Even in This

I confess, as embarrassing as it may be, that there have been difficulties in my life that drove me away from God. My prayer life went silent like a dropped cellphone call. The dust collected on the cover of my Bible between Sundays as I would not open it. I did not speak of God unless necessary.

What had happened in my life is what happens to others. My difficulties turned me against God. I had concluded that God was responsible for my difficulty and I didn't want anything to do with Him anymore. Even more tragic, I concluded that I didn't deserve the difficulties that God had thrust upon me. I let my hardships turn me against the only person who could comfort, strengthen, encourage, and see me through whatever situations I faced.

There were definitely times that the hardships and struggles were not of my own doing. Either because of sin in general that has broken the world or the specific sin of an individual in my life, I faced hard times as a result. This, however, was not always the case. 

My immaturity didn't always allow me to see that some of the hard times came as a result or consequence of my own doing. I blamed God for what I had brought upon myself. I expected God to allow me to do what I desired without any issue, even if it ran contrary to His will and purpose.  

Regardless of when and how the hard times came, I found myself responding to God as if He had done something wrong. No matter if it was a consequence of my own disobedience or the difficulties that affected me from another person's struggles and life, I usually responded as though I thought the Christian life should not be riddled with such things. And tragically my worship of the Creator God who had rescued me out of the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light just went cold.  Even now, there must be a constant guard against allowing the circumstances of life to create such a travesty.

As I continue reading through the life and reign of David, king of Israel, I read of David's actions after confronted about his adultery with Bathsheeba. He did repent and seek God's grace and mercy. But then God told David that a consequence for his act of disobedience was that the child born through this act of adultery would not live. Instead of running from God, David ran to God. He fasted and prayed. He laid on the ground in sackcloth through the nights and he would eat nothing.

God did strike the child with illness and he died.  When David asked the attendants told David the baby had died, he got up off the ground, washed and changed his clothes. It is hat he did next that convicted me. 

He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. 

This is not how I often respond when things don't go as I planned or when I believe or know God to have done contrary to what I wanted or asked. But it is a great challenge to me that in whatever I face I would worship Christ my King because He is worthy.  

The circumstances of our lives do not change the worth of God. When the difficulties of my life keep me from worshipping God, it isn't that God has changed. He remains the same forever. There is no way to improve upon perfection and God is perfect.

Is there anything keeping you from worshipping God today?

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Adore God for who He is, what He does, and the character with which He does it.

2.  Celebrate that God never changes though everything else may change.

3.  Repent of any known sin. Ask God to reveal any hidden sin.

4.  Acknowledge any sin or circumstance that has hindered your worship of God.

5.  Spend time worshipping Him.

Powerful Reminders

Pastor and author Voddie Bauchum once made the statement that if the godliest man in the Bible (David), the strongest man in the Bible (Samson), and the wisest man in the Bible (Solomon) all committed a moral failure in their lives, then who am I to think I am above it.

As I continue reading this year through The Story, I have come to passages about David, Israel's king, who succeeded Saul. I know this story perhaps well. But as God's word is so powerful to do in our lives, the Scripture penetrated in a new and deep fashion.

Here are some of the powerful things I took away from this passage:

Sin is always crouching at the door. While the men were off at war, David remained at home. Arising from his bed, he walked out onto his balcony to find a beautiful woman bathing on a nearby rooftop. He didn't plan for this moment. He did not seek out this temptation. But he was not guarded against it either. Sin is always crouching at the door of the man or woman who does not arm him or herself for battle. Our battle with our sinful flesh is real and sin is always at the door waiting to pounce upon us.

Internal foes can do what external ones never could.  David took down the giant Goliath. He eluded King Saul who sought to take his life. David killed thousands upon thousands of the Philistines who mocked God and His people. He was victorious in battle and Israel flourished as a result. But the internal foe did what the external foe never could.  Lust did what warriors could not. David was conquered from within and not from without.

