1 Kings 3 - Raw Talent

Imagine God came to you with this offer. 

What would you ask Him for?  Is wisdom the best choice?

Reuben

Psalm 139 – David’s Spiritual Secret

A wise man once said: "Two things I know for sure in this life, there is a God and I am not him".  It never ceases to amaze me; especially here in American where knowledge is king, how much we want to figure out God.  We seem determined to answer all the questions and in a sense, put God in a box.  When I read Psalm 139 it seems one thing that David figured out over the years was that God was not something he could totally understand.  And what I love most about reading this chapter is that not only did David come to that realization, but also he seemed to have to come to peace with that fact and was in awe of a God that he could not completely comprehend. 

And at least for me, depending on the day, that is the difficult part.  There are days where I am more than fine with living in the tension of not being able to figure God out.  Fine living in the peace that comes from trusting God even when I can't understand it.  Then there are the other days, where frustration sets in and I just want to know.  I want to know what God is doing; I want to know the big picture.  Days where I lose sight of the fact that He has it all figured out for me.  Days I forget that I was "fearfully and wonderfully made" and that God's "works are wonderful".  In my frustrating search for clear and understandable answers, I forget to rest in who God made me to be!

What about you, ever lose sight of how wonderfully you were made by God?

Mathew McCabe

Psalm 51: True Confession

Over the last three-plus decades of my life, I have lost track of the number of times I have found myself coming back again (and again and again) to this psalm. And I fully expect to continue praying this psalm on a regular basis for the rest of my life. Why? Because I need it -- I continue to sin. I need to confess that sin. And I need to remember (again and again) that I offer this prayer of confession to a wonderfully merciful God.

Look at how David piles on synonyms: he writes of God’s “mercy”, “unfailing love”, and “great compassion.” When seeking forgiveness, he asks God to “blot out”, “wash”, and “cleanse.” When describing how he has offended God, he speaks of his “transgressions”, “iniquity”, and “sin.”

This psalm provides me better words than I could ever come up with on my own to bring to God when I confess my sin. These words express what is most true about me (or at the very least, what I want to be most true about me) when I have offended God or another by something that I have done or left undone.

Verses 10 - 12 have always encouraged my soul. No matter how badly I have blown it, God stands ready, not only to forgive my sin, but also to restore me to relationship with him. This text gives voice to my desperate need for God to do in me what only he can do – “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

I really, really want to have a pure heart. I need God to create it within me. I cannot do it without him. What about you?

Ken Jackson

2 Samuel 12 – Caught in the Act

B-U-S-T-E-D. Did you ever have one of those moments? You're clearly doing something you shouldn't be doing and you get caught in the act? You let that sassy word slip out only to turn around and see a child looking at you wide eyed. Your mom finds you with your hand in the jar after she's told you to leave those cookies alone. You make a "friendly" hand gesture toward the car next to you just as you realize it’s someone that attends your church. 



How do you respond in those times? Do you own up to what you've done or
 do you try to cover it up? Make excuses, perhaps? 



David had clearly messed up by committing adultery and murder, yet I'm encouraged by his response to Nathan. "I have sinned against the Lord." He knew he was wrong and he owned up to it.

-Gina G.

2 Samuel 11 - Adultery and Murder

What I find interesting in this chapter is verse 1, In the spring, when kings go off to war....But David remained in Jerusalem. David was the king Israel and he should have been in battle with his army. He should have been with his soldiers celebrating their crushing defeat of the Ammonites, but instead he stayed in Jerusalem.

We can learn so much from David's life, and one in particular, "BE WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO BE!!"

Men if you struggle with lusting, then staying on the internet at home by yourself is probably not the best option for you. Ladies if you struggle with gossiping, then hanging around friends who gossip is not the smartest thing to do. People if you struggle with anything, going to the places or hanging with the people that feed that addiction or temptation is NOT WISE!! Be where you are suppose to be!!

You see if David goes into battle with his army, then he is celebrating with Uriah and patting him on the back instead of sleeping with his wife and planning Uriah's death. God does not spare David in this situation. God does not hand David a free pass on this one. In the last verse of the chapter we see God is not happy with David and later we find out just how unhappy God is. There is some really heavy stuff about to come down on David's house because of the sin he commits here in this chapter.

I am not saying that God's wrath is about to come down on your house because of your sin, but I am not saying it will not happen either. Our God is still the God of justice. Jesus' death and resurrection did not change God to a God that just hands out pixie dust and lollipops, and frolics in open pastures with "Afternoon Delight" playing in the background. If you act on your sins God will bring justice to your life trust me.

Like any good parent, we love are kids enough to give them discipline when they are out of line. David wasn't where he should have been, acted on his lustful desires, plotted and killed a man, and God disciplined him for it. If you are not where you should be and act on your selfish desire, God will discipline you too.

So I say this one more time, BE WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO BE!

John

Psalm 103 – God’s Goodness

David’s words in this Psalm are rich with expressions of God’s mercy and compassion.  And even in translation, we can still hear some of the poetry. 

As far as the east is from the west. 

He remembers that we are but dust. 

The wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

Rich.  Worth remembering, even memorizing. 

The other thing I notice here is that David is talking to himself.  He’s not addressing God, or Israel, or mankind.  Like Psalm 42 (Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God.  Ps. 42:5), he’s talking to his own soul.  And what he tells himself to do is worship.  That’s the point of the litany of God’s goodness, to get his soul in gear to worship.  Only at the very end does he address others, first angels, then all creation, telling them to worship.  But he concludes with this, and you too my soul, praise the Lord.

All this drives home the point that worship is a choice.  Like love, it involves emotions as rich and deep as the words of Psalm 103, but in the end it is something – Someone – we choose.

- Paul Abbott

1 Chronicles 17 – God’s House

David has a plan: he dreams of building God an impressive house to show his great devotion.

God has another plan.  David’s heart may be in the right place, but to realize this dream the Lord has someone else in mind better suited for the task. 

Then God one-ups David. “Oh no,” he says, “You’re not gonna build me a house; just watch me build you a house… and with it a kingdom that will last forever!”

How do you respond to this over-the-top favor from God?  What can you say?  What can any of us say?

Once again, David gives us the words.  “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” (vs. 16)

We hear David offer a similar prayer to God in Psalm 16:6:

“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

If, like me, you’ve ever struggled for words in God’s presence, consider committing one of these passages to memory, so our hearts might beat for God like the one who penned them.

Reuben