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The Journey

Dealing with the enemy

Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

There are several people that really bother me, I do not know why all the time but many times it’s because… well I’ll leave it at that. The life of David is weird this guy is great and all but sometimes he just responds to things in a way that is so unnatural. First off his son basically steals the country from him, secondly he chases him out of town, and third tries to kill him any one of these things is crazy but what is crazier is David’s response. Sure we may look at this as the greatness of a father’s love for his children, but this is beyond the family it has gone into the criminal realm. Yet David commands the men not to kill the boy.

David’s son is sinful in many ways, trying to take over the kingdom by force is only one he is also vain, and he is riding on a mule (which is not kosher from my understanding). This man is about as far from God as any gentile yet David wants to extend grace. The men who sided with David do not seem to have the same view, they love their king and were goingto protect him and the kingdom with all they had. But at what cost?

Absalom was a sinful man but he was loved by the king. No matter how far he erred his father still loved him and wanted to have continued fellowship with him. This got me thinking about how I am treating people. Like those people that really irritate me for various reasons. They are loved by the king, they are the children of the king, I know it sounds crazy but the very God that I say I love loves them just as much as me. He wants to be in continued fellowship with them just as much as me. I wish they would fall off the face of the earth, but that won’t happen because God created gravity…because he loves us and doesn’t want us to fly off into space.

Back on point… We tend to get all worked up about thing, many of those things are very important essencials to what we believe in God. Then their are other issues that are important but are not as important as we think. To David being king was less important than being a dad. He would rather have a relationship with his son than to see his son killed. Jesus is similar yes he would like to be king of all, but really He would rather have a relationship. It does not change the fact that He is king but it does change how we respond.

Today as you pray I encourage us all to imagine David’s love for his son, imagine the fear in Absalom as he ran from the army of the king, and imagine those people causing us that trouble. Are those people sons and daughters of God living in fear because they are trying to steal the kingdom or are they enemies? How we answer tht question speaks values to who we are and what our relationship with God is like. 

While we were still enemies, Christ died for Us.

About jwquaker

I’m sure everyone wants to know who I am…well if you are viewing this page you do. I’m Jared Warner and I am a pastor or minister recorded in the Evangelical Friends Church Mid America Yearly Meeting. To give a short introduction to the EFC-MA, it is a group of evangelical minded Friends in the Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado. We are also a part of the larger group called Evangelical Friends International, which as the name implies is an international group of Evangelical Friends. For many outside of the Friends or Quaker traditions you may ask what a recorded minister is: the short answer is that I have demistrated gifts of ministry that our Yearly Meeting has recorded in their minutes. To translate this into other terms I am an ordained pastor, but as Friends we believe that God ordaines and mankind can only record what God has already done. More about myself: I have a degree in crop science from Fort Hays State University, and a masters degree in Christian ministry from Friends University. Both of these universities are in Kansas. I lived most of my life in Kansas on a farm in the north central area, some may say the north west. I currently live and minister in the Kansas City, MO area and am a pastor in a programed Friends Meeting called Willow Creek Friends Church.

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