Even Good Guys get it Wrong Sometimes

Looking into the life of David as we go through the books of Samuel, Chronicles, and the Kings, allows us to see both the “Good Guy” David and the “Bad Guy” David. It’s hard to think that this is the “man after my own heart” that God chose to lead His people when we see his life laid out in detail.

We love the stories about success and triumph, obedience and loyalty, like his conquest of the giant Goliath or his friendship with Jonathan. We love to hear about his thirty mighty men who were his personal bodyguards and kept him alive on the battlefield, and how he rescued Abigail from a life that was beneath her abilities and brought her into his palace so she could become all she was meant to be. We like to read the Psalms he wrote when he is recounting the lovingkindness and unfailing love of the Lord and his passion to worship. We like to hear about his benevolence to the less fortunate in his kingdom. This is the “Good Guy” David; the one that makes sense to us that this is the kind of man God would choose.

David’s life is filled with the everyday things of real life. He’s the youngest of eight boys; he’s a talented musician; he’s brave and responsible; he’s got a great work ethic; he’s a friend, a husband, a father, an employer, a soldier, a lover, a thinker and a writer and yet, impulsive. He’s generous yet selfish. He’s a builder and a money maker and provider; he’s a leader and a mover and shaker. He has surrounded himself with good and capable people but still needs to be alone.

I do not envy the fact that David’s life has been laid out for all of history to see in detail. I would not want that for myself. David said to the Lord once, “Who am I? What can I say? You know what I’m really like.” And God let us all in on what He saw in David – the good, the bad, and the ugly because even good guys get it wrong sometimes.

His adulthood seems to have started here. In all his passion as a lover, he seems to have blown off his first marriage to Michal, Saul’s daughter. The bible says that she loved him very much. They were newlyweds when they were separated by trouble in the kingdom. She helps him escape with his life and covers for him so he can get to safety. He never returns for her. She starts over with a new life, a new husband, and a new town. When David realizes after eight years that it cost him plenty to have her as his wife he wants her back. He rips her from her new life and family and places her back into his home. But this woman has gone from loving him to despising him. Who could blame her? She has gone from number one in his life and risking it all for him to being number three in a growing list of wives. Then, even though he is the man of the hour, good guy David setting up worship for the kingdom of Israel, good guy David blessing all the families of the land and feeling pretty good about himself, Michal lets her contempt for him and his duties show. His reply? “Don’t forget that God chose me over your dad and brothers!”

There! That ought to put her in her place! Wow! One minute he’s blessing the households of his kingdom and the next he’s spitting out curses to his own. David and Michal never reconciled the relationship. The bible says that she died bitter and childless. This is the “Good Guy” David getting this one wrong.

It happens to us all the time. We misuse our time, our money, our judgment. We say selfish things, we do selfish things. It’s not that we don’t mean well or want to do the right thing. But, sincerity and good intentions without self-reflection cannot be used as an excuse for selfishness. It will get us into trouble most every time! Just like David.

When I read about David and see the bad along with the good, I think about his predecessor Saul; God rejected him as king of Israel because he sinned and was selfish too. What’s the difference I ask myself? Saul continued in his selfishness and it became his demise. David continually came back to the Lord repenting of his sin and disobedience and God seems to have had room in his heart for that!

David writes in Psalm 51, after one of his episodes of sin and disobedience, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart.”

The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 5:20-21, “As people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant… giving us right standing with God resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ.”

God’s grace exists because even good guys, and gals, get it wrong sometimes!

God Has a Plan

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT


As we, at Branches, are going through the Bible in the year 2012 from cover to cover, it’s been kind of fun going through it chronologically. To see the events unfold in the order they happened can open our understanding a bit more as we look into a time and a culture very different than our own.

It’s really easy for the church today to look at the Scriptures through filters of our own experiences, laws, human rights, lifestyles, economic achievements, social orders, and post WWII non-imperialistic politics. The world has also gotten smaller as technology and transportation have improved. What used to take weeks or months to relay a communication takes only moments to go around the entire world. People regularly travel across the continents to do daily business and are back home again within hours. This calls for filters of tolerances, acceptances, protocols, behaviors, and mindsets previously not part of the daily thinking of the church.

