War.

Nothing is more intense than war.  A soldier’s entire life may seem dull when he reflects on three or four days spent fighting for his life and the lives of his brothers-in-arms.  War is INTENSE.  Men die on your left and right.  Near misses make you wonder how you survived.  You may not eat some days.  You may sleep two hours a night.  Fear creeps in during the down times.  Love, family, and home seem a million miles away. 

King Saul’s life ended in a climax of battle.  The night before, Saul saw the huge Philistine camp and “was afraid and trembled violently” 1 Samuel 28:5.  Then Saul convinced a medium to call up Samuel from the dead.  Samuel came (which shocked the medium) and told Saul he and his sons would die the next day.  Saul became terrified “and fell flat on the ground” 1 Samuel 28:20. 

The next day Saul was severely wounded by a Philistine arrow and fell on his own sword to escape being tortured.  The Philistines cut off his head, hung his body on a wall in Beth-shan, but hung his skull in the temple of Dagon.  And while Saul was fighting Philistines, David had to deal with the Amalekites—who had kidnapped the wives and children of him and his men. 

Imagine David’s point of view: while the Philistines are slaughtering the armies of David’s beloved Israel, while Saul and David’s best friend Jonathan are being killed in a battle David desperately wanted to join, the families of David and his 600 men have been kidnapped by a completely different enemy (the Amalekites, whom Saul was supposed to have dealt with long ago).  “David and the troops with him wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep” 1 Samuel 30:4.  Not only that, David’s men now want to stone him for allowing this to happen.  David must lead the charge to track the Amalekites and rescue his wives and children and the wives and children of his men.  Where will David get the strength?

How is a man or woman supposed to handle the most difficult days of his life? 

“But David found strength in the Lord his God” 1 Samuel 30:6.

He is there—and HE IS ABLE.

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Are You Thirsty?

I thought my friends at Northwest Academy had it made: they went to a Christian school.  Sure, they had problems.  But NWA was not SHS.  At Sharpstown “the inmates ran the asylum.”  Good kids were surrounded by kids so broken they could hardly function.  It was brutal, a place of unrelenting violence.  Vicious fights quickly became riots involving hundreds of people.  There were shootings, police officers walking the halls, constant phoned-in bomb threats (fake), and arson that was all-too real.  There were smoking areas where students were ALLOWED to smoke, and there were teachers with problems ranging from burnout to pedophilia (my history teacher made history when he was fired after being tape-recorded offering grades for sex for the hundredth time). And binge drinking was not just for nights and weekends—some kids (and at least one teacher) got drunk BEFORE school….

In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, hippies dreamed of a world where young people could “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out,” and Sharpstown fulfilled that dream.  Every benefit society could ask for from drugs, free love, and a lazy, “take it easy” attitude washed ashore at Sharpstown, a shipwreck of broken homes and broken lives. It was the darkest, most soul-crushing place I have ever been, and spending forty hours a week there left an ache in my soul.

I turned to Jesus.  What else could I do? I was a depressed, failing flunky.  My dreams were shattered (dreams, what dreams?)  College seemed the only way out, but I hated academics.  With no work ethic or self-discipline, I had no hope for success. But I knew God loved me and there had to be an answer. 

“Oh God, you are my God, and I will always seek you. I thirst for you, my soul longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water” Psalm 63:1.

Those kids at Northwest Academy did not suffer through the darkness of Sharpstown—but they also did not discover how badly—how desperately—every soul thirsts for God.

Sometimes it takes darkness to drive us to the light.

Your soul thirsts for God—feed it.

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The Lifeguard.

My dad spoke often of the years he spent as a lifeguard at Ridgecrest in North Carolina.  He remembered pulling some 75 people from the depths, most of them poor swimmers who had no business in the murky waters of a deep lake.  Then one day I saw my father in action.  When my brother was seven, he began choking while swimming in a lake in Maine.  Daddy, standing on the pier, threw off his sunglasses and dove in, instantly popping up below Dennis, lifting the little one in the air.  I’m not sure how much trouble Dennis was in, but the rescue was impressive!

