How Are We Thinking?

1 Kings 1:1-7 1 When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. 2 So his servants said to him, "Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm." ... 4 The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her. 5 Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, "I will be king." So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. 6 (His father had never interfered with him by asking, "Why do you behave as you do?" He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.) 7 Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they gave him their support


As I was teaching about Paradigm Shifts in Theology & Church Strategy in the Philippines, the example of India's ex-Prime Minister, Morarji Desai suddenly came to my mind. He was India's Prime Minister from Mar 1977 - July 1979.

I suddenly remember reading about ex-PM Desai drinking his own urine in my younger days (some 30 years ago) but I had not thought about it in my preparations for the teaching nor have I heard about it being used as an illustration for Paradigm Shifts.
It is a Spirit revelation about our mindsets and belief systems which can be so off and can hold us back.


It is rather interesting to read that the ex-PM believes that drinking his own urine had cured his piles. Hence, he encouraged the people of India, especially the millions of poor Indians who can ill afford medical treatment, to drink their own urine in lieu of medication.
There seems to be no scientific evidence to support this claim that urine therapy can provide medicinal effects or health benefits.

As I googled on this subject, Fox News citing The Times (11 Feb 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,490932,00.html) reported that India's Hindu nationalist movement was launching a new soft drink that would be made from the urine of the revered cow.

It is believed that the new drink will rival the likes of Coca Cola and Pepsi with their version of Cow-ca Cola.

From the above, it is clear that we will act on what we believe in - even though what we believe in may be something completely wrong or hideous to many other people.
We are reminded to do a soul searching for the many actions we take that arise from our belief systems and thinking.

Are what we are thinking based on the truth?
Or are they based on myths and traditions?

Coming back to the passage, why is the story of finding a young virgin for the aging King David placed right at the beginning of 1 Kings?
How has it got to do with the transition of the kingship from David to his successor?

Right at the beginning of 1 Kings, we find the idea of finding a young virgin for King David based on myths and traditions.

Myth 1: A young virgin will keep an aged man warm and strengthen him.
The situation - King David and his wives are getting old.
When we get old, we do suffer from chills more easily.
I remember visiting London in my younger days and I didn't have to wear thick clothing whereas other folks around me were wearing thick jackets.
So this aspect of feeling colder in old age is generally true.
But how about this idea - Having a young virgin lie with King David will help keep him warm and enhance his blood circulation?
And enhance his virility. ???
Did it help King David restore his virility?

King David was proned to be charmed by beautiful women
e.g. Abigail was beautiful (1 Sam 25:3) and Bathsheba was very beautiful

(2 Sam 11:2 From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful.")
Here we have similar words - the girl (young virgin) was very beautiful (1 Kings 1:4).

Clearly, the passage shows that it is not a failure on the young virgin's part.
And even with a very beautiful young virgin, it didn't help King David at all because he did not have sexual relations with Abishag (1 Kings 1:4)

Myth 2: The king is impotent and is no longer fit to govern.
1Kings 1:4 makes in clear that King David is now impotent.
The general perception then is that if the king is sexually impotent, he is also impotent to lead.
That is why kings in history - even in their old age - desire to have young virgins to prove their virility and their potency to lead (and for some others, it is just a matter of succumbing to their lustful desires).

How does this passage relate to the transition of power from David to his successor?

It is because of this faulty thinking that since King David is no longer potent, he is no longer fit to be king that prompted Adonijah to set himself as king (1:5).
Adonijah is the fourth son - but the oldest son alive (see 2 Sam 3:2-5 for list of sons of David born in Hebron).
He sees himself as the natural successor.

Then in 1:6, why does the narrator include a side note mentioning Absalom?

There are some similarities between Adonijah and Absalom.
1. Adonijah like Absalom was very handsome (2 Sam 14:25; 1 Kings 1:6)
2. David indulged in them and did not interfere with their affairs or keep them in check
(David did not punish Amnon for raping Absalom's sister, Tamar, and later did not really punish Absalom for murdering Amnon (2 Sam 13).
And here David didn't monitor Adonijah's rebellious activities)
3. Adonijah like Absalom also got chariots and horses and fifty men running ahead of him (compare 1 Kings 1:5 and 2 Sam 15:1)
4. Adonijah tried to seize power and usurp David's kingship like Absalom did - with sacrifices and a coronation feast with invited VIPs (2 Sam 15:10-12)

But the narrator in pointing out their similarities - also point to a similar and ominous outcome for Adonijah.
Just as Absalom failed in his bid for the throne, Adonijah too will fail in his bid for the throne.

