We are a race of human beings with one eye always on the clock and the other on trying to jam everything into competition before time runs out. The entire sports world is seemingly anchored to the last few minutes of every sporting event. The distant voice of the announcer echoes the score with the added comment, “The time is running out for the Lakers. They need a three pointer if they expect to win.” Someone recently suggested that all we need to do is watch the last three minutes of every sporting event to catch the drama and the final score.

Hezekiah was a good king in the line of many bad kings. His desire was to please God and serve Him. He was deathly ill when the Lord sent Isaiah to tell him that his time on earth was running out. Hezekiah pleaded with God to give him more time. God heard his prayer and extended his life for fifteen more years. THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN TO EVERYBODY!

Most of us think very little about the time we have left no matter how old we are. It is only when a serious illness sends us to a hospital that we think about time remaining on this planet.

I believe God calls us to live in TODAY with our eyes on him and our intent to let him lead us.

The question often asked is “what would you do if you knew this were your last day on earth?” Whatever that would be for you would be a good way to live out today. Tell those whom you love that you REALLY DO LOVE THEM….TODAY! Make things right in your life that are wrong.

There is a great quote from George Washington Carver: “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all these things.”

TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

Jim Smoke

As I read through the life of Solomon this week which took all of two and a half days (compared to the many days covering the life of his father, David) I couldn’t help but think of the song “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler On The Roof. It’s a ballad that daydreams of a life of luxury and is filled with hopes for more than endless days of labor. And any of us can understand the words of this song if we are working for a living and struggling through, day by day. However, the life of Solomon shows me that the grass is not greener on the other side, where there is more wealth and possessions than one could ever possibly need in a lifetime. At the end of the day, look at Solomon - he “did what was evil in the Lord’s sight; he refused to follow the Lord completely” (1 Kings 11:6) and his heart worshipped other gods “instead of trusting only in the Lord his God, as his father, David had done” (1 Kings 11:4). In 1 Kings 11:9 it says that “the Lord was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.” The Lord gave Solomon everything - wisdom, riches, and honor. But Solomon forgot the ONE THING, the MAIN THING - God Himself. What can I learn from Solomon? Take heed to the words the Lord gave to Solomon when he dedicated the temple - there are three main things to always pay attention to in life according to 1 Kings 9:6-9:

1. Always “remember” the Lord your God - the Lord in 1 Kings 9:6 tells Solomon that he and his descendants needed to make certain they did not “abandon” God. It’s hard for us to imagine abandoning God. When you look at Solomon’s life, you notice that all his time was spent building this and that. In fact, it says in 1 Kings 9:19 that “he built to his heart’s content in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout the entire realm.” He “built up a huge force of chariots and horses” (1 Kings 10:26). And he built up quite a family - 700 wives and 300 concubines - clearly going against the Lord’s command to intermarry. The text says “Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway” (1 Kings 11:2). Did he ask the Lord, as David, his father did? It almost seems as though Solomon was caught up in everything BUT the Lord - building, ruling, marrying, displaying his wisdom. It’s a good lesson for me to “remember” the Lord, day by day. Begin the day with the Lord in quiet time, and continue talking with Him, enjoying Him throughout the day.

2. Obey God. The Lord told Solomon that he and his descendants should not disobey his commands and laws (1 Kings 9:6). Obviously Solomon was more interested in what he wanted than what God wanted. He knew not to intermarry according to God’s command, but we learn that “Solomon insisted on loving them anyway” (1 Kings 11:2). There is a great difference that I notice between Solomon and his father, David. Throughout the recorded life of David in the Bible, you find again and again that “David asked the Lord.” I don’t see that as a habit in Solomon’s life. If we will “ask the Lord” it will save us from living out a life of disobedience. It doesn’t mean we won’t sin. And when we do sin we need to confess our sin according to what the Lord says in 1 John 1:9 “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” Let us always seek to find out what pleases the Lord and do it with all our heart.

3. Worship God, the One True God. The Lord told Solomon not to ever “go and worship other gods” (1 Kings 9:6). Solomon’s heart was led astray by all his wives and concubines and their foreign gods. He actually worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the god of the Ammonites (1 Kings 11:5). I know this is hard to believe especially in light of having the example of his father, David. However, I think we must take this as a warning - oh, how easily the heart is led astray! The text tells us that the wives and concubines “led his heart away from the Lord” (1 Kings 11:3) and “they turned his heart to worship their gods instead of trusting only in the Lord his God, as his father, David” (1 Kings 11:4). Let us be vigilant in our walk with God and not allow anything into our life that can lead us astray and let us pray for God’s grace to give us wisdom to see all of life from His eternal perspective.

