Worship

It was good to be back together after taking a break for a couple of weeks. This morning we jumped in to 1 Kings 3:1-5.

We see in this passage that “Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statues of his father David”. But it goes on to say “except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places”. So why was that not okay”

The high places were used to worship pagans gods so this had to be offensive to God. So why did Solomon do this? When we look at 2 Chronicles 1:3 it tells us "... for God's Tent of Meeting was there ...". The ark was still back in Jerusalem but the tabernacle was at Gibeon, “the most important high place”.

So it appears that Solomon was “trying” to worship God in the right way at the right places. And it appears that God blessed him for that by telling Solomon to “ask for whatever you want me to give you”.

The question did come up, “Did God bless Solomon for worshipping Him or did God choose to bless him to accomplish His purposes in spite of his flawed worship? Good question - thoughts?

The thing we talked about the most was how do each of us worship throughout the week – apart from Sunday? What connects you to God in such a way that you ascribe worth to Him? Is it music, service, meditation, etc? Actually, everything we do should be an act of worship.

Most of the time I don’t do too good at this. How about you? What is it personally that brings you to the point of really worshipping God in the midst of the routine of life?

Feel free to add to the conversation.

Blessings,
Roger

Protecting Yourself

Why did Adonijah ask to be given Abishag (one of Daivd's wives)? What was that all about?

If Solomon acknowledged Adonijah's right to have one of David's wives (or any "property" from David), he was also acknowledging that Adonijah had a legitimate legal claim to the throne. Especially since Adonijah was the older brother. So Solomon was protecting himself. Solomon, in his wisdom, knew that Adonijah could not to be trusted and was using his mother, Bathsheba, to try to take the throne away from Solomon. So, he had him killed to protect the kingdom.

We had good discussion around this passage and the things in our lives that threaten us.

What do we need to do to protect ourselves from Satan's attacks (1 Peter 5:8) on our walk with God? What actions, attitudes, influences, etc. do we need to "put to death"? What would that look like?

Share your thoughts so we all grow through this passage.

Blessings,
Roger

Firmly Established

Last Wednesday we spent some more time talking about what it means for us to be "firmly established" in our Christian journey. Allen had some thoughts on this in his comments on last weeks post that we discussed.

We had a good time sharing about what we struggle to do and where we've seen some success in our daily walk to keep "established" and even mature in our walk with Christ. We also talked about some of the things that keep us from being "firmly established", like pride, not staying consistent in the Word, etc.

Then we talked about how we help each other. We discussed accountability and the different ways that can look depending on lots of things like personality and the specific isuse. We all agreed that accountabilty has to be encouraging, it might be tough, but we need to really come along side each other in our needs.

Tomorrow we will start at verse 13 of chapter 2 and see what else we can learn from Solomon's life.

Blessings,
Roger

David's Last Word's - Part II

Today's discussion centered around 1 Kings 2:5-12 where David is giving Solomon his list of last requests, basically a hit list of people David wanted taken out. Since Solomon was king he could have these people killed without any problem (and he did) but this is not an option for us. And hopefully we don't have any enemies like that. Maybe David was really protecting Solomon by getting rid of these guys.

If you were on your death bed right now, are there any requests you would make of your kids or spouse?

The last phrase of verse 12 is "his rule was firmly established". What do we need to be doing now so that when we go we leave our kids are "firmly established"? In other words, they are self feeders and are living bodly for Christ?

Your thoughts?

Blessings,
Roger

David's Last Words

Last week we looked at 1 Kings 2:1-4 which is the beginning of David's last words to Solomon. These are some powerful words, in particular "show yourself a man". I don't think the definition of a man is the same today but as we talked we agreed on boldness, courage and Christ-like leadership.

David goes on to tell Solomon to obey God and keep His commandments. Obviously that meant that Solomon had to know God's commandments in order to keep them. Where did Solomon learn them?

Some of our discussion dealt with not waiting until our death bed to have this kind of conversation with our kids and practically how do we make that happen on a regular basis. But we also talked about leaving our kids with some last words. Given technology today, what would be the best way to do that?

What are your thoughts? Let the rest of us in on what you are thinking about these things.

Blessings,
Roger

Nathan the Prophet

This morning we continued our look at 1Kings and the life of Solomon. We had some great discussion and missed those of you who couldn't be there this morning.

The first chapter is talking about the events leading up to Solomon being named as king. This morning we discussed the prohet Nathan and his role in not only David's life but also in getting Solomon on the throne of Isreal.

Nathan was a trusted advisor to David so why did he have Bathsheba approach David first with the news about Adonijah? Why did Nathan use questions to inform David of Adonijah's actions to take the throne?

As we looked at our own lives we talked about the value of having a Nathan in our lives - someone we trust and will be compelely honest with us. We also talked about how we can play that role in someone elses life - such as our kids. What does that look like as they get older?

Do you have a Nathan in your life? Are you a Nathan for someone else? How do we make that happen?

Continue your reading in 1Kings 1-11. (2 Chronicles 1-9 are parallel passages about Solomon's life.)

I hope to see you next Wednesday at Panera Bread at 6:30am.

Blessings,
Roger

Summer Wake Up Call Launches

Hey guys, we just finished a great year looking at the Practices, Beliefs and Virtues that we need to have in order to live a life that is glorifing to God and attractive to those that are "far from God", as Bill Hybels would say. This summer we are meeting at Panera Bread on Cantrell at 6:30 every Wednesday morning to dive in to the Scriptures.

I thought I would start a blog to encourage all of us to continue our discussion throughout the week. If you have to miss a week this will be the place to stay connected. Please post your thoughts, questions, musings and insights from the Holy Spirit. Even if you weren't able to attend, please feel free to contribute.

This morning we launched our study in the book of 1 Kings. We are going to focus on the first 11 chapters, the life of Solomon. This brings in other Scripture about his life and even more that he wrote such as some of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, so it will be rich.

This morning we talked about what was going on as the book of 1 Kings opens. David is old and sick and his son, Adonijah, makes a play for the throne. How did that happen? Great question. Now consider verse 6 that says, "His (Adonijah's) father (David) had never interfered with him by asking, 'Why do you behave as you do?'."

Sure David was a busy guy running the kingdom of Israel and all but what can we learn about parenting and our busy schedules? We had some great discussion.

If you are a parent, what does this say about your priorities and the possible impact on your kids in the future? There are a ton of other questions that can be asked about this. What are your thoughts?

I hope everyone can join us next week as we coninue looking at 1 Kings.

Blessings,
Roger