A BIT OF AN ADVANTAGE

9 feet 9 inches —- is TALL.  Can you imagine being that tall?  You would need a special house.  A tall sink so you could bend over and brush your teeth.  An extra, extra long bed.  Tall and wider doors.  Tables and chairs would have to be special ordered.

Can you imagine walking around wearing a coat of bronze weighing 125 pounds, a bronze helmet, and bronze greaves?  Don’t stop there.  You are also going to carry a javelin.  His poor shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath was that tall and was thought to be a descendant of the Anakims.  He must have thought a lot of himself because he told the ranks of Israel, “Choose a man and have him come down to me.  If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”  He sounds like a bully who has gotten his way because of his size.  One on one seems like he would have a bit of an advantage.

Enter a young man that had to stand up to his brothers and figured he could stand up to a big guy with an attitude.  I guess no one saw the secret weapon David carried with him.  They saw a sling and a few stones.  They saw a young man putting himself in danger.  What could he do with a staff and a sling?  Were they ever in for a surprise!!

From this point, we all know the story of David and Goliath.  Goliath gets mouthy.  David takes him down with a measly slingshot, cuts off his head, and becomes the local hero.  

BUT what about the secret weapon David had?  Everyone watching saw a stone fly out of a slingshot.  They failed to see the Almighty God being in charge of the situation.  They had quickly forgotten what David said to Goliath:  This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands.  ….. the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel …. for the battle is the LORD’s and he will give all of you into our hands.

Goliath thought he had a bit of an advantage, BUT David had a much larger advantage.  AND SO DO WE!  Often we fail to use this advantage.  We fail to use the advantage of having a Lord who will deliver us from our enemies.  

So take your slingshot in hand and face your enemy, BUT turn the battle over to God.  For the battle is the LORD’s and he will give your enemy into your hands.

Taken from I Samuel 17

 ABSOLUTE FEAR

“Oh no, my lord!  Give her the child —- ….

Did I read that right?  Giver her the child?  Is there more that I need to know?  Why would this woman, who is in great anguish, say such a thing?  There has to be a reason she is looking at this baby with such absolute fear.

Some time later two prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled. “Please, my Lord,” one of them began, “this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was with me in the house. Three days later this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there were only two of us in the house. 

“But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it. Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep. She laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. And in the morning when I tried to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked more closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.” 

Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine.” “No,” the first woman said, “the living child is mine, and the dead one is yours.” And so they argued back and forth before the king. 

Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight. Both of you claim the living child is yours, and each says that the dead one belongs to the other. All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king. 

Then he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other!” 

Then the woman who was the real mother of the living child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, my Lord! Give her the child—please do not kill him!” 

But the other woman said, “All right, he will be neither yours nor mine; divide him between us!” 

Then the king said, “Do not kill the child, but give him to the woman who wants him to live, for she is his mother!”

When all Israel heard the king’s decision, the people were in awe of the king, for they saw the wisdom God had given him for rendering justice.

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     1 Kings‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭28‬ ‭NLT‬

Now I understand.  The real mother did not want her son killed.  Solomon was very wise.  “Then the king said, “Do not kill the child, but give him to the woman who wants him to live, for she is his mother!”  

But think what the real mother went through.  It must have seemed like an eternity between the time she found a dead baby in her arms and when they stepped before Solomon. Her voice must have trembled with fear as she told Solomon, “But when I looked more closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”  Her hands would have been clasped hard.  It would have seemed like the world disappeared and became silent when the man lifted the sword.  Her eyes must have wanted to close, so she could not see the sword and, at the same time, her eyes never left her son.  Oh how my heart breaks for this mother.  She was feeling absolute fear.

Finally she screamed, “Oh no, my Lord! Give her the child—please do not kill him!”  Various translations word this sentence differently, but I believe she screamed.  There would not have been any calm  “and she said.”  The real mother would have fallen to the floor and lifted her hands, begging.  The real mother would have yelled/screamed at the top of her voice so there would be no chance that Solomon would not hear her.  The real mother would then have bowed her head, lowered her arms, and waited.

