One Year Bible, June 3

2 SAMUEL 20:14 - 22:20                                                                                               
DON'T MESS WITH "MOMMA":  When SHEBA (a type of the mind of the FLESH), ran to hide from JOAB in the town of Abel, he messed with "a mother in Israel"(20:19). So, she told Joab to just wait, and she would throw Sheba's head to him over the wall!

DON'T MESS WITH THIS MOMMA EITHER! RIZPAH: One of Saul's concubines, mother of Mephibosheth and one other. Saul had broken the covenant with the Gibeonites, resulting in a 3-year famine. To appease Gibeonites, David agreed to give them what they wanted: 7 sons of Saul to execute. They were killed and their bodies hung out for birds to eat. For five month, RIZPAH, with only her black widow's sackcloth to rest upon, guarded the bodies, never leaving them, demonstrating a love stronger than death. When David heard of what she did, he brought Saul's bones, Jonathan's bones and all the rest to their family plot for burial. "After that, God heard their prayer for the land."

PHILISTINES AND GIANTS: Immediately the Philistines came up again with the giants from Gath. David was too weak to fight (60 years old) so he was defended by Abishai and his band of giant-killers. GIANTS: with their 6's all over, are a type of the FLESH, the world-systems with their substitutes for God.

FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH TO THE THRONE:  2 Sam 22 and Psa 18 are nearly the same.  "Sorrows of hell" and "snares of death" are the dealings and tests of God with His "Sons". When David cried out, God's response was the shake the foundations of the earth. V.12 reveals that God's "secret place" is in total darkness.

RESPONSE:   David stayed strong because of God. He had learned to be dependent on God and not take things into his own hands.  Because he stayed "connected" emotionally and mentally to God, he was decisive, resolute, and didn't panic when things seemingly got "out of control".  He knew God was still IN control and he trusted him. When David got afraid, he talked to his heart until it calmed down and trusted God again. He didn't listen to his emotions or his natural reasoning. He knew that at times he was outnumbered, surrounded by people who hated him, lied about, cursed, spit on, and being hunted down. BUT, God was in control. He stayed single-minded about that! NEVER did he concede that his enemies had the upper hand! David knew that in the darkest of darkness, God was right there!  In fact, the darker it seems, the closer God is!

ACTS 1:1-26                                                                                                                     
THE CULMINATION: Acts is THE CULMINATION.   It ties the whole Bible together and gives meaning and purpose to the whole Old Testament. If Acts were not in the Bible, we would never understand the rest of it because we wouldn't know how it got here.   Acts is actually a good name for it, because it is a book of actions.   It reveals the principles of the exchanged life and the restitution of all things.

BURSING THE CONFINES OF THE BUILDING: This book demonstrates the POWER OF THE CHURCH.   Acts could also be called "The Church's Forays into the Hostile Culture".   Or maybe call it "The Acts of the Holy Spirit". But the only Apostles consistently talked about here are actually James and John, Peter and Paul. There are about 23 sermons quoted from in Acts, and each of them show that the Gospel is intended for all Nations.   What happened to make the Gospel burst out of its confines and reach out in one generation to the known world?

"DUNAMIS":  It is the Holy Spirit Who takes the initiative and launches the program of God. The Holy Spirit is here to communicate LIFE and BOLDNESS.  The word "dunamis” is used 10 times in the book of Acts. Acts 1:8 says that it is "power that accompanies the receiving of the Holy Spirit."  "Dunamis" is "to have the capacity to bring something to a successful conclusion".  It is the Holy Spirit's inherent effectiveness and ability in us. Dunamis is the pressing reality of God's Life in us! It is the empowerment to extend God's Kingdom.   Here is the STRATEGY by which God changes the world!  Everything that happens in the world today happens as a result of something that is, or is not, happening in the Church!

THE OUTPOURING:  With the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Church became a living organism, related to Jesus and to one another.  Everything else flows from this single event - being baptized with the "POWER (DUNAMIS) to be witnesses (MARTUS) of Jesus." How does that happen?  We become vessels of His power, of His Life - evidence that Jesus is alive.

JUDAS:  Matt 27:5 says Judas hanged himself.   Apparently the rope let loose as his body bloated over time, and he fell from the tree and his body burst open.  He was an "old wineskin"(Mat 9:17) who attempted to hold "new wine" and burst.  Aceldama, the field where he died, is on the southern slope of the valley of HINNOM, which is a Biblical type of HELL.

RESPONSE: Everything flows out from the Holy Spirit's stream into the earth through people. We are God's evidence that Jesus is alive! Instead of just Jesus WITH us, it is Jesus IN us and THROUGH us!

PSALM 121:1-8                                                                                                                      
First Step: Psalm 120: Renouncing the world and crying to God for help with the resulting backlash. Saved but persecuted by his old friends.

SECOND STEP: PSALM 121: Deliverance from self-sufficiency and unbelief. We are learning dependency on God - "My help comes from the Lord..." The word "keep-keeper" is used six times in 8 verses and means "guard, protect, hedge about, preserve."

PROVERBS 16:18                                                                                                        
(The exact middle of the book of Proverbs is at the end of the first half of this verse.) Pride brings "destruction" - which means being dashed in pieces and overthrown.   "Pride" is opposite of "humility" and is associated with arrogance, evil behavior, perverse speech, insolence, and INDEPENDENCE.   Independence is the GREAT SIN of rebellion.

RESPONSE: As we grow and mature as Christians, we become more and more dependent on the Lord.  That is what it means to live by faith.  God begins right at the outset to break us of being self-sufficient or dependent on antichristian means and substitutes for LIFE. We help that process by instructing our hearts to trust Him. He is our guardian. He is our protector. He preserves us.