Hello. I am home today (Sunday) freezing! We had the electricity go out because of an ice storm in Northeastern Oklahoma! It looks pretty- all the trees and bushes covered in a clear glaze of ice; a virtual winter wonderland- that was untill a tree that Joshua and I planted when he was four years old split under the pressure of the ice load!! I was SICK looking out at that tree in our front yard! I am kind of sentimental about those kinds of things! That tree represents time spent with the greatest son a dad could even have! Humor me as I brag a bit- He is handsome, kind, smart and a bit cocky (I admit the cocky could go, but the flip side of that bad character trait is determination and confidence once it falls under the control of the Spirit of G-d).
Then as I sit here I hear a loud **CRACK** a HUGE limb off of a 75 foot tall pine tree in my back yard takes out the fence in my back and side yard!! UGH. This is going to be a messy clean up- and it isn't over yet!! We are supposed to have ice falling around here until lateTuesday! Keep us in your prayers! I am asking for any available angels to hold up the balance of the branches or at least keep deflecting any falling ones from hitting the house!! Ah, never a dull moment.
I know what I am going to do- being the dilligent man of action that I am!- I'm going to get back to drinking my hot cocoa as it sits here next to my laptop as steam rises from top of my Starbucks mug, snuggle under a fleece blanket of Elisabeth's and watch "It's a Wonderful Life", because, you know, it really is! My advice to you today- Stay warm, make yourself some hot cocoa, get a copy of this classic movie and take some time to reflect what a great life you do live- and ask Him what you can do today to make it even better for those you come in contact with! Gotta go, the movie is about to begin!
09 December 2007
03 December 2007
The Cave, Part Deux!!
III. Looking Out From The Cave: A Gathering Place (22:1b-2)
A Gathering Place for a New Spiritual Family
In Psalm 142 we read David's final petition from the cave:
"Bring my soul out of prison,
So that I may give thanks to Your name;
The righteous will surround me,
For You will deal bountifully with me."
David senses that although he is, in a manner of speaking, entombed in a cave, God will resurrect him. He also has the sense that the spiritual life resulting from his connecting to God will draw others to the messianic king. As he looks out into the light, here is what he sees. 1 Samuel 22:2:
“And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.”
In one of the most beautiful scenes in Scripture, David looks out from the cave and sees that hundreds of men have been drawn to Adullam. The cave had become the gathering place. (By the way, the word "gather" is the Hebrew word from which the word "kibbutz" derives.)
And who were those who made up this new family? "Those who are in distress" (constrained, in deep straits that caused them to wither up); "everyone who was in debt" (due to the heavy tax structure of Saul's kingdom); and the "discontented" (literally, the bitter of soul, those for whom all the simple pleasures of life had disappeared). The people who were drawn to the cave were the outcasts, those who felt heavy-laden by the old kingdom. "In English literature the term Adullam is occasionally used as a kind of shorthand for a sanctuary for outcasts. Thus Thomas Hardy in The Mayor of Casterbridge refers to Mixen Lane in the lowest section of town as 'the Adullam of all the surrounding villages. It was the hiding place of those who were in distress, and in debt, and trouble of every kind.'”
The spiritual life that emanated from the cave of Adullam drew others into the new family. Everyone who came was drawn; no one was coerced. Saul was seeking David, but he could not find him, but those who were internally G-d-drawn found him without any problem. In the same way, the men and women who came to Christ were drawn to do so willingly because of their unhappiness with the old order or unfulfilled religion. They gladly responded when Jesus said, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls" (Matt 11:28-29).
I think this has profound implications for the way we choose to build G-d’s Kingdom today. Much effort is spent in trying to get people to attend my “church”, but often they find that there is nothing about the life of the “church” that attracts them. Believers in the early church, however, had their priorities right. They focused on worship, fellowship, communion and the apostolic teaching, and the result of these things is recorded in the book of Acts: "and the Lord kept adding to their numbers those who were being saved." Evangelism in the early church was a natural outgrowth of the spiritual life of the church. The lesson for us is this: hurting people are drawn to believers who are connected to G-d.
Kingdom-run Businesses are no different- the people around me now, my true “inner-circle”, are people G-d drew over the years. Men and women who are proven and who “qualified” for those posts based on their own experiences and responses to those events in their lives that mold a man (or woman) into the fertile soil ready for Kingdom seed!
This text also identifies whom we should target in our Kingdom building efforts. Oftentimes we target the wrong groups, failing to recognize that G-d is already at work, drawing people to himself. The TRUE Kingdom-church needs to reach out to the discontented, the distressed, and the debt-ridden. In our own area, this means the foreign refugees, the poor, unwed mothers, the divorced, single parents, teenagers from unhappy homes, AIDS patients and the unborn. Such are fertile fields for the message of the Kingdom as Pastor Tom Desuchle best summarizes as; “right thinking, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And eating from the Tree of Life not from the legalistic Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
So when you are in your “cave” season we are seeing a picture of G-d doing as much “outside” the cave that concerns us as He is doing “inside” the cave. This illustration of divine orchestration of ones life should create in us a shout of praise from deep within to G-d Himself who said He would work all things for our good if we love Him.
