Tag Archives: David

MOLLY AND ME – FORGIVENESS

Christian Life, ,

Forgiveness – O how much Molly needs my forgiveness!

Take yesterday, for example. During our walk up the sidewalk on the main road, I noticed that she was walking unusually slowly. I checked her harness and found that her right front leg had slipped out of its place. I loosened the harness to correct it and like a flash of lightning, she was out of it and running!

Calling her meant nothing! She was free…and she ran! I was terrified that she would run into the road where the cars were whizzing past. Fortunately, her attention was on the hadidas (large birds) that were foraging nearby.

My only hope was to return home on a quiet side street, knowing that she would follow me. She criss-crossed the street many times while I prayed! She did something her heart had long desired to do – attacked a huge dog on the outside of the gate!

We finally reached home without incident and she happily followed me into the safety of our front garden.

Did she ever need my forgiveness!

Molly reminds me of King David. Despite being a man after God’s own heart, he slipped out of his “harness” one spring morning and ran free. While he should have been leading his troops into battle, he was lounging around on the rooftop of his palace, spying on a beautiful woman who was taking a bath. We know the story.

The law demanded stoning to death for both parties but, instead, God forgave him although he could not escape the consequences of his wilful behaviour. For the rest of his life, David had to endure conflict and rebellion in his family, among his troops and even his subjects. The seeds of division had been sown and history tells the unhappy story of the people of God.

Hopefully, Molly’s little escapade won’t have such far-reaching effects! However, for her and for me the lesson is the same. Like our Father in heaven, I must forgive because “she didn’t know what she was doing”. She was not aware of the terrible anguish she put me through because of the danger she was in.

Forgiveness flows from a heart of compassion. I can never forgive if I feel outraged by the offense she did to me, but my love and compassion for my beloved little pet sets me free from selfishness  to forgive her, again and again.

God’s forgiveness flows from the compassion for His lost family that moved Him to provide Jesus, the substitute who paid our debt so that we can be forgiven and restored to His favour, again and again.

Such love calls us, no, compels us to respond by believing in the name of the one who said, “Whoever believes in me will never perish, but will have eternal life.”

 

Take That, Pharisees!

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TAKE THAT, PHARISEES!

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields and, as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’ He answered, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for the priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.’ Then He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’ (Mark 2: 23-26).

What were the Pharisees doing? Trailing after Jesus to spy on Him? It seems like it.

Matthew added a cryptic comment to Mark’s version of this incident. On a previous occasion, when the Pharisees criticised Jesus for eating with the riff-raff of society, Jesus retorted, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt. 9: 13).

Now the Pharisees were at it again. They had obviously not bothered to heed Jesus’ words. The disciples offended them because they were breaking their petty rules. Jesus had no time for nit-picking. He smartly put them in their place with the Word.

‘If you had known what these words meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’ (Matt 12: 7-8).

Would they never learn? No one takes Jesus on and wins!

What was the issue here? That the disciples were hungry was of no consequence to the Pharisees. Far more important to them was the fact that it was the Sabbath and they had rules about the Sabbath that had to be adhered to, no matter what. So what if these men were hungry? Sabbath was Sabbath and the day took precedence over their need, so the Pharisees insisted.

But Jesus thought otherwise. Who made the rules anyway? That was Adam’s problem, at the beginning. He swept God’s rule aside, at the devil’s insistence, and made his own rules, only to discover that his ways did not work. And the whole of history is testimony to that. Funny, isn’t it that in spite of the mess humanity has made, we still insist that our way is better? Now that’s the height of folly, doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Will we never learn?

What is the basis of God’s government – the one Jesus came to restore by His coming? He summarised it in one sentence: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Mercy is what He applies in all His dealings with human beings – otherwise we would not even be here. He would have obliterated the whole earth long ago if it were not for His mercy. David celebrated God’s mercy in his magnificent song of praise – Psalm 103.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbour His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. (Psa. 103: 8-10).

That’s how God runs His government and He expects the citizens of His kingdom to do what He does. James took up David’s refrain in his letter.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2: 12-13).

The mercy that God shows extends beyond those who belong to Him. Unlike the so-called “mercy” of the god of more than a billion people, who call him “Merciful” but mercilessly kill those who do not espouse their beliefs, the one true God is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” Jesus instructed (Luke 6: 35b-36)

To the Pharisees, rules were more important than people. To Jesus, people took precedence over rules, especially man-made rules that did not reflect the heart of God. So let us not follow the example of the Pharisees who rigidly insisted on doing instead of being. Let’s take a leaf out of Jesus’ book. After all, He is the mirror image of the Father, and we can trust Him to show mercy. Why shouldn’t we? We have His Spirit, don’t we?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

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A Man After God’s Heart

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A MAN AFTER GOD’S HEART

“After several days of visiting, a prophet from Judea by the name of Agabus came down to us. He went right up to Paul, took Paul’s belt and, in a dramatic gesture, tied himself up, hands and feet. He said, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says. The Jews in Jerusalem are going to tie up the man who owns this belt just like this, and hand him over to godless unbelievers.

“When we heard that, we and everyone there that day begged Paul not to be stubborn and persist in going to Jerusalem. But Paul wouldn’t budge. ‘Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backwards. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can’t you see that?'” Acts 21:10-13 (The Message).

What a perspective! What a man!

Every time Paul was warned not to go to Jerusalem by well-meaning but misguided people, his resolve to face whatever was coming as long as it was in his Master’s will grew stronger. Paul was more concerned about missing God’s plan for him than he was about any kind of abuse or suffering from fellow-Jews or Romans. Whatever his friends thought or wanted for him was inconsequential. He had a single-minded determination to see his obedience through to the end, no matter what.

Paul’s life-lessons had brought him to the point where he drew his joy and his strength from the wellspring of obedience to Jesus, not circumstances, success or fruitfulness. The union between him and Jesus, established decades ago on the road to Damascus, when his response to Him was a simple, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’ had become stronger and less complicated the longer he walked the road with Him.

From Paul’s story in the New Testament and from David’s in the Old, we can draw this conclusion: which of His children bring God the most pleasure? Those who win the most souls for Jesus? Those who suffer the most for Him? Those who go to the remotest parts of the earth and give up the most for Him? None of these things count for anything. What pleases God the most is doing what He tells us to do!

It may be as simple as caring for an abused or retarded child. It may be as undramatic as giving a cup of water to a thirsty beggar. It may be as routine as staying at home and raising a family. It is not what we do that gains us Brownie points. God looks at our hearts. Obedience is the hallmark of the one who truly loves Jesus. “‘If you love me show it by doing what I’ve told you.'” John 14:15 (The Message).

This was God’s affirmation of David at the end of his life: “After removing Saul, He made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'” Acts 13:22 (NIV). That puts every single believer within reach of the same verdict. “A man/woman after my own heart!” Who would not want that written by the finger of God on his/her CV?

How is this achieved? By the lessons of confidence and trust we learn through the trials of life. God told Moses, ‘You can’t see my face, but I will show you my back.’ We cannot see where God is taking us but where can see where He has been and that will surely give us confidence to trust him for the future.

Jesus gave His disciples one simple instruction: ‘Follow me.’ From that flows every step of our journey with Him. We must beware of every person and every teaching that complicates that simple instruction. God’s verdict on us hangs on our obedience to that simple command!

The Apostolic Message

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THE APOSTOLIC MESSAGE

“On the Sabbath they went to the meeting place and took their places. After the reading of the Scriptures — God’s Law and the Prophets — the president of the meeting asked them, ‘Friends, do you have anything you want to say? A word of encouragement, perhaps?’

“Paul stood up, paused and took a deep breath, then said, ‘Fellow Israelites and friends of God, listen. God took a special interest in our ancestors, pulled our people who were beaten down in Egyptian exile to their feet and led them out of there in grand style. He took good care of them for nearly forty years in that godforsaken wilderness and then, having wiped out seven enemies who stood in their way, gave them the land of Canaan for their very own — a span in all of about four hundred and fifty years.'” Acts 13:14-20 (The Message).

What would you have said had you been Paul, given the opportunity of a lifetime to share the gospel message on foreign soil in a Jewish synagogue for the first time? What was his aim? Surely it was to present Jesus to the Jews and Gentile God-fearers as the fulfilment of their Scriptures.

It was not a “come to Jesus to have your sins forgiven so that you can go to heaven” message. It was a “this is the one God promised through the prophets from ancient times and now He commands you to repent and believe in Him” story. Paul anchored his presentation of the truth firmly in historical fact and in the familiar history of his hearers.

