Learning Contentment Elijah’s Way (1 Kings 17)

    Sometimes we might wonder what God’s doing? I was reading in 1 Kings 17 and realized ,Elijah is an awesome man of God. By the word of the Lord, Elijah said there would be a drought. God then told Elijah to live for a bit over at the brook Cherith east of the Jordan. God told the birds to feed him there. He’d get bread the in the morning, meat at night and he got water from the brook.

    I’d love to be a fly on the wall to see that. I’m amazed by Elijah. He just went to this deserted place living by the brook having faith in God’s provision and He commanded birds to feed him? If I was just told to go there I’d start asking God, “ God is this where you want me now?” When God places you anywhere, we just start to wonder. Maybe I’m just impatient. We live in this nation where we get everything instantly when we want it, even when God is providing, and we’re not feeling the urge to move/go anywhere. We (I) just need to be content with what we have. God’s not going to spoil us. He doesn’t want too.

       What would happen if God spoiled me? I’d probably get more lazy and be even more hesitant to go and do anything for Him. I can just be content right now. He’s given us food, water and a way to pay the rent. I can just be content with my daily bread, meat and water. I’m not dying. My family and I are fine. Everything is in His hands.

Love & Laws

    There are confusing spots in the bible. This is one of those spots. I’m not going to say that I have perfect clarity but I thought I’d just write down my thoughts on what Paul was saying. Paul has such a passionate heart for His calling that it just hurts. I wish I had the same passion. You can’t just push yourself to be like someone else, but you can just push yourself with your propeller of a personal love for the incredible Father, Savior and Lover who made the world.
     One thing I’d like to point out. God knows everything right? His clarity and the depth of His mind is sooo deep that we can’t even comprehend it so He knew that creating this world would amount into so much incredible pain. Try to think of this. An all knowing God made this world knew what pain creating the world could potentially amount too. How amazing is His incredible, amazing, mind melting gift that He has waiting for those who are trusting on Him? His benefits of His gift would need to out weight the pain.

“16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
-Ephesians 3:16-19

….That my friends is an amazing verse….

Now, to Romans 7:15-25, 8:1-2.....

vs. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

    This really is the battle that we all have with our sin nature. We all battle our own desires, what we “want” to do for ourselves. It’s actually very selfish. In the context of humanity, isn’t everything that He (God) doesn’t want us to do, going against God’s desires for our own good?

 vs. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

     His (Paul’s) body is flesh. Certain parts of the body desire certain things. Like, if your arm has an itch, doesn’t your body signal to your brain that, that part of your body to be scratched? Some things that your body has an “itching” for aren’t always beneficial. Some things our bodies instincts want aren’t always good for us. Candy isn’t something we need to eat for every meal. Our body doesn’t think like our minds. We’d be very unhealthy if that’s all we ate. That’s why it would be sin against our body.

Vs. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

   Paul is saying  that his desires battle with his mind. He even have the strength to fight anymore!

Vs 19-20 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but the sin who dwells in me.

     First, one thing should be clarified, he separates the “evil” living inside himself because those evil desires are more instinctual. If you’re hungry and wandering in the desert, what if you spot a nice piece of food? Your body wants it but your brain, your higher brain functions tell you, “no way, that has to have been sitting out there for a while, there’s no way that it’s beneficial for human consumption!” Paul is saying, he desires what is evil but he knows that fulfilling his animal instincts can kill him spiritually and eventually physically. His communication with God will also be broken. His communication with God could be severed too!

Vs. 21-23 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

     Paul knows what is right morally with his head, he knows it! However this human instinct in his body still wants different things and is fighting against what he knows to be God’s way. We all know this battle.

Vs. 24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Paul is at the breaking point, like we all come too. We need to face the truth, WE CAN NOT DO IT ALONE!

Ch. 8, vs. 1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

     When we hold fast to Christ our Lord, no one can blame us. We’re free, He’ll take the blunt of it if we let Him and cling to Him. He is our savior! He is our rescuer from this rotting world and bodies that constantly turn from our true life in Him. He is our strength. He makes us strong when we feel like laying down and giving up.  We must recognize the truth, we can’t do this, but He can. When we are weak and choose to lean on His Spirit, we are stronger than we were before.

   I love You Jesus! You are the savior of my life and eternal soul! I can boldly face the darkness because You are with me.

Don’t be fooled (1 Kings 1)

      David is old and “advanced in age.” That’s not so bad. The bad thing is when you're weak, people have a tendency to try and take advantage of you if you have something that they want. In this chapter of 1 Kings, Adonijah is described as a handsome dude who made some friends in high places. He decided to call himself the ruler. He really wasn't that much of a threat though; he only had power that was skin deep. David used his remaining power to foil Adonijah’s plan. David simply had the chief prophet anoint Solomon as king and gave orders for it to be announced. Adonijah’s followers sheepishly walked away when they heard the news (vs. 46).