This then is the vision that David sees as he looks outside the cave of Adullam. G-d was bringing together a new spiritual community.
But there were others who came to the cave.
Reconciliation of the Physical Family:
And when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him. (22:1b)
G-d was restructuring David's family. The outcast youth, once the subject of the disdain of his brothers, is now sought after as the messianic king who will overthrow the old order. At last his family recognizes him as their new leader, and they come to him on his turf and on his terms.
Jesus was a source of dissonance in his family. His brothers refused to believe in him; his mother tried to coerce him at the wedding in Cana. At one point, they thought he was a madman, so Jesus was forced to say, "Who are my mother, brothers, and sisters, but he who does the will of G-d?" Jesus was creating a new family, made up of those who were drawn to him. After his death and resurrection, his family too were reconciled to the new order. They were to be found in the Upper Room, with the others, worshipping Christ.
Though at times we grow spiritually because we suffer rejection initially by our physical family, true Kingdom understanding will keep them in our hearts as a right and proper concern, and we will long for their reconciliation with G-d. As many of you can attest, one of the most joyful occasions in life is when a member of one's physical family is reconciled to Christ. I just experienced this with my daughter Elisabeth! My cave experience and my response to the trials I was under served as a testimony to the faithfulness of G-d so loudly that my daughter was able to see God’s hand at work and she committed afresh to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
The goal of spirituality therefore is community. The monks sought to withdraw from the world, and in this they were half-right. But once we have met with G-d, true spirituality is experienced in community. Having met with God in the cave of Adullam, David has a vision of the new community. He leaves the cave, a different man, to walk twin paths.
How did his experience in the cave affect his walk with G-d?
IV. Leaving the Cave (22:3)
A Path of Responsibility:
And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what G-d will do for me." (22:3)
In David's great hour of testing, having no home to call his own, he made it a top priority to honor his parents by providing a home for them. What a tribute to his heart, especially when we remember that in former times he felt abandoned by his own. As he wrote in Psalm 27:9-10: "Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O G-d of my Salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me..." David takes his family to Moab, right into the presence of the king (perhaps because Moab was the birthplace of his great-grandmother, Ruth). Note how he expresses his faith in G-d to the foreign king, in contrast to his behavior when he disguised his identity in front of Achish, in Gath.
Jesus had the same heart for his family. In his hour of trial and testing, he cared for his mother and provided for her future. The gospel records: "When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household" (John 19:26). While Jesus was being "cut off" from the earth, he made sure his mother was not cut off and abandoned.
It might not be convenient to care for your parents (and I am sure your screaming at 3AM with a poopy diaper wasn’t too exciting or convenient for them night after night either!), but it is the biblical thing to do. My dad was the primary caregiver, but all of us cared for our dying mother for the last year of her life. She lived with my dad when the doctors (and some well meaning family members) thought it “best” to put her in a nursing home. My dad refused and took care of her until a coma finally took her. The new family transcends the old, but it still honors and cares for the old. Never forget those who bore you. Honor them to the grave. This protects us from the phenomenon of the cults and a self-centered lifestyle, which are extremely destructive of today’s families.
True Kingdom Spirituality is a path of responsibility.
There is a second path.
A Path of Mobility:
And the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth. (22:5)
By means of the direct voice of the prophet Gad, David was told to not attempt to create security for himself by turning the cave of Adullam into a permanent fortress. (The word for "fortress" is the same as the word for "Masada.") He would find security in his constant obedience to go wherever the Lord sent him ("they went wherever they could go", 1 Sam 23:13). David would find no permanent place to settle as long Saul remained in power. That is why he continued to depend upon
G-d.
Here is the applicable lesson we learn from the above statement (incase you didn’t catch it!): Until it is “your season” there is unrest and you seemingly don’t “fit” anywhere. This season of sojourning for Kingdom believers is a part of this life. It is a time to embrace, to rest in, to prepare and to worship- not grow weary in! You are not “forsaken” as your flesh might feel or others looking in may judge as the situation, but you are being prepared for your domain, your role, your place of purpose. How exciting of a time this can be once you understand it! It is a season of great spiritual need, a time to build a relationship with the Lover of Your Soul and, strangely enough, a time where those truly called to work along side you will find you, celebrate you and need to learn from you!
Our Lord likewise could find no safe place to settle down during his ministry on earth. To those who naively wanted to follow him, he said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matt 8:20). If this was the fate of David and Jesus, how can Kingdom people expect to find a permanent, safe abode in this temporal (but significant) world? Let us not try to find safety in fortresses built by men, but rather in our constant abiding in the will of G-d.
