of people like us can pray like he did.

And how exactly did he pray?

Elijah prayed biblically. One time, he prayed for God to make it stop raining. Where in the world did he get that idea? He got that idea from the book of Deuteronomy. Moses warned the people that if they turned away from God and started worshiping foreign gods, it would stop raining (see 11.16-17). Elijah was just asking God to keep His Word and discipline the people like He said He would.

Many times we don’t pray like Elijah because we’re biblically ignorant and don’t know how to pray according to God’s revealed will. But we can change that. (Hopefully this blog is helping.)

Elijah prayed very specifically. He didn’t just offer vague, generic prayers. Because he prayed for specific things to happen, there was no doubt when God answered.

Elijah kept praying even when the answer wasn’t immediate. In 1 Kings 18.43, we learn that Elijah prayed seven times for it to start raining again. He didn’t just pray once and quit.

Elijah was humble when he prayed. There was no big show, and he didn’t seem to need to ramp himself up emotionally. He just asked God for stuff. Perhaps because he had an ongoing, conversational relationship with God, he didn’t feel like he had to get worked up to ask Him for big things.

Oh, and speaking of the conversational nature of Elijah’s relationship with God, there’s another lesson about praying we can learn from him, Elijah complained.

Let’s face it. The one thing people do more than pray is complain. Only the Judeo-Christian Scriptures provide us with an example of a people who feel comfortable complaining to their God. That’s one of the most unique things about Jewish literature. The relationship they had with YHWH was strong enough to survive unfiltered dialogue, from both directions!

Elijah was just a regular guy, a lot like any of us. But he prayed. And when he prayed, he became extraordinary. What might happen today if you did the same?

 

God of power and might, I thank You for the grace-filled gift of prayer. You welcome me into Your presence and bid me to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that I may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. In prayer, let me lay hold of my true possessions in Christ and exercise the authority You have granted me as a believer in Jesus Christ. I want to internalize and pray Your Word back to You, and I wish to pray at all times by practicing Your presence and acknowledging my dependence upon You in everything. Thank You that I can also be real and honest in prayer without pretence or posing, because there are times when I need to wrestle with Your will in the circumstances of my life. You patiently and lovingly hear my complaints and You succour and comfort me in times of distress.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Just a regular guy day3

Elijah was just a guy. He wasn’t Superman. He wasn’t even Samson. He was just a regular guy like the rest of us (see James 5:17).

When it comes time for us to select a leader, whether a new CEO, a new pastor or a new prime minister, we tend to look for someone special. Backgrounds are checked and records are scrutinised. Anything that hints of impropriety or scandal is enough to disqualify even the most highly qualified person for the job, because we look for that one extraordinarily special person who we believe can and will help to change the world.

God, on the other hand, does not seem particularly drawn to the extraordinary. When God wants to change the world, He usually looks for a regular person, someone, say, a lot like you.

Our society values money and education and connections. We want someone with a certain bearing that sets him or her apart from everyone else. We want a leader who will make the rest of us look good and feel good about our standing as a company, church or nation.

But God sometimes goes the other way. It’s not that God has anything against wealthy, well-educated people with good networking skills. It’s just that God doesn’t require any of those things in order to use a person to make an indelible mark on human history.

He certainly didn’t require them of Elijah.

Elijah was a regular person who didn’t have all the answers. In fact, there were times in his life when it appeared as if he had more questions than answers. He struggled with his confidence. He wrestled with fear and anxiety and depression. And yet more miracles occurred during his lifetime than during the lives of King Saul, King David and King Solomon combined.

God accomplishes extraordinary things through ordinary people.

More often than not, the people God uses are unremarkable until they allow Him to use them. Afterward, we tend to think of them as these incredible pillars of strength, courage and faith. But on the front end, there’s often very little to commend them to our attention.

Rosa Parks. Mother Teresa. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Abraham Lincoln. You would have been hard-pressed to pick these people out of a line-up before God got His hands on them.

So many people feel trapped and helpless, as if the world just happens to them. They’re unaware of how much power they actually can have and how much change they actually can effect.

God has a plan, and that plan involves not only the redemption of the world but its restoration as well. He is looking for people who will actively partner with Him in setting everything that is currently upside-down, right side up again, people who will reach out to the widows and the orphans and the poor, people who will tear down corrupt systems and erect righteous systems in their place.

God is at work. He wants people who are willing to work with Him, who will allow Him to work through them. He’s not looking for a few good men, He’s looking for one willing person.

Maybe today He wants to do something out of the ordinary through a regular man or woman like you.

 

Father God, I frequently find myself slipping into the trap of using the wrong criteria to evaluate success and failure. I want to take my eyes off the things that impress people in this world and fix them on the things that you declare to be important. Trust and obedience and the humility of other-centred service are the marks of true greatness, and I desire to grow in them. May I learn the spirituality of small things, since he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. I know that from a Kingdom perspective, I don’t need to make a big splash in this world to be pleasing to You. Grant me the grace of splendour in the ordinary and of fidelity in the little things, because these are the things that accumulate into true greatness.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Just a regular guy day2

Most children reach a stage when they want to know why.

“Why is the sky blue?”

“Why do goldfish die?”

