May 1 ... I Chronicles 3 "Failure is an Opportunity"

I Chronicles 3:1 David had 19 sons and Tamar. Plus other sons from his concubines. Wonder how he felt as a father of so many sons who walked away from his God?  Failure seemed like opportunities for David.  Is failure an opportunity in my life? 

This genealogy traces the remant of faith from the beginning to the remant now gathered in Jerusalem.  And we know the rest of the story for we are a part of that remant all the way to this day----a remant chosen by faith, Romans 11:5.  Invited to be His chosen daughter, His chosen remnant.  We are "in" and hopefully "all in."  So, "devote your first energies to rebuilding the temple, not your lives."  66 LL

April 30 ... I Chronicles 1 - 2 "Live for The Joy of Knowing Him and in Anticipation of what HE will yet Do"

I Chronicles 1:1 - "Adam..."  It all begins with Adam and the genealogy list brings us to a people permitted to return home from exile to rebuild the temple.  "When you find yourself in the desert, draw near to Me, not with an entitled spirit but in confident hope.  You will discover that hope only in My Presence.  Therefore, devote your first energies to rebuilding the temple, not your lives."  66 LL

"You are not entitled to the good life.  Stop whimpering as if you deserve what I am not providing. That is what I still say to people whose resentment over suffering is keeping them from flowing with grateful hope in the stream of My plan."  66 LL

The question I must ask myself as I read this chapter in 66 LL is this one:  In the midst of my own emptiness and hard times right now, am I redefining worship as living right in the hope that life will go right?  "I want My people to live right now for the joy of knowing Me and in anticipation of what I yet will do."  The past 24 hours have been a huge trial for me.  So, am I living to straighten things out or for the joy of knowing our Beautiful God?  I'm so stuck in my problems.  May we all know this day a little more of the real Joy of Knowing HIM and anticipating what HE will do in us and through us. 

April 29 ... II Kings 23 - 25 "Evil Is Real and It Is in You"

II Kings 23:25 "There was no king to compare with Josiah—neither before nor after—a king who turned in total and repentant obedience to God, heart and mind and strength, following the instructions revealed to and written by Moses. The world would never again see a king like Josiah."   In the midst of a multitude of evil kings who sacrificed babies and had sex on the altars, here's a lone soul with the bookends of evil on either side of him, his dad and his sons.  Yet, somehow, Josiah reached way down deep to take a stand just like Manasseh finally did.  "When you find yourself overcome by evil, take heart.  Repentance leads to Restoration." 66 LL.  Humble yourself!  "Evil is real and it is in you!"  Crabb talked about how we talk more about "wounds and the promise of therapy.  We see people as more insecure than bad and affirm them to build their self-image."  Am I disgusted with the sin of other people without dealing with my own heart?  Am I being changed from within or dealing with the same stuff over and over?  Unchanged lives---whoa, that's not where I want to be.  Praise God HE is changing me, even in the midst of dark days.  I think about what I was dealing with in November and I'm not there anymore!  So grateful! This chapter ends with Judah being carried off into captivity and the author quotes the verse in Lam 1:1 "How lonely sits the city that was full of people." How sad.  Look at what they created. It didn't have to be that way but they decided to live for themselves.  Braggadocious Kings.  Self-Obsessed Leaders.  Lord have mercy!  So, as we close this book of unsurrendered, unchecked kings, what lingers with you from 2Kings?  For me:  "My plan is moving ahead in the worst of times. Don't make it your goal to change bad times to good.  Pray for that and do all that you can to improve the world in which you live.  But above all else, seek to Know Me Better and Represent Me Well in every circumstance, no matter how you feel." 66 LL.  Oh my LORD, that's my ending prayer for all of us---may we seek to know YOU better and represent YOU well, no matter what is going on with our husbands, our children, our world!

April 28 ... II Kings 20 - 22 "I Observe Your Tears"

2 Kings 20: 1-3  "Hezekiah became deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz paid him a visit and said, "Put your affairs in order; you're about to die—you haven't long to live."  Hezekiah turned from Isaiah and faced God, praying: [What's the first thing he did?  He turned to his God.]  Remember, O God, who I am, what I've done! I've lived an honest life before you, My heart's been true and steady, I've lived to please you; lived for your approval. And then the tears flowed. Hezekiah wept."  This king didn't beg God for what he wanted.  He wanted God's more than his own will.  And I just love God's response in verses 4 through 6:   Isaiah, leaving, was not halfway across the courtyard when the word of God stopped him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, prince of my people, 'God's word, Hezekiah! From the God of your ancestor David: I've listened to your prayer and I've observed your tears. I'm going to heal you. In three days you will walk on your own legs into The Temple of God. I've just added fifteen years to your life; I'm saving you from the king of Assyria, and I'm covering this city with my shield—for my sake and my servant David's sake.'"  Oh!  Embrace your sorrows don't try to change them into good.  Hold fast to Him and His Plan A. My prayer for you this day is: 2 Thes 3:16 and the LORD of PEACE Himself give you peace at all times and in every way this day and more. 

April 27 ... II Kings 18 - 19 "Is Strategy to Grow A Church Stronger Than Relationships?"

