When the Lord strengthens His children, He does so by pointing to Himself rather than them.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   Shifting blame does not strengthen you in the LORD. You notice that the men in David’s camp put all their eyes on David, and think that he alone carries the guilt of the situation. And many times, this is the path that is recommended to us as well. Get it off your chest, and shift the blame. The first thing I want us to notice is that David strengthened himself in the LORD. All capital letters used in LORD, which is God’s personal name that He gave to Israel as the name He was to be known by them—Yahweh. The name represents the eternal, covenantal, promise-keeping, never failing aspect of God Almighty. God’s name is “I Am.” It is not “I Was,” or “I Will Be” because God does not change. We can put our full trust in God because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. He is “I Am.” It is means that our God is eternal and completely self-sufficient, in need of no one, depending on no one. This is the God that David is finding His strength in. The eternal, self-sufficient, promise-keeping God of the Israelites, the living God over all the earth. Now why is this important to know? This is important to know so that we do not confuse being strengthened in the LORD with getting a pep talk from the LORD. A pep talk causes you to look at yourself: “You are great!” “You deserve this!” “Give yourself some grace!” “Pour into your self” All this self-care business is nauseating. I have literally seen full grown adults want to be praised and championed because they had their teeth brushed by 10am. It was like they had lit the Olympic Torch or something. You can read about men who are in process of “becoming the best versions of themselves.” When the LORD strengthens His children, He does not point their attention to themselves, but rather to HIMSELF. We do not gain strength and courage and resolve and resiliency by looking in the mirror. WE gain it, “IN THE LORD.” When we come to the LORD with are faced with ourselves, with our sin, but in the LORD we are reminded that HE is a forgiving God, and He is not backing away from His promises because HE is a covenantal God. He points us to Himself and says to find our strength in Him!

Information travels into and out of the brain at incredible speeds.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

We should preach the truth in love and let the Holy Spirit do His work without judgment.   ~~~   What do planks, pigs and pearls all have in common? Jesus. Jesus referred to all three at a certain point in His sermon on the mount. In this section of His sermon He is doing two things. He is condemning judging others, while also speaking to the importance of discernment. They are two different things and both are very important. Jesus wants us to consider our own heart when it comes to both. Let’s look closer at what Jesus says about planks, pigs and pearls. Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. Jesus is very clear. Do not judge. How you judge others is how you will be judged. Easy enough right? I wish. Friends, we start each day looking in the mirror, yet often we don’t see what is glaring back at us. We are blind to our own planks as we nitpick over the dust in our brother or sister’s eye. Let it begin with me. May we start each day with a posture of humility and openness to the spirit to reveal the planks we must FIRST remove. Only then, can we move toward our brother or sister to remove their speck. And before we remove a speck, how about we encourage what they’re doing right. Speak life and then that will open a door to receive correction in love. This makes me think of my girls. In the morning if one of them has something that is not right with their hair or makeup, they are quick to help each other. Let me get that, there is something not right. Let’s get that back in place. This, I believe, is the spirit of what I call ‘speck removal’. There IS a time and a place, but it must be from a heart of love and care, not judgment. We ladies call it straightening each other’s crown. It does more to build UP than tear DOWN. We should invite that kind of ‘speck removal’ and crown straightening. It’s the sharpening and refining process we all need to clear out and fix what we can’t see. That’s a beautiful thing that moves us toward maturity in Christ. So that’s the planks part, what about the pigs and pearls? That seems different than judging. Well, that’s where spiritual discernment comes in. We are called to tell the world about Jesus. We are not the judge, yet we are to go, tell and make disciples. How that message of truth is received is not up to us. If the truth and love of Jesus we have to give to the world, our pearls, are not welcome, we move on. We plant seeds and where they fall and if they root or not is beyond our control. We simply are called to love our neighbor, walk in obedience and be faithful to share the message. There are many that will deny the truth of Jesus. There are many that will not receive it. Love them and move on. You will never win a heart to Jesus through a debate. Let the Holy Spirit do its work. Speak and live out the priceless truth and hope we hold dear. If it is not received as such, then shake the dust off and know the Lord will lead you to hearts that are ready to hear. That’s the truth. Planks, pigs and pearls, oh my. The words and ways of Jesus are what we live by. When our hearts are aligned with His, the planks are obvious, the pearls are precious and the pigs are well, pigs. Walk on my friends. I’m Lori Cline.