“Why doesn’t Daddy have hair on the top of his head?”

It’s not just silly, three-year-old questions, though. Sometimes they want to know why their parents want them to do certain things (or not do certain other things).

“Why do I have to eat my vegetables?”

“Why do I have to be home at 10:00?”

“Why can’t I go with Lisa and Trish to the beach for the weekend without any parents?”

We tend to operate under the assumption that information will naturally lead to cooperation. Sometimes it does, but most times it does not. It just brings about further attempts to rationalize or justify or cajole.

But here’s something we learn from Elijah’s story, especially from his whiny conversation with God in the mountains, If you knew what God knows, you would be more likely to do what God says.

After Elijah’s winner-take-all confrontation with 850 pagan prophets and their false god, Jezebel threatens to kill him and he runs away. Elijah panics and goes on a 12-day journey down to the furthest point in the Southern Kingdom, and then he goes for one more day. In other words, he goes as far as he can and then a little farther. At this point, God shows up and Elijah says, “Okay, God, I’ve had enough. Kill me now.”

Interestingly, God never panics.

God deals with Elijah like you would deal with a cranky toddler: He gives him a drink and a snack and puts him down for a nap. When Elijah wakes up, God shows him all the things He could do at a moment’s notice. Earthquake. Fire. Howling wind. God’s got weapons in His arsenal that we don’t know anything about. He’s heavily fortified.

Then God lets Elijah in on some things. Ahab won’t be king forever. Elijah won’t be God’s main prophet forever. YHWH was here before Elijah, and He’ll be here long after Elijah is gone. He’s been at work getting things ready for the next chapter. Elijah can’t see things happening, but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t happening.

“And by the way, you’re not the only true believer left. There are 7,000 others.”

Interestingly, Elijah and God look at the same situation, the exact same circumstances. Elijah panics and quits, God does not.

And why doesn’t God panic? Because He has a greater perspective on things than Elijah. See, panic just reveals a limited perspective. God is not nervously pacing back and forth in heaven, wringing His hands wondering what to do. God has got a plan, and nothing in the whole wide world is going to stop Him from bringing it all the way to fruition. God is not going to be surprised by anything.

So we can calm down.

When we think the whole story lives and dies with us, we’re liable to panic. We feel afraid, and we stop trusting God. But when we embed our story into the larger context of His Story (history?), our panic subsides. Our fear loses its grip on us, and we can relax, knowing that no matter how messed up things appear to be now, God is still in control.

 

Lord of Hosts, I revel in the truths of Your majesty, power, glory and dominion over all things in heaven and on earth. In spite of so many appearances to the contrary, nothing can happen that comes as a surprise to You or escapes Your control. You order the events of history in ways we do not understand, and in spite of the vastness of human evil, Your plan will be accomplished. I pray for the insight of a growing biblical perspective on the events in my life and in the world. May I move with confidence in Your sovereignty, even when things seem to make no sense to me. I thank You for Your patience and comfort, especially in times when I try to run from You or feel sorry for myself. I want to renew my mind with Your unchanging truth in a changing world, so that my assurance is in Your often-mysterious ways in the affairs of the sons and daughters of men.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

Just a regular guy day1

 Just a Regular Guy

1 KINGS 17–19 

Jeroboam was a bad king. Saul had been a near-disaster. David had his rough patches. Solomon started so well but ended in shame. But Jeroboam didn’t even come close. He was bad from beginning to end. 

So it is not surprising to find out that his son was bad. And his son’s son. And his son’s son’s son. And just when you think they couldn’t get any worse, along comes Ahab, the worst king of them all, a selfish, immature man controlled by his ambitious and overbearing wife, Jezebel. Together they led the Northern Kingdom of Israel into an unprecedented level of idolatry. 

Into this awful mix, God sent a prophet named Elijah to deliver a critical message and attempt to persuade Israel to return to YHWH. 

And you thought your job was hard! 

You’d think God would have picked someone with superhuman intelligence and strength, but He didn’t. He picked Elijah, a regular person just like us. Elijah was just a normal guy who struggled with self-doubt, loneliness and acceptance, but when God told him to do something, he did it. Maybe that’s the difference between Elijah and many of us. 

The first thing Elijah did to get everyone’s attention was to ask God to make it stop raining. For two whole years there was no rain, no mist, not even dew in the morning. 

As you can imagine, this didn’t make Elijah the most popular guy around. 

Still, God provided for Elijah through various methods: Ravens brought him food, angels brought him food, pagan widows brought him food. Elijah was a well-fed prophet in a land of famine. 

The most famous event in Elijah’s life was an event he arranged on the top of Mount Carmel. Jezebel had imported prophets and priests of the false god Baal and supported them with money from the national treasury. Elijah challenged these prophets to a showdown involving two bulls, two altars and two deities, YHWH and Baal. Which one would send fire from heaven to consume the bull on the altar? 

The prophets of Baal danced and shouted and howled and cut themselves trying to get Baal’s attention. But nothing happened. 

When it was his turn, Elijah doused his bull with water and prayed, no dancing, no shouting, no howling like a crazy man, no cutting. And fire came down from heaven, consuming the sacrifice and the altar, the stones supporting the altar and all the water that had collected on the ground. 