David describes God like some heavenly lifeguard:

“The ropes of death were wrapped around me, torrents of destruction terrified me. I called to the Lord in my distress and I cried to my God for help.  From His temple He heard my voice.  Then the earth shook and quaked. The mountains trembled because He burned with anger.  Smoke rose from His nostrils and fire came from His mouth. He parted the heavens and came down, a dark cloud beneath His feet.  He rode on a cherub and flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.  The Lord thundered from Heaven, the Most High projected His voice. He shot arrows scattering my enemies, He hurled lightning bolts and routed them.  He reached down from heaven and took hold of me.  He pulled me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy and from those who hated me. He brought me out to a spacious place.  He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and sets me securely on the mountain heights.” Psalm 18:3-33 (edited).

Isn’t that amazing? 

Think about your problems and look at the way God races to your rescue!  He thunders from Heaven shooting arrows and hurling lightning bolts at your enemies!

God, when we are discouraged, remind us of the dramatic, amazing way You race to rescue us!  Thank You for being the Hero of our stories.

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Revenge.

Can you think of a time when you desperately wanted vengeance? When someone did you wrong and you could not stop daydreaming about ways to get even?

What does the Bible say about revenge?

When David and his men were starving and requested food from Nabal, a rich man whose flocks David’s men had protected, Nabal mocked David’s messengers and sent them away with nothing—a great insult in a culture of hospitality. So David took 400 men and set out to destroy Nabal and everything he owned. But Nabal’s wife Abigail quickly baked 200 loaves of bread, butchered five sheep, collected grapes, raisins, grain, cakes, and pressed figs, and went out to meet David. She bowed to him and convinced him to spare her household. David accepted the food and realized God had intervened. “Praise the Lord who sent you to meet me today! Your discernment is blessed and you are blessed.” So Abigail went home. The next day she told Nabal everything.

And guess how the wicked man reacted?

“Then he had a seizure and became paralyzed. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal dead.” 1 Samuel 25:37-38.

The Bible says to leave revenge to God. It is not in our job description.

“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’” Romans 12:19.

Did God repay Nabal? Yes. Did David get “justice”? Yes. Does it always happen quickly? No! Often we will wait years. But the timing does not matter.

We must FORGIVE and move on. And we must trust God with “justice” in His time.

Pray. God, help me forgive. Give me the discernment of Abigail, to know how to make things right, and the patience of David to “leave room for the wrath of God.” I give you my desire for revenge against _________. Help me to forgive, and to trust you to handle it. Teach me how to stand up for myself when needed, but without selfishly seeking revenge.

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Sexual Abuse in the Church.

Though Saul had been trying to capture and kill David for years, David twice refused to lay a hand on him when he had the chance.  But when Nabal repaid David’s protection with a refusal to feed David’s men, David gathered 400 soldiers and swore to kill Nabal by morning.

Why the difference? David respected Saul’s anointing.  “I won’t lift my hand against my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed” 1 Samuel 24:10. 

Today many use this verse to defend pastors.  I have heard it from pulpits all my life: “Touch not mine anointed!”  But does the verse apply to New Testament pastors?  No.  The Bible only applies this concept to Old Testament kings.  At no time does Paul, the great teacher of church doctrine and practice, speak of pastors as men we are to “touch not.”  To put it another way, if Paul confronted a pastor embroiled in adultery, immorality, or criminal sexual activity, do you think he would hesitate to “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,” as he did in 1 Corinthians 5:5?  He would not. 

Being ordained for ministry is not some secret force-field that insulates a man from the consequences of his evil actions.

Those in ministry, paid and unpaid, should be subject to a criminal background check covering every jurisdiction in the nation.  Convictions for sexual or financial crimes disqualify a man from the ministry for life.  (Yes, people can change.  But experience proves the need for “zero tolerance” following sex and fraud convictions.)  Convictions for other crimes may be publicly considered by a church board, but if the board allows the man to serve, the details of the conviction should be prominently disclosed to the entire church[1].

