God stopped fire to answer Moses, and God answered me today

Oh my soul, continue to trust

Your God is good, He never rests.

You pleaded with God- the God of heaven

And He replied with tremendous blessing.

Oh take heart, spirit of mine

God is all powerful and divine.

He beckons creation at his will

It responds in the past, and it obeys still.

This God of yours is supreme and strong

He will protect- it’s to Him you belong.

The son of yours that needed grace

He has redeemed from that scary place.

You asked I AM to keep him here

The God who is, replied very clear:

“David, your son who truly belongs to me

Will stay with you, I set him free.

“You see, I am great, strong and true

And all of those that belong to you

Are my children too, and that you know

Teach them my ways as they grow.

“I may keep them with you for a while

I know they will bring you many smiles.

But never never ever forget

This everlasting benefit.

“I listened to you from your lowly place

I extended grace after grace after grace

So you would know, that you should pray

Every day, and ask for grace.”

“O God”, I hear myself reply

“If I didn’t have you, I would die.

Expire without a chance to breathe

I wouldn’t even want to be.

“You rescued me when I was young and ill

Just like my Zechariah- Oh, keep him still.

I owe you my children, I owe you my wife

I owe you my affections, my drive, my life.

“Oh keep me in your loving way

Don’t let me part- even for a day.

Let my children grow and daily think

About You, O Great King of Kings.

“I know you heard my humble cry

And thousands more, sought your eye.

I asked them to pray for Z to you

Knowing that’s who you respond to.

“And that you did, O God of my heart

All those people will know to start

That You are Sovereign, God of all

And every day, we should beckon and call.

“I love you with my spirit and soul

I accept your answer and control.

No matter what you may do with little Z

I’ll always your little child be.

I hail from the roof, I scream with my mouth

That Yahweh is the reason to shout.

YOU HEARD MY PRAYER, YOU PROVED TO ME

THAT GOD IS A GOD WHO ANSWERS ME.

YOU HEARD ME FROM YOUR HIGH PLACE

EVEN FROM YOUR THRONE OF GRACE

YOU HEARD MY LITTLE VOICE AND PLEA

And said, “Yes, David, He belongs to me.”

“I’ll save that boy, that cutie pie

I’ll keep him with me so he won’t die.

I have a plan for him, you see

That’s why He’s going to be my Z.

“You train him well, and handle with care

I may not always leave him there.

For now my son, he’s yours to keep

For that, David, fall on your knees.

As I fall in soul and spirit

To kneel before this King divine

I worship wholly with my being

Yahweh, Jesus, King of mine.

To the God of the Universe

O Lord my God, I cry to you.  I need you.  I fall before with you with a broken spirit.  I am helpless and at your mercy.  I am surrounded with sorry, woe, and pain.  Please come comfort your child.  O God of the highest heaven, fix my heart on you.  Cause me to walk in your statutes even now.  Remove the doubt my heart holds, and make me love you even more.  Don’t take your spirit away from me.  Descend from on high, and surround my soul.  Fashion a balm to overcome me.  Increase my faith in you, and only you.  Don’t let me wander from You.  Remove my sin, grant that I would walk in your ways.   Keep me, O keep me from today until my dying day.

Be with my son.  Protect his heart.  Cause his body to be whole again.  Make Him grow to be your servant.  Give him no pain.  Save Him for your name’s sake, my God the King.  You alone are worthy.  You cause the sun to rise, the world to turn, and the galaxies to be numerous.  You command sparrows, are captions of Kings, you are the Lord of history, O Sovereign God, save my son.  Use your power to remove what hurts Him.  For your sake alone I ask, my King.  You protect your people.  You choose people, events, and history.  O make my son be part of your history.  Keep my son the way you have kept me.  Grow Him to be a champion for You and only You.  Great Jehovah, your love is great love, will you greatly love my son today?  My spirit begs you, I call to you, O King of the universe, respond to me today.

Love my wife.  Guard her feelings.  Cause her to fall longingly toward You and no other.  O Yahweh, you are the I AM from the beginning.  Grant that my Sarah would know You are.  You always have been , you are today, and you will continue to be.  Pass your spirit to her and cause her to trust you, and know you more.  Remove her doubt, strengthen her body and mind.  Keep her forever in your care.  O Great God, you respond to your people.  You make miracles out of nothing.  You created things out of nothing.  You sustain my being, and all the world around.  You can stop the sun.  You cause good things to happen for your people.  O make today a good day for Sarah.  Use your power to draw her to you.  Don’t let her wander.  Be a salve for her spirit as you have for thousands of years to your chosen people.

Protect the others.  Don’t let my children doubt you because of today.  Use our trial to strengthen their faith in you.  Keep them from now until they meet you.  Cause my little children to seek your face all their days.  Let them love each other the way you have loved me. 