Sometimes God doesn’t leave much room for doubt! 

You’d think that after seeing God do such an amazing thing, Elijah would be ecstatic. But you’d be wrong. 

Being God’s spokesman can be a difficult job, and Elijah often felt scared and alone. Immediately after the big blowup with Baal, Jezebel took out a contract on Elijah’s life, and he ran to the mountains to ask God to kill him. Frankly, he got a little whiny about it. 

But God is good (even when we’re childish) and Elijah received the reassurance that he needed to continue in his calling. God let him know that he was not alone. God promised him that evil would never be allowed to have the last word. And God challenged Elijah to go and find a replacement for himself. In other words, God was saying that the world would go on, long after Ahab and Jezebel were gone, even after Elijah. 

God’s plan will continue to move forward, and He will continue to use regular people like us.

O Lord, I thank You that You can use ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. The source of the power is not from us, but from Your Holy Spirit. May I not set my sights low, but expect great and wonderful things from You, even things I do not understand. Sometimes I am gripped with fear and insecurity, and these are the times when I have taken my eyes off You. I want to be faithful to the many opportunities You have given me so that I will learn to look to You for all things. May I learn the wisdom of abiding in Christ as a branch abides in the vine, so that I will draw my life and impact from You instead of trying to create life on my own. I ask for Your Spirit to exhort, encourage, comfort and teach me in the times when I embrace the wisdom of obedience, and even in the times when I stray from You. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen

A divided kingdom day4

 Life isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s not how you start that determines your success, it’s how you finish. This lesson is brought home firmly in both the stories of Solomon and the nation of Israel.

 Solomon started so well, so full of promise. He had so much going for him. It seemed like everything he touched turned to gold. He listened to God and responded with obedience. God blessed him with wisdom unlike any other human being who had ever lived before. Solomon amassed a fortune and set a new standard of dignity among the leaders of God’s people. 

But, as so often happens, his success slowly turned to complacency, opening the door for compromise and disaster. He lost touch with the legitimate needs of his people. He became self-indulgent and began to listen more and more to his pagan wives, catering to their religious desires rather than maintaining his own integrity. 

When Solomon began his reign, there was no doubt that there was just one God. But by the end of his reign, there was a hill to the east of Jerusalem with shrines built to just about every other god of the surrounding nations. The magnificent temple that Solomon had worked so hard to build stood as just one of many possible options. A visitor could quickly come to the conclusion that YHWH was but one of many possible gods. 

Solomon did so many great things for God during the first half of his life. Unfortunately, he spent the second half of his life undoing a lot of the good he had accomplished. His father, David, had handed him a kingdom that was united and at peace. Solomon handed his son Rehoboam a kingdom that was divided and on the brink of civil war. 

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. It is true of individuals, and of nations, churches and corporations as well. 

Israel started so well. God brought them into the land miraculously, parting swollen rivers and knocking down fortified cities. The inhabitants of Canaan were terrified of them, and they managed to take possession of the Promised Land with relative ease. They had some bumpy times, brought about because of their own failure to honour God, but they still held together and built an empire that was the envy of all the surrounding nations. 

But it didn’t last very long. 

In less than 50 years, the Israelites went from being united under one God, worshiping in the magnificent Temple and astonishing foreign dignitaries with their society to being a fragmented, confused people who believed that one religious practice was as good as another. They became inconsequential on the international scene and were eventually swallowed up by larger, more powerful nations. 

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. 

There are examples of people in the Bible who both started and finished well. Those examples, however, are fairly rare. Fortunately, the promise we can cling to is that Jesus, the One who began a good work in and among us, will be faithful to see it all the way through to completion (see Philippians 1:6). 

Regardless of whether you started well or have faded somewhere along the path, if there’s breath in your body, it’s not too late. You can make a decision today to follow Jesus in finishing well. 

 

Lord of all, I truly desire to finish my earthly sojourn well. I know this will not happen automatically, and that many who begin well finish poorly. You have taught me that the most important key to finishing well is intimacy with Christ Jesus, and I ask for the grace to treasure that above all else. Grant that I would grow in fidelity to the spiritual disciplines of renewing my mind with Your Word, with prayer and with times of solitude and silence so that I will grow in the knowledge of the Lord. Give me a biblical perspective on the circumstances of my life, and teach me to pursue a biblical hope and purpose. Please empower me to express the vertical on the horizontal, so that my love and service to You are increasingly evident in my love and service to others. I want to run with endurance the race that is set before me and fix my eyes on

In Jesus’s name, Amen

A divided kingdom day3

When public opinion begins to masquerade as intelligence, we desperately need to prize wisdom. 

Do we need authenticity? You bet. Honesty? Absolutely. Should we embrace mystery and paradox? Of course. 

But at the end of the day, wisdom must be held in the highest esteem, because an authentic, honest, mysterious, paradoxical fool is still a fool. So where do we turn to find the kind of wisdom that will enable us to see with clarity and conviction? This week’s story serves as a sort of cautionary tale for us in this endeavour. 

First of all, we are often told that old age brings wisdom. There are even biblical references people cite to back up this theory. For example, Job asks (somewhat rhetorically), “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” (Job 12.12). 

