Praying "According To His Will" & Abishag

I recently re-read the story of King Solomon, his scheming older brother Adonijah, and the young virgin Abishag (who served as a "body pillow" for David in his geriatric years, and nothing more). Last time I read the story was two years ago, and I read it in the standard way, trying to understand the political context: Abishag was David's concubine in law (de jure), even if they actually never had sex. Therefore, Adonijah's sneaky request - going through Solomon's mother - to have Abishag as his wife was almost certainly a "power ploy". In other words, if Adonijah had married Abishag, it would have been seen as taking David's place by assuming what had belonged to David (in the ways kings operated in the ancient world). So, Solomon was right to not only deny his request but to punish Adonijah and his co-conspirators.

All of this is probably true. Solomon showed a lot of political smarts by taking control of the situation by perceiving a sneaky threat and crushing it before a rebellion and war started. In contrast, David was not as "smart" when he let Absalom get a big following.

From a salvation history point of view, God was faithful to establish David's kingdom through Solomon - in other words, He kept His promise. And in time, "one greater than Solomon" came to take David's throne and set up his Ultimate Kingdom (see Matthew 12:42).

But I'm also thinking about how Adonijah approached Solomon's mother, and then how she then talked with her son King Solomon as he sat on his throne.

Adonijah comes and says: "Please ask King Solomon - he will not refuse you - to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife" (1 Kings 2:17, ESV). Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, simply believes he wants the young virgin as his wife. But the key is this: Adonijah asks Solomon's mother because he KNOWS Solomon can't refuse his mother (polygamous societies often witness children forming very strong bonds with their mother, as rivals against the other wives and children). She goes to King Solomon, he bows to her, he sits on his throne, and then has a special chair brought for her (all these details are important - she is no servant who is shaking with fear in front of the king. This is Special Mom and Special Son time).

Then, notice what Solomon and his mom say to each other: Then she [Bathsheba] said, "I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me." And the king said to her, "Make your request, for I will not refuse you" (1 Kings 2:20, ESV).

Well, if you know the story, you know what happens - she asks him to give Abishag (who was probably living a secluded life with David's other concubines) to Adonijah as his wife. Solomon sees what Adonijah was trying to do - that sneaky rat - and blows up!

Solomon had just told his mom that he would do whatever she asked! But did he? NO WAY! Because he knew that her request, if he let it happen, would destroy his kingdom!

Jesus tells his disciples: "And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." (Matthew 21:22, ESV) Is this a "blank check"? Is this a ticket to whatever we want? 1 John 5:14-15 (not to mention James) gives us correction:

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." (NIV)

Fellow Christians - we have a special relationship with God, the way Bathsheba did with Solomon, in fact, even closer. We can come to him and experience closeness. We can ask him anything we want. Of course, James tells us that if we ask with wrong motives - like to gain money or power over other people - we won't get it (James 4:3).

But even if we don't understand the whole story - just as Bathsheba was clueless as to Adonijah's sneaky plot - let's not be surprised when we hear God answer, "NO."

He will not do ANYTHING that would undermine His Kingdom and His plan for humanity. He wants them to go forward, not backward. We don't know the whole picture, but He's got our best interests at heart and He loves us (Romans 8:28).

Father, Your Kingdom come.
Your will be done -
On Earth, as it is in Heaven.
AMEN! (Matthew 6:10)

Pray for VT campus ministries

One thing we can do to see God bring something good out of the VT tragedy is to pray for the campus ministries: Campus Crusade, InterVarsity, Chi Alpha, etc. One of my prayers has been that they would be a blessing to the campus. We can particularly pray for them too - I heard last night and confirmed today that 4 of the victims were involved with Campus Crusade (or its sister ministry, Valor).

Also, it appears that Crusade's Korean chapter at VT really tried to reach Cho.

More details here.

Spring is here

It seems like I haven't seen many daffodils this year. I'm not a big "flower guy" but daffodils always cheer me up, because they're usually the first flowers you see after the snow. So here's some daffodils.

Photo by Nick Pye

The "5 & 1" Challenge

The only way to become the kind of person God has created us to be is to have a relationship with God, where we talk to Him, listen to Him, obey Him, and become like Him. Through Jesus we know God, we love God, we "hang out" with God.

As we do this, we will often easily reject sinful, selfish, nasty attitudes of envy, pride, etc. When you are really absorbed in a relationship with another person, "in love", you naturally want to make them happy and you naturally avoid those things that are going to hurt them!

The key to loving God - and to being transformed by His love - is developing a thankful heart.

So the challenge set out this past Sunday was this:

Start your day being thankful for 5 things. Make them 5 things you can say "Thank You God" for. For example:

"Lord, I'm thankful for my car. You use it to get me around.
Lord, thank you for Jesus - I love to read the stories about Him and His love.
Lord, thank you for my parents. They're not perfect, but you used them to teach me about life.
Lord, thank you for my job. You use it to provide for me.
Lord, thank you for saving my life when I was in that accident 7 years ago."

