Bible in 90, Day 31: Faithful in the waiting

1 Chronicles 24 – 2 Chronicles 7

*image courtesy of andreyutzu at www.sxc.hu

Almost 40 years ago, Jerry Falwell had a dream.  He dreamed of a school that would be the Notre Dame of the evangelical world.  He dreamed of a school, right there in his hometown of Lynchburg, that would have the highest Christian moral standards while still offering excellent academics and competing in NCAA sports.  The news reporters at his first press conference laughed aloud.  Undaunted, he continued to explain that this university would one day soar to 25,000 students.  Despite the nay-sayers, he started that school in 1971.  When I enrolled, some 4-5,000 students were on campus and Jerry preached at convocation on a regular basis.  Today, over 11,000 students are on campus, and Jerry Jr. is the new Chancellor.  The school is well on the way of realizing that original goal of 25,000 students on campus, and already offers a wide array of excellent programs, has competitive sports teams, and still upholds a high moral standard.  On May 15, 2007 Jerry died suddenly, in his office, before seeing his full dream come to fruition.

Several hundred years ago, King David had a dream (1 Chronicles 28-29).  He dreamed of building a magnificent Temple to house the Ark of God.  God gave him detailed plans right down to the blueprints and materials list.  Yet, at some point, God told him it wasn’t for him to build.  I can’t discern whether the detailed plans came after this revelation that David would not build the Temple, or before.  Either way, God placed a specific vision in David’s mind about how the Temple would look and even what it was to be made of.

David made ample provision.  He stockpiled the gold, sliver, bronze, iron, and wood that would be necessary to accomplish the task.  He gathered the elders of Israel and told them of the plans for the Temple, and instructed them to support young Solomon in this great task.  He told them about his vision for the construction, the plans God had given him by His Spirit’s instruction, and about all the provisions being laid aside for the right time.

He was faithful in the waiting.

David could have reacted differently.  He could have gotten upset that God had not chosen him for this great task.  He could have been very upset that his son was going to do it instead.  But David agreed with the word of the Lord spoken through Nathan, and submitted himself to God’s plan.  Then he went one further.  He did just about everything but build the Temple.  Instead of growing bitter against his son, Solomon, he helped him on his way.  He shared the vision with Solomon, passing it on to the next generation and preparing them for the task he knew he would never do.

How do we react when things don’t move as fast as we’d like?  Are we faithful in the waiting?  I hear about guys in my seminary all the time who aren’t serving in, or sometimes even attending a local church!  (By the way, this is against the seminary’s policy.)  They are too busy “preparing for the ministry!”  How absurd!  What better way to prepare for the ministry than to serve a local church while studying to lead a local church?  While I was in a period of waiting before I came to the church I currently serve, I got involved in an AWANA program at the church we were temporarily attending so that I could learn all I could about the program because I knew it would probably be a big part of my next ministry.  I got to meet some great kids, and some great leaders!  I know a pastor who is in a time of waiting right now and let me tell you, there’s no moss gathering on that guy!  Not only is he preaching everywhere he can, he and his family decided to set up a booth and do face painting and tell people about Jesus at a local community event.

Faithful in the waiting.

I recently got a call from the youth pastor who came after me at my previous church.  He wanted to tell me that a guy I had shared the gospel with relentlessly for my last nine months at that church had just accepted Christ.  This was more than a year and a half after I’d left.  I worked so hard to share Jesus with him, I prayed for him, we got to know each other pretty well.  He actually stopped coming to church just a few months before I left.  I never got to see him become a Christian, well not directly.  Sometimes, it’s not about that.

Sometimes we must be the ones to stock-pile the gold, silver, and bronze.  Sometimes we’re the one that gets all the nails together, and finds all the marble.  We might not get to see the Temple in all its glory, but we’ve read the floor plans.  We may never see it with our physical eyes, but we can see it by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Let’s be faithful in the waiting.  Let’s trust God to finish whatever plans He may have begun in our lives.  Perhaps we’ll get to see the end result.  Perhaps we’ll never see it even begun.  But God is faithful to complete everything He starts (Philippians 1:6).

Originally at https://wordsofreason.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/bible-in-90-day-31-faithful-in-the-waiting/

Bible in 90, Day 30: Ignorance is no excuse

1 Chronicles 10-23

*image courtesy of my buddy Billy at www.sxc.hu

There was an interesting story today that on the surface can be kind of puzzling.  In 1 Chronicles 13, we read the story of Uzzah’s death after touching the Ark.  At first glance, it appears kind of harsh.  The Ark was being carried along, and everybody’s celebrating before God.  Suddenly, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark so it wouldn’t fall off the cart.  The next thing ya know, he’s been struck dead by God!