2 Kings 18: 5-6 - "Hezekiah put his whole trust in the God of Israel. There was no king quite like him, either before or after. Yes!!! He held fast to God—never loosened his grip—and obeyed to the letter everything God had commanded Moses. And God, for his part, held fast to him through all his adventures." Oh, something just so stirred inside of me.  How I want my God to hold fast to me through all our adventures!  I think a tear just slid down.  Hezekiah was met with opposition:  II Kings 18:19 - "you're living in a world of make-believe, of pious fantasy.  Do you think that mere words are any substitute for military strategy and troops."   I wonder today if some of our churches believe that strategy is more important than relationships and loving?  

 II Kings 19:14-15 has meant much to me over the years:  "Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed! But it wasn't for his safety or rescue. He asked God to open HIS ears and listen, open HIS Eyes and look. That's my prayer for each of you.  God, please open this very day Your Eyes, Your Ears for each of my sisters in what they face.  God's response:  II Kings 19:21 "You've prayed to me regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria; I've heard your prayers. He hears us when we pray beyond our safety and He loves it!  And God's response to this evil king is one of holding him in contempt.  Hezekiah wasn't pious or popular!  He just held fast to a very good God!  May we all hold fast to Him this day!

April 26 ... II Kings 15 - 17 "Evil Hides Beneath Necessity, Reasonableness, Efficiency, Pragmatism, Morality, even Goodness"

Kings 15:1 - What is it that these kings continually failed to get rid of the sex-and-religion shrines that were popular with the people...wonder what these kings wanted more than the love of their God---their own popularity??

II Kings 15:16 - Menahem ripped open the pregnant women because the town didn't welcome him with open arms.  II Kings 16:3 They even indulged in outrageous practices of  burning their own children.
These are really bad people..."all kinds of things on the sly."  "They threw out everything their God had told them." "They prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available."  In a lot of ways, it sounds familiar in some respects in our own country.  How incredibly sad!  II Kings 18:32 - "They honored God but not exclusively." 

All I keep thinking about is the quote from 66 LL that says that in the midst of evil times, God's Plan is moving ahead.  "Above all else, seek to know Me better and represent Me well in every circumstance, no matter how you feel...You must understand the deceptive nature of evil.  [Evil today doesn't rear its head in outrageous practices in most Christian lives---it's more the deceptive evil that leads us astray. I will not be about burning my children but there's still cancer in my soul.)  Evil hides itself and does its destructive work slowly, beneath the disease of necessity, reasonableness, efficiency, pragmatism, even morality, even goodness."  So what is evil about my necessity, my efficiency, my morality, my goodness?  Praise God HE will show us this very day where we are out of His Will.  "I have a Plan to restore the Beauty of Eden, to create a community of men and women who live their lives in rhythm with My Holiness, who dance with Me into joy."  HE is a Beautiful God in charge and HE chose you!

April 25 ... II Kings 12 - 14 "Hate Selfishness More Than Unhappiness"

II Kings 14:24 "As far as God was concerned, he lived an evil life..."  It really doesn't matter what our husband, our children, our friends, our pastors think concerning how we live our lives.  As far as God is concerned about me and you, what would He say about the way we conduct our daily affairs? We just learned from Solomon that wisdom, money, power, gifts do NOT define a great king.  Solomon never learned to love.  Great people love well.  Are we content with a good moral life?  Are we satisfied with success?  What does it look like for me to really walk with God this day?  Six words of C.S. Lewis come to mind:  "We are far too easily pleased" --- with ourselves, with what looks like apparent success, with conquering the circumstances of our lives.  So what does God really think of how we are dealing with the fray of our heart?  "You'll know My Plan is working when you realize you're beginning to hate your selfishness more than your unhappiness." 66 LL.  You know, I've been unhappy about losing so many friends in my lifetime. And I'm unhappy about some other big stuff too!  But, I'm so stirred by that quote and I am broken over my selfishness more.  And that God would provide for me in the midst of my selfish ways!  Oh My!  Hating my selfishness more than my unhappiness "gets the real battle underway, the battle against sin, against your natural inclinations.  As long as you see unhappiness as your worst problem, you'll think God should treat you better than He does...until you recognize that the way you relate to Me and to others is wicked, you'll see nothing that requires repentance."  Help us all, LORD, to repent this day of our own evil ways.  

April 25 ... II Kings 12 - 14

I cannot get a post up this morning. Won't let me post.  I'll keep trying. 

April 24 ,,, II Kings 9 - 11 "Packaging God's Words into Principles"

II Kings 9:33 - Throwing women out of windows, followed by a casual lunch.  That evil is easy to identify.  Not so easy to recognize is the quiet fierce raging war in my heart as I face relationships where friends and family dismiss me or where I'm trying to understand so badly how to live this Christian life in midst of conflict.  What wars in my heart slips up on me.  And I wonder if I am trying way too hard to hear what God is saying and fit His ideas into a system that works for me.  Trying to package God's voice, His Word, into what I can understand.  Principles I can manage.  That's not right.  So what is my attitude this day as I face the Word of God?  Is it that new attitude of suffering r is it to use the Word, to find a verse, to find something of hope by which to live?  What about the confusion?  What about the terror in my heart of facing more suffering?  C.S. Lewis says:  "We're not doubting that God will do the best for us.  We are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." Am I really listening to God or am I  listening for nuggets to understand and manage well?  Lord, have mercy!