Adonijah was prompted to make the bid for kingship based on wrong thinking.
1. He thought that now is the opportune time for him to act because King David is clearly sexually impotent as well as impotent to govern Israel.
2. He thought that he being the eldest son alive - it is only natural for him to assume the kingship.
3. Strategy wise - he also thought he had it all planned.
He had secured the support of the two most key persons in the whole of Israel - Joab, David's commander in chief and Abiathar, the priest.

But he was a man who had many wrong thinking.
He never thought of consulting with his father, King David.
He never thought that his father could still be potent enough to act as King.
He never thought to consult the prophet Nathan - a person notably absent from the list of his supporters (1:8)
He never thought to consult with God.
In the end, Solomon was chosen as king and Adonijah acknowledged that actually the Lord had chosen Solomon as king when he said to Queen Bathsheba.

1 Kings 2:15 "As you know," he said "the kingdom was mine. All Israel (actually not all Israel - wrong thinking again) looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the LORD."

Adonijah had another wrong thinking which led to fatal consequences.
He thought he could get away with asking for Abishag to be his wife (1 Kgs 2:17) from King Solomon through Bathsheba.
He thought King Solomon will not refuse his mother (2:17).
But he thought wrongly.
And Solomon ordered Adonijah to be struck dead (2:24-25).

Adonijah engaged in a chain of seemingly logical but obviously wrong thinking from our vantage point as a reader.


What principles can we then learn from this episode?
One principle is that we need to be discerning in the kind of thoughts and the mindsets we have.
If it is not of the Lord, the consequences can be disastrous.
Wrong thinking will lead to wrong actions - and unwanted outcomes.

Whilst in Philippines, I was troubled by the poverty there.
There are a few key reasons for the poverty - one of which is the high population.
If one were to brush away and say that high population is not a reason for the poverty - that there are not enough jobs created or that there is corruption, then the statistics below is clear.

Thailand and Philippines had identical population in 1970.
But in 2009, Thailand's population nearly doubled to 66.9m whereas Philippines nearly tripled to 92.2m.
Thailand's GDP per capita or average income stands at US$4,062 whereas that of Philippines is US$1,796 - less than half.
(Source: "No Free Lunch" by Cielito F. Habito, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10 May 2011, Pg A11).


Population is one of the reasons for the poverty.

Even if the government is really good, there are only so many jobs that can be created.

So why the high population?

In the short visit to the Philippines we notice that many - especially those who can ill afford it or simply cannot afford it because both parents do not have jobs - have many children.

Why have so many children when they know they cannot afford it?

There is a lack of education and sometimes wrong thinking.
Some (not all) parents reason that if they have more children, perhaps one or two of them can take care of them in old age.
Is this the right motive for having children or is it faulty thinking and selfish thinking?

There is also the command to be fruitful and multiply.

Gen 1:27-28
"So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Ge 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it."

Have we understood this mandate correctly?

Firstly, God blessed human life, male and female, with the responsibility and capability to produce and create life in the image of God just as God created life.
Secondly, we are to have dominion over the world - including dominion over evil.
However, we do not see such dominion as humankind is enslaved by sin until Jesus comes to ultimately re-establish the dominion (Heb 2:8-9) (Allen Ross, Creation And Blessing, pg. 113).
Thus though food resources worldwide seem sufficient to feed the world, but in the present age there are shortages and unequal distribution of wealth and resources.
God's kingdom has come with His first coming but His kingdom is not yet fully realized - not yet fully established.

With the presence of imperfection, does this mean we swing to one extreme and impose China's one-child policy for population control? No.
Or legalize abortion? No!!!