All of this makes me think of Hebrews 12:1-2 - they are good words for me today and may they be an encouragement for you: “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”

There’s always a bit of sadness to move on from the life of David. However, he is such a vibrant character and there is so much of his life to share, that we will experience him again in other places in the Old Testament including parts of his journal found in many of the psalms. This last week we had the opportunity to see his “last words.” He saw himself as “David, the son of Jesse…the man to whom God gave such wonderful success…the man anointed by the God of Jacob…the sweet psalmist of Israel. In the end he saw that God had done great things and he saw himself as the “sweet psalmist.” That phrase speaks volumes about his relationship with the Lord. We may aspire to many things, but what a great final result: the sweet psalmist of Israel. He could have said “I was the king of Israel.” But no—he said that he was the sweet psalmist of Israel.

In God’s economy those things we deem to be the “small” things may be the greatest things of all. To be a king is great here on earth, but perhaps the obscure and seemingly unimportant is what is great in heaven. Perhaps the Lord has called us to what we think is a small place or an unnoticed corner of the world. Perhaps we labor hard in what He has given us to do and no one applauds our work. Perhaps the song in our heart that continues day after day is heard by no earthly person. Those things we hoped to do, the aspirations of what we considered to be “great things for God” never have materialized, and we are doing what we consider to be the “small thing.”

Dear friend, keep running your race in the “Audience of One.” Sing your song to the Lord always, not sometimes. Alan Redpath, in his book The Making Of A Man Of God, says that sometimes God chooses to put his servants to work in the basement rather than the bay window of the church. David, the man after God’s own heart, had to live with a frustrated desire where God said “no” when he wanted to build a temple for the Lord. David did not leave the work of the Lord when God said “no,” but instead did his best at what God had given him to do. At the end of the day it was David who, out of his enjoyment of the fellowship and communion of God, became the “sweet psalmist,” and wrote the music of the psalms which other lovers of God have enjoyed for centuries.

At the end of the day, what will we be able to say we have known of our Lord? Can we say that we communed with Him, loved His Word, and engaged in His work? May we, as we think on the life of David, set our priorities in such a way that we focus on those things that matter most at the end of the day.

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY! Have you ever heard of one? Have you been a member of one? You can probably answer yes to the first question and hopefully no to the second. The characteristics of a dysfunctional family are: don’t talk, don’t tell, don’t feel and hide family secrets from everyone. Some would say this kind of family is a recent invention native to the last fifty years. The good and bad news is that the dysfunctional family has been around from the beginning of time.

As you have been reading about some of the biblical families in your Daily Walk Bible, you have probably come to the conclusion that they all suffered from some severe dysfunctions. In the past week, you have been reading about King David the man who one day sought to please God and the next day committed adultery and then murder. Like me you probably wonder how this computes on the God level.

I think the great teaching here is not that we can all violate God’s standards and get away with it but that when we repent of sins committed, God is willing to forgive and will allow his amazing grace to wash over all of us. David paid dearly for deviating from God’s standards. God loves us and forgives us when we follow our own path but we often carry the scars of our misdeeds for the rest of our life. Sometimes scars are God’s way of reminding us what we have lived through and learned about His amazing love for each of us.

Jim Smoke

I love the story of David and Goliath. The greatest thing is that it’s not just a story – it’s a real event – it really happened – and it’s in the Bible so we can know something very important about God and ourselves. How many of us have faced a giant in our lives—some impossible situation where our own strength and ingenuity is not enough to fight it.

David is our example. He was just a boy in the eyes of those around him. But, in the audience of God, he was Mr. Great Heart, ready to do battle with Goliath, the one who caused the entire Israelite army including King Saul to shake in fear. David knew it was not his battle, but the Lord’s. And David knew that God was greater than Goliath. And so, Mr. Great Heart set out to fight Goliath with stones, a shepherd’s staff, a sling, and God. When David faced Goliath, he saw what Goliath had—a sword, a spear, a javelin, and the names of his gods. David shouted out to Goliath: “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and I will cut off your head…And everyone will know that the Lord does not need weapons to rescue His people. It is His battle, not ours. The Lord will give you to us!” Now that is what I call “holy boldness.” It’s a boldness based on the unseen realities of God and His Word. Oh that God would raise up more great hearts who know their God and who will boldly stand on what God says and who He is.

