⁵ David slipped over to Saul’s camp one night to look around. Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of his army, were sleeping inside a ring formed by the slumbering warriors. ⁶ “Who will volunteer to go in there with me?” David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother.

“I’ll go with you,” Abishai replied. ⁷ So David and Abishai went right into Saul’s camp and found him asleep, with his spear stuck in the ground beside his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying asleep around him.

⁸ “God has surely handed your enemy over to you this time!” Abishai whispered to David. “Let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t need to strike twice!”

⁹ “No!” David said. “Don’t kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord’s anointed one? ¹⁰ Surely the Lord will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle. ¹¹ The Lord forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed! But take his spear and that jug of water beside his head, and then let’s get out of here!”

¹² So David took the spear and jug of water that were near Saul’s head. Then he and Abishai got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the Lord had put Saul’s men into a deep sleep.

¹³ David climbed the hill opposite the camp until he was at a safe distance. ¹⁴ Then he shouted down to the soldiers and to Abner son of Ner, “Wake up, Abner!”

“Who is it?” Abner demanded.

¹⁵ “Well, Abner, you’re a great man, aren’t you?” David taunted. “Where in all Israel is there anyone as mighty? So why haven’t you guarded your master the king when someone came to kill him? ¹⁶ This isn’t good at all! I swear by the Lord that you and your men deserve to die, because you failed to protect your master, the Lord’s anointed! Look around! Where are the king’s spear and the jug of water that were beside his head?”

¹⁷ Saul recognized David’s voice and called out, “Is that you, my son David?”

And David replied, “Yes, my lord the king. ¹⁸ Why are you chasing me? What have I done? What is my crime? ¹⁹ But now let my lord the king listen to his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let him accept my offering. But if this is simply a human scheme, then may those involved be cursed by the Lord. For they have driven me from my home, so I can no longer live among the Lord’s people, and they have said, ‘Go, worship pagan gods.’ ²⁰ Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of the Lord? Why has the king of Israel come out to search for a single flea? Why does he hunt me down like a partridge on the mountains?”

²¹ Then Saul confessed, “I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong.”

²² “Here is your spear, O king,” David replied. “Let one of your young men come over and get it. ²³ The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power, for you are the Lord’s anointed one. ²⁴ Now may the Lord value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.”

²⁵ And Saul said to David, “Blessings on you, my son David. You will do many heroic deeds, and you will surely succeed.” Then David went away, and Saul returned home.

1 Samuel 26:5-25, NLT

This is our passage this week.  David loved his enemy through God.  He stayed Abishai’s hand when he would have killed Saul because God had anointed Saul as king.  David waited on God’s timing.  We will start picking it apart tomorrow, but I wanted to let the story sink in today.

So I made this list a couple of years ago.  I like to revisit it every so often to a) remind myself of the goals I set and b) to update it with the things that have been completed, and see those which are no longer relevant.

Right now there is much that is irrelevant.  And not enough of the others done!  Eek!

Anyway, here is my list – as also seen in the bottom left sidebar.

