December 18th: A Good King

2 Samuel 5:1-4

David Becomes King Over Israel

5 All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’”

3 When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

David was born a shepherd.  He came from a family of farmers and herders and yet he had the heart of King.   What does it mean to have the heart of a king?  The highest standard of a truly great king is to be a man who serves both God and country.  David did both.  From yesterday’s reading we learned that David had complete faith and confidence in his God and was fiercely offended when anyone thought themselves greater than the God of Israel.  He led the people  with zeal and taught them to love and serve God with the same kind of unfaltering faith that he had.  He taught them to forget what it looked like and dance and worship God with everything within you. And because God was with him, the people of Israel trusted David and they followed him.  They would follow him and fight beside him because they knew David did not fight for vain glory, no David fought for the glory of God and the good of his people. 

But as good as he was, David also made mistakes and what made David a truly great king was his humility before God.  When he did the wrong thing, David admitted it to God and asked for God’s forgiveness.   When he made selfish, wrong-hearted choices, it felt uncomfortable and sad to David because he wanted to be close to God.  He didn’t want sin to cause a distance between he and the Lord.

David would rescue his people from self-importance (thinking what you want it the only thing that matters) and unite them. Under David, they would truly see themselves as God’s people unlike any other time in their history.  David loved God and country, and God and country loved David.  Is it any wonder that when our rescuer Jesus was to be born, God chose the descendants of David to be his family?  With complete faith in God and complete love for His people, Jesus would be the King of all Kings!

How will you be known in your life?  Will others know you for your love of God and love of others or does your life show that other things are more important to you?  Just like David you have the opportunity to do great things for God, but first you must swallow your pride and learn to be a humble leader.

Discussion Questions:

1. David did not have to be perfect in every way to be beloved by God.  Do you ever feel like you have to be perfect to be loved?

2. By God’s standard, to be great is to love God and love one another.  Have you done both of these things well this week?

Family Activity:  David confessed his sins before God and felt truly sorry for what he had done.  Take some time as a family to silently pray to God for forgiveness for the times today or this week that you have chosen sin over God’s way.

Prayer for the World: Pray for the Christian club among the engineering students at a local university, UGM.  Pray that their leaders would be convinced of the need to prepare all of the members to share the Good News with their unbelieving classmates and begin discipling those they win themselves.

December 17th: Face Your Giants

1Samual 17:4-10, 33 & 40-50

“ 4-7 A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine army line into the open, Goliath from Gath. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor—126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence rail—the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.

8-10 Goliath stood there and called out to the Israelite troops, “Why bother using your whole army? Am I not Philistine enough for you? And you’re all committed to Saul, aren’t you? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll all become our slaves and serve us. I challenge the troops of Israel this day. Give me a man. Let us fight it out together!”

33 Saul answered David, “You can’t go and fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperienced—and he’s been at this fighting business since before you were born.”…Saul said, “Go. And God help you!” 40 Then David took his shepherd’s staff, selected five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s pack, and with his sling in his hand approached Goliath.

41-42 As the Philistine paced back and forth, his shield bearer in front of him, he noticed David. He took one look down on him and sneered—a mere youngster, apple-cheeked and peach-fuzzed. 43 The Philistine ridiculed David. “Am I a dog that you come after me with a stick?” And he cursed him by his gods. 44 “Come on,” said the Philistine. “I’ll make roadkill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice.”

45-47 David answered, “You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I’m about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!”

48-49 That roused the Philistine, and he started toward David. David took off from the front line, running toward the Philistine. David reached into his pocket for a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine hard in the forehead, embedding the stone deeply. The Philistine crashed, facedown in the dirt. 50 That’s how David beat the Philistine—with a sling and a stone. He hit him and killed him. No sword for David!”

Have you ever noticed how unexpectedly God saves his people? No one thought a baby once floating in a basket would save the Hebrew people from slavery.  No one could have expected that a Joseph, a young brother sold into slavery would be used by God to save his family and his people; and who could have believed that the Savior of the world would  be born in stable and laid in a manger! 

In today’s story who would have guessed, that another leaf, another child, another rescuer would come from the youngest, smallest, son of Jesse!  David would be one of the very first branches on that wonderful, mysterious Tree of Jesse!

Yes David, a young, baby faced, teenage boy would be the next in line to save his people.  This time the people of Israel had come up against two giants. One was a giant Philistine army and the other was a literal giant of a man.  To say they were scared would be like saying I hate spiders…a huge understatement!  They were frightened, scared, terrified, horrified, but the worst of it was that they were shamed.

