(Pssst. Today is Frank's birthday - Happy Birthday!)
I've missed seeing so many of you at Youth Group, Church and, even, online.
This week, I've been overwhelmed! Work, health issues, relationship issues and family issues have captured my focus. How are you doing?
After spending some much needed time in prayer, a good night's sleep and refreshing my soul with God's Truth, I am not overwhelmed today. I confessed my focus on self and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, corrected my focus back onto Jesus (which is where it should always be!).
As I read today's PW Devotional, I wonder why King David decided to "sit this one out?" Was he overwhelmed with running the kingdom? Was he fearful for his life in battle? Was he just tired? Did he have relationship issues? Was money tight? The Bible doesn't say. However, it does record the horrible results of King David shirking his Kingly duties.
What or whom is causing you to disengage from the Body of Christ (the Church) or fellowship (Youth Group) or spending time with your Heavenly Father (in prayer) or refreshing your soul by drinking in the Word (the Bible)?
Have you wandered away only to find yourself in a dark corner, wrong crowd or impossible situation? Sometimes, I think it is easier to distinguish the obvious results of wrong choices when we turn away from God and toward the world.
It is much harder, when we slowly fade. We sleep in that Sunday. We procrastinate work/homwork so we can't do that Church Event, Camp or Conference. We begin to forget why God and hanging out with other Christian Believers was so awesome, refreshing and nourishing for our soul. Instead, we trade the Truth for a lie that the world satisfies and really, really matters.
I recently received a letter from a grand-niece of my step-Grandfather, Al Lasky. She and her sister were trying to piece together the dash, or hyphen, if you will, between the date he was born to the date he died. They actually never knew him, personally, and were looking for any details our family might be able to provide.
I recall in my "Uncle" Al's later years, he became obsessed with growing a herd of chinchillas. Al's health wasn't the best, and so, he relied upon my father to do the handiwork, lifting, sifting, transporting and charting of the chinchilla families that resided in a metal breeding house in our back yard. Many times my cousin Bev and I would wander into the Chinchilla house and look at the adorable babies. We really weren't supposed to touch them (but I'm sure we did).
Did you know? It takes 130-200 chinchillas to make a fur coat - Chinchilla fur is considered the softest in the world and is thirty times softer than human hair. Chinchillas must regularly bathe in dust or volcanic ash to remove oil and moisture that gathers in their thick fur. In fact, they have the highest fur density of any land animal with more than 20,000 hairs per square cm. Their fur is so dense that skin parasites (such as fleas) cannot live on one lest they suffocate. Where humans grow one hair from each follicle, a chinchilla has more than fifty hairs from a single follicle.
Sadly, Uncle Al passed away before he ever realized his boyhood dream of breeding chinchillas for profit (or to make a fur coat). I think when he died, he had approximately 60-70 chinchillas.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm NOT saying it is wrong to have dreams, raise Chinchillas (well, maybe if you plan to murder them) or pursue other hobbies, etc. I believe, however, we waste a lot of "God's time" pursuing so many things that truly aren't important. I do it all the time. And, you do it too.
What we love, we cherish. Are you in love with God?
I wonder what King David found so important? Whatever it was, he was distracted away from his correct focus (God's plan). Many of us find our faces in the place of King David's as we read through his story. And, we also find hope and forgiveness which only God can give. Read on.
| What David Did: Today's Mission Posted: 27 Jan 2011 12:00 AM PST "In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem." (2 Samuel 11:1) We're going to spend the next week or two looking at the story of David and Bathsheba — and David's prayer of confession and repentances in Psalm 51. It's a gruesome story in which the hero becomes the villain. We watch uneasily as he quickly slides from lust to adultery to murder.
But it starts here, in this verse. David was king of Israel. He was famous and wealthy and powerful and already tremendously successful. He had honored God in his heart and in his kingdom, and God had blessed him in huge ways.
So what happened? It started when David decided he didn't need to do what kings do — go to war with their men. He stayed home. He sat this one out. And that set him up for the fall. Anytime we are not participating in what God has called us to do, we are more likely to do what He's called us not to do.
Think: Can you remember a time in your life when your choice to sin followed a choice to stop doing what God called you to do (e.g., going to school, participating in church, encouraging your family, etc.)?
Pray: Ask God to help you to know what He has called you to do today. Then ask Him to help you take those things seriously.
Do: Make a quick list of the things God has called you to do today. It might include school, homework, prayer, reading the Bible, your job, being kind to friends and family, etc.  |
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Mary E.Hickcox
www.CalvaryBaptistSM.org http://mary-neotes.blogspot.com/
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