Psalm 34:8 commends the reader to “Taste and see that the Lord is good”. The cultural trope that faith is blind is maddening. God has provided evidence many, many times. He showed proofs to Moses, Pharaoh, and Gideon among others. Jesus offered evidence to Thomas when he doubted. And indeed history is littered with evidence for God generally and Jesus specifically. We needn’t have a “blind” faith. My faith is based not on unquestioning trust of some invisible promise! My faith is built on the incredible evidence for the Gospel of grace that Jesus died to offer to me, and to you. So I, like David, will commend any among you who is holding something back from God (whether that’s your life, your finances, your career, your time, or anything else) to give it over to Him. Trust Him. Watch Him. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Be True To Who God Made You To Be
Just a quick thought tonight. Farm boy David offers to fight the giant Goliath, who no one else in the Israelite army is willing to face. King Saul says the very idea is preposterous, but David insists that if God is with him, he will be successful. Saul relents and allows the boy to go fight the giant and offers David his armour for the battle.
David tries it on, but quickly realizes that he is simply not accustomed to Saul’s armour and so it becomes more of a hindrance than a help. Because that’s not who God made him to be. Saul’s armour wasn’t the right tool for David to use, because it was for Saul.
You can’t step into someone else’s blessing. You can’t copy someone else’s approach. You can’t be someone other than who God made you to be. I know it took me a great many years of trying to be Greg Laurie or Voddie Baucham or whoever the cool itinerate speaker du jour was before realizing that God had gifted me in different ways from those guys. And once I learned that I became a significantly better speaker and teacher.
What are you struggling to do under someone else’s power and plan? Turn that over to God and allow Him to show you how He has equipped you to do that thing is the way He has planned for YOU, not for whoever you might be looking at.
1 Samuel 17:32-19:24; Psalm 59 | 104/365
Is People-Pleasing Bad?
Saul answered Samuel, “I have sinned. I have transgressed the Lord’s command and your words. Because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them.
1 Samuel 15:24, CSB
Here we have Saul’s confession to Samuel that he had been unfaithful to God because he wanted to please people. He wanted to make those around him happy. And he did. But what did it cost him? The anointing of God, his peace of mind & mental health, his legacy, and his throne.
It can feel good to get attaboys and pats on the back, but God warns us that those who seek the approval of others have received their reward in full already. God can see your heart. God does not reward deeds, He rewards motivations.
Lord, Lord, did I not do mighty works in your name?
Go away, I never knew you.
The works are evidence of a life submitted to God. Works without submission is just philanthropy. It still accomplishes good here on earth, but it is of no eternal credit to you. Submission is hard, but it’s worth it.
1 Samuel 15:1-17:31 | 103/365
The Beginning of the End
Saul’s son Jonathan decides to “go rogue” and take on the Philistines by himself with his armour-bearer and is extremely successful. This is often credited as a great act of faith and trust in the Lord. But is it?
Earlier in the story we read that Saul becomes impatient waiting for the man who is designated by the Lord to provide sacrifices and decides to offer the sacrifices himself. When that man — Samuel — arrives he tells Saul that he has done a bad thing and shown his contempt for the Lord, and so his reign as king is over. A new man after God’s heart will become king.
Of course this doesn’t happen right away, at this point it’s more prophecy than proclamation.
But! later we see this episode with Jonathan and his armour-bearer. Jonathan declares that if the Philistines do X then God IS NOT in the plan, but if the Philistines do Y then God IS in the plan! What struck me about this was the lack of any kind of prayer. There is no record that Jonathan ever consulted God on this in any way. Yet the results make it clear that God showed up.
Is that how this works? We don’t need to submit our plans to God? We just need to have faith and dare Him to show up? I don’t think so… but then how do we square this circle?
My theory: God is showing Saul that His blessing is on Israel as a nation rather than Saul as its king. We often see God do amazing things in spite of ourselves. I think this is no different. I don’t know that God was thrilled to have Jonathan dictate to Him what He was going to do, but I think God used this as an opportunity to show Saul, who had been sitting, waiting, doing nothing that His anointing was on the people. This was God signalling the beginning of the end.
I guess what I’m saying is this: don’t start thinking of yourself as a giant of the faith because God seemed to bless what you did. Remember that every good gift comes from Him and that sometimes we succeed in spite of ourselves. Let’s do everything we can to stay humble. God can use anyone he wants to achieve his purposes. Even a donkey! And I don’t know about you, but I would way rather be Moses than Pharaoh.
1 Chronicles 9:35-39; 1 Samuel 13:1-14:52 | 102/365
Was I Wrong?