Grief alone will not provide strength, unless it leads to undivided alone time with God.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   When you have no strength, you strengthen yourself in the LORD. The children’s song speaks volumes…”they are weak but He is strong.” But how? That’s the real question isn’t it? How did David strengthen Himself in the LORD? What was His process? Because it’s not very helpful for us just to say, “He strengthened himself in the LORD, and you should too,” without knowing how he did that. And I think our text, and this particular verse, is helpful to us on understanding how Strengthening yourself in the LORD does and does not happen. HOW WE SEEK THE LORD’s STRENGTH: Grieving, alone, does not strengthen you in the LORD. We see in this text that the men, including David, grieved heavily. This is not to see that grieving is not a part of the process, but grieving is not the whole process. Some people will tell you, “You just need to have a good cry…just a good rant session. Get it all out and then you will feel better. But it’s not true. You are not changed by just grieving through a situation. The book of Psalms is filled with songs of Lament. Grief. The expression of pain, heartache, confusion fills the pages of the book of Psalms. Psalm 12:1, 6 “Save O lORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak…(7) You O LORD will keep them (the poor); you will guard from this generation forever.” Psalms 13:1, 5 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?…But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” In the Psalms of Lament, yes their is grief, but there is a turning to the LORD, a trusting in the LORD. The grief is a way of emptying you of all your strength, but there is no strength to replace it. Thinking that grief alone will strengthen you is the same mistake we make when we say, “I just need to get away. I need a vacation. That will make everything better.” This was my way of thinking for a long time until very recently that I realized that it is not the vacation that refreshes me but rather the undistracted, undisturbed time alone with the LORD. So grief alone, just letting it out, getting it off your chest, is not what strengthened David.

We can long for heaven while still diligently working for Christ in life.

Even in the depths of our despair, we can strengthen ourselves in God.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   The great country singer/songwriter Chris Stapleton wrote a song entitled “The Last Thing I Needed the First Thing This Was to Have You Walk Out on Me.” It’s a song that goes from bad to worse. And so goes many country songs, right?   We all probably have our favorite sad country song where the story goes from bad to worse. And the reason is that we all can probably identify with that reality—life going from bad to worse. We know that pain. Have you ever had a time in your life where the situation went from bad to worse? I know you have. I know some of your stories. Some of the pain, heartache, and sadness. In our text today, it goes from bad to worse. “…the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb, and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength.” The Amalekites were a group of people that David and his band had previously been raiding the previous 16 months. No doubt that the Amalekite men have timed their attack against Ziklag to be at the same time when David and his men were supposed to be at war with the Philistine army. Put yourself in the scene. You are excited to return home and hug your family, letting them know you won’t be committing treason. And when you cross over the hills and look down on your town, you see the smoke rising from the lot of land where your house used to be. But not just your house…all the houses. All the barns. You race down as fast as you can to see what and who has been salvaged, until you realize, your town is a ghost town. No one anywhere to be found. Why? Because they have all been taken hostage. And so we have this scene. The men, once they discover that not only have their homes and livelihoods been taken from them, so have their loved ones. And they weep, and weep, and weep. Some of you know this exact kind of pain—weeping till you have no more strength, no more tears to cry. Not enough strength to pull yourself up from the ground. From bad to worse. “And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul.” From bad, to worse, to even worse. Someone, in their pain and misery, rises up, points a finger and a glare at David and says, “YOU! If it hadn’t been for you we wouldn’t be in this situation. You caused all of this! This happened because of your bright ideas. Because of your plans! We have lost our homes, our children, our families because of you.” Have you been there? Have you been in that place where it seemed like all strength was gone? What did you do? Maybe you just put your head down, stuff your emotions down deep and trudge along. Maybe you drink yourself into a stupor. Self-medicated How about busyness—how many of you fill up your life with busyness so you won’t have to deal with the pain, or dive into the social media world thinking that will fix it? How many of you put on a brave face in public but cry yourself to sleep at night? What do you do when you have no more strength? AND, what will David do in such a place, in the midst of such a demoralizing, desperate situation? Will he try to run away like he did from Saul? 1 Samuel 30:6 “BUT DAVID STRENGTHENED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.”