April 23 ... II Kings 6 - 8 "More in Common with Stalin than My Son"

2 Kings 6:16-17 - Elisha commented on the predicament he was in --- being chased down by evil.  They wanted his head, but he says:  "Don't worry about it—there are more on our side than on their side. Then Elisha prayed, 'O God, open his eyes and let him see.'  The eyes of the young man were opened and he saw. A wonder! The whole mountainside full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha!" 

The quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn when he returned back to Russia after his forced exile was so "telling."  He met, upon his return, with former leaders under the evil Communist regime.  "He told his critics that the line between good and evil does not run between us and them; it runs through each one of us.  He recognized that the most saintliest among My people has more in common with Stalin than my Son."  Our righteousness is but filthy rags.  This book helps us "understand the lethal nature of the evil that is in My people...may we tremble before its power to ruin our lives."  66 LL.  So much of the Christian world I have been a part of has focused on the good in our lives, and of course it is there---we have all of Him!  It is rare to hear from preachers and prophets today about the evil within our hearts, and it is there!  We are all capable of evil---but for the grace of God, there go I.

We are dependent on God to come through for us and rescue us from the evil, the battle within our souls.  Apart from Me, you can do nothing!  You know, I can quickly see evil in people boiling their children and eating them.  But, I'm not as quick to see the evil in my own soul when I use people or de-personalize friends, or when I secretly demand that people respond a certain way or even at all, or when I fail to see how I just get nicer and sweeter when people hurt me, harboring bitterness.  Repentance isn't controlling my behavior but it's surrendering it to the One and Only One Who has taken care of the evil in my soul.  It's paid for! 

God, would you open our eyes this day to see Wonder!  The wonder of what you have done for each one of us!  Sheer Wonder!  We all must face the evil within not just without ... and repent.  But open our eyes to see the good you are doing like you did in II Kings 8: for the woman whose son died.  You brought her back from 7 years of exile---where you provided her needs---and she walked into the king's presence at the exact moment when the king was learning about her story of her son being healed.  You provided again!  Thank you that our sin is as far as the east is from the west.  Life isn't about being sweeter but about being holy! 

April 22 ... II Kings 4 - 5 "But I thought..."

3 STORIES TODAY linger with me.  All three are about trusting a good God and whatever He provides. 

ELISHA & A GOD WHO PROVIDES
2 Kings 4:1-2 One day the wife of a man from the guild of prophets called out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead. You well know what a good man he was, devoted to God. And now the man to whom he was in debt is on his way to collect by taking my two children as slaves.  Elisha said, "I wonder how I can be of help. Tell me, what do you have in your house?"   Nothing, she said. "Well, I do have a little oil." Isn't this story like the 5 Fish & 2 Loaves story?  Unless God makes the oil pour in our lives, we cannot make something out of nothing.  What a beautiful thought this morning to give what I have to HIM for God to provide in my life and through my life.  How can I be of help in my world today?

ELISHA & A WOMAN WITH FAITH
II KIngs 4:8-21 is the story of the Shunammite woman.  Elisha asked God that HE would give the childless woman a son and HE did.  The boy took ill as a young child.  II Kings 4:21 She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in alone, and left. And she went after Elisha.  When he saw her running after him, he inquired:  What's wrong?  Your husband, your child.  The woman's response:  "Everything's fine."  An answer from a trusting heart for when she saw Elisha she clung to him embracing her grief.  What flows out of us when we are in the dark? 

NAAMAN DEMANDING GOD TO MOVE A CERTAIN WAY
II Kings 5: 1 - Naaman was general of the army under the king of Aram---he was afflicted with a grave skin disease.  II Kings 5:10 Elisha sent out a servant to meet Naaman with this message: "Go to the River Jordan and immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you'll be as good as new."
Naaman's response in verse 11:   "I thought he'd personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. The Damascus rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel. Why not bathe in them? I'd at least get clean." He stomped off, mad as a hornet."  God provides a certain way for us & we get angry.  BUT I THOUGHT syndrome.  Thought it should happen THIS WAY.  Thought  it would happen THAT WAY.  Expected that it would be in line with our culture, our religion.  His ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are not our thoughts.  Give up trying to turn the bad circumstances into good ones the right way.  Listen to what God says and it may come today through the most unlikely of people and the most unwanted of circumstances.  Psalm 27:13-14 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of our God.  May we all seek and find our good God today.

April 21 ... II Kings 1 - 3 "Don't Make My Goal: Change Bad to Good"

2 Kings 3: 16-19 - He then said, "God's word: Dig ditches all over this valley. Here's what will happen—you won't hear the wind, you won't see the rain, but this valley is going to fill up with water and your army and your animals will drink their fill. This is easy for God to do; he will also hand over Moab to you. You will ravage the country."  Not sure how God will fill the ditches with no rain, no wind.  Not sure how God will work things out in our lives this day in the midst of strained relationships and empty pocketbooks and serious health issues.  But this I know and am convinced...He is here and He is working in our lives. 66 LL: "My plan is moving ahead in the worst of times. Don't make it your goal to change bad things to good.  Pray for that, of course, and do all that you can to improve the world in which you live.  But above all else, seek to know Me better and to represent Me well in every circumstance, no matter how you feel."

