Acts 9:4-5 ESV — And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
John 15:19 ESV — If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Don’t be surprised if the world hates you. As a Christian, you should expect persecution. If your life is easy, if you never have to defend your faith, if no one is accusing you of being stupid for following Jesus, you need to get out more! Take a risk. Speak the name of Jesus. Refuse to hide your light under bushel. Remember, it’s really HIM they’re persecuting.
Who are they Persecuting? YOU or JESUS? – FormerAtheist58
By Faith – Keith and Kristyn Getty
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There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.”
Acts 8:18-22 ESV
Are You a Spirit-Led Follower of Jesus Christ? – FormerAtheist58
That’s Who I Praise – Brandon Lake
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“yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.”
Proverbs 2:3-5 ESV
“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
Acts 3:17-19 ESV
Heavenly Father, Draw men and women around the globe to cry out to You, to seek wisdom diligently, to search Your Word like they would mine for gold and diamonds. Let us be ignorant no more. We are without excuse. You have revealed Yourself in creation and in the scriptures. Equip us and send us out as mature believers, to be faithful teachers and heralds of this good news. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Want Wisdom? Repent and Seek
Jesus, We Repent – Stephen McWhirter
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And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42 ESV
Heavenly Father, Thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Fill us, Lord, that we would desire to be devoted to Your Word, to the fellowship of believers, and to prayer. We want to be Your witnesses to all four corners of the earth, for Your glory and for our neighbors’ good. Make us one with You and one with one another. Make us bold and make us humble. We bow at Your feet for You alone are worthy. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the name by which we must be saved, Amen.
Devoted to the Apostles’ Teaching, Fellowship, and Prayer
Your Words are Wonderful – Sovereign Grace Music
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I remember as a new believer in Christ, 30+ years ago, needing to be taught how to pray. Have you ever felt that way? Do you feel that way now? Do you wish you knew how to talk with God? The scriptures are a great place to learn, especially Colossians.
I’m praying for my children, but you might be praying for yourself, your husband, your future husband, or someone else altogether. I hope these words help bend your heart and life toward God.
Heavenly Father, thank You for each of the children that You have given me as well as their spouses and children. Each of them is a gift from Your good hands.
I pray that their hearts will be encouraged and knit together in love with one another and with You. I pray that they may reach all the riches of the full assurance of faith through the understanding and knowledge of Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Protect them from those who want to deceive and confuse them with worldly philosophy and plausible arguments. Give them insight through Your Holy Spirit and through Your written Word. Please, Father, be with them while we are apart. Put strong Christians into their lives. Help them to walk faithfully in Christ, being rooted and built up in Him, established in their faith as they have been taught, with hearts full of thanksgiving.
Grow their faith in Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church and all things, and in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells. Help them to hold fast to Him from whom the whole body is nourished and knit together that they might grow wise and strong in heart, mind, and body.
Help them to put off their fleshly desires and put on Christ, being clothed in His righteousness and made alive with Him. For Your glory and the building up of the body we pray, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Do you ever pray Scripture? Colossians is a great place to start.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Thank You for the sure and certain hope that is laid up for us in heaven by faith in Him. Draw my children to faith in Jesus Christ.
I pray that each of my children will be filled with the knowledge of Your will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they might walk in a manner worthy of You, Lord, living lives that are fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in their knowledge of You. Help them to study your Word each and every day, that they know You better that they would love You more. May they be strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with hearts full of joy and gratitude for Your saving grace.
For those who have not yet fully trusted in You for salvation, I pray that You would deliver them from Satan’s domain of darkness and place them securely in the kingdom of Your Beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Strengthen them to continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which they have heard from my own lips and from the pages of Scripture.In the mighty name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 119:81-120, 2 Samuel 22
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105 ESV
David trusts in God because he knows His Word. David trusts that God sees him and cares about him, so he puts his faith in Him. David trusts in God because he knows that God is good. I’m reminded of Psalm 9:10, “And those who know your name put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You,” written by David.
The better You know God’s Word, the better you will know God.
The more deeply you know God, the more deeply you will trust Him because you will know His immense and everlasting goodness and power.
As your trust in God grows, then you will seek Him and call upon Him, which reminds me of another Psalm of David. Psalm 34:4, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”
As you call upon Him, He will answer you, and then you will praise His Name.
For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.