Harsh much?

So here’s the thing, this whole situation was wrong from the start.  It seems like everything was going along great and then some guy dies, right?  Wrong.  If you read down to 1 Chronicles 15, you’ll find out that David did some homework while the Ark stayed at the house of Obed-Edom and discovered why Uzzah was killed.  They had not consulted the Lord on how to transport the Ark.  Only the Levites were supposed to carry the Ark (Numbers 4:15; Deuteronomy 10:8).  No one, not even the Levites were to touch the Ark directly.  The Levites only touched the poles that were slid into rings on the side of the Ark, thus never touching the Ark itself.

If David had sought the Lord in the first place, the Ark would have been properly carried by the Levites.  It never would have sat on a cart, and thus would have never been in jeopardy of falling off.  Uzzah would have never reached out his hand to steady it, and thus would not have died that day.

This gets back to the idea of the right worship of God (see Day 8).  Combine this with the concept of God’s revealed will, and you can see what went wrong today.  There was a right and wrong way to worship God for the Israelites.  God had very specific commands on this (as we saw in Leviticus).  In addition, these commands and expectations were clearly laid out in the Law for all to see.  It was negligence of the Word of God which lead to the tragedy we read about today.

The same can happen to us today.  If we neglect God’s Word, the Bible, we can find ourselves in a mess we never saw coming.  We may find ourselves facing the judgment of God for treating something lightly which we didn’t even know about.  We may think skipping out on some taxes is no big deal since we haven’t read and heeded Romans 13:1-5.  We may come to the Lord’s Supper with no thought toward the condition of our heart because we have not read 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.

Let us not be guilty of the sin of neglect.  Much of God’s will for our lives is spelled out clearly in the pages of Scripture.  Let us make reading and study of the Word a habit, as this 90 day challenge is striving to do.  Let us seek the Lord’s instructions, and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to live them out (Ephesians 5:8-10; Galatians 3:10).

Bible in 90, Day 29: So… many… names…

1 Chronicles 1-9

*image courtesy of jaz1111 from www.sxc.hu

Today we read what I like to call the “read-through-the-Bible killer.”  If you’ve ever tried to read through the Bible before, especially on the one year plan, this is probably where you bogged out last time isn’t it?  Nine chapters of genealogies.  Sometimes called “the begats” (see the King James Version of this passage), the genealogies in the Bible are a record of the family lines in Israel.  They can be boring and daunting, but let me encourage you with this: you made it!  We read nine chapters of genealogies today, but thankfully, tomorrow gets back into the narrative.  So the question remains, why is this in the Bible anyway?

Roots.

The author of Chronicles is about to write a history of Judah and its downfall.  He starts out by tracing Israel’s family tree all the way back to Adam.  In this recounting, the Israelites are reminded are where they’ve come from.  Depending on your knowledge of the Bible, you may have been reminded of various stories along the way.  We read Reuben’s name, and the explanation of why he is not listed as first-born, and we are reminded about Reuben’s sin.  Just reading the name “Israel” calls to mind all kinds of stories about God’s dealings with Jacob/Israel.  Did you catch Bezalel’s name in the list in 2:20?  That’s the same Bezalel we discussed earlier (Day 7).  Remember all he did in building the Tabernacle?

So, the Israelites were called to remember their family roots, their heritage.  In the same way, we are to remember our roots.  This can come in several ways.  First, we are to remember where we’ve come from in the physical sense.  God placed us in the family we are in.  We don’t get to choose our relatives, but God did choose for us.  Second, we are to remember where we’ve come from in the spiritual sense.  The chronicler traces the Israelites line all the way back to Adam.  Adam is our forefather too.  We are all special creations that bear the image and likeness of God like our father Adam.  Also like our father Adam, that image and likeness has been marred by sin.  We all are sinners by birth and by choice.

Those of us who name the name of Jesus must also remember our new spiritual heritage.  Paul tells us that we are spiritual descendants of Abraham (Romans 4:16).  If we share in the faith that Abraham had, we are his children, and heirs of the promise.  We also have Jesus in our spiritual family tree as well (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45).  We must never forget that Jesus death is what brings us into the family of God.  It is our heritage in the Lord.

Let us never forget where we have come from.  We can never look down on anyone and think, “What a terrible sinner!”  We are all sinners, it’s in our genes (Romans 3:23).  Let us never forget that it is Jesus who brought us to where we are now, sinner saved by grace, rebels who deserved death and instead received sonship (Romans 5:10, 8:15, 8:23).