April 20 ... I Kings 21 - 22 "Don't try to get out of anything prematurely"

1 Kings 21: 25  Ahab, in open defiance of God, set an alltime record in making big business of evil."  So many kings with so much control of their kingdom and lives.  Ahab did penitively submit and God blessed his repentance.  I Kings 22:5 - "Before you do anything, ask God for guidance."  Seems to me that they looked at prophets like Micaih as "doom and gloom."  Wonder if today, Christians are making the same mistake.  Someone asked me this week---"where is the joy in all of this, seems like so much doom!" Oh! The joy isn't in our circumstances---it is in HIM---He plunges us into a sea of joy - Ezra 6:22 but sometimes I'm not there yet.  So, what lingers with you as you close the book of I Kings today?  For me, it's valuing God's agenda of holiness over managing my life and my family well.  Am I more concerned with letting God form Christ within me than I am with being right, doing well, leaving a mark, managing it all well?  Galatians 4:19 - oh, that Christ be formed in me and you!  And as I sit in a Dallas hospital while my daughter is in surgery having a suspicious growth removed from her thyroid, I am deeply encouraged to read the verse 66 LL quotes at the end of this chapter:  "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come to you from all sides.  You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.  So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work, so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father.  He loves to help."  James 1: 2-4

April 19 ... I Kings 18 - 20 "Working My Heart Out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies"

1 Kings 18:43 Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bowed deeply in prayer, his face between his knees. Then he said to his young servant, "On your feet now! Look toward the sea."  And God strengthened Elijah mightily.  Oh for feet that walk by faith not by sight.  Waiting for what God says.  

 God is stirring in me to look for Him, seek for Him, wait quietly for Him and not try to rearrange the bad circumstances of my life.  Crabb says:  Don't make your goal to change the bad circumstances into good ones.  Sure, do all you can to make this place better but what do I want more than enjoying my relationship with my God?  Am I enjoying life more?  Am I taking opportunities from God to repent? I Kings 18:37 - God was giving them another chance at repentance.  I'm still "taken" over how God looked at David---a murderer, an adulterer...a man after God's heart.  God doesn't keep bringing up the adultery and murder.  Forgiven.  Every day we have an opportunity to repent of the ways we have missed Him.  

 And here's holy Elijah running for dear life in I Kings 19:5  "Enough of this, God.  Take my life!" Jezebel proved too much for him when she threatened his life and Elijah chose to walk by sight.  And the verse goes on to say that an angel cared for Elijah giving him food and water and direction. A fresh hot loaf of bread in his darkness. "What are you doing here?" asks God.  God knew.  Wonder if He is asking us the same question in whatever we are stuck in this day.  I Kings 19:10 is an interesting response from Elijah: "I've been working my heart out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies."  Was management trumping holiness?  "Go stand at attention on the mountain."  That means that a step of faith for Elijah was to be still.  No frenetic work in this battle. You don't have to work your heart out Elijah---God is working all things for good.  Am I standing at attention in my heart waiting for my God to pass by?  Along comes I Kings 19:11-12:

A HURRICANE...no God there

AN EARTHQUAKE...no God there

A FIRE...no God in the fire

A WHISPER...a quiet Voice:  "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

I wonder if we all need to answer the same question.  My answer: "I'm trying to make something happen that is not going well or maybe it is going well cause I'm working my heart out.  I need to live a quiet life and listen to that still small Voice exposing the fray of my heart.  Working my heart out for what?  Another opportunity to repent! 

April 18 ... I Kings 15 - 17 "The Real Battle in the Human Soul"

1 Kings 16:26 - Empty-headed, empty-hearted lives...not true hearted.  Oh! to be truehearted!  The lessons to be learned from these wicked men:  "Leadership without a priority concern for personal holiness over effective management at best produces only outward success.  It fails to engage the real battle in the human soul, between losing your life for Me or gaining your life without Me." 66 LL. 

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I love the story in I Kings 17 of Elijah meeting a woman whose son died.  I cannot imagine what she was going through.  Elijah lies on top of the boy and asks God "Why have you brought this terrible thing on this widow...why have you killed her son?"  It's so amazing to me that God responds to our requests.  We can ask for the impossible.  God had already told this widow that her jars of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil never empty until she needs it no more.  The woman hung on tight to her life lessson, close to her bosom.  Elijah took him and asked God to put breath back into the boy.  God did!  And this mom's response:  "you're a holy man, Elijah."  For all that is dead in our lives, may we hear God's voice.  Come alive!

April 17 ... I Kings 12 - 14 "An Undivided Heart"

I Kings 12: 4 Give us a break; lighten up on us and we'll willingly serve you."  In verse 12:8 Rehoboam rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he'd grown up with who were now currying his favor, "What do you think?"  Do I keep asking other people what they think until I get the answer I want?  Do I share my story in such a way to prove my point, get others to agree with me, make others feel they can't disagree?  Where's my heart?  Rehoboam went with the popular decision.  What did he want more than the love of his God?  His own immediate plan.  Control.  "Effective management trumped holiness."  Along comes King Jeroboam who comes up with yet another plan.  Along comes a holy man under strict orders from God yet he listens to another man, a lying prophet.  What a lesson.  Am I listening to God or persuaded by men?  Under strict orders from God yet they didn't follow God fully. But this isn't about learning lessons.  This isn't about formulating wise thoughts to motivate us to follow God fully.  Ths is about a heart problem not about finding the right words or actions or techniques.  I Kings 14:8 They didn't live like David who lived with an undivided heart, pleasing God---even though he wasn't holy at times.  An Undivided Heart!

