Jesus is Lord! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Samuel 5:1-3,

"After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezerto Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!"

Folks took something of the Lord and placed it where they thought best: right beside the other objects of worship in their lives.

While I suspect  there may be little exegetical reason to compare what godless idolaters do in a passage like this with marginal Christians (or those who fashion themselves as Christians even though they are not true followers of the Lord), nonetheless, I cannot escape a thought that requires such an exercise.

I don't know how many times I have felt that someone who was presenting themselves as Christian, whether in a church setting or otherwise, approached their assumed relationship with the Lord in a similar manner as these Philistines had following their capture of the ark of God. They take the Lord and place him (figuratively) in their lives as the spiritual component of an otherwise healthy lifestyle. The Lord goes into their lives in a space provided him alongside of the other pursuits in their lives... kind of like taking the ark of God and placing him in the local temple alongside an idol.

There is the healthy diet being adhered to, a regular schedule at the YMCA to stay fit, the reading of several books a month to stay intellectually stimulated and broadened, keeping up with the news, etc, etc and now- a church service on Sunday mornings to round out the lifestyle. I hope you get my drift here.

Just as the Lord did not allow his things to be placed along side of idols, so he is unwilling to be placed as a "piece" of anyone's life, alongside other pieces. We are told that a condition of being saved is to confess "Jesus as Lord", Romans 10:9. If his role is "Lord" in our lives, then he doesn't get placed along side anything. He takes that place in our lives over everything else.

Everything we choose to embrace in our lives has its place. Nothing but the Lord should be placed in his rightful place in our lives as Lord and he should never occupy any less place in our lives.

Remember: Jesus is Lord!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Contempt for the things of God - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Samuel 4:22,

"The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

When the wife of Phinehas, the son of the high priest Eli, gave birth, it happened when her husband was killed and the ark was captured by the Philistines. Just as she was dying herself, she named the boy "Ichabod" which means "no glory."

While she was certainly right that Israel had lost the glory of God, I'm not sure her explanation as to why was accurate. To be sure, the ark of God had been captured by the Philistines. However, God was angry with Israel and particularly with the house of Eli.

Here is God's accusation of Eli and his family, "Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?... The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age, and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life." 1 Samuel 2:31-33.

The people of Israel and particularly the religious leaders treated the things of God with contempt.

There may be a message in here for us today...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Me? Used by God? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Samuel 3:7,

"Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him..."

When the Lord first called Samuel, Samuel had to be schooled by the priest, Eli, to recognize it was in fact the Lord who was calling him.

I am reminded that those who have served the Lord in one capacity or another were normal people like you and me and had to be instructed in the things of the Lord, whether through another, as Eli with Samuel, or the Lord himself, as with Isaiah for instance. It took three years with the Lord himself and the arrival of the Holy Spirit to get the apostles up to speed.

Always exceptions it seems, though. I don't know what to think of John the Baptist. Here was a man who was functioning as a prophet even before he was born! "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby [John the Baptist in his mother's womb at the end of the second trimester] leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... 'As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.'" Luke 1:41, 44. (As an aside, you don't have to go any further than this passage to recognize the practice of abortion is murder.)

Outside of John the Baptist and a few others, the folks that served the Lord in specific and unusual ways in the Scriptures did not arrive at their occupation by "earning it" or developing those "spiritual disciplines" who transformed themselves into what we might think as spiritual elites. No, they were just like you and me, tapped by God and prepared by him for service, either through the agency of others God used, or directly by God himself.

Did any of them know their lives would take such a turn? I suspect not. There seems to be little, if any, indication they were. Just look at Moses. The man thought the Lord had made a mistake by choosing him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the holy land.

Which brings my thoughts to you and me. No matter what you do or where you are, how do you possibly know how God might specifically use you in his agenda? We don't want to find ourselves to be one of the mockers who say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 2 Peter 34.

The things of God may become very active and impacting at any moment... and the Lord just may use any of us in important ways in the midst of carrying out his agenda.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The greatest Christmas message! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Samuel 2:6,

"The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up."

I am reminded that it was the Lord who visited judgment on mankind in the garden of Eden. Where God's intention was that mankind live forever in a paradise he created specifically for them, they turned their backs on their Creator and rebelled against him. He had given them both a free will and a fair warning. If they sinned, they would die. Death came to mankind when, following the temptation by Satan, they sinned.

However, as Hannah acknowledges in one of the most beautiful and insightful of prayers in the Scriptures, God indeed brings death but he also makes alive!

