Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced yesterday (Friday) that Israel and the Palestinians will begin direct peace talks. An invitation was extended to both parties for a summit in Washington on Sept 2. A one year deadline has been set for the talks. These talks will also include The Quartet, a group composed of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia. 

Today, while Israel is being coerced to begin discussions regarding Middle East peace, Russia’s nuclear engineers were busy aiding the Iranians in the initial startup of Iran’s first nuclear reactor.

On the same day, news reports out of Israel are telling of the discovery of a 1.5 billion barrel oil field. Israeli oil exploration company Givot Olam announced to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that production test drilling had revealed this lucrative field.

Throughout Scripture, we find line upon line of truth burrowed deeply within the context of eternity’s Word to us. It’s our Salvation.  It’s our Hope.  It’s our Guide.  It’s our Light.  It’s our Rhema. It’s our Healing.  It’s our Prophecy.  It’s our Strong Tower.  It’s our Refuge.  It’s our Sword of the Spirit.

In all of its instruction, in the layers of revelation that it offers daily; it seems that there is a progressive move away from the absolutes of its instruction and the canons of its New Testament Christian principles and practices.

Too often in our society, we focus on a loving God whose tender mercies are continually pursuing us; even while participating in sins, we hope that His love covers us. The Bible is certain in its sound against willful, stubborn sin. “But if ye will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out” Num. 32:23.  The Prophet Ezekiel said, “…so that in all your doings your sins do appear” Ezek. 21:24.   Isaiah also wrote, “…your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” Isa. 59:2.  And Jeremiah penned, “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you” Jer. 5:25

While studying 2 Samuel 11 this morning, I have reflected on the truism, “Love Hurts!”  May I go further and say, “Unity kills.”  It’s the destroyer of attitudes and actions such as: self-will, personal pride, ego-driven ambition, self-centeredness, self-involvment, selfishness, self-seeking and self-serving. They all die at the altar of “surrender.”

For unity to reign, one’s personal agenda bows down at the altar of corporate blessing and corporate good and lays its life out, yielded to service and submitted to the yoke of Christ Jesus.

David’s Bathsheba affair is a portrait of a man who granted himself liberties he did not have.  He was out of order.  And, the teachings of his life show us that most often, when indulgent souls grant themselves liberties, those liberties become the foundation of a future license.

For the last several years, in a quest for a New Testament church functioning with the Order and Blessing of those churches formed in the Book of Acts, I’ve been drawn to the study of the one requirement for that kind of church, unity.

As I studied unity, I discovered the complexities traditional, hierarchal denominal leadership interjects into relationships, specifically those relationships of pastors.  One of the things that I find most interesting is the response of men who follow those who have labored to establish the churches they have been privileged to take the leadership of.  I have been perplexed by the absolute disrespect our elders seem to receive from those who follow them in ministry!  It is almost as if every generation of leaders feels compelled to distance themselves from their predecessors by annulling their work, and often with apparent disdain.

When it hit me afresh again, Israel seemed to always struggle in her LOVE AFFAIR.  She is often rebuked for whoring after other gods, peoples, lands, cities, nations, gold, commerce, business, women, etc...

So, I started writing and this is what I penned... (yes, this is a rare look through the portal of transparency into the dirty side of creativity's first draft)

The results of an affair: you have intercourse without intimacy; gratification without love; infatuation without fruition; excitement without responsibility; discovery without respect, and intrigue without fulfillment. You spend the currency of your trust, nevermore to be regained; for once it is lost it cannot be reclaimed. Questions will haunt you as you walk the fare to your future; and where love tries to abide, there fear will share to hide!