It also opens the church up to the same thinking as the Israelites had when they were settling in the land of Canaan; they wanted a king in order to be like all the other nations. They no longer wanted God to speak to them through His prophets and judges. They wanted a king to call the shots. God warned them. He told them that a king would cost them in taxes, labor, economic slavery, and debt, but they insisted…they wanted to be like everyone else.

It was easier…to their thinking...to just accept the religious practices, laws, family protocols, and business dealings of the other nations than it was to be “different” by following what God had set up for them for pure religious practices that He would accept, laws that were just, family order, and honest business dealings. It cost them. But God faithfully used their situation to get them back to His intended purposes for them as a people, to bring the Messiah to the world through them, and reach into the entire world with His message of hope for all of mankind through the Good News; and He will continue doing that for them as He wraps up all of time someday.

He has it written in the Scriptures.

This is the main thing: God’s Word is true. Whether you and I believe it is or not, it is. North is still north whether I am lost and don’t believe it or not. God has always had a plan, He will continue on His plan, and He will be faithful to His plan to complete it. And the Scriptures are how He has let us in on how that plan works!

So, as we at Branches are reading through the Bible this year, know that it is not just a compilation of Hebrew stories, good proverbs, and teachings of a good person who meant well. These Scriptures, though not the life and hope God offers in and of themselves, point to the life and hope that He is offering us all! And not only do they point to Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life, but they teach us what is true in our daily life and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives and then to correct the wrong thinking and doing and enable us to think and to do what is right! What a gift!! Not only has God told us His plan in the Scriptures, but these same Scriptures teach us His plan, show us when we are out of His plan, enable us to understand His plan, and empower us to participate in His plan.

I love the apostle’s realization of this same thinking: “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally completed on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” – Philippians 1:6 NLT

God has had, has, and will complete His plan as written in the Scriptures! We will continue to be looking into them!

Against the Wind

Looking out my window this morning at the blustery day that it is outside I am feeling pretty good as I sit inside a warm room with a cup of coffee glad to not be out in this wind. I don’t do well with wind. I’ve never liked it. A breeze is one thing, but wind always seems to have a way of frustrating you in whatever it is you want to be out doing. When you have an ideal day at 75 to 80 degrees and calm, mostly sunny skies, you can get a lot done with little resistance.

That’s it! Resistance. That’s what I don’t like about wind. Yesterday here it was in the 70’s, partly sunny and calm; today we’ll have a high in the 40’s with the wind blowing steady at 22 mph and rain with a possibility of being mixed with snow. A windy day means a change in the weather is coming – for better or worse.

A windy day can also mean good things too. It helps strengthen the root systems of plants and trees. A windy day will clear the dead branches out of the trees in the yard. It dries up the puddles and fields and clears the rooftops of debris. Good things, but still frustrating when trying to keep the boat in position on the lake, or paddle the canoe, or roof the shed, or get up on the ladder to fix that window, or keeping the dust from getting into your painting project.

When I see the windy day my first reaction is to not even get started. Wait for it to calm down. But, things have to get done so we step out into the wind, or resistance, and deal with it best we can.

I have been reading through the writings of James for the past few months for my personal growth. He’s got a “hands on” perspective of the gospel and it’s been quite challenging. I believe the point that James is trying to get across to us is that real Christians don’t just stand around. We don’t always get it done well, but we are to step out into the wind and get at it.

“Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.” (1:19-20) “Remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to.” (1:22)

Ohhhhh, there will be windy days where it seems like you just can’t get anything done without resistance and frustration. He never suggests to wait it out until there is a calm or ideal circumstances but to just do it. Here’s how he starts his letter:

“Greetings! Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything…God blesses the people who patiently endure testing” (1:1-4, 12)

Bob Seger wrote about his understanding of life going from a young man into a middle age man, “Against the wind, we were running against the wind. We were young and strong, we were running against the wind…and the years rolled slowly past and I found myself alone…I found myself seeking shelter against the wind…I’m still running against the wind. I’m older now but still running against the wind.”

