9. The Marathon Convoys
To get the value of a foreign transaction, we would usually translate those costs into local currencies. How do we translate the value of David’s donations into contemporary currency?
Preacher Diaries
David’s Epitaph (Part 1)
- Voices at the Grave
An epitaph is a brief inscription or statement on a tombstone, usually venerating the dead. Metaphorically, an epitaph may also be a short funeral speech or writing on the dead person. In Rome, at the grave of John Keats the English Romantic poet, it is written, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Martin Luther King Jr. was an African-American Baptist preacher martyred for freedom fighting. His grave is in Atlanta, Georgia, with these words ringing from the tombstone: “Free at last, free at last, / Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.” It came from one of his classic speeches, “I Have a Dream,” delivered at the mammoth march on Washinton.
IS GOD A POLITICIAN?
Religious Extremism?
Some Christians are persuaded that God is not a politician and does not get involved in politics or such human trivialities. They insist that it is entirely up to humans who rules them, and that it is ‘religious extremism’ to bring God or prayers and ‘spirits’ into political discourse. They envision God as a disinterested long grey-bearded grandfather, noise-proofed from juvenile distractions, who sits aloof at his quiet end of a restricted park engrossed with his creased and spectacled face half hidden behind the broad evening newspaper, while the children frolic loudly, pursued by their long sunset shadows at the other end of the family park. Okay, is politics an entirely natural affair, with the supernatural playing no part in it? The other side does not think so, and we shall soon hear what the Bible says on the matter.
A UNIQUE WRITERS WORKSHOP
THEME The Power of Punctuations and Effective Sentence Structures
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 2024
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EXCLUSIVE ANOINTINGS
- Attractive Distractions
Some oil that comes upon your head inherently excludes you from other oils, meaning that nobody can be everything, no matter how anointed they might be. God said that David could not build Him a house, because he had been “a man of war” (1 Chronicles 28:3); meanwhile, it was the same God that made him a man of war. The anointing to war, divine as it was, excluded him from the office or anointing of temple builder. He was no less a man of God for being only a man of war and not also a temple builder. Those two could not combine in his life.
THE EQUATIONS OF GOD: SUBTRACTIONS THAT ADD AND MULTIPLY
- When God is Forced to Kill
We hear God say in Ezekiel 33:11 that He has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” It will appear, however, that sometimes God is forced into doing or allowing what He has no pleasure in: the death of the wicked when they persistently refuse His entreaties of love (Proverbs 29:1) or an advocate is absent (Ezekiel 22:30-31). Sometimes revivals break out only after such forced deaths (Proverbs 10:11; 28:28), as we shall shortly see.
MINUS DAVID PLUS SOLOMON
That a flight is comfortable and safe does not make it the right flight for every passenger. You can miss your destination on a good flight going a different way. God sometimes sets up leaders as a pattern for others to follow, but not for everyone therefore to follow them without discretion (Matthew 23:1-3). Even when such leaders might be followers of Christ, everybody cannot follow them everywhere without some follower missing their specific destiny destination.
ANOINTED ANGER
1. A Voice in My Soul
I would never have thought of a topic like this, but I heard it sounded audibly in my soul a while ago (I don’t know how to explain that now; it often happens), and heard further the following words that I am about to bring to you. Follow me …
THE WISDOM OF THE POOR
Then said I, wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are never heard (Ecclesiastes 9:16).
“Wisdom is better than strength,” but wisdom alone is never strong enough to open all doors and conquer all territories. The poor man’s wisdom is no less wisdom, but his reach is limited by his means.
The Oil Still Speaks
“What do these people know that I don’t?” wondered a quizzical young man on the back row of the church as he saw the long queue of people eagerly but slowly progressing to be daubed with oil from the bowl of the priest in what had been tagged an “Anointing Service.” They seemed to submit so totally to the ritual as if their very breath depended on it. His mother was later to explain something to him about the mystic potentials of the simple ritual.