We need to balance the command in Genesis with the whole truth - another scripture from the New Testament in 1 Tim 5:8

1 Tim 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

If we are fruitful and multiplying our tribe but cannot provide for them as in 1 Tim 5:8, are we looking like the image of God?
The situation is different for one who suddenly loses his job versus some who knowingly continue to have children even when they do not have the means to support the family.

So perhaps it is more of each individual's or couple's parental responsibility to think through on how they are to live in the image of God.
And how we can exercise family planning.

There is more to discuss on this subject of population management which will take pages.

As for this reflection, it will be good to have a self-check:

1. Are any of our belief systems like that of Adonijah or Desai?
Has anyone told us that our thinking is crazy (and it is not because you hold onto God's Word)?

2. Have we gone ahead of God in our ambition and future plans like Adonijah?

3. Who in our current circumstances, is like Adonijah putting himself forward in a position that threatens us?
How can God helps us with the people around us like Solomon was surrounded by prophet Nathan, his mother Bathsheba and his father King David?

4. Identify some of the changes in our belief system that has helped propel us forward and changed our life radically since we became a Christian.
Are there more of our mindset that we should change radically?

5. What are some of the paradigm shift that has helped your church to become more holistic and therefore grow more dramatically?
e.g. I know of a Baptist church which suddenly discovered the gifts of the Holy Spirit and her members began to minister in power and in the Spirit.

Are We Willing? Are We Hungry?

Mt 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."

As we come to Good Friday, this verse summarizes Jesus' insight into the depth of the hardness of heart of His people that led to His crucifixion. It points to the hardness of heart of not only the people of Jerusalem - but of all Israel - of which Jerusalem is but the center of spirituality, the center of the presence of God. Remember in the time of King David, Jerusalem was the center for the worship and the presence of God. But in the time of the Old Testament prophets, Israel strayed away from God and killed God's prophets. Now Israel is rejecting God incarnate, Jesus - like what they did to the prophets.

Chicks would naturally dive under the cover of the mother hen's wings as she shields her young from danger. But Israel chose to reject Jesus.
There is a sense of sadness when Jesus said those words.
But probably there is more than sadness and lament.
There is a sense of pain.
As a parent and especially for mothers, we can feel the pain when a child strays away.
All the more so would Jesus feel the pain as His beloved people not only rejected Him but would rather release another no good prisoner, Barabbas, than Jesus (Mt 27:15-26).

When we reach out to hard ground, sometimes we feel sad and sometimes we are pained.
An international student once said that New Zealand must have a lot of Christians - after all they named a city after Christ and a church (Christchurch). But in reality the ground is hard. And it can sadden the workers in the field.

But recently, I was thrilled. A few weeks ago, I was watching the NZ Rugby 7's team play in the HongKong 7's and the 7's in Adelaide. I was very thrilled not so much that the New Zealand team won both competitions, but by how the co-captain Raikabula gave glory to God after winning the HongKong 7's. The captain D J Forbes is also fervent for the Lord. This is all very heart warming because we are in a place whereby it is generally seen as not cool to be a Christian. And here we have two prominent sporting figures in rugby in a nation whereby rugby is their first love give testimony and glory to God for their victories.

Here are excerpts of his testimony which has uplifted me and may it encourage all of us:

"About six years ago I arrived at the crossroads in my life. I was at the point where I needed to make a decision for my life as I realized that I couldn't carry on living the ways I was (backslidden worldly ways of a teenager). My life at the time only existed to play rugby, to have a beer with the boys, chasing girls and all the other desires of my head. But this all changed when I asked Jesus into my heart about six years ago ...

This is when things drastically started happening for me. All the desires of my heart started flowing into my life and it was only because of the decision I made to trust God for everything. I was a rugby player who hadn't played provincial rugby, let alone international. I was not known in international circles and all of a sudden I got the opportunity to trial for the New Zealand Sevens side.

At the camp for the trials I met a strong Christian guy, Onaisi. Having him beside me in that environment where there were not many believers helped me a lot. Around the selection time the other boys were crossing their fingers, but Onaisi and I were praying in the corner and trusting God for our names to be called out. God answered our prayers in 2006 when we were both selected. In the same year, about 9 months later I got asked to captain the side, which had to be God. It was the first time that I was playing Sevens and now all of a sudden I had been asked to captain our national team! Everybody was probably asking "Who is D J Forbes?" ...

