The Foundations of God's Plan

This week, we tried to put the last eleven months of walking through God's plan that was revealed in the Old Testament stories.  In choosing certain people in history and working His plan through the ages, through the lives of real men and women, God has shown us who He is--His nature, His promises, and His work.  And in the end, we discover it really is all about Jesus.

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David, Part 8: God's Promise (2 Samuel 7)

The story we tell every Christmas began long before a "silent night" in Bethlehem.  We might say it started in eternity past in the heart of God, and that is true.  But the sense anticipation that not only marks our modern experience with the Christmas season but also serves as the emotional backdrop of the original birth narrative began with a promise made to King David.  It was a promise that would be the hope of Israel throughout the coming centuries as the nation weakened and was overrun by enemies.  It was the promise of a Messiah, the Christ-King ("anointed one") who would sit on the throne of David and redeem God's people. 

But when Jesus finally arrived, he found a people anxious for God to fulfill His promise to David, but who misunderstood the nature of the promise.  As we read the story today, how can we avoid the same mistakes?

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David, Part 7: Higher Ground (2 Samuel 5-6)

A new era began in David's life when he moved to Jerusalem and brought the Ark of the Covenant.  He had moved to "higher ground"--in both a literal and metaphorical sense.  God had taken him from the "miry clay" to the "rock," where he had firm footing.  How do we reach higher ground in our lives? 

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David, Part 6: Civil War (2 Samuel 1-4)

Did you know that after Saul's death, David didn't immediately become king? It's a story that's rarely told, but there was a civil war in Israel over who would be the next king. But David wanted to bring unity to the nation as peacefully as possible.

Are you in the middle of conflict at work, in your family, or in other relationships? How can we be an agent for unity in this polarizing world that we live in? We can learn from the example of David...

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David, Part 5: David, Saul, and the Philistines (1 Samuel 27-31)

We live in a superficial society, but the gospel is anything but superficial. It is able to penetrate every part of our lives as Jesus makes all things new in us. But we often put off God our compartmentalize our spiritual lives away from... "real life." We see in Scripture that we aren't the first to do that. At the end of 1 Samuel, we can see in the lives of both David and Saul the dangers of living a superficial spiritual life.

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Thanks, Bobby Jean

Sunday we honored long-time member Bobby Jean Wilkie for her many decades of service to our church and the kingdom of God.  We were blessed to have many in her family in attendance.  Here is the video we put together for the occasion:

David and Jonathan

If we are really honest with ourselves, friendship is hard.  The Bible tells us to "Love your neighbor as yourself," but so often we want for ourselves what others have.  And we see the success of others as something that we need to degrade or that degrades us.  How can we follow the biblical example to "rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn"?  God provides a shining example for what it means to be a friend in Jonathan, son of the king who would become David's mortal enemy.  Jonathan shows us that friendship is a gift of God and how we can be the friend that God has called us to be.

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