So Jehoshaphat was unimpressed with Ahab's prophets.
King Ahab then tells him that there was one (yes, only one) prophet of the Lord in the vicinity, a guy named Micaiah. In a moment of brutal honesty, Ahab shares his truest feelings about ole Mikey. "I hate him," Ahab says, "he never prophesies anything but bad news for me!" (v. 7)
I chuckled as I typed that. I get the impression that Ahab's understanding of the prophetic ministry was somewhat lacking. He wanted yes-men, someone who would tell him what he wanted to hear. A religious stamp of approval, if you will.
A shrewd politician, that Ahab. Make a decision and then have a bunch of religious guys tell the people that God guarantees success. Great method of crowd control. This kind of thing is what Karl Marx was talking about when he called religion was "the opiate of the people." (not to get off track but the same thing happens today, even in the Christian church)
Ahab used prophecy as a means of justifying what he wanted. I'm sure that his "prophets" were well taken care of, as long as they said the right things. But there was one guy (and this "one" thing is compelling to me), one guy wasn't on the take and he stuck out like a sore thumb. Micaiah.
Micaiah is referred to as a prophet "of the Lord". What made him unique in the eyes of Ahab was that his messages were....ummm....negative. I can't think of a pretty way of saying it. He told the truth. He challenged Ahab (often, it seems) and shared the heart and will of God. Micaiah's message is typical of the kind of messages delivered by all the prophets of the Old Testament: a call to renewed faith in Almighty God.
I guess that might be the best way to package the prophets' message--it's a call to renewed faith. It sounds a whole lot better than "negative", but even that implies that something is wrong, that the status quo must change.
Now relax, just because I am describing the prophets message as negative, that doesn't mean it was bad. Not at all. As a matter of fact it was life-giving. It's intention is to draw a person closer to God. But Ahab wasn't interested in that. He wasn't interested in being told he needed to change. When you think you are always right, having someone who constantly tells you that you need to change gets old pretty fast.
Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, appears to have been a man of God. My guess is that he was familiar with, and maybe even appreciated a "real" prophetic message when he heard one. He seems sympathetic to Micaiah in giving a slight rebuke to Ahab for his unkind words:
“That’s not the way a king should talk!" Jehoshaphat says, "Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Tune in tomorrow to find out what happens to Micaiah.
PR 15:31 He who listens to a life-giving rebuke
will be at home among the wise.
PR 26:28 A lying tongue hates those it hurts,
and a flattering mouth works ruin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a personal note:
--my son Nathanael is sick with a fever. Usually he's super active. It's odd to see him so lethargic.
--I might do my first bus driving gig on Friday (it will actually be a van but who's counting)
--Tom M. and myself enjoyed the great privilege of leading a man to Christ at the Lehigh Prison on Sunday night. His name is Juan.
--I think I'm to preach on judgement on Sunday. Put your seat belts on.
--It's windy. Cold and windy.
--I hope the Cardinals win the super bowl.
--I am incredibly disappointed in my sim-team of old negro leaguers. Consider this an official call out of Buck Leonard. Pick up a bat or I'm picking up George Giles!
grace & blessings
pjim
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Learning to hear from the Lord- 2 Chronicles 18
2 Chronicles 18 is an interesting little story that reveals much about the nature of the prophetic word and the life of a prophet. I plan on referring to it throughout the sermon series on the prophets, but decided against focusing an entire sermon on it. I will be making comments on it over the next few days.
I invite you to read it yourself to grab the bigger picture. It will put my comments into a better context.
Two kings, Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah were together for a political summit. Ahab was trying to convince Jehoshaphat to join him in battle against the city of Ramoth-gilead, which lied on the northeast border of Israel.
Jehoshaphat is agreeable to help, but before making it official he asks this question:
"but first let's find out what the Lord says..." v. 4 (NLT)
Ahab then gathers all of his prophets, 400 in all (that's a pretty big crowd), and asks them to prophecy about the chances of success against Ramoth-gilead. All 400 tell Ahab that the Lord will provide a great victory.
400 people, 400 prophets, chanting in unison, "go for it, go for it". Must have been a powerful, convincing display. If I was Jehoshaphat, I'd of been grabbing my spear.