April 16 ... I Kings 10 - 11 "Self-Obsessed or God Obsessed"

I Kings 11: 9-10  "God was furious with Solomon for abandoning the God of Israel, the God who had twice appeared to him and had so clearly commanded him not to fool around with other gods. Solomon faithlessly disobeyed God's orders."  Solomon was obsessed with women and power and managing his kingdom. Maybe Solomon had wisdom, but he wasn't holy.  66LL "Effective management trumped holiness." God never intended for us to be obsessed with anything but HIM!  We all deal with the depravity of man. Every one of us is obsessed with something or another person at different times. Yet, HE is knocking on the door of our hearts, Rev. 3:19-20, offering us this moment an opportunity for HIM to come in and fellowship with us as we repent from our lives "curved in on ourselves."  For every day we move to live and love either self-obsessed or God obsessed!  HE is always about the beauty of detaching us from anything that we have come to depend on for our life, our joy, our peace.  HE is attaching us to Himself if we don't abandon Him in our minds, our motives, our management.  He is freeing us up from demandingness and that's so good!  When we made our big move to Austin, a friend gave me a Me & Ro necklace that is inscribed with the word "fearless."  It's from Phil 1:20 in the Moffat version.  It's my prayer for you this day.  My hope is that you not feel ashamed but that you may honor your Christ in your own person with fearless courage.

April 15 ... I Kings 8 - 9 "Exuberant with Heartfelt Gratitude"

1 Kings 8: 27 -32 Can it be that God will actually move into our neighborhood?  Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I'm setting before you right now...and listen to the prayers that I pray at this place.

I Kings 8: 37 -40 When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—any prayer that's prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, hearts penetrated by the disaster, hands and arms thrown out to this Temple for help,

Listen from your home in heaven. Solomon repeated the refrain seven times. 
What does God hear from me this day?  Is it petitions?  Is it intercession?  Is it praise?  Is it a repentant heart He hears?
Holy living will result in dependence and trust and mission and love.

Bless the LORD!  We are exuberant with heartfelt gratitude for all the good our God has done this year!  I Kings 8: 66

April 14 ... I Kings 6 - 7 "The Real Battle in our Soul"

1 Kings 6:7  "The stone blocks for the building of The Temple were all dressed at the quarry so that the building site itself was reverently quiet—no noise from hammers and chisels and other iron tools."  Isn't this the way God works in our lives---quietly.  No noise from the chisel in His Presence.  Verse 11 says that what is important about the Temple being built is that you live the way God set out for you and do what HE tells.  Only then, God says, I'll personally take up my residence among you---won't desert you ever.  So, what happened to Solomon in all this magnificent Glory being built on Mount Moriah?  The same place where Abraham climbed to sacrifice his son Isaac.  And it's the same hill where Jesus will climb to His death for many.  A holy hill.  So, what does Solomon want more than the Love of his God after 7 years spent on the temple and 13 years spent on his palace?  Power.  Ambition.  66 LL: "Solomon's priority on power made him vulnerable to the demand for pleasure."  Solomon had read Deut 17:17 but it didn't result in holy living for him.  700 wives and 300 concubines.  "Solomon failed to engage the real battle in the human soul between losing your life for ME or gaining your life without ME."  I think there are lots of people who look very wise and successful in their Christian lives but they do not engage in the real battle going on every day in their human soul.  My prayer is that we engage in the real battle being fought today and invite others to walk with us who will draw out of us the women God intended for us to be. 

April 13 ... I Kings 3 - 5 "My Interior World"

1 Kings 3:5   "What can I give you? Ask." I wonder if God came to us in a dream and asked us that question what our response would be?  Solomon answered:  "You were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right.   I don't know the ropes, hardly know the 'ins' and 'outs' of this job. 3:9 says "Here's what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil."  I'm so touched by God's response---"I'll give you what you've asked for...and I'm giving you the wealth and glory you didn't ask for."  How awesome is that?  So makes me want to "let go" of my plans for what I think I need and ask for God to glorify Himself in and through me. 

I Kings 4:29 - God gave Solomon wisdom—the deepest of understanding and the largest of hearts. There was nothing beyond him, nothing he couldn't handle.  So what happened in Solomon's heart to lead him to take 700 wives.  That's horrendous.  66 LL says:  "When efficient management trumps holy living, the lack of holiness is either not recognized or is not seen as a terribly serious problem... .  The center of My plan has nothing to do with well-managed families, ministries, or careers.  When the center of My plan is not the center of your hope, your interior world is unstable, and your soul is weakened.  Solomon's priority on power made him vulnerable to the demand for pleasure... . Solomon married many wives and effectively managed those relationships by giving their false gods a place in Israel's worship."   So what about my interior world? What does it look like at 2am?  Do I live an unexamined life?  Do I allow people to speak deeply into the fray of my heart and receive it as from God?  What a beautiful thing to be loved by a God Who accepts us & delights in us this day just as we are---whether we have hundreds of idols or just one.