Falling in love can happen within minutes.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

When we recognize what God is calling us to do, we must pursue that calling.   ~~~   What are you pursuing? You might say you are pursuing your passion. Is pursuing your passion always a good thing? It depends on the heart behind it and the motivation. Is it rooted in the spirit or rooted in the flesh? There IS a big difference. For me, as a believer in Jesus, I am motivated by the spirit of the living God in me. No longer is it about my will and my way, it’s His will and His way for my life. I am not my own. I was created for a purpose for such a time as this. Here’s the cool part, that purpose, becomes my passion because I was gifted for it and designed to fulfill it. That’s the way God works. Oftentimes though, we get distracted. We get overwhelmed. We lose sight of what matters most and we clutter up our heart, life and home with things that lead us away from that passion and purpose. We settle for idols, cheap imitations and substitutes of God’s best for our life and as we pursue those things, we find ourselves lost. Thankfully God is a new morning mercy kind of God. His grace is sufficient and his love for me never fails. His desire is for me to know His will. In this season, when so many find themselves Spring cleaning and clearing out the clutter to move forward, I am taking steps to do the same. Pray. Purge. Pursue. These three steps have led me to be still and listen to where God is leading me to move forward in areas of my life. I’m doing more listening than speaking and if you know me, you know that’s not easy. But where I am weak, He is strong and I am leaning IN to hear God’s voice and be moved to ready myself for what He has for me. Pray and listen to what God wants to gently reveal to you. Purge and clean out what needs to be made new, pruned or thrown out of your life. Pursue with passion where God is leading you. Pursue is our last step. This is where we are confident of what God has spoken and we know the steps we are to take by faith and we are now at the starting block getting ready to run! Our feet are locked and loaded and the path is clear. Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Do you see the example of Jesus? Pray. Purge. Pursue. He listened to the Father. He spent time in prayer. He knew the Father’s will. He laid down His own. He ran the race that was set before Him, endured the cross and made a way for you and me. Even though the world may tell you different, this life is not about you. God created the world and knit you together in your mother’s womb for a purpose. That purpose rests completely IN Him. He has joy for you today and it is found when you pursue Him, because as you do, the path and purpose for your life becomes clear and you can’t help but pursue it with passion. That’s the truth. Don’t be overwhelmed in this season, do what I’m doing. Pray. Purge. Pursue. Joy isn’t found in doing all the things we should be doing, it’s found at the feet of Jesus. We listen for His voice, move by his leading and pursue the plans He has for us. Let’s ready ourselves for the race we were created to run. I’m Lori Cline.

Jesus, our perfect King, walked into the heart of death and darkness to release us from sin’s entrapment.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   As we consider the life of David, we see he had missteps and made bad decisions, and needed to be rescued from his own sin and entrapment. So we still need a king; in fact we need an eternal King after God’s own heart. And that is who we have in Jesus—the perfect King. He had no missteps and made no bad decisions. But He still needed rescue from sin’s entrapment of death, because as a perfect King, he was also the perfect atoning sacrifice, taking our sin upon Himself. He was held down into death by our sin. He was trapped in the clutches of death. Like Saul at the end of chapter 28, Jesus went away into the nighttime and darkness of death. But like David, Jesus is released from sin’s entrapment early in the morning. Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Which proves Jesus as God’s choice for King, fulfilling all promises of a righteous and holy and glorious king.

