A man after God's own heart

I have been reading and praying through the book of Psalms over the last couple of months. As I read these prayers from King David’s heart, I began to wonder about David as compared to other kings of Israel. David was called “a man after God’s own heart”, yet he had committed adultery and murder. He was a sinner; what made him any different from other kings of Israel, who were rejected by God?

Saul didn’t kill everybody or everything that God told him to. Saul didn’t kill, David did. But, listen to Saul’s first response to Samuel’s rebuke, “I saved them for God, but we destroyed the rest.” He made excuses. He lied. And he lost his kingdom. He never again sought the Lord.

Contrast that with David’s first response to Nathan’s rebuke about his sin: “I have sinned against the Lord.” That was it. No excuses, no explanations, just acknowledgement and repentance. Yes, there were some terrible consequences David still had to pay, but God immediately forgave his sin. David went on to be “a man after God’s own heart”.

Sin can make you hard and bitter, it can separate you from God. Repentance brings life back to a dead soul, it restores the relationship with God.

Theology

I have started back on the Covenant Seminary podcast course, The Life and Letters of Paul. In reading one of the texts about Luke, I have constantly been frustrated by the "theologians" that the author is responding to.

Is the Bible the Word of God? Then how can Christians criticize it? How can we say that Luke was wrong in his assessment of history, or he was wrong in his theology? Did he write what God wanted him to write? Did God not control that?

I study the Bible to find out what God has to say to me, and to see how He works in history. That is my starting point. The position of having to defend its validity (especially to those claiming to be Christians) with history and research is a new way of thinking for me.

Pamela Geller article

Pamela "Atlas" Geller began her
> publishing career at The New York Daily News and subsequently took over
> operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She left The
> Observer after the birth of her fourth child but remained involved in
> various projects including American Associates, Ben Gurion University and
> being Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and Performance Evaluation
> at The Brandeis School.
>
> by Pam Geller
>
> I am a student of history.
> Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied
> history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot,
> and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or
> a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a
> very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
>
> Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it  because I
> know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.
> Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening
> within our country that has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The
> pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
>
> We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our
> economy. Why?
>
> We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no
> longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we
> are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think
> critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are
> not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
>
> We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election
> (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial
> that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you
> ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?).
>
> We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected
> judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then
> mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting
> system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
>
> Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall,
> major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of
> collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our
> entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke
> (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is
> staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10.
> And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending
> people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your
> children if they have the opportunity to do so.
>
> And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never
> run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska .
> All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their
> chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn
> about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you
> have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory
> civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our
> borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that
> for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant
> daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)
>
> I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am
> now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has
> never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will
> divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and
> then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure.
> Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same
> nation again.
>
> I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral
> German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former
> smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average
> German knew next to nothing.. What they did know was that he was
> associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with
> whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through
> great oratory and promises.
> Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great
> speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were
> afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully
> them into submission.
>
> And then he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic
> crisis at hand [the Great Depression].
> Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department
> by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids
> joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think.
> How did he get the people on his side? He
> did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies
> for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the
> children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages,
> better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once
> again in the country, across Europe , and across the world.
>
> He did it with a compliant media - Did you know that? And he did this all
> in the name of justice and .. . ..
> change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you
> think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many people objected in
> 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of.
> When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while
> seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister),
> he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right,
> though ..
>
> Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in
> Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and
> universities. And in less than six years - a shorter time span than just
> two terms of the U. S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens,
> killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and
> neighbors against neighbors.  All with the best of intentions, of course.
> The road to Hell is paved with them.
>
> Since many of you enjoy senior citizen status or will sometime in the not
> too distant future, I thought you might be interested in this information.
>
> IN GOD WE TRUST
>
> Every body that is on this mailing list is either a senior
> citizen, is getting close or knows somebody that is.
>
> Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least) of the
> "stimulus" bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care
> for senior citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former senator
> and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited today by Bloomberg
> with the following statement.
>
> Bloomberg: "Daschle says health-care reform will not be pain free.
> Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age
> instead of treating them."
>
> If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that Senators
> and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or
> very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and
> are not subject to this new law if it passes.
>
> Please use the power of the internet to get this message out. Talk it up
> at the grassroots level. We have an election coming up in one year and
> nine months. We have the ability to address and reverse the dangerous
> direction the Obama administration and its allies have begun and in the
> interim, we can make our voices heard!
> Lets do it!

continued

This goes along with the previous post on sovereignty....

Psalm 33:10-11 - The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations

Sovereignty

At the risk of wading into a deep theological debate, I will post my random thoughts from Bible study yesterday...

"I decided to accept Christ."
"God chose me."

The first implies that I can be in control of not only my life but of my salvation, and in a sense, of God. But why would I want to follow a God that I can control? I need a God who is in control of everything. I need to know that He is Sovereign over all, that He has a plan, that every bit of this world, including the actions of men (good and bad), are under His control and are accomplishing His purposes. Why would I submit to anything less than that?

Am I back yet?

Wow, it's been several weeks since I posted. I have been absorbed with testing and trying to keep up with the rest of life at the same time. Yes, I passed. I am still tired, and I am very glad it is over.

Trust me, I have had no thoughts fit for anyone else to read, hence no "becky's thoughts". Now I am trying to pull my head out of testing and gather my life back from where it has scattered in my absence. I might even have some random thoughts to post from Bible study yesterday. And child #2 graduated, I'll have to find a picture to post in her honor. And somewhere in there I am sure God will pull together some sort of thoughts out of the experience of the last few weeks...

Drill Sergeant

more animals

Psalm 16

God is so good! The test date gets closer and the pressure intensifies. This morning I turned to Psalms and the next one was this:

Psalm 16, A miktam of David.

1 Keep me safe, O God,

for in you I take refuge.

2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;

apart from you I have no good thing."

3 As for the saints who are in the land,

they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

4 The sorrows of those will increase

who run after other gods.

I will not pour out their libations of blood

or take up their names on my lips.

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;

you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the LORD always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

It deals with my physical safety, my dependance on God, my relationship to fellow believers and to non-believers, my blessings and inheritance in God, God's counsel and strength in me, and my security in Him. That pretty much covers every difficulty of this test. Thank you, Lord!