Another Defective View

A week ago Tuesday we tackled another defective view of God that King Saul had. I was thinking more about Saul's disobedience when he didn't wait for Samuel to come, and went ahead and offered the sacrifice. Looking at his reasons, we read in 1 Samuel 13:11-12:

Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.' So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering."

Saul reminds me here of those people who almost superstitiously "seek the favor of God" but have never surrendered to the Lordship of God. You know the kind who when you offer to pray for them say "Yeah, go ahead and pray for me.... I can use any help I can get." There is one word for this kind of behavior: Unbelief!

It seems that Saul has a very small part of his life that is somewhat interested in God but the rest of his life is all about Saul. However, that just won't work, because if God is the Lord of our life, Lord implies He has influence over the total being. You can't try to squeeze the Lord boxed into a small piece of your life. I remember a Youth Speaker years ago who said regarding our lives "If Jesus is not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all." Pretty strong, but true words.

We're called to love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength. Essentially that means all of all we are. When we think that we can try to squeeze God into some parts of our life and not others, we are decieved, and we have the recipe for a confused and disjoint life.

God declared the end of Saul's kingdom, and said "The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart." I hope that we could be people "after his own heart" and let God's reign touch every part of our being.

Defective View #1 - "I know better than God..."

Last week we looked at the first defective view of God.

The first account of King Saul disobeying God is presented in 1 Samuel 13. The enemy army is pressing in hard after Saul's son Jonathan attacked a small enemy outpost. The prophet Samuel had previously told Saul to wait for him to come to present offerings to God and receive further instructions from God. This was a dire situation - this was no small army. Israel was outnumbered many times over, and only a miracle could save them from this powerful enemy.

Saul waited, but not long enough. He figured that Samuel was not coming, so he would make the offering to God by himself. This was not his position to do, however, and Saul showed the first of a long string of disobedience. Saul was saying, in effect, I know better than God what to do.

When we don't wait for God and impatiently act on our own limited knowledge, aren't we doing the same thing as Saul?

For a contrast to this, check out what a valient young man named Daniel did when he was also in a dire situation. Read the second chapter of the book of Daniel to get all the details. Daniel worked as an advisor to the king of Babylon, a powerful ancient empire. The king had been having dreams and asked his advisors to interpret the dreams. However, he felt that some of the advisiors had been less that truthful with him, so he devised a plan to see how wise his advisors really were. He decreed that the advisors would need to tell him what his dream was, and if they could, then they would be wise enough to properly interpret it.

Of course the wise men protested. "There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men." So the king ordered the execution of all his wise men.

When Daniel heard of this, he didn't bolt to get out of town. Instead he went right to the king, and asked for time to do as the king demanded. Pretty bold, eh?

This boldness was based on something that Daniel was ready to stake his life on - that his God, the only true God, was the revealer of mysteries! Let's see what happened, right from Daniel chapter 2:

"¹⁹ During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven ²⁰ and said:

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

²¹ He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

²² He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

²³ I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king."

Saul thought he knew better than God, and acted upon it in disobedience to God. Daniel knew that only God could know the great mysteries that the king demanded to know, and he and his three friends cried out to God. God came thru!

Who do we identify more with - Saul or Daniel?

Let's be willing to realize that we don't know better than God, and when things are breaking lose all around us, let's cry out to God and ask him for his wisdom on what to do rather than taking matters into our own hands. That's just what Daniel did.

A Defective View of God

Last week we studied 1 Samuel 12. It starts off with Saumel asking the people if he has ever done anything wrong for them. They say emphatically, NO! Then he makes the case that God has only done good by them. What is all this about?

When something goes wrong we tend to blame others rather than looking at ourselves to find the cause of the problem. This chapter lays out a case that Israel's sinful act of asking for a king was not their leader's fault, and not God's fault, but was due to their habitually forgetting God and following their own ways. When we do knuckleheaded things, it is a symptom of a greater disease: We hold a defective view of God. We see him as small or insignificant and find other things to try to replace his rightful position in our lives - as our king.

As we saw before that any smaller god will fall in the presence of Almighty God (i.e. Dagon) we need to awe the Lord.

Verse 14 - If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you and your king.

After God showed his power, here's how they responded: 19 And all the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king."

And here's the word for what they should do: 20 And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at some defective views of God and how to correct them. I hope you'll stay tuned!

The struggle between Faith and the Flesh...

I hope you can join us at College-n-beyond. If you haven't heard, we're digging into "The struggle between Faith and the Flesh." The book of 1 Samuel talks of two kings, David and Saul who approached life from two different angles - one from faith and the other from the world. I think it is timely to look into this now as this is a constant struggle for believers between the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the pull of the world.

We meet at Tuesday evenings at 7:30 downstairs in fellowship hall. Bring your Bible.

Hope to see you!

Proverbs 12-13 - Cautious in Friendship

The other day I was speaking with someone going away to college for the first time. We were talking about the different issues that he might face. If I could give two pieces of advice to a Christian heading to college for the first time, it would be this:

1. Find a good local church and get involved
2. Be careful who you make friends with

From seeing many people head off to college thru the years, it has been my observation that those who follow these two guidelines are the ones whose faith stays strong thru school. Those that flounder ususally skip one or both of these.

In Proverbs, I read some verses that speak to item #2. Proverbs 12:26 says A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Cautious in friendship is a great way to remember this. And then in the next chapter, verse 20 says He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

I would challenge you as the new school year begins, to keep this in mind as you meet people. Certainly be friendly, but don't open up the deep parts of your life to someone who could ultimately hurt you or lead you astray.

