1 Chronicles 22
(David exhorts Solomon)

Right away in this chapter we see The Lord denying David not only a form of ministry, but a dream that the David had to build a temple for The Lord. David desired to do this thing, but The Lord had a reason for not letting David build it. Was it because David was not worthy to build it? No, but The Lord has certain people with certain skills that He wants to employ for His glory. If The Lord denies us something we wanted and gives that thing to someone else, we should rejoice for them and with them. In this situation, The Lord gave to Solomon a task of ministry that David wanted. Rather than David getting upset and not wanting to help Solomon, he comes along side him and lends his hand in the ministry without trying to takeover. He exhorts Solomon and encourages him. V.12-13 "Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.
Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed." David is encouraging Solomon to do this thing that The Lord has asked, and to take courage because it is the lords will he will be accomplishing. There is no place more encouraging than to be in the lords will.
Application: realize that The Lord will speak to me through other people and heed His word through them.
If someone receives something I wanted, I will rejoice with them. The Lord has a different plan for me.  

1 chronicles 21:27
 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

Mercy is all about not getting what we deserve. Even when we blow it and wrong The Lord with our sin, a repentant heart will open the floodgates of mercy and grace. True repentance for our sin will bring us to our knees and cause us sorrow. We will, when truly repentant, accept full responsibility for our sin. This is just the thing that David did in the verses surrounding this one. He was in a particularly dark time in his life where he had sinned against The Lord and caused the death of 70,000 Israeli men. He knew he had sinned and for three days watched a mighty angel of The Lord massacring his people. Then David came before the lord on behalf of himself in repentance asking The Lord to punish his house, but not the people. A god leader will, at all costs, never want his followers to suffer because of his poor decisions. He will take responsibility with boldness and conviction. Then, when David obeyed The Lord and sacrificed, the angel was commanded to relent. David did not get the punishment he deserved for his sin on behalf of serving a merciful God.The Lord is merciful and anyone who says otherwise is in denial of the sin in this world. I think I often do not take sin as seriously as I should, because when I read the Old Testament in general, I see the lords utter hatred for it.
Application: pray for a greater conviction when I sin.

1 chronicles 11:1-3
Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we [are] thy bone and thy flesh. And moreover in time past, even when Saul was king, thou [wast] he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel. Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.

As a young man, I do not imagine David connected his role as a shepherd with preparing him to lead the nation of Israel and become the greatest king the world has ever seen. All David did was be faithful to watch his sheep and faithful to worship The Lord. However insignificant it may have seemed to him at the time, The Lord saw great significance. The Lord took David, a shepherd of sheep, and made him the shepherd of His nation. The Lord was preparing David for what He knew he would be long before anyone else even had a clue. The Lord was faithful to prepare David for what he would one day be because David was faithful to serve The Lord in the present.
Jeremiah 1:4-5
 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

1 Corinthians 2:2
 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Paul was, to say the least, a brilliant theologian. his knowledge of the Old Testament was surpassed by none and his intellectual understanding of The Lord has been challenged only by fools. He was ministered to by Christ Jesus Himself for three years in the Persian wilderness and lived his life as a sacrifice to The Lord. Take that in comparison with myself and if I had any inclination to boast in any amount of scriptural knowledge, that has been cast far away. If we as Christians are here as Jesus' hands and feet what business should we be about other than professing the Gospel which is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus? That is what is going to save lives and create disciples. Not some earthly wisdom. It is the cross that has saved me and it should be the cross that I profess without shame.
Application: I would rather not witness than for my motives in doing so to be myself being exalted. It is all for His glory.