God has provided a way for mankind to be restored to him in everlasting life lived within the pleasures found at his right hand, Psalm 16. In that psalm David exclaims his excitement in the truth of Hannah's prayer: God not only brings death but he also makes alive. In Psalm 16:9-11, "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

Following our physical deaths in this life, God has promised all who embrace him in faith the resurrection to eternal life. "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." John 1:12.

God has accomplished this by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for the sins of all mankind when he died on that cross. That payment gets credited to our account with God when (and if) we place our faith and trust in him. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

I can't think of a better Christmas message, can you?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

A failure to bless? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Samuel 1:3-8,

"Year after year this man [Elkanah, the father of Samuel] went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, 'Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?'"

Here is a man who had two wives, and from this account he certainly loved the one, Hannah, who was barren. In the context of this culture, this was a disgrace for her and it effected her deeply. Given her rival's, (Elkanah's other wife, Peninnah's) abuse, it was certainly a big issue in Elkanah's home.

However, Elkanah was a man who worshiped the Lord faithfully. Since he he loved Hannah deeply and was certainly concerned for her, why did the Lord withhold a child from this couple, especially given both Elkanah's and Hannah's devotion to the Lord?

From the account we are provided, they both worshiped the Lord in heartfelt ways. We are told specifically that the Lord was responsible for Hannah's barrenness - why was the Lord not blessing this marriage with children?

Today it is often peddled about that if we devote ourselves to the Lord, if we engage in all the spiritual disciplines a follower of Jesus Christ should engage in, if we have faith, if we send in our faith-pledge to the TV evangelist, God will bless us in all the ways we want. Bills all paid off, kids all healthy, a nice big three bedroom ranch with two luxury cars in the garage... you get the point. Yet this account of Hannah and Elkanah doesn't seem to square at all with a lot of the things people say today, and I certainly don't read anything in the new covenant that explains the disparity.

There is a lot that is passed around, from the pulpit, in home "Bible studies", and among believers that really doesn't square at all with the Scriptures. Hannah was not blessed with a child because the Lord was preparing her to give up the child he would eventually provide her to be reared at the place of worship by the priest, Eli. His name would be Samuel and he would become Israel's last judge, a great prophet and Israel's king-maker.

God will simply not be reduced by our assumptions about him and his ways. We really need to become acquainted with the Scriptures to insure we are sufficiently and authoritatively schooled in the things of God.

Before you let anyone tell you that you are not being blessed by God (in some way that we may define it for ourselves) because you are not devoted to God enough, or that there is probably some sin in your life (as the friends of Job accused him of), or you simply lack the faith, you may want to make sure God is not doing something you are not expecting in and through you. After all, it is clear Hannah had no idea the Lord was afoot in her life, and must have felt God was distant from her, when all along, he was doing something astonishing in and through her. Just not in a way she was expecting...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The cost of worship - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 24:24-25a,

"But the king [David] replied to Araunah, 'No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.' So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings."

David had committed the sin of faithlessness. In Romans 14:23 we read, "everything that does not come from faith is sin."

David had sent the commanders of his army to take a head count to see how strong their military might was. In this single act of David's suspension of faith in the Lord, he expressed a temporary perception that all of the victories Israel had accomplished were due to their own military strength and not God's intervention on Israel's behalf. Joab protested, "May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing? Verse 3.

David was resolute, a counting of the troops was performed and the Lord judged the nation for David's lapse of faith. Although David became "conscience-stricken" over what he had done, verse 10, "the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died." Verse 15. When the angel the Lord had sent to destroy the nation got to Jerusalem, the Lord stopped him and sent the prophet Gad to tell David to build an alter on the threshing floor of Araunah, "the Jebusite." The plague was stopped and David sacrificed to the Lord, expressing his worship.

We read in David's worship of the Lord through the sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah, (re-establishing the acknowledgment of the Lord as Israel's savior), that David would not sacrifice anything of anyone else's. He would only worship the Lord with something that cost him personally.

Here is something to be learned about our worship of God, if it doesn't cost us something personally, it will not express our heart for the Lord nearly as much as if it had cost us something. Consider the Lord's observation in Luke 21:1-4, "As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'Truly I tell you,' he said, 'this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.'"

The greater the cost to us, the greater the expression of love. The greater the cost to us, the greater the expression of worship. It is so simple, and so true. The question is, does the Lord get our best, our first, our most valuable? Whether it is time, energy, effort, money, "stuff", does the Lord get the best from us or simply what is left over?

As we look at what our worship of the Lord last week cost us personally, what does it express about the level of love, adoration and worship we claim to have for the Lord?

