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Posts from the ‘Biblical Reflections’ Category

22
Oct

Life: Spiritual vs. Physical

I read through 1 Chronicles 2 this morning. The thing about 1 Chronicles is that the first 10 chapters is a bunch of begats…for you non-King James folks there is a bunch of lineages. Occasionally you come across a bit of an interruption where a little more detail is given, although it is not quite clear why – at least from the context. Today there were a couple, but one of them struck me more intensely than the others. “3 The sons of Judah:
Er, Onan and Shelah. These three were born to him by a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.“

As I’m taking this class from Hope International on the Holy Spirit I’m thinking about how in non-Western culture since the time of Christ there is no separation between the physical and the spiritual. There is a continuum whereby all things are understood within the context that there is a balance and sometimes a struggle between the physical and spiritual. I see this everywhere in Africa. In the West we have what my professor Dr. Timms calls the “excluded middle.” It’s an empty space really, a chasm of sorts in our mind that keeps our spiritual life spiritual and our physical life, well, physical.

It’s why we, who lead the Church, have such an issue with people segmenting their lives so that Jesus comes first on Sunday and maybe on Wednesday evenings or when we are desperate, but there is no continuation of that life in any other part of their day, our day. We even segment the spiritual life and have come up with terms like: “prayer life” which is different than our “quiet time” which is different than our “volunteer time.” We fail to see the connection that is intrinsically there between what we buy and who we are…whose we are. We fail to see the connection between what we eat, what we throw away, what we watch on TV, listen to on our iPods, or pay to see at the movies with who we really are and the impact that those things have on our lives…our spiritual lives.

So, what does 1 Chronicles 2:3 have to do with this? Good question, and I’m glad you asked.

I answer with a question…How did they know that the Lord killed Er? There is no mention of the supernatural events that took place that snuffed out his life. I think if Er would have lived in Western culture an autopsy would have been done to determine the cause of death and whether they found an enlarged heart, a burst appendices, or arsenic in his blood-stream, or nothing at all the last thing they would attribute his death to would be God. It’s dangerous, really, how little we understand or give credit for the ability to breathe to God.

However, the further I go down this road with Jesus the more I am beginning to understand that I need to begin to bridge the chasm between my lives so that I see the spiritual reason for why I am experiencing physical difficulties, and I need to see it clearly in the lives of others in order to give them the truth that they desperately need, that Jesus came to give you eternal life to live NOW in every moment of every day! And while I still am not there, nor am I sure John Wesley is right in that we can get there in this life, I do know that there is the opportunity to live my life more in that reality.

24
Aug

Be careful what you stand against…it may one day stand against you.

I’m in 2 Samuel these days and while I’m not to the climax of the book I know what is coming: David’s eventual fall as he becomes an adulterer, a murderer, and an impotent judge.

Throughout 1 Samuel and now into the first four chapters of 2 Samuel you get a strong sense that David is a man of principle. He has multiple opportunities to kill Saul, who’s tried to kill him numerous times, and yet he refuses to do so out of a sense of duty and principle that Saul is the Lord’s Anointed. Who is he to forcefully change the leadership? You sense that David understands that God is in control of his destiny.
You even find that David hates the unjust killing of someone, even for the sake of vengeance (2 Samuel 3), and he curses Joab and Abishai for murdering Abner and he puts Baanah and Recab to death for killing Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 4). Up to this point you would never have been able to predict that David would murder anyone at any time for anything. Yet this is exactly what he does to Uriah after sleeping with his wife.
One principle I glean from David’s life is that we must always keep our guard up. We can never say, “I’ll never do that”, or “I’ll never do that again.” We can never be slothful in how we personally combat things that we take strong stands against publicly. Often I wonder if we take strong stands against things in a public manner in order to cover for what we struggle with deeply on a personal level. When pride sets in we often fall to the very thing we stand against. There are too many recent examples to mention, but we must be careful to refrain from claiming that, “I’d never do such and such or this and that.” For as soon as we do the seed of pride has been sown and a road to destruction has been paved.
So, for me I can never believe that I can indulge because I have control, or I have defeated, or I once repented because once I do the enemy will be waiting to take full advantage and create an avalanche from a snowball. It will be a butterfly effect where one uncontrolled thought leads to a multitude of physical sin.
So, when we are encouraged to always keep a close watch on ourselves (1 Timothy 4:16) it’s not without historically recorded evidence of what happens when we don’t.
19
Aug

What if…

Reading 1 Samuel 25 today I was struck by the fact that David, who has resisted killing Saul – who is actually trying to kill David, was so quickly enraged by Nabal’s insult. Maybe after running from Saul for so long, and now grieving the loss of Samuel he is compelled to lash out.

What if the story would not have taken the unexpected turn that it did for David? What if Abigail wasn’t beautiful? What if, knowing how wicked Nabal was, she allowed him to be murdered in order to be free from him? What if she never loaded those donkeys with food and wine, and never met David on the way to kill her husband? How might David’s story have been different?
It was a little thing, that may have changed the course of David’s life, but David’s choosing to receive the gift of Abigail on behalf of Nabal kept him from murdering. And I’m pretty sure God would have been disappointed with David over his loss of temper. In fact, while David is a humble servant of Saul there is still a pride issue with David that is exposed in this story. However, the offense to his pride was overcome by the service of Abigail who neither wanted to see her wicked husband murdered, nor David become a murderer.
There have been many reminders lately of how what seems to be a small decision can change the course of one’s life dramatically. In fact, it can have significant impact on the lives of many. It just drove home the point to me today of how incredibly important it is to commune with my Lord daily and often throughout the day for I never know what decision may play a significant role in my life and the lives of others.
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