O God, you have taken the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh just as you told Jeremiah.  Will you do this physically for Zechariah today?  Do this for him twice.  You have said all things work for good for those who you have called.  I am only yours.  You called me once.  Make this work for good.  You protected David while he hid form Saul.  David was your anointed one.  O God, anoint my Zechariah, and protect him from harm.  You asked Abraham to offer his only son to you.  He did, and you gave him back.  I have laid my son on your arms today, O please, return my little baby. You chose another sacrifice for Abraham, and saved Isaac.   Take me instead, but leave my son if you choose.  You ask us to be a witness for you.  We do, and will witness the way you saved my son.  O sovereign God act today on my behalf.  Respond to me because I am yours and you asked us to ask you.  Some do not have because they do not ask, but I am pleading with you to hear and to save.  You are a great God, the I AM.  You have guarded me these several weeks, please continue.  Oh my little boy needs you now.  Remove any obstacle he may have.  Give him a life to grow and love you.  What more can a baby do, but love their creator?  Let him grow, and He’ll know you.  He’ll know how you saved Him because I’ll tell him.  O God you do nothing by accident.  Cause my son to be healed.  Take away any effect, and make him be a strong man for your service. 

I love you my King.  You have saved me, and you keep me.  Even now I feel you.  Someday I’ll see you. 

You are the master of the world.  You command Kings, princes, and the dust.  I fall before you with my request knowing you hear me and love me.  I will proclaim you to the housetops no matter what you may do for me.  You are still God, and I am yours.  You have chosen this path for me, I know not why, but this I do know:  I am to tell of your great love, your saving hand, your Son who died in my place willingly and lovingly.  This of which I did not deserve, but you freely gave.  I stand in awe of your great mercy, and I beg you to show more of your grace in dealing with Zechariah, Sarah, the kids, and me.

You delivered your people from Pharaoh when all they saw was a sea of water, and certain death awaited them.  You can do this today.  I humbly ask You to deliver your Zechariah in the same way.

The Great Physician

Our paths will part for a while, my son.

In short time, I hope again to be one.

You always seem to have been near

But tomorrow that may be unclear.

I want to walk with you and take your place

But God has designed you to take that space.

To go alone, to be out of touch

To bear a burden that weighs so much.

I’m just your Dad, that’s all I can say.

I am weak and feeble, and I fail each day.

My strength is a shadow on a day like today

My arms can’t protect or show you the way.

I want to hold you, guard you, and defend

I want to be with you until the end.

But I’m just your Dad, my little Z

I stand arms outstretched as you leave.

I would trade with you with no question

So you might stay, and play and function.

But your Creator holds his Hand to me

And asks me, “David, just leave him be.”

Oh I ache to trade with you.

Our Father just doesn’t want me to.

He has chosen me to be your Dad

And for you tomorrow to hold His hand.

O Zechariah, you aren’t alone

You see, God is still on His throne

He may turn me away from you

But His grace and mercy will see you through.

Your Father in Heaven loves you so

He wants You to know this trial also.

So as you grow and become a man

You’ll know his presence and His plan.

Son of my body, son of the King

You are a splendid beloved thing

That God himself has loved and shaped

For tomorrow’s events, O be not dismayed!

You see, God himself had a son

He was the perfect beloved one.

God loved his son, and freely gave

His life away, for you to save.

Dad’s love their sons, my little child.

I know I’ll see you after a while.

Rest in your Father, the one above

For He looks down on you with love.

I know someday, we may talk and see

Of this Jesus who died for you and me.

Will you know him my son, my child

And Rest in him this week for a while?

I want to teach you more as you grow

So as a young man, you’ll certainly know

That God your Father is your true friend

Dad may not be with you til the end.

If I leave you first, you stand with the King

I wouldn’t want any other thing.

The Great Physician hails you, my boy

Trust him, Love him, and enjoy.

33 Years- Long enough for a King

King David was 30 years old when he became King of Israel.  David Brainerd was 29 when he died.  Robert Murray M'Cheyne was only 29 when he died. 

No one will ever be talked about more than Jesus Christ who lived and died many years ago.  Christ, being the son of God himself, cannot die, so his death was short lived, and he rose again on the third day.  In his 33 years on the earth, more lives were changed than in all the years since and by all the people since.  Every person finds their significance through him, and yet he was here for only 33 years.

I am blessed in many ways.  I am 33 today, the same age that Jesus was when his father was pleased to bruise Him. I'll never accomplish all he did in his short time, and yet,  I would be honored to be used in any way by Him.  In death, or in my 34th year, He keeps me here to use me for something.

Why the God of heaven would allow me to live as long as his own son is a question I'll ponder for quite some time. 

