Do You Feel Pinned to a Wall?

 

Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David; he has not sinned against you. In fact, his actions have been highly beneficial to you.
  5 He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”
 6 Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and swore an oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”
 7 So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul to serve him as he had before.
 8 When war broke out again, David went out and fought the Philistines and struck them with such a mighty blow that they fled before him.
 9 But as Saul was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, a spirit of distress from the LORD came upon him. While David was playing the harp,
  10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. But the spear struck the wall and David eluded him, ran away, and escaped that night.  Sam. 19:4-9

Sometimes we have people in our lives like co-workers, supervisors, even family that just don’t like us. It seems that no matter how hard we work and the good we do, they just don’t seem to care. In some cases they may try to under-mind us and what we do. 

Jesus spoke of Himself and John the Baptist in this way. No matter what the Pharisees and lawyers criticized them. Read Luke 31-35

31 “To what, then, can I compare the men of this generation? What are they like?
 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’  34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and of sinners!’

 In David and Saul’s situation, it was because of an “evil spirit”. We can say it wasn’t Saul’s fault because he was influenced by a spirit but we know that Saul had a chance to repent. When the Lord said he was going to take the Kingdom from him, Saul could have stepped down. But he insisted on his own way, as always, which opened the door for spiritual influence.

I can easily see that the relational situation that I am pointing out is a spiritual one and can only be solved spiritually.

Jesus said that people will not like us because of Him. Even if they do not know you are a Christian. 

  24 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
 25 It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! Mat. 10:25 

So what are we to do about this? You know that we are to be witnesses to our co-workers and families and it would be a bad witness to lose our temper or fight back. So what can we do?

Jesus says that we are to do to others as we want others to do to us. You know that little “Golden Rule Thing” we learned as kids. Jesus takes it seriously. Read Luke 6:27-28 and 31

 27 But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

And

  31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

By reading the rest of the main story in our main verses, you will see how David reacts to Saul. Until the death of Saul David acted as Christ commanded. That may be why Luke records Paul’s words in Acts 13:22 that God called him, David,  a “man after His own heart”.hat can I say, 

What can I say, it is not easy it is just right.

Book Review: Stronger Than Steel by R.C. Sproul

Stronger Than Steel: The Wayne Alderson story by R.C. Sproul
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great book for in the workplace. I've had this book for a long time but have never gotten around to reading it until now. Sorry I waited so long. Not only is it good for management and labor relations but it helped in seeing how Wayne Alderson dealt with being fired for doing good. Also it is nice to have an autographed copy in my library. Thanks Fred and Gloria, whoever you are, for donating it to a charity.


View all my reviews

The Christian’s Three Families

Attending our Pastor’s funeral the other day I noticed how so many had been touched by his life. How there were many who grieved as if they were family. I had seen this before at my Dad's funeral years ago. As I stood ready to take a seat with other family members, I looked up and saw the grief in the eyes of many people who attended Church with him. Some of these had been by his side when I was not around. They grieved as much as I did, if not more. But custom dictates the family was to be taken care of. The Church treated us like royalty. But, it had always troubled me that those people where close to my Dad more than I was and therefore, their hurt was just as real. So here I stood in their shoes with the same hurt. So I wondered about this. And the Lord showed me how we have three family groups in our lives. Being made up of Body, Soul and Spirit, why couldn't I have three families?

First we have the physical family or blood family if you wish. This includes those we are linked by blood to and those that are married into the family. When two become one in marriage, they are also joined to the family. No doubt the grief of a loved one in this group should never be treated lightly. Even family members that are not close can still feel a very deep loss of someone in this group.

Second is the soul or soulish family. This is made up of friends and acquaintances. Some of these can be very close to the person and sometimes said to be "close as a brother" or "He was like a Father to me". The grief of these can be really hard to handle. If a person in both groups, blood and soul, then they can count themselves double blessed.

The Third group is the Spirit Family. To the Christian we say they are "Church Family.” In this article I will be referring to the Christian Church in general. The grief in this group can be pretty strong. If some find themselves in the physical, blood and Spirit families, then they are triply blessed. The Church family by custom usually takes care of the physical and soulish families during the funeral and dinners. And this is rightly so. For the Church family will see the departed again. And they have a the Comforter for their grief. If those in the physical & soulish family groups do not belong to the Church family, then their grief is hard because they have no hope of ever seeing the loved one again. They need comforting from the Church family. That is what we are for. To be the comforting arms of the Lord to those hurting.

So I comfort those that are in the physical and soulish family members of our Pastor that are also in the Church that we will see him again in Glory. Those that are not, I strongly urge you to become "Born Again" (John 3) so that you may join us and see Him again.

Just Read: Rescue by John Bevere & Mark Olsen

My wife, Stephanna, just read a book and gave it to me about three days ago with
the challenge to get it read by Sunday. I started it that day and finished it in
two days.
The book was, "Rescue" by John Bevere and Mark Olsen. I do not believe I have
ever read any of John or Marks books before. I am familiar with Mark's
"Hadassah: One Night With The King". This book was written in 2006 and published by Bethany House.
I found it to be a very good work of fiction with a lot of Biblical truth and
teaching, mixed in with a little suspense. I believe Steph wanted me to read it
before Sunday because it dealt a lot with Church, the Gospel, marriage, divorce
and just plain relationships without being sentimental worldview dribble. A good
look at how what looks like a great church on the outside can be deceiving. But
we want beat that dead horse.
I really recommend that everyone from Pastor down get a hold of this book and
read it. Caution through, it might mess up some of your theology.