One Year Bible, May 16

1 SAMUEL 18:5-19:24                                                                                                    
DAVID: David is a type of Jesus. He is ALSO a type of the spirit vs. flesh (Saul). The flesh HATES the spirit, hates God (Rom 8:7), and persecutes the spirit. 18:10 we find David has a harp in his hand, and Saul has a javelin in his. David grew in wisdom, and Saul grew in fear. NOTE: Evil spirits had access to Saul, but not to David.

BRIDE PRICE: To marry Saul's daughter, Michel, Saul wanted 100 Philistine foreskins! So David brought him 200!

SAUL'S MADNESS:   By this time, Saul was a madman. In chapter 19 alone, Saul made nine (9) attempts on David's life! Yet in v. 24, Saul prophesied before Samuel. Which proves that just because you have spiritual gifts, doesn't mean you have God's anointing or God's approval.

DAVID "BEFORE THE LORD":  David took EVERYTHING to God. He probably wrote Psalm 11 and 12 during this period, and also Psalm 59. Here we learn that David was convinced that God was his strength, his mercy, his defense and refuge in the day of trouble. God was David's "secret place".

RESPONSE:   I like that we have a record of David's personal life during this very trying preparation for his rulership.  It will be 13 years before David actually rules all Israel. Most of that time will be spent running for his life, living in caves, being rejected even by family members, ridiculed for his faith in God, relying totally on God to take care of him.  David is a type of every one of us!   If we are "a man after God's heart" - then we will be persecuted by our own flesh, by other people's flesh, and by the devil.  But we will have God's approval, God's care, and God's mercy and grace.  When we know that God is with us, we can go through anything!

JOHN 8:31-59                                                                                                                 
FREEDOM:  "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36)  Freedom from what?   v.34 says it is freedom from being a "slave of sin".  You see, our flesh is prone to sin, it wants what it wants when it wants it.  Our flesh is terrible slave-driver.  It is in our old nature to want to sin.  We like it.  The problem is that ALL SIN leads to self-deception and death (separation from God).  ALL SIN leads to bondage.  Making my own desires paramount results in corruption, disintegration and lostness.   It is in our new nature to want freedom so we can live for God. Obedience produces freedom.  He's not saying if you know "the truth" you'll be delivered from error; He's saying if you know "the truth" you will have spiritual freedom.  We as believers in Jesus Christ find our freedom when we are subject to him. Freedom is obtained when we "believe, continue, know the truth."  Getting free from the slavery to sin and self makes us free from self-serving, self-preservation, doubt and fear, ignorance of holy things, free from Satan's blindness, and free to be truly happy.   In the end, true freedom is to be unlimited by our humanness: our human understanding, human reasoning, human weaknesses, human inability to achieve results, humanness in general and that is ONLY obtained through submitting to Truth.

WHAT IS TRUTH? Whatever proceeds from God's mouth IS Truth or ultimate reality. Truth is personalized in Jesus Christ. He truly expresses God, and is Himself the agent for unifying the disordered world.  Hence, He is "the Truth", the true expression of God. John 1:17 says, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John 17:17 says that the Word is Truth. 1 John 5:6 says that the Spirit is Truth. And of course, John 14:6 Jesus says that HE is "the Truth".  The implication then, is that all truth is revealed (By Jesus, by the Word and by the Spirit).

NASTY OPPOSITION: Jesus' time is short. He stands up to His opposition, who has reduced themselves to name-calling. They have actually become "the devil's advocate" because the devil was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Later Jesus refers to their "churches" as "the synagogue of Satan" (Rev 2:9; 3:9).

RESPONSE: One act of obedience changes you because you experience God in you. And God is totally free - totally unlimited by MY humanness. Now, when I disobey, I am going backwards, away from God and away from freedom.  Without the Bible, we have a very distorted view of reality (Truth).   Every step away from the Bible, is a step into UNreality and UNtruth!

PSALM 112:1-10                                                                                                            
ANOTHER HALLELUJAH PSALM. Psalm 111 described the goodness and greatness of God. Psalm 112 describes the goodness and greatness of the Blessed Man.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOD-FEARING MAN:  He becomes like his God! You become like the One you worship. You worship and serve the One you fear.

Here we go: "delights greatly" to obey God, his descendants will know God's mercy, he will have enduring wealth and riches, thinks of others first, knows what to do in troubled times, forgives quickly and easily, guides his affairs with "discretion" and integrity, he is patient and constant (his heart is "fixed").  He knows God will take care of him.  He is generous, honorable, given glory.  The wicked "gnash" on him. The man who fears God is a happy man.

PROVERBS 15:12-14                                                                                                      
SCORNERS AND FOOLS:   If you don't want to be accountable for the truth, just don't look for it! Scorners and fools only want to be petted. They don't want to be corrected and will never ask for help.

RESPONSE:  HAPPY OR CRUSHED: I have told my children that whenever they are assaulted by mad, sad or bad thoughts, SMILE. That puts YOU back in the "driver's seat". YOU decide what you will feel.  Feelings are just that - feelings. They are unreliable, and depend on what you feed them. We don't repress, deny or refuse feelings. We train them with Truth.  If you want healthy feelings, you must be born again, walking in faith in the TRUTH - which is that the godly conditions that foster healthy feelings are: "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." We become people who.........