Saturday, May 20, 2017
What happened David?
What happened?
When we drive by a car accident we ask "what happened?"
When we learn of a drug overdose, we sadly say "what happened?"
When a couple that appeared to have it together, divorces we scratch our head "what happened?"
When I read 1 and 2 Samuel look at the beautiful God-journey Shepherd-walk of David and Yahweh and then HALT, you arrive at 2 Samuel 11, enter Bathsheba... we ask, "What happened David! No, not you! Not the sweet psalmist of Israel, not the author of Psalm 23, not the Goliath killer, not the king, not you David! What happened?"
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah.
But David remained at Jerusalem.
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “ Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?””
II Samuel 11:1-3 NKJV
Later we see Uriah...
David learns Bathsheba is going to be his "baby mama" and so he tries to get Uriah to sleep with his wife and pretend like this child is Uriahs.
Look at Uriah's response:
“And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.””
II Samuel 11:11 NKJV
What a contrast. David acted with a "me first" attitude and Uriah acted with a "God first attitude"
Let me explain....
Here's David.
Served the Lord as a child -check
Anointed by Samuel to be the next
King-check
Fought and killed Goliath-check
Fled from Saul -check
Recaptured the ark of the God-check
Defeated many pagan territories to conquer the lands as God promises Moses and Joshua- check
Present day and time- Spring- "although I should be going to war...been there done that...I'll just walk around my roof top and think of something to do..." WRONG!
He should have been about his Father's business.
Men are visual and David is bored. So what pops into his mind? Sex.
He has lovely wives, true, but he's never had a Bathsheba before.
Now go back to Uriah
“And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.””
II Samuel 11:11 NKJV
I want you to notice Uriah's priorities.
God first, then others (the people of Israel, and military) self (spending time with his wife).
Davids priorities in 2 Samuel 11
I'm Bored
I'm hungry
I want to try Bathsheba
(Self, Others and God last)
The Lord has been speaking to me a lot about "self" lately.
What an amazing God we serve to reveal these insights to 2 Samuel 11 and the David, Bathsheba and Uriah incident.
Notice what happens when we focus on self...
Even when we put "me myself and I" first notice what God's Word says
“And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.”
II Samuel 11:27 NKJV
Davids selfishness caused him to sin greatly. The thing he had done displeased the Lord.
Sin separates ....we all know that...
But here we see how a man who once had great pleasure in spending time with the LORD and loving on the Lord falls terribly and tragically ...
Yes David was tempted...but what I think Davids first problem was, was a shift in his priorities. In stead of God first, it was David first. This is so evident in our culture today.
I like what Charles Stanley says about temptation:
"through the presence of the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to screen, select, admit, and cultivate what goes into our minds. By his power we can prevent our minds from taking a wrong turn and wandering into evil, but we must choose to focus on what is godly and good" (Philippians 4: 8)
Self.
Jesus tells us to die to self.
Jesus tells us He prayed in the garden not my will but THY will be done.
Instead of focusing on "me" let's focus on "Thee"
We'll save ourselves a lot of trouble if we KEEP our priorities straight
1. GOD 2. OTHERS 3. SELF
Or "JOY"- JESUS
OTHERS
YOU
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Self and Self Forgetfulness
Self
Oh boy isn't it a problem?
But we won't start with our self...
We will start with others in the Bible who were full of themselves....
Saul- at first thought low of himself
(I'm the least from the tribe of Benjamin, then became obsessed with himself and jealous of David when they sang "Saul killed his thousands and David killed ten thousands ) (See 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel)
Nebuchadnezzar- so full of himself he made a large statue and demanded worship, then later was humbled like a lowly animal and admitted "the Lord alone is God" (See Daniel 3:1-6; Daniel Ch. 4)
David - a humble shepherd boy, the youngest of his brothers, ( 1 Samuel 16) later promoted to King (2 Samuel) , then pride took over via the vehicle of lust ( 2 Samuel 11) , then humbled again when the Prophet Nathan called him out (2 Samuel 12:1-7) (I'm so thankful for the "Nathan's" God uses to gently show us with are in sin)
Id ego and super ego
Even Martha (Mary's sister) had a self problem- "why isn't she helping me Jesus ! Make her help me!" (Say in a whiny voice) She should have been amazed to serve Jesus in stead she was caught up in making the Pinterest perfect meal, again so she could get applause. (see Luke 10:38-42)
A good friend recommended a book ---
"The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: the path to true Christian Joy" by Timothy Keller to my husband. He couldn't stop talking about it and sharing nuggets with me...
