What Can Man Do To Me?

 With a kill order on David’s life, he became a fugitive from Saul. It had taken some time for this to sink in for David because Saul was a strange guy. Did he really want to kill his son-in-law and his best commander, who had achieved remarkable success against his enemies? Yes! Saul wanted David dead. David felt Saul’s presence looking for him no matter where he went, so he decided to leave his country.

 The recklessness of this move into enemy territory demonstrates that He feared Saul more than the Philistines! David fled to Gath, the very city from which Goliath was from. Indeed, Saul would not look for him there. What was David thinking? David had been fighting the Philistines and became known as a fearless fighter.

David seriously underestimated the possibility of being known in Gath. His attempt to hide failed. He was recognized and captured almost immediately by Achish’s men and reported to the Philistine king. They asked Achish, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? The writer of first Samuel records, “David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath” (1 Sam 21:11-12). 

Sometime later, David wrote Psalm 56, which records his thoughts and feelings during this time.

Psalms 56:1-2 Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me.

Ps 56:5-6 All day long they twist my words; all their schemes are for my ruin. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, hoping to take my life. David’s escape from Achish was a matter of daring wit and cunning.David’s escape from Achish was a matter of daring wit and cunning.

David was as good as dead, captured by the Philistines and standing before the king. David immediately pretended to be insane; he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors and letting saliva run down his beard (1 Sam 21:13). It was a hysterical act of scraping the door with his nails and teeth. However,  the king saw no threat in this man and instead felt disgust and pity, and they let him go.

David gave God the credit for delivering him from certain death: “For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life (Ps 56:13).

Will I Trust God?

Our greatest challenge is trusting God with all our needs. There is an Old Testament story about facing a crisis that addresses this important issue, “Will I trust God with each crisis or not?” The answer to that question is critical to the success of our Christian experience. It is a tough thing to trust God. It’s not natural. Most of us are inclined to trust our instincts and be guided by our experience. We often have to suspend logic and even our desire for comfort to trust God. Here is the story summarized from 2 Kings 4:1-7.

A poor widow went to the prophet Elisha for help because of her dire situation. It was so bad her sons would be taken to pay her debts. Elisha asked, “What do you have in your house?” She replied, “Nothing really, except a little oil.” Elisha instructed her to gather all the jars she could get her hands on, including borrowing from her neighbors. Then, the prophet said to fill up each jar with her oil. She did as he had directed; she began pouring, and the oil flowed until every jar filled. She could sell the oil, pay the debts, and live on the proceeds.

Most of us minimize our gifts as this lady did. There is no challenge too big for God. By the same token, God’s gifts are not measured by big and little, great or small. God used one small stone in David’s hand to bring Goliath down and one boy’s lunch to feed five thousand. “I have nothing except a little oil” describes our scarcity mentality. God’s solution not only supplied the need but was also meant to teach the woman to not despise what she had.

God wanted this lady and her sons to expand their faith. They would need more empty jars than they possessed. She was told to get as many as she could find. “Don’t ask for just a few,” the prophet said. When she had collected all the jars, she was to start pouring and not stop until every jar was filled. Once she had filled all the jars, the oil stopped flowing. This is the part that belongs to God. It is the miraculous. It is the part where having done our part, God then does the rest. My question is, “Can you trust God to meet your needs?” God can do anything, but we must trust him and not despise the gifts he has already given us.

A Moral Compass

 In an entirely upside-down world, we need a moral compass. This week, Israel was savagely attacked by terrorists, leaving some 1,300 dead and another two hundred taken as hostages. Israelis were brutally killed in their homes, babies and soldiers beheaded, and women raped. The shocking part of all these week’s events has been that much of the world supports the terrorists. There is an unexplainable hatred of the Jewish State of Israel.

Even more confusing is that Israel has agreed to a separate state of Palestine, but the Palestinians will not agree. They want death to the state of Israel. Their slogans have said, “From the river to the sea,” meaning Israel must cease to exist. When people here in the United States were asked about the brutal attack on Israel, the answers varied from whether Israel deserves it or it is all propaganda.