2 Samuel 22:50-51 ESV
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your goodness and mercy towards me. You are the almighty God, the steadfast rock, the refuge for those who seek You. Help me to trust in You, fully and daily. May I not trust in horses and chariots and human wisdom, but in Christ, the solid rock on whom I stand. He is the eternal God and King of kings. It is in His holy name that I pray. Amen.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 116, 2 Samuel 16
In 1 Samuel 25:3, we read that Abigail was both beautiful and discerning (or sensible, intelligent, of good understanding, depending on your translation). Then, earlier this week in 2 Samuel 14:17, the woman of Tekoa flattered King David saying, “my lord the king is like the angel of God to discern good and evil.” Next month we will dive into 1 Kings and read about David’s son, Solomon, who asked God to give him an understanding mind that he might discern between good and evil so he could rightly govern the nation of Israel.
How desperately we need discernment! We are indeed surrounded by so many liars and deceivers, men and women who call light dark and dark light, who call good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13). As my pastor said when he was teaching through 2 Corinthians 11, Satan disguises in order to deceive, and I might add he deceives in order to devour. (See 1 Peter 5:8)
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He disguises himself in order to deceive us. He deceives us in order to devour us. We must be discerning, distinguishing rightly between good from evil.
We must be wise. Not with the wisdom of the world, but with the wisdom of God. Remember Paul’s introductory words in his letter to the Corinthians, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.'” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19 ESV)
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
– Hebrews 5:7-14 ESV
Let me ask you, when did you first receive Christ?
Last week?
Last month?
Last year?
Last night?
Oh, baby Christian, enjoy the sweet, pure milk on the gospel. It has been given to you to help you grow up to full maturity.
But, sister, were you born again years ago, even decades ago? It’s time to grow up into maturity, training your powers of discernment by constant practice.
In today’s passage, 2 Samuel 16, David isn’t a baby believer anymore. He’s a grown man who knows God and the truth of His Word. He knows that he ought to inquire of God. God has proven Himself faithful. David needed to listen to the Holy Spirit’s counsel that he might know the way that he should go and who he should believe … and so do we.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us Your Word and filling us with Your Holy Spirit. Give us wisdom and lead us in the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Help us to discern what is good and right and true that we may run toward it. And help us to discern what is foolish and wicked and false that we may flee from it. In the Almighty, Holy Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer we pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 115, 2 Samuel 15
Heavenly Father, I don’t want to be like Absalom, rallying people around me and using You as some kind of a tool. My life is Yours. You are the king, and I’m not. Jesus is the King, and I’m not. Help me to love You, to worship You, in Spirit and in truth. Keep me humble for my good and Your glory. In the Holy, Almighty Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 112, 2 Samuel 11
Have you ever gone to a corn maze (or a sorghum maze if you’re in the south)? I’ve taken my kids a few times and discovered I really don’t like them. I hate how easily one wrong turn can lead you down the wrong path, forcing you into another wrong turn and another, until you finally find yourself at a dead-end where you then have to try retracing your steps to get back where you were 30 minutes ago. I’m just not a fan. How about you?
In reading 2 Samuel 11, I couldn’t shake how many times someone could have made a different choice and changed the whole course of events. Chapter 11 begins with the words, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.”
What if David simply had gone to battle instead of staying home?
Then David “arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of his home late in the afternoon.”
What if David had been commanding his armies or counseling his people?
What if David had spent the afternoon in prayer and Bible study?
So often in life it’s how we spend our leisure time that really trips us up!
When we’re worn out, worn down, and trying to relax, what do we do? What do we turn to? Food, Facebook, or the phone? Sex, shopping, or scrolling? How differently things could’ve been in David’s life if he’d spent his afternoon differently.
Then David sees a beautiful woman bathing.
Accidentally seeing someone bathing is not a sin, but what if this wasn’t the first time David had gone up to his roof and noticed Bathsheba.
Had David made an intentional choice to go up on his roof, hoping that he would see Bathsheba?
And what about Bathsheba? Was it really just an accident that she was bathing in the afternoon in such a place that the king who lived nearby would see here?
We don’t know, but how different things could’ve been if Bathsheba had bathed somewhere else or had been more careful to shield herself from David’s view.
And then David sent a messenger to find out more about the woman, and he is told that she is the wife of one of his mighty men, Uriah the Hittite.
Why did David send someone to find out more about her? Was he planning to take her as another wife or maybe a concubine?
But then, I wonder, how did David not know who she was? Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, one of his chosen mighty men (2 Samuel 23:8-9) the daughter of Eliam, also one of David’s chosen mighty men, (2 Samuel 23:34) the granddaughter of Ahithophel, one of David’s chief counselors (2 Samuel 23:34, 2 Samuel 15:12), and she lived near enough to David’s home that he can see her clearly from his roof. Did he really not know who that bathing woman was?
What if David had never inquired of her? David had more than enough wives already. Surely he didn’t need to find out anything about this beautiful young woman.
