WHO - WHERE - WHEN - WHAT

2 Samuel 11 - 1 In the spring, when the kings normally went out to war, 

David sent out Joab, his servants, and all the Israelites. They destroyed the Ammonites and attacked the city of Rabbah.

But David stayed in Jerusalem.

2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof 

3 So David sent his servants to find out who she was. A servant answered, “That woman is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

4 So David sent messengers to bring Bathsheba to him. When she came to him, he had sexual relations with her. (Now Bathsheba had purified herself from her monthly period.) Then she went back to her house. 

5 But Bathsheba became pregnant and sent word to David, saying,

“I am pregnant.”

Later David tried to get her husband drunk and send him home to have sex with his wife. This would of course cause the husband to think the baby was his. Unfortunately for David her husband did not go home but in an act of dedication, he slept outside David’s castle with the other officers. In desperation, David had her husband killed and eventually married the woman. This act turned David’s life upside down for an extended period of time. While thinking about this situation I thought about some basic questions that I should ask of myself and of others on a regular basis. Here are the questions and David’s answers.

QUESTION	DAVID’S ANSWER	YOUR ANSWER
WHO AM I	King David
WHERE AM I	At Home
WHERE SHOULD I BE	“when the kings normally went out to war”
WHEN SHOULD I BE THERE	Now
WHAT ARE YOU DOING	Abusing my authority

While there are more questions that can be raised from this particular portion of scripture, the answers to these questions can go a long way in determining what the answers will be when you answer them again in six months. If the answer to where are you and where should you be are not the same now, then without an acceleration plan being implemented now, those answers will not be the same in six months. Anyway I hope to spend a lot more time sharing via this blog this year in an effort to reconcile the difference between where I am, and where I should be. Join me. SLC

WE DON'T DIE - WE MULTIPLY!

IF ITS TRUE FOR BE BE'S KIDS........

Have you ever found yourself in a miserable job situation? Have you ever said to yourself, “It wasn’t always like this”? Have you ever found yourself dealing with people that seemed determined to kill you? I don’t mean physically kill you. I mean the people Jesus spoke of when he said, “be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. (Matthew 10:28).  That is the type of situation the Israelites found themselves in Exodus chapter 1.

At the end of the book of Genesis they came into town on the coattails of Joseph’s favor and everything was fine; for a season. But over some years the Joseph’s generation and the king with whom they had favor were gone. The new man in charge was intimidated by the growth of the Israelites. Yep. Some people in your life will be uncomfortable with your growth. They’ll actually be intimidated by it. Pharaoh was so afraid he decided to do something about it.

9 And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are: 10 Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land. 11 So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. Exodus 1:9-11

The King James says that he put taskmasters over them to afflict them. Afflict meant to put down, brow beat, mishandle, or humiliate. All because of their growth. While the growth in these verses may be numerical, the same thing happens when some people are intimidated by your Spiritual growth. They try to humiliate, embarrass, or brow beat you. They try to stunt your growth. They also try to bring death to your dreams and the call of God for your life. They try to kill your soul.

For a bit of encouragement all you have to do is check out verse 12. It doesn’t say that the affliction does not come. In fact it does come and increasingly so. But check out your              I mean the Israelite's response.

12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. Exodus 1:12

That’s right. They didn’t die, they multiplied. Not only did they multiply, but they grew as well. Sometimes you can’t do anything about the haters and brow beaters in your life, but you can let the hate, motivate. Let it inspire you to grow in your relationship with God and multiply your Godly influence over those that realize that fighting against you is a losing battle. As Joseph said to his brothers, what they meant for evil, God meant for good. So the same affliction designed to take you out will take you up, cause we don’t die, we MULTIPLY.

Learning To Commend - My Easter Lesson

The last expressions of Jesus Christ are commonly preached at good Friday services around the world. I have heard many of these messages, but I can’t remember any of them. Probably because I could not relate. Well that has changed for me. While there is still no sermon I can related to, there is a condition I can vaguely relate too. That condition is the condition of individual helplessness. I am at a point in a particular battle, where I am totally self helpless and powerless. I believe that is the condition Jesus was in when he spoke these words;

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: 

and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Luke 23:46b” KJV

"Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands! And with those words he breathed his last.” NLT

"Father, I place my life in your hands!" Then he breathed his last. The Message

Jesus fully understood what he was called to do but in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed that this cup, this calling could pass from him. Somehow he summoned the strength he needed and said never the less, not my will, but yours be done. As I struggled with certain issues I got to a point where I wanted to negatively quit. There is indeed a proper way to quit, but I wanted to quit on some aspects of my calling. I literally wanted to throw up my hands and say I can’t do this anymore. I wanted to say, to hell with all of this, but that is like saying instead of fighting for Heavenly results, I’ll give in to the enemy and hellish results. That’s the wrong way to quit.