I have made much the last little while about the lack of repentance on the part of the Israelites during the period of the Judges. And here Samuel says something that seems to have made a liar out of me…
Then they cried out to the LORD and admitted, ‘We have sinned, for we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baals and the images of Ashtoreth. Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies so that we may serve you.’
1 Samuel 12:10, NET
So… time to eat crow? Maybe. I’m willing to admit my understanding of this is flawed, but I think there is a significant difference between the account in Samuel 12 and the one in Samuel 7. Let’s take another look at 1 Samuel 7.
3 Samuel told them, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths that are among you, set your hearts on the Lord, and worship only him. Then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites removed the Baals and the Ashtoreths and only worshiped the Lord. 5 Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord on your behalf.” 6 When they gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out in the Lord’s presence. They fasted that day, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah
1 Samuel 7:3–6, CSB
In the first example they ask God to deliver them SO THAT they can worship him. In the second instance they tear down the false gods and idols, worshipped the true God, fasted, and confessed THEN God rescued them.
If we require that God prove Himself in the timing and manner of our choosing a precondition to obedience, that isn’t obedience, it’s just getting our way.
1 Samuel 9:1-12:25 | 101/365
LATEST SERMON
Ruth 2:2-9a
Bold as Love
songcraft
Intro:
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Verse One:
I have always been the one to corronate the king
To put him on his throne and in charge of everything
He said he’ll always rule the court benevolently
He said he’ll overlook my flaws
Hallelujah
Verse Two:
The king’s command is just as he rules over the land
From me he asks one simple thing: that I would choose to stand
For he has heard it from the Lord that we must all defend
Never to withdrawl
Hallelujah
Verse Three:
He told us of the outside world where heathens did abound
They celebrated sin, yes, we were told so by the crown
They were doomed to damnation, should not have them around
They might corrupt us all
Hallelujah
Verse Four:
We stood and watched the heathens from the towers of the gate
We know they’ll try to break it down, one day they’ll penetrate
So we cannot sit back and watch lest it become too late
It was a rally call
Hallelujah
Verse Five:
We had to win some converts by an edict of the court
So grab your swords and muskets, boys, we’re riding with the Lord
If they refuse our gift of love, we’ll rend them with the sword
Love at the end of a gun
Hallelujah
Verse Six:
One by one they turned us down and so we ran them through
Sent them to the damnation that they were destined to
We just followed orders, did what we were asked to do
For the King has the ear of God
Hallelujah
Verse Seven:
As I watched the last of them be rolled into their graves
I stood upon this land of theirs, that for the king we’d claimed
And I began to wonder: did we need it anyway?
Was I proud of what I’d done?
Hallelujah
Verse Eight:
So I sought an audience with his majesty
That he would dain to entertain a lowly serf like me
I watched his face tighten as I sought for clarity
Then he stood up tall
Hallelujah
Verse Nine:
He straightened out his arm and threw his finger in my face
He declared disloyalty and labelled me disgrace
The rhetoric of brotherhood has fallen by the way
Execution for treason
Hallelujah
Verse Ten:
And as I stood before the Lord and maker of us all
There was such sadness in his eyes for all the pain I caused
He said his heart breaks for me, too, because I chose him not
How could I be so wrong?
Hallelujah
Verse Eleven:
Now as the darkness covers me and as I fade away
For my brothers and my sisters in the kingdom I do pray
The king knows nothing of the Lord, we’ve all been led astray
The King, he is a fraud
The state, it is his god
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Backstory
I was inspired by the religious love some people have for their political leaders while listening to The Ballad of Hollis Brown by Bob Dylan. I think when we try to marry the church and the state it more often than not leads to the state getting priority. It’s good to take your civic duties seriously and to vote for policies that align with your faith, beliefs, and worldview. But the State makes a terrible God.
Song Info
Author: Conrad MacIntyre
Feel: Folk Ballad
Tempo: 104bpm
Key: D Major
Time: 4/4
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I was contracted by Body Mods to help them out after their previous developer left them high and dry. I did extensive work to upgrade and repair their badly broken Wordpress site.
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I’ve always loved the 1990 “IT” miniseries. I taped it off TV when it originally aired and it stayed in my collection for years; until the tape wore out. Now I have a Blu-Ray copy. The director’s commentary is wonderful, by the way. So, it is announced that the new “IT” re-adaptation is coming out in September of 2017. Of course, I’m super excited to see what this will look like with modern effects and budgets. My take? It was fine. Without Stephen King’s insane, coked-out, sex-pervert novel as the source material and especially without the iconic miniseries and work of Tim Curry (and — I would argue — Jonathan Brandis), I doubt folks turn out in droves for it after the string of poor King adaptations recently (Cell, Carrie, Dark Tower, etc)....