Skip to main content

God's Exclamation Point!


By the word of the Lord one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, “Strike me with your weapon,” but the man refused. 1 Kings 20.35

What would you have done? It must have been a dramatic moment in both men's lives. The prophet's command seemed, strange and unreasonable and was refused. However, because of the refusal the man lost his life in an unusual way. A lion killed him.

The key phrase in the verse is, "By the word of the Lord". The weird request was a direct command from God. It was an extreme disguise that confused and disturbed the prophets companion. However, when he decided not to obey he was disobeying God and paid with his life.

What if God dealt with us like this today? Disobey or die. Or does He. Hummm. When I disobey God does a part of me die? I think so.

I know that you have felt it. Or maybe not. If not you're in dangerous water. So to speak. You know what God wants you to do but you don't do it. Whether its something scary, difficult or just plain weird in your eyes, you just decide not to proceed. Even though you know that the "still small voice" is saying you should.

When you say, "no" you are "quenching the Spirit". The situation seems strange to you and your senses shut down your spiritual guidance system. In that act you use your eyes of flesh to guide you in the "sensible" way. A sensible way is one that we can, see, feel or physically experience with one of our five senses.

God's way is so very often different isn't it. It has men "striking" another man with a sword. Quite an extreme to create a disguise don't you think? Well you are wrong.

In the above case God was angry at king Ahab for not destroying an enemy. God had won a battle to demonstrate His power and Ahab had dismissed the victory by making an alliance with the foe. Bad move. When the prophet came asking his companion to strike him it wasn't a weird request it was one of God's exclamation point.

Don't miss God's exclamation points. You die when you do. Really!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tottering!

I was watching my one year old grandson, Brandon, today. He had on some baggy little shorts, weird flip-flops over his socks, and he was tottering. It made me think about how I often feel these days. Funny how that when we are little and "innocent" and tottering in our baggy pants, with our little potbelly sticking out from under our t-shirt we look precious. When we are older and tottering in our low slung trousers and the same potbelly, we looks pathetic! I guess that the two drastically opposite points of view are based on the viewer's chronological perspective. Brandon is growing and I'm dying. He is cute because the little guy has a lot to learn and we love to see him progress. The old guy has already had his chance at learning and what he is progressing toward is not quite so much fun to ponder. When I have these weird thoughts I praise my God because He never lets go of my hand whether a tottering little guy or an old one. And I found this verse to prove my po...

What Are You Worth?

What are you Worth?  Have you ever thought about what you are worth? In investing circles there is a term used to gauge this exact question, it's called Net Worth. You take all of your assets, like property owned, funds in your bank account, clothes, jewelry, car, etc.. You total all of these things. You then take everything you owe, like mortgage, car loan, and credit card debt, and you subtract these items from the first total. This gives you your net worth. That number represents where you are financially. Most people never stop to think about this number because they don't understand anything about it. They never have two nickels to rub together. They live from hand to mouth and know (or at least believe) nothing will ever change so, they fall into the "daily grind" mentality. Psalm 49 should be a great encouragement to such as these. The sons of Korah write about them. These sons write about all of us. They call all people everywhere to listen to their wisdom. Bo...

The Missionary Thing

"I wish I could get into this Missionary Thing!" I have heard this statement a number of times during my missionary career. People say it in feigned jest. Especially when they see something special happening to missionaries. Tonight for instance a friend loaned us his brand new Chrysler Sebring. Or how about this one, Someone once gave us $10,000. I think that the "Missionary Thing" statement is a reaction to perceived preferential treatment. Granted, I had never receive $10,000 in a lump sum offering until I became a missionary. I had never had anyone give me a car, house, apartment, computer, airline ticket and myriad other things until I became a missionary.  Being a missionary does have it's definite benefits. One of the biggest of those being that we get to do what Paul did. Paul was able to recount his story to perhaps thousands before his death at the hands of Nero. We are still feeling the after-shock of his message. Paul's is that Christ-like exampl...