But instead Jehoshaphat asks a telling question, "Isn't there a prophet of the Lord around, too? I would like to ask him the same question." v. 6 (NLT)
I wonder how or why Jehoshaphat knew that these guys were not prophets of the Lord. There could be many reasons, but the fact remains that Jehoshaphat was not impressed with their words, as encouraging as they might have been. Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from the Lord.
Advice often comes from multiple angles. Some people are very quick to tell you what you should do. Sometimes it's only to serve their own self-interest. Sometimes they are sincerely trying to consider what is best for you. Sometimes they are only telling you what your itching ears want to hear.
Often advice is given in "spiritual vocab". Words cloaked in godspeak, making it difficult to discern the true source of the advice. After all, the prophets of Ahab declared that "God" would give them a great victory. But Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from the Lord.
We need to hear from the Lord. We need to learn to hear from the Lord. We need to learn how to discern what is/what isn't from God. 2 Chronicles 18 offers some help in this matter. As we continue on this theme, ask the Lord to help you hear his voice. Tell Him you desire to grow. Ask Him to give you the same Spirit that was in Jehoshaphat when he asked to hear from a prophet of the Lord.
grace & blessings,
pjim
I invite you to read it yourself to grab the bigger picture. It will put my comments into a better context.
Two kings, Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah were together for a political summit. Ahab was trying to convince Jehoshaphat to join him in battle against the city of Ramoth-gilead, which lied on the northeast border of Israel.
Jehoshaphat is agreeable to help, but before making it official he asks this question:
"but first let's find out what the Lord says..." v. 4 (NLT)
Ahab then gathers all of his prophets, 400 in all (that's a pretty big crowd), and asks them to prophecy about the chances of success against Ramoth-gilead. All 400 tell Ahab that the Lord will provide a great victory.
400 people, 400 prophets, chanting in unison, "go for it, go for it". Must have been a powerful, convincing display. If I was Jehoshaphat, I'd of been grabbing my spear.
But instead Jehoshaphat asks a telling question, "Isn't there a prophet of the Lord around, too? I would like to ask him the same question." v. 6 (NLT)
I wonder how or why Jehoshaphat knew that these guys were not prophets of the Lord. There could be many reasons, but the fact remains that Jehoshaphat was not impressed with their words, as encouraging as they might have been. Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from the Lord.
Advice often comes from multiple angles. Some people are very quick to tell you what you should do. Sometimes it's only to serve their own self-interest. Sometimes they are sincerely trying to consider what is best for you. Sometimes they are only telling you what your itching ears want to hear.
Often advice is given in "spiritual vocab". Words cloaked in godspeak, making it difficult to discern the true source of the advice. After all, the prophets of Ahab declared that "God" would give them a great victory. But Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from the Lord.
We need to hear from the Lord. We need to learn to hear from the Lord. We need to learn how to discern what is/what isn't from God. 2 Chronicles 18 offers some help in this matter. As we continue on this theme, ask the Lord to help you hear his voice. Tell Him you desire to grow. Ask Him to give you the same Spirit that was in Jehoshaphat when he asked to hear from a prophet of the Lord.
grace & blessings,
pjim
Monday, January 26, 2009
why we hate prophets
this is the sermon I preached yesterday. I don't usually do this and I don't expect to get in the habit of doing this regularly, but I did it tonight....
grace & blessings!
pjim
I’m one guy who feels for Donavan McNabb. Not so much because the eagles lost, but because of the incredible amount of heat he’s taking for it. I was listening to philly sports talk radio on Monday and he was getting absolutely tarred and feathered. McNabb is good! He’s not a bad guy, yet the hatred he receives in Philadelphia is unreal.
I can picture him walking down the street in Philly and getting cursed at. Just minding his business, getting a hamburger, and having to hear people yell, “You’re a bum. You stink. We hate you!”
The guy did nothing wrong and all of Eastern PA treats him like the enemy.
But he is a professional athlete. He gets paid a lot of money, so I guess that’s part of the deal. It’s kind of the same with politicians. Go to youtube and search “bush booed” and take your choice—the guy was even booed at the inauguration!