April 12 ... I Kings 1 - 2 "Success is not Greatness"

I Kings 2:1-4  When David's time to die approached, he charged his son Solomon, saying, "I'm about to go the way of all the earth, but you—be strong; show what you're made of! Do what God tells you. Walk in the paths he shows you: Follow the life-map absolutely, keep an eye out for the signposts, his course for life set out in the revelation to Moses; then you'll get on well in whatever you do and wherever you go."  Last words make you so want to listen to what they have to say about real life. No formulas from David, just beautiful rhetoric from a man who lived a dangerous, courageous life with a heart for God. I wonder what David thinks at the end of his life about his failures to trust God.  66LL says about this book: "Your desire to be effectiver, to depend on biblical principles for success in your family, church, career, and friendships is legitimately strong." Okay, stop right there.  I would say that my Christian life was spent depending on biblical principles and it was legitimately strong.  But.... keep reading this:  "But when that desire is stronger than your desire to be holy and to depend on My power for becoming more like My Son, whether you succeed or fail in other ways, then you will not advance my plan...." Okay, that makes me so want to stop and evaluate. I think there was sin in my life---distance from people, jealousy over other's success, being so hard on myself I was really unkind to myself, and the laundry list goes on...---my point is that there was relational sin I overlooked all the time cause I couldn't straighten it out nor could I get out of the relationships I was in.  I never really took a look at how I came across to people nor did people really tell me.  I thought everything was okay until four years ago when I hit a crisis I couldn't overcome.  I hadn't been naming my evil.  Really didn't know how.  I was more interested in succeeding and I was.  But success is not the signpost that everything is all right.  "Success is not greatness."

April 11 ... 2 Samuel 22 - 25 "God is Re-writing the Text of my Life

2 Samuel 22:25 - "God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to His Eyes."
David pens a beautiful prayer to God Who saved him from all of his enemies and from Saul.
22:7 - "A hostile world!  I called to God, from His palace He heard my call; my cry brought me right into His Presence, a private audience!...
22:20 - "I stood there saved---surprised to be loved!"
22:29 "Suddenly, God's Light floods my path.  God drives out my darkness."

In Chapter 23, David speaks his last words.  Verse 2 says:  "God's Spirit spoke through me, His Words took shape on my tongue."

2 Samuel 24: God tested David by ordering a census of Israel and Judah.  David took count of the population and should never have done that.

The book concludes with naming David's top men. You don't hear any of David's sons being named. 

2 Samuel 24:25 God was moved by the prayers and that was the end of the disaster.  The End.  Oooh! It gives me much hope that God was moved by their prayers. 

And the one take-away I'll remember from 2 Samuel is the Story of Shimei yelling curses at David.  David interpreted it as a message from God for him.  Something about that story grips me.  Also, am I building my house on sand? 

God is rewriting the text of your life.  As you close this chapter of 2 Samuel, what stays with you?  What do you hear God saying to you as you listen to Him?

April 10 ... 2 Samuel 19 - 21 "Lift a Ton of Sin for I Have a Crisis in my Soul"

2 Samuel 19:6  Joab to David:  "What is this—loving those who hate you and hating those who love you? Your actions give a clear message: officers and soldiers mean nothing to you...you knocked the wind out of them." 

Why did David grieve his son Absalom at the expense of those alive around him?  What were his tears really for?  Himself?  David prayed in Psalm 25:18 "Lift this ton of sin."  I have so felt the weight of previous sin this week.  Lift the ton, O God! 

God lifted it and immediately David goes back to war with Sheba followed by even more enemies with 24 fingers and toes.  And David prays:  "When I call, give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room.  Now I'm in trouble again: grace me! hear me!"  Psalm 4:1

"You have listened to my troubles and have seen the crisis in my soul." Psalm 31:7.  There's a crisis in my soul this night.

April 9 ... 2 Samuel 16 - 18 "Small Potatoes"

2 Samuel 16:11-12 Shimei is throwing rocks at David in a valley.  David responds that his own son is trying to kill him.  Compared to this Benjamite---this is small potatoes.  Let him curse, he's preaching God's word. 

And who knows, maybe God will see the trouble I'm in today and exchange the curses for something good."
How do you find Love in your heart for your own son who is trying to kill you?  David did!  I'just wept when I read 2 Sam 18:33 O my son Absalom, my dear, dear son Absalom!
   Why not me rather than you, my death and not yours,
   O Absalom, my dear, dear son!
Absalom had just gone and slept with his father's concubines.  I mean he violated his dad like no other!  Absalom violated his God and David left him in God's hands.  David offered forgiveness to a thief, a murderer. This is what love looks like when it finds deep places in our heart to pour out of.  I got angry with the invisible thief who stole my purse last night. Small potatoes.  David's own son stole his wives and violated them.  The greatness of King David in this story so makes me want to love others.  2 Cor. 12:15  "I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.  If I love you more, will you love me less?"

April 8 ... 2 Samuel 13 - 15 "A Life of Suffering Love"

2 Samuel 13:21 King David heard the whole story that his son Amnon raped Tamar (Absalom's sister) and was enraged, but he didn't discipline Amnon. How could he?  How could Absolam tell Tamar to keep it quiet---keep it in the family.  Thinking back on my own rape, I feel deeply for this woman because it was not her fault and she was silenced by her own family.  Wonder what she did with that? Did she embrace her pain, her loneliness and find her God in the midst of the mess and move in to love the unlovely?  Did she keep quiet?  This is not right with God nor man!  66 LL says to look at the glimpses of greatness and exposure of evil in David.  "Realize that though you still fail, you can advance My plan.  See how you could dance at the party now, the way David danced before the ark of the covenant.  Worship!"  Amazing that David danced BEFORE the LORD.  Only priests were allowed there.  In God's Presence, there was a humbled David and all his mess. The plot thickened as Absalom took matters into his own hands and killed his brother, the rapist.  David grieved his son's death for a long time and distanced himself from Absalom for a long time.  Was his tears for himself or for his family?  "Love would find a deeper place in David's heart than legitimate concern for himself."  Absalom was now exiled.  But in bringing him home, Absalom would end up deposing David from his throne.  Deposed his very own father.  And David found love in his heart after he named his own evil. 