And as she waited, she heard Solomon say to give her the child.  And fear turned to absolute joy!

Now, turn in your Bible and read 1 Kings 3:16-28.  Picture the characters.  Watch them walk.  See their body language as they enter and stop before King Solomon.  Hear their voices.  Hear them yelling at each other.  Watch King Solomon listen and react to the women.  Stop and watch a sword being brought into the room.  See those in the room, take a deep breath as they wondered what would happen.  This is not just words on a page.  These were real people.  This was a real King who had to judge two women and the fate of one baby boy.  

Now picture the real mother holding her son close to her breast.  And see the tears of joy fall across a smile that came from the mother’s soul.

DO I?

I was having trouble deciding what to write.  Then a song popped into my head: I Surrender All.  Great song, but it made me think, “Do I?”  And the answer was no.  I am not going into great detail, so this will be short.

THINGS I DO NOT SURRENDER:

• My time - I waste way too much time on Facebook.  I try to justify that with, “I listen to ministers.”
• My pain - And that, I realize, is the biggest thing I am holding onto.

I have a few physical issues and, at times, they cause great pain.  One is my left knee.  The right knee is already fake.  I made the decision to go ahead and get the left one done.  I called the doctor and cannot get in for a pre-surgery until July 7.  And with that, God and I had another talk.  My part went, “I have asked you to take the pain away, and now I can’t even get into the doctor quickly.”

BUT, when the song entered my head, I realized I have done everything except turn it over to God.  I have prayed for Him to take my pain or heal it.  That didn’t happen.  I have prayed for…..  And that is the problem.  I prayed for what I want, but I have not surrendered the pain to him.

I have not prayed that I would see what I can do with physical limitations.  I have not prayed to go through the pain with grace.  I have not prayed that the pain would end in His time.  I have not surrendered the pain.

I have now!  I know I will still hurt.  I know the timing of healing will come when it is right for His plan.  I know I will still hurt, but the pain is in God’s hands, where it belongs.

STORMS

I love storms.  I love how the air changes and the sky begins to get dark.  I love to hear the rain start slowly and then either be a gentle rain or turn into a downpour.  I have never been in a really bad storm or tornado and pray I never am, but I so enjoy a “normal” storm.

When I was a kid, I would sit on our porch and watch the clouds twist and turn.  I could feel the temperature drop.  I could hear the thunder and see the lightening fly across the sky.  There was a corner that never got wet and that is where you would find me.

Then my dad messed it all up.  He enclosed the porch and it was never the same.  Yes, I would sit in the swing — no sense sitting in the corner —  and watch the storm, but I was no longer a part of the changes.  I no longer felt the air get colder.  The roof hid the white clouds being replaced by dark ones, the thunder was muffled, and the lightening flew across the sky unobserved.  Yes, dad messed it all up.  He put walls and a roof between me and the storm.  

Or was dad protecting me from the storm?

My Heavenly Father puts a hedge of protection around me.  Yes, I go through trials, but I do not do it alone and He warns me what to watch out for.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭

When I read this verse, I saw everything that is going on right now. Paul wrote two letters to help Timothy get the Ephesians to return to the true message Paul had given them.  The Ephesians had become greedy.  Alexander, Hymenaeus, and Philetus were leading the church into a corrupted version of the faith.  In 2 Timothy, Paul was telling Timothy how to protect himself and how to use the Holy Scriptures in dealing with those that have fallen away.

Using the words of the Holy Scriptures, Paul “enclosed” Timothy so he would know how to protect himself against the false teachers.  Paul told Timothy how to encourage the Ephesians to turn back to the true teachings of Jesus.

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬ ‭

Dear Heavenly Father, Protect my Soul so I can see through false teachers and stay true to the teachings of Jesus and the Word of God.  Amen