Got me thinking about jobs where a person is hated just because he’s got the job:
---repo man, professional wrestling villain, telemarketer, dentist, pig farmer, principal
(can you think of others?)
and you can add prophet to that list
We’ve been talking about prophets and so far we’ve said that a prophet is one who tells the truth—who tells God’s side of the story. And last week we talked about the nature of the message the prophets delivered
that it was negative—that God was unhappy
There’s an interesting little verse in 2 Chronicles that points to this. Two kings, Jehoshaphat and Ahab were talking about prophets when Ahab says this:
2 Chronicles 18:7
If you look at the writings of the prophets in the bible, you can see three distinct parts to their message:
1. God is not happy
sin/rebellion/forgetting poor/relying on other nations
2. God will judge
disaster coming/lift protection/send in army
3. God will redeem
Sometimes 2 and 3 are grouped together as options. #1 would be there, God is not happy. And if you do nothing than #2 would happen—but if you repent, than you’ll get #3. The future is wide open, which one will you choose?
The problem the prophets had was that the people were so upset after hearing the first two, they were unable to hear the third.
Because of #1 and #2, the prophets were hated. And this is across the board, you see this everywhere you read the prophets.
Jeremiah 20:1-2, 7-8
Amos 7:10-13
2 Chronicles 18:23
even Jesus alluded to this Matthew 23:37
Sometimes I see churches advertising that they have a special prophet coming to speak—like they are inviting people to come. That always puzzles me, because no one ever wanted to hear the OT prophets. They weren’t invited anywhere. Generally, they were asked to leave. And when the did draw a crowd, it wasn’t for the right reasons.
Ezekiel 33:30-33
Unless you enjoy being mocked, asked to leave, or getting slapped in the face, being a prophet was a tough job and here’s why:
You basically told people that they were responsible for their own problems.
Who wants to hear that? Who wants to hear that the struggles you face are the consequence of your actions? It’s so much better to blame somebody else.
This is why no one listened to the prophets. Basically, they were failures. No one took them seriously.
The prophets spoke to the people of Israel and Judah during some very troubling times; times when their nation was losing wars, when corruption ran rampant, times when people were suffering greatly.
In times like these, you cannot help wondering why; asking “God, why is this happening?” Well, God was providing an answer in through the prophets, but it was not the answer the people were looking for. They were outraged/offended at the notion that God would be mad at THEM. In their eyes, this was unthinkable—and there were two reasons why:
1. they were surrounded by more sinful/pagan nations
2. they believed the right things/performed the right (religious) actions
Aram, Edom, the Babylonians, the Philistines, Egypt, the countries that surrounded Israel were wicked. They worshipped false gods, they mocked the Jews. They were God haters and sure enough, the prophets spoke out against all of these nations…but they were not responsible for Israel’s problems.
It’s easy. It’s too easy to look around and see the flaws and sins of those around us and conclude that it is because of them your are being brought down.
Check out this passage from the prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 58:6-10
This is a very interesting chapter. It begins with Israel complaining that God has abandoned them. To which God says, “No, that’s not true” and goes off telling them what He’s really looking for. I love vv. 9-10.
“if you do away with the pointing finger and the malicious talk…
This pointing finger thing grabs me and doesn’t let me go. God says that one of the reasons why you are not experiencing my blessing is because you’re pointing the finger at everyone else. The people of Israel couldn’t hear this. “Why are you dwelling on us when they’re so bad?” For this they rejected the prophets.
You cannot address what you cannot see. And you cannot see your issues when you’re busy pointing out everyone elses. This hold true for husbands and wives, parents and children, and country against country.
Does this apply today? Why is the United States struggling? Because of liberal judges? the gay rights movement? Because of radical islam, religious pluralism? Because of Godless people who hate Jesus?
We hear that stuff and our tendency is to be like “yeah! If they weren’t so bad, things wouldn’t be so bad for the rest of us.” And it gets our blood boiling and we end up hating and the devil is sitting there going, “yeah, it’s their fault-you should be so mad at them!”
And the prophet Isaiah comes along and says the same thing to us that he said way back when…
Isaiah 58:6-10
Your spouse might have issues, and I’m not here to tell you that you should tolerate them, but if you are walking around thinking that that’s the reason for all your struggles, you will miss God’s prophetic for you just like the people of Israel did.
I’m not here this morning to tell you that things like the ACLU and radical Islam and liberal judges are good and that you should tolerate them, but if you’re walking around condemning them for the problems in America and the church in America, than you will reject God’s prophetic message for you just like the people of Israel did.
Matthew 23:37
Another reason why the Jews rejected the prophetic writings was because they had the right theology; the right religion. “How can God be mad at us when we pray in his name; when we sings songs about Him; when we go to the right church and do all the religious things he told us to do?