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Those who are Christians have indeed made themselves a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. A dwelling place for a part of the triune Godhead. The Holy Spirit is God and as such, is perfect. He possesses all of the attributes of God and is the part of the Godhead that we interact with most. As He is a person, He has emotions and we indeed have the ability to Greave Him. We can choose to live our lives obeying His convictions, or we can ignore them. Though we may be in disobedience, His presence will never leave us, but it will grow faint to our own perception. We can ignore Him to the point where we no longer feel His disagreement of our sin and thus we backslide in our relationship with Him. This is most definitely not a desired outcome for any genuine Christian and steps must be taken to reverse this process, but how? We are a metaphorical temple of God. Just like the Israelite temples were to be pure and clean, so shall we keep ourselves pure of sin. When we have sinned against God, we shall confess it and it will be no longer a blemish. The Lord will move in and restore all that is lost and we will once again be sensitive to His Spirit.
Application: Confess certain sins and turn from them.

John 8:9
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Just before this, these very same men that left one by one weren't about to relent until they had the woman's life. It wasn't that they cared so much about stoning her, more that they wanted to trap Jesus in His own words that they might ruin Him. So first of all, what made these determined men to abandon their campaign? What robbed harsh judgmental hearts of completing the task at hand? Exposure to the light of the world. Jesus is the light of the world and when we interact with Him, He has a way of completely exposing our flaws. These men were ready to stone the woman on account of her sin, but they never seemed to consider their own sin. Thus, when Jesus bent down and was writing whatever He wrote in the sand, the men seeing their own individual sin turned away and left, which is so sad to me.  Why did these men not fall at the feet of Jesus? Jesus was offering forgiveness to the woman, but the men were to proud to fall at the feet of the one man who could take away their sin. They could have had themselves restored that very day, but instead their pride took them over and they were left to wallow in their own shame. Today is the day to ask The Lord for forgiveness of whatever sin you are harboring, not tomorrow. He is both willing and able to forgive the man who is broken by his sin.
in the end, it is us and Jesus. No man will stand with us at the judgment seat and give his opinion, good or bad, of our life. The Lord looks at each person individually and assesses them. He won't care if we had a giant house or not. He won't care if we were married or not. He won't care how much we donated to the poor or even how many missions trips we went on. All He will look upon is the heart. Our heart; the only thing that is completely ours. He will give that a good look and with His perfect balance of grace and justice determine our fate. He will see every good deed we did for our own selfish gain and every good deed we did to glorify His name. Nothing will fool Him. He can't be fooled. I pray that I myself will continue to be broken over my sin so that I may run to Him in true repentance each and every day. The joy and comfort He gives to those who are truly repentant is unlike another feeling. It is better than going surfing on the best day. Better than driving down the highway with the windows down and music playing. It is complete release from selfish thought and complete focus on Him. I am so glad I am promised an eternity with Him.

Application: ask for brokenness and then forgiveness in my daily prayers.  

Psalm 27:14
 Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

It takes courage to wait. To place my life's outcome into the hands of The Lord is a very courageous thing to do, especially when I have my own wants and desires. I am not saying that I am a particularly courageous man, in fact, I have been proven to be quite the opposite. However, I do see that my only option for a life in close relations with The Lord is to place myself into His hands. To not kick against what He is obviously doing in my life. I must always keep my eyes focused on what The Lord has revealed to me and the place He has me. From this place of contentment, I can serve The Lord with anticipation for the future, but not to the point where I am useless in the present. 

Matthew 5:20
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The severity of our sin is underestimated by us all. We will never be able to comprehend it until we are in eternal glory. We will never be able to see just how much Jesus loves us because our minds are literally incapable of it. The weight He took from us and carried to the cross was immense. There, at Calvary, He nailed our sins to the cross and said "it is finished". In that moment, sin no longer had bondage over anyone who would accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We have to be absolutely perfect in Gods eyes to get into heaven. I would boldly say that we have to be as righteous as Jesus in order to be accepted into Heaven. On our own, we have nothing but rubble. Jesus intercedes for us and clothes us in His righteousness. "When He shall come, and trumpets sound. Oh my I then, in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless stand before the throne." That is my prayer. He is where I place my hope. When I stand before the judgment seat, I am confident that Jesus will intercede on my behalf and I will hear the words, "well done My good and faithful servant".
Application: smile, I'm going to Heaven.