“‘Up to the time of Samuel the prophet, God provided judges to lead them. But then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, out of the tribe of Benjamin. After Saul had ruled forty years, God removed him from office and put King David in his place with this commendation: ‘I’ve searched the land and found this David, son of Jesse. He’s a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.'” Acts 13:20-22 (The Message).

God was at work, guiding His people towards the moment when David would appear on the scene. Was Israelite’s demand for king premature? It was God’s plan from before the foundation of the world that His Son be a descendant of the royal line of David. As he spoke a blessing over his sons on his deathbed, Jacob prophesied that it would be from the tribe of Judah that the ruler would come (Genesis 49:8-12).

Why was Saul chosen to be Israel’s first king, from the tribe of Benjamin, God knowing full well that he would fail and be disqualified? According to Deuteronomy 23:2, no one born out of wedlock was permitted to hold public office in Israel up to the tenth generation. David was the tenth generation from Perez, the illegitimate son of Judah but he was too young to take office as king when the leaders of Israel made their demand of Samuel.

Had Saul been a godly king, his son, Jonathan, would have inherited the throne. David would not have been in the picture at all. Since God gave in to their demands, He put a loser on the throne to mark time until David was ready to reign in Israel.

It was up to Paul’s hearers to listen carefully and reach their own conclusions regarding the startling message he was bringing. It was important that he lay a solid foundation of fact so that they could make an informed decision regarding the identity of their Messiah.

This the beauty of God’s story — not some philosophical thumb-suck but verifiable historical facts of the God of heaven interacting with human beings in a series of miraculous events that have no natural explanation. God did intervene in human history to prepare a nation to be the cradle of His son and their Messiah.

David Is Dead

Christian Life, , , ,

DAVID IS DEAD

“‘Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you. Our ancestor David is dead and buried – his tomb is in plain sight today. But being also a prophet and knowing that God had solemnly sworn that a descendant of his would rule his kingdom, seeing far ahead, he talked of the resurrection of the Messiah — ‘no trip to Hades, no stench of death.’ This Jesus God raised up. And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Father, He poured out the Spirit He had just received. That is what you see and hear.'” Acts 2:29-36 (The Message).

Someone once said, “Life is lived forward but understood backwards.” The same can be said about prophecy. Until it has been fulfilled, it is obscure and does not make sense. Once it has been fulfilled, it all comes together in an “o-o-oh” moment!

Peter must have been in his element when he preached his first sermon. All the Scriptures that he had memorised as a child came flooding into his mind through the revelation of truth from the Holy Spirit. What was once a mystery was now clear and it came pouring from his mouth in a torrent of declaration and, I guess, worship.

His message didn’t take hours to prepare, writing copious sermon notes and practising in front of a mirror or preaching to the dog! He stood up, opened his mouth and out it came with a fire that burned deep within him. It was graphic, logical and convicting, saturated in the Word and revealing the truth which cut the hearts of his hearers.

Imagine what would happen in our world if those who proclaim the Word of God were energised by the Holy Spirit in the same way as Peter was. His sermon followed ten days of prayer and waiting on God.

Just as the life of the believer is a partnership between us and God, so also is preaching. Sometimes there is so much effort put into the technicalities of a sermon that the result is a carefully structured and crafted work of art which had no heart and no fire.

Peter got his message on his knees. It touched his own heart first before it could touch any other. It flowed from his inner being through his mouth like a river and caught the hearers up with the mighty power of conviction.

Step by step, Scripture by Scripture, he built the throne, not David’s throne which the people were longing for God to re-establish, but a far greater throne, the throne of Jesus, David’s Son, to whom all the prophecies pointed and in whom they were fulfilled.

David was the greatest of Israel’s kings and the model against which every other king was measured. But, like every other mortal, he died and the proof of his death was still with them. David had spoken of a greater king, his descendent, who would not be a victim of the power of death. He died, yes, but death had no grip on Him because He no penalty of His own to pay.

Imagine the energy Peter put into his triumphant declaration, ‘This Jesus God raised up’! It echoed around the building, stunning the people into silence and stabbing their hearts with shock and terror. “We killed Him. He’s alive again. What will He do to us now?” But Peter was not finished with them yet…