Well, yes, sometimes. 

However, Solomon himself, the wisest man who had ever lived, disproves the theory that wisdom always comes with age. He actually grows less wise as he gets older! Our elders are often a source of wisdom, but they’re not completely reliable. 

A second potential source of wisdom is the counsel of our peers. Proverbs 15:22 tells us, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” 

But Rehoboam got counsel, lots of it. He sought the opinion of his peers and they gave him bad advice. 

What about outsiders? Sometimes it’s helpful to seek the wisdom of those who are outside our immediate community. Sometimes Christians think that they have cornered the market on wisdom, but that’s not true in many areas. It would have been foolish to think that the Egyptians had nothing of value to say about how to govern people; they’d been doing it longer than the Israelites had been, well, the Israelites. Two whole chapters in the book of Proverbs are taken up with wise sayings from pagan kings (see Proverbs 30–31). 

But Jeroboam brought back what he thought was wisdom from Egypt, and it ended up ruining the kingdom, driving a semi-permanent wedge between the 10 tribes to the north and the remaining 2 tribes of the south. 

Old age, peer groups, outsiders, all of these are potential sources of the precious wisdom we so desperately need. But we must never forget that they are also potential sources of even more foolishness and pooled ignorance. Once again, we are left to consider that only God is completely reliable. Whatever wisdom we think we may have accumulated must be run through the filter of God’s Word. Only then do we learn to discern wisdom from folly. 

 

Father of lights, You are the fountainhead of true wisdom, counsel, discernment and understanding. You often mediate Your wisdom through others, but please prevent me from making that my final source. I acknowledge that biblical wisdom is the skill in living life with each aspect under Your governance, and that I cannot attain this skill without the fear of the Lord. May I learn to fear Your displeasure and desire to be pleasing to You, so that I will live my life before You rather than seeking to impress people. I know that when I am more concerned with what You say and desire than with the opinions and expectations of others, I will actually be empowered to serve them better. I want to order my steps before You, to hold fast to You, to aspire to be like You, to hope in You and to pursue You above all else. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen

A divided kingdom day2

It has been said, and rightly so, that the one thing humans cannot live without is hope. Because we cannot live without it, we will always find something in which to place our hope, even when it is the wrong thing.

The people of Israel placed their hopes and dreams on something that could not bear that freight. They trusted in their kings as if Saul, David and Solomon could usher in the fulfilment of God’s promises. But they were just men. They couldn’t keep their promises to God individually any more than the people could collectively. They were human, and they failed.

All the buildings they constructed eventually fell. All the borders they secured were eventually overrun. All the economic strength and all the glory eventually faded, leaving crushed hopes and dreams behind. Saul unified the people. David subdued their enemies. Solomon built the Temple. But none of them fulfilled God’s greatest dream, to build a community of people rightly related to Himself and rightly relating to one another to such a degree that their presence would be a blessing to the entire world.

God wanted His people to be magnetic, to draw others into fellowship with themselves and with Him. Instead, they couldn’t even get along with each other. Rather than learning from YHWH how to use the influence they had been given by Him, they used their power to protect themselves, to manipulate others and to further their own selfish ambitions. They did this even at the cost of healthy relationships with others. They did this even when it meant compromising their core beliefs, values and practices, violating their covenant promises to the God who had used His power for their benefit.

They wanted to claim the promise of God, that they would be the most influential nation on earth. Sounds noble and great. But they attempted to claim God’s promise by violating their own promises to Him. They trusted in human power and ingenuity rather than relying on the One who had gotten them this far in the first place.

They found out the hard way what happens when you trust a person to accomplish what only God can.

Our trust is terribly misplaced when it is put in the hands of a human being or a program conceived of human initiative or a building constructed by human hands. None of these things are bad or evil in themselves, but none of these things will ever fulfil our deepest longings. We will always find ourselves let down, disappointed and discouraged by the things of this earth.

Only God is strong enough to bear the full weight of our deepest desires, hopes and dreams.

When our trust is appropriately placed, we find an amazing quality of life that is unavailable otherwise. As we allow Jesus to be the fulfilment of our deepest longings and desires, by placing Him at the centre of all of our activities, everything we do is not only infused with meaning and purpose, but has the potential to allow us (finally!) participation with God in bringing about the fulfilment of His greatest dream.

The kingdom was divided, but it will one day be reunited. That’s what God is doing even now. By embedding our story within His, we are allowed to participate with Him in the greatest adventure of all. That’s what it really means to keep hope alive.

 

Loving God, You have called us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You are preparing an inheritance for us that will never be corrupted or fade away. Why then do I keep slipping into the blunder of putting my hope in other things? Deliver me from the futility of misplaced hopes that ultimately die. Teach me in experience the wisdom of hoping only in Your unchanging character and the promises You have made that flow out of Your perfections. I do not want to hope in the uncertainties of people, possessions or position, because all of these can change and disappoint. Instead, I choose to hope in You and pray that I will grow in the knowledge, love and trust of You. Then I will experience the security and satisfaction that come from growing conformity to Christ.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

A divided kingdom day1

Divided Kingdom

1 KINGS 12

God began with a garden and two people. His desire was to create a people and a place where they could all live in unbroken fellowship: God to person, person to person, people to the rest of creation. There would be no alienation, no frustration, no malice, no anxiety.