         It’s fairly easy to be fooled by glamour, style, and charm. We need to learn what God does. God’s insight and wisdom is really amazing. (Of course, He’s God. You need to have the best way of doing things or how can you be God?). In 1 Samuel 16:7, God sends out his prophet Samuel to find David, His new king for Israel. God says,

     “Do not look on his appearance or on his height of his statue, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

     That verse right there has always been interesting to me. How can we look more at the heart instead of focus on the appearance of things and people? Can we really learn to see people for who they are? I see our society: it’s really really easy to look at the lights and the glamour. Have we actually taught ourselves to only see things that are obvious? Have we become so lazy to just give up digging and accept what’s right in front of us, no questions asked? If you haven’t, good for you - but it’s so so easy to just take what we see on the surface as truth.

          I believe there are ways to see the heart without God’s power to see the heart, mind and thoughts. The first thing we need to do is to learn to obtain wisdom and discernment. We can not do this all ourselves. We need to humble ourselves and ask God for those attributes. The second step is to be humble in your observation of others. For example, let’s start simple. If a person wants to move an arm or a leg or any part of the body, they must first think about the action. You know for a fact that the person you're observing thought, “hey, I’m going to move my hand!” That principle can be compared to seeing thoughts, because thoughts equal actions. Let’s apply this rudimentary principle to seeing the heart or mind of an individual. If someone steals on a regular basis, you can directly discern that the person is dishonest. If they just stole once or twice, it is possible that there is a deeper reason, like necessity. It’s “possible,” but still leans on the side of being dishonest.

        Be careful, seeking God’s wisdom and opinion should always be applied before any personal judgment can be made. This is tricky. I highly suggest this method not be taken lightly or alone. Don’t be prideful enough to just take on this process without a lot of thought and listening to the Holy Spirit. We are only human; God is the only one who can hear our thoughts and who knows our hearts. Humility is key. Humility is just the truth. On our own, we aren't that cool, but God alone deems us cool enough to die for us. 

Wow….His love is good.

Lord, You are everything for us.

-Matthew

Bloodguilt (1 Samuel 21)

     There was a famine in Israel for 3 years and David sought the face of the Lord. God answered with the fact that there was bloodguilt when Saul was king, under his own authority. Saul killed some people that he shouldn’t have, basically. David sought out the people that were sinned against, the Gibeonites. David tried to make it right. He first tried to give money, that’s really the first thought anyone would have, right? The Gibs ask blood to be repayed for blood. David obliged them, he hanged some people from Saul’s family.

    Again, God’s all about justice, He listened to the plea of the land vs. 14b. I think some very important things need to be taken from here about God’s response. Like I said, God is all about justice, He’ll dot all the i’s an cross all the t’s. He precise. Before God decided to listen to Israel’s plea for help from the famine, of which He did not cause, and chose to stay silent when the storms hit, a sin had to be handled. When something happens and God doesn’t seem to be helping, check for any sin in your life or unforgiveness that you might be holding against someone. Read Matthew 6:14-15,

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    Notice the key here in vs. 15. “If you do not forgive others…neither will God forgive you of your sins…” God can’t even be close to us! When we’re saved, we’re forgiven and God lives in our hearts but how can we even consider ourselves Christians if God can’t even forgive us? We’re really more like the prodigal son though. Still sons/daughters, just fallen away sons/ daughters. It goes right back to Israel because of Saul’s sins in a real life example, God couldn’t/wouldn’t even  help His own children when they called for help unless the past sins were dealt with.

      If you are having difficulty with hearing God or having Him help you, go back and resolve sin. God cannot have anything to do with sin. We need to ask forgiveness and forgive. Forgiveness is as if it never happened. God Himself paid the bloodguilt. Sin causes death.

      I love You Lord my Father. I can’t say that enough. You paid the price of death so that I can have life.

-Matthew

Breaking down (Samuel 19)

       

God gives and He takes away. God took David’s kingdom away and gave it to David’s son. Well, I think God just allowed David’s sin to have the actions it had for a little bit. However, His son Absolom died in battle. Israel had a little scap which killed Absolom, so Israel just got a little confused. They stuck with the thought that they already anointed a different king they just didn’t expect they’re new king to die so fast. It seemed like God was just punishing David for a bit (by dropping His guard over David). He (God) still wanted David to be king but just for bit, He’d allow chaos to ensue without his hands over David, guiding him. David caused the sin that he did out of pride. Seriously, over and over and over one core point is being proven to me. Pride will kill you. The best thing to do is to recognize, you don’t have everything in control. If a storm in your life hits, you can’t build a very strong fortress of protection. YOU can’t do it. The best thing to do is to remember the truth and reality of life…You are weak….Our Lord, our God Yahweh, and our Father is powerful for us. He promised He will be there for us. The one thing we must do is rely on Him and hold on to His commandments. This isn’t a bargaining deal. It’s what you need to do. God is all for freedom. We must “choose” to go with Him or not. In going with Him we’re choosing to follow His commandments. The two prerequisites go hand in hand. It’s kind of like when you were a young adult old enough to be out of the house. If you want to continue to live with your parents, don’t you need to follow the rules of the house? The rules of the home are there to create harmony with each other. It’s the exact same with the commandments / rules of God. “Sin’ is defined as “missing the mark, “ it’s destruction. God set this universe up with natural physical laws. When we violate those laws it’s breaking the system down. The system won’t function the way it’s supposed to function if you don’t follow the rules for it. You can’t fill your car with vinegar, when it was made to run on gasoline, and hope it runs properly.

