“When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee.  Leaving Nazareth, he went and live in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali – to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

‘Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

the way to the sea, along the Jordan,

Galilee of the Gentiles –

the people living in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the

shadow of death

a light has dawned.’

From that time on Jesus began to preach,

‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near'”

– Matthew 4:12-17

As rich as studying David’s life was, I was needing some Jesus!  Matthew it is.

The kindergarten classes at Caden’s school had an award assembly this afternoon.

Caden got some awards, which I was proud of.

But I was mostly proud of how, when a classmate’s name was called, he excitedly turned to them and clapped really big.

I’ve heard our pastor say more than once that when he was young, he would ask God,

“What do you want me to do?  What do you want me to do?”

More often now he asks Him,

“Who do you want me to be?  Who do you want me to be?”

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

– Jesus, Matthew 5:6

“‘The New Testament has a lot to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.  We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our cross in order to follow Christ – and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.  Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy has been offered to us.  We are far too easily pleased…’ (C.S. Lewis).

We must realize, once and for all, that fulfilling our desires and seeking rewards are not anti-Christian.  What is anti-Christian is the self-centeredness that’s unconcerned about God and our neighbor, and the preoccupation with the immediate fulfilling of desires that distracts us from finding our ultimate fulfillment in Christ.  The person who gives life, money, and possessions to receive rewards from God – the greatest of which is to hear the resounding ‘Well done’ – is one whose deepest thirsts will be eternally quenched by the Maker and Fulfiller of all desire.”

Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity, pg. 136

So much from Dallas Willard, I know.  But this stuff is so rich.  Every time I read a new section, it baffles me.  Does it speak to you, too?

“The effects of condemnation remain the same.  It remains a stinging attack, a shocking assault upon the one condemned.  And it often grows into shame.  Shame seems to be the most widespread and deepest among the very people who take rightness and goodness most seriously.  It is a dimension of condemnation that reaches into the deepest level of our souls…

If our counterattack is unacceptable to ourselves…it may be shoved beneath the surface and will then come out in the many forms of behavior that look like something else, for example, perfectionism, procrastination, rejection of authority, or passive/aggressive tendencies such as the constant aborting of success…  For condemnation brings anger in return, and anger will attack.  And this attack can be and often is turned against oneself by the amazing chemistry of the mind…

‘Why do you concentrate on the little speck in your brother’s eye, but do not take into consideration the board in your own eye?’ (Matt. 7:3)

Condemnation is the board in our eye.  Jesus knows that the mere fact that we are condemning someone shows our heart does not have the kingdom rightness he has been talking about.  Condemnation, especially with its usual accompaniments of anger and contempt and self-righteousness, blinds us to the reality of the other person.  We cannot ‘see clearly’ how to assist our brother, because we cannot see our brother.  And we will never know how to truly help him until we have grown into the kind of person who does not condemn.  Period.

But some are troubled with giving up ‘judging’ because of another sense of the word that marks an absolutely central aspect of life, one that Jesus is in no way suggesting we omit.  The term krino, a form of which Jesus uses here in Matthew 7, has as its primary meanings ‘to separate, make a distinction between, exercise judgment upon,’ ‘to estimate or appraise.’

For example, a dentist may examine a patient’s teeth and say, ‘I see you have not been brushing regularly.  Your gums are receding, and there is a cavity over on this right lower side.’  When he does this, he is indeed judging the condition of the patient’s teeth and gums and practice of dental hygiene.  He is discerning, seeing and saying what it is.

We do not have to – we cannot – surrender the valid practice of distinguishing and discerning how things are in order to avoid condemning others.  We can, however, train ourselves to hold people responsible and discuss their failures with them – and even assign them penalties, if we are, for example, in some position over them – without attacking their worth as human beings or marking them as rejects.  A practiced spirit of intelligent agape will make this possible.”

A Divine Conspiracy, pgs. 222, 223, 224, 225

Oh my word.  Soul searching is necessary.  And thank you, God, that I can think of several examples in my life who discern without condemning.  Make me one of them.

“When you see yourself before His throne, what do you see yourself doing, thinking, and feeling?

One unexpected day the clouds will roll back and the King of all kings will burst through the sky.

