A Boomer in the Pew

The Stage is set for God's Eternal Kingdom to be Established Through the Shepherd boy Turned King

Bible in a Year Series - Day #111 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 2 Samuel 1-4.

We have now stepped into the book of 2 Samuel where we find a great deal of fighting, bloodshed, and even civil war in the wake of Saul's death.

Certainly sovereign God has mysteriously ordained these events in his overall plan of redemption, but what a distance we have traveled since creation in the book of Genesis.

It boggles the mind, doesn't it?

Although these narratives have been fascinating to read, I am greatly looking forward to visiting the holy turning point of redemption's story in chapter 7.

God is going to tell David that his kingdom will be established forever, and then we get to peer into the heart of this man David who asks God, "who am I to receive such blessing".

The little boy who God used to slay a giant, and whose heart was greatly pleasing to God, is about to become God's chosen king upon which God will build his eternal kingdom.

Sadly, in chapter 11 we are going to witness the climax of David's life, and begin to view a steady, downward spiral of sin, and displeasure to God.

Yet, there is good news for us.  Even amongst all of David's sin, God was still there beside him.  But most significant of all, God has set the stage for our Messiah. 

God is going to defeat death once and for all, and provide the world the opportunity to enter into an eternal relationship, both Jews and Greeks.

We have a ways to go before we get to the gospel (good news), but it won't be long before we begin to hear the prophet Isaiah telling us how it will be.

Learning to Overcome the Fear of "What if?"

Bible in a Year Series - Day #110 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Psalms 121, 123-125, 128-130.

For some reason, which I don't fully understand, I have been a person prone to anxiety.

The weird thing is that my anxiety doesn't come from situations that people would normally be afraid of, but rather from seemingly irrational places.

Oddly, my leadership gifts function well but there is seemingly always this inner drone of anxiety in my life.

This all culminated in a season of panic attacks back in 1993 that haunted me for a number of years.

Today, as I look back at this horrible season in my life, I realize that my life seemed to be driven by the fear of "what if?"

Also, at this time in my life, this "what if?" was far more powerful because I felt alone in this world.  I don't mean from a human relational standpoint, but at the very core of my being.

I was making the motions of a faith in God, but there was absolutely no depth to it.  The slightest amount of shaking would stir the silt from the bottom of the glass of my life, and make it nearly impossible to see.  Thus, anxiety would set it.

I believe that the Bible contains the inspired, holy word of God.  I do! 

Therefore, with these words from Psalm 121, how could we possess any amount of anxiety:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
 2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

 3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

 5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
 6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
 8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

Six times here God instructs us that he will keep us.  Not might, but will.  Further, look at all the different ways that he keeps us.

Oh Lord, greatly increase my faith!

Bible in a Year: Here Hangs Saul, the Headless King of Israel

Bible in a Year Series - Day #109 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Samuel 28-31, and Psalm 18

Here hangs Saul, the headless King of Israel.

I suspect it is nearly impossible for the post-modern mind to look at this scene through the eyes of the ancient Hebrew mind.

Although we have seen Israel in constant sin against Yahweh, and now we see Israel in defeat because of its sinning King Saul.

The ancient mind would have viewed this as a judgment of God, where the post-modern mind would see this as happenstance, but yet perhaps call upon "god" to save them from their woes.

We have seen over and over, in our chronological journey through the Bible that God is holy, is jealous for our full devotion, rewards our devotion with lavish loving-kindness, and greatly opposes those who oppose him in a rebellious, sinful lifestyle.

Saul is hanging on this wall because of his disobedience. 

As I consider my life, and look at the many occasions of my willful disobedience, I too wonder “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Samuel 6:20)

Thankfully, infinitely thankfully, God is about to set in place his eternal Kingship which will begin with David, and will culminate with Messiah.

We still have many centuries of disobedient chosen to witness.  There is yet to come great wickedness, which will ultimately culminate in God sending Israel into captivity.

For us, who possess God's plan of salvation in our hands, we know that Messiah is coming.

Hosannah! (Save now!)

Bible in a Year: David Pours out his Heart in Psalms to God in the Wilderness

Bible in a Year Series - Day #108 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Psalm 17,35,54, 63.

Today, in our chronological reading of the Bible, we come to four Psalms that David composed while he was hunted by King Saul.

As I was reading, and listening to these Psalms, this jumped off the page to me:

Say to my soul,
“I am your salvation!” (Psalm 35:3b)

When we are walking in the valley of the shadow of death, the evil one lurks to rob us of our faith.

Clearly David was struggling with this, and he begged of God, tell me....say to my soul "I am your salvation".

Clearly the sufferer knows of this struggle.  Even more clear is the fact that without struggle our human natures would have no need of God. 

Although I am afraid to type these words, it seems that God has been the closest when my need has been the greatest.  Furthermore, when things tend to be smooth sailing, the temptation to stray is great.

Make sense? 

