Solomon Was a Bullfrog

I don't know what "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" means, but since it was used in a now-classic song, I think I can hijack the phrase, act like I know what it means, and use it here. But I digress.

Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 2:3-5 (NASB): "For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God."

Good stuff. If you want discernment, then you need to have to have understading, as well. Often I'll ask God to give me knowledge so that I can have the wisdom to know what to do with it.

I thought about the fact that this was written by a guy who wound up having hundreds of concubines (a Biblical word for permanent ladies of the evening) later in life, and he eventually drifted away from the Lord. It's noteworthy that this wasn't just written by Solomon; it was given to him by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16). It was "God-breathed," as one translation puts it.

Now, if I were in God's place, I'd probably have avoided speaking through a guy that I knew would wind up like Solomon did. And I probably would have given David a miss, too, given the fact that he had an affair that led to murder. Moses killed a man out of rage before God used him in a historically huge way. Paul had a violent history, Peter swore that he never knew Christ, and Matthew the Apostle probably constantly swindled people out of money before he met Christ.

Apply, lather, rinse, and repeat.

Wouldn't it have made sense -- I mean, if God really wanted His Word to be taken seriously -- for Him to have chosen only men and women of spotless, impeccable reputation to deliver it? I mean, surely there were some Billy Graham-types in those days, like Enoch, who never wrote Scripture, or maybe Noah. (But Noah wound up getting really drunk at one point, and the story gets worse from there...)

But the fact is that God chose people who were flawed, many times even more flawed than those around them, to deliver His eternal Words. This gives me great hope!

When these men had a right relationship with God, He spoke to them and through them. Of course I'm not suggesting that God is going to use me to write some new Scripture, but I can see that regardless of what I've done in the past (or even what I might do in the future), I have the opportunity to hear God speak. I have the opportunity for Him to use me to be His hands and feet. I have the opportunity to speak His words to someone who needs to hear them.

Don't get caught up in wishing that you had been a better person, or maybe that you'd been "sold out to God" earlier in life. Be grateful that God is willing to start fresh with you -- to speak to you and even to use your life -- right where you are at the moment you surrender to Him.

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pleasing god

Here are three accounts from the Bible that show men making decisions which reflect their heart and their outlook on life:

First is David, after his son Absolom has crowned himself king and much of Israel supports him. Rather than put up a fight, David takes his advisors (and a contingent of foreign soldiers from Gath who want to follow him) and leaves Jerusalem in an effort to save lives, among other things.

Then the king instructed Zadok [a priest] to take the Ark of God back into the city. “If the Lord sees fit,” David said, “he will bring me back to see the Ark and the Tabernacle again. But if he is through with me, then let him do what seems best to him.” - 2 Samuel 15:25-26 (NLT)

Second is Job, after his sons and daughters have been killed in a catastrophe:

[Job] said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,

and I will be naked when I leave.

The Lord gave me what I had,
and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”
- Job 1:21 (NLT)

Third is Jesus, as He's about to begin the worst physical time of His life:

He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” - Mark 14:35-36 (NLT)

Do you see a common theme?

God apparently saw something. Here's what was said about each of these men:

David: After removing Saul, [God] made David [Israel's] king. He testified concerning him: "I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do." - Acts 13:22 (NLT)

Job: Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause.” - Job 2:3 (NLT)

Jesus: And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." - Matthew 3:17 (NLT)

I'm not suggesting that the only reason that God said this of His Son was because Jesus always resigned Himself to do His Father's will. I'm not going for a theological debate. I'm simply looking at some common threads in how each of these men (one more than simply a man) lived life, and the way God saw each of them. I'm also not suggesting that we can somehow purchase God's love by doing things. However, The Word clearly teaches that there is a direct connection between how how we live and how pleased God is with us (not how much He loves us).

If I truly want God to look at me and say, "I'm extremely pleased with Dean," then one of the things I can't miss is that I must resign myself to completely trust that God will lead me, and follow Him over each peak and through each valley, to not fight against every negative circumstance, but rather understand that He will bring about a purpose (or has already done so) in allowing me to go through it.

Incidentally, all of this certainly runs counter to prosperity theology, and I'm reminded of friend and commenter Preston's comment a couple of weeks ago where he referred to this eye-opening editorial-style cartoon:

I'm unfortunately unable to properly attribute this image. If you know its origin (other than being posted at a ton of other blogs), please let me know.

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save me from myself?

This morning I set my coffee cup on top of a three-ring binder that was on a table in the den (or whatever the proper word is for that room). It wasn't one of those with the huge 2" or 3" spine, but there was an incline to it, so my coffee cup was sitting there at an angle. As I stood next to it and put my houseshoes on, I said a short, silent prayer: "Lord, please don't allow that coffee cup to fall." I knew that if it fell it would wake my daughter, who'd slept on the pull-out bed in the den thingy room.

