Week 18 Devotions

April 30 - - It is amazing the things some people become upset about. David was forced to leave Jerusalem because of the uprising of his son, Absalom. After Absalom had been defeated and David is returning to Jerusalem, a dispute broke out between the men of Israel and the men of Judah. Apparently, the men of Judah were more involved in David’s return to Jerusalem than were the men in the other ten tribes (the Levites were priests and would have been excluded from this dispute). “There are ten tribes in Israel, so we have ten times as much right to the king as you do. Why did you treat us with such contempt? Remember, we were the first to speak of bringing him (David) back to be our king” (II Samuel 19:43). Sounds almost like little children. “Mommy, tell Johnny to give me back my toy!” We see other similar stories in scripture. Jephthah was an outcast. Because his mother was a prostitute, his half-brothers chased him from their land. But, when the Ammonites began to war against Israel, the leaders of Gilead sent for Jephthah, requesting his help (Judges 11:4-6). After Jephthah successfully led an army composed of men from the tribes of Gilead and Manasseh and defeated the Ammonites, the tribe of Ephraim voiced their anger. They felt they had been slighted because they were not asked to also fight against the Ammonites (12:1). In truth, they really despised the tribe of Gilead, and Jephthah ended up having to defeat them in battle also. Why is it that people fight over some of the most petty of things? James says it’s because of “the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them” (4:1&2). Consequently, even brothers and sisters will fight with one another, friends will fight with one another, and Christians will fight with one another over what one wants but doesn’t have. The people of God should be smarter than that. As Solomon said, “there is a time for war and there is a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:8). May God grant us the wisdom to know the difference between the two. May 3 - - Writing to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul said, “There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church” (I Corinthians 12:5-7). He also reminds them in the same letter: “God is not a God of disorder but of peace....” (14:33). God has always been a God of order, a God who has a plan and a place for each and everyone of us (Psalm 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:5; 29:11-14). We see that in the Old Testament as God had specific functions for those who served Him as priests. The descendants of Aaron were given the responsibility of performing the sacrifices in the Tabernacle and the Temple, praying, and speaking on God’s behalf (I Chronicles 23:13). The descendants of Levi were to take care of the physical property of the Tabernacle and the Temple. Each was given their specific assignment. Others were to serve as judges. Some were to praise the Lord with musical instruments, while others were to serve as gatekeepers (I Chronicles 23:2-6, 27-32). They were basically assigned the responsibility of assisting the descendants of Aaron. Even the times they were to serve, were designated by the Lord. God doesn’t change. He is as He has always been, and He will always be as He now is (Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17). We, too, have been called by God to be priests (I Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6). As such, we have also been assigned duties within God’s kingdom work, His church. God has a plan for all of our lives. He empowers each of us with supernatural gifts and then He places opportunities before us so that we can fulfill His plans. Our greatest satisfaction in life will come not when we do what we want, but when we do what God has gifted and assigned us to do. As Jesus said, “my nourishment in life, that which brings me the greatest pleasure is doing the will of God, who sent me. I delight in finishing His work” (John 4:34; 17:4). Can the same be said of us?