One step of rebellion can turn into a country mile. David looked upon her in lust and sent for her to be brought to him. He enjoyed the pleasure of sexual intimacy with another man's wife. But that one time act, heinous enough as is, wouldn't be the end of it. Bathsheeba became pregnant and David plotted to make Uriah, her husband, believe it was his baby. That didn't work, so he tried again by making Uriah drunk. That didn't work either. So David sent Uriah back to battle carrying his own death decree. Uriah was placed in the heat of the battle and then the commander pulled back leaving Uriah to be struck down and killed. Adultery is not better than murder. Both nailed Christ to the cross. Yet we see a progression from lust to adultery to manipulation to murder. It all began with one step of disobedience beyond the boundaries of God's perfect will for our lives.

Relationships suffer because of disobedience. Whenever we sin, as David did, relationships are destroyed. I don't know how the relationship with David and Bathsheeba was but I can imagine there was a great deal of trust issues, hurt, and healing that was needed. But what I do know is that this moment destroyed David's relationship with Uriah. Uriah had been one of David's mighty men who had fought for, protected, and placed his life on the line for David. Whereas Nathan and David had what appears to be a great relationship beforehand is now strained as Nathan has to confront David about his sin. David would encounter difficulty with his own son as a result of this. Some relationships are destroyed because of disobedience and never get repaired. However, all relationships suffer as a result of disobedience.

Hope exists through repentance. David's predecessor had always made excuses for his sin and wayward ways. When Nathan confronted, David repented. Hope came through repentance. In fact, that is still our hope today. When we repent of sin and surrender to Jesus Christ, we have the eternal hope of salvation in a relationship with God forever. God will work to restore in us what has been broken when we repent. David's prayer in Psalm 51 expresses both his repentance, his hope, and the request for God to restore the joy of salvation.

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Celebrate that God's armor (Ephesians 6) can protect us against our enemy and the sin that ensnares us.
2.  Pray for God to make us aware and alert to the sin and danger crouching at the door.
3.  Ask God to reveal error in your life today because of a step of disobedience in the past.
4.  Pray for the relationships that have suffered because of your sin or the sin of another. Do all you can to see those restored.
5.  Repent of any sin in your life. Celebrate the hope of Christ as a result. 

Reprehensible

We say individuals are sinners, but we expect them to be perfect. We find it easier to point out another person's flaws than to praise another person's faith and obedience.

While studying I came cross this quote by John Calvin: "In every saint there is always to be found something reprehensible. Nevertheless although faith may be imperfect and incomplete it does not cease to be approved by God."

My nature and bent is to see the reprehensible in another person, even another follower of Jesus, and cast them away. We focus so much on their shortcomings we fail to praise the work of God in them.

Among those who have fallen prey to the enticement of sin and disobedience have been David and Samson. David committed adultery with a woman and then had her husband killed to conceal the child conceived in sin. Samson ignored the commands of God, rebelled against the authority of his parents, and married a woman who did not worship and honor God.  

As John Calvin notes, these things are reprehensible. Yet though their faith be imperfect and incomplete, their faith does not cease to be approved by God. In Hebrews 11, these two men are commended not for their sin or reprehensible acts, but for their faith.

The weak need compassion. The doubters need grace. When in another person's life we see the reprehensible, the question is how would the gospel say we are to respond. 

Jesus has properly warned us all that before we get so worked up about the speck in the eye of another person, may we first see that reprehensible log sticking out of our own eye. When that other person is a follower of Jesus, may we not throw away a brother or sister by whose faith in Christ has made them approved to God.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God for mercy and grace that has forgiven our reprehensible acts.

2.  Pray for grace and mercy and strength to follow God in displaying and declaring the good news.

3.  Repent of your own reprehensible acts and pray for others struggling with their own.

Secrets

As a kid I loved hearing stories of the Old Testament guys who accomplished unimaginable feats.  David killed a lion and bear with his bare hands. But it was Samson who had muscles bulging from his eyelids. He would have been the Olympic Gold Medalist in just about every competition of strength. And as is the case with most guys like this, the women swooned or drooled over him. He is the kind of man most boys and men envy and aspire to be like.

A closer inspection of Samson's life reveals significant flaws, however. He had an appetite for women of rival nations that threatened the allegiance of his own heart to God. He lacked respect and submission to the authority of his parents, demanding they go get a wife for him from among them. He projects an "above-the-law" lifestyle by disregarding the commands of God.

