JULY 20 "SOLOMON...NOT RICH & WISE?"

As we are reading our text today in the Old Testament, we are reminded of a Solomon that we often forget ever existed. It's hard to imagine a Solomon that was not always wise, powerful and influential, but it is a reality that there is a Solomon that we could never imagine. We've come to know Solomon as the Wisest, Richest most powerful influential King Israel ever had and cannot think of him otherwise. If I sound redundant here it is simply because I am trying to stress the point that we only know of the Solomon that God raised up and did the miraculous in. This is God's work! I stand before a congregation every Sunday and they look at a Pastor, they look at a man that has some wisdom ( I at least would hope), a man with influence, a man that is different from before the miraculous change.  Only a few people will ever know the Richard that once was; the rest, will only, ever know me as Richard, the Christian, the wise Pastor, the steadfast one, etc...etc.....I can even tell them about how I was, but when they look at me they will always see me, regardless, as they know me. This is the power of God, this is what God does. He transforms us to the point that nobody could ever imagine us other than what He has made us. Nobody ever looks at a butterfly and says, "I recognize you from the caterpillar you were!" No, the metamorphosis is unrecognizable. Immoral women, that are transformed and we cannot even for a moment contemplate them ever being anything but pure, virtuous and modest women, but yet they were anything but that, this is what God does. Many that would meet Mary Magdalene years down the road would have a very, very hard time conceiving who she once was. The most gentle man in the church, patient and kind, how can we ever see him as being anything other than that. However, only a few know and saw the man that was very violent, bigoted and dangerous, but we only know and see the man God has made. This is what God does, this is the Power of God.  All knowing, all wise, King Solomon the great, only God and a few others will ever know, the Solomon that wasn't so wise and so desperately needed Wisdom that when asked for anything......We only know him as the wisest man that ever lived. The point is, when God has His way, when God is done with us, we become amazingly different specimens than we ever were before and His work is so grand, so great, so complete, that when people look at us, when people come to know us, it's hard for them to imagine us Ever having been, any less the what they see before them, that's God!