We’re God’s people-how can this be our fault?
Here comes Isaiah with that chapter 58 again
Isaiah 58:2-4
When you’re convinced you are right, it is hard to see how you can be at fault. The people of Israel were the people of God in their day. They saw themselves on the right side. They were the good guys. When you do what God wants, how could he possibly have a problem with you?
But God did have a problem with them. It was all empty. “Yes, they read the bible. Yes they were at church last Sunday. Yes they offered the required sacrifices, but it was more jumping through religious hoops than anything else.”
This is going to be the subject of a sermon later in this series, but let me just say this right now…
The Jews missed God’s word for them because they were convinced of their own righteousness. And the men that were sent to them to call them back were ignored, rejected, and killed.
The prophets were hated because of the message God called them to deliver. Because they were the tough love instruments of God.
The goal was to call people back, but in order to do that they needed to face reality and repent. They didn’t think they had to and went elsewhere for answers. They rejected God’s answer.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
No ones ears are itching to hear God tell THEM that they need to repent.
Perhaps you’ve been jumping through religious hoops.
Perhaps you’ve been overworking the pointing finger.
Perhaps you had a God-experience 10 years ago and are content to surf from here on out.
Will you let the prophetic word of God speak to you this morning?
Matthew 23:37
Will you be willing?
grace & blessings!
pjim
I’m one guy who feels for Donavan McNabb. Not so much because the eagles lost, but because of the incredible amount of heat he’s taking for it. I was listening to philly sports talk radio on Monday and he was getting absolutely tarred and feathered. McNabb is good! He’s not a bad guy, yet the hatred he receives in Philadelphia is unreal.
I can picture him walking down the street in Philly and getting cursed at. Just minding his business, getting a hamburger, and having to hear people yell, “You’re a bum. You stink. We hate you!”
The guy did nothing wrong and all of Eastern PA treats him like the enemy.
But he is a professional athlete. He gets paid a lot of money, so I guess that’s part of the deal. It’s kind of the same with politicians. Go to youtube and search “bush booed” and take your choice—the guy was even booed at the inauguration!
Got me thinking about jobs where a person is hated just because he’s got the job:
---repo man, professional wrestling villain, telemarketer, dentist, pig farmer, principal
(can you think of others?)
and you can add prophet to that list
We’ve been talking about prophets and so far we’ve said that a prophet is one who tells the truth—who tells God’s side of the story. And last week we talked about the nature of the message the prophets delivered
that it was negative—that God was unhappy
There’s an interesting little verse in 2 Chronicles that points to this. Two kings, Jehoshaphat and Ahab were talking about prophets when Ahab says this:
2 Chronicles 18:7
If you look at the writings of the prophets in the bible, you can see three distinct parts to their message:
1. God is not happy
sin/rebellion/forgetting poor/relying on other nations
2. God will judge
disaster coming/lift protection/send in army
3. God will redeem
Sometimes 2 and 3 are grouped together as options. #1 would be there, God is not happy. And if you do nothing than #2 would happen—but if you repent, than you’ll get #3. The future is wide open, which one will you choose?
The problem the prophets had was that the people were so upset after hearing the first two, they were unable to hear the third.
Because of #1 and #2, the prophets were hated. And this is across the board, you see this everywhere you read the prophets.
Jeremiah 20:1-2, 7-8
Amos 7:10-13
2 Chronicles 18:23
even Jesus alluded to this Matthew 23:37
Sometimes I see churches advertising that they have a special prophet coming to speak—like they are inviting people to come. That always puzzles me, because no one ever wanted to hear the OT prophets. They weren’t invited anywhere. Generally, they were asked to leave. And when the did draw a crowd, it wasn’t for the right reasons.
Ezekiel 33:30-33
Unless you enjoy being mocked, asked to leave, or getting slapped in the face, being a prophet was a tough job and here’s why:
You basically told people that they were responsible for their own problems.
Who wants to hear that? Who wants to hear that the struggles you face are the consequence of your actions? It’s so much better to blame somebody else.
This is why no one listened to the prophets. Basically, they were failures. No one took them seriously.
The prophets spoke to the people of Israel and Judah during some very troubling times; times when their nation was losing wars, when corruption ran rampant, times when people were suffering greatly.