For example:
When you look at someone on tv and say, "Wow, look at her! She's so fit... I need to start working out"
you aren't saying that because you're proud of her or glad for her... what you are really saying is "she's more fit than me...." and once again it goes back to the attention being on self.
Timothy Keller explains that it's not about thinking less of your self, or thinking more of your self it's about
THINKING OF YOUR SELF LESS (that is the self view has no power over you)
This a challenging concept to summarize and I suggest you buy the 30 page book Timothy Keller book from Amazon (or other site)
Basically, Paul in writing to the Corinthians encourages them to think less of themselves. Don't pull rank and be full of pride, don't walk around saying "I'm garbage, I'm no body" both of these views are incorrect for the Christian.
We should simply say
"Christ loves me, and it is His opinion that matters, nothing more nothing less"
Keller goes on to explain that our American Culture is obsessed with performance based verdicts. It's all about how I perform, then I look in the mirror and give myself a grade. Or, how I perform, then I put it on social media and let my friends give me a grade. Or I serve at church and I beg God to give me a grade.
All of these are wrong.
In thinking of ourselves less- we already have a view of completion because of the finished work of Christ.
We don't have to perform.
We don't have to look at ourselves harshly, or highly...
No
We simply look at Christ and then "do" as the Spirit leads...
CS Lewis noted in Mere Christianity (and cited by Keller) that if we met a truly humble person... we would not remember them thinking "wow that guy was humble" no... what we would remember from meeting a truly Gospel- humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of Gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.
John the Baptist said it so well
"He must increase and I must decrease"
Let's practice this thinking and re-train our brain (with prayer and Gods working it in us course) . Let's put others first. Let's imitate Christ. Let's get over our selfie.
Oh boy isn't it a problem?
But we won't start with our self...
We will start with others in the Bible who were full of themselves....
Saul- at first thought low of himself
(I'm the least from the tribe of Benjamin, then became obsessed with himself and jealous of David when they sang "Saul killed his thousands and David killed ten thousands ) (See 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel)
Nebuchadnezzar- so full of himself he made a large statue and demanded worship, then later was humbled like a lowly animal and admitted "the Lord alone is God" (See Daniel 3:1-6; Daniel Ch. 4)
David - a humble shepherd boy, the youngest of his brothers, ( 1 Samuel 16) later promoted to King (2 Samuel) , then pride took over via the vehicle of lust ( 2 Samuel 11) , then humbled again when the Prophet Nathan called him out (2 Samuel 12:1-7) (I'm so thankful for the "Nathan's" God uses to gently show us with are in sin)
Id ego and super ego
Even Martha (Mary's sister) had a self problem- "why isn't she helping me Jesus ! Make her help me!" (Say in a whiny voice) She should have been amazed to serve Jesus in stead she was caught up in making the Pinterest perfect meal, again so she could get applause. (see Luke 10:38-42)
A good friend recommended a book ---
"The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness: the path to true Christian Joy" by Timothy Keller to my husband. He couldn't stop talking about it and sharing nuggets with me...
For example:
When you look at someone on tv and say, "Wow, look at her! She's so fit... I need to start working out"
you aren't saying that because you're proud of her or glad for her... what you are really saying is "she's more fit than me...." and once again it goes back to the attention being on self.
Timothy Keller explains that it's not about thinking less of your self, or thinking more of your self it's about
THINKING OF YOUR SELF LESS (that is the self view has no power over you)
This a challenging concept to summarize and I suggest you buy the 30 page book Timothy Keller book from Amazon (or other site)
Basically, Paul in writing to the Corinthians encourages them to think less of themselves. Don't pull rank and be full of pride, don't walk around saying "I'm garbage, I'm no body" both of these views are incorrect for the Christian.
We should simply say
"Christ loves me, and it is His opinion that matters, nothing more nothing less"
Keller goes on to explain that our American Culture is obsessed with performance based verdicts. It's all about how I perform, then I look in the mirror and give myself a grade. Or, how I perform, then I put it on social media and let my friends give me a grade. Or I serve at church and I beg God to give me a grade.
All of these are wrong.
In thinking of ourselves less- we already have a view of completion because of the finished work of Christ.
We don't have to perform.
We don't have to look at ourselves harshly, or highly...
No
We simply look at Christ and then "do" as the Spirit leads...
CS Lewis noted in Mere Christianity (and cited by Keller) that if we met a truly humble person... we would not remember them thinking "wow that guy was humble" no... what we would remember from meeting a truly Gospel- humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of Gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.
John the Baptist said it so well
"He must increase and I must decrease"
Let's practice this thinking and re-train our brain (with prayer and Gods working it in us course) . Let's put others first. Let's imitate Christ. Let's get over our selfie.
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