My 1001 day is Wednesday, January 12, 2011

house and yard maintenance
1. get stairs on the deck - hopefully next Summer – won’t make it by the deadline though.  Bummer.
2. clean and plant flower bed in backyard – actually, we have two of them done.  Yay!
3. build a sunflower house for the girls – I think this one has been given up on.  I tried so many times, but the slugs kept eating all the plants.  Grrrrr.
4. clean and maintain the flowerbed outside the office – this is an ongoing one that I haven’t done nearly as much as I need to this Summer.  It’s planted though.
5. finish planting the pathway to garden – this too has changed.  We pulled most of it out as the grass was growing over everything.  It has become something for the NEXT 101 in 1001 list.
6. finish making stepping stones for path – well, if I thought there would actually be a stepping stone path I would do this.  Looks like we are using flagstones instead though… if it ever gets reborn.
7. terrace back hillside for garden - terraced?  yes!  for a garden?  not so much.  It looks great though!
8. find a new home for the evergreen trees before they get too large to move – most of them are gone due to disease or just plain growing too large and taking over the driveway.  The one in the middle of the front yard has me worried though.  It could become a very large tree in not too many more years.  I hate to cut it down though – it’s such a pretty tree.  We shall see.  Maybe I can replace it with a tree of a different kind.
9. paint the outside of the house – once again, the colors have been chosen, we are just waiting for the finances to do it (you know, after we fix the cars and the furnace and the… you get the idea)
10. finish M’s mural – this requires me to have access to the wall to paint.  And now she thinks she wants her room to be blue instead of pink.  It may never be completed before it’s painted over.  :’(
11. finish A’s mural - again, need to be able to get to the wall. I really want to get this one done though.
12. get laundry room remodeled – we put in a new washer/dryer last winter and added some shelving, tiled the floor and painted a wall.  I think that’s about all we can do to it.
13. finish bathroom remodel – uh, yeah.  there is so much here.
14. put down hardwood floors - again, it keeps getting put off due to finances.  We did get the tile in downstairs though.
15. re-carpet the downstairs – Not gonna happen.  We put tile down instead and i love it!
16. tile the stairs – going with hardwood instead, although we have everything but the wood to re-tile the entryway.  almost there.
17. clean out the garage – progress is being made.  Goodwill has seen much of me lately.  I have to get it cleaned out now – need the space to fix my car.  ugh.
18. fix the garage door opener – someday this will happen, I’m sure.
19. fix the side fence & gate – again, this will be moved to the next list.  Hopefully next Summer?

office – most of these can just be junked.  I just need to clean the office out and convert it into usable space.
20. get all the fabric organized and PUT AWAY - or donated.
21. get filing done
22. KEEP filing done – do all filing 1x per month
23. get all buttons, clasps & hooks organized -(95% there!)
24. make and hang a ribbon organizer
25. hang pictures/whiteboards up - DONE.
26. get rid of the extra boxes
27. post unwanted fabrics to sell every 6 weeks - or just donate them
28. unpack & put away office supplies from move - or just donate them
29. donate/pass on patterns that are too small for the girls - or just donate them

- it is hard to read through this list and see all the plans I had for Mimsi Bags… plans which are now no more.  A chapter of my life has been closed in this area and I have moved on, but it’s still hard to see dreams that have been forgotten.
work – work, too, has changed.  I need to just get rid of fabrics and notions that I don’t intend to use in the very near future so that the office is (again) usable for other pursuits.  Having a music room would rock.  haha.

30. get rid of excess flowers
31. remove flowers from website
32. find a new home for Carole’s table runners - I need to return these to her daughter.
33. finish moving TC products over
34. Clean up website – delete old product pages- does deleting the whole thing count?
35. sell/donate purchased bags – sooooo done!
36. build wholesale site
37. send out newsletter to wholesale companies every 6 weeks
38. make swatch books
39. hire a bookeeper
40. get all patterns copywritten - I would still like to do this in the event I ever choose to sell them.
41. review 2 products each month
42. update/catalog orders & donations 1x per month
43. send out newsletter 2x per month
44. post new blog 1x per week for Mimsi
45. post 6 blogs per month for gift guides family (recipes, reviews, etc)
46. find wholesale supplier for fabric
47. make 1 RTS/art bag each week
48. do inventory- this needs to happen, just as a course of action for donating things.  taxes people.
49. meet with mastermind group each week

Health/cooking
50. cook 3 vegeterian/vegan meals per week – well, I’m not sure how many we eat each week, but we eat lots of veggies around here.
51. learn to use 1 new ingredient per month – yeah, this has so not been happening.
52. post 2 new recipes per month – um… we just won’t go there k?
53. exercise 3x per week – I was doing sooooooo good here, and I am getting back into it now. hopefully it will stick a bit longer this time!
54. drop 4 dress sizes – talk to me again at Christmas.  I hope to be well on my way here by then.  I had dropped one, but then I threw my back out & well, you know how that goes.  ugh.
55. learn to use the dutch oven well – didn’t even use it this Summer.  We only went camping once.
56. bake bread once per week (0/52) – I was doing really, really well at this.  Then life got a bit more busy.  And I stopped eating much bread.
57. clean out the fridge 2x per month – this really is a humorous notion.
58. use/freeze leftovers – we are doing much better at this, but I still occasionally toss leftovers.  So wasteful.
59. grow corn – again, we tried.  Slugs.  Nuff said.
60. go on a walk with the girls & Eric at least 1x per week (0/7) um… with others?  can’t I go by myself?
61. climb the stairs at the end of the road 2x per week (0/7) ok.  I really should do this.  it would help with so much.  it just hurts!
62. make healthy snacks for the girls – healthy & what they will eat seems to be a difference of opinion.
63. use up the CSA produce each week – this is sort of working.  life has gotten busy & we just haven’t been home.  so annoying to toss veggies that were so yummy looking… before they became liquid in the fridge drawer.  ick.
64. learn to bake with flours other than wheat - doing better at this.  Not that hard really.  Always more learning to do though.
65. make 1 entire meal from a different country 2x per month – yeah right
66. get a bike – I still really want to do this.  And a bike rack for the car… once it is working again.
67. get up by 7 every day – talk to me in a month – once school starts I will be doing this again.  I was doing really well at this before Summer… and before staying up until midnight with Eric (watching him work while I read)
68. go to bed on time – talk to the man on this one.  I really want him to get to bed by 11 at the latest.  Work has been… crazy.
69. eat 1 raw meal per week – Hooray!  Something I can check off!