This rule may seem harsh, but frankly everyone convicted claims innocence, and few are as persuasive as the professional talkers that work in our churches.  Too many innocent people–many of them young people–have been burned by men who cry and plead that they were falsely accused. 

Because Christians are so deeply motivated by grace and forgiveness, we yearn to believe the best about people—we have a deep need to believe in our leaders and to trust them when they say they were wrongly accused.  But our compassion must never put children at risk—and the only way to prevent that is with a rule that allows no exceptions for the convicted.  (And of course, this rule does nothing to protect us from those who have not yet been convicted.  We must be vigilant.) 

To read more about this by a grandson of Billy Graham whose law practice focuses on abuse in the church, click here.

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[1] (For example, convictions for non-sexual crimes committed before a man was converted might be easily explained.)

Be Prepared.

The Boy Scout motto is “be prepared.”  It’s a code to live by, because urgent situations come up that require preparation.  The moment when someone’s heart stops is not the moment to learn CPR.  What will you do when you witness a car accident?  What if your house is on fire?  Being prepared means having a response determined before the disaster happens.  And guess what?  Being prepared makes the problems easier to handle.

But what about unforeseen problems?  Challenges you never imagined?  Can you prepare for those?  Yes.  Scripture can prepare you for the unexpected.  The Bible is loaded with verses about how to handle adversity.  PREPARE YOURSELF by learning some of these verses ahead of time.  Don’t wait until the hardest day of your life to start hunting for Bible verses that might give you hope. 

Learn them now!

“When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust. I will not fear.  What can man do to me?” … This I know, that GOD IS FOR ME” Psalm 56:3-4 and 9.

“For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28.

“Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” James 1:2-4.

“My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19.

“I will not leave you as orphans, but I will come to you … [and] the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach  you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” John 14:18 and 26.

“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of time” Matthew 28:20.

Tough days will come.  Adversity will come.  PREPARE FOR IT by memorizing God’s promises.

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David Asks God to Make Him Pure.

How much do you pray? Do you pray every day? For five minutes? Ten? Are any of your prayers unselfish?

In Psalm 141, David prays unselfishly that God would make him more obedient, more pure-hearted, and more pleasing to God.

“Lord, set up a guard for my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. Do not let me turn to any evil thing or perform wicked acts … Do not let me feast on their delicacies. Let the righteous one strike me—it is an act of faithful love; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let me not refuse it.” Psalm 141:3-5.

Take a look at David’s requests. We should pray the same things:

  1. Stop me from speaking harmful words.
  2. Stop my heart from turning toward temptation.
  3. Do not let me enjoy the things that wicked people enjoy.
  4. Send a righteous person to rebuke me. Rebuke is a gift, even an anointing, the same way Samuel anointed David king.
  5. Give me an attitude that WELCOMES rebuke. When someone has the guts to call me out about my sin, please give me a heart that receives that message. It is a gift and an anointing—please do not let me turn away or try to avoid rebuke. Make me listen, humble myself, repent, and do better!

Can you pray that way? David is the only person in scripture that God describes as “a man after His own heart.” Can you be a man or woman after God’s own heart?

Pray. Dear God, set a guard over my mouth. Make me more careful about my words. Help me to “hate evil, you who love the Lord,” as it says in Psalm 97. Help me to hate the things that tempt me, and to find ways to cut them out of my life. Make me someone You could describe as being “after God’s own heart.” Make me more like You.

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The Land of the Living.

There are two ways to improve your life with clearer vision.  The first is to view everything with an eternal perspective.  When your body is racked with pain, you need the vision to remember “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed” Romans 8:18.  When you can’t afford to eat, you need this vision: “In My Father’s House are many mansions … I go to prepare a place for you” John 14:2.  When you feel abandoned, unloved, or lonely, remember you are a child of your Father in heaven, Matthew 5:45. 

What if your “love language” is GIFTS, but no one remembers your special day?  Remember Matthew 7:11 where Jesus says your Father in Heaven gives better gifts than anyone on earth.  Or what if you are having trouble scraping together money for retirement?  An eternal perspective reminds us what matters most: “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up treasures in heaven…” Matthew 6:19-20.

It is easy to be obsessed with this life.  It’s all we know!  But we have faith—and scripture.  It takes only a little vision to cultivate an eternal perspective.  But there is a second way to improve your life with clearer vision—and it does not require an eternal perspective.  Psalm 27 includes an encouraging word about THIS LIFE.  That is, God will show you enough of Himself—here on earth—that it will change your perspective. This is not a promise of health and wealth, but of VISION.

“I know that I will see the GOODNESS OF THE LORD in the LAND OF THE LIVING” Psalm 27:13.

God may not cure your illness or “heal” your bank account.  Maybe your earthly circumstances will get worse.  But you will see the goodness of God BEFORE you get to heaven.  And won’t that fill your heart with joy in spite of everything? 

Even while we struggle let’s claim this promise: “I know that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the LAND OF THE LIVING.” 

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Bittersweet: Joy During Pain.

“Bittersweet” indicates the odd mix of pain and joy. The death of a loved one may be bitter, but if death follows a long illness, the grieving sometimes consider it sweet that the suffering is over. 

God can bring sweet satisfaction during suffering.  Just ask the persecuted. They sometimes experience an intimacy with God they might never have known otherwise.  Sometimes God is so merciful.

In the Psalms, David complained about his many problems, but he always seemed to find something positive too, a silver lining.  Can you do that?  I find that—like David—WRITING ABOUT PROBLEMS forces me to find a positive way to look at things.  Here are some lines David wrote while he was in the middle of great suffering.  The first is a verse that reminds me of the quarantine we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic:

“May the Lord be praised, for He has wonderfully shown His faithful love to me in a city under siege” Psalm 31:21.

Others:

“I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears” Ps. 34:4.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him” Ps. 34:8

“The Lord is near the brokenhearted. He saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many adversities come to the one who is righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all” Ps. 34:18-19.

“I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God. I trust in God’s faithful love forever and ever” Ps. 52:8.

When I began writing in a journal as a young man, complaining about each day’s problems, I ended up giving myself good advice and finding a positive way to look at those problems—probably because the act of putting my thoughts down on paper made me embarrassed that someone might read it and see me handling things badly.  (My fear of appearing self-pitying may seem a poor motive for making good choices–but it worked!) Good choices are always worth it. Journaling helped me to be more like David, finding a positive way to look at my problems. I recommend it!

God, remind us every day to find something good in every problem.

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He Sticks Closer Than a Brother.

Proverbs 18:24 says “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Can you imagine being betrayed by a brother? It happens sometimes. But if even a brother might betray you, a parent never would, right?

Wrong.

Parents fail children sometimes. Sometimes parents are foolish, immature, or addicted. Other times, parents are hurt by a child, wounded so deeply they decide to cut all ties to protect their “mental health” or whatever. And those situations are horribly sad.

In Psalm 27, David remembers that God not only sticks closer than a brother, but God sticks closer than a parent. Do you realize that? Have you ever thought about it? Your parents may fail you. But God will never fail you.

“Do not leave or abandon me, God of my salvation. Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord cares for me. Because of my adversaries, show me Your Way, Lord, and lead me on a level path.” Psalm 27:9-11.

David knows that even his parents might let him down, but God will never let him down. Do you know that? Do you really believe it?

No matter what happens in your life, no matter how deeply a brother or sister may hurt you, no matter how badly you might feel abandoned by your parents, God will never leave you or abandon you.

The Lord cares for you. And even though you have enemies, God will show you HIS WAY, and lead you on a level path.

Pray. God, please draw me close to You. Fill me with confidence in You, and with assurance that You will never leave me, no matter what people might do. Make me faithful to You. Make me someone who would NEVER abandon God. Make me someone who always wants You to show me Your Way. Lead me on Your level path. Help me to love you more than I love my siblings or my parents. Make me faithful and obedient to You.

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