As much as I take my rugby seriously, my walk with God I take even more seriously."
(Source: PromiseKeepers 2011 Publication Pgs 1 and 4).

Isn't this testimony thrilling.
May it encourage our hearts to be willing to come under His wings and be hungry for God.
May it encourage all of us in who are laboring in the harvest field, when we are sometimes sadden by the hardness of the ground, to watch such a moving testimony.

Am I A True Disciple?

Do we not assume we are true disciples of the Lord Jesus?

But wait.
What does the passage below mean?

Mt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Mt 7:22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

Mt 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Here are some observations:

1. Some Who Profess Jesus As "Lord" Will Not Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven!

Why?
People who profess Jesus as Lord are not necessarily true disciples (an example in Point 2 below).
God expects something more.
Not just an outward profession but an inward change of heart.

Jesus has this to say of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.
Remember the Pharisees were very fervent in believing in God so much so that they had devised many rules to try to obey God's laws.
But Jesus said to them:

Mt 15:7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

Mt 15:8 “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Second Observation

2. Performing Miracles In Jesus' Name - like prophesying, healing, preaching, performing deliverances - And Doing What Normal Christians Do (like attending Sunday Service and prayer meetings) Doesn't Save Us Nor Make Us True Disciples.

Doing all the above does not make us a true disciple of our Lord Jesus.
Why?

Whilst I was in Singapore, a good volunteer pastor friend of mine reminded me about Jesus who had 12 disciples.

Did they not all go out two by two and were given authority over evil spirits? (Mk 6:7)
Did they not go about driving out evil spirits and healing every disease and sickness? (Mt 10:1)

Was Judas not doing all these miraculous works?
Was Judas a true disciple?

Judas betrayed Jesus (Mt 10:4) and Luke was even more blunt and described Judas as a traitor (Lk 6:16).
A traitor is the direct opposite of a disciple.

Yet Judas - two by two with the other disciples - preached, healed and delivered people in Jesus' name.

If someone who professes Jesus as Lord and someone who even does miraculous works in Jesus' name, doing good to people, cannot be saved, then who can be saved?
Who are true disciples?

A side note is - Can Judas or any of us blame Jesus for failing to disciple Judas better?
Surely not because Jesus is God and the perfect teacher.
It reminds us to take responsibility for our own spiritual journey and discipleship.
No doubt our pastors and teachers are not perfect.
But even given a perfect teacher, some of us may not be true disciples.

3. Then Who Is A True Disciple?
Who Can Enter The Kingdom Of Heaven?

The English Dictionaries define "disciple" as a pupil, a learner, a follower, a believer of a teacher and one who propagates the teacher's teachings.
But we learn from above that being a pupil, a learner or a follower of Jesus or even one who propagates Jesus' teachings - like Judas - is not a true disciple.

How does the Bible define disciples?
John 8:31 defines "disciple" for us.
John 8:31 Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples."

A true disciple not only does all of the above but must be one who "holds to", adheres to, abides by, obeys Jesus' teachings.
This definition ties in with today's passage.

Read the Mt 7:21 passage again and observe who can enter the kingdom of heaven.

Mt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
... only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

(I added the dots for emphasis)

Only those who do the will of God will be saved and are true disciples.

4. Conclusion: Do The Will Of God If We Want To Be A True Disciple and Be Saved!

God wants us to honor Him not just with our Lips - but with our Life.
I will hang on to my thoughts and let all to reflect on the above.

REFLECT:
1. How do I know God's Will?
2. How do I know God's Will for my life?
3. Am I doing God's will?
Am I adhering to His Word, holding to His Word, obeying His Word?
4. How does holding to His Word (Jn 8:31) has resulted in the Truth in our lives and the Truth has set us free (Jn 8:32)?
5. What would be the result of us doing His will?
Would our family and friends notice the "fruit?"
6. What are the thoughts that precede and follow after the above passage? (Mt 7:15-20, 24-27; Mt 5-7)
7. How am I honoring God with my life?