personal
70. read psalms each morning – … oops.
71. make Eric’s pants – I’ve only had the fabric for 7 years, what’s the hold up?  FEAR.  yep.  that and time, yeah, time.
72. make Mom H’s piano bench cushion – oh yeah.  Gotta find that fabric again.  It’s in the office.  o_O
73. keep the granite cleaned off – this has been going in spurts.  On again/off again.  Need to do better.
74. have a clean, empty sink each night before going to bed – um, the girls have taken over the dishes.  Needs work still.
75. make at least 1 trip to goodwill each month - does 3 trips last month make up for a few months?  Got more to make though.  Lots more junk to purge.
76. save up for a new car ~new car purchased May 2008
77. build up an emergency fund – every time we get some saved, an emergency comes up.  So was it successful?  dunno – there is no fund right now.
78. post cd’s to swap or take to sell/trade in ~ freecycled a BIG box of cd’s, but there are still more to get rid of.
79. get last summer’s camping trips scrapbooked – and the summer before that, and before that, and bef… well, you get the idea.
80. teach the girls to sew – hmmm.
81. teach the girls to garden – hmmm
82. memorize 1 scripture per week – somebody want to give me the kick in the butt to do this?  nicely, of course.
83. memorize with the girls! – oh yeah, forgot about this one.
84. find the cord for the keyboard – did this a looooooooong time ago!
85. practice the piano again – been forced to play it more regularly due to work, but I could still use actual PRACTICE time.  yep.
86. teach the girls the basics of playing the piano – o_O
87. get M into violin lessons ~ she took lessons for 4 months, then quit.  hmm.  need to find another instrument.
88. go on a date with Eric 1x per month – we have mostly been doing MUCH better at this.  In fact, we were getting 1 date per WEEK there for a while.  wow!
89. find a good babysitter – good friends with kids and Sam have helped with this one.  a lot.
90. have QUALITY 1-on-1 with M each week – hoping that while A is at dance this will happen
91. have QUALITY 1-on-1 with A each week – hoping for this while M is at soccer.  I’m not sure how quality it will be sitting on the sidelines of a soccer field it will be though.  time to talk at least?
92. have QUALITY 1-on-1 with Eric each week so sitting in the same room while he works doesn’t cut it?  oh.
93. finish A’s curtains – riiiiiiiiiiight.  E still has to hang the curtain rod… well once we find it again he does.
94. have “girlfriend time” 1x per month – per MONTH?  Oh no, per WEEK. 
95. send a handwritten letter 1x per month – I’m beginning to think the handwrtten letter is a thing of the past.
96. send a letter to Norma 1x per month – we soooo meed to do this.  Been convicted of it more lately.
97. pray more – ALWAYS
98. read the bible through – start to finish?  really?  I got to Isaiah…
99. read 1 book every 6 weeks (but don’t ignore everything else!) – you mean 6 books every week?  Got this one in the bag.  Oh wait… I guess I need to work on the ignoring part a bit more.  I’m getting much better at putting the book down though!
100. be a better mom – this is a neverending goal.
101. be a better wife – definitely working on this one!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So – the orange ones still need work.  The green ones are done (yay!) and the purple ones are, well, no longer relevant or just aren’t going to happen.  Bummer.

I still have a lot of work to do by January.