Do we get so caught up in religion that we forget to look for God?

The Bible can change the lives of those who apply it.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

An in-depth Bible study does not have to be reserved for scholars.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

God uses His people, the church, to spread the good word of His salvation.   ~~~   We are to be cultivating our joy in God, with God’s people, to God’s world. The mission is spreading the message of God’s mercy to the world. We live in a world of misery and distress at every turn, people enslaved by their own sin, being abused by other’s sin…in every part of the world. There is not a part of this globe that hasn’t been touched and tortured by this. And yet, God is in process of executing His unstoppable plan and mission of gathering up His children, from far and wide, and He does it through His church—People who are trophies of his mercy and grace. You have a song to sing, a message to spread, a God of mercy to worship, and a King of glory to proclaim. Last week I asked you to think about two people to pray for during the week. I encouraged you to let them know that you were praying for them and for you to ask them how you could pray specifically for them. Maybe some of them let you know some type of misery and distress they were suffering under. What a great opportunity to let them know of the mercy of God that He extends to His children in all sorts of surprising ways. Maybe it will open up conversations about whether they are God’s child, who has Jesus as their Savior/king.

Music can help us remember things more clearly.

We must ask God to purge our lives of the sins that draw us away from Him.   ~~~   What is God leading you to in this season? Where is He wanting to mold you? Are there areas of your life and heart that need a clean out? It is Spring. What work needs to be done now that will lead to making room for growth and good fruit down the road? While I love the idea of Spring cleaning, I do not want to do the Spring cleaning. That is in a way what led me to seek the Lord in this season and it really doesn’t have much to do with vacuuming or dusting. I’ve simply been overwhelmed. I know many of you can relate. As I have taken inventory of my life, home and heart, and all the things that seem obvious that I NEED to do, I’ve been stuck in ways, not even knowing where to begin. That’s when God gave me the words pray, purge and pursue. Instead of getting stuck in a cycle of what I should be doing, my heart is seeking what the Lord wants to LEAD me to do. One way is full of shame and guilt while the other is full of grace and is an open invitation to move closer to who God wants me to be and the plans He has for me. We began last time with pray. If you missed it you can find it at Lifeword.org, but to recap a bit, we’re asking God to lead us to the things and areas of our life and heart that need attention. Pray till you pray, is the first step and words are not required. The purpose of the ‘pray’ step is to be still and know God wants to move you closer to His heart and will for your life in every area. So listen and see where He leads you. The next step we are looking at today is PURGE. We begin with prayer. Once God reveals our area of focus, it’s time to purge. Now when I think of purge I think of the physical act of cleaning OUT. Get rid of it. And in fact, that may be what God wants you to do. To purge is to cleanse, purify or remove. When you have the urge to purge, you act quickly! I love that! For me, this is where the spirit comes in. Where I am weak, thank God He is strong. I can lean on the Lord to give me the strength to follow through with any action of obedience the Lord moves me to take. (2 Corinthians 2:10) I will never have the urge to do things that aren’t easy, but in His strength, I can do all things! What this step looks like for you will be different from what it may look like for me. Ask God to reveal your step forward and then to give you the urge or desire to take it! Where and what do we need to purge? God will reveal it. We can look to Psalm 51 as an example. David’s sin was revealed and instead of sweeping it under the rug or ignoring it, he responded, took action and brought it to the Lord. Psalm 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. God revealed what needed to be cleaned out in David’s heart. David responded with repentance and surrender. He wanted to have the sin cut out and his life made new. He moved closer to God through the process. We can do the same whatever that looks like. Be still and listen to His voice. By faith, you can throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. (Hebrews 12:1) You can cut out what is dead in your life and prune back areas of growth to produce more fruit. (John 15:2) You can take an honest inventory of where your treasure has been and realign your heart to what matters most. (Matthew 6:19-21) Wherever God leads us, those are the steps we can take to respond. That’s the truth. We pray then we purge. God reveals and we respond. It’s Spring cleaning that goes beyond the surface. Next time we’ll move beyond the purge to PURSUE what God has in store. Join me at lifeword.org. I’m Lori Cline.

