When it's Hard to Love...

1 Samuel 12:1-24

1. And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. 2 And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. 3 Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and beforehis anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.” 4 They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.” 5 And he said to them, “The Lordis witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.”

6 And Samuel said to the people, “The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.7 Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lordconcerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. 8 When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. 9 But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. 10 And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ 11 And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. 12 And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king. 13 And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, theLord has set a king over you. 14 If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. 16 Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. 17 Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” 18 So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

19 And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lordyour God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” 20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following theLord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside afterempty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 22 For theLord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. 23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. 24 Only fear theLord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

How Much Faith is Enough?

Reid Lehman, Executive Director of Miracle Hill Ministries, shares stories in answer to the question, "How much faith is enough?"

Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

James 2:18-26
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

A Refreshing Approach to Injustice

When we are offended by injustice, our typical reaction is to take vengeance into our own hands - or, as David says - to strap on our sword! This story shows us how God's grace provides a unique response that doesn't sweep injustice under the rug. We are called to fight God's battles, God's way.

This passage shows us three aspects of fighting God's battles, God's ways:

1. Recognize Injustice: Do not sweep injustice under the rug. God doesn't. 

2. Receive Wisdom: Listen to the godly wisdom of a good friend. Do you have such a friend? 

3. Repent: We cannot winsomely resist injustice unless we are aware of the injustice we inflict. 

 

1 Samuel 25

Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.

Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2 And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. 4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7 I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

9 When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. 10 And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. 11 Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” 12 So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this.13 And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundredremained with the baggage.

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. 22 God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkeyand fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. 25 Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 26 Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. 27 And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.29 If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. 30 And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, 31 my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”

32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! 34 For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.38 And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be theLord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.”41 And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”42 And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. 44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

How Does the Word Work?

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active,sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Music and Corporate Worship: The Balance between Spirit and Truth

“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge”
– Proverbs 19:2

“God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth”
– John 4:24

Worship of God is directed by God in His Word. In our fervor to worship as His people, we often make mistakes in the manner in which we bring our worship. Music, because it is an emotional vehicle for worship, and one which is subject to preference, can present some challenges. Yet with a biblically balanced foundation we can have God-honoring music in worship. Here are some pitfalls to avoid as well as some balance to promote:

Reckless abandon (spirit without truth).
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge”
– Proverbs 19:2
“God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in . . . truth”
– John 4:24

Reckless abandon in regards to song choice for worship, is music with no restraint. It sounds very spiritual. The attitude from advocates might be that we do not want to stifle the Holy Spirit’s leading. We ought to allow our Spirit-controlled emotions to move how we worship. How is this controlling God?

Basically, reckless abandon is setting our emotions as the criteria for right worship. Emotions, though, then become the prime principle for right worship over and above God’s Word. Thankfully God has given us His Word which directs how our hearts ought to worship. Hopefully, we strive to worship in spirit (yes), and truth. The truth of the words ought to move both the music which accompanies as well as the emotions which follow. His truth oversees, or guides, our spirit. Our hearts are sinfully drawn to worship selfishly but the Word draws us to a balance of truth and spirit.

Liturgy for the sake of safety (truth without spirit)
“God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit . . .”
– John 4:24

This extreme leads to dead orthodoxy, or cold religion. If reckless abandon is dangerous in its lack of Godly truth-control, blind liturgy is dangerous for its cold form from too much control.

We can become so fearful of change or doing the wrong thing, that a knee-jerk reaction takes place and we find no place for emotion. The words become sterile and unfeeling and we are discouraged from emoting. This too is controlling God by keeping Spirit-induced emotion at bay.

Closing the canon on hymnody. Using preference as main criteria for biblical worship.

There is a real temptation to not shake the tree any more than necessary by not allowing for any diverse music into the church. Yet this is irresponsible to the continuing work of God in and among the Church. Granted, there has been little music composed in the last century worth utilizing. But this is a new day!

We are seeing a revival of hymnody. A resurgence of Reformed theology has brought with it a hunger and thirst for rich words accompanied by engaging music. In my own denomination’s ministry, pastors and congregants alike, have been instrumental in writing new music and offering it to the Church. Students, pastors, and church musicians have come in contact with old hymns and have re-worked them so that they are more singable to today’s ear and have given us a vast quantity of songs from which to choose.

A new love for old hymns.
Hymns are didactic by nature. That is, they teach us theology. Putting new tunes to old hymns has caused new and old ears alike to love hymns and to love what they say and stand for. Folks who thought the hymns of old were cold and boring, now embrace the richness of the historicity and theological depth of the hymns.

So what is our responsibility as a church in relation to God’s working today through music in the church?

Biblically responsible

We are to be biblically responsible for the music we sing. “Spirit and truth” worship means that we sing songs which convey the deep soul-refreshing words of Scripture so that people are brought before the throne of grace. We also utilize music which accompanies the words well, conveying the rich sentiment of the words so that it helps, not hinders, a proper understanding of the text of the song.

Culturally relevant

What?! Christians live in culture too. Cultures change. Music changes with culture. There is nothing especially sacred about 18th century hymnody as opposed to 21st century hymnody. The musical styles within our own Trinity hymnal show the wide diversity between eras. Look at the dates of the songs in the hymnal and you will see some written as far back as the 4th century and as recent as 1984! Listen to the different tunes for those eras and you will hear distinct cultural differences.