Week 17 Devotions

April 23 - - We may not always understand why God tells us to do the things He does (Isaiah 55:8&9 ), but the God who knows all and sees all can be trusted in all things He has commanded us to do. God had given very specific instructions for moving the Ark of the Covenant (Numbers 4: 8,15). The Levite priests were to insert the poles made for the Ark (Exodus 37:1-5) and carry it from one place to the next without ever touching the Ark itself. Whether David was unaware of those instructions, or he knew them and carelessly ignored them, the first time he attempted to move the Ark of the Covenant, resulted in disaster. Instead of carrying the Ark by the poles made for that purpose, and instead of the Levite priests carrying the Ark, David and all the people of Israel participated in moving the Ark. Furthermore, they placed it on a cart and when the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, a man named Uzzah reached up to keep the Ark from falling to the ground and the Lord struck him dead for touching the Ark (I Chronicles 13:1-11; II Sam. 6:1-11). Maybe that seems harsh to us. It certainly did to David. But, God has His reasons in all He does and we must trust Him even when we don’t understand (Isaiah 55:8-11). When David eventually chose again to move the Ark to Jerusalem, he did so this time in the way that God had prescribed (I Chron.15:11-28; II Sam.6:12b-15), and all Israel rejoiced. There was music. There was celebration the likes had not been seen in a long time. Even the great King David joined in the festivities. But, there are always those rigid, stuffy, and unhappy people who think that misery is a spiritual gift. Because it is hard for them to be happy, they don’t think others should be either. One of David’s wives, Michal, who was the daughter of Saul, found it disgustful that David should be dancing, celebrating, and rejoicing with the people in the way that he was. Perhaps, it was because David was so transparent and that he acted like one of the people that they loved him so much. It was more important to David that he please God than it was for him to please his wife and in the end she was punished for her failure to worship God ((II Sam.6:23). As Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the last time, the people celebrated and worshipped him. But, the religious leaders were indignant and disgusted with the whole thing. In fact, they told Jesus that he should rebuke his followers for behaving in the manner they were. Instead, Jesus rebuked the religious leaders for remaining silent. “If they kept quiet, the stones along the roads would burst into cheers” (Luke 19:40). When it comes to worship of the Lord, are you more like David or more like the Pharisees? April 26 - - It is amazing how all of us can be so right on in many areas of our walk with the Lord and, at the same time, be so dead wrong in other areas. You may know a Christian from church who is the epitomy of unselfishness and kindness at church, but who cusses like a sailor at work. Or, another Christian may have very strong opinions upon the value of human life and lobby to pro-tect the lives of unborn babies, but the same person thinks nothing of living immorally by sleep-ing with many partners. David is described in scripture as, “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22; I Samuel 13:14). Indeed, while Saul would charge ahead into battle before consulting the Lord (I Samuel 13:7-14), David constantly sought God’s will before going to battle (II Samuel 5:17-25; I Chron. 14:8-16). God blessed David and God caused all the nations to fear David (I Chron.14:17). “David became more and more powerful, (precisely) because the Lord God Almighty was with him” (II Sam.5:10; I Chron.11:9). But, even David had his weaknesses and his faults. He must have known that having sexual relations with Bathsheba when she was married to Uriah, was wrong. Otherwise, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant and that David was the father, David wouldn’t have tried so diligently to cover up his sin (II Samuel 11:2-27). But, like so many of us, David probably rationalized that his sin wasn’t as bad as other people’s sins. He was obviously oblivious to the guilt that was his by arranging for Uriah to be killed in battle. Therefore, when Nathan, the prophet, confronted David with a sad story about a master taking his servant’s only lamb to feed the master’s guests, David was infuriated. His sense of justice took hold of him and he said to Nathan, “as surely as the Lord lives, any man who would do such a thing deserves to die” (II Sam.12:5). When Nathan pointed out to David that was what he had done, David was deeply convicted. It was at that time David wrote Psalm 51 to describe how terrible he felt. “The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Our outward actions mean nothing unless they are truly motivated by our heart. If we are only going though motions because we think that’s what God wants, we are wasting our time. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). David was crushed when confronted with his sin and God forgave David for it (II Sam.12:13), but there were still consequences to his actions, as there always are (II Sam.12:15-23). While God will definitely forgive those who repent of their sins, as He demonstrated in David’s situation, it would be far better for ourselves and others around us, to consistently know God’s will and consistently do God’s will in every area of our lives. So, make every effort to know and do God’s will (Matthew 7:24-27).

Week 16 Devotions

April 16 - - When David became convinced that Saul was going to kill him, he fled for his life. At first, he traveled to Ramah to live with his spiritual mentor, Samuel (I Samuel 19:18-24). When Saul sent soldiers to Ramah, David fled from there and eventually found refuge in the land of the Philistines. In order to convince the Philistines in Gath that he was no threat to them, David acted like a madman (I Sam.21:10-15). David later left Gath and made his temporary home in the cave at Adullam (I Sam.22:1). By this time, David had been on the run from Saul for a few years. David regularly pleaded with God to save him (Psalm 142; 57), and David never lost faith in God’s protection. In fact, that which distinguished David from Saul was David’s constant desire to know what God’s will was. Saul got in trouble because he couldn’t wait upon the Lord (I Sam.13:7b-14; 15:10-25). On the other hand, David leaned heavily on the Lord for God’s instructions (I Sam.23:1-4,6,9-12). God’s guiding hand of protection was upon David because David sought the Lord. David genuinely wanted to know God’s heart and God’s will for David’s life (Acts 13:22; I Sam. 13:14). How much do we want to know God’s will for our lives? When we pray and seek God’s will, are we patient while waiting for Him to show us the way, or do we go ahead and do what we really want to do anyway? It takes faith to “wait upon the Lord”, but those who do so, have been promised a supernatural strength as they depend upon God’s supernatural wisdom (Isaiah 40:31). Saul lost the kingdom because he couldn’t wait upon the Lord. David gained the kingdom because he did wait upon the Lord. Would you prefer to go through life basing your decisions upon your own limited and finite knowledge or basing your decisions upon God’s omniscience? Are you content with the temporary rewards that can be achieved through your own strength or would you prefer the eternal rewards gained from God’s eternal riches? The choice is ours. So, are the consequences. April 19 - - David was at one time, a fugitive, fleeing from Saul in order to save his own life. In the meantime, he had also attracted quite a following to himself. 600 men now looked to David as their leader and many of them had wives and children with them. They were living in the village of Ziklag and one day they had gone out to raid other villages. When they returned to Ziklag, they discovered the village was burned to the ground and their wives and children were gone (I Samuel 30:1&2). The Bible says that David and his men “wept until they could weep no more.” They cried until they had no tears left to cry. When they were finished expressing their sorrow, many of David’s men became angry with him. Even though David had not invited them to join him, but simply allowed them to, many were so angry about losing their wives and children, they began to talk about stoning David. It shouldn’t surprise us how quickly the tide of public opinion can turn against us, but it does. Unlike Saul, David had a close relationship with God. Instead of turning to mediums, David turned to God. The Bible says that “David found strength in the Lord his God” (I Sam.30:6). When we are down, when we are troubled, when we feel like the tide of opinion has turned against us, when we are not sure what to do, where do we go for help? Who do we turn to? David had asked in the Psalms, “I frequently look to the mountains - - but does my help come from there? No, my help comes from the Lord who made the mountains, the heavens, the earth, and everything else in the Universe” (Psalm 121:1&2). David sought comfort in the Lord and David sought direction from the Lord. And God honored David’s desire. “Trust in the Lord and do good, then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you” (Psalm 37:3-5). David was speaking from experience. The Lord had never let David down. David and his men were told by God to pursue the enemy and they fully recovered all their wives and children. And because David treated those who followed him with dignity, equality, and respect (I Samuel 30:18-31), the Bible says, “day after day more men joined David until he had a great army, like the army of God” (I Chronicles 12:22).