Convicting, isn't it?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Our God communicates! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 3:3a,

"The God of Israel spoke..."

A simple statement that tells us a lot about our Creator.

That God spoke demonstrates his decision to communicate with his creation. He has something to say to us. He is not silent and he communicates with us.

We understand that since God communicates with us, he has his own intentions for us. There will necessarily be something of vital importance to us within what he has to say to us.

God has not only spoken through David, but also over forty others. What he has had to say to us reveals his desire we know about him, what he is like, "'let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the Lord." Jeremiah 9:24.

Not only does God want us to know about him, he wants us to know his intentions, which all point to his Son, Jesus Christ, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:16-18

God also communicates to us that in addition to our potential for becoming objects of the intent of his love (through faith), he wants us to know we come into this world as objects of his wrath and judgment, "The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them." John 3:35-36.

How astonishing is all this! Our Creator communicates, and by virtue of who he is, whatever it is he has to say is something we vitally need to know! Time to knock the dust off that Bible and apprise ourselves of what it is our God has to say!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Lord is my rock - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 22:2-3,

"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me."

"Horn" in this passage refers to strength. The Lord is the strength of David's salvation.

We live in a world of turmoil. Uncertainty, concern for loved ones (concern for ourselves!), concern for the future can trouble anyone keeping up with the news of the day. Liberal or conservative, progressive or libertarian, catholic or protestant, black or white, etc., we all live a troublesome existence as we view the events of the day.

The reality is that life in this age has always been this way. What we want for ourselves is peace and affluence. What the Lord wants for us is to embrace him in faith and become a part of his family. From God's perspective, life of peace, prosperity, a sense of well-being, happiness and fulfillment will all come in the resurrection. We have a taste for the resurrection today and seek to have it in this life, but... it can only become ours in the next life for those who embrace Jesus Christ in faith.

To help us find him, God brings troubles, worries and a disquieted existence into our lives, as he did David, to draw us to himself. to motivate us to reach out to him. "The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." Romans 8:20-21.

The Lord brought difficulties David's way and David found his relief in the Lord. A man of deep faith, David had his problems with sin as we all do, as revealed in his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. While we may never be involved in murder or adultery, we all need to draw close to the Lord, first for our salvation, and then to sustain us till we reach his kingdom in the resurrection when we finally leave our sinful nature behind.

Till we enter his family in the next age the Lord brings those concerns, those threats, those frustrations our way to draw us to himself. The goal in this life is that we arrive where David did in confessing the Lord as our rock, as our fortress, as our deliverer. He wants us to find our refuge in him.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

We all may have to pay the price - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 21:14b,

"After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land."

The reference to "that" in the above verse refers to the satisfaction the Gibeonites received after having been decimated by Saul when he was king of Israel. The satisfaction came in the form of seven males from Saul's family be put to death and their bodies hung in dishonor. God caused a famine in the land because of Saul's treatment of the Gibeonites and the famine was not removed till the Gibeonites were satisfied.

By this time Saul had already died. I note that these seven descendants of Saul were not directly responsible for the wrongs done to the Gibeonites, but yet they had to pay the price.

If nothing else at all is learned from this account, this should be: we may all have to suffer due to the sins of others in our nation that require God's intervention.

The next time anyone tries to tell you that your "Christianity" precludes you from weighing in on a matter, as in the practice of abortion by many in our country, or the acceptance of homosexuality, remember this. We may all have to pay for the sins of others within our country. It is to our own best interests to oppose ungodly things in our country. It is not just specific individuals that pay the price when God judges a nation for its wicked behavior. We all pay.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Fickleness versus faithfulness

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 20:2,

"So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bikri."

Dictionary.com defines the term "fickle" as, "likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable... not constant or loyal in affections."

David was ruling from Jerusalem, his son, Absalom ran him out of town and many Israelites then followed Absalom. Absalom was killed and David returned so the folks return to David. Now Sheba rebels against David and Israelites leave David to follow him. Israel was a fickle people.

Unstable, unsteady, inconsistent, vacillating and capricious. These are all words that describe the nation of Israel. Here it is documented in their lack of loyalty and fidelity to David. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, the fickle nature of the Israelites toward the Lord is often documented.

In speaking of the propensity of the Israelites to abandon the Lord and chase after lifeless idols, the Lord says, "'But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers— would you now return to me?' declares the Lord." Jeremiah 3:1. In calling on his people to return to him the Lord says, "Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Return to me,' declares the Lord Almighty, 'and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty." Zechariah 1:3. A similar call of God to his people is seen in Malachi 3:7, "'Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty."