But it all went awry when these people rejected God’s plan and went about trying to accomplish their own agendas.

Still, this God would not give up on His dream. From the day they rejected Him, God began to reveal His larger plan to not only create a perfect world but to redeem that perfect world from its own corruption. Slowly, painstakingly, God began to work with the raw material of fallen and depraved humans, men and women like Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Ruth, Saul and David. Eventually, under the reign of King Solomon, it appeared as if God’s plan might actually reach its fulfilment.

But these humans couldn’t stop shooting themselves in the feet.

Solomon, as wise as he was, couldn’t keep himself from being seduced by his many wives into worshiping other gods. At first he merely tolerated them doing it. Then he began to endorse them doing it by building them places of worship devoted to the foreign gods. Ultimately, he joined them in doing it and offended the God who had given him everything he had.

As a result of his foolish actions, God told Solomon that his son Rehoboam would lose a portion of the kingdom when he assumed the throne after Solomon’s death. In fact, Rehoboam lost most of the kingdom (10 of the 12 tribes). Another man, Jeroboam, would be the king of the northern tribes.

Solomon, hearing this message from God, decided to try to do something to prevent it. He attempted to murder Jeroboam, but Jeroboam escaped to Egypt and stayed there until the king died. Unfortunately, Jeroboam picked up many of the religious practices of the Egyptians while he was down there, and he imported them back into Israel when he returned.

It’s hard to believe that some people think the Bible is boring! The kingdom was officially divided shortly after Rehoboam took control in 931 B.C. His father, Solomon, had imposed a heavy burden of taxation to pay for the construction of the Temple and his personal palace. The people asked Rehoboam to cut back on spending to lighten their load some, but Rehoboam, refusing to listen to his wisest advisors, promised to make things even harder on the people.

Jeroboam saw this as his opportunity, and led a revolt of the masses. The kingdom would be divided from that point on, 10 tribes in the north called Israel, and 2 tribes in the south called Judah.

As you can imagine, it would not end well.

And yet, God still had a few tricks up His sleeve.

 

Gracious Lord, Your kindness, patience and loving-kindness have so often been tried by Your people over the centuries. I know that too often I have done the same by taking Your grace for granted and doing what I wanted to do, hoping that You would go along or ignore my actions. Deliver me from the sin of presumption, in which I regard grace as my due. May I maintain fidelity to You and to Your purposes for my life so that I will walk in the way of wisdom rather than in autonomy. Deliver me from the folly of making decisions without seeking Your will and without desiring to be pleasing to You. I want to be vigilant against all forms of idolatry, so that I will not deceive myself into thinking that flirtation with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye and the boastful pride of life could ever be gratified without dishonouring You.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

City on a hill day4

The scope of the celebration services in the Old Testament is staggering. Solomon’s dedication of the Temple involved hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of people. They gathered and praised God. They prayed and shouted. And, here’s the part we like, they had the biggest barbecue cookout you can imagine. They cooked up 22,000 cows and 120,000 sheep and goats. There was food as far as the eye could see. Everyone ate and drank and celebrated for two full weeks. 

It was every church barbecue and “lunch after the meeting” you’ve ever been to, and then some! 

And what were they celebrating? A building. A fixed place where they could go and find God. They were celebrating the fact that God had kept His promise to them by redeeming them from slavery, giving them a land of their own and blessing them with favour among the other nations. 

Those are good things. But think about what you have to celebrate. God didn’t just redeem you from physical bondage; He redeemed you from a lifetime of spiritual slavery. You don’t just have a geographic location to call your own; you have an eternal home in the presence of the One who gives all things meaning and value. You don’t just have favour among other nations; you enjoy fellowship and community among God’s people. You have more than a fixed place where you can go and find God, if you’ve placed your trust in Jesus, God actually lives in you. You’ve been promised an eternity of ever-increasing intimacy with your Creator and other people. 

If the people during Solomon’s reign had cause to celebrate, what about you? 

Life may be complicated. There may be hardships that come your way. Christians are not exempt from sickness and fatigue. Relationships are tricky. Life doesn’t always turn out the way you want it to. But think about what God has done for you. 

Remembrance is the key to celebration. Sometimes it comes easily, other times it’s a discipline. Sometimes, it requires effort on our part. Mostly that effort will be to remember. Remember where you’ve been and give some thought to what it is, exactly, you’ve been redeemed out of. Remember how faithful God has been in the past and what His promises are for the future. 

Today tie these two activities together. Remember what God has done and has promised to do, and allow that remembrance to lead you to celebration. You might even want to deepen your celebration by involving others in it. 

Go ahead, throw a cookout! 

O Lord, give me the wisdom of spiritual remembrance so that I will never take the riches of Your grace and goodness for granted. Remind me to recall all of Your many benefits and blessings over the years and to realize frequently how much You have done for me. You have carried me through difficult passages. You have comforted me in times of despair. You have encouraged me when I was despondent. You have given me hope when all seemed lost. You have blessed me with freedoms, friends and opportunities that I never deserved. As I review Your benefits in the past, let me also reflect on Your process in my present and on Your prospects for my future. In light of all this, I can fully affirm that Your will for me is good and acceptable and perfect. May this gratitude of remembrance give me perspective and peace in the present moment. 