Most significant, though, was that Samson appears to have lived a life of secrecy. From before his conception, Samson's father and mother were instructed by God to set him apart according to a vow called the Nazarite vow. He was never to cut his hair. No strong drink or wine was he to taste. He was also never to touch a corpse, whether animal or human.

Samson traveled to a place called Timnah and while on the way he killed a lion with his bare hands. Some time later as he passed that way, he noticed bees had created a hive in the carcass and he went over and scooped out some honey to eat for himself. Samson broke the vow he was to live by. But instead of confessing the secret action, he hid it from others, including his father and mother.

Scripture says he says his parents again that he gave them some of the honey for them to eat as well. "But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass."  

The secret lives that so many are living today are destroying homes, families, communities, churches, and nations. The lie is that secret sin only harms the one who commits and knows it. That is not true. When my relationship with God is not right, my relationship with others cannot be right. God may still work through me and around me, but he is not able to fully do what He desires to do and He is certainly not pleased with a life of ungodliness, especially that we seek to cover.

The Bible teaches that a man or woman who seeks to cover his or her sin will not prosper. Jesus' followers should know this better than the world. Judas commit an atrocious act against the Son of God and tried to hide it. In the end, he lost the money he sought and forfeited the eternal life he could have gained. While others may not have known of his sin, God always did. Jesus exposed him at the Last Supper table.

God already knows what secrets you and I are trying to keep. In fact, the secrets we keep of how we have lived and failed, often create great anxiety and stress for us. We constantly ask the question, "What if someone finds out?" Then we are consumed with what individuals will say or how they will respond. So instead of walking out of the dark place of brokenness, confessing our faults to one another    and Christ to receive healing, we sink further into the dark dungeon. There we stay with windows boarded up and dreading any ray of light that may pierce into the darkness.

Don't you want to be free from your past? Don't you want to let go what keeps you in fear and makes your heart anxious? Don't you want to be known, not for what you pretend to be, but for who you are as a broken vessel God is restoring by the gospel? Don't you want the community of God's people to be able to come alongside of you to encourage and walk with you? What secret are you keeping? 

David kept secret his affair with Bathsheba for about a year. When God sent Nathan to confront David and bring the truth to light, David came to understand a powerful truth of God. He wrote, "You desire truth in the inward parts" (Psalm 51). 

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Thank God for His patience with us in our multiple failures.

2.  Ask God to flood your inward parts with light that you may see what you have hidden and what you are unaware that you've hidden.

3.  Pray for God to give you courage to share with a trusted friend and follower of Jesus the brokenness you've experienced and the secret you've kept in order to be healed.

4.  Request that God give you grace and love as others may share their brokenness with you. May we respond like our Heavenly Father to love and embrace them rather than the older brother hates and rejects sinners and broken people in need of a Savior (Luke 15).

Three Tents

Yesterday was a different day! Our worship time at Refuge Church looked very different. While that may not always be the case and may not be common, I pray what is not rare is the power of God's presence like we experienced yesterday.

In Matthew 17 Jesus took Peter, James and John upon the mountain where Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. His face was brilliant like the sun and His clothes glowed with the glory of God. Then, they saw Elijah and Moses appear and speak with Jesus. At this Peter offered to make three tents or dwelling places for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses to dwell. In short, what Peter saw was so powerful he just didn't want to ever leave. 

I felt some of that yesterday. I didn't want to leave. I want it to be common for God's presence to be almost tangible and uncommon when it is not. I want to expect when we gather to see Him at work in great ways and not expect He might show up on occasion. I don't want to live in yesterday, but I want the presence of God from yesterday to be here today…and tomorrow…and the day after that.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God for what He did yesterday at Refuge and in our hearts.

2.  Ask God to make His presence known just as great if not greater in your life today.

3.  Pray for God to show you where He is at work around you.

4.  Confess your struggles, every one of them, to Him and ask for His strength and grace.

5.  Lift Refuge to Him and ask for Him to do even greater things.

6.  Surrender control. That was a common theme from a number of us yesterday. Let God work.