The fickle nature of Israel toward their God-appointed king points to the fickle nature of the Israelites toward their God. And, it is not just Israel. All mankind is cursed with a sinful nature that predisposes us toward a lack of faithfulness and loyalty to our Creator, inherited from man's fall in the garden of Eden.

One of the wonderful "gifts" the Holy Spirit brings into our lives when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith is faithfulness itself, as the Spirit desires within us what is contrary to that old sinful nature, Galatians 5:17 and 22.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

David provides a glimpse of God's mercy - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 19:23,

"So the king said to Shimei, 'You shall not die.' And the king promised him on oath."

In Shimei's own words he had done wrong to King David. "May my lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. For I your servant know that I have sinned..." Verses 19 and 20. As David fled Jerusalem at the approach of is son, Absalom, we read of Shimei cursing David as he fled. "As he cursed, Shimei said, 'Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has given the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a murderer!'" 16:7-8.

Following Absalom being put to death by David's military, David returned to Jerusalem to take back the throne. En route, Shimei prostrated himself before David and begged for his mercy at having cursed David. In the passage above, we read of David forgiving Shimei and promising him on oath that he would not put him to death.

Shimei did not deserve David's forgiveness. At one of the lowest points in his life, David had to endure the hostility of Shimei.

In some ways I am reminded of an undeserved forgiveness by God for our hostility toward him. We are all born with sinful rebellious hearts and live in an estrangement and, often, a hostility toward God. We have all sinned against God.

Yet, God forgives us just as David forgave Shimei. As Shimei, we don't deserve God's forgiveness either. However, out of God's heart of mercy he does just that and, just as David provided reassurance to Shimei, God confirms his promise to forgive us with his oath, "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. Hebrews 6:17-20.

Those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith enjoy God's mercy, God's forgiveness, as well as his oath to do for us all he has promised. Just as Shimei was promised his physical life in this age, we are promised eternal life in the next to enjoy all the Son of God inherits from our heavenly Father!

How can it Get any better than that?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Lord can work in wild ways - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 18:9,

"Now Absalom happened to meet David's men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going."

2 Samuel 17:14b tells us, "For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom." The Lord decided it was the end of the line for David's son Absalom, who had attempted to seize the throne from David. Absalom did not have the Lord's approval to overthrow the king of his people and so the Lord determined to have his life ended.

The account above, with Absalom getting hooked by the branches of an oak tree until Joab could come and end his life is a reflection of the surprising tactics the Lord may use at any given time. What an odd thing to happen! And, it clearly was not happenstance that Absalom was swinging in the wind till Joab showed up.

I am reminded that the Lord may work, he may accomplish whatever he desires in ways I might never expect. I suspect that all of the wizards of theology who purport to know and understand just how it is God always works have a few things to learn themselves. Just sayin'...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

How to understand how God works in the world today - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 17:21-22,

"After they had gone, the two climbed out of the well and went to inform King David. They said to him, 'Set out and cross the river at once; Ahithophel has advised such and such against you.' So David and all the people with him set out and crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, no one was left who had not crossed the Jordan."

Here are a couple of verses that speak to the intrigue, the activity, the tactics employed by David, his spies, his men, as they maneuvered in their efforts to evade Absalom and eventually defeat him to return to Jerusalem. The throne was David's but his son, Absalom had taken Jerusalem, causing David and his men to flee.

The Lord was not absent in all of this activity. In verse 14 we read, "For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom."

If the Lord had determined to take out Absalom, why didn't he simply smite him dead? Why all the activity? Why all the drama? Why the need for all the intrigue and maneuvering by David and his men?

As we read the Scriptures it is very apparent that our Creator God has absolute control over his creation and all that takes place within it. He is supremely transcendent in his sovereignty over mankind. He could have done all kinds of things to accomplish the return of David to his throne and yet, he chose to make it happen by the unfolding of what David and his men did in response to Absalom and his men. If you were caught up in the action of the day, you might not even recognize how the Lord was involved behind the scenes.

We are told in Romans 15:4, "everything that was written in the past was written to teach us..." When we pray today for the Lord's involvement, it appears to me that if we learn how the Lord has done things in the past, as examples, we may be better equipped to confront our challenges today as we approach the Lord and ask for his help. He just may be doing things we are not seeing if we have not learned how he operates. We learn how he does things today as we read what he has done in the past so that we might be informed, equipped and encouraged. This is a big reason why we have the Scriptures available to us today. 