Matthew 5:19
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Oh, how I long to be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer. In that same way, I also desire to be both a doer and a sayer. What shows a more personal conviction, the action of saying what is right, or doing what is right? Well it is quite obvious that if we really do love Christ, we will be doers. He says that if we love Him, we will follow His commands. When I think back on my childhood, I vividly remember not agreeing with rules my parents gave me. For instance, I wanted to be able to play video games a long time, and they regulated my time to 45 minuets twice a week. I wanted to play more, but looking back on it, I realize that it would have been a waste of time. Even the time they let me play was a waste of time. I see now that their command was in my best interest. My obedience to that command was also in my best interest. By both of these factors, their command and my obedience to it, I had ample amount of timetable play outside, surf, spend time with my family, and other such activities I would have missed out on. Because I obeyed that seemingly dumb rule, I am so much closer with my parents than I could have otherwise been, God is the same way. He gives us commands, not because He wants to take away our fun, but because He loves us. He wants a relationship with us and when we sin, it separates us from Him. It puts a rift in our relationship that He gave His life to have. How heartbreaking. He is my father and I must obey His commands because I want to show Him how much I love Him. The best way to show my love, is through my obedience. No matter how much I want something, I must obey.

      

Matthew 5:18
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

What is it that must be fulfilled for the law to no longer hold weight? What will cause heaven and earth to pass away? "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." That which is perfect is when we are fully perfected in Heaven. When Christ has fully perfected us and we are resting in His unfailing loving presence, only then will the law be without need. Only then will we be made fully perfect in Christ and therefor have no use for rules and restriction. We won't have flesh which seeks to fulfill its own desires. We will be selfless beings worshipping God with our all. How exciting, we will finally live out the worship songs that we sing such as "I surrender all" and I'm giving you my All". For it is not possible to live up to such grand boasts while there is even the slightest amount of flesh in us. But I believe in a day when our Lord Jesus who has covered our sins, will perfect us. In that day, we will truly be able to give Him our all.

Application: pray for Holy fire in my soul and hatred for sin.

Matthew 5:17
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

It is so important to grasp this concept as a Christian. I often find myself neglecting my study of the law laid out in the Torah. I will justify it by saying "oh, this is what Jesus saved me from having to follow." In. Sense, this is true. He has perfected the law by His ultimate sacrifice on the cross to wash my sins away, but how can I fully appreciate His saving me if I cannot see how much I needed saving? Now granted, we will never know exactly how much He saved us from because we can not possibly understand the weight and price of our sin. Understanding the law can give us a glimpse into how seriously we aught to take our vile sin. So often we find it nothing to cry about when we disrespect our parents, or when we lie to them. According to the law, such a sin carried the penalty of death. Needless to say, we would not still be alive if Jesus hadn't fulfilled the law. We are such weary sinners saved by grace through faith, not by our pathetic works lest any man should boast. I will rest in my faith in Jesus and His grace, there I find my peace again.
Application: pray for a deeper conviction of my sin.

Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

No matter the circumstances that I find myself in. No matter the internal pain and swirling emotions I may be feeling. No matter the course my life is taking, I must let my works reflect and glorify God. If I am failing to do this, than what is the good in me claiming to be a Christian, or sharing my faith with someone? If there is no light permitting from me, why would anyone desire to take my beliefs as their own? There are too many Christians in this world who are hiding their light and not letting it shine through in their works. This is perhaps the greatest hindrance to the furtherance of the gospel, luke warm Christians. Darkness and light cannot be put together, if I am not permitting light, than there is darkness in my heart. I know that I want to glorify God, but the things that hinder my accomplishing this goal are always rooted in my heart. Things that I lock inside of there that aren't pleasing to Him. These are places that I must first be broken in. Things that I must realize the effect that they are having on my relationship with Christ. I then must apply the precious blood of Jesus to those things and let Him take them from me. Only then, when I am fully given to Him, will His light shine unhindered through me and lead others to glorify my father who is in heaven.
Application: continue to pray for my pride to be cut away for that is where most of my issues spring. 