In Jesus's name, Amen

A prayer for those who care

Oh Healer and Restorer of life, we are weary

You have called us into work that, at times, feels like more than we can bear

We have sat at bedsides and breakfast tables, in hospital rooms and clinics

Witnessing the persistent cycle of sickness and healing

Only to come home exhausted and discouraged

God of Jacob, cast Your gaze upon us

You promised that when we pass through the waters, You will be with us

And though the rivers rage, they will not overwhelm us

And though we walk through fire, we will not be burned

But we have only so much energy

Only so much compassion

Only so much endurance

To carry on in our own strength

Therefore, God of all comfort, turn and be gracious to us, for we cry to You and only You

Refuge and Strength, renew our trust in You until we mount up with wings like eagles

When we are empty, would You lead us to Your wellspring of living water

When we are hopeless, would You lift up our eyes to see the unseen

When we are lonely, would You give us life-giving communities to remind us that we are not enduring alone

Would You heal the sick, both physically and spiritually, as they cope with their unique and painful maladies

Would You give us the words to comfort those who are grieving

Would You give us wisdom to discern the best treatments and ways to serve

Would You grant us perseverance even as we are burning out and daily bearing the suffering of others

Even now, we wait for You more than watchmen wait for morning 

Even now, we learn the way of gentleness through Your humble heart

Even now, we hope in a better future, believing You are making all things new

Even now, we are oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of Your splendour 

Oh God who holds our times in Your hand

We ask that You hasten pain and suffering to a swift end

May a period of rest, peace, and bounty follow

When the days of mourning have ceased and life is restored

In Jesus’s name, Amen

City on a hill day3

For centuries, God’s people led culture. The leading poets and philosophers, artists and architects, musicians and mathematicians were Christians. God’s people didn’t just influence culture; they created it. 

But it’s not that way anymore. 

Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to hear people say things like, “That was pretty good … for a church.” What they mean is that much of what passes for Christian art, music and thought would never make it in the “real world.” The level of excellence (or lack thereof) demonstrated by many churches simply wouldn’t cut it in the marketplace. 

What’s even more shocking is that some Christians reserve their best efforts for their own pursuits while offering God the leftovers of their time, energy and creativity. 

Understanding the story of Solomon’s building of the Temple can help us counter both of these problems. Look at the care that went into the construction of the Temple. They didn’t skimp or scrape or cut corners. They were elaborate and ornate. They didn’t settle for unremarkable utilitarian buildings, square bland boxes. They valued beauty and art and creativity, good fabric, real wood and craftsmanship. 

Quite a contrast to the nondescript church buildings that dot our landscape, with tile floors, cinder block walls, fluorescent lights and metal folding chairs. 

Do we value beauty? Aesthetics? Art and creativity? 

Would we decorate our own homes the way we decorate our church buildings? Would we be satisfied if the same level of craftsmanship used on our church buildings was used in the houses we live in? 

Solomon wasn’t. As magnificent as the Temple he built for God was, Solomon’s house was even better. It took nearly twice as long to build and was even more impressive. 

It’s not that we shouldn’t have nice houses. But placing a high premium on beauty and art in our homes or places of business without applying it to our places of worship may reveal more about our misplaced priorities than we realise. 

God values beauty; He personifies it. All beauty on earth points beyond itself to the ultimate source of beauty, God Himself. Value it. Prize it. Seek it and allow it to guide you to a finer appreciation of the Beautiful One who wants our best for Himself. 

God of glory and grace, when I reflect on the beauty and diversity of Your created order, I marvel at Your genius, Your creativity, Your personal care, Your exquisite aesthetics, Your glory and order and excellence. May I aspire to excellence in all that I do, in each arena of my influence, so that others would encounter the fragrance of Your manifest presence and lordship. Nothing less than my utmost for Your high-ness will do. Give me the wisdom to expose myself to those things that build up and nourish the soul rather than those things that denigrate and diminish. Let me be careful and prayerful about what I see, read and do, so that I will not be corrupted by that which is beneath Your vision for my life. Teach me, my God and King, in all things Thee to see, and what I do in anything to do it as for Thee. 

In Jesus's name, Amen

City on a hill day2

It is obvious from the first pages of the Bible that God wants to be with these humans He created. In the earliest times, when humans lived in the Garden of Eden, God would join them regularly for walks. They would speak face to face. There was no sin or guilt or shame to mar the connection. Things were ideal. 

But then came temptation and sin, and the whole thing started to unravel. 

Still, God’s intentions never changed. He wanted a relationship with these rebellious and stiff-necked people. He wanted to actually spend time being with them. 

So God began arranging ways of meeting with people. He would show up in what are known as “theophanies”, special, divine appearances. They were rare, but Abraham, Isaac and Joseph all experienced a handful of these God-sightings. 

Then God appeared in a burning bush to call Moses to get the people out of Egyptian slavery. As they marched out, God was visibly with His people in the form of a cloud by day and a fire by night. Then He led them to a mountain where the people got to see just how terrifyingly powerful and awesome YHWH could be. 