The history of our brothers in the faith (the Jewish people) should serve as a warning to Kingdom people today. In the first century, the sects who fled to fortresses like Masada or tried to put their security in the temple were destroyed. When the church adopted a fortress mentality and hides in structures of worldly security, whether buildings, religious or political structures, we not only lost all effectiveness, we also forfeited our true security, making us an easy target for the enemy.
So I found the secret to Kingdom victory in the cave of Adullam. I went to Israel suffering from the pain of losing close friends, money and reputation but Adullam taught me that by letting things and people go, I am allowing them to enter into the most important aspect of the Kingdom: that they may "know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings."
What a place my Adullam is; I learn of praise, worship, fellowship and truth. But I could just as easy make the cave an experience of despair and self-pity. It is my choice!
A Gathering Place for a New Spiritual Family
In Psalm 142 we read David's final petition from the cave:
"Bring my soul out of prison,
So that I may give thanks to Your name;
The righteous will surround me,
For You will deal bountifully with me."
David senses that although he is, in a manner of speaking, entombed in a cave, God will resurrect him. He also has the sense that the spiritual life resulting from his connecting to God will draw others to the messianic king. As he looks out into the light, here is what he sees. 1 Samuel 22:2:
“And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.”
In one of the most beautiful scenes in Scripture, David looks out from the cave and sees that hundreds of men have been drawn to Adullam. The cave had become the gathering place. (By the way, the word "gather" is the Hebrew word from which the word "kibbutz" derives.)
And who were those who made up this new family? "Those who are in distress" (constrained, in deep straits that caused them to wither up); "everyone who was in debt" (due to the heavy tax structure of Saul's kingdom); and the "discontented" (literally, the bitter of soul, those for whom all the simple pleasures of life had disappeared). The people who were drawn to the cave were the outcasts, those who felt heavy-laden by the old kingdom. "In English literature the term Adullam is occasionally used as a kind of shorthand for a sanctuary for outcasts. Thus Thomas Hardy in The Mayor of Casterbridge refers to Mixen Lane in the lowest section of town as 'the Adullam of all the surrounding villages. It was the hiding place of those who were in distress, and in debt, and trouble of every kind.'”
The spiritual life that emanated from the cave of Adullam drew others into the new family. Everyone who came was drawn; no one was coerced. Saul was seeking David, but he could not find him, but those who were internally G-d-drawn found him without any problem. In the same way, the men and women who came to Christ were drawn to do so willingly because of their unhappiness with the old order or unfulfilled religion. They gladly responded when Jesus said, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls" (Matt 11:28-29).
I think this has profound implications for the way we choose to build G-d’s Kingdom today. Much effort is spent in trying to get people to attend my “church”, but often they find that there is nothing about the life of the “church” that attracts them. Believers in the early church, however, had their priorities right. They focused on worship, fellowship, communion and the apostolic teaching, and the result of these things is recorded in the book of Acts: "and the Lord kept adding to their numbers those who were being saved." Evangelism in the early church was a natural outgrowth of the spiritual life of the church. The lesson for us is this: hurting people are drawn to believers who are connected to G-d.
Kingdom-run Businesses are no different- the people around me now, my true “inner-circle”, are people G-d drew over the years. Men and women who are proven and who “qualified” for those posts based on their own experiences and responses to those events in their lives that mold a man (or woman) into the fertile soil ready for Kingdom seed!
This text also identifies whom we should target in our Kingdom building efforts. Oftentimes we target the wrong groups, failing to recognize that G-d is already at work, drawing people to himself. The TRUE Kingdom-church needs to reach out to the discontented, the distressed, and the debt-ridden. In our own area, this means the foreign refugees, the poor, unwed mothers, the divorced, single parents, teenagers from unhappy homes, AIDS patients and the unborn. Such are fertile fields for the message of the Kingdom as Pastor Tom Desuchle best summarizes as; “right thinking, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And eating from the Tree of Life not from the legalistic Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
So when you are in your “cave” season we are seeing a picture of G-d doing as much “outside” the cave that concerns us as He is doing “inside” the cave. This illustration of divine orchestration of ones life should create in us a shout of praise from deep within to G-d Himself who said He would work all things for our good if we love Him.
This then is the vision that David sees as he looks outside the cave of Adullam. G-d was bringing together a new spiritual community.
But there were others who came to the cave.
Reconciliation of the Physical Family:
And when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him. (22:1b)
G-d was restructuring David's family. The outcast youth, once the subject of the disdain of his brothers, is now sought after as the messianic king who will overthrow the old order. At last his family recognizes him as their new leader, and they come to him on his turf and on his terms.