In times like these, you cannot help wondering why; asking “God, why is this happening?” Well, God was providing an answer in through the prophets, but it was not the answer the people were looking for. They were outraged/offended at the notion that God would be mad at THEM. In their eyes, this was unthinkable—and there were two reasons why:
1. they were surrounded by more sinful/pagan nations
2. they believed the right things/performed the right (religious) actions
Aram, Edom, the Babylonians, the Philistines, Egypt, the countries that surrounded Israel were wicked. They worshipped false gods, they mocked the Jews. They were God haters and sure enough, the prophets spoke out against all of these nations…but they were not responsible for Israel’s problems.
It’s easy. It’s too easy to look around and see the flaws and sins of those around us and conclude that it is because of them your are being brought down.
Check out this passage from the prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 58:6-10
This is a very interesting chapter. It begins with Israel complaining that God has abandoned them. To which God says, “No, that’s not true” and goes off telling them what He’s really looking for. I love vv. 9-10.
“if you do away with the pointing finger and the malicious talk…
This pointing finger thing grabs me and doesn’t let me go. God says that one of the reasons why you are not experiencing my blessing is because you’re pointing the finger at everyone else. The people of Israel couldn’t hear this. “Why are you dwelling on us when they’re so bad?” For this they rejected the prophets.
You cannot address what you cannot see. And you cannot see your issues when you’re busy pointing out everyone elses. This hold true for husbands and wives, parents and children, and country against country.
Does this apply today? Why is the United States struggling? Because of liberal judges? the gay rights movement? Because of radical islam, religious pluralism? Because of Godless people who hate Jesus?
We hear that stuff and our tendency is to be like “yeah! If they weren’t so bad, things wouldn’t be so bad for the rest of us.” And it gets our blood boiling and we end up hating and the devil is sitting there going, “yeah, it’s their fault-you should be so mad at them!”
And the prophet Isaiah comes along and says the same thing to us that he said way back when…
Isaiah 58:6-10
Your spouse might have issues, and I’m not here to tell you that you should tolerate them, but if you are walking around thinking that that’s the reason for all your struggles, you will miss God’s prophetic for you just like the people of Israel did.
I’m not here this morning to tell you that things like the ACLU and radical Islam and liberal judges are good and that you should tolerate them, but if you’re walking around condemning them for the problems in America and the church in America, than you will reject God’s prophetic message for you just like the people of Israel did.
Matthew 23:37
Another reason why the Jews rejected the prophetic writings was because they had the right theology; the right religion. “How can God be mad at us when we pray in his name; when we sings songs about Him; when we go to the right church and do all the religious things he told us to do?
We’re God’s people-how can this be our fault?
Here comes Isaiah with that chapter 58 again
Isaiah 58:2-4
When you’re convinced you are right, it is hard to see how you can be at fault. The people of Israel were the people of God in their day. They saw themselves on the right side. They were the good guys. When you do what God wants, how could he possibly have a problem with you?
But God did have a problem with them. It was all empty. “Yes, they read the bible. Yes they were at church last Sunday. Yes they offered the required sacrifices, but it was more jumping through religious hoops than anything else.”
This is going to be the subject of a sermon later in this series, but let me just say this right now…
The Jews missed God’s word for them because they were convinced of their own righteousness. And the men that were sent to them to call them back were ignored, rejected, and killed.
The prophets were hated because of the message God called them to deliver. Because they were the tough love instruments of God.
The goal was to call people back, but in order to do that they needed to face reality and repent. They didn’t think they had to and went elsewhere for answers. They rejected God’s answer.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
No ones ears are itching to hear God tell THEM that they need to repent.
Perhaps you’ve been jumping through religious hoops.
Perhaps you’ve been overworking the pointing finger.
Perhaps you had a God-experience 10 years ago and are content to surf from here on out.
Will you let the prophetic word of God speak to you this morning?
Matthew 23:37
Will you be willing?
Friday, January 23, 2009
This post has no title
I would like to thank those folks who left comments, and all of you who have been reading this blog. My hope is that this would be a vehicle driven by God to promote spiritual thought and conversation. I also hope it serves to make stronger the connections between people at Solid Rock. For this reason, comments are especially welcome. And if you have any questions you'd like answered or subjects discussed, just let me know.