The right way is to finally realize that you have exhausted all of your earthly options, and you need to quit trying to be the superhero. There are some situations (battles), the effects of which you see with your natural eye, that are not natural they are spiritual. For me it took a while (and I’m still not sure I’m completely there) to quit my self-influenced efforts, and quit, by commending my situation to God. The word commend means to deposit, as you would money into a savings account. In the best scenarios, interest causes an increase of your original investment. Jesus invested his Spirit to God, and was not disappointed for God Raised Him from the dead. The souls that have been added to the Church since then are the interest on that initial investment.

My situation requires a resurrection but nothing nearly as complex as rolling away a multi-ton stone. Pray for me, and join me in commending situations to the care of God. I promise you will receive an awesome return on that investment.

Love y‘all

SLC

Learning To Wait.......Again.

Isaiah 40:30-31 () 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary;they shall walk and not faint. #Bible http://j.mp/fAhj6B

Peace Peace

In preparing for last nights Bible Study, while also dealing with my own spiritual battles, I decided that the topic would be peace. You know that priceless entity that you can’t buy, drink, or sex into existence. I know. I’ve tried. I’ve failed. After receiving the topic, I received this scripture.

Isaiah 26:3 (King James Version)

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee:
because he trusteth in thee.

After that I decided that I wanted to get a little deep and find the definition for the words perfect and peace. I mean, I already knew that usually the word perfect in the Bible means complete, but I was curious so I opened E-sword and then went to the Bible with numerical references to the original Hebrew. Yeah y’all SLC was trying to get super deep for this study. Well what a surprise when I found that the words in Hebrew were the same. They both meant completeness, soundness, welfare, and safety. It was originally written "keep in peace peace". I was stumped. But then I thought about the hell I’ve been through and realized that although as a Christian I have peace all the time, God loves me, Jesus loves me, I’m going to Heaven, I love the Lawd He heard my cry, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on,.........

All that religion isn’t enough. I’ve been looking for more than that common peace, but I been looking for the type of peace that enables me to stop feeling anxiety about the things I cannot control. I’ve been looking for that type of peace that confuses people that think I should be crazier than I am. I’ve been looking for that protective force field of peace that refuses to let any thoughts permeate my mind that are not related to the goal of………..peace.

I’m going to have peace. Well actually, I’m going to have peace peace. A double scoop of peace. I’m going to focus on what God can do, not on what I can’t do. I’m going to focus on the most stable Being I have ever had the pleasure of being in a relationship with.

Lin, if you’re reading this, I’m going to have that peace peace that enables me to fight off my anxiety attacks that you wrote about so well I though you had peeked into my mind.

Miz, I’m looking for the type of peace peace that……..Does The Body Good.

Pray for me.
Pray for Peace.

Peace Peace

SLC

Peace

Answers to last weeks question and, the Sunday Musings of Miz, bought to my remembrance the following:

Peace I leave with you,

My peace I give unto you:

Not as the world giveth,

give I unto you. John 14:27a

Moan and Keith mentioned a peace that can not be purchased, a peace that comforts you in spite of what’s happening in your life, while Miz’s Sunday Musings painted a picture of a scene that only God could create in Georgia, Carolina, Maryland, California, Philly, and New York, all on the same day. Peace is a place of escape that I find hard to describe. Try as I might I can’t really define it, but when I’m there in that place. I know it and never want to leave.

Well meaning people may try to offer peace but they often end up doing more to pull you from peace; like the woman who approached a widow at the funeral of her husband that said, “Don’t worry chil’, God’s gonna send you another husband”. She should have held her piece. People are often astonished at ones ability to have peace during the most trying circumstances, not understanding that at that time you not only have Peace, but more importantly Peace (God) has you.

Thanks for the boost family.

QUESTION

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, and I miss y'all terribly although I continue to lurk around your blogs. I have come out of hiding to ask you question that was asked of me earlier.

Is it wrong to pray for someone's healing, but prepare yourself for their possible demise. My friend was wondering if they were insulting God by asking him to heal their 80 plus year old relative while also trying to not be blindsided if they pass. The person was asking about their father.

I told them to always ask for what they want. And when they wake up the next morning, tell God thanks whether they received what they asked for or not. I said a few more things also, but I want to hear from my blog family.

So please, give me your answer.

Thanks,
SLC