So David and his posse are in the wilderness (again) except this time David is a lot older and wearier. Last time it was Saul, this time it’s his own son Absalom against him. I guess they’re walking through some kind of valley between some hills, and this guy Shimei, who is related to Saul, comes up at the top of the hill walking alongside them and cursing David—“you’re a man of bloodshed, get out”, that kind of stuff.
Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this piece of shit sonuvabitch dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over now and take off his head.” But the king said, “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if the Lord has told him, ‘Curse David,’ then who shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”
I love Abishai’s heart (so zealous! but also an idiot T_T), but David is right, and proves to be a forerunner of Jesus.
…they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But [the Samaritans] did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them.
There’s also an echo of Peter, cutting off the ear of the servant when Jesus is arrested. Jesus rebukes Peter as well.
Interesting. Even as people outright curse and reject you (and the Samaritan incident is a mix of racism and religious persecution), we still press on and let God handle it. Now what are we pressing on toward? I think further reading will shed some light on this question.
Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.
When you talk to your soul, who is talking?
Wise and thoughtful words (as usual) from an ACF alumna.
Sin is kind of like having a huge, painful, decaying, and totally revolting wound on your back, in that irritating spot that’s just out of reach from your hands, but also conveniently located so that you don’t have to look at it if you don’t want to, and also so that you can easily cover it up with a t-shirt.
…
Vulnerability for the sake of vulnerability is stupidly bizarre at best. It’s demoralizing, it’s cruel and unusual, and, more often than not, it’s destructive. The purpose of revealing your wounds to one another is to help each other get healed, because trying to rub ointment on your back on your own really sucks.
I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me round about.
David trusts God enough to sleep although he’s surrounded by hordes of enemies (in this case, Absalom).
Reminds me of someone else…
And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” … And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Faith means we can lie down to sleep because God will save and protect us even when we’re not doing anything.
EDIT: It’s also in the next prayer song (psalm #4)!
Tremble, and do not sin;
Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And trust in the Lord….
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 6:15-23
Didn’t spend time in the Scriptures. Listened to pop(-ish) love(-ish) songs. Stumbled.
so. foolish.
clee:
I loved reading these thoughts and the conversations in the comments. Totally relatable.
My favorite quote:
Larry, “from what I understand” is the problem with your argument. You are a human being. Your “understanding” doesn’t mean much. :)
(Source: gospelofthekingdom)
wongdavidjacob:
What is this ready nonsense? God calls you when you’re ready, not ready, almost ready, not nearly ready. You just must be willing to trust and follow. No excuses, you’ll be fine.
DAS WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING
TO MYSELF
Everyone: You’re going to Japan? Are you excited?
Me: Well I kind of don’t have money and so there’s questions about whether I’ll actually pay my rent the first couple months without begging in the streets and I actually don’t have a lot of confidence in my ability to pay the bills with teaching because I have to do a ton of work just to get one good lesson and I don’t really speak Japanese at all and it turns out that I’m not a superstar Christian or whatever and over the past month or so I’ve been ridiculously busy almost like God is intentionally keeping me from preparing in a way that I’d like to in order to force me to rely on him oh. Uh sort of?
(via paigrowingup)
…this area of the brain called the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) activates when people do things that involve perceiving and relating to other people, such as recognizing and distinguishing between faces and empathizing. These researchers hypothesized, however, that like objects such as tables, images of certain groups of people—the homeless—would fail to activate the mPFC.
This is exactly what they found. Images of all other groups besides the homeless activated the mPFC. This suggests that the homeless are not recognized as human relative to other groups. They actually are perceived, at least in this area of the brain, more like objects, such as tables.
I discovered this article via this article about A&F and the homeless.
Who will execute social justice for the oppressed?
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
And the day of vengeance of our God
ONE DIRECTION IN MY TITLE WHAT HOW DID THEY GET THERE *head explodes*
Moving right along:
Sing for joy in YHWH, O you righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.
The word “becoming” there is used 10 times in the Bible—4 times in the Song of Songs. It means basically what you think it means.
And this is so freaking true, on the grand scale of what humans were made for and on the small scale of what attracts me to a girl. That young woman doesn’t care about who’s watching and lets it loose for the joy of the Lord Jesus. Her clothes are righteousness and her adornment is praise.
