The Mad King

There was a young shepherd boy who would be king. I imagine as this young boy stood day after day looking after his sheep he spent time talking to his God. He knew God’s protection and faithfulness while alone in the pastures. He knew it was God who watched over him when he killed the lion, the bear and even a giant!

Things changed the day he killed that giant. The boy’s whole life changed. He went from watching over the flocks to serving in the court of the king.

Can you imagine what a change that must have been? Do you think he ever wondered about God's plan for his life? He had been told he would be king, so why did he now serve the king? And a mad king at that!

The days could have been confusing for him, or did he trust his God so completely that he understood this was part of the plan? Do you think he ever thought about his sheep? Did he desire to go back where it was safer, quieter than the court of a mad king?

I suppose it’s possible to imagine it to be a good place to be at the time. Wondering what new and wonderful thing God might do. The young boy grew in favor of the king and the kings’ son. The boy became like family. Maybe he considered himself blessed by God for taking him out of the pastures and placing him in the court of a king. Was there ever any doubt in his mind as he served the king?

This boy, a shepherd was told he would be king. Do you think he wondered just how God was going to make him king? Or did he just follow in obedience that path which his God led him on?

I wonder what went through his mind as the king’s favor turned on him and the king began to hunt him down with the spear. He had grown up in the court, sat at the table of the king and now he wanted to kill him? Was this truly part of God’s plan? How was God to make him king if he was dead?

I wonder if this boy understood that God was in the process of teaching him submission and brokenness. This boy loved his Lord God and desired to follow Him. To be pursued by your friend as if you were an enemy must have been difficult. There had to be times of doubt and depression, of wondering if he heard God correctly.

Was he really to be king?

This boy understood more than most boys do.

The king was delivered into the hands of the boy several times, he had opportunity to kill the king but did not. But why not? He could have thought “It was God’s plan for him to be killed so that the boy could be king”. The boy understood something that many of us do not. He understood that you do not raise a hand against God’s anointed.

The king was mad and God no longer with him, but he was still God’s anointed. If God places His anointed over you and he seeks to destroy you it does not give you the right to turn around and destroy him. What this young man may or may not have realized is that it is often the unbroken, mad king, who God sovereignly picks, to teach us submission and brokenness.

I learned a valuable lesson while reading about this boy who would be king. He understood what many of us today do not understand. God sometimes places us in kingdoms with mad spear throwing kings. We want to run and hide, we want to fight back, we want everyone to know about this king gone mad. But remember what this boy said in the midst of being in such a kingdom. He said “ Don't destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? As surely as the Lord lives the Lord himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.”(1 Sam 26:9-11)

The question then is “how do we know we are in a kingdom of a mad king or not”? We can not know, only God knows for sure. Some may think they know but they do not, God does not tell. God asks us to live in the kingdom of a mad king. But what about the spears, do we just stand there and get pierced? Yes, as hard as it seems we do for God has anointed that king over us for a season and a sovereign reason at that.

Some may be thinking at the moment, “Are you mad?” But ask yourself this question, “Can you be so sure that your king is a mad king and not a man after God’s heart that you’d be willing to kill him?” If you are then remember another time when a man thought to be mad was crucified.

 

Many years ago I read the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. It had a huge impact on the way I now view the leaders God places over me. Whether it be Pastors, Elders or Presidents. Today as I finished my readings through 1 and 2 Samuel I thought of that book along with the example David gives us in his attitude toward Saul. So I sat down and wrote the above.

When Adversity Knocks

 

 

ad·ver·si·ty -a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress: an adverse or unfortunate event or circumstance.   Synonyms: catastrophe, disaster; trouble, misery, tribulation, calamity, affliction, adversity, misfortune, trial

Adversity hits everyone. If you are alive then you have, or will at some point, face trouble in your life. It comes in all different forms, from different places, at different times and for different reasons.

Some people seem to have entire seasons of adversity. Some will have a short onset of trouble that seems to pass quickly.

As I have been thinking about the role that adversity plays in our lives I have been reminded that while we have little to no control when or how it comes we do have control over how we react.

Will you (or I) allow it to destroy you/me? Will we destroy others in the process? Will it weaken us? Make us stronger? Will we choose to lash out and hurt others because we have been hurt?

My prayer is that adversity would make me more like Christ. Regardless of how or why it comes I want to react in such a way that it leaves me better for having gone through it. I also want to leave others around me better for having walked with me. I want those around me to be encouraged as they see me live through adversity.