The revival of hymnody within our culture is catching on!

Teachable

We need to be willing to learn. Are you one who is more prone towards newer tunes? Learn the hymns! Don’t neglect the work of God among the Church throughout history. Are you one to disdain change and things new? Try it. See the end goal. Help the church to teach well the richness of our faith through song.

Our View of the Gathered Church is Far Too Small

Do we know what a privilege it is to gather in this life with other believers week after week?  I propose that our view of Sunday worship is way too shallow because we view God’s work and God’s people from a wrong perspective.

We have been promised in this life to be sown among unbelievers.  Zechariah 10:9 reads,“Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return”  (See also Matthew 28:19-2-).  It is our task . . . to be ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5).  We are not here to be served by the pleasures of this life and to bask in the temporary and futile things of this world.  We are not here to insulate ourselves or our families.  We are a people who have a promised home that will last for all of eternity, but as for now, we are sojourners and pilgrims whom God has placed here to bring His hope to a dying world.  Yet we are coddled by our wants and desires.  We are satisfied easily with our comforts.  Martin Luther wrote, “The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies.  And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people.  O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ!  If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared?”

Therefore, church often becomes for us a playground for friendship and fun.  We come late (because the sermon is all that really matters).  We leave early (heaven forbid I meet someone new or risk a difficult conversation that I should but don’t want to have).  We look for comfortable people who will accept us into their conversation.  We talk about our hobbies and interests more than we do our struggles and hopes of reconciliation.   Rather than our gathering being with a people to whom we confess our sins, seek equipping, find solace, and receive encouragement in the battle of our own hearts and the hearts of the world, we come together to get what we desire from people who are like us.

Please don’t get me wrong.  The gathering of the church ought to be a respite from the war, but are we really at war?  Are we not going from playground to playground . . . from the playground of the world to the playground of our church?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s friend, Bethge, writes, “The sin of respectable people reveals itself in flight from responsibility.”  Bonhoeffer, who desired to be a pacifist in Nazi Germany, saw this sin falling on himself, took his stand, and was eventually executed for it.  Yet on his way from this temporary affliction of sojourning to the gallows, Bonhoeffer turned to a fellow prison camp inmate and said, “This is the end, but for me it is the beginning of life.”  We have a greater responsibility than we like to admit.  We are so self-consumed that the bigger picture of God-at-work-in-and-through-us for His kingdom is shrunk down to my personal little world of ease.

What if we were at war?  Not with sinner’s out there, but for the hearts and minds of people just like us who have no hope because they do not have Christ?  What if we were really about having our sin exposed, hating it, seeing it put to death by the gospel of grace, taking others with the same struggle by the hand to show them our Savior for life?  What would Sunday church service be to us then?  It would be nothing less than worship of the God that draws us together to draw on Him.  Church would become a necessity like a pool of water in a vast desert.  The people gathered would be brothers and sisters of the same struggles exhorting, encouraging, praying toward the One hope we have in Jesus.  What ambassadors we would become!

” . . . It is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.  It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament.  Not all Christians receive such blessing.  The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone.  They know the visible fellowship is a blessing” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together).

Do we know what a privilege it is to gather in this life with other believers week after week?

The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

I weary of the lingo I hear so often in our present Christian culture.  We are always looking for bigger and better, prettier and wiser, cutting edge and radical.  Radical is so attractive.  It seems sacrificial.  We want significant ministry and lives.  Such a search can leave people feeling insignificant and useless in God’s kingdom if their story isn’t dramatic.  But God is most at work in the ordinariness of life . . . and that should be a huge encouragement and a call to look around at God’s amazing work going on in the here and now.

Michael Scott Horton, in his book Ordinary, relates the story of a woman who writes about her college years, “I began to yearn for something more than a comfortable Christianity focused on saving souls and being a generally respectable Republican Texan.” And so she dug in to seek out a radical Christianity.  She entered college restless . . .  seeking opportunities to make a difference.  Then, she went to Africa to seek it out in service.  After spending time in various “cutting edge” Christian communities she wrote:

Now, I’m a thirty-something with two kids living a more or less ordinary life.  And what I’m slowly realizing is that, for me, being in the house all day with a baby and a two year old is a lot more scary and a lot harder than being in a war-torn African village.  What I need courage for is the ordinary, the daily every-dayness of life.  Caring for a homeless kid is a lot more thrilling to me than listening well to the people in my home.  Giving away clothes and seeking out edgy Christian communities requires less of me than being kind to my husband on an average Wednesday morning or calling my mother back when I don’t feel like it”

Where does everyday growth in faith and trust manifest itself?  Where are we called to be sacrificial?  It happens most frequently and more deeply in your relationship with the neighbor next to whom we have lived for years, through our spouse who knows us better than anyone else, in gathering with our friends for a meal or a drink, in the car with our kids as we drive to school every day. 

Michael Horton writes, “Changing the world can be a way of actually avoiding the opportunities we have every day, right where God has placed us, to glorify and enjoy Him and to enrich the lives of others.”

If we want to make a difference in our culture then we need to start by applying God’s extraordinary love in our ordinary circumstances.  In a culture that longs for cutting edge,that is radical.