Week 34: Lessons from a cover up exposed

“Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.” (NLT)

Extended reading: 2 Samuel 11, 12

In his DVD, Today, when Brian Doerksen sings “Refiner’s Fire”, he asks all men to stand up in the arena and tells the women to pray over their men. What did they pray for? To keep them pure. To keep their men’s hearts clean. Brian Doerksen understood that we live in a world with a lot of distractions. Distractions that keep us away from our family, our real purpose, our destiny.

Psalm 51 was written by David after the prophet Nathan faced him with his sin. David stole another man’s (Uriah) wife (Bathsheba) and got her husband killed (2 Samuel 11). He takes Bathsheba as his wife after and thinks everything is alright. But the Lord sends Nathan, the prophet to confront David with his sin (1 Samuel 12).

1 Samuel 12: 7 – 10 says, “Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own.”

Please note here, David is a man with a lot of clout – political, military, personal. He has to say just one word and Nathan is a dead man. This could have been the world’s best cover-up. Back then, there were no pictures or emails or Internet..in fact, no proof. No proof in worldly terms. But David’s reaction is in vs. 13 “Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.””.

He goes on to write one of the greatest psalms. A psalm of humility. Of repentance. Of forgiveness. A psalm of restoration.

There is nothing we can hide from God, whoever we may be. When faced with sin or stuck in it, the only thing we can do is fall at the mercy seat of God. It does not matter what we have done. David stole, committed adultery and murder. He was forgiven. Verse 13 continues “Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.”

And please, don’t wait for someone or even God to expose you or your sin. When you are convicted within, it is better to confess to Him.

Week 33: The secret to success

“After this, I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting,   “Praise the Lord!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” (NLT)

Extended reading: 2 Samuel 5:17-25

There is a small difference in the King James Version. It reads, “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God”. It adds the word honor there. The four things mentioned here:

* Salvation
* Glory
* Honor
* Power

Really belong to God. But look at what we do with these. Look at how we get things done everyday. We take pride in the fact that we have power. We take glory for all the work that we do. We revel in the limelight of our greatest inventions and discoveries. Breakthroughs and findings are named after the scientists who found them. We crouch under the people who have power and rule proudly over whom we have power.

We are offended if we are not given the honor we deserve (or not deserve). We misuse authority. We seek the very things that is supposed to belong to somebody else, in this case, God. We take what is rightfully His and give Him little credit for what we have.

If you haven’t read this week’s extended reading yet, I recommend you do – click here. You see how David handled a situation. A situation which required leadership, authority and power. David was surrounded by his enemies – the Philistines. He was king and he had an army but he does not make his decision on his own. He enquires with God. God says, “Yes, go ahead. I will certainly hand them over to you.”

David goes out against the Philistines and beats their pants off (vs. 20). Look at the very next verse. It starts, “The Lord did it!” David exclaimed. “He burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” (vs. 21). Can you believe that? David had just won against the very people who wanted to destroy him right after he took the throne. This was his opportunity at a major PR showcase. It would definitely help increase the people’s faith in the new king. But before anyone got any ideas, David proclaims, “The Lord did it!”.

The passage gets interesting because the Philistines come back for their idols. Sincerely, you think David would just take off and beat their pants off again. C’mon, he did it the first time. I am sure the Lord would do it for him the second time too. But David asks the Lord again and this time God had a different strategy. It worked and David won. Again.

Verse 25 reads “So David did what the Lord commanded, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.”

David gave full credit to God. He didn’t keep anything for himself. All power, honor and glory to God.

Pontius Pilate once tried to convince Jesus saying, “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?” Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. (John 19: 10, 11)

It is true. This world tells you that you are in control. That you can have all the control. That is a lie.

Give credit where it is due. God deserves all glory, honor and power. And only He can save us all. He is our true source of success.