I like what Alan Redpath shares in his incredible book (on my top ten list) entitled The Making Of A Man Of God: “David was strengthened by experience: he could look back upon a day when he slew a lion and a bear. The confidence you may have as you go out in the name of the Lord today is that in the pages of your memory you can find days when you have faced a situation that was absolutely impossible, and the Lord stepped in and gave victory. It isn’t the first time you have stood against a Goliath—you know what it is to be strengthened by experience and sustained by the Word of God. So many Christians believe in the God of history and the God of prophecy; we believe all the great things He did in Wesley’s day and in Moody’s day. We believe in the great things He is going to when He comes again. But how few of His people really believe that He is the God of today, that He is a present, living power in our hearts! In Saul’s mind, God was absent from the whole conflict; He didn’t enter into it. But in David’s mind, God was the greatest reality of all. Is God real to you like that today? Is He God not only of the yesterdays of your past, nor of the hopeful tomorrows of the future, but of death to self and absolute victory today?”

What a great question for us in our lives as we think about the giants we face today. Is God the greatest reality of all for you in your life today—even greater than the giants? If so, then you are one of those with a “great heart” for God who marches daily into battle saying “I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty…It is his battle, not ours” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).

Right about now, many of you reading through the Bible are probably getting a bit discouraged by all the battles that Israel seems to habitually fall into. Second to that, you are struggling to pronounce all the names of the characters caught up in those battles. Hang in there and don’t get discouraged. Through all of these beginning books of the Bible, God appears to Israel as a God of grace, love and forgiveness. The really good news is that He is that God of love, grace and forgiveness to you and me today.

There are two distinct verses from the book of Judges. In Judges 17:6, we picture the true state of confusion that Israel finds itself struggling with: “In those days, Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” At the end of Judges in chapter 21:25, we read the very same words. It’s not rocket science to understand that Israel broke their relationship with God whenever they decided to do what they thought was right rather than asking God what He wanted them to do.

Fast forward to today. God’s word spells out the direction and instructions for living a life that is God honoring. Like Israel, we only get in trouble when we decide WE are going to do what we want and not what God wants. If you have gotten a little off the God track in your life, it’s time to talk to God about getting back on his pathway. His grace, love and forgiveness is there for the taking!

Jim Smoke

Hi everyone! Just want to know what you are learning these days from the Word of God. I am loving the reading in Judges. It’s incredible. My favorite verse so far is in Judges 5:21 - “March on, my soul, with courage!” We need to shout these words everyday as we run the race that is set before us. It is the battle cry of great hearts who walk with the Lord faithfully with great endurance in the audience of one or a thousand. The Lord is their great encouragement and the Word is their beacon of light on the path, day by day. God bless you friends and keep on marching, with courage!

Joshua gives so many important, strong encouraging words to the people of Israel at then end of his life. In my opinion, his words are the secrets to a successful life. And his words challenge me. One phrase stands out to me in particular: “be very careful” in Joshua 22:5, 23:6, 23:11. The NASB translates that word as “diligence.” No matter how far along I am in my relationship with the Lord, I cannot just “coast” along. I must pay attention to my relationship with Him. That’s what I believe Joshua means when he says “So be very careful to love the Lord your God” (23:11). And what I do today affects what happens tomorrow (see 22:18). I must diligently work in the following ways to draw near to the Lord and love Him, rather than turn away according to 22:5: Love the Lord my God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, be faithful to him, and serve him with all my heart and all my soul. That word “serve” is “abad” (Strong’s 5647) in the Hebrew and means to work and labor with such diligence that it is as a slave would work for a master. I often think of the commitment of Dr. Bill Bright many years ago - he signed a contract that he wrote out to the Lord - part of his contract to the Lord was to be a willing slave of the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of his life. I wonder if we are willing to make such a commitment - to say yes to whatever and wherever He leads. I love what Joshua said in 24:15, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I echo those words. I want to run the race that the Lord has set before me and not miss one ounce of what He has planned. I want to be faithful. I want to love and serve Him with all my heart and all my soul. But I know that it means saying “no” to some good things in order to say “yes” to the best. It means saying “no” to those things that would pull my heart away from Him. We must “choose” for ourslves today whom we will serve (24:15). The word for “choose” is “bachar” in the Hebrew and implies that we are to distinguish the best amid many choices. And Jesus is the best! Just look at the book of John: He is the way, the truth, the life, the Good Shepherd, the light of the world, the bread of life, the true vine, and the resurrection and the life. And He is so much more. John said this about the things Jesus did while on earth: “there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written” (John 21:25). As for me, I will serve the Lord. What about you?

Are you in the wilderness today; that place where all is barren and dry? Take heart. All the great men and women of God have had a wilderness experience. I often think of Spurgeon who battled depression throughout his life. I think of Amy Carmichael who spent the last twenty years of her life bedridden due to an accident. For both these servants of the Lord, the wilderness became the place of worship. Spurgeon said, “I would go into the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.” Most of Amy Carmichael’s books were written in those last twenty years of her life. If you are in a wilderness, remember these things:

The Lord is with you – God was with the people of Israel through their wilderness experience, guiding them by a pillar of fire at night and cloud by day (Deuteronomy 1:33). You are never alone in the wilderness. John Henry Jowett points out the great encouragement of the Lord’s presence in a trial: “The God of peace shall be with you. And that is everything. If the King is present at the table, a crust is a feast. If the Lord is on the battlefield, then amid all the surrounding turbulence there is a centre of peace. When the God of peace is in the life there is a chamber of which the sound of warfare never comes.”

