05.13.2007

1 Kings 8

John 17

Hebrews 7:25
Therefore [Jesus] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Hello!

This week had been pretty busy for me, and the next several weeks are looking to be just even busier. I will try to get a Weekly during the end of this week, but then I will be gone on ministry related adventures for two weeks and will not be able to write up the Weekly.

I recently started reading through 1 Kings, and the other day I read about the dedication of the Temple (chapter 8). Here’s a brief background up to this point: Solomon has become king in succeeding his father David and has built the Temple for the Ark of God. The temple itself is described in detail in chapter 6 and 7, and man does it sound like a snazzy place. In chapter 8, after the Ark is brought to the temple, Solomon prays to the Lord and dedicates the temple to Him. It’s a pretty amazing prayer, and one that I don’t think half of us would think of praying when dedicating anything to God.

One striking thing about Solomon’s prayer is that he uses a lot of phrases like, “When famine or plague comes on the land…” or, generally, “When bad things happen to your people…” He doesn’t use the phrase “If something bad happens…” Solomon is certain that bad things will come. However, even more striking than that is WHY those bad things happen. Each time that he says “When…” he follows it up with “…because [your people] have sinned…” He knew that bad things would happen because of Israel’s sin, not because God was being unjust or unfair or not paying attention. He understood the sequence of consequences. We reap what we have sown. But if you thought that was good (I do at least), it gets even better.
Following up the “because of sin” terms the king uses, he then intercedes for all of Israel. He prays to the Lord that “when the people confess … and turn from sin,” that the Lord would hear their prayers and restore them and forgive them.

Solomon asks the Lord to forgive the sins that they have not yet committed! He knows that the people of God will sin in the future, that there will be consequence; but when they turn to the Lord in repentance, he prays that God will forgive. He calls on God to be faithful and to be true to His promises even after God’s people were unfaithful. If you’re familiar with the rest of Kings and the rest of the Old Testament in general, then you know that God’s people constantly went back and forth in their faithfulness to God.

Come to think of it, this sounds a lot like what Jesus does for us, doesn’t it? Sounds like those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, yet struggle back and forth with sin yet wanting to bring glory to God? We are going to sin; it isn’t a matter of “if” but a matter of “when.” However, like the Israelites had a king that prayed for them and pleaded with the Lord to forgive them when they repented, we have a heavenly King who prays and intercedes for us to the Father for forgiveness when we confess Jesus as Lord and repent of our sins -- and I don’t just mean the sins of our past, but our current sins. Those things and actions we desire to do or think that are not what God desires for us. The Lord will restore us and teach us to desire holiness in place of wanting to feed our sinful nature.

I pray that each of us would take on Solomon’s example as people who will pray and intercede for one another, understanding that we will all sin. I also pray that we would be forever praising the Lord for Jesus, who intercedes for us and is the reason why we are forgiven of our sins. I ask that we would be taught by the Holy Spirit to seek holiness, and that we would not seek to indulge our sinful cravings. May we be forever grateful for all He has done for us and continually seek to be like Jesus.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

05.05.2007

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Phillipians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.


Hello everyone—

How are you? I hope that things are going well for you… For some of you it’s coming to the end of the school year, and you’re eager to not have classes to go to. For others of you, it’s just the time of year when you can enjoy warm weather (well, here in the States at least).

Warm weather is great… which is such a simple thing to say, but I really do enjoy the season of Spring, even as it fades into Summer. Things are alive again, birds are everywhere, colors are abundant, and I can go outside without having to worry about slipping on ice (now I just have to worry about sunburn). It’s so appropriate then, that the Lord has chosen to show me the many more ways in which He is constantly providing for me. Yes, I know; I seem to keep coming back to this whole idea of the Lord providing – how can I not? But rather than having this about providing, I am brought to think about how vast the Lord’s love is for us, and our need to acknowledge it.
Think about it. Each of us probably have a moment (or series of moments) in our lives in which we have either doubted God’s love for us or questioned His love and kindness when we see all kinds of crazy things happening in the world around us. Crazy things happen. We get discouraged, and we are faced with all kinds of questions and what seems like very little answers. However, if God did not love us, I think that the world would be an even more sordid place than it already seems to be. There are little graces that exist that we tend to miss because we allow the bad to overshadow the good. Or we get too busy to take a moment to appreciate the beauty of what God has created – either the people around us, or the nature around us. Many of us fill our lives with so much “stuff” that I think we miss the Spirit of God moving in our hearts to acknowledge that He does love us and is going to care for us, perhaps especially in ways that we don’t exactly expect. We dwell on that which is terrible in the world and will feel overwhelmed and helpless (at least I do)… Or maybe we just get overwhelmed by stress. Whatever the situation, it’s important to take a quiet moment to acknowledge God for who He is and what He has done and is doing in our lives and in the world.

God is big. And because God is big, His love is big. His kindness is big. That should affect the way that we think and act and think, right?

My thoughts seem very meandering to me, and I apologize for that. But I encourage you to find a quiet moment with God this coming week (every day would be awesome, and totally possible). However busy you are or are not, sit with God. Praise Him for His kindness and love, and if you are wrestling with the suffering in the world at large, ask Him to show you goodness and truth. The Lord has shown me in big ways that He is constantly providing for me and affirming me as His daughter – but as someone had said to me, He is providing in little ways too. Not just the big stuff. I want to see more of the little things and not be as cluttered by all the crazy things that happen in life. Maybe we could all do with that.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne