Baptist City Blog

David may be the most thoughtful person mentioned in the Scriptures. What is amazing about David is that his thoughtfulness process went from God to friends and family, and then outside influences. He understood the importance of remembering those influences who helped him get to where he was. He never acquired the mentality that he did everything himself. He truly understood that there were influences in his life who helped him to climb the corporate ladder.

David was running for his life when King Saul had his annual feast where mandatory attendance of his cabinet members was expected. This put David in a bad position because he knew if he went that he would probably be assassinated. David sent word to Jonathan, Saul’s son, and asked him what he should do. Jonathan came up with a plan for David to stay out of town for a night, and at the first night of the feast, he would see if David would be missed because his seat was empty. Of course, David was missed, and Saul became angry at Jonathan for protecting David from being killed.

No army would go into battle with the goal of losing the war. Army troops would not go into battle without the weapons needed to fight the war and defeat the enemy. It would be total foolishness for a leader of a brigade to tell his troops to leave their guns and weapons of war at the camp while they went to fight the battle. That would be ludicrous!

When Samuel was taking the leadership role over Israel, he was taking a country that was spiritually bankrupt. Eli overlooked sin because he didn't want to deal with the sins of his sons. Because of this, Israel had set up gods to worship, lived wicked lifestyles and had become captives to the Philistines. When you see the condition of Israel when Samuel took over, you will see that sin left them the same way it will leave you when it has taken its course.

One of the greatest mistakes that many parents make is they leave their children alone because they “trust” them. Years ago, I had an older gentlemen give me some advice before I even had children. He said, “Never trust your children.” I wish every parent would heed that advice because “a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” One of your responsibilities as a parent is to be sure that your children are safe. A child left to themselves are not safe because that is when the Devil will do his work in their hearts. With this thought in mind, let me give you several areas where you should never leave your child alone.

The verse above is the result of a very sick story about a man whose concubine left him to go to her father’s house. During the time that she was with her father, she lived an immoral life, but though this man knew about it, he still wanted to reconcile their relationship. He journeyed to her father’s house to reconcile the relationship, and apparently was successful with his attempts.

Abimelech was a very wicked man. His desire for power was evident when he killed anyone who could have challenged his ability to reign. He was so wicked that he killed seventy of his half-brothers all because he was afraid one of them might try to remove him from power.

Many things can damage or destroy a relationship, but one of the biggest contributors is jumping to conclusions. I’ve seen people hear something and instantly correct people without ever giving that person a chance to tell their side of the story. Jumping to conclusions will at best damage the trust in a relationship and at worst destroy it. Many leaders have hurt their ability to lead because they jumped too soon on something they heard. Many friendships have been destroyed because one side believed a rumor and responded without hearing their friend tell their side of the story. This damage to relationships doesn't have to happen.

The verse above is an itemization of Israel’s victories. At the point this verse was recorded, they had conquered several cities, but they still had more land to subdue. One of the reasons God wanted this recorded was because He wanted Israel to keep a victory mindset. God wanted them to remember what He had already helped them to do, but He also wanted them to keep perpetuating victories so that future generations would learn a victory mindset. There are several principles seen in these verses if you want to experience victory perpetuity.

Taking over the leadership role of Israel was no small step for Joshua. For most people, this would have been an intimidating task, and maybe that is why God said, “Be strong and of a good courage…”Joshua completely understood that he couldn’t replace Moses, but he also understood that somebody had to lead.