 "See how like David in Israel and Mother Teresa in India, you could change a little corner of your world...by living a life of suffering love, by extending forgiveness to delinquent boys and cheating spouses and sexual predators."  66 LL.  This reading today so makes me want to do just that---offer forgiveness.  Oh that is my prayer for us all today---may we discern the path of a life of suffering love!

April 7 ... 2 Samuel 8 - 12 "Our Greatest Good is Immediate Satisfaction"

2 Samuel 8: 1-6 David brought the Philistines to their knees and took control of their countryside.  He defeated Moab and executed two-thirds of them.  He killed 22,000 Arameans.  He plundered gold and looted large quantities of bronze. He struck down the entire army of Hadadezer.  He built a victory monument.  Set up puppet governments. 2 Samuel 1:14 "God gave David victory wherever he marched." This guy had courage that is so intriguing and admirable!

He lived well.  He suffered well.  He ruled well.  But did he love well?  It just so captures my attention, my heart that he had all those concubines!!!  How did he "miss" God on that?  How do I "miss" God?  Does it seem to you that if Christians today have a flaw like David did or even more culturally accepted flaws (if there is such a thing) like raging anger, then they are DQ'd from ministry, from respect.  No one DQ'd David for adultery and murder! 

So did David love well?  Here comes the precious story in chapter 9 of Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson.  He invited him regularly to his table to show kindness to Jonathan's son, the descendant of Saul, and treated him like royalty.  That truly is the new way to live.  That's beautiful love.  Saul had no power over David anymore.

2 Samuel 11:1 When that time of year came around again, David dispatched Joab and his fighting men of Israel in full force to destroy the Ammonites for good. But David didn't lead the battle---I wonder why?  He stayed home where it was safe yet he got into trouble with Bathsheba followed by the murder of Uriah because he wanted Uriah's wife.  Oh my!  Not safe. God had just blessed David immeasurably with many victories.  So what was David's greater good?  His God? 

Crabb's words come to mind:  "We naturally believe that our worst problem is personal pain occasioned by others who relationally fail us.  Because we fear that pain, we protect ourselves against it and think that our greatest good is our immediate satisfaction."  That's what David thought.  And we arrange for it any way we can, whether through sex or hard work or achievement or even worship (wow, I'm floored that he threw worship in there---doesn't seem to be a distractor, does it?)  So, what's my greatest good in my current situation?  Holiness?  God?  Whatever pain you own today, God is at work in you by His Power making you and me aware of just how far short we fall of relating like He does.  Colossians 1:29 - He is powerfully at work in you doing whatever it takes to get us to relate to others and move in to really love them and live for the Greater Good!  Wonder what my Greater Good is today?

April 6 ... 2 Samuel 4 - 7 "No Formula for a Comfortable Life"

2 Samuel 7:18 - King David went in, took his place before God, and prayed: after he heard Nathan's vision to build a house for God.  "Who am I, my Master God, and what is my family, that you have brought me to this place in life? You know me, Master God, just as I am. You've done all this not because of who I am but because of who you are—out of your very heart!—but you've let me in on it."

In 2 Samuel 5:13, it says David took on more concubines and wives from Jerusalem right after he left Hebron where he waited on God before he moved. "Just as I am."  I can ask myself how David can be so wretched and so holy at the same time?  But, then again, I must ask myself the same question.  The story of Hebron touches deep places in me.  David was unnoticed there, only a king over one tribe.  Today, I read some "tweets" about Easter services throughout the country where thousands showed up and hundreds were baptized.  It seems that success in ministry is numbers.  The more people you reach with the Gospel.  The first question we asked was "What are they doing to reach that many people?"  David laid low in Hebron waiting on God to make him king over the rest of the tribes.  No church plant.  No secret to successful ministry.  Just a holy heart waiting on God 7 1/2 years to move him.  And my new nature waits in the shadows.  What is God stirring in my heart.  No formulas.  Just as I am.  Let us in, o God, on what is on your heart!  May we not "value a comfortable life above a holy life" (66 LL) like  David dabbled in having so many wives.  I wonder why he obeyed God's directions exactly in battle but not in the bedroom. 

April 5 ... 2 Samuel 1 - 3 "A New Way to Live"

2 Samuel 1:11 In lament, David ripped his clothes to ribbons when he heard that Saul and Jonathan were killed in a failed battle.  Oh my!!!  He didn't throw a party to celebrate the death of the "mighty warrior" who had tried to kill him repetitively.  Larry says:  "That's a new way to live."  I wonder if we can ask ourselves today in our situations---no matter what the hate or agony or frustration---what is the new way to live?  We know the "old way" cause we are stuck in it.  What does the "new way" look like?

2 Samuel 1:26 - I just love David's description of his good friend, Jonathan.  "Your friendship was a miracle-wonder, love far exceeding anything I've known—or ever hope to know."

2 Samuel 3:27  Joab left David and went into action.  He killed Abner in cold blood for the murder of his brother Asahel.  Oh my!!!!  So David puts a curse of a crippling disease and famine on his family.  The name Mephibosheth comes to mind.  Oh my!!!!!!

