Seeking the Lord

“And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.” 2 Chronicles 12:14 speaking of Rehoboam, son of Solomon.

In the context of this chapter, this verse comes after Rehoboam and his appointed leaders humbled himself before God due to Egypt occupying the land. God granted them some deliverance from Egypt’s hands because they humbled themselves. Nevertheless, Rehoboam did not ever genuinely seek the Lord after turning away.

It is important for us as people to seek the Lord again whenever we have turned ourselves away, whether momentarily or for a prolonged period of time. Running away never helps. The story of the prodigal son reminds as that when we come back seeking God, He welcomes us with open arms, not whips of wrath.

Lessons from 2 Chronicles 6

2 Chronicles is interesting chapter because its contents can be considered a summary of many events contained within the Old Testament. After completing the first Temple, Solomon prays that whenever Israel turns away from God, that God would forgive them if they repent and seek forgiveness.

Of particular interest are verses 28 through 31. Solomon prays that God would render to each man according to their heart. This is a reminder that God ultimately values a pure heart, as opposed to the deeds of an individual.

Ultimately, this portion of scripture alludes to the exiles and redemption of Israel, showing the beauty of God’s willingness to forgive wretched sinners.

Going through the “Quest for Character” by John MacArther

Chapter 1: A Humble Spirit

This chapter addresses humility in the context of self-righteousness. The Pharisees of the Bible portrayed sinful pride and self-righteousness. They were interested in living strict lives that were put on display for others to admire. But biblical humility starts with recognizing our very humble position before God. God has no reason to praise us or admire us. What could we possibly offer to God? True humility starts with recognizing that our righteousness is poor and we have nothing to boast of in and of ourselves. The next time we boast to ourselves that we were good for doing a good deed, let us remind ourselves that we were born sinners and attribute the good work in our lives back to Jesus Christ who saved us from our sins.

David’s Mighty Men

From 1 Chronicles 11

This is an amazing chapter on so many levels. I want to look particularly at the David’s mighty warriors, who displayed biblical manhood on so many levels. Take, for instance, Jashobeam, who wielded his spear against 300 men in one battle, defeating them all. Or look at the three men, who slipped into the Philistine controlled Bethlehem, to draw water for their thirsty king. David, so humbled by their act of devotion, couldn’t bear to drink the water and instead poured it as an offering to the Lord. Surely, these men must have strong men, trained in the arts of war. But more importantly, they were men of God, devoted to God’s annointed, King David. Through their devotion, God was gracious to aid them in their battles. It was this same devotion, that led them to sneak into a camp where they would have been surrounded and outnumbered, to serve their king.

Are we so devoted to God, that we would have the same heart? To go into midst of trials, hardship, and even danger, to serve our King in Heaven? How sad we are these days. Someone annoys us and we have cause to complain. We have a hard day at work and we have cause to complain. Serving a brother or sister out of our inconvenience, and we have cause to complain. Oh what the church would be like, if the men would today would be as devoted to Christ their king, as David’s men were to him.

 

Christian “Clothes”

Taken from Colossians 3. These are definitely things I can seek improvement for in my life.

Humility – When I think of humility, I think of being broken before God. It comes with knowing I have nothing special to offer to God or anyone else. There is nothing to magnify about myself. In fact, because God is good and He is in control of my life; the only thing I really have reason to magnify is Him.

Gentleness/Meekness – To be gentle is to withhold harshness. It is to have a demeanor that is peaceable and comforting. This is something I can work on. There is no reason to be harsh for God is abundantly graceful to us.

Patience – To be patient according to the Bible is to be long-suffering. And long-suffering means exactly as it implies. It conveys a heart that is willing to endure hardship or anguish for a really long time. Are you patient when someone bothers you consistently? Are we patient when waiting for God to answer our prayers, especially those times when we’re absolutely broken and struggling to see hope? We can only be patient when we understand that God is patient with our sins, and that He is good and always takes care of His children.

Back

Haven’t posted on this blog in a while…but I’m going to get back into it.

I decided that I wanted to have some personal “business cards” to place on my desk, with a decidedly Christian theme to them. I’m hoping that the design would be a good conversation started into sharing my testimony.

Retreat Reflections: Scandalous Grace Part 1

The first message of retreat focused on Matthew 22:1-14. In this passage of Scripture, Christ teaches that the kingdom of heaven is like a royal wedding feast, in which the king has invited everyone on the streets, rich or poor, to participate in. Everything in the feast has already been prepared, all the guests simply had to do was come.

This wedding feast is the Christian life. God invites us to the wedding feast. The feast has already been prepared. We, as the guests, need simply to come and enjoy the feast. It’s scandalous because we haven’t done anything to merit an invitation to the wedding feast. God invites us by His grace.

Sometimes, we focus on working too much as Christians, even when we understand that we are saved by faith alone. This focus on working can be subtle, such as fear of failing to be a good Christian. How is it that we can subtly fall into acting as if we’re saved by works? Perhaps it’s because we often look at our deeds as a measure of our spiritual health. Thus we try to be good Christians by doing good deeds to in an effort to show ourselves as being spiritually healthy. While it’s true that spiritually healthy Christians will be moved to do good deeds, good deeds are not a sure fire indicator of our spiritual health. They can be done for the wrong reasons.

This inevitably leads to examining one’s heart attitude. Are we doing our good deeds to show that we are healthy? Or are we doing them as a an outflowing of the joy of our salvation? But we understand it’s a good thing to desire to be a good Christian, a good obedient child of God. How do we reconcile being desiring to be a healthy, obedient child of God versus not living for works?

To be continued…