Every time that giant stepped onto the battlefield, he cursed at the army of Israel and he cursed about their God!  He thought he was the biggest, baddest game in town and God’s children, HIS chosen people that God had SWORN to love and protect, just stood there afraid.  The grandchildren and great grandchildren of the people who had literally been marched through the sea that God parted right down the middle for them to escape Pharaoh’s army, were now trembling at the thought of fighting one giant.  Instead of being fighting mad about the rancid words spewing from that giant’s mouth about their one and only God, they were offering a reward to anyone willing to face Goliath.  The king even promised one of his princess daughters and no taxes for the rest of their families’ lives to the one man brave enough to stand against Goliath.

When young David heard about this reward, he asked “What’s in it for the man who kills that Philistine and gets rid of this ugly blot on Israel’s honor? Who does he think he is, anyway, this uncircumcised Philistine, taunting the armies of God-Alive?” In other words David was asking “where is your righteous anger men of God?”  In David’s eyes, the reward for killing the giant was getting rid of the shame that this foul-mouthed villain had caused God’s people.

You see, the special thing about David was not that he was bigger or stronger or even smarter than any of the other men of Israel, the thing about David was that he had absolute, complete, unwavering and willful confidence in the power of God! Could he defeat this giant…NO!  Could the Army of Israel defeat this giant…NO!  Could Yahweh the One and Only God defeat this giant…YES!  

And that’s just what happened!  This kid, full of righteous anger, had it out for the man who had bad mouthed his God and he knew that through him, GOD would take Goliath down!  No need for armor or a sword and shield, just five smooth stones and absolute confidence that when he sent that rock flying, that God would bring him the victory.  And God did.  That foul mouthed giant took a rock to the forehead and fell flat on his face!

Do you have that kind of confidence in Jesus?  Do you believe that when you serve in the name of God amazing things can happen?  Did you know that God needs big and small rescuers?  All you need are eyes to see the need and injustice around you and then the confidence that God can use you to save those who are hurting and shamed.  We are not meant to cower while others suffer.  You don’t even need the stones, you just need to trust your powerful God.  What rescuer's dream do you have?  No matter if you dream to rescue someone from hunger or hurt or bullying or loneliness, your faith can give your dreams flight if you fully trust and have confidence in your rescuer, Jesus Christ.

Discussion Questions:

1.  What made David so special that he believed he could face down a giant.

2.  Sometimes bad situations or the hurts of others are the giants that need to be faced in our lives.  Can you think of some of those kinds of giants in your life?

Family Activity:  Color your ornament for day 14 and talk about how your family might be able to face a giant together.  How could you possibly use your time or money at Christmas to serve as rescuers in the name of God?

Prayer for the World: Pray that arguments against the Bible’s reliability would be debunked.  The majority faith believes the Bible has been corrupted by its translators.  

December 16: Light it Up Elijah

1 Kings 18:36-39(MSG)

36-37 When it was time for the sacrifice to be offered, Elijah the prophet came up and prayed, “O God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I’m doing what I’m doing under your orders. Answer me, God; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are God, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.”

38 Immediately the fire of God fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

39 All the people saw it happen and fell on their faces in awed worship, exclaiming, “God is the true God! God is the true God!”

Elijah was a prophet, a messenger for God.  Once again, the people of Israel had wandering hearts.  They saw the prophets of Baal with their fancy robes and jewels and the cow made of pure Gold that they worshipped and served and the Hebrew people thought surely there must be something amazing about this God.  So they worshipped Baal along with their king and their lives and hearts became all knotted up and twisty.  In fact their hearts were so tightly knotted, that no message from the God of Israel could even touch their hearts.  They had fallen in love with a God that was nothing more than a hunk of metal and they couldn’t be changed, in fact anytime God sent a messenger to warn the people to repent, they just killed the messenger.  It was a childish act that came from hearts that had too long served what was not real.

In this story Elijah commanded King Ahab to gather all the prophets of Baal and then he, Elijah, would present a challenge: The first prophet to call down fire from heaven to burn up the offering  to God that was on the alter would win the people’s hearts.

And so the prophets of Baal danced and chanted and even cried to their god for days, but nothing happened.  Next Elijah got his chance, and just to prove God’s point he told them to pour water all over the offering.  Then  Elijah called on our God and fire came from heaven and burnt up the offering, the stones the water and even the dirt around the altar.

Sometimes our hearts are distracted.  We see the world with it’s beautiful shiny new things and we get a bad case of the gimmee’s.  In fact, sometimes we think somehow we DESERVE these things.  If other people don’t have these shiny new things and we do, sometimes somewhere deep, deep down in our hearts that dark little glimmer of sin that wants to come out, convinces us that we are better than the people that don’t have them.  We begin to pat ourselves on the back for our shiny new things even when we didn’t do anything to deserve them.

