Wise Choice

•August 13, 2012 • 1 Comment

If someone told you that you could have anything you wanted, I wonder what you would ask for.  Health?  Wealth?  Happiness?

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:314

David Dies

10-11 David was king of Israel forty years. He ruled seven years from Hebron and thirty-three years from Jerusalem. Then he died and was buried in Jerusalem. 12 His son Solomon became king and took control of David’s kingdom.

The Lord Makes Solomon Wise

3  3 Solomon loved the Lord and followed his father David’s instructions, but Solomon also offered sacrifices and burned incense at the shrines.

4 The most important shrine was in Gibeon, and Solomon had offered more than a thousand sacrifices on that altar.

5 One night while Solomon was in Gibeon, the Lord God appeared to him in a dream and said, “Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you.”

6 Solomon answered:

My father David, your servant, was honest and did what you commanded. You were always loyal to him, and you gave him a son who is now king. 7 Lord God, I’m your servant, and you’ve made me king in my father’s place. But I’m very young and know so little about being a leader. 8 And now I must rule your chosen people, even though there are too many of them to count.

9 Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. Then I will know how to rule your people. If you don’t, there is no way I could rule this great nation of yours.

10-11 God said:

Solomon, I’m pleased that you asked for this. You could have asked to live a long time or to be rich. Or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. Instead, you asked for wisdom to make right decisions. 12 So I’ll make you wiser than anyone who has ever lived or ever will live.

13 I’ll also give you what you didn’t ask for. You’ll be rich and respected as long as you live, and you’ll be greater than any other king. 14 If you obey me and follow my commands, as your father David did, I’ll let you live a long time.

God gives Solomon just that chance, Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you.

Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you

Solomon could have chosen anything he wanted – after all it was God who was offering to fulfil his wishes.  Does he seek wealth, long life or victory over his enemies?  No,  Out of everything he asked

9 Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. Then I will know how to rule your people. If you don’t, there is no way I could rule this great nation of yours.

Solomon realised the awesome task ahead of him in ruling God’s people in God’s ways, and he knew he didn’t have the necessary skills – and so that is what he asked for.  And because of that, God also gives him the things he didn’t ask for…

So what are we seeking in life?

There are many things we could seek, but most of them are worthless without the wisdom of God to use them right – to know how to share, how to lead, how to live.

Lord,

I want to live in your ways,

and to do that

I need your wisdom.

I need to know how you want me to live,

how to use what you have given to me.

how to help those around me,

to know right from wrong;

and so

for that

I pray

Posted in bible, God, Lectionary
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Christianity Rediscovered – A Review

•August 9, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Christianity Rediscovered

I have taken up the challenge of reading some of the books on the list for Candidates for the Methodist Ministry, and came to Christianity Rediscovered through that.

Vincent Donovan arrives in Masailand in 1965, to work in the Mission, but he soon comes to think that what is happening there is anything but mission.  There is an excellent hospital, four great schools and even a chapel, but religion doesn’t seem to be getting a look in.  No one has become a practising Christian through any of this work.

Vincent considers it his role there to talk to the people about God, and decides he wants to get out there and do it.  And so he divides the nomad people into sections, who he will speak to once a week for a year.

On speaking to the elders to put the idea of speaking about God to them, their response is

If that is why you came here, why did you wait so long to tell us about this? (p22)

The elders agreed that Donovan could do this, and so his work began.

Donovan realises the problems he is up against:

  • How to explain God and Christianity for a people who have no concept, or even the words, of what you are trying to tell them
  • How they find a way of living out their new found faith within their own culture, rather than trying to impose our culture with our faith
  • What it will mean to be a Priest from within this culture, and how that will be lived out

This is an old book, but I’m told it is the classic.  I’ve heard the principles in more recent books, especially of incultration, but this book puts those theories across within a story and a context.

I’m not sure I agree with all Donovan says and does, but it’s good to make you think!

And how more relevant can a book be than to be talking about bringing God to a culture that has no understanding of what God is all about.

Posted in Book Review, faith, God, Religion
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Glory Hunting

•August 7, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Nothing is being implied about any individual club, it’s just illustrative – honest!

There are those who follow big famous football clubs, because they are just that.  People who have no local affiliation or ties.  They follow them just because they are, apparently, the best and look likely to remain so.  To some degree, I can see the point in that.  If you want to see the sport at its highest level then clearly they are the ones to watch.  But does that miss the point of sport?  The other side is that there are plenty who have become interested in some minority sports over the Olympics, just because Team GB was doing well in them, and it will have opened their eyes to possibilities.

But there is also the kind of glory hunting that is seeking the glory and the limelight all for ourselves, always looking for praise.

Jesus was wary of the praise of humans, he was more interested in doing what God thought was good and praiseworthy:

41 ‘I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

45 ‘But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?’

What about us?  Are we looking for accolades from those around us?  Do we need constant pats on the back?  Do we want to be told how good we are? Are we looking in the wrong places for praise?  Or are we seeking only that we please God?

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with praising one another for a good job well done – but that should not be our motive.

May the glory we hunt, be God’s and his alone

Posted in bible, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion
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