      God cares for us. He wants the way He created everything to work right….right down to even us! He doesn’t want it to break down for us. We trust Him when we follow His words. When we trust Him, we are loving Him. That’s why Jesus said, “If you love me, you’ll follow my commands”- John 14:15. Keeping His commandment isn’t for His good. It’s for our good! It’s like when we first trusted our parents when they said, “don’t play in the street.” We didn’t know then but we know now that they didn’t want us to get run over, it’s for our good! If we love our parents, we do what they say.

    Father You are so good! You hold us. Like David, You let Him eat the dish he made out of his own free choice. You don’t just magically fix our mistakes and let us be illegitimate sons/daughters when we disobey Your commands. You are there to protect us. You guide us Lord. Thank You Jesus.

When Everything is in Your Hands….(2 Samuel 11)

"In the spring of the year, the time that kings go out to battle..."That right there, is the key phrase. It could read, " In the spring when the weather is good in the year. When rules usually head out to defend their country, David, the ruler of Israel took a break and stayed home." It's really easy to get complacent when you’re tired, everything is in your hands, and you get an opportunity to take a break. I think in my life when I sin the most is when I’m tired and everything in my hands. This life is tough sometimes, it’s very very simple to pity yourself. It’s simple, to give in to sin. Sin always seems to be pounding at the door, it can be subdued but it always seems be more loud when your weak. There is a good reason why Jesus says, “come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”- Matthew 11:28-29

    I love this verse quite a lot guys. When we’re stressed and life isn’t making sense (even the goldfish died). He is there for us. Don’t wait until you can feel Him give you comfort, just believe and have “faith” in His promise that He is holding you. Genesis 15:6 says that God called Abraham because He believed God, not in God, that is a given, believed in God’s words. That right there is salvation, when you believe who you believe your friend? If you don’t, you two probably aren’t even friends or even good friends if you don’t even believe them. It takes two  to make a relationship. If your friend already you a lot why don’t you believe them?

     Let’s bring this back to reality, God promised a lot. He didn’t just promise a lot, He’s a friend who gave a lot. So He has a good follow through history. He first gave us this beautiful world. He gave us the capability to see it, smell it, and even taste it. Then He historically came to the earth and died for us because it’s impossible to live perfectly. You can even examine history and see for yourself that God Himself stepped out of heaven and became a man to die for us. I personally suggest a reading of Josh McDowell’s “Evidence That Demands a Verdict.” It’s very good read. It’s not easy though, it’s a heavy examination of the evidence he found. Josh McDowell was once an atheist. That speaks volumes.

      Back to it, God gave us a rather large gift that we can see, taste, and touch but with the good comes the bad. He gave us choice to do what we want. That’s why there is good along with bad. True freewill will give us a choice. He (God) wanted true freewill. The possibility that there is good is a signature of design. Good and bad are like light and dark, cold and hot. Dark isn’t something, it’s the absence of something. Bad (definition: deficient, imperfect, defective, amateurish, neglectent) isn’t a “thing,” it’s the absence of good. Negligent is neglected (if you get my meaning of the word), it means someone didn’t pay attention to prepare it, or maintain it. Bad isn’t necessarily evil yet. Evil is deliberately trying NOT to do it the way that God designed. It means, you know in your head, the correct direction to go and deliberately try to go a different direction.

      If we don’t watch ourselves, we could move from bad to evil for our own selfish purposes. Thank God He gave us a way out.  Bad is by definition (or at least partially) “defective.” When we do bad or “sin” against Him (sin: “missing the mark”), our Father (cause our parents get hurt when their kids do wrong), we hurt ourselves too. Yes, ourselves! It’s like when your parents told you as a child not to play in the street. Why? We could get run over or injured.

Love, like no other (2 Samuel 7:18-29)

You are so great my Lord and my God! To be truthful, I am nothing but You my Father love me! Everything David says here is right. We are like nothing, David even says, “who am I O’ Lord God, and what is my house…? All of these things are so small in Your eyes! Who are we Lord, that You love us so much? Nothing we do is worth anything but You gave us something with eternal worth. That thing is so rare and different in the universe. You gave us the choice to love. Nothing other than God is this life, is worth it. Nothing we create , without freewill, can choose to love. That’s why the God of everything, who can have everything put value on us. Nothing is like this gift in our minds are hearts.