But the people rebelled again, so God suggested they just go into the Promised Land without Him (see Exodus 33). The people, realizing that they didn’t stand a chance against their enemies without God’s presence, refused to go forward unless He went with them. 

The next part of God’s plan to spend time with people involved Moses building a box, the Ark of the Covenant, and placing it in the middle of a portable tent known as the Tabernacle. The high priest entered the presence of this box once a year, and God promised to meet the people’s representative there. 

For the next few centuries, the Ark of the Covenant symbolized this abiding presence of God, the special relationship the Israelites enjoyed with their Maker and Redeemer. 

Just prior to the reign of King Saul, however, the unthinkable happened: Enemies captured the Ark, causing the entire nation to panic. It was eventually returned, but then Saul did a foolish and unthinkable thing: For an entire generation, he kept the Ark sitting in storage. 

King David understood that God’s desire was to be in the midst of the people. His first act, after setting up the new capital city of Jerusalem, was to bring the Ark of the Covenant there, with the intent of building a permanent structure for it, a place where the people could always go and meet with God. 

David’s son Solomon built that place, and it was grand. It was glorious. It was beyond compare. 

But it didn’t last very long at all. In a short while, the people would rebel again, and in a few generations, Jerusalem was reduced to rubble and ashes, the Temple just a pile of stones. The Ark of the Covenant was lost forever. The place where people could meet with God was gone. 

And so, from this point forward, we’ll begin to hear more and more about the need for a permanent solution. Prophets will begin to take on a more prominent role in the Bible’s Story, calling the people back to their covenant promises and speaking of a time in the future when God would provide a new way of meeting with them. 

The meeting point will no longer be a place; it will be a Person. And it is through that Person that God still meets His people. Anyone and everyone who comes to Jesus will find a personal encounter with the God who creates, redeems and restores. 

Dear Father, I rejoice in the revelation that You want to be with me and me with You. The depths of Your grace are unfathomable, I cannot see how You could wish to have such intimacy with me. Yet daily I seem to forget this glorious truth and turn my heart instead to lesser gods that compete with the one thing most needful. Why do I clamour after other affections above Yours? How did I get betrothed to your enemy? I ask that you would untie me and break that knot, and take me to Yourself. Only when I am enthralled by You will I ever be free. Knowing this, I ask for the grace of holy aspiration, so that I will treasure what You declare to be important and stop giving myself to lesser things that cannot satisfy, but only entrap. By Your grace, I would break free from the bondage of the flesh, the world and the devil. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen

City on a hill day1

City on a Hill

1 KINGS 5–8

It was hard to believe, impossible for some, but it had happened. God had taken an old, barren couple and from them produced a nation of people, millions of people. He had given them the best land imaginable and placed them right in the middle of civilization so that other nations could come and see what it looked like when a people lived together in harmony under the authority of God.

One promise fulfilled, Israel had arrived.

They had encountered many missteps along the way, but those days were behind them! They had an established monarchy now. Saul had failed, but David had been a success (often in spite of himself). Now the crown had been passed to David’s son Solomon, and things really looked bright.

Solomon was the wealthiest man in the world, wealthier than most of us can imagine, sort of like Donald Trump, only with even more wives! Donald Trump, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates combined couldn’t begin to touch the amount of Solomon’s wealth (or the number of wives, for that matter). And wisdom coming out his ears!

These were bright times indeed, and the brightest spot of all was a gigantic Temple that Solomon constructed for YHWH. He spared no expense, seeking out only the finest building materials and the most skilled craftsmen. The Temple was one of the marvels of the ancient world, and dignitaries from all over came to see the magnificent structure.

It took seven years to build and more than 200,000 workers. And the celebration at the opening put everything before or since to shame. It was New Year’s Eve in Times Square, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics, the Academy Awards, the Fourth of July and everyone’s birthday all rolled into one! The presence of God was so thick, so heavy, so palpable, so tangible that the priests literally couldn’t stand it!

For the Israelites, though, the Temple was more than just a building; it was a visible reminder of God’s abiding presence. The Temple was a symbol of just how faithful their God had been, bringing them out of barrenness into fruitfulness, out of famine into abundance, out of slavery into freedom.

Unfortunately, that day was the high point.

From there on out, it was a slow and gradual decline, both for Solomon personally and for the entire nation of Israel. They would never again be this wealthy or this unified. Solomon would allow himself to be led down the slippery slope of idolatry. The people would grow more and more divided, ultimately splitting the kingdom in two. Then they would grow more alienated from each other and their God.

YHWH’s ultimate dream of building a city set on a hill would have to wait. But for one brief moment, they actually got it right.

And what a moment it was.

 

God of Abraham and David, You have planted a profound longing deep within me that no earthly attainment or solace can satisfy. This aspiration is for Your manifest presence, and it draws me to see the world as You meant it to be. The brief Camelot of Solomon’s early reign, with its splendour and its far-reaching influence on the nations around Israel, gives me a hint of what You are planning for the future that will not be ephemeral, but will go on into eternity. When I come in contact with the innermost desires of my heart, I must openly admit that this present world is not enough. You have planted one of my feet in this age and the other in the glorious age to come. Keep me in touch with this hunger and thirst for what You plan to bring, so that I will see more clearly that nothing in this world is enough to satisfy this divinely given restlessness.

