Larry

The KINGDOM CLARION
By Larry W. King
Volume II, Number IX
April 16, 2009


A Pitifully Clean Slate
“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”  – Psalm 103: 10, 12-13 (KJV) 

With this issue, I’ve been writing The Kingdom Clarion for more than five months now.  I sincerely thank you, faithful reader, for sticking by and with me as I have scooted, slipped, stumbled, crawled and slowly but unsurely taken first steps into my present state as – at least I hope and believe - a more engaging and provocative writer and correspondent.    

While I love writing, it’s a relatively new pursuit for me.  MUSIC has been my passion since I was a youngster in Columbus, Ohio studying the bassoon.  Thankfully, that passion – along with tremendous support, encouragement and love from my late parents, Dr. Norman W. and Mrs. Imogene L. King - afforded me a scholarship to a well-reputed conservatory and a good college education.  Moreover, it continues to be driving force in my life today.  Playing guitar, singing and being a musician is not so much something I DO, as it is something I AM.  Indeed, I am deeply grateful for the BLESSING of observing life through the wonderfully revealing, transparent windows of rhythm, timbre, melody, harmony and counterpoint.

Some of you have known me for many years.  As such, you know about my history as a professional musician, band member and nightclub singer in Denver and around the Rocky Mountain region.  And now it’s confession time …

It may be hard for you to believe, but I haven’t always been the paradigm of Christian virtue and exemplar of Godly living you know today.  OK, for those of you still rolling on the floor, holding your stomachs, laughing uncontrollably, I FEEL yawl … I WAS TOO!  HAHAHAHAHA!!  Sometimes, I just flat-out AMUSE myself.  ;>)

But seriously, like everyone else, I have a past.  Thankfully, mine has involved some truly TERRIFIC music, including playing for/with Eartha Kitt, Carol Lawrence, Nell Carter, The Righteous Brothers, Bob & Dolores Hope, Charley Pride, Stanley Clarke, The GAP Band, Ronnie Laws, Larry Dunn, The Columbus and Cincinnati Symphonies, Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, Colorado Governor Roy Roemer, President Gerald Ford and more.  I’m quite proud of those experiences.  However, what I am NOT proud of is the addiction to drugs and alcohol, the sexual misconduct and womanizing which accompanied them.  I know you’re all thinking, “geez, Lareezy must be the VERY FIRST musician/singer to have such behavioral problems, Oh My Dear …”.  Yes shocked reader, let the truth finally be told.  I was a musician who had some *gasp* mad issues!


But the wondrous thing about God’s forgiveness, mercy and saving grace is it allows us to BURY our past, rather than it burying us – in overwhelming guilt or remorse, paralyzing self-pity, stagnating hopelessness and pernicious, crippling depression (that dear reader is another Clarion issue all by itself!).  Due to my sordid, sinful past, the verse “He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12 – New Living Translation), is one of the most personally comforting affirmations in all scripture.  My constant testimony is, “I’m not what I ought to be, but thank God, I’m not what I used to be!”

At the end of the day, despite my MANY shortcomings, faults, foibles, transgressions, idiosyncrasies, misdeeds and SINS, God still loves me.  He still forgives me – DAILY!  Plus, He cares about me enough to send the very best – no, not a Hallmark greeting card! - His precious Holy Spirit to transform my thoughts, mend my broken psyche and give me second (and third and fourth and fifth and Nth) chance at walking in a new, positive, sober, abundant, hopeful, joyous, empowered and faithful LIFE.  Hallelujah! 

Moreover, as my loving, heavenly Father, He still pities me.  Verse 12 of our text is sometimes translated, “The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him” (NLT).  This fledgling writer is confident that Patriarchal tenderness and compassion is the kind of pity we ALL could use more of.  I am SO blissfully grateful that Almighty God saved me, erased my past and granted me a pitifully clean slate!

Treasured reader, REJOICE!  If our Lord did it for me, HE WILL SURELY DO IT FOR YOU!!

