May 12, 2012 … We All Have Choices!

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: 2nd Samuel: 11-12 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
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Passage of the Day #2: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study:1st Chronicles: … Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: 1st Chronicles 20 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
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Highlight Passage: … 2nd Samuel 11: 1 … 1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite."4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home.5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." 

My Journal for Today: Well, if you’re a Bible reader or student, my guess would be that you’ve read, studied, and heard sermons on this passage which my chronological reading plan is taking me through this morning. It’s the famous – or infamous – story of David’s series of bad choices which led him deeper and deeper into a mire of sin and degradation.

And who would have ever guessed that the young man whom God pursued and anointed as His King to be, … the young man who marshaled the faith to slay Goliath, … and the young man who held onto his faith and integrity when he was being chased down by King Saul, who was trying to kill David; … this young man, who was called “the man after God’s own heart,” now becomes a King who makes a series of sinful choices which certainly couldn’t be described as choices after God’s heart. Who would’ve thunk it?

And in today’s highlight passage, Verses 1-5 of 2nd Samuel, Chapter 1, there is much we can all learn about a man (or woman) of God who lets down his (or her) guard and becomes complacent in their life, breaking from past faith disciplines or practices which allowed them to have a deep and abiding relationship with God.

You’ve probably heard a number of sermons exposing or teaching on 2nd Samuel 11 and the confrontation with the Prophet Nathan about David’s sin and subsequent cover-up in 2nd Samuel 12; so, I won’t try to bore with you here with what you probably already know about this very unfortunate segment in the life of David, that “man after God’s own heart.”

But every time I revisit this passage, the reminder jumps out at me that ALL believers – no matter how disciplined or spiritually powerful they have been in their past – are vulnerable to the devices, temptations, and schemes of Satan and his world, especially when they let their guard down and make self-serving choices rather than Savior-serving decisions. Oh, … I do my best to model and teach in the ministry God led me to found and now lead how to do battle against sexual temptations. Battle Plan Ministry (see http://battleplanministries.org), which is a ministry which fits right into this David & Bathsheba episode, we learn and relearn that every day – well, really every moment – is a battle; and the stakes of spiritual warfare for the Christian may not be our soul (because “once saved, always saved”); but when we make ungodly, selfish/sinful choices, what we’re risking is the integrity and power of our testimony or witness as Christians.

We see it every week in BattlePlan Ministries, … men who desire to be Godly men, making ungodly choices and then, often going the next step, as did King David, by trying to cover up their sin; and like David, often the result of just one bad and sinful choice will be a series of ungodly behaviors which can lead to the destruction of marriages, families, and quite often the power of that one’s witness for the Lord.

David started by making the choice to be at home rather than where he should have been – out on the battlefield, right beside the man whom he ultimately had killed, Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. And then being at home, where David had no business being, the King fell by making one bad choice after another until Satan had him wrapped up in a package of sinful, spiritual impotence.

Oh, the horror we get into when we put ourselves in the position to make one bad choice which honors and worships Satan rather than to be right where we should be, making choices which honor and worship our Savior.

So, am I right where I should be this day, … in the place God would want me to be, … so that the Lord can pour His enabling and empowering grace into my humble surrender to His will and by doing all I can to follow His way by heeding and following His word? I think I am; but I’m on constant and ever-vigilant guard to stay right in the center of God’s will and His path for my life. Because when I’m there, where I should be in God’s sight, following His light, I know that I will be far less vulnerable to the pursuits of an enemy who stalks me as described by the Apostle Peter in 1st Peter 5: 8 [check it out!].

I really identify with old King David when he blew it with Bathsheba. In fact I once had that T-shirt, marked by sexual sin. But now, having burned that ungodly uniform, I never again want to have to wear it, going through what David had to when he confessed and repented of his sin. No, … from here on, my choices are going to be forged to wear the uniform of purity and righteousness, wearing the Robes my Lord has given me to wear which hide the rags of sin which I want to hide forever. That’s the Godly cover-up, which God in which wants all of to participate … so that we don’t have to feel driven to cover-up in the way David exhibited, the cover-up of our sin which ultimately dampens out ability to worship God and witness for His glory.

My Prayer Today: … I thank You, Lord, for cleansing me up as You did the fallen King David; and I praise Your Name that I can wear Your robes of righteousness to honor and glorify You, Holy Father, with the choices I will make this very day. Amen