But shiny new things can’t love us.  Shiny new things can’t make us happy.  Shiny new things could care less about our day and our problems.  Shiny new things just don’t care…because the things we think we have and are when we have shiny new things just aren’t real. Yes, you can hold them, but their newness and use don't last for long.

Shiny new things will break, fall apart and go out of style but our God won’t.  Our God will always hear our prayers.  Our God will always hurt when we are hurting and bring us comfort when we struggle.  Our God will always love us and our God’s love never goes out of style. “Things” aren’t necessarily bad, but they are definitely not worthy of all of our time and devotion.

This Christmas will you worship shiny new things or will you allow God’s love to bring you back to a stable and a baby who would grow into the Savior who would rescue us all?  This Christmas, chose wisely whom you will give your heart to.

Discussion Questions:  

1. Why do you think the people of God chose to worship Baal?

2. Why do you think that sometimes we think about our things more than we think about God?

3. What can you do to make sure that Jesus gets first place in your life?

Family Activity:   

Each family member make a list of three things that you want for Christmas.  Share that list with your family and then make a list of three reason you have to praise God today.  Which list seems more important?

Sorry for any confusion

I'm very sorry for any confusion but some of the posts that I prescheduled did not show up the last two days.  I will try to catch us back up.  I apologize for any inconvenience.  Technology...urr.

December 13th: Wake Up and Speak Up

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (NLT)

The Lord Speaks to Samuel

3 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle[a] near the Ark of God. 4 Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” 5 He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.

6 Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!”

Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”

7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. 8 So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

Samuel had been a gift from God to his mother.  She had cried and prayed for a son so that she would not be shamed by other women, and as God does, he heard Hannah’s prayer and she gave birth to Samuel.

But Hannah had also made a promise.  She promised that if God would give her a son, when he was old enough, Hannah would give him back to God to serve in the temple. Hannah kept her promise and gave Samuel to Eli, the temple priest, when he was old enough to help him.  

Eli was a good man, but he had very bad sons.  They had chosen again and again to take offerings meant for God and use them for themselves.  They treated women badly, cheated the people who came to worship, generally showed major disrespect for God and kind of just thought God was going to take it because they were priests.  But God saw past their priestly clothes and saw that their hearts were clothed in sin and darkness.  God knew that Eli was blind to his son’s evil ways and that he would have to use someone that Eli and God trusted to bring him the message that this evil could no longer take place in God’s temple.

So God spoke to Samuel in the middle of the night. Three times, God called Samuel’s name and between each time that God called him, Samuel would go to Eli to see what he wanted because he did not understand that it was the voice of God calling him.  But Eli, who had once known what it was like to hear God calling him, told Samuel to go back to his room and when God called him, to say the very words that Samuel did say: “Speak Lord for Your Servant is Listening.”

And with those seven words, Samuel would become a prophet of the almighty.  A prophet is someone who brings a special message from God to God’s people.  Samuel’s first message would be sad news for Eli, and Samuel would hate to tell him, but sometimes it is hard to serve God.  God never promised us that loving and serving Him would be easy, but He did promise to be with us every step of our journey of service to Him.

God has a message that he wants you to carry to his people.  In the book of Acts, Paul tells us that God’s sons and daughters will bring  a message from the Lord.  It is a special blessing to bring God’s message to the world, but to get the blessing you must first say “Speak Lord for YOUR servant is listening” and then wait to see what amazing and sometime hard  things God has in store for your life!

Discussion Questions:

 1.     Has anyone ever had to tell you something that was hard to hear but you knew they were right?

 2.     Are you willing to to be like Samuel and say “Speak Lord your servant is listening”, even if it              means you might have to do and say things that aren't easy?

Family Activity:  Decorate your ornament for day 13 and share a time when someone shared the truth with you and it helped you to become a better person.

Prayer for the World: Pray for average Christians and those most skilled in apologetics as they defend the faith daily.

December 12th: Bitter and Beloved

Ruth 2:11

Now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech. 2 One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”

Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead.” 3 So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech. 4 While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. “The Lord be with you!” he said.“The Lord bless you!” the harvesters replied.

5 Then Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?”

6 And the foreman replied, “She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. 7 She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes’ rest in the shelter.”

8 Boaz went over and said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don’t go to any other fields. Stay right behind the young women working in my field. 9 See which part of the field they are harvesting, and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.”Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him,

“Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God ofIsrael, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!