I want my life to be a life of righteousness. To be a life that glorifies God. I want to be a child of God that welcomes the refiners fire, knowing as it  is said in Malachi 3:3 that “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness…”

I desire my character to be as such that when the refiner’s fire comes I will walk through it in a way that testifies to how big my God is. “O, Father I pray I would walk with my eyes fully on You! I pray that ‘in my day of trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me!” Ps 86:7

May this be true of me. May it be true of you. No matter whether it’s Satan asking to “sift us as wheat” (Luke 22:31), the fire of the refiner (Jer 9:7, Zech 13:9) or seemingly unfair circumstance that comes into our life may we all cry out to our Father who hears and answers us.

How will you choose to walk through adversity? Will you come through purified, leaving a sweet smelling aroma? Will you call on the name of Jesus?

Or will you allow it to harden your heart or destroy you and those around you? Will you try to handle it in your own strength and fight the battle in your own way?

I want to encourage you with the words from “Call on Jesus” by Nicole C. Mullen

But when I call on Jesus
All things are possible
I can mount on wings like eagles and soar
When I call on Jesus
Mountains are gonna fall
'Cause He'll move heaven
And earth to come rescue me when I call

Call Him in the mornin'
In the afternoon time
Late in the evenin'
He'll be there
When your heart is broken
And you feel discouraged
You can just remember that He said
He'll be there

A Life Lived

Dreams dreamed.

Hope whispered.

Promises spoken.

Joy felt.

Love embraced.

A life lived.

 

Dreams forgotten.

Hope lost.

Promises broken.

Sorrow comes.

Love rejected.

A life lived.

 

We dream of Heaven.

Our HOPE.

Our PROMISE.

Our JOY.

Our LOVE.

Jesus is life.

Destroying Idols

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 Jn 5:21 (NIV)

More than anything my heart desires greater intimacy with my Father in heaven. My heart cries out for it, longs for it.

My theme, my verse for last year was Hebrews 12:1-2 and can I just say honestly that I struggled mightily with what I needed to strip off or what sin was hindering my intimacy with God. I prayed, cried out to God to show me. I wanted to know. I longed to know. There was nothing. Silence.

I would do what Hebrews said and fix my eyes on Jesus, but it wasn’t working. It wasn’t enough. Can I be honest? Can I say what many often feel but are afraid to speak? He wasn’t enough. There it’s said, it’s in black and white and as I write it I know the truth behind it. It’s a lie. A sinful lie, an idol lie.

He is enough. That is truth. I know it. I do. At least in my head and most times in my heart. And this is the crux of the issue. This is the sin that hinders. It took all year to see it, but these last couple  of weeks have been huge in opening my eyes thanks to a friend who sent me the book Idol Lies: Facing the Truth about our Deepest Desires by Dee Brestin. I am only half way through but as I’ve been reading it God has been speaking to my heart. LOUDLY. The blinders are coming off and I am seeing the truth of my idols.

God spoke loudly when I read “Every believer needs to be set free, and it begins with getting past our denial, with seeing what we really idolize, and admitting this to God and to others. We may think, for example, that our deepest desire is for God, but in reality we are running to food, friendship, or Facebook to fill up our souls. We may think that our identity is in Christ, but in reality it may be in the success of our ministry, mothering, or marriage.”(1)

My idol will not be a surprise to those who know me well. In fact as I shared with my husband he smiled with a knowing smile and confirmed what I have been feeling. Too often I look to others and other things to fill that which only God can. Instead of running to God I run to others.

I long to be loved, accepted, wanted and no person can fill those needs. Only God can. But instead of running to God I turn to anything but Him.

“God knows that the stones in our hearts are painful. They destroy relationships and ministries and keep us from experiencing Him. When He sees the stones in our hearts, He is grieved. He wants to remove them so that life can flow.” (2)

This is where I am headed. I need to allow God to destroy the idols. To expose and remove them. Therefore I will be taking a break from all social media including my blog for the month of January. It could be longer I do not know. I do know I will wait upon the Lord to show me when to return. I am giving up all these things not so much because I believe ALL of social media is an idol in my life, but I don’t want anything to tempt me or keep me from hearing from God.

I do not want my heart to be divided. I want my heart to be pure before God. This leads me to my verses for 2013.

"The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord ’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. Psalms 24:1-6 NLT

Even as I write this my heart wonders what you will think. Will lose “followers”? Friends? Those that I have come to know and love? But God reminds me I only need to trust Him. Trust. Why does it always come back to that. To trust Him with all my life, my relationships.

I would appreciate and welcome your prayers. And those who are friends with me around the web feel free to keep me accountable if you “see” me before February. I will still answer email, so if you need to you can contact me there.

I am so thankful for each of you and wish you a Happy New Year. See you in February.

 

(1)Brestin, Dee (2012-09-11). Idol Lies: Facing the Truth About Our Deepest Desires (p. 6). Ingram Distribution. Kindle Edition

(2)Ibid., (p. 13)