Next David sends someone to take Bathsheba to his palace and she becomes pregnant.
What if the messenger had refused to help David?
What if Bathsheba had refused to come, preferring shame, imprisonment, or even death to breaking her marital vows?
What if she had fled like Joseph had when Potiphar’s wife tried to get him to lie with her and he ended up in prison? (Genesis 39)
By the way, this phrase, “David sent messengers and took her,” reminded me of 1 Samuel 8 when the Lord warned the Israelites through the prophet Samuel about the troubles that a king would bring upon them. This same Hebrew word for “take” is used again and again in 1 Samuel 8. The king will take their sons and their daughter, their fields and their grain, their servants and their donkeys. And here, David, the king, has taken even the wife of one of his most valuable warriors.
Then David asks Joab to bring Uriah back home, hoping that Uriah would spend some time with his wife, so no one would find out how she had become pregnant.
Like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden after they had taken the forbidden fruit, David chose to hide his sin.
Maybe David was afraid of hurting his friend, Uriah.
Maybe David was afraid of losing his position as king.
Maybe David was simply afraid of losing face.
What if David had come clean at this point and repented of his sin?
What if David had brought Uriah home so that he could confess his sin to him and seek his forgiveness?
Proverbs 28:13 ESV says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Think of how differently this story would’ve ended if David had confessed his sin and sought mercy from Uriah and Bathsheba.
Next when Uriah refuses to go home to be with his wife, then David tells Joab to “set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die.” (11:15) and Uriah was killed in battle.
What if Joab had refused to be a party to this?
People might say, “Joab HAD to obey the king,” like they say that Bathsheba had to obey the king.
Don’t believe those lies. You DON’T have to do it. You don’t. Sure, you might get in trouble. Yes, you might face some embarrassment or other consequences, even severe, or life-threatening consequences, but no one ever has to choose sin.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) because they refused to bow down to the king’s golden idol.
Daniel was thrown into a den of lions (Daniel 6) because he refused to stop praying.
God will always provide a way of escape (even if it’s death) that you may be able to withstand temptation. Read 1 Corinthians 10 for more on this.
David’s sin hurt lots of other people: Uriah, Bathsheba, the child Bathsheba bore, not to mention David’s other wives and David’s other children, as well as Joab and the Israelite army and the list goes on and on. But so does ours.
When we lie or cheat or boast or complain, we hurt other people.
When we think malicious thoughts about others and make plans in our minds to hurt them, we are hurting them as well as ourselves and others. We have got to remember that those people were made in the image of God and when we put our desires above them, it hurts them and it hurts God.
David knew that what he was doing was wrong. David knew the Ten Commandments. He knew it was sin to covet his neighbor’s wife and commit adultery, but he did it and then tried to cover it up. He knew God had said DO NOT MURDER. That’s why he had Joab arrange the murder for him.
Your sin might not look like David’s sin. Maybe you will never get another man’s wife pregnant or have anybody killed, but your sin separates you from God just as much as David’s sin did.
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:21-23
God was displeased with David’s sin, and God is displeased with our sin, too. God made a way for David to be saved, and God made a way for us to be saved, too.
As we will read tomorrow, David’s innocent son died, but so did God’s. God sent His own Son in the flesh, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to be born as a human baby, to live a perfect and sinless life and to die on the cross to pay the punishment that our sins deserve. And He promises to us eternal, abundant, new life in Christ – AS SOON AS we trust in Him His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, to be our ever-present help, our ever-present counselor … and for all eternity to dwell in heaven with Him.
David needed to repent, to turn away from his sins, and so do we. The only way we can do that is to place our trust in the Lord and seek Him for strength to overcome temptation moment by moment and day by day. David fell because he had stopped seeking God; his eyes were on earth instead of on heaven.
Let’s pray and ask God to help us to resist the devil and submit to Him.
Heavenly Father, I need Your help. I can’t do it on my own. My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. Help me to trust You moment by moment. Help me to be so careful how I spend my leisure time. Help me to get the rest I need so I can be strong in the moment of temptation. Help me to resist the devil and submit to You. Help me to see that way of escape that You will provide for me each and every time. Help me to be in Your Word day after day, remembering that it is my weapon to fight against the devil. Help me to hold up that shield of faith so I can extinguish all the flaming darts that the evil one throws my way. Help me to fasten the belt of truth firmly around my waist and strap the breastplate of righteousness tightly to my chest. Give me the strength and courage I need to stand firm and fight this battle, so that I will not bring shame to Your name. I love You, Lord. You are worth the fight. Death is not the worst thing. Denying You whether in word or deed is. Help me, Lord, for the glory of Your Name. Amen.
Teach What is Good 
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