God has a plan that cannot be thwarted by any human being.   ~~~   We do see God extending mercy in David’s time of distress and misery, but remember, there is something bigger going on than just God working in David’s life. God was working for the future of Israel and for us. 1 Samuel is all about having the right type of King over your life. Saul was not the right type of King, but he was exactly what the people had asked for. In fact, there is an eerie comparison between Saul and Achish. Both kings benefitted from David’s military might. Both kings brought David close into their ranks. But Saul did not trust David, and was paranoid about him, when he had no reason to be. Achish, on the other hand, was fond of David and trusted David, when he had no reason to do such. And what we see from this comparison is that Saul is like the other kings of the nations, in that neither of them had any spiritual insight at all. But David was a man after God’s own heart. And God is able to provide Israel with what they needed—not a king like the other nations, but a king sensitive to God and His word. The Philistines could not thwart God’s mission of providing the right type of King for Israel. They could not keep David from being King of Israel, because God’s providence protected David and delivered David. So we see that there is a plan, and God owns the plan, and runs the plan, and executes the plan, which should cause us, today, to be eager to join in God’s plan. God’s plan didn’t end with providing Israel a king. That was only part of it. God’s plan was to have His kingdom proclaimed throughout all the earth, to all peoples, in all times. And that plan is still in effect.

The Christian life is full of highs and lows, victories and defeats, but God is with us through it all.   ~~~   What is the difference between David and Saul? Why does David receive mercy, and Saul receive judgment? The answer is a simple one—David’s relationship with God. David’s heart was soft and tender towards God. Saul’s heart was hardened against God. One was an apostate. The other was a backslider, who repented and was saved by the grace and mercy of God. We are learning that the life of the Christian is not one of a continual rise to new spiritual heights, is it? The life of a Christian is full mountain peaks and valley dips, bumps and bruises, peace and storms, heartbreak and hallelujahs. And through it all, God’s mercy carries us.

Christians should complement one another with our abilities.

What my toddler taught me with his dirty little hands.

Grieving a lost loved one can lead to death.