In Jesus’s name, Amen

The Scarlet thread day4

There’s an old Greek proverb that says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” 

King David wanted to build a house for God, but God told him not to. David could have lost all interest in the idea after that, and we would understand why. If it was to be the responsibility of one of his sons, perhaps David should leave it alone. 

Instead, David spent the rest of his life gathering building materials for the Temple. When David’s son Solomon got around to the construction of the Temple, he had an entire warehouse full of supplies and a complete set of blueprints (see 1 Chronicles 28). It was like Solomon had a whole Home Depot at his disposal! 

David knew that he wouldn’t be the one to build the Temple. He knew it would be one of his sons. He also knew that his son would need a lot of wood, stones and fabric to complete what would already be a mammoth task. So David decided to use his remaining days making the task easier for his son, even though he knew that he would never see the building completed! 

There’s a lesson in there for us. Like David, we live in in-between times,  toiling between the first coming of Jesus and the second, enjoying the “already/not-yet-ness” of God’s kingdom. We may never live to see the day of His returning. It might happen this afternoon, or He might wait another century. We don’t know. 

But one day it will happen. One day, people will do God’s will as it is now being done in heaven. One day, the lion will lay down with the lamb, swords will be beaten into ploughshares, the blind will see, the lame will walk, the poor will be rich and the weak will become strong. One day, everything currently upside-down will be turned right side up again. 

It may be for the next generation to see the fulfilment of God’s promises. We may never see them, but the way we live our remaining days can either make it easier or more difficult for the generations that follow after us. 

So, we long for Christ’s return. We join our voices with millions of Christians from the past and pray, “Maranatha! Lord, come quickly!” But in the meantime, we wait, and we do more than wait. We gather into the storehouses the materials future generations will need to participate with God in expanding the borders of His kingdom in their time. We put forth our best efforts to leave a legacy, planting those trees whose shade we may never enjoy.

Lord, I ask for the humility and willingness to live out my life for the sake of others rather than for personal gain or reputation. You have called me to leave a legacy by building Your unbroken truth into the next generation. I want to invest all You have graciously given me in the lives of others so that I will live well and wisely, and not foolishly and selfishly. Let me view every day as if it were my last, knowing that I will either go to be with You or be alive on earth when You return. Let me live each day in light of that day and relish the opportunities You have given me today, investing my time and resources well. I want to abide in You in such a way that when You appear, I may have confidence and not shrink away from You in shame at Your coming. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen

The Scarlet thread day3

David wanted to do something nice for God, but God told him not to. David could have gone off and pouted, but he didn’t. Instead, he accepted God’s plans, even though he couldn’t really have understood them. God told David that someone else would do what David proposed doing. Rather than being jealous, though, David was joyful. 

That’s humility. 

David wasn’t concerned with who got to build it, as long as it got built. That kind of humility only comes from an understanding that the Story isn’t about David. It’s not about David’s family or David’s kingdom. The Story is about God, and David, David’s family and David’s kingdom get to play a role in a much bigger Story with a much bigger plot and an even bigger central Character. 

Embedding your story into God’s Story manages to humble you without degrading you. 

There’s a tricky balance in there. Some folks seem to think that the whole world revolves around them. They’re easy to spot, and they tend to cause the rest of us a lot of trouble when they don’t get their way. 

A lot of Christians respond by saying, “It’s not about you.” Unwittingly, though, these Christians may, in a knee-jerk sort of way, push the pendulum too far toward the other extreme. 

I prefer to say, “It’s not all about you … not entirely. You do have a part; it’s just not the leading role.” 

That’s a more accurate and biblical perspective. 

There’s a Story going on, a Story as big as the cosmos, bigger even. And the wonderful truth is that you’re invited to play a part. The Story is far too big to be rooted in one human being’s story, whether that human being is you or Oprah Winfrey or King David. It’s bigger than Abraham and Moses and Peter and Paul and Mary put together. 

All of these people find their true identities only as they discover the role they were meant to play in the ongoing, unfolding epic drama of God. The process of making this discovery is what infuses life with real meaning and real dignity, all the while keeping our egos in check. 

King David realised that there was something far bigger than his legacy at stake. The scope of God’s plan and God’s Story is huge, extending to all generations, every nation and tribe and language. Yet David also realized that God honoured him by allowing him to play a very important role. 

Your task is to find your role, understanding that only the discovery process can provide you with the proper balance of humility and dignity. 

Father, I thank You that Your grace humbles me without degrading me and elevates me without inflating me. You have accorded me great dignity and worth, but without You I am nothing and have nothing. I am grateful that You have given me the holy invitation to participate in something that extends so far beyond me that I can only revel in Your kindness, grace and compassion. I fully acknowledge that You can very well accomplish Your intentions without me, and yet You invite me to participate in what will last forever. I ask for a growing clarity about Your unique purposes for my life, so that I can live into those purposes by Your grace and become the person you created me to be, accomplishing the works you have prepared beforehand for me. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen