Since I'm chugged up with a nasty
summer cold and have chosen not to share it with the
whole church I'm home alone this morning.
And since Sunday morning belongs to God
regardless I found a reference to my very first Prison Ministry
lesson in a favorite book I was thumbing through. It took me back -
quite a few years in fact.
The lesson was on Michal, the daughter
of Saul and the first wife of David. The story of her life begins as
a young princess in love and ends as an embittered woman left to her
own misery. The passages that intrigued me to study her are found in
II Samuel 6:
vs. 16 And
as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul's
daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and
dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
vs. 20 Then
David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of
Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of
Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the
handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly
uncovereth himself!
The starry eyed bride who helped her
husband escape death was now attacking him with everything she had.
What happened?
The bottom line of the lesson is in
Who/what each chose to worship. David had lost himself in worship to
God. Michal worshiped, well, other things. It's that simple.
In the twelve or thirteen years that
have passed since first delving into Michal's life, I've read many
books and heard many lessons and sermons that continue to shed light
on this thing about worship. Perhaps the best is from my pastor:
“Worship is focusing my minds
attention and my heart's affection on who God is and everything He
has done for me.” David Lewis
Everyone worships something. Some
recognize it, some don't. Some admit it, some don't. Most go through
life blindly chasing what they think will bring happiness. The list
of idols is long: new (house, car, job etc), romance,
finances, authority, recognition, etc. There's no denying these
things bring pleasure, but good things are ultimately unsatisfying
when they are THE ultimate thing. In Michal's case it was self
image. She was trapped in that preteen girlish nightmare of what
people thought.
I love Mark Batterson's
take on this incident:
“I think David gives
us a picture of pure worship. Worship is disrobing. It is taking of
those things outside our relationship with Christ that we find our
identity and security in. It is a reminder that our royal robes are
like 'filthy rags.' It's not about what we can do for God. It's
about what God has done for us. And that understanding produces the
greatest freedom in the world: having nothing to prove.”
I hope you will worship with me today. Clothed of course.
2 comments:
Thanks so much for that.You are so accurate in your thoughts. And you picked the best words of others to go along with them.We honor him because of what he did for us and continues to do for us!Roslyn you are such a blessing to those women.You bring sunshine and hope into their dark,gloomy lives.You have done as scriptures say "loved the down and forgotten" Thank you does not even tell the volume of gratitude I have to you.
I am grateful too - teaching those precious ladies has done more to get me in into the scriptures than any single thing in my life. Thank you for your encouragement and friendship. You are precious to me!
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