1 Corinthians 9:27
 But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Few things are more disappointing and heartbreaking than someone being disqualified from ministry. Wether it be a temporary disqualification, or a permanent one, it is very painful for everyone involved. I recently disqualified myself from the ministry that God had for me. I was going to be spending 6 months in Costa Rica helping working at a kids club and using surfing as a ministry tool. Unfortunately due to a lack of discipline and self control, I disqualified myself from that ministry. God is using it in my life and growing me through it, and I can so clearly see His hand working on my heart. He is my shepherd and even when I wonder and am disqualified from certain blessings He had for me, He rejoices at my return to His presence. Like the prodigal son was rejoiced over and greeted at his return, so has my heavenly father run to meet me with open arms. I feel the passionate love He has for me more now than ever before. Even though this is the most difficult thing I have ever gone through in my life, I will choose to rejoice in what God is accomplishing in me. He won't relent until He has every part of me.

1 Corinthians 9:26
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

I know what lays ahead of me. I know where my heart rests: in the presence of Jesus forever. This enables me to run this race with confidence, knowing it is for something so much greater than anything I could ever imagine. I am so sure that my faith shall become sight. Nothing and no one will ever be able to strip that away from me. I have felt the presence of Jesus and it has warmed my heart. He has given me purpose and direction. I will not forget the ways He has reviled Himself to me. The ways that He has taken hold of my heart. In this great love that He has for me and in the love that I have for Him, I will continue to confidently run this race in the strength He supplies me with. I can not do it on my own, and the greatest thing is that I do not have to run it alone. Not only is He the rewarder of our efforts, but also the enabler. I know that He will and is enabling me to continue on in this race. Even when my run becomes a crawl, I can feel His presence helping me through the difficulties. He has never, and will never let go of me.
Application: pray for Him to strengthen me through today,  to reveal Himself in a new way today.

2 Corinthians 9:25
 And every man that striveth for the mastery which is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

The key word here is strive. To put forth no small amount of effort, to go against the grain, to climb up hill. I hope that we can all agree on at least this one point. We as Christians, are in fact striving for what is not temperate. Heaven is just around the corner for all of us and, I don't know about you, but I am seeking to build my treasure there. I am striving to please The Lord with my life so that I might hear "well done my good and faithful servant". Now, here is where we may disagree. There are things on this earth worthy of having, and can be given by God that are okay to have. However, when we have to strive for anything other than what is incorruptible, it is sin by the nature of its ability to consume our focus and effort. Not only is it sin, but for those of us who persist and take, what we take will be worse than what God intended for us. Many things temporal are morally neutral, such as a spouse. They can be a good thing and ultimately glorify God, or a bad thing. However, they will probably be a bad thing if we have to take our focus off of God, and strive for that person instead of God. If we are striving for God, our hearts are in the right place, we will be blessed, and He will be glorified. Be a man of one focus and one heart.
Application: pray this morning for my heart and will to be aligned with God's. 

1 Corinthians 9:23
And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with [you].

What did Paul do for the gospels sake that he could partake of it with us? He humbled himself, he became all things to all people that he might have an advantage of sharing The Lord with every culture and demographic that he presented himself to. This is such an applicable concept to everyone who is trying to share the Gospel with people. I Benjamin, am an 19 year old surfer. If it is I who am living an unbroken life, than my demographic of people who I can effectively minister is minuscule. In fact, it might be nonexistent based off of the fact that me holding my identity is holding my pride, and that is not being dead to self. Be like a child to children, a Kenyan to the people of Kenya, a Costa Rican to the people of Costa Rica, and a Guatemalan to the people of Guatemala. You will find this difficult task much less arduous if you are surrendered to God. I think I finally know what pastor Mike meant when he said "you don't know that Jesus loves all of the children in the whole world." It only makes logical sense that if I love Jesus, I will obey Him. If he loves all of the children in the world, then so should I. How would I show that? By letting go of my rights and selfish desires so that I could truly love them. He was right, it's not that I didn't have the head knowledge that Jesus loves every little boy and girl in he world, I Simply didn't apply it to my life. Lord save me from myself.
Run the race for the prize. Go all out for Jesus in everything that you do. No matter what it may be, showing that you are all in for the glory of God displays a brutal execution of self love. Wether you are staking chairs, resisting temptation, leading worship, worshiping, preaching a sermon, or doing the dishes. Go all out for Jesus, I can promise you that you will be blessed and you will be running the race well.
Application: Don't focus on past mistakes. Take it day by day focusing on Jesus.
Memorize Micah 6:8.