Yahweh and his mighty men

In Kings and Chronicles, God is working just as he is in 2012.  God removes Saul from being king, and replaces him with David.  Significant, I think, is one of the ways Yahweh did this.

In 1 Chronicles chapter 12, God tells us of the mighty men that fought with and for King David.  In gaining him the kingdom, these men were helpful.  Let's see what the Bible says first.

Starting in verse 1: " Now these are the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he could not move about freely because of Saul the son of Kish.  And they were among the mighty men who helped him in war.  They were bowmen and could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right or the left hand; they were Benjaminites, Saul's kinsmen."

After verse 2, their specific names are listed.  Picking up in verse 8:  "From the Gadites there went over to David at the stronghold in the wilderness mighty and experienced warriors, expert with shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions and who were swift as gazelles upon the mountains:  Ezer the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab third, Mishmannah fourth, Jeremiah fifth, Attai sixth, Eliel seventh, Johonan eighth, Elzabad ninth, Jeremiah tenth, Machbannai eleventh.  These Gadites were officers of the army; the least was a match for a hundred men and the greatest for a thousand."

David meets them and says, (paraphrase)  "You can help me if you'd like, and be my friends, but if you don't, God will judge you."  Verse 18:  "Then the Spirit clothed Amasai, chief of the thirty, and he said, "We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse!  Peace, Peace to you, and peace to your helpers!  For your God helps you."  Verse 22:  "For from day to day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like an army of God."

Let me list their resume:
1) Skillful Archer
2) Excellent with a sling
3) Ambidextrous
4) Spear and Shield connoisseur
5) Face like a Lion
6) Fast as a gazelle
7) Can kill between 100-1,000 men without a break
8) When combined with others, I feel like an army of God

A couple thoughts.  From least important to most:  Whenever you watch a movie and there are 1,000 bad guys, and one good guy, and that one good guy beats up all the bad guys, and you really question how real any movie really is, think about this.  These men were unequally skillful in combat.  They were mighty men.  The least of them could take out 100, and the best could clean up 1,000.  There really were people like that.  This is amazing.

The most important thing to take away has to do with God.  I would argue that the only reason these men were mighty is because God raised them up for this very purpose.  God planned on making David the King, and in order to do so, he raised up mighty skillful warriors who would swear allegiance to David, and had the capability to destroy his enemies by the handful.  God provided skills to these men and enabled them to kill thousands of God's enemies.  An enemy of David's was an enemy of God's.

Don't let verses 18 and 22 get past you.  18:  "Then the Spirit clothed Amasai.."  God worked through this leader of the men to proclaim allegiance to David.  22:  "there was a great army, like an army of God."  Breathtaking....

Implications?  If you aren't God's anointed for some grand purpose like David, it doesn't mean God doesn't plan to use you for his glory.

These men were unstoppable because they were squarely in the service of the King, and I don't mean David.

Yahweh and the Kings Part 3

Yahweh demands exclusive worship.  As the only God there is, the Lord demands exclusive worship.  He will not take his place alongside the gods, nor is he willing to be displaced by them.  He refuses to be confused with any part of the created order.  He alone will be worshiped, by Israelite and the foreigner alike (1 Kings 8:41-43, 60; 2 Kings 5:15-18; 17:24-41).

This is a daily pursuit and a lifelong pursuit.  We should ask God to give us the desire to pursue Him even after we fail Him each day.  He can make Himself an insatiable desire in your heart and mine, and we ought to long for that as that is what exclusive worship means.

Yahweh and the Kings Part 2

The second theme of the books of the Kings is that Yahweh controls history.  The Lord, and neither an idol god, nor king, nor prophet, controls history  (1 Kings 11:14, 23; 14:1-18; 22:1-38; 2 Kings 5:1-18, 10:32-33; 18:17-19:37).  This is perhaps illustrated most clearing in the way in which prophets function within 1-2 Kings, describing the future before God brings it about (1 Kings 11:29-39, 13:1-32; 16:1-4; 20:13-34; 2 Kings 19:6-7, 20-34).  Nothing can hinder the fulfillment of this prophetic word, although God himself, in his freedom, can override its fulfillment for his own purposes (1 Kings 21:17-29; 2 Kings 3:15-27, where the ending to the story is somewhat unexpected).

This should be an encouragement on two fronts: 

 

1) When people rule over us, and do things that we would never do, or demand things from us that we don’t think are right or fair, we can know that God has planned this “history” we are living in, and we shouldn't fear, or wonder what might happen

 

2) Anger and frustration should begin to cease as we trust Yahweh for his control and plan of history.  When I know that my God plans all things, I know that He is doing something.  It may be “good” or “bad” for me from my perspective, but since He is the one doing it, I only have faith and trust in Him- no need for anger or doubt.