As I read Hebrews 12:14 this morning, I at first zeroed in on the whole “peace with everyone” part because it is the topic for the week – loving your enemies.

Then the second part of the verse caught my eye:

Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

Pursue consecration and holiness.  Sanctification.  Separation.  Holy lives.  Clean lives.  Different translations use different words, but they all point to the same thing – living a life that is set apart and pleasing to God.  Living a life that in as much as you can is without sin.

This, I think, is a key to the christian walk.

We are called to be in this world, but not of this world.  We are called to be set apart, to look different in the way that we act and react in this world.

This leads to a lot of discussion about those gray areas of life.  Things like watching movies and drinking alcohol, listening to secular music and wearing pants vs. dresses.  Areas that have divided the Church and sullied the Bride of Christ in the eyes of the world.

I’m not going to address those areas, simply because I don’t have God’s answers to them.  I believe that God will convict each person in those areas as He sees fit, and it’s not my place to force my brothers and sisters to what God has convicted me of.

It goes back to that whole “strive to live in peace” part of the verse.  Don’t create conflict where there doesn’t need to be any.

But what does it look like to be set apart?  To pursue holiness?

Personally I understand it to live my life in such a way that I am pursuing God above all else.  That I am sensitive to the promptings of The Spirit in my life, and I am seeking to live a life that gives glory and honor to the Almighty God… and not to me.

and it is hard.

But if we do not seek God, if we don’t pursue a life that is set apart to Him, Hebrews 12:14 tells us that we will never see Him.  It doesn’t matter what translation you look it up in, the bible is pretty clear on that point.

To see God, we must pursue Him.

And that means that our lives are to be lived with an eternal perspective.  That we continuously place God on the throne of our hearts (even though we want to be there ourselves) and seek to serve Him in all things.

ALL things.

Come to think of it, isn’t that what worship is?  Every breath we take, every thing we do is done to give God the glory.  Is done in worship of Him.

We are set apart for Him.  We were created for Him.  We need to worship Him… with all that we are.

Last week was all about conflict management.  This week is about loving your enemies.

I gotta admit, I’m not terribly thrilled about either topic.  What can I say – I’m human.  These are things that in my own strength are difficult.  My humanity makes me want to seek revenge – or at the very least lash out at those who seek to hurt me or those I care for.  Loving those who hurt me and resolving the conflict in the way God calls me to just isn’t all that easy – unless I seek to resolve it in His strength.

Which brings us to the first verse for this week – is a good one:

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

- Hebrews 12:14 – ESV

Different translations use slightly different words or phrases for the beginning of this verse, and I’d like to examine them.

Strive for peace.  (ESV, Amplified)

Pursue Peace (NASB)

Make every effort to live in peace (NIV)

Work at living in peace (NLT)

Follow after peace (KJV, ASV)

Wow… it seems to me that this peace thing isn’t an easy task.  It is something that we have to strive for – to work hard at.  Something that just isn’t a natural tendency of mankind.

Maybe that’s why it seems so hard to do some days.

Living at peace with everyone around you comes from a heart that is filled with God’s love for everyone around you.  A heart that seeks Him above all else.

But there are days that it is more challenging than others.  Days where it takes a bit more striving.

This week we will be looking at David’s second opportunity to kill Saul while he was being hunted down by him… and chose to honor God by allowing Saul to live.

In the meantime, let’s work on this whole “pursue peace” thing with those we come into contact with.

I know I need to focus more energy there, how about you?

It’s a beautifully cloudy day today in Western Washington -we even got rain overnight last night.  After the temps in the upper 90′s last weekend it is a most welcome change!

It’s been a couple of busy weeks for us around here – with the church campout 2 weeks ago and Jim filling in for Pastor Chris last weekend, but I am hopeful that as we wind down to the end of Summer that things can calm down a tad but… maybe.

Ah well, onto the list:

• Salvation Day [E] (Vicky Beeching, Jonny MacIntosh, and Sarah MacIntosh)
• Hosanna (Praise is Rising [F] (Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown)
• You Never Let Go [F] (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
• Indescribable [Bm] (Laura Story)
• kids story about Abigail
• Everyday [Ab] (Joel Houston)

This was our second week leading Salvation Day, but the first week that Pastor Chris has played it.  It worked out pretty well, but we get to work on it again for next week.  Everything else fell under the heading of “extremely well known” and it was great to see people really entering in and not having to think about how the melody goes or what the words are.