The Lord will provide for you – Moses reminded the people with these words, “And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you again and again here in the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child” (Deuteronomy 1:32). You can trust God in the wilderness. Peter encourages us with these words: “Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” Keep entrusting your soul to Him – He will watch over you every step of the way.

It is where we learn to walk by faith and come to that sweet place of surrender and reckless abandonment to the will of God. Sometimes it is only in the wilderness that we gain those qualities that make us a man or woman of God. Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost For His Highest that sometimes God withdraws all conscious blessings in order to teach us to walk by faith. John Henry Jowett points out the value of such trials and wildernesses: “If He purposes my perfection, then all my circumstances will be made to conspire to the accomplishment of His will…Sorrow can accomplish what comfort would always fail to do.” Sometimes it takes the tempest to bring out the music. Jowett goes on to say, “Have we not known men whose lives have not given out any entrancing music in the day of a calm prosperity, but who, when the tempest drove against them, have astonished their fellows by the power and strength of their music.”

You can worship in the wilderness – The people of Israel were tempted to murmur, complain, rebel, be discouraged and afraid (Deuteronomy 1:26-27). And the Lord heard their complaining (Deuteronomy 1:34). We learn from Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:5-6 what God thought about the complaints and rebellion: “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.” Paul goes on to exhort us by saying we should not be idolaters, nor act immorally, nor try the Lord, nor grumble (1 Corinthians 10:7-11). We can learn from Israel’s mistakes in the wilderness and understand that there is a great temptation to do exactly as they did. Wilderness experiences are difficult, but they can also be places of worship. The secret is to turn to the Lord and look at Him in His Word instead of the giants in the land. When Moses “turned aside to look” at the burning bush, he heard the voice of the Lord, removed his shoes because he realized he was on holy ground, and he worshipped (Exodus 3). Over and over again, the people of Israel were told to “listen” and “obey” (see Deuteronomy 4). That is a great secret to making it through the wilderness – listen to what God says and live by what He says. The Word of God is like radar when there is a great fog and you are forced to travel “by instruments only” through the wilderness.

There is a promise in the wilderness – There is a promise for you no matter where you are today: “From there you will search again for the LORD your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him” (Deuteronomy 4:29). Always remember that it is not too late to draw near to God. He promises that if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him – what a great promise to think about today.

Remember you are precious to God, His special possession – The people of Israel were told this: “Remember that the LORD rescued you from the burning furnace of Egypt to become his own people and special possession; that is what you are today (Deuteronomy 4:20). Paul tells us in Colossians 3:13 that we are “chosen of God, holy and beloved.” In Ephesians 1:14 we see that we are “God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” Don’t ever forget how much God loves you; He loves you enough that He gave His only begotten Son and paid the price that you might receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life, a great inheritance (see Ephesians 1).

The wilderness experience doesn’t last forever – Even though it was 40 years because of the disobedience of the people of Israel, there was a time of entry and occupation in the Promised Land. Always remember that God has a plan and God has a purpose in your life and He is not worried about how He is going to bring His purposes to pass in your life. Think about these words spoken to His people years later during a time of captivity: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

How can your wilderness become a place of worship today? What promise of God can you look at today that will turn your gaze away from the giants in the land and back to the greatness and majesty of your God? May God continue to bless you on this journey through His Word. There is much for us yet to learn – it is truly the great adventure of knowing God!

I would guess that most of you working on your Daily Walk Bible reading are swimming in a sea of rules and regulations as you slog your way each day in Leviticus. Some of it reads like your California DMV manual. Well, don’t despair. You will get through it and move on to more informative things. There are some practical lessons to be learned from Leviticus. I believe God set down the many laws and observances that he did as a form of spiritual boot camp for Israel. In doing so, he emphasized that he was Holy and that he was to be obeyed. He also set up forgiveness and cleansing patterns for Israel when they disobeyed God. Was God’s love for Israel diminished when he was not obeyed? No! Did he give up on them? No!

We realize in reading Leviticus that God could be very directive in giving His laws. He covered the waterfront and left no life situations out. God operates the same way today. We live under Grace and not law. We still break God’s obedience standards and God still loves us and forgives us. The times have changed but God has not changed.

A good prayer for your time in Leviticus might be, “Thank you God that you call us to obeying you and even when we break that, your love is strong and powerful toward us and you will always forgive us.”

Jim Smoke