‘On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will he split in two from east to west…Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.  On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost.  It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime – a day known to the LORD…The LORD will be king over the whole earth.  On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name’ (Zech. 14:4-7, 9).

Christ Jesus will sit on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem, and hope will give birth to certainty!  I believe David will dance once more down the streets of Jerusalem – this time without an eye to despise him.  Oblivious to anyone but God – the focus of his affections, the passion of his heart.

David will dance his way to that same familiar throne, but this time it will be occupied by Another.

No one above Him.

None beside Him.

David will see the Lord high and lifted up, and His train will fill the temple.  He’ll fall before the One who sits upon the throne, take the crown from his own head and cast it at His feet.  He’ll lift his eyes to the King of all kings and with the passions of an entire nation gathered in one heart, he will cry,

‘Worthy!’

Surely God the Father will look with great affection upon the pair.

I will praise You forever for what You have done.  I will put my hope in Your Name, for it is good (Ps. 52:9).”

“David died at a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor, and his son Solomon became king in his place” (1 Chronicles 29:28).

“What do you want most for your legacy?  How would you like to be remembered?

Our God gave no insignificant space to the chronicles of David’s life. 

In Psalm 51, David begged forgiveness.  Solomon was the tangible evidence of David’s pardon, for of him Scripture says, ‘The LORD loved him’ (2 Sam 12:24). 

The unrelenting sword was finally at rest.  David’s house was in order.  God had given a weary man strength and helped him prepare a family and a nation for life in his absence.

God did not cast David away.  The God whose faithfulness endures to all generations completed the good work He started in a shepherd.  Now the work was finally finished.

David had no reason to resist death’s call.  He was too old to conquer kingdoms, too sick to fill a sling, too frail to feast on the fatted calf.  But that which he treasured most was never so dear to him and never so real. 

The earthly life of one of the most passionate and controversial figures ever to grace this planet ended. 

Life went on, but forever marked by the life of God’s chosen king.  God sovereignly chose to chisel David’s reign into a kingdom that would last forever.”

Tomorrow is the last day in the “90 Days with a Heart Like His” study.  I will miss David. 

“In the first 12 verses of Matthew 7, he deals with the deadly way in which we try to ‘manage’ or control those closest to us by blaming and condemning them, and by forcing upon them our ‘wonderful solutions’ for their problems.

This almost universal human practice is the subject of verses 1-6, and after his brief but incisive treatment of it, [Jesus] then shows us a truly effective and gracious way of caring for and helping the people we love in verses 7-12.  It is the way of the request, of asking which naturally progresses into kingdom praying.  It is a way that actually works, because it draws people into the kingdom rather than into the web of our devices and plans for them.  It creates the community of prayerful love.

We recall, as we approach these passages, that we have already [in the order of the Sermon on the Mount] laid aside anger and contempt, cultivation of lusting, verbal manipulation, payback and getting even, along with the burdens and anxieties of ‘looking good’ and securing ourselves through wealth.

If we are still dominated by anger, contempt, and lusting…the tender areas into which Jesus now moves will simply be incomprehensible.  We must start at the point Jesus himself chose – the nature of true well-being or ‘blessedness’…

Of course we already know that the positive characterization of the kingdom attitude is agape love…but this love is an inexhaustible subject, and now Jesus gives a further look at it…

In verses 1-11 agape love has been concretely illustrated in three ways:

1.  Not condemning or blaming those around us
2.  Not forcing ‘wonderful things’ upon them
3.  Just asking for what we want from them – and from God

If we would really help those close to us and dear, and if we would learn to live together with our family and ‘neighbors’ in the power of the kingdom, we must abandon the deeply rooted human practice of condemning and blaming.  This is what Jesus means when he says, ‘Judge not.’

But we at least need the choice of giving others a good dose of blame and condemnation when it seems appropriate, don’t we?  We have great confidence in the power of condemnation to ‘straighten others out.’  And if that fails, should we not at least make clear that we are on the side of the right?

But what is it, exactly, that we do when we condemn someone? 

He or she is not acceptable.  We sentence that person to exclusion.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, ‘Brothers, if someone really is caught in a sin, the spiritual ones among you are the ones to restore him.  Do it in a lowly and non-presumptuous spirit, considering yourselves, lest you too be put to the test.  Feel the weight others are feeling, and thus you will fulfill Christ’s teachings’ (6:1).