We should be constantly praying with the knowledge that God knows our need before we ask.   ~~~   Now that it’s Spring, what do many of us find ourselves doing on a sunny afternoon? Spring cleaning! Ok, maybe I should have rephrased that and asked, ‘what SHOULD many of us be doing’? Yes, it’s time for Spring cleaning, but to be honest, if I have a free sunny afternoon, the last thing I want to do is clean. But, there IS something about coming out of winter, with all its cold and dark days, into the beauty and warmth of Spring. You do want to throw the windows open, let the fresh air in, whistle while you work and allow all the woodland creatures to come clean your home like they did for Cinderella! Oh if only that could happen. If you’re like me in this season, honestly, I’m overwhelmed. Maybe you can relate. My heart is still mourning the loss of my Dad, we’ve had many losses around us, people are hurting and life hasn’t slowed down for any of it. In fact, I think it sped up! Now hear me, I am blessed through it all. God’s grace and mercy IS new for me every morning and His goodness is all over my life, still it’s a lot at times. My heart is embracing the beauty of lament and I do find myself praising through the storms. Still, in that place, I’ve felt stuck when it comes to the things I SHOULD be doing, like Spring cleaning! With an honest heart, I wanted to share with you what God has gently led me to in this season, to take some steps forward in areas that I find it difficult to move. It’s three steps. Pray. Purge. Pursue. Write those down if you feel led to. Pray. Purge. Pursue. We can journey together. I’ll dig deeper into each one over the next 3 broadcasts. The thing is, in any season, God wants us to know Him more. He wants us to abide deeper in His presence and as we do, the light of truth shines bright on areas of our lives that may need some attention. As the spirit of God REVEALS, we then are moved to take steps of obedience as we RESPOND to His leading. Then the beautiful thing is our movement or action steps aren’t rooted in comparison, shame or defeat. Our steps are a response to an invitation to move closer to healing, closer to health, closer to God’s will for our lives and ultimately closer to who God has called us to be for such a time as this. So, if you’re ready to join me in this season to take some steps forward, whatever that looks like for you, we begin today with prayer. The first step is to pray till you pray. Make time. Get quiet. Be still. Shut out distractions and take some deep breaths. This is the most important step. If you miss this, you’re motives and movements can be way off. Don’t look to what the world or social media says you need to be doing in this season. What does God say? Psalm 46:10 says ‘be still, and know that I am God’. To hear God’s voice, we must still our own and others. This is the primary focus of the first step. Silence the noise and wait on the Lord to reveal the areas of your heart, life and home that may need attention. Your heart may need time to open. That’s ok too. Words aren’t required when we pray. The spirit intercedes for us, Romans 8:26 tells us and I’m so glad. Often I have no words and I think that’s where God wants us to begin. Just be still. Jesus invites us to come and find rest. In Matthew chapter 6 Jesus gives us His example in how to pray. I love the Lord’s prayer, but it’s the verse right before it that in this season, moves my heart. Matthew 6:7-8 ​​And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you pray till you pray. No words are required, simply a heart open to hear. And if you know me I love words, but God is gently reminding me, I don’t have to even speak. My Father knows what I need before I even ask. Pray. It’s the first step. Your Father already knows what you need, and the process of prayer and listening to His voice is what allows Him to reveal it to you. That’s the truth. God is very present and He wants you to know what steps to take in this season. Be still. Know He is good and He has a good plan for your life and He has good steps for you to take today. Take this first step with me and pray. Together we’ll discover what comes next. I’m Lori Cline.

We often seek comfort and refuge in the things of the world instead of in God.   ~~~   The last time we saw David, at the very beginning verses of chapter 28, he had been told that he would fight with the Philistine army against the Israelites, and he had just been promoted to be the bodyguard of Achish, ruler of a region of the Philistines. In chapter 29, we are snapped back to the scene with David. The location is Aphek, which, if you remember from chapter 4, is the location where the Philistines were camped when they captured the ark from the Israelites, which brought about the death of Eli, which leads the people of Israel to cry out, “Give us a king like the nations.” All five of the Philistine rulers have gathered at Aphek to mobilize their troops and get ready to march for battle. What will David do? David has been in the Philistine camp for 16 months. He had navigated the situation pretty deftly, convincing the Philistines that he was on their side by saying he was raiding Israelite areas, but all the while actually raiding and destroying other people. And now, because of his deviousness, David is forced into a decision he does not want to make. David was being asked to fight against his kinsmen; against Jonathan, his best friend. Isn’t that just the way we sometimes work, and isn’t that the temptation of sin? We oftentimes seek refuge and comfort and rest in the world, in sin, and then become friendly with it. “Hey, this isn’t so bad. This provides some relief, some comfort. My family is doing better. We are happier. Until you get to the point to where the world calls upon you to forsake your God. You realize you need to be rescued from your sin, but you are in so deep with it, that you don’t know what to do. What is the old saying? Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to give. This is the case with David and his duplicitous life. He sought temporal salvation and safety from the world. He compromised. He is like the Christian today who says he believes in Christ and generosity, but also wants the comforts of this life so he hoards his money. David is like the mom who says she finds her identity in Christ, but spends her time comparing herself and trying to live up to all the virtual supermoms on social media. What could possibly go wrong in this type of lifestyle? Well, what goes wrong is exactly what we see on this page of scripture. The two are at war with one another. So there are very real, down to earth, nitty gritty decisions to be made. What does it profit a man if he gains the world, and forfeits his life (Matthew 16:26)?

Church members sometimes have trouble expressing difficult topics.

Reading the Bible as a group is a good way to gain a deeper understanding.