Week 15 Devotions

April 9 - - “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.....A time to be quiet and a time to speak up” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,7). While many of us speak to the Lord when we pray and many do it quite often, how many of us take the time to be quiet and listen to the Lord? God specifically commands us to, “be silent, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). James reminds us to, “be quick to listen, slow to speak” (James 1:19). Most of us are much quicker at speaking to God than we are listening to God. Good listeners are not people who have inherited a chromosome or a gene that others of us haven’t. They are people who have practiced that skill, for it is in practicing that we become good at anything. They are people who have learned not to be afraid of the silence, but to welcome it and even treasure it. For, they know that it is in the silence, we most often hear God (see also I Kings 19:9-18). There was a time in Israel’s history when the Bible says, “in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon” (I Samuel 3:1). Why? Because few people sought the Lord’s will and few people listened when God did speak. Take Eli, for example. He is a priest of God, a spokesman for the Lord, but the Lord warned him on more than one occasion that his sons were totally disobedient to the Lord and Eli did little about it. His few words of warning to his boys were not heeded by his boys because there was no action from their father to back up those words. And when a nation’s spiritual leaders are not listening to the Lord, it is a good bet the people are not listening either. In fact, the Bible paints a rather bleak picture of the spiritual condition of Israel when it says, “The lamp of God had not yet gone out” (I Samuel 3:3). One gets the feeling from those words that even though it hadn’t gone out yet, it was close to doing so. God tried to speak to Samuel three times and Samuel mistook the voice he was hearing to be that of Eli, the priest. Finally, Eli gives the young boy great advice. “The next time you hear that voice, you say, ‘Yes, Lord, your servant is listening.’” (I Samuel 3:9). Samuel did hear the voice again. He did what Eli told him to. And, the Lord gave Samuel an important message. Maybe all of us need to spend more time simply listening for the Lord and giving him our full attention by asking him to, “speak, for your servant is listening.” April 12 - - When large crowds were following Jesus, he encouraged them to first count the cost before deciding whether to be his disciple. He used as an example the following illustration: “What king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and dis-cussing whether his army of ten thousand is strong enough to defeat the twenty thousand soldiers who are marching against him?” (Luke 14:31). In other words, it is always a good idea to take stock in what we are doing before we do it. Unfortunately, some people will spend forever analyzing their situation and never act or make a decision to do something. Other people will never do something unless they’ve calculated exactly how it can be accomplished utilizing their own strength, intelligence, and resources. Still others count the cost, but they do so with God figured in the equation. When the men of Israel assembled to do battle against the Philistines and saw how many Philistine soldiers there were, many of the Israelites went AWOL. King Saul’s son, Jonathan, was tired of sitting around and doing nothing. He said to his armor bearer, “let’s see what’s going on in the Phili-stine camp” (I Samuel 14:1). Jonathan reminds his armor bearer, “the Lord can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!” (I Sam.14:6). And then like Gideon who asked God for a sign before going into battle (Judges 6:36-40), Jonathan throws a fleece before the Lord. “We’ll cross over and let the enemy see us. If they say to us, ‘Stay where you are or we’ll kill you’, then we will stop and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come on up and fight’, then we will go up. That will be the Lord’s sign that He will help us defeat them” (I Sam.14:8-10). When the Philistines saw the two, they said, “Look, the Hebrews are crawling out of their holes! Come on up here and we’ll teach you a lesson!” (vss.11&12) That’s all the encouragement Jonathan needed to do battle because he said, “the Lord will help us defeat them!” And the Lord did. The two of them killed about twenty Philistine soldiers. When word spread what had happened, the rest of the Philistine army went into panic and were ultimately defeated. It was Jonathan’s faith, and that of his armor bearer, which inspired the entire Israelite army. Jesus’ words caution us not to be foolish in what we do, by first counting the cost and assessing our situation before we act. But, let us never forget the God factor because great faith always inspires other people to action also. Why don’t you consider being someone who walks by faith and in doing so, inspiring others to do the same?