I believe the conclusion of this matter is not to seek shelter and leisure and a resistance free life, but one where we learn from our experiences and allow God to change our character which then affects our choices and behaviors as we step out into the wind.

Everything

While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people putting their gifts into the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two pennies. “I assure you,” he said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” – Luke 21:1-4


In the movie The Magnificent Seven with Yule Brenner, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and others, the farmers in the small village are being bullied by bandits. They work the dry soil to harvest food for their families only to have the bandits come in and steal it from them. They cannot defend themselves. They have only one hope; hire a gunslinger to protect them.

They call for Yule Brenner’s character, which is the most famous gunslinger in the land, and ask for a meeting. When they do meet, he tells the group of farmers that they cannot afford him by telling them that people pay good money for his services. What happens next in the movie really caught my attention.


One of the villagers takes out a cloth and lays it on the table. He unwraps it and says, “This is everything we own; everything of value in the village.”

Looking at the meager jewelry and silver items in the cloth Yule Brenner replies, “I’ve been offered a lot for my services; but never everything.”

As the movie progresses, the gunslinger recruits six men who have this same value of what “everything” is worth. They offer their services not for the prestige or amount, but for the cause because it is right and just.

God has an altogether different standard by which to measure giving and givers than what we have come to know as economics. With God, attitude counts more than amount. Justice weighs more than resources, and that is why Jesus praises this widow woman as she gives “everything” she has. A generous person isn’t simply one who gives conveniently and comfortably out of abundance. A generous person in God’s eyes is one who risks all, sacrifices cheerfully, and gives without demanding attention or expecting a reward.

Whether it’s our time, talents, or money, God wants us to give “everything” to him.

I would recommend watching The Magnificent Seven if you haven’t seen it. It is full of scenes that show the choices we all must make every day when it comes to our attitude, justice, and just what “everything” we have is worth.

We All Start Somewhere

When I look at this project that has been sitting in my backyard for years I see myself. Let me explain.

I was at a conference last week where I listened to many pastors whom I respect and watch very carefully to see how they handle their lives, their churches, their ministry, and their heart.

As I listened I heard many things that spoke to my own life. Things like; "When something is happening to me, God wants to do something in me." and, "Stop doing 'sissy' church!" and, "God is more interested in your character than your comfort." and, "Guard your heart for it holds the dreams and issues of your life."

But the one that hit home for me, the one that really spoke to my inner thoughts was from the man who trained me in church planting, a man whom I look up to because I see the 'success' of his ministry and his work. He said, "I do not doubt the calling God has placed on me, but I doubt why He chose me."

That's it! That's how I feel most everyday of my life. I thought I was the only one. I'm not.

I know what God has called me to do. I know the method and the mission in which I can do it according to the way He has gifted me. I also know that I see more weakness than strength; more insecurity than confidence; more of what I lack than what I can offer. But I am not alone.

The Apostle Paul said that it was when he was weak that it was in that inability that God becomes strong. When I am insecure or lacking strength or knowledge or wisdom, God rises to the occasion and comes through for His plans and purposes. "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who are called according to His purpose for them." (Romans 8:28)

I am so glad that God does not need us to be everything we can be to come to Him. I am so glad that we do not need to be able to claim to have done everything right. I am so glad that He is more interested in defining us by what He has for us than by what has happened(or not happened) to us!

As I look at this project in the above picture I can see it's pretty much in tact but missing a few key things. It's been beat up, knocked around, abandoned, abused and neglected. It's been out of its purpose and use for a long time and it's in need of a lot of new parts and tender loving care from someone who understands its potential. As I look, I see myself sitting before a loving, all-knowing God who gave His best for me, has the best in mind for me, and has the best prepared for me, and I realize that we are all on a journey and we all start somewhere!