What I Have Escaped

You. A Person after God's Own Heart

Over the years, the United States has suffered terrible headlines concerning our leaders. We cringe as another scandal embarrasses the country.

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Acts 13: 22

“After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.‘”

2 Samuel 11:15

“Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 

James 1:5 

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

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But if headlines existed, the Jerusalem Bugle might have blared the headline Government Leader Sends Soldier to His Death from the masthead, in, say, 1000 BC. An obscure king in the Old Testament ordered a good man to go to the front lines. He planned for the enemy to kill Uriah. The king wanted to cover his sin with the soldier’s wife. Let’s see. What was his name? You may have heard of him. Oh yes. David. A man after God’s own heart.

What led God to call David a man after God’s own heart? Evidently not perfection.

A man after God’s own heart doesn’t mean a man (person) has the heart of God, but a man (who seeks) after God’s Heart. We run after it. We long for it. The LORD wants prayer, Bible reading, and waiting. James 1:5 says He will give wisdom for the asking. 

Writers define the qualities necessary to have the heart of God, or lists on being a good person. But God’s heart for David called for a warrior and king. If I follow God’s heart for David, I will fail. I have no talent for leading the troops. God gave David a heart to follow His will, as in the second line of Acts 13:22. He will do everything I want him to do.

David never repeated sin of the caliber of his tryst with Bathsheba. And he took his punishment with obedience. His wisdom guides us in the Psalms. We base our lives on those words.

God took David’s baby away after a day that David spent on his face in prayer. He accepted the LORD’s punishment when he realized that the baby died. That’s it. Back to work. He obeyed the heart of God with no regard for his own pain.

When we sin, the door to God doesn’t close. Repentance leads us back.

David practiced obedience, prayer, and listening to the voice of God. He sought His will in everything.

Oh, look. There goes Nancy — Harry — George — Mary — Pat — Kevin — Karen — and you: a person after God’s own heart: past sins forgotten.

Dear Lord, Please let me follow the example of David, seeking Your heart in all I think or do.

 

Painting: David & Nathan, Robert Leinweber, 1845-1921

Happy New Year 2021

God called Jeremiah to prophesy from childhood. He risked his life to tell the unpopular truth of Jerusalem's destruction. The people deserted worship of God to worship the Idol Baal with the evil practices of that religion, such as sacrificing the children (sound familiar?). He often had to contradict the "ear-ticklers" who told the people what they wanted to hear. Then Jeremiah gave God's true word.

Jeremiah 29 tells of the surviving people carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah prophesies that in seventy years God will return them to Jerusalem. Those left in Jerusalem will suffer destruction.

God doesn't make the above prophesy to everyone. He iterates that the Jewish exiles will serve Him with all their heart, souls, minds, and strength (my translation). 

2020 brought trouble, including death in every nation. With all the passion we have, we long for the above prophecy to apply to us. Unlike many people, I don't believe 2020 ends on New Year's Eve. But if we as a nation return to the Almighty Creator, we will experience the promise above. Otherwise . . .

Dear Lord, forgive us our sins as individuals and as a nation. Let each person (me) love You with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength.

See you in 2021

 

Photo: David Brooke Martin, Gallery

Peter Wept in Shame After He Rejected His God

Luke 22:33

But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”

Luke 22:61-62

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.”  And he went out and wept bitterly.

Have you ever blundered so badly you think the Lord has no further use for you?

Just hours before the crucifixion, at the last supper, Peter swore his allegiance to Jesus unto death.

When they arrested Jesus, Peter followed at a distance. Jesus stood before the high priest and Peter waited below with others before the fire in the courtyard. A girl declared that he served the man on trial. Later, two men stated that he followed Jesus. He denied the Lord three times. A rooster crowed. Just then, Jesus walked past and Peter looked in those eyes as they gazed at Him. He ran from the group and wept bitterly. He had denied his Lord. Surely his heart hung in his chest like a jagged boulder. 

Peter became a great worker for the Lord, a fisher of men, a contributor to the Bible. But in that moment, he failed his Lord. Had he gone beyond redemption?

You are never so lost that God can’t find you.

Ex-convicts, robbers, murderers, and doers of every evil we can imagine, become drug counselors, ministers, and work with at-risk kids. 

When Jesus touched the lives of Ex abortion providers, Sue Thayer, Abby Johnson, and Ramona Trevino, they gave their lives to ending abortion through the group 40 Days for Life. The first day, Sue Thayer stood in front of the clinic she had run and, with the group, spoke against the atrocity of abortion. The ACLU gave the group the greatest honor: 40 Days for Life presents the greatest threat to pro choice. And the list continues.

The Lord hates our sin, but He foresaw your life before your spirit entered your mother’s body and knew your every act. He takes every deed and adds it to His great puzzle. You will become more in His likeness with every tear.

Dear Lord, Forgive me for the ways I hurt myself and others. Use my sin to make me more like You.