Dare we ask of God to keep us in a humble estate?  Is it possible to spend 20 years in God's blessing, and grow each day more in love with his beauty?

Bible in a Year: Sometimes God Intercedes to Prevent the Christian From Sin

Bible in a Year Series - Day #107 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Samuel 25-27.

1 Samuel 25: 32-34 - "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 avenging myself 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.”

We see in here in David's character that he is a man prone to react quickly to sudden impulses.  We will see this with Bathsheba in later chapters.

But here, what a wonderful glimpse of God's character, in that He here prevented David from shedding blood, which would have made it perhaps impossible to later become king of all Israel.

I don't know about you, but I have these nagging thorns in my life which are constantly at work to take me down the wrong path.  Therefore, I have learned to ask God to protect me from myself.

That was not David's prayer in this circumstance, nonetheless, clearly David recognized God's hand through the words of Abigail.

If you would like to delve more into this topic, here is a sermon from C.H. Spurgeon entitled, "Christians Kept From Sin".

Bible in a Year: David's Bitter Cries From a Cave in Engedi

Bible in a Year Series - Day #106 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Psalm 56, 120, 140-142.

Has there ever been a time in your life when seemingly circumstances have left you nowhere to turn?  Absolutely pinned against the wall?

In Psalm 142, David is hiding in a cave, and laments over, and over, "there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul".

Make no mistake about it, David here is crying.  Pouring his heart out.  The circumstances of his life over the past years have been utterly devastating.

When we read this Psalm, it seems to me that we must put a long, long pause between verse 4 and 5.

Because it is here that David begins to understand:  "I cry to you Yahweh, you are my refuge".

God's desires completely the heart of his chosen.

Sometimes, that means that God will make us lie down in the valley of the shadow of death.  God will sometimes break those of us whose hearts have strayed.

Today, I am going to, in my mind, spend time in my cave of tears.  I am going to recall those bitter times, and force upon my mind when I realized that God was my refuge.  When it dawned upon my mind that Sovereign God has brought me here, and that he was also right there by my side, ordaining the events of my life so that I might understand where all the glory belongs.

Oh my soul, remember the lessons of the cave.

Video: David and Carol Porter - Our Story Filmed by Scottsdale Bible Church

Bible in a Year Series - Day #105 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.  Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Psalms 7,27,31,34,52.

Today, in our chronological reading of the Bible, we find ourselves reading Psalms of David from a period of time where he found himself in the refining fire of holy God.

We have recently been in God's refining fire, and today I thought I would simply share a video that Scottsdale Bible Church filmed of Carol and I, called "Our Story":

Bible in a Year: Gazing Upon the Life of Young David and Reminded Again of God's Sovereignty

Bible in a Year Series - Day #104 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Samuel 21-24.

"...And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand."  (1 Samuel 23:14)

Saul has been hunting David like a dog, and in one point in our story their paths cross very near.  So near in fact, you wonder if King Saul is going to capture the young David.

But then the text reads, "but God did not give him into his hand".

I must confess, even after all the study I have done in the past three years, this mindset is not natural to me.

When I run across these subtle reminders of God's sovereignty, I find myself constantly amazed and reminded that God is in complete control of everything.

Therefore, as I consider the events of my life over the past few years, I must apply the same understanding.

It wasn't a stock market that affected my life.  It wasn't some businessman in another state who has affected my life.

It was God!

Therefore, as David has clearly stated in his Psalms, it is God who will have his revenge.  It is my job to understand why God chose to put me in this place.

There are no happenstances.

Do you believe that?

Bible in a Year: The Madman King Saul Begins his Quest to Kill David

Bible in a Year Series - Day #103 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Samuel 18-20, Psalm 11, Psalm 59.

King Saul, tormented by an evil spirit sent from the Lord, has become a madman hell bent on killing David.

To further his rage, God stripped King Saul naked, and left him on the ground for 24 hours prophesying.

Certainly this was humiliating for this proud king, and for the next ten years, Saul will hunt David like a dog.

From David's perspective, these will be very trying times for him.  Imagine going from God using you to slay Goliath, to God chasing you with a madman king.

David's character will be shaped in the ensuing years.  They will be very painful, lonely years.

I suppose because of the evil nature in each of us, God at times needs to strip us bare, and press upon us who the real sovereign is.  Sometimes, we can begin to think that we are the king of the universe.

Has there ever been a time in your life where God knocked you to your knees?

Bible in a Year: The Glory of God Revealed in a Young Shepherd Boy Named David Through the Slaying of Goliath

Bible in a Year Series - Day #102 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Samuel 15-17.

"Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

When I was a child in Sunday school we were taught the story of David and Goliath.

Unfortunately, our awe was for David.  My Sunday school teacher didn't understand.

God's hand, and God's glory are all over this story, right from the very lips of David.  Certainly David received some fame from this encounter, but the real victor, and all of the glory belongs to Yahweh.

How was this story portrayed to you in Sunday school?