Grace Gems

I have added a new link on the right side of this page. It is to a site called "Grace Gems." I have subscribed to the daily emails from this site for several years and enjoy them immensely. They are a source of great inspiration. The author has spent countless hours picking timely and inspiring quotes from the great Christian authors of church history. He has also electronically published several out-of-print works of these godly men.

The most interesting thing about this site is that it is maintained by a truly godly person. The website states that its purpose is "to humble the pride of man,to exalt the grace of God in salvation and to promote real holiness in heart and life." It accomplished that purpose quite well. It is the only site on the internet, including this one, that does not have the author's name anywhere on it.

I encourage you to follow this link: http://www.gracegems.org/Grace_Gems.htm to see today's quote. May it be a blessing to you as it has been to me over the years.

Grace-ometer

I ran across this quote by Charles Spurgeon and want to share it. This quote expresses my understanding of God, his people, and his church quite accurately.

The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.

Oops! We Messed Up

Let’s pick up the story we have been following. The Israelites had insisted that God give them a king, and God did so. In 1 Samuel 9 God directs Samuel to anoint Saul as king. He is a young, strong, handsome man, and a good soldier. He was an obvious choice for a king. In chapter 10 Saul is “crowned” as king of Israel and in chapter 11 he leads the Israelites in defeating the Ammonites. Chapter 12 is a transition from Samuel’s leadership to Saul’s. Samuel has some interesting things to say. Beginning in verse 7, Samuel explains to them the wickedness of their insistence that God give them a king. He pointed out that God had always taken care of them and that they had no reason to believe that God would not continue to care for them. He repeated that their insistence on a king was a rejection of God not a rejection of him, Samuel. At this point the people finally understand the error of their ways, but by this time it was a little too late. This passage reminds me of a bit of wisdom shared with my group at a youth camp by an elderly lady who had served the Lord faithfully for many years. I have long forgotten her name, but I will never forget her words. When asked by one of the young ladies of the group why she had never married, she responded that it was always better to want something you did not have than to have something you did not want. Wise words. Unfortunately, by the time Samuel addressed the Israelites, they already had something they would very soon not want. Aside from the very obvious lesson of not dictating to God what is best for us, there are two important lessons in this chapter.

First, if we want to sin, God will let us sin. God will try to show us the error of our ways, but if we insist he will let us sin. God tried to show the Israelites their error by explaining to them what a king would do, but they insisted and God let them have their way. We must understand a very basic truth. The sovereignty of God does not negate the responsibility of man. God is sovereign; there is no doubt. He also allows us to make decisions and holds us responsible for those decisions. The application of this lesson is profound. We often believe that if something happens, it is a sign that God wants a situation one way or another. One example of this kind of thinking is for a young lady to say that if the young man she is interested in asks her to marry, it must be God’s will that she do so. However, in the process she prays little about the matter and ignores the many signs that her future spouse is really not a good choice for a husband. However, if she insists on marrying him, God will let her and she will soon realize she has something she really does not want. Yes, if we insist, God will let us sin.

Second, God is a God of redemption and he makes the best of our sinful decisions. Notice what God said at Saul’s coronation:

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. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the LORD has set a king over you. If you will fear the LORD and serve him and hearken to 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; but if you will not hearken to 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. (1 Samuel 12:12 -15)

God tells them that in spite of their sinful rejection of him, if they and the king would but follow the Lord, it would be well with them in spite of their rejection of him, but if they did not follow the Lord, it would not be well with them . In other words, God would continue to provide for them if they would but follow him faithfully under the earthly leadership of the king. The people really liked this idea, and to show them that he was still able to do what the king could not do, God sent a storm to destroy their harvest. This may sound harsh, but God’s point was well made and not soon forgotten. Paul expresses this same truth in Romans 8:28, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” God does not abandon his people in spite of their rejection of him. If they repent and return, they will enjoy the times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). What a great God we have. He and he alone is sufficient and his will is perfect. May we always see his will with all our hearts and not rely on our own understanding.

His Thoughts are Not Our Thoughts

Once again, the Israelites had a problem. The sons of Samuel were not the godly men their father was. They were not able to follow in Samuel’s footsteps and judge Israel upon his death, and Israel had no other system of justice or national leadership. Everyone knew this, including Samuel. What were they to do? 1 Samuel 8:4-6 tells us what they did.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to govern us.’ (1 Samuel 8:4-6 RSV)

What they did was devise a solution among themselves and then told Samuel to carry it out. Noticeably absent is any mention of the Israelites consulting their Lord about a solution to their problem. The Israelites obviously thought it was a good idea, but Samuel and the Lord did not like it at all.

And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds which they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, hearken to their voice; only, you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." (1 Samuel 8:7-9)

God did not like it, but he went along with the idea after directing Samuel to explain the consequences of their desire for a king. God told the people through Samuel that a king would:

• Draft their sons into the military:
• Require some men to work his fields and factories
• Require some women to work as perfumers, cooks, and bakers
• Take the best of the fields and give them to his cronies
• Constantly tax their income and property and give to the bureaucracy
• Last, but not least, make the people his slaves

In spite of this warning—which sounds all too familiar no matter which political party is currently in power—the people persisted in their demand for a king. So, God conceded to their wishes.

What do we need to notice about this event? First, the entire episode is backward. The Israelites saw a problem, devised a solution, and took it to God for his obedience to their wishes. What they should have done was recognize the problem, call out to God for a solution, allow God to work in a mighty way, and obey his will. They turned the tables. They demanded that God obey them rather than they obey God. When the divine order is this badly displaced, tragedy is inevitable.

Second, the people were stiff -necked, to use the biblical phrase. Even after God explained to them what a bad idea a king would be, they insisted it was the best solution to their problem. Why would they do that? Mostly because they were thinking like the world and simply did what those around them did. The other nations had a king to lead them in battle and they figured they needed one also. Sound familiar? It should. That is exactly what most of us, yes even most believers, would do in many situations. You might say that statement is unfair and judgmental, and you might be right to a point. I have a tendency to look at the dark side of the modern church, but I have also been a pastor for more than 25 years and have seen this exact same behavior time and time again by relatively mature believers, fellow pastors, and by myself. It is not so much that we are openly rebellious as it is that we are just unaware of our own motives and decision making processes.

Paul addressed that same issue in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Part of renewing our minds is making sure the world we live in is not part of our decision making process. What other peoples do is not what believers do. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways his ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9) If we are to see the glory of God, we must learn what Isaiah knew.