The wisdom that comes from Jesus to us through these words of Paul is astonishingly rich.  First, we don’t undertake to correct unless we are absolutely sure of the sin.  Here the language of 1 Corinthians 13 comes into play: love ‘believes all things, hopes all things.’  If there is any lack of clarity about whether the sin occurred, assume it did not.  At least don’t start correcting.

Second, not just anyone is to correct others.  Correction is reserved for those who live and work in a divine power not their own.  For that power is also wise, and it is loving beyond anything we will ever be.  These are the ‘spiritual ones’ referred to.  Only a certain kind of life puts us in the position to ‘correct.’

Third, the ‘correcting’ to be done is not a matter of ‘straightening them out.’  It is not a matter of hammering on their wrongness and on what is going to happen to them if they don’t change their ways.  It is a matter of restoration.  The aim in dealing with the one ‘caught’ is to bring them back on the path of Jesus and to establish them there so their progress in kingdom character and living can continue.  Nothing is to be done that is not useful to this specific end.

Fourth, the ones who are restoring others must go about their work with the sure knowledge that they could very well do the same thing that the person ‘caught’ has done, or even worse.  This totally removes any sense of self-righteousness or superiority, which, if it is present, will certainly make restoration impossible.  To aid in this direction, the restorers are to endeavor to feel the weight, the ‘burden,’ that the one being restored feels as he or she stands trapped in the sin.”

Dallas Willard, “The Divine Conspiracy” pgs. 216-219

It don’t have a job

Don’t pay your bills

Won’t buy you a home in Beverly Hills

It won’t fix your life

In five easy steps

Ain’t the law of the land

Or the government

But it’s all you need

 And love will hold us together

 Make us a shelter to weather the storm

 And I’ll be my brother’s keeper

 So the whole world would know that we’re not alone

It’s waiting for you

Knocking at your door

In the moment of truth

When your heart hits the floor

And you’re on your knees

This is the first day of the rest of your life

This is the first day of the rest of your life

Cause even in the dark you can still see the light

It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright

And love will hold us together

Make us a shelter to weather the storm

And I’ll be my brother’s keeper

So the whole world would know that we’re not alone

– Matt Maher, “Hold Us Together”

“The task is great, for the temple will not be for man, but for the LORD God.  So to the best of my ability I’ve made provision for the house of my God.”  (1 Chronicles 29:1-2)

“Do you give that which is personal?  Does your monetary giving come from your heart, not just your checkbook?  Does the giving of your time flow from rejoicing, not resentment?  Has the Lord been leading you to give of yourself in some particular area?  What’s keeping you from stepping out in obedience?

David knew that little would influence Solomon’s success more than being surrounded by leaders whose hearts were devoted to seeking the Lord.

Solomon lacked nothing but age and experience – a lack that probably scared his father half to death.  He could not explain how lonely Solomon would be at the top, the exhaustion of too much responsibility, the temptation of too much power, the loneliness of too few friends  Chances were good that Solomon would not have understood David anyway.  He had too many stars in his eyes…So David looked at the whole assembly and basically said, ‘Give him a hand.  He’s going to need it.’

Never underestimate the power of a positive example!

David could not have motivated the leaders of Israel to give freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord unless he too had given.  He could have forced them, but the willing spirit God so deeply desired would have been forfeited.  David knew their cheerful giving would be motivated by his own; therefore, he had to give more than what belonged to the kingdom.  The third verse clearly tells us, ‘I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God…’

David gave what was his.  That which was personal.  And the people overwhelmingly responded: ‘The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD.’

What a glorious moment!  I can’t think of much that spurs the hearts of the people of God like the wholehearted devotion of their leaders.  When leadership is sold out to God, the followers become willing to sell out too.

Lord, how gracious of You that when we perform acts of service and ministry, You not only meet the needs of others but create an overflow that results in many expressions of thanks to You.  Because of our service, people are inspired to praise You for the obedience that accompanies our confession of the gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 9:12-13).”

My word this morning.

“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.”

Ephesians 5:23