Alive and Active

In 2nd Samuel 15, Absalom begins to strategically steal the hearts of the people so he could become King. As leaders and believers, we can't stick our heads in the sand when things get tough, and we can't take on the role of being a cheerleader instead of an umpire. Absalom took advantage of the people and his conspiracy grew. We have to hold each other accountable, we ourselves must be teachable in order to always be learning and we must be reading / studying the scriptures daily to prevent ourselves from being prideful like Absalom was.

King David's family was spiraling  out of control and he had to do something with his family. As Christians, when we face tough situations we need to be people who have solutions and who are ready to act. David should have stepped up and intercepted the conflict within his family instead of leaving Absalom to plot his conspiracy for kingship.

In 1 Chronicles 12:32, the men of Issachar understood the times and they knew exactly what Israel should do. Sometimes as parents, hard things will happen in life and we need to be ready to adjudicate those things with godly wisdom. King David was not involved with his sons like he should have been. Regardless of the situation, our hope is in Christ and we can take heart and be of good cheer because Jesus has overcome the world.

Can we be trusted with the time, talent, and treasures that the Lord has given us while we are on Earth? Our hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and we all have blind spots. The only way to clean up our blind spots is to be in the scriptures. The Lord wants to change our lives so that we can help change others, just like He did with Joni Erickson Tada. As we endure suffering, we are to be joyful in the Lord in all things and make the most with our time, talent, and treasures.

In Psalm 139, David asks God to search him and know his heart and to test him and know his anxious thoughts. As believers, we need to continuously go to the Lord and have him search us like David asked in Psalm 139. We know that the end times are near so we must prepare and choose to trust God and His word.  When we let the Lord search our heart, it's like a grand slam because if we confess, The Lord will forgive our sin and that is an incredible Blessing.

Time doesn't heal all wounds. Healing comes from the Lord. Ephesians 5 tells us to live wisely and make the most of every opportunity. How do we spend our time after we have been hurt by others? We can allow the Lord to redeem our time for His glory. When we follow Jesus, we will take on numerous collisions, but we have to get back up because Jesus wants to do so much with your life. Go to the Lord and ask for wisdom and allow God to turn the friction into traction.

The commissioner, God, has given us His rule book, the Word of God, and He entrusts us to make calls of balls or strikes, and follow the rule book with accuracy. King David failed to discuss the difficult things in his family. In 2 Samuel 13, David failed to jump in and speak up when Absalom plotted the murder of his brother Amnon. Judgment starts in our home and judgment has to be dealt with at home plate. We are protectors in our homes and we live out of the confidence that we have Jesus Christ.

We can be constantly praying for our kids, but sometimes our kids might go off the path. Sometimes that's part of God's sovereignty, but we can still have hope that even if things don't look great. The game is not over yet. Luke 15 shows us the character of God in the story of the prodigal son. Even though the son had sinned greatly against his father and had used all the wealth, it says that when the father saw him and was filled with compassion for him, he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Despite the circumstances, we press on for the Lord and if we aren't dead, then we aren't done.

There are many crafty men in this world just like Jonadab who want to influence our children in negative and unbiblical ways.  We are the primary Bible teachers for our kids and we need to make sure that we are maximizing the time we have with our children since the window of having them under our roof  is only open for a short time. Pour into your family and don't let work or anything else lead you to being an absent dad at home. Be intentional and get into the paint with your kids, they are a true gift from the Lord.

When we come out of any type of sin, we have to move on and share what we came out of. The enemy wants us to live in the rear view mirror. In 2nd Samuel 13, David's son Amnon lustfully falls in love with his half-sister Tamar. David should have stepped in, but because of his absence, Amnon is influenced by the wicked Jonadab. The Lord wants us to steward our family well and we need to make daily deposits into the lives of our wife and children. We must go to the Word of God so we can steward our families (that have been entrusted to us) well.