And then pray for 1 person whom you are tempted to envy. Pray for them! I guarantee you they have problems, as we all do in life. Pray for them, that God would be close to them and reveal the love of Jesus to them.

Take the "5 & 1" challenge. Even just try it for a week, if you're not used to it. Take it.

And then watch - just WATCH - as God transforms your attitudes and your whole person - to be the "lamp in the house" (Matthew 5:14-16) you were MADE to be.

Envy & Cho Seung-Hui

We mourn with the families of those who were killed at Virginia Tech on Monday. I am sorry that the darkness took away your young relatives, before they had an opportunity to begin careers and homes of their own. I also offer my sympathies to the Korean-American community - Cho does not represent you.

While there were many destructive forces at work in Cho's life, I am convinced envy - one of the seven deadly sins, in old Christian thought - was one of the more powerful ones. If you have the stomach, read this story about Cho's writings.

Notice what he says at one point:

"You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac weren't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything," MSNBC.com quoted Cho as saying.

But Cho is not a self-righteous moralizer, a wacked-out fundamentalist. No, he wanted in on the action, as the first page of his "manifesto" makes clear:

"Oh the happiness I could have had mingling among you hedonists, being counted as one of you, if only you didn't {edited} out of me... You could have been great. I could have been great."

And that's really just a quick sifting of his writings - the day of the shooting. Yes, he was a psychopath. Yes, he hated and his anger consumed him. Where did at least some of that come from? From being picked on as a kid? Yeah, some. Being picked on is a painful experience, and particularly if you feel like you'll never "fit in". But Cho stoked the fire of envy, and it became a roaring bonfire that fed his violent psychosis.

Envy, carefully defined, is "pain at the good fortune of others." (Aristotle, Rhetoric, Bk II, Chapter 10, from the entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

This too: "[Envy] aims, at least in terms of one's wishes, at destroying others' good fortune." (Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals 6:459, from the entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

At least in part, it appears that Cho allowed society to tell him that "the good life" is money, alcohol, and sexual promiscuity. His sense of rejection, of being denied that "good life", fueled a violent psychosis.

How sad, how tragic that he did not (and could not) understand the unconditional love and compassion of God in Jesus Christ. The Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages believed kindness was the Good that could fix envy. Had Cho been transformed by God's love, and had he opened himself to RECEIVING and then GIVING kindness, then...

...well, then, this horrible tragedy would not have happened.

Putting Pride Behind

Our teaching this Sunday was on how "pride sets up" (that is, it sets you up for a fall) and that "God lifts up". Choosing what God offers is the best thing. When we humble ourselves in front of him, choosing to reject sin and prideful attitudes towards others --

- and then our lives show it, in our loving actions and sincere worship -

then God's honor, God's FAVOR is sure to follow.

It may not be what we expect. It probably won't. We may not see it until we die and meet the Lord.

But there is NO SUBSTITUTE for his favor.

On Sunday, I mentioned a devotional by Elizabeth Marks. Here's a link to it: http://thinkonitdevotions.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/never-underestimate-pride/

At the end of her devotional she cites Saddleback Church's notes from a few Sundays ago - action points on getting rid of pride:

Admit our sins honestly. (Proverbs 28:13)
Evaluate our strengths realistically. (Romans 12:3, Galatians 6:4)
Enjoy our success gratefully. (1 Corinthians 4:7)
Serve others unselfishly. (Philippians 2:3-5)
Depend on Jesus continually. (Psalm 10:4, Proverbs 22: 4)

I wish I had mentioned SERVING on Sunday. To serve others unselfishly is the humble lifestyle of a follower of Jesus. Do you serve others - without thinking of yourself?

Jesus said, in Mark 10: "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many."

If you're a Christian, you have already experienced the sadness when you realize how much selfishness you had, and you felt small. But right after, you realized that Jesus lifted you up. Now, as a child of God and friend of Jesus, you felt more special than ever - that you were special because God created you and loves you. It's still true! That grace, that favor is available to those who humble themselves in front of the Creator, our Loving Father.

Lord, humble us and keep us humble, so we can feel your smile and serve others with joy!

Wisdom For Serving

A prayer point for us this summer is knowing exactly how we can serve the community and be a blessing, both locally and globally.

We have the short term missions trip in Dearborn - please pray that God will give us wisdom to know the most effective things we can do to show God's love. Pray also for us as we seek wisdom to reach out effectively to our student friends and our neighborhood. Many things are good, and there's a lot of 'good' things we can do, but what is God directing us toward? We need wisdom on this point.