It struck me pretty much instantly that if I do something that intentionally invokes the results of the law of gravity in a bad way, it's a little silly to ask God to adjust the laws of nature for a few minutes while I put my shoes on.

To be sure, I thought there was a pretty good chance that the coffee cup wouldn't slide off and crash to the floor. Otherwise I wouldn't have put it there. But I thought it was a pretty good insurance policy to ask God to take up the slack.

Here's where I think that we Christians are prone to take verses out of context. "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." (1 John 5:14, NASB) Could I have confidence that God would hear my prayer and respond the way I asked Him to?

Maybe you've offered such prayers as, "Lord, I'm so late because I had to change clothes because I didn't like that other shirt. Please help me get there on time," or "Please don't let the computer lock up on me before I send this e-mail, even though I don't run antivirus software and haven't defragged in three years." Things like this and my goofy coffee-cup prayer are instances in which we ask God to take up the slack of our own stupidity or lack of planning and preparation.

I'm talking about the things that are obviously nuts, but it goes even deeper than this. Very often we will do things a certain way, out of the will of God or without so much as a thought about Christ, and then ask God to make the results turn out in an unlikely way.

If we've spent the whole day living outside of God's will, it's a misconception to think that He will wrap all of the day's events up in a way that glosses over our intentional wrong actions and say to us, "No problem. Well done, my good and faithful servant!"

Many times, praise God, He is merciful and gracious in these situations. But remember the resounding words of the psalmists and prophets like Jeremiah (I paraphrase from many different passages): I have been faithful to walk in Your ways, Lord. Please remember your servant and protect me from calamity and those who would harm me. (have a look at Psalm 58 and Psalm 91, for instance.) Looking at Scripture, I don't believe we can hope for the latter without having done the former.

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didn't you get the memo?

I have some new propaganda... er, material that I've been working on. Upcoming posts are going to be exciting!

I think that it's a rite of passage for a blogger to make a post entitled "Changes," so I'm looking forward to that one. Timing will be somewhat of an issue, as will the organization of my thoughts. I want to give plenty of information, but not so much that you'll think I'm nuts. This happened at a meeting I had with my team last week, and I regret it. My talk should have been highly focused but I thought some brainstorming would be good. It really wasn't.

For today's post, I was reading an account of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, threatening Judah in Isaiah 37. God's message to Sennacherib says, "Yes, look at you... You've conquered surrounding kingdoms." He injects a stinging humorous comment at the end of the passage below.

Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?
Against whom did you raise your voice?
At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?
It was the Holy One of Israel!

By your messengers you have defied the Lord.
You have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have conquered the highest mountains—
yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars
and its finest cypress trees.
I have reached its farthest heights
and explored its deepest forests.

I have dug wells in many foreign lands
and refreshed myself with their water.
With the sole of my foot,
I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’

But have you not heard?
I decided this long ago.
Long ago I planned it,
and now I am making it happen.
I planned for you to crush fortified cities
into heaps of rubble.
- Isaiah 37:23-26 (NLT)

I love the question in bold type above. I think a great modern paraphrase would be, "Didn't you get the memo?"

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Phillip, the Ethiopian, and Quantum Physics

We can make our plans,
    but the Lord determines our steps.
Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
    He delights in every detail of their lives.
Psalm 37:23 (NLT)

I had a very "Phillip and the Ethiopian" experience yesterday. I won't go into it because I fear that describing it would paint the other people involved as pawns in a game of "How God is Growing Dean" (I think this is something like what happens in quantum physics -- to oversimplify, when observed, particles behave differently than when they're not being observed). That's not at all how it was, but I don't want to risk giving it that flavor.

After a morning spent praying, "Lord, please use me to be Your hands and feet," "Give me words to speak if or when necessary," "Touch Your world through me," and similar prayers, I had gone somewhere to do one particular thing, feeling unusually compelled to do it but not sure exactly why. When it was all over, it dawned on me that it hadn't just been that thing that God had for me to do. It was a "Weird, so You actually had me here to do that!" moment.

After the experience, I didn't receive any special reward or accolades, but I came out of it thinking, "Oh, wow. The Creator just used me for something I couldn't possibly have planned." As I mentioned not too long ago, the reward for service for the King is simply the fact that we have the privilege of doing service for the King! It is at once both a humbling and an uplifting reward.

I wonder how often God uses us and we fail to see it or acknowledge it. Sometimes I don't believe the result of "the mission of the day" is meant for us to know, but other times I believe we simply don't open our eyes to see it. Worse, we may, by choice, not be allowing God to put us into situations where He would prefer to use us.

I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself,
Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
Jeremiah 10:23 (NASB)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

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