I will be glad when Summer is over though – it’s been crazy with the swinging door we have had through the Summer months with people being gone of vacation.  Although I myself have missed a week or two as well, so I can’t get on anyone too hard!

How was your service this weekend?

So, we have listened in as Nabal let his mouth run away from him (we assume not for the first time).

We have watched as David let all of his pent up anger and frustration towards Saul get re-directed towards Nabal for the refuse he spewed from his mouth.

And we have seen Abigail step in the middle and reach out with an attempt at peace.

So, what happened?

³²And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! ³³Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! ³⁴For as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”

³⁵Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

-1 Samuel 25 – ESV

Whew!  David actually listened to Abigail!  He set aside his pride and truly heard her words and took them to heart.  Her household has been saved from certain death.

It was worth the risk.  Praise the Lord!

But that’s not where I want to focus…

David could very easily have chosen to ignore Abigail’s words.  He could have sought to save face before his men.  He could have stayed all tied up in knots and blinded by the rage he allowed to grow within him and turned a deaf ear to her.  He could have slain her where she knelt on the ground before him as the first of the household to die.

But he didn’t.

He stopped and truly listened.

He graciously accepted her rebuke and sought to do what was right rather than continuing to feed his pride.

It is so easy to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the truth when we have been offended!  I’m sure that David’s men thought that his reactions was just a tad bit extreme – I mean Nabal didn’t really owe them anything.  And while he said some things that were intended to ridicule, none of it was worth killing every man there over, was it?

Something in this tells me that David was just looking for a place to vent his frustrations over Saul.  Or maybe I just see that since I have been known to do that myself.  I can’t let out the anger and frustration I am feeling in one area of my life for a variety of reasons, but along comes a completely unrelated situation and boy howdy!  This new situation gets all kinds of “righteous indignation” thrown at it!  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  Look out world – Hiroshima was just the warm up.

I must admit that I have been known to use a not-entirely-innocent bystander as the target for wrath that really should never have been directed at them simply because I needed an outlet and they happened along and offended me.  And their offense was so far overshadowed by my reaction that it was nearly ridiculous.  My anger got me worked up into a froth and I tried to get others on my side to agree with me that so-and-so needed to go down in a ball of flames.

Ouch.

The question is this: when I let my anger take over my better judgment in such a manner, am I willing to unstop the eyes and ears to see and hear truth as David did?

Unfortunately I have to answer that I too often am not willing.  I want to be angry.  I want to see someone – anyone – pay for hurting me or those I care for.  I want to make them feel the full force of my anger… even if they are not the sole cause of it.

But that is not how God wants me to react.

He wants me to get humble.  To recognize truth and listen to it.  And he wants me to recognize the bearer of this truth… and thank them.  Most importantly, I believe He wants me to forgive those who have given offense and spare them my wrath.

That means I have to swallow my own pride and be willing to look foolish in front of those who have seen me set out on the war path.  And it means that I also need to apologize to those who have been unfortunate enough to be the target of my wrath when they were not the only cause of it.

God is a God of love.  Correction – God is love.  We who call ourselves His people need to remember that we are the People of Love… and even when it is hard, even when it hurts to do so, we are called to love everyone – including those who have hurt us.

Admittedly I still have a looooong way to go.

How about you?

19 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.

20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:19-21

How often have I heard this verse used as a chance to biblically “stick it to your enemy” when that is so not the intent.  Verse 19 just finished stating that Vengence is the Lord’s… not ours.  The idea that you will be heaping hot coals is not actually a curse upon them – it is a further blessing.

We are called to love – to love our neighbors as we do ourselves and to love our enemies and those who seek to harm us.  Love is the most powerful force upon the earth.  It can change anything.

Our of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, and the body acts.  If we love those around us with God’s love, we will seek to bless them.

Stumbled upon this fun little game today, and I thought I’d share it.

Created by OnePlusYou

Oddly enough, I’m not sure that I’ve had much caffeine at all today… well, other than the tea at lunch 8.5 hours ago!  Just fresh, real, healthy food.    but it was fun to beat out a rhythm for the game.  (and it made Eric look at me to see what on earth I could be doing over here!)