Have you ever been so hungry it hurt?  Have you ever wondered where your next meal might come from?  Have you ever had to depend on the kindness of a stranger for your very survival? Ruth knew what all of theses things felt like.  Her husband, his brother and her Father-in-Law had died and Ruth needed someone to care for her.  She could have returned to her father and probably have had everything she needed, but instead, Ruth saw that SHE was needed.  

Ruth's Mother-in-Law, Naomi, had no one left to take care of her.  She had no husband, no sons, and no father to return to.  All that she knew to do was to go back to the land that her husband was from and keep her fingers crossed that some of his cousins would take care of her.  She told her Daughter-in-Laws to return to their families, but Ruth would not hear of it.  Rather than being cared for by her family, Ruth knew that God was calling her to care for Naomi, and that wasn’t an easy task.  Naomi was a sad, bitter woman. She had lost her husband and sons and she was angry at the world.  This was not how her life was supposed to turn out, and she was not shy about admitting her unhappiness.  In fact, she changed her name to Mara, which means bitter.

So Ruth had to walk miles and miles back to Israel with Mrs. Bitter and you can be sure it wasn’t a happy road trip, but Ruth did it, not because she had to, but because even in her own grief, Ruth could see that Naomi needed her. Ruth loved Naomi, so there was no question in Ruth’s mind that she would take care of her. 

It was probably one downer of a journey, but in this new land of Israel, Ruth would have to  start over.  She had no money, no home and no experience being on her own, but knowing that she was acting out of loyalty and love, God chose to bless Ruth.  

God sent Ruth the food she needed and even provided her with a husband named Boaz.  Because she cared more for others than herself, God would use Ruth to start the family tree of Jesse.  Yes, Jesse was Ruth’s grandson, and from his family would come great kings like David but even greater than a king, Jesus the son of God would be born into Joseph’s family, and into he family line of Ruth and Jesse.  Because she put herself last, Ruth would become one of the first and only women listed in the family tree of Jesus.  Ruth’s kindness would never be forgotten by God or God’s people.

Discussion Questions:

 1.   What might God do for you if you don’t always think of yourself first and instead look around to see those in need around you?  God has a blessing waiting for those who do good for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do.

2.     Who is someone that you feel like God might be calling you to sacrifice your time to help?

Family Activity:  Set a date this week to help someone like Ruth helped Naomi.  Perhaps you could rake leaves, offer to bring them a meal that your family could make together,  or even write them a note of encouragement.  Sometimes the greatest help is being encouraged to continue serving God even when you think no one is looking.

Prayer for the World: Pray that the Holy Spirit would refute the arguments against Christ’s divinity that those of the majority faith believe and assert.

December 11th: When You Run Into A Wall

Joshua 6:1-5

Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. 2 But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. 3 You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

The story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho seems almost like an awesome warrior fairytale, but it isn’t a fairytale.  It is the story of God working on the side of His people to bring them victory.  You see, when God is on our side, amazing things can happen, in fact, “nothing is impossible with God”.  Joshua had been a faithful servant of God and God had called him to be a mighty warrior. Joshua was willing to put his life on the line in obedience to God, and God had a BIG problem for Him to handle.  The problem was as big as a city and as tall as the tallest building it was…A WALL. 

But God, always one to do the unexpected, wanted to use Joshua and the Hebrew people to show God’s  power and that GOD was in control over all things.  How would the Almighty show he was, well, almighty? By giving his chosen people of Isreal the victory without the people having to raise a sword. In fact the only things they had to raise were their trumpets and their voices.  The Hebrew people were outnumbered, out-weaponed, and had a giant wall to overcome, but God showed them that their God was their overcomer, their protector and their provider.

Just like Joshua, God wants to bring you victory in your life.  It is not God’s desire that any of his children be shamed, beaten down or embarrassed, but we have to trust God to bring us the victory.  When we trust God and bring him our worries, concerns and troubles he takes care of them in HIS power.  God chooses justice over revenge, peace over violence, healing over war and a baby born in a stable over a warrior king to save His people.

And maybe God will show us a new meaning of victory.  Perhaps our victory won’t come in the defeat of our enemies, but in a new recognition that the turning of an enemy into a friend is an even greater victory than any battle we can fight with words or fists.

Discussion Questions:

1.     What does it mean to have victory in your life?

2.     Can you think of someone in your life that you might consider          an enemy or rival that you need to ask God to help you have            victory in your relationship with?

Family Activity:  Have each person in your family take time to think about a victory that God has given them in their lives.  Share these victories with one another.

Prayer for the World: Thank God that the rainy season has begun and our friends who farm can begin planting again.  Pray for their livelihood and that they’d realize that as sure as God has sent the rains, he’s sent a Redeemer and Friend.