That’s Not What He Wanted

Tom Osbourne, the legendary coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, was a great recruiter but the one recruit he regrets not getting was Marshall Faulk. While several big-name programs were after him, Nebraska seemed to have the inside edge. Osbourne had charmed all the people in Faulk’s life, his mother, his teacher, his coaches, even Faulk himself. However, they made one crucial error. They were recruiting him as a defensive back. Marshall wanted to run the ball. So when the less notable program of San Diego State said they’d let him carry the ball, he signed with them. In his second game as a freshman, he set the record for yards in a single game. He would run all the way to the NFL and the Hall of Fame.

What could he have done at Nebraska, a team known for its great running game? We’ll never know because they never bother to ask Marshal Faulk if he wanted to be a running back.

David did something similar. He wanted to build a nice cedar house for the ark of God. The prophet Nathan thought it was a great idea, God would love it. Yet no one bothered to ask God.

"Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?”'

2^nd Samuel 7:7

Many people today do the same thing in their approach to the worship of God. We think we know what God is and what he wants, without ever bothering to see if that is what he said to do. We might have everyone on board with us, but does it really matter if God isn’t?

Before we think we are pleasing God in our efforts, we need to make sure we know what he wants. We may miss out on great things because we simply never bothered to see if what we were offering him was what he wanted in the first place!

Comments

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission. It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...

The Right to Arm Bears

In the book of 2 nd Kings 2, we have one of the most unusual, violent and curious passages in scripture. It involves the prophet Elisha siccing a couple of bears on some kids that were mocking his bald head. As a guy that is a little light on top that has been around some surly kids, I can feel for the guy. But seriously a bear attack? On kids? What is going on? ….young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!" When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 2 nd Kings 2:23-25 It might help to explore the passage a bit more. The baldhead statement: This was an identifying mark of the prophet as opposed to Elijah who was hairy (1st Kings 1:8) a jab to say you are not him. The taunt to go up: Elijah has just been taken into heaven by the Lord a sight seen by ...

The Mighty Gulf

It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding. To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two. Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God? In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog