Bloodguilt (1 Samuel 21)

     There was a famine in Israel for 3 years and David sought the face of the Lord. God answered with the fact that there was bloodguilt when Saul was king, under his own authority. Saul killed some people that he shouldn’t have, basically. David sought out the people that were sinned against, the Gibeonites. David tried to make it right. He first tried to give money, that’s really the first thought anyone would have, right? The Gibs ask blood to be repayed for blood. David obliged them, he hanged some people from Saul’s family.

    Again, God’s all about justice, He listened to the plea of the land vs. 14b. I think some very important things need to be taken from here about God’s response. Like I said, God is all about justice, He’ll dot all the i’s an cross all the t’s. He precise. Before God decided to listen to Israel’s plea for help from the famine, of which He did not cause, and chose to stay silent when the storms hit, a sin had to be handled. When something happens and God doesn’t seem to be helping, check for any sin in your life or unforgiveness that you might be holding against someone. Read Matthew 6:14-15,

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    Notice the key here in vs. 15. “If you do not forgive others…neither will God forgive you of your sins…” God can’t even be close to us! When we’re saved, we’re forgiven and God lives in our hearts but how can we even consider ourselves Christians if God can’t even forgive us? We’re really more like the prodigal son though. Still sons/daughters, just fallen away sons/ daughters. It goes right back to Israel because of Saul’s sins in a real life example, God couldn’t/wouldn’t even  help His own children when they called for help unless the past sins were dealt with.

      If you are having difficulty with hearing God or having Him help you, go back and resolve sin. God cannot have anything to do with sin. We need to ask forgiveness and forgive. Forgiveness is as if it never happened. God Himself paid the bloodguilt. Sin causes death.

      I love You Lord my Father. I can’t say that enough. You paid the price of death so that I can have life.

-Matthew

Breaking down (Samuel 19)

       

God gives and He takes away. God took David’s kingdom away and gave it to David’s son. Well, I think God just allowed David’s sin to have the actions it had for a little bit. However, His son Absolom died in battle. Israel had a little scap which killed Absolom, so Israel just got a little confused. They stuck with the thought that they already anointed a different king they just didn’t expect they’re new king to die so fast. It seemed like God was just punishing David for a bit (by dropping His guard over David). He (God) still wanted David to be king but just for bit, He’d allow chaos to ensue without his hands over David, guiding him. David caused the sin that he did out of pride. Seriously, over and over and over one core point is being proven to me. Pride will kill you. The best thing to do is to recognize, you don’t have everything in control. If a storm in your life hits, you can’t build a very strong fortress of protection. YOU can’t do it. The best thing to do is to remember the truth and reality of life…You are weak….Our Lord, our God Yahweh, and our Father is powerful for us. He promised He will be there for us. The one thing we must do is rely on Him and hold on to His commandments. This isn’t a bargaining deal. It’s what you need to do. God is all for freedom. We must “choose” to go with Him or not. In going with Him we’re choosing to follow His commandments. The two prerequisites go hand in hand. It’s kind of like when you were a young adult old enough to be out of the house. If you want to continue to live with your parents, don’t you need to follow the rules of the house? The rules of the home are there to create harmony with each other. It’s the exact same with the commandments / rules of God. “Sin’ is defined as “missing the mark, “ it’s destruction. God set this universe up with natural physical laws. When we violate those laws it’s breaking the system down. The system won’t function the way it’s supposed to function if you don’t follow the rules for it. You can’t fill your car with vinegar, when it was made to run on gasoline, and hope it runs properly.

      God cares for us. He wants the way He created everything to work right….right down to even us! He doesn’t want it to break down for us. We trust Him when we follow His words. When we trust Him, we are loving Him. That’s why Jesus said, “If you love me, you’ll follow my commands”- John 14:15. Keeping His commandment isn’t for His good. It’s for our good! It’s like when we first trusted our parents when they said, “don’t play in the street.” We didn’t know then but we know now that they didn’t want us to get run over, it’s for our good! If we love our parents, we do what they say.

    Father You are so good! You hold us. Like David, You let Him eat the dish he made out of his own free choice. You don’t just magically fix our mistakes and let us be illegitimate sons/daughters when we disobey Your commands. You are there to protect us. You guide us Lord. Thank You Jesus.

When Everything is in Your Hands….(2 Samuel 11)

"In the spring of the year, the time that kings go out to battle..."That right there, is the key phrase. It could read, " In the spring when the weather is good in the year. When rules usually head out to defend their country, David, the ruler of Israel took a break and stayed home." It's really easy to get complacent when you’re tired, everything is in your hands, and you get an opportunity to take a break. I think in my life when I sin the most is when I’m tired and everything in my hands. This life is tough sometimes, it’s very very simple to pity yourself. It’s simple, to give in to sin. Sin always seems to be pounding at the door, it can be subdued but it always seems be more loud when your weak. There is a good reason why Jesus says, “come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”- Matthew 11:28-29

    I love this verse quite a lot guys. When we’re stressed and life isn’t making sense (even the goldfish died). He is there for us. Don’t wait until you can feel Him give you comfort, just believe and have “faith” in His promise that He is holding you. Genesis 15:6 says that God called Abraham because He believed God, not in God, that is a given, believed in God’s words. That right there is salvation, when you believe who you believe your friend? If you don’t, you two probably aren’t even friends or even good friends if you don’t even believe them. It takes two  to make a relationship. If your friend already you a lot why don’t you believe them?

     Let’s bring this back to reality, God promised a lot. He didn’t just promise a lot, He’s a friend who gave a lot. So He has a good follow through history. He first gave us this beautiful world. He gave us the capability to see it, smell it, and even taste it. Then He historically came to the earth and died for us because it’s impossible to live perfectly. You can even examine history and see for yourself that God Himself stepped out of heaven and became a man to die for us. I personally suggest a reading of Josh McDowell’s “Evidence That Demands a Verdict.” It’s very good read. It’s not easy though, it’s a heavy examination of the evidence he found. Josh McDowell was once an atheist. That speaks volumes.

      Back to it, God gave us a rather large gift that we can see, taste, and touch but with the good comes the bad. He gave us choice to do what we want. That’s why there is good along with bad. True freewill will give us a choice. He (God) wanted true freewill. The possibility that there is good is a signature of design. Good and bad are like light and dark, cold and hot. Dark isn’t something, it’s the absence of something. Bad (definition: deficient, imperfect, defective, amateurish, neglectent) isn’t a “thing,” it’s the absence of good. Negligent is neglected (if you get my meaning of the word), it means someone didn’t pay attention to prepare it, or maintain it. Bad isn’t necessarily evil yet. Evil is deliberately trying NOT to do it the way that God designed. It means, you know in your head, the correct direction to go and deliberately try to go a different direction.

      If we don’t watch ourselves, we could move from bad to evil for our own selfish purposes. Thank God He gave us a way out.  Bad is by definition (or at least partially) “defective.” When we do bad or “sin” against Him (sin: “missing the mark”), our Father (cause our parents get hurt when their kids do wrong), we hurt ourselves too. Yes, ourselves! It’s like when your parents told you as a child not to play in the street. Why? We could get run over or injured.

Love, like no other (2 Samuel 7:18-29)

You are so great my Lord and my God! To be truthful, I am nothing but You my Father love me! Everything David says here is right. We are like nothing, David even says, “who am I O’ Lord God, and what is my house…? All of these things are so small in Your eyes! Who are we Lord, that You love us so much? Nothing we do is worth anything but You gave us something with eternal worth. That thing is so rare and different in the universe. You gave us the choice to love. Nothing other than God is this life, is worth it. Nothing we create , without freewill, can choose to love. That’s why the God of everything, who can have everything put value on us. Nothing is like this gift in our minds are hearts.