I am sure that most of you heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in Sunday School when you were young. I thought of this story recently when my wife and I went to see the movie Fireproof. There is the obvious connection with the title. But, there is a more subtle connection as well. In the Bible story, these men were instructed to bow to an idol created by the king. The men would not bow. As a result, they were threatened with the fiery furnace. Their reaction showed the depth of their faith. "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” The key line in their answer is, "But if not...we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship..." Their answer was not contingent on God's reaction. They were not going to ...
At first glance, this declaration may seem grandeous and presumptuous. But, I don't think it is. David's life, out of all the men in the Bible, is laid bare to us in a way that is unique. We see David's entire life from boyhood to warrior to king to sage. We see him as a confident young man. We see him forgotten and left out. We see him rise in standing with men and then we see him fall. We see him suffer profound loss of friendship and relationship. We see him run and we see him fight. We see him as a warrior. We see him as a leader of men. We see him as a King. We see him struggle and fall to sexual sin and adultery. We see him murder. We see him remorseful and utterly undone. We see him fall to pride. We see him longing for God. We see him betrayed. We see him struggle with family issues, some for which he is responsible. We see him suffer the loss of a beloved son. We see him declared a "man...
A couple of posts ago, I wrote about "desire." In that post, I said that our desires are not bad. That God gives us our desires and that we can live a life based on Desire not based on Duty. The trouble is, often we focus those desires on the wrong object instead of where God intended us to focus them. A great example that most men can relate to is lust, often manifested as a struggle with pornography. Lust is typically a search for affirmation, love, acceptance and beauty. All of these are desires that are God-given, but the object is all wrong. Those desires are intended to show us our deep need for an intimate relationship with God. He is a God of love and beauty. He offers affirmation and acceptance. But instead we choose a substitute, the woman! In essence we are committing Adam's original sin all over again. After Eve fell, Adam had a choice. Does he follow after God or does he follow after the created being, Eve? We all know the choice he made and ma...
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