May all of us have a tremendous appreciation for the treasure-storehouse of wisdom and insight that books like 1 and 2 Samuel provide us!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

David encounters two men sent from the Lord - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 16:1, 5-7 ,

"When David had gone a short distance beyond the summit, there was Ziba,the steward of Mephibosheth, waiting to meet him. He had a string of donkeys saddled and loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred cakes of raisins, a hundred cakes of figs and a skin of wine.... As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, 'Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel!'"

In a defining time in David's life, the time he had to flee his beloved Jerusalem as his son, Absalom, attempted his overthrow, David encounters two men. Ziba and Shimei. Ziba was a steward of Saul's grandson, Mephibosheth, and Shimei was from the same clan as Saul.

When David encountered Ziba, Ziba had brought David refreshment, supplies and support. When David encountered Shimei, Shimei cursed him. It is not difficult to see in the account that the Lord had sent both men for each to have an encounter with David that day. One to encourage, and one to challenge, to test, to stretch in a very painful way.

David acknowledges that Shimei had been sent his way as he told his troops, "Leave him [Shimei] alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today." Verses 11-12.

I am mindful that this is just the way the Lord works in our lives. He sends things our way that stretch us, that bring about maturity in us, that grow us spiritually and other ways. In Revelation 3:19 Jesus says, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent." In Proverbs 3:11-12 we read, "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." And in Hebrews 12:7, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?"

Yet at the very same time the Lord will provide us encouragement and refreshment, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity." It is my conviction that when I need it in the midst of some struggle, the Lord is always faithful to raise up someone to encourage, to strengthen as Ziba did in David's life. As I look back on the hardships I have faced in my life, I recognize those the Lord sent my way to provide the encouragement, the refreshing, the strengthening I needed at the time. Our faithful Father is like that. It is what he does.

I am fully convinced that the Lord does not leave any of us, his children, to simply meander through life in the spiritual poverty we show up in his family with. He works in our lives. He brings those times of difficulties to stretch us and he also provides us those who will minister to our needs at those times, refreshing us.

Good to keep in mind as we face what the Lord may bring our way, just as he did when he brought Ziba and Shimei into David's life on that day.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Are we convinced all is good from our heavenly Father? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 15:25-26,

"If I find favor in the Lord's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. But if he says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him."

As David fled Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, was en route to the city to seize it from his father David, as well as the throne, he spoke these words to Zadok the priest.

It is clear that David, a man of faith, placed his fortunes, his future, his life, in the Lord's hands. As his comment to Zadok makes clear, he was willing to embrace whatever it was the Lord might have for him, whether good or bad from the perspective of this life. David knew that ultimately, no matter what came his way, the hand of the Lord would ensure it was for good in the end.

Whatever the Lord has for any one of us who embrace him in faith is ultimately for our good. We may struggle to see the good of it when things come our way, but there is nothing the Lord is unaware of and there is nothing but his good intentions for each of us. I am reminded of Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Here is an example of wonderful believers who understood these things during the time of the writer of Hebrews, "Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions." Hebrews 10:32- 34.

Am I ready to embrace whatever comes my way as ultimately for the good from my heavenly Father who loves me?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The wonder of the heart of our merciful God! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 14:1,

"Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king's [David's] heart longed for Absalom."

Joab was the commander of King David's armed forces and Absalom was David's son. Absalom had killed another son of David, Absalom's half-brother, Amnon, who had raped Absalom's sister Tamar. Having killed Amnon, Absalom had fled from David.

Joab knew David well and knew that David missed his son, Absalom, who was guilty before David. A plan was devised to bring about the return of Absalom because of David's longing for him. Due to his crime, Absalom was estranged from David and for the return of Absalom, David's character and nature would have to be assuaged. The eventual outcome of the hatched plan is given in verse 33, "Then the king [David] summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom."

The one driving force that brought about this reconciliation (at this time) was David's longing for Absalom. Without attempting to make too strong of a parallel of this story to God's story of redemption for mankind, I can't help but be reminded that were it not for God's longing for us, just as David for his estranged son, we would have no opportunity for reconciliation with God. We would be without hope in this lost and fallen world, doomed to an eternity I shudder to think about.

The hope that we have for an eternal life of eternal pleasures at God's right hand, Psalm 16:11, is entirely because of God's longing for us all. I am reminded of what Paul had to say in Romans 9:16, "It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy."

How astonishing that mercy, given our sinful condition we created for ourselves! How remarkable that God would love us such that he would extend his mercy toward us! How amazing is God's heart that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to pay for our sins that his mercy could be expressed to us!

How wonderful the heart of our God!!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com