1 SAMUEL 10:1-11:15
"TURNED INTO ANOTHER MAN": (10:6) (10:9) "God gave him another heart". Saul's three encounters were "signs" God gave him a new heart and (v.10) the Holy Spirit came upon him. Even with all that, Saul hid himself and had to be fetched.
AMMONITES: Saul still had to prove himself in battle. The Ammonites were Israel's strongest enemy and were descendants of Lot. They typify the self-indulgence of the flesh.
POKE OUT THE RIGHT EYE: Leaves you blind and helpless in battle because your shield covered the left eye.
SAUL AND SAMUEL: Worked as a unit: King and Priest together, at Gilgal to "renew the Kingdom".
RESPONSE: We may assume that Saul is a saved, Spirit-filled man. That he has God's anointing, God's approval, and God's grace and favor on his life. So what happened? How did he turn out to be insane, antichristian, jealous, violent, and rejected by God? He makes me nervous. If you can't be an example, then you are a warning.
JOHN 6:43-71
"I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE THAT COMES FROM HEAVEN": Jesus is the One who satisfies our hungers. It is our basic hunger for Life. Even our flesh wants that! The ONLY way to satiate that hunger is through Jesus. He declares this four times in this chapter (6:35; 41; 48; 51). How do you get that bread of life? Jesus said we had to "BELIEVE". This means I must give more loyalty to what God wants than to what my circumstances tell me. We train our perceptions and judgments to be God-oriented. We draw our life from Jesus, one step at a time. It is a series of decisions. Faith is a choice. The faith-walk is a habit, formed through the repeated decision to trust God.
"ETERNAL LIFE": The life Jesus demonstrated on earth, connected to the Father through prayer and His Word. It is a life characterized by fullness and grace. It is a quality of satisfaction and fulfillment and peace NOW. We have access to God and are in the process of learning a different kind of life that revolves around God. The reality of this eternal life lies in not having to ”look out for ourselves" because of our confidence in God's goodness and greatness.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT: v.56 "eat my flesh and drink my blood". If you try to understand Jesus' words with your human brain, you won't make it. This is a "hard saying." (meaning it is offensive, not hard to understand.) Even Jesus said, "does this offend you?" Jesus is what everyone needs. He will ALWAYS be what we need. His life mingles with mine, reducing mine to ashes and allowing His to shine through me.
BUT...........unless I partake, the Bread won't help me. I eat when I believe Him and teach my heart to be satisfied by God's goodness and greatness.
RESPONSE: We must understand this passage by the Spirit, or not at all. Our natural mind won't help us at all. These words are spirit and life. We can ingest God's Word by believing them and acting on them. It is imperative that we instruct our hearts daily.
PSALM 107:1-43
DEUTERONOMY PSALMS: "Deuteronomy" means "second" because it is the second giving of the Word of God, this time to the new generation. Ps 107:20 says, "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." Most of these 44 Psalms were written by David.
Because these last Psalms correspond to the book of Deuteronomy, they show the person who has come to the end of himself and is now ready to lay hold of the fullness of God. And so it is full of thanksgiving and praise to God. It is GOOD AND RIGHT AND SAFE to trust God.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE PROMISE: Psa 107 is how God led us, dealt with us, humbled us, preserved us and kept us for Himself. Psalm 107 praises God for rescue, deliverance and redemption. He has saved us from hopelessness, bondage, affliction, the storm, and the shaking.
HOPELESSNESS (v.4-9): wandering desolate, no place to live, hungry and thirsty, "their soul fainted within them." God delivered them from their "trouble" - cornered with NO WAY OUT. and "distress" - pressure. He led them and He satisfied their hunger and thirst with Himself in superabundant measure.
BONDAGE (v.10-16): "a prisoner of depression and chains." He was in "darkness and in the shadow of death". They are there by their own behavior - because they rebelled against what God told them, and despised the plans of God for their lives. God caused them to stumble so they would call on Him. When they cried out to God, He delivered them from their "trouble” and "distress". He brought them out of darkness and broke their chains.
AFFLICTION (v.17-22): All unbelief is foolishness. "Fools" - v.17-20 describes one who insanely lives only for the moment and ruined his future. Because of "transgression and iniquity" they are near death, pressed down, deep in a pit of destruction. God's Word healed them and lifted them from the pit.
THE STORM (v.23-32): The wind of the Holy Spirit has brought a storm and all their wisdom is swallowed up and come to nothing - "at their wit's end." When they were utterly helpless, they cried out to the Lord for help. He brought them peace and brought them to Himself.
THE SHAKING (v.33-43): God is "to blame" for the good times and the bad times. He shakes the heavens and the earth to bring about reversals. We must hold ourselves still and "understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." And rejoice because we know God is in control.
PROVERBS 15:1-3
RESPONSE: I used to blurt out stuff all the time, then want to stuff it back in because I had caused trouble with my mouth. Sometime I could hardly believe what I had just said! Most of the time, I didn't have to say anything. I should have just shut up! Instead I just blurted stuff out without even thinking about it first.
WHAT TO DO? "But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." (Jam 3:8) Here is some bad news and some good news! "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Mat 12:34-36) The bad news is that God sees it all and we have to give an account of what we say. The good news is that if we change the good treasure of the heart, or the abundance of the heart, we can change what comes out our 'bubbling fountain" - our mouths. We train our hearts, not our mouths. We tame our hearts, not our mouths. We acquire a "good treasure" - we delight in the Lord - out loud - and make Him our treasure. As we do that, we clean out our flow, and we spout out God-words.
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