M. Night Shmyalyan (or what the director guys name is) once said that some of what he thinks are his best scenes get edited out of his movies and never see a movie screen. I can relate to that. Quite often I'll have (what I think is) a great point or insight or whatever, but it never makes it into a sermon. That's the case of 2 Chronicles 18 and the prophet Micaiah.
I thought I was going to preach on that but the Lord seems to be taking this series in another direction. That's cool with me, but 2 Chronicles 18 is a fascinating chapter and teaches us a lot about prophesy. It's the story of one king (Ahab) trying to persuade another king (Jehoshaphat) to help him in a war with the dreaded enemy from Ramoth Gilead (a strategic city near the border of Syria and Israel).
Well it's getting late. I'm tired and I have a long day tomorrow of bus driver class and finishing up preparations for Sunday morning. So I think I'm gonna go back to 2 Chronicles next time I blog. Who knows? Maybe I'll make this kinda like a blog sermon series......
we'll see
M. Night Shmyalyan (or what the director guys name is) once said that some of what he thinks are his best scenes get edited out of his movies and never see a movie screen. I can relate to that. Quite often I'll have (what I think is) a great point or insight or whatever, but it never makes it into a sermon. That's the case of 2 Chronicles 18 and the prophet Micaiah.
I thought I was going to preach on that but the Lord seems to be taking this series in another direction. That's cool with me, but 2 Chronicles 18 is a fascinating chapter and teaches us a lot about prophesy. It's the story of one king (Ahab) trying to persuade another king (Jehoshaphat) to help him in a war with the dreaded enemy from Ramoth Gilead (a strategic city near the border of Syria and Israel).
Well it's getting late. I'm tired and I have a long day tomorrow of bus driver class and finishing up preparations for Sunday morning. So I think I'm gonna go back to 2 Chronicles next time I blog. Who knows? Maybe I'll make this kinda like a blog sermon series......
we'll see
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Cardboard Testimonies
This is an incredibly power video. It introduced me to the song played in the video below.
It makes me cry when I watch it.
http://www.rhchurch.org/pages/cardboard-testimonies/
For those of you who watched it, what would your card read?
It makes me cry when I watch it.
http://www.rhchurch.org/pages/cardboard-testimonies/
For those of you who watched it, what would your card read?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
How should President Obama pray?
--"Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
--King Solomon ending his prayer.
2 Chronicles 6:40
Is President Obama going to pray tonight? I would love to know what his prayer would be. It's getting close to 10PM as I type this, so bedtime is coming soon for him I guess. Is prayer on his agenda?
It got me thinking about heads of state praying, so I went to 2 Chronicles 6, where King Solomon prays during the dedication of the temple. Verse 13 says that he knelt down before the crowd, lifted his hands to heaven and began praying. Humble.
Solomon's prayer is interesting. He mentions different scenarios that the Israelite people might find themselves in: victory or defeat in war, economic trouble, natural disaster, personal failure (sin), and prosperity. After each scenario, he repeats the same words: "then hear from heaven and...". It's kinda like the chorus of a song.
The entire prayer goes like this:
When (insert scenario), we will pray to you, then hear from heaven and.....
I counted this refrain 8 times in the prayer. That's a lot. Smart people call it a recuring motif.
What's the point? To me, Solomon is basically saying to God "please pay attention to me/us". "God, I need to know that you are aware of my situation, my needs. Please listen to me. In whatever situation I'm in, I need to know that you are there."
It reminds of of my son Nathanael looking my way every now and then, seemingly just to make sure that I'm there. That I'm aware of his presence. Somehow, just knowing daddy is around makes him more secure.
I wonder if Obama is singing Solomon's song tonight? (no, not that one, though that one might be appropriate after he and Michelle pray). No, I'm thinking about the song, or prayer, mentioned above.
"God, as I make decisions about this economy, be with me.
As I try to bring the parties together, be with me. (at least I hope he tries to do that)
As I address the problems in the middle east, as I stand face to face with Vlad Putin,
be with me.
As I sleep next to this briefcase that holds the codes of our nuclear bombs, be with me."
I hope his prayers look something like that.
Well I started by wondering if Obama was going to pray tonight. As I was typing this I felt God saying "Jim, I'll worry about Obama, are YOU going to pray tonight?"
Monday, January 19, 2009
worship=peace
I preached a number of months ago about the significance of worship when you are going through trials (we called them "404" times at church). I figured I'd practice what I preach.
This song has brought me to a better place. Right now, God is my strength.
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