Proverbs 8 - Be on the lookout for Wisdom

I've been "offline" for the weekend, but as I said in the challenge - if you miss a day, just keep on going. Actually, I read this yesterday, but am posting it this morning.

Proverbs 8, verses 34-36:

Blessed is the man who listens to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway.

For whoever finds me finds life
and receives favor from the LORD.

But whoever fails to find me harms himself;
all who hate me love death."

It's confusing when we hear wisdom talking in the voice of a person, but that is just what is happening here. Did you ever really miss someone who was away for a while? That is the image that I see when I read "watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway." You know they are not yet scheduled to come home, but yet you secretly long for them to be back, and you look in familiar places hoping there will be there.

Today with all the craziness going on in the world, it seems like wisdom and common sense is taking a vacation. It seems like more and more people are failing to find wisdom and are harming themselves and those around them, just like the verse says. We need to be on the lookout for God's wisdom, and pour it into our lives daily. We need to wait expectantly to welcome it, and pray for it to return to our world. When we find wisdom, we find favor from the Lord!

I'm enjoying the August challenge and the blessing of receiving my daily dose of God's wisdom thru His Word. Keep on diggin' in! And please add your comments to the blog.

Proverbs 5 - God Ponders our ways?

Well, this chapter is mostly about avoiding the snare of adultery. I suppose most college students would say "well, I'm not married" and just tune this out. However, as we've seen with other passages that seem to be written to someone else, there is still significant application here.

I've found that people who live a certain way before marriage essentially live the same way after marriage. In other words, if you've established certain habits and ways and attitudes now that are healthy, you'll probably continue them and have a healthy marriage. Conversely, bad ways don't magically change once you walk up the aisle to the altar and marry.

I remember when I was dating (before I was married, of course!) I settled into an understanding. I would never date someone who I couldn't imagine being married to, and once in a dating relationship if it seemed that I couldn't be married to them, it was time to cut things off. In fact, the way I hinted to Ann that engagement was nearing, I said "I think if things keep going the way they are going, a ring might be in the near future!" She told me that was the best thing I could have said to her right then and there!

So, the short of it is: develop good attitudes and life choices now, and with God's grace, they will carry over into your future marriage.

Now, one verse that sticks out is verse 21: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He ponders all his paths." Did you ever think that God actually takes time to ponder our ways? That just amazes me. Here is the infinite, all-powerful, almighty God considering what I'm doing. All I can do when I think of this is to praise Him and be sure that I'm living in such a way that's obedient to his Word and pleasing to Him.

What do you think?

Proverbs 4 - Guard your heart

I really like what verse 23 says "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." I remember going on bicycle rides over to Oyster Bay on hot summer days. There were some big hills on the way and you would sure work up a sweat getting over them. Near the end of our ride, by the side of the road was a fresh water spring that was brought up to a small fountain. People would come from all over just to fill some bottles with this ice code water. Boy did it taste great and you sure felt refreshed after gulping down a few mouthfuls of it!

The verse says the our heart is the wellspring of life. A pure heart is refreshing and gives us the drive to go on further. We need to guard our heart to keep it from becoming polluted. I remember another time cycling in Connecticuit and stopping by another spring. However, this one had sulfer water coming out of it. (The smell should have been a clue that something was wrong with this water...) Well, just one small sip of this and YUCK... Spit it out and look for something to change the bad taste in my mouth. This water was terrible and repulsive. Thats what can happen if we don't guard our hearts - it can become polluted with bitterness, resentment, anger and sin. And just like that terrible water, it's not good for much.

Only Jesus can purify our hearts. We can keep watch over what we allow to enter in, but we need the full cleansing from Him to make our hearts clean.

So, ask Jesus to clean your heart, to purify us from all unrighteousness, and then watch what we allow in. A guard will stop someone from entering a bank if they look suspicious. We are told to protect our heart in the same way.

Well, that's my take on one verse in Proverbs 4. Please comment on what you got out of this chapter.

Proverbs 3

What a great promise in the first few verses. If we keep God's commands in our heart, he promises us a long life and prosperity. How long is not said, and the prosperity talked about here is not the cheesy "name-it-and-claim-it lay your hand on the TV set and send me $100" kind.

No, God's economy is so different from ours. His lasts for all eternity and is ultimately concerned with things that also last - like the souls of men and women. Wouldn't it be great to be prosperous in the true Godly way?

Well, there's so much more in this chapter - I hope you will add your comments on what you found in it!

A Proverb A Day

Last night at College-n-beyond I possed a challenge: Read a chapter of Proverbs each day thru the month of August. You see, this is one of the best ways to gain wisdom and prepare for what lies ahead in September.

Here's how to do it:

Read the chapter corresponding to the day of the month. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and August 31 days, so there you go.

If you miss a day, don't get hung up. You can skip those chapters and swing back around next month if you want. Don't try to catch up - it's better to read less and understand it, that to cram in and not get anything out of it.

Underline in your Bible and write notes and thoughts in the margin. What a great thing to come back later on and see what God spoke to you.

Lastly, begin with prayer - ask God to show you just what you need.

Feel free to post things to this Blog about what you've found. I will try to do the same as often as I can.

Summer going strong!

Things are going strong for the summer with lots going on. Here is a pic of the gang last spring.

College and Beyond

Being new to blogging, I started this to journal what is happening in our group.

We meet each week with a group of 18-25 year olds who are actively seeking God and developing that vital relationship.

Tuesday nights – 7:30 PM

Northport Baptist Church
400 Elwood Road
East Northport, NY
One flight down in Fellowship Hall


Fellowship, Food, Fun, Word and Worship!

We're currently studying the book of Colossians. See what God has in store for you!