Toward the end of World War II, the Nazis were losing the war. In desperation, Hitler ordered his army to make one final assault to break through the Allied lines. One of the ways they did this was to use deception. Major Otto Skorzeny and 500 men were sent to confuse the enemy, all wearing American and British uniforms and speaking English. Their mission was to seize bridges, spread rumors, change signposts, and create panic. That is a picture of what Satan does to the truth today. He utilizes the media, organizations, and governments bent on deception and lies to take control of uninformed minds.

The truth was never more critical today. There is a war for young people’s minds, and Satan is winning many. We who know Jesus Christ and have God and his Word as our moral compass must stand against the lies and stand up for the truth. These are challenging times, but now is the time to know and communicate the truth.

I Am the Patient

I am the patient, and God is the surgeon. As a Christian, it would be helpful to remember this. God is always working on us to help us mature and grow so that we can be more like his son.

How difficult that is for us to remember. Several years ago, at the Bible School in Argentina, I drove a student who had injured himself to the ER. He was breaking up concrete and hit himself in the forehead with the sledgehammer. He had a bandage wrapped around his head, and he was putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding. I rushed him to the hospital. Standing before the admittance clerk, I will never forget her question, “Which of you is the patient?” It seemed apparent to us as Martin held up his hand. The blood on his face was a pretty big clue, but not to this person. In the same way, we who have so many imperfections and shortcomings would naturally think I am the patient and God is the surgeon, but how often do we forget.

When the Apostle Paul wrote the Romans, he expressed frustration with his inability to do the right thing at the right time. He said he could will himself to do the correct thing and then not do it. Likewise, he would decide not to do the bad and then do it. Paul is expressing his thoughts about the sinful nature that is a part of all of us, and without God’s help, we will not be who we should be (Rom 7:15-20).

Paul wanted to see maturity in his own life and the lives of the believers of the churches he had established. He wanted them to grow and mature. Because the Apostle Paul wants so much to see maturity in the believers of the churches he has established, he encourages them to grow and mature: “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” Eph 4:15.

The Apostle knew we all struggle with sin; sometimes, some don’t win. He was insistent that the believers in Ephesus stop living the sinful life. There must be a different way of thinking and living for the believer. He knew that to live as the world lives is futile, and if we think the way they do, we will become calloused with hard hearts and never experience any positive changes. There needs to be a transformational change in how we think if we will live differently. The answer lies in surrendering to God’s will and always remembering, “I am the patient, and God is the surgeon.”

 

 

Thy Will Be Done

 The will of human beings is constantly unyielding, and they convince us that we are right. This is why we tend to be defensive when someone disagrees with us. And this defensiveness is automatic. It hinders our relationships and makes it difficult for us to listen to another viewpoint and consider whether this opinion has value. For example, the toddler is only 18 months old and believes he knows more than his parents. He does not, but his will is at odds with the will of his parents. Unless parents control that toddler’s will, they will face a monster in that same teenager.

Often, human wills are set against the will of God. James tells us that this conflict is why human wills often conflict with one another. If our wills were in harmony with God’s will, we would be in connection with each other. “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1-3).

Just as a child defies parental authority, adults want to be free from the moral constraints of God’s authority. No matter how much we chaff at God’s authority---God has given Jesus authority over all. Paul wrote: “He is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10).

Every human will that is not aligned with Jesus being Lord of all is in conflict with the will of God. Psalm 2 recognizes how foolish this is and asks why they do it. “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed” (Ps 2:1-2).

As the gospel is proclaimed by the power of God’s Spirit, human wills can be turned to comply with the will of God. The gospel is God’s invitation for us to accept God’s will as our will. This is clearly advised in Psalm 2: “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling” (Ps 2:10-11).

Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). This prayer will change our lives!