Philippians 3:12
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

We have not attained perfection, I can look back on every 30 minuets of my life and see noticeable places where I have fallen short. But Jesus loves me all the same. He sees that it is a process, attaining perfection that is, and is patient enough to walk us through it. I have never thought too deeply into the shepherd analogy, I have always just though of Him protecting and leading us in all wisdom and strength, but, where is He leading us? Surly to a place better than where we are. Surly God, our all knowing shepherd who wants nothing but the best for us is leading us on to perfection. He is leading us to Perfect love which casts out all fear, which trusts in Him, which has peace in Him. When we go astray, we will lose sight of our shepherd, we will get scared and lost. At this point we realize how much more so se desire to be near our shepherd and when He comes and finds us, we learn to love Him all the more. He uses even the failures in our lives to grow us and to show us how much He really does love us.

Application: sing the song "I love, I love, I love your presence. I love, I love, I love you Jesus."  

Philippians 3:11
 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

The resurrection from the dead, I suppose, is referring to our new life that we find in Christ. When we die to our own desires needs and wants, He will give us His desires and make us effective tools in His hand; powerful weapons for the kingdom of God; moldable clay in the potters hand that can be made into something beautiful. That is what Christ wants for each and every one of us. He wants to make us into beautiful things.
Application: endure today and let the joy of The Lord emanate from me. 

Philippians 3:10
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

What am I willing to endure for the sake of my love for Christ? Anything thing and everything. I can believe this with my whole heart because I know that no matter what He sees fit to put me through, He is leading the way. He is taking my hand and comforting me. It is in the sufferings and in the valley that I learn to love His presence. I learn to trust in Him no matter what He does, for I know the thoughts He has for me are thoughts of good, not of evil. I can look at His death and resurrection as a testament for His great love for me. He endured the cross for me, how could I ever think that He would simply let me go after such an act of love. Furthermore, He raised from the dead thus giving meaning to my life. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "if Christ didn't rise from the dead our faith is in vane." Because Christ rose from the dead, I know that my faith in Him is valid. It gives me the initiative and a love for Him that let's me be conform able even to the point of death.
Application: Rejoice in the Joy of The Lord today. He will be my strength and my peace.

Philippians 3:9
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Why would we ever want our own righteousness when the righteousness He can give us makes us white as snow? The law is a representation of all that we can do to try and make our own selves righteous, but it will never be enough. We will always be filth in God's eyes without the intersession of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. I have heard it said that, "you will never be able to comprehend what Jesus did for you on the cross until you can comprehend the severity of your own sin; and you will never know the severity of your own sin." The truth is that we would never even approach the standard of being let into heaven under our own righteousness. Jesus had to make an intercession in order to perfect us. Romans 8:34 says, "Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." And Hebrews 2:10, "For it became him, for whom [are] all things, and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Jesus made that intercession. He is the captain of our salvation and the means by which we are made righteous. And how do we attain this righteousness? By faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Our faith in God is how we attain righteousness, knowing that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, we then must live our life in a manner that He finds pleasing. This is how we show our faith and gratitude for the righteousness He has made available to us on the cross.
Nothing that we can produce on our own is worth anything, so now I inquire, why do I have pride? It really is an interesting concept, how the created being can account anything to himself that The creator has given him; that I could take pride in any gift or skill that God has given me. It is a heart issue that can only be changed by account of a willing vessel and a transforming God. The latter is insured, the prior is in progress.

Application: read the list I wrote for myself of practical applications and traits of a humble man, and purpose in my heart to apply them to my life indefinitely.