Week 14 Devotions

April 2 - - Great crowds were following Jesus. He made sure they knew that he was not simply wanting thousands of people following him so much as he wanted committed disciples who were totally sold out to him (Luke 14:25-27). He then said, “don’t begin until you count the cost. What king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and discussing whether his army of ten thousand is strong enough to defeat the twenty thousand soldiers who are marching against him......So no one can become my disciple without giving up everything for me” (14:28,31,33). Count the cost before making a decision. Wise advice. So, it is that God sends an army of 300 Israelites (Judges 7:2-8) against a Midianite army numbering 135,000 soldiers (8:10). Now, if we were counting the cost as Jesus said we should, how many of us would be willing to fight against those odds? Those are nearly impossible odds and it would be stupid to go into battle. When the ten spies told the Israelites that the people of Canaan were like mighty giants, their advice to the Israelites was to retreat. The odds were not in favor of the Israelites. But, Joshua and Caleb factored the One on their side who tipped the scales in their favor whatever the size of the other army. “If the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us safely into that land and give it to us......Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” (Numbers 14:8&9). Remember, this is the same God who scattered the entire Aramean army without any help from the Israelites (II Kings 7). Whatever the odds may be against you, never forget the God factor. Not only does His presence and His power tip the odds in our favor, but in truth, His presence and His power makes us the overwhelming favorite, regardless of the human odds against us. “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?.......Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?......No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:31b, 35b, 37). No matter what the Devil or life throws your way, you are more than a conqueror because of the power and strength of Jesus Christ. Go claim your destiny. April 5 - - As Jesus was sending his disciples out to get a little experience, using the teachings and tools he had given them, he reminded them, “I am sending you out among wolves. Be as wary as snakes and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16; see also Luke 10:3). The world we live in is selfish and cruel. There are many who think nothing of taking advantage of, or even stealing from, the most helpless in our society. Jesus warned his disciples ahead of time to watch out for just such people. While we are not to pay back evil for evil (Romans 12:17), we need to be as wise as those we are dealing with or they will surely take advantage of us. One wonders what Samson was thinking of when he succumbed to Delilah’s pleas to tell her the secret of his strength. Yes, he was in love. Yes, he probably trusted her because, “love believes all things” (I Corinthians 13:7). And yes, the Bible does say, “day after day she nagged him until he couldn’t stand it any longer” (Judges 16:16). But, at some point wouldn’t Samson be a little suspicious as to why she kept asking the same question? Our wisdom cannot come from ourselves. It must come from God (James 1:5; I Kings 3:5-15; 4:29-34), for even in our most intelligent moments, the scope of our knowledge is insignifi-cant compared to God’s (I Corinthians 1:20-24). We need to call upon God to lead and guide us. When we depend upon our own knowledge, we get in trouble. Consider the Israelites after they entered the Promised Land. God gave them victory over their enemies and one day the Gibeonites devised a deceitful plan to spare their lives. They would send a delegation to Joshua, looking like they had traveled from a very long distance. The delegation would say they had been sent by their people far away to make peace with the Israelites because they had heard of the reputation and the power of the Israelites, even in their homeland (Joshua 9:7-13). The Israelites made a treaty with the Gibeonites, only to learn that the Gibeonites actually lived in the Promised Land. The reason given for why the Israelites were deceived is very revealing; “the Israelite leaders examined their bread, but they did not consult the Lord” (vs.14). We all get in trouble when we do not consult the Lord, for whatever reason; whether we think we are too busy, whether we don’t want to bother Him with something so trivial, or whether we just don’t think we need His wisdom. Maybe, we’re a lot more like Samson than we think. Maybe, we’re more comfortable with our capabilities and our knowledge than we should be. A truly wise person, is one who depends upon the wisdom of God, and not themselves. How wise are you?