I Am Back - Day 237 Month 8-24 Week 34-6
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
1 Kings 11, Proverbs 223:13-24, Ezekiel 33:21-33, 1 Corinthians 16
I am back
After reading such good things about Solomon, it’s sad to see the heading in my Bible that says “Solomon turns from God.” Solomon had heard directly from God twice yet walked away from Him and served other gods and idols that were worshipped by his many wives.
I could point my finger at Solomon and point out his poor decisions but just as the saying goes, when you point a finger at someone, you are pointing 3 back at yourself, I would have to point out my poor decisions. You see, I had a real encounter with God, when I was eleven that I remember clearly to this day. I’ve mentioned this before but to refresh our memories, I had been given a free week at camp. It was a camp called The Peoples Ranch and my brother, sister and I all spent time there both as campers and then staff. My brother, being older was the first to also become a staff member. He had been given the nickname Pugsy, Pugs for short, but he oversaw the maintenance department at the wise old age of 17. Obviously, I being the younger brother, was given the nickname Little Pugs or Pugs Junior. Eventually, my brother was no longer part of the Ranch so I inherited the full naming rights of Pugsy. The ranch was a place where we were away from everything. It was before the days of cell phones and radios were not even permitted. A lot of story to get to the point. The campers were away from everything and every distraction of home. Being separated from all distractions apart from camp were great opportunities for a camper to hear from God if their mind was prepared to listen. I had been at a chapel service where the preacher had said some things that made me think. I went back to my cabin and was sitting on my bunk and Jesus sat down beside me. There is no question in my mind about His presence beside me. He said, “Steve, you must decide, are you going to follow me or not?” I said “yes.”
God had appeared to Solomon twice yet he turned away from God. Solomon, for all his wisdom, did not always follow the wisdom he had been given. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and many of his wives worshipped other gods. Eventually Solomon followed them and turned away from God.
In my story, I did many things in rebellion from God. Now to be clear, I was never popular with women and certainly I was not wealthy so women weren’t attracted to my lack of wealth. For me it was other things. It was fast cars, being popular and simply having fun. Those are the gods I started to worship. They aren’t gods in the same form that Solomon started to worship but they were things that got in the way of my relationship with God.
There are differing views on whether Solomon turned back to God but many scholars believe Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes near the end of his life and many see that as evidence of his return. We simply don’t know for certain.
I on the other hand have not strayed far, but I have strayed. Even though at 11 years of age, my experience was real, I did stray. I’ve had to reconstruct my faith over a number of years because I know God is real. I've come to realize that some of the things I was taught were influenced more by the biases and traditions of different churches and denominations than by Scripture itself.
I am back now!
I believe we can learn from Solomon and our own experiences. If God has been real to us, our role is to keep our focus on God. When we lose that focus, we need to recognize our mistakes and turn back to God. Our wandering does not need to dictate the end of our stories!
Have a great day!
Steve
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