Jesus was a source of dissonance in his family. His brothers refused to believe in him; his mother tried to coerce him at the wedding in Cana. At one point, they thought he was a madman, so Jesus was forced to say, "Who are my mother, brothers, and sisters, but he who does the will of G-d?" Jesus was creating a new family, made up of those who were drawn to him. After his death and resurrection, his family too were reconciled to the new order. They were to be found in the Upper Room, with the others, worshipping Christ.
Though at times we grow spiritually because we suffer rejection initially by our physical family, true Kingdom understanding will keep them in our hearts as a right and proper concern, and we will long for their reconciliation with G-d. As many of you can attest, one of the most joyful occasions in life is when a member of one's physical family is reconciled to Christ. I just experienced this with my daughter Elisabeth! My cave experience and my response to the trials I was under served as a testimony to the faithfulness of G-d so loudly that my daughter was able to see God’s hand at work and she committed afresh to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
The goal of spirituality therefore is community. The monks sought to withdraw from the world, and in this they were half-right. But once we have met with G-d, true spirituality is experienced in community. Having met with God in the cave of Adullam, David has a vision of the new community. He leaves the cave, a different man, to walk twin paths.
How did his experience in the cave affect his walk with G-d?
IV. Leaving the Cave (22:3)
A Path of Responsibility:
And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what G-d will do for me." (22:3)
In David's great hour of testing, having no home to call his own, he made it a top priority to honor his parents by providing a home for them. What a tribute to his heart, especially when we remember that in former times he felt abandoned by his own. As he wrote in Psalm 27:9-10: "Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O G-d of my Salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me..." David takes his family to Moab, right into the presence of the king (perhaps because Moab was the birthplace of his great-grandmother, Ruth). Note how he expresses his faith in G-d to the foreign king, in contrast to his behavior when he disguised his identity in front of Achish, in Gath.
Jesus had the same heart for his family. In his hour of trial and testing, he cared for his mother and provided for her future. The gospel records: "When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household" (John 19:26). While Jesus was being "cut off" from the earth, he made sure his mother was not cut off and abandoned.
It might not be convenient to care for your parents (and I am sure your screaming at 3AM with a poopy diaper wasn’t too exciting or convenient for them night after night either!), but it is the biblical thing to do. My dad was the primary caregiver, but all of us cared for our dying mother for the last year of her life. She lived with my dad when the doctors (and some well meaning family members) thought it “best” to put her in a nursing home. My dad refused and took care of her until a coma finally took her. The new family transcends the old, but it still honors and cares for the old. Never forget those who bore you. Honor them to the grave. This protects us from the phenomenon of the cults and a self-centered lifestyle, which are extremely destructive of today’s families.
True Kingdom Spirituality is a path of responsibility.
There is a second path.
A Path of Mobility:
And the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth. (22:5)
By means of the direct voice of the prophet Gad, David was told to not attempt to create security for himself by turning the cave of Adullam into a permanent fortress. (The word for "fortress" is the same as the word for "Masada.") He would find security in his constant obedience to go wherever the Lord sent him ("they went wherever they could go", 1 Sam 23:13). David would find no permanent place to settle as long Saul remained in power. That is why he continued to depend upon
G-d.
Here is the applicable lesson we learn from the above statement (incase you didn’t catch it!): Until it is “your season” there is unrest and you seemingly don’t “fit” anywhere. This season of sojourning for Kingdom believers is a part of this life. It is a time to embrace, to rest in, to prepare and to worship- not grow weary in! You are not “forsaken” as your flesh might feel or others looking in may judge as the situation, but you are being prepared for your domain, your role, your place of purpose. How exciting of a time this can be once you understand it! It is a season of great spiritual need, a time to build a relationship with the Lover of Your Soul and, strangely enough, a time where those truly called to work along side you will find you, celebrate you and need to learn from you!
Our Lord likewise could find no safe place to settle down during his ministry on earth. To those who naively wanted to follow him, he said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matt 8:20). If this was the fate of David and Jesus, how can Kingdom people expect to find a permanent, safe abode in this temporal (but significant) world? Let us not try to find safety in fortresses built by men, but rather in our constant abiding in the will of G-d.
The history of our brothers in the faith (the Jewish people) should serve as a warning to Kingdom people today. In the first century, the sects who fled to fortresses like Masada or tried to put their security in the temple were destroyed. When the church adopted a fortress mentality and hides in structures of worldly security, whether buildings, religious or political structures, we not only lost all effectiveness, we also forfeited our true security, making us an easy target for the enemy.
So I found the secret to Kingdom victory in the cave of Adullam. I went to Israel suffering from the pain of losing close friends, money and reputation but Adullam taught me that by letting things and people go, I am allowing them to enter into the most important aspect of the Kingdom: that they may "know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings."
What a place my Adullam is; I learn of praise, worship, fellowship and truth. But I could just as easy make the cave an experience of despair and self-pity. It is my choice!
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