The KINGDOM CLARION
By Larry W. King
Volume II, Number VII
March 20, 2009

Your Spring Has Sprung!

“The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” – Isaiah 58:11 (New Living Translation) 

Today is March 20, 2009, the day of the vernal equinox.  On this day, the Earth’s axis is inclined neither towards nor away from the Sun - the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator.  Moreover, on this day night time and day time are approximately the same length, and locales in latitudes +L and –L (with respect to the Equator) experience nights of equal length.

March 20th also marks the first day of spring, in the northern hemisphere.  The season of spring is often considered to be a time of new growth, awakening from winter hibernation, planting of crops and renewal and revitalization of the spirit.  Baseball season, the longest of all major sports (over 162 games), spans from vernal to autumnal equinox (which occurs September 22nd this year), beginning with “spring training” and ending with the World Series – known as the “Fall Classic”.

Daylight Savings Time begins around this time as we set our clocks an hour ahead and “spring forward”.  Countless homemakers will soon engage in “spring cleaning”.  Schools will take a “spring break”.  Teachers and students alike will experience restive “spring fever”, and many folks in cold weather climes will bounce with a “spring in their step”.

The prophet Isaiah is renown for his forecast of the destruction and subsequent revival of the kingdom of Israel.  In the passage preceding ours he exhorts, “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.  Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!  Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.  Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.” – Isaiah 58: 9b-10 (NLT).  After which he writes the extraordinarily inspiring aforementioned words of our text.

How appropriate a day it is then, to consider those words!  On the day when the artesian springs and tributaries of our nation’s watercourses begin their perennial thaw and renew their wondrous, life-sustaining journey toward the mouths of the great Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Columbia and many other rivers, what a comfort it is to know that for us believers, the Lord is the eternal wellspring of our joy!

If we will only study God’s word, meditate on His promises, communicate with Him in prayer, give thanks for His bountiful gifts and obey His commandments, He promises to supply soul-sustaining living water – the fount of everlasting life – the Holy Spirit!  Rejoice, your Spring has sprung!

The KINGDOM CLARION
By Larry W. King
Volume II, Number VI
March 4, 2009

My Lips Aren’t Sealed!

“Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you” – Psalm 51:15 (NLT) 

Another version of this verse reads, “Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise” (The Message).  In either case, the text comes from the 51st Psalm, commonly known as “The Penitent’s Psalm”.  This Psalm is frequently read during Ash Wednesday services to usher in the liturgical season of Lent – a time of self-examination, contrition, penitence and consecration. 

David the Psalmist wrote these beautiful words following a confrontation with Nathan the prophet.  The Lord sent Nathan to expose King David’s sinful acts of adultery (with Bathsheba), and conspiracy to murder her husband, Uriah the Hittite (see II Samuel chapters 11 and 12).  He was deeply and sincerely sorrowful for the sins he’d committed, which brought penal consequences as generational curses of violence, adultery and death upon his household and descendants.

The Penitent’s Psalm is truly remarkable and it is my favorite of all the Psalms.  Countless commentaries, sermons and song lyrics have come from it.  However, I have focused in on verse 15 as the third segment of a royal, three-part promise in verses 13 through 15.  Prior to these promises David prays for God’s mercy, confesses his sins and asks the Lord for absolution.  In short David declares, “God, if You are merciful and forgive me, I promise”:

1)     To teach transgressors Your ways and convert sinners,
2)     To sing aloud of Your righteousness, AND
3)     To let You direct my words and give You praise.

Letting God “unseal our lips” means two things:

A)    We must remain silent until and unless God – via the Holy Spirit - directs us to speak, AND
B)    Whenever we DO speak, it must be praise to God and/or uplift, encouragement and exhortation to His people.

What a challenge David created for himself and for us!  His son, Solomon – arguably the wisest man who ever lived - would proclaim “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” - Proverbs 18:21 (KJV).  Centuries later, Saint Paul admonishes the church at Ephesus to “Watch the way you talk.  Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth.  Say only what helps, each word a gift” – Ephesians 4:29 (The Message).  Finally, the apostle James sledgehammers the point with rail-splitting force: “And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature” – James 3:2b (The Amplified Bible).  Whoa.