I have thought so much about Pascal's line: "True religion accounts for both the wretchedness and greatness of people."  I just think I am far worse than anyone thinks I am!  I fought the battle within on a grand scale this weekend---of all weekends.  The weekend where Jesus won.  It is done.  Finished.  So what's the new way for me to live today?

April 4, 2010 ... I Samuel 28 - 31 "Ethics for Pragmatism"

I Samuel 30: 6-7 - And suddenly David was in even worse trouble. The Amalekits had destroyed the city and its people. There was talk among the men, bitter over the loss of their families, of stoning him. David strengthened himself with trust in his God. Here are lifelong friends who suddenly didn't trust David any longer. How many times was this guy's life in danger? In the midst of devastating news, he trusted God. What did you think and feel as you read about the life of David and Saul and Jonathan in I Samuel?  As "the biblical axe breaks the frozen sea within us," what is God changing in you?  What lingers as you close the book of I Samuel?  I am so intrigued by David's "new way" of living. His goal wasn't to change Saul. His goal was to love. He didn't want anything more than Love. Not ambition. Not success. Not deliverance. Not even a safe place to live. He was more concerned about his own failure to love Saul, the anointed one.  He didn't sacrifice "ethics for pragmatism."  66 LL.

April 3 ... I Samuel 25 - 27 "ALL IN....A Cry for Holiness"

I Samuel 25: 18-19 Picture #1: Abigail flew into action when she heard that her husband Nabal had hurled insults at David's men. Abigail took the blame for her husband Nabal, the fool.  Not mentioning anything to Nabal, Abigail took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Okay, did they have to bake the 200 loaves of bread and 200 cakes?  She had 5 personal servants but still this is a lot of work to pull together all this quickly.  What did the fast job amount to?  A husband like no other.  Abigail did what she could to love her own foolish husband.

I Samuel 26:3 Picture #2: David, still out in the backcountry, knowing Saul had come after him. His scouts find Saul and confiscate spear and jug from a slumbering Saul.  I Samuel 26:9 - Don't you dare hurt Saul! "Who could lay a hand on God's anointed and even think of getting away with it."  That's the attitude I want to have when people who are made in the image of God insult me, as it happened this very day!!  I Samuel 26:24 says:   It's God's business to decide what to do with each of us in regard to what's right and who's loyal.

I am so taken with how David and Abigail loved.  They didn't gloss over the wrongdoing and they called it what it was.  Truth.  Yet, both God followers chose to love those closest to them who were fools.  They didn't walk away.  They didn't keep silent.  They stayed close, "ALL IN."  Jesus died for them to have the power to change their motives from self-protection to selfless love. What would it look like to love those in our lives this day who are conniving and cunning and coy?  Those difficult husbands.  Those finger-pointing relatives.  Those fickle friends.  "Owe no man anything except to love him." -  Romans 13:8. 
And, what happens if you really love?  "You will hear yourself weeping over how you demand that I cooperate with your agenda, and you'll hear the cry for holiness arising from your deepest center."  66LL

April 2 ... I Samuel 21 - 23 "What Does Holiness Look Like"

1 Samuel 21   ^{14 -16} David continued to live in desert hideouts and the backcountry wilderness hills.  Not exactly how anyone chooses to live.  Wonder what David wrestled with with God.  Wonder what he really thought about being abandoned to hideouts?  His friend Jonathan drops by to "encourage him in God."  How do you do that to people?  While Saul chooses the best 3 companies to capture and kill David.  In 24:4 David cuts off a piece of the robe of King Saul to prove "I'm no rebel."  Look at the evidence.  David could have killed Saul.  "I'm aware that things go wrong in your life, that family and friends don't aways treat you well...I grieve with you over the pain that life causes you.  BUT our priorities differ.  You ask what will work" [to get out of living in desert hideouts/ to right the wrongs David suffers/ to see that things go as they really should go/ for a safe place].  I want you to ask what holiness would look like in your situation.  What does holiness look like when you have cancer?  What does holiness look like when friends disappoint you beyond belief?  What does holiness look like when my family minimizes who I am?  What does holiness look like in my situation this Good Friday?  What did holiness look like in Jesus as He was nailed to the Cross today for me and you? 

April 1 ... I Samuel 18 - 20 "Fear Settled into Hate"

I Samuel 18:  9  Saul said:  "They credit David with 'ten thousands' and me with only 'thousands.' Before you know it they'll be giving him the kingdom!" From that moment on, Saul kept his eye on David."  May I see in my heart when I am looking at people for approval.  I Samuel 18:16 - As Saul saw David becoming more successful, he himself grew more fearful. He could see the handwriting on the wall. But everyone else in Israel and Judah loved David. They loved watching him in action. Isn't the beautiful word here "love."  What do I want more than love?  Saul wanted something more than Love.  He wanted recognition, ambition, success, all eyes on him.  While David was using words like:  I Samuel 18:23  David held back. "What are you thinking of? I can't do that. I'm a nobody; I have nothing to offer."   And Saul more and more realized that God was with David and how much his own children really loved David. I Samuel 18:29 says Saul's fear settled into hate because David's name was on everyone's lips, not his.  I Samuel 20:16 says that Jonathan loved David more than his own soul!  A true covenant friend who would stand up to his dad and say that what Saul was doing was not right with Jonathan and not right with God!  My prayer for all of us this morning:  Philippians 1:9 May our love abound more and more...