My prayer is that I may grow and learn to live in the Spirit of God - so much that I will say NOTHING other than praise to God or a gift to His earthbound children.  I’m certainly NOT there yet, but God is working on me!  Someday I will proclaim with a loud voice “Thank You, Lord … my lips aren’t sealed”!

The KINGDOM CLARION
By Larry W. King
Volume II, Number V
February 19, 2009

God’s good from mankind’s Evil

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive”. – Genesis 50:20 (KJV)

The God we serve has the power to transform your situation – remarkably, completely and miraculously! 

In the chapters preceding our text, young Joseph was dropped into a deep pit by his ten jealous older brothers.  Joseph had told them of his dream which placed him as ruler over them.  Suffice to say his brethren were not happy campers, and they wanted to kill their little dreamer boy.  Reuben, the eldest brother, intervened to spare Joseph’s life, and they agreed upon the pit as an alternative solution to their “vision pest” control problem.  Joseph was subsequently captured by the Midianites and sold into Egyptian slavery. 

Egypt is where Joseph’s perilous situation is transformed.  He became a servant in the household of Potiphar, an Egyptian army officer and captain of the guard – clearly a man of wealth and power.  He works hard and deals honestly with Potiphar.  So much so that, recognizing divine favor on Joseph, Potiphar places him in charge of his entire estate!  Due to God’s blessings upon Joseph, everything in the captain’s realm prospers to the point where even he doesn’t know all that he owns – Joseph has become “the man”!

Rest assured that whenever you’re obedient to God’s will and He prospers you, the adversary WILL try to stop you.  Potiphar’s wife – the ONLY person in the entire household not subject to Joseph’s authority – desires Joseph sexually.  She entices him to sleep with her.  Joseph runs for his life, knowing that if he’s caught in bed with the boss’ wife it’ll mean BIG TROUBLE for sure!  Regrettably, in the process of fleeing the house he leaves his cloak behind.  To quote 18th-century English playwright William Congreve, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned”!  Potiphar’s wife is indeed outraged and furious about being spurned by Joseph – a mere hired-hand AND a Canaanite.  The nerve of him!

She schemes against Joseph and shows his cloak to her husband, claiming that he’d attempted to rape her.  Naturally, Potiphar has Joseph thrown in jail.  Once again, the favor of the Lord transforms Joseph’s situation.  In the words of Yogi Berra, “it’s like déjà vu all over again”.  The jailer is impressed with Joseph and places him in charge of everything and everyone in the prison.  Long story short, Joseph is eventually released - because through God’s gracious gifts, he can interpret the dreams of Pharaoh Ramses, the Egyptian king.

Ramses’ dream - which Joseph interprets before him and his court – is about seven fertile, plentiful years followed by seven years of bleakest famine in the land.  Wisely, Joseph encourages Pharaoh to store up grain during the lean years, as a safeguard against the years of want.  Pharaoh surely recognizes the anointing upon Joseph and places him in charge of his affairs.  Only Ramses himself is more powerful in all Egypt!  Are you noticing a trend here?
The predicted famine wreaks havoc throughout Egypt and beyond.  Folks sojourn to Egypt from far and near to purchase grain from the storage silos of Pharaoh’s celebrated right-hand man, Joseph the Canaanite.  Ironically, Joseph’s brothers must travel to Egypt to buy food for their famine-plagued families.  Of course, his brothers don’t recognize Joseph.  But just as he envisioned in his boyhood dream, they must bow before him.  Eventually, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and exclaims the proverbial words of our text.  The misfortune contrived by his brothers, God transformed into a blessing which saved the lives of thousands.  God’s good came from mankind’s evil!

Joseph’s faith and obedience to God resulted in multiple miraculous transformations throughout his life.  Are YOU equally faithful and obedient?  Do you anticipate God’s transformation in YOUR life?  Are YOU ready for YOUR miracle?