“You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me,…
“Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for…
Now we get to the hard questions. Did David do all of God’s will? We can recognize that this is not a rhetorical question as we, along with Paul’s audience, can now see the answer. In 1 Samuel, God’s statement regarding David as a man after his heart is given in context. Keep in mind that this is the only other description using those words. Samuel tells King Saul: “…your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his…
I noted in the last installment that no healer today can do anything remotely like the miracle of healing the lame man in Acts 3. I have put these same thoughts out before in discussions of miracles and healings. This miracle was performed out in plain sight, about three in the afternoon, and moved in action from the entrance at the Beautiful Gate to the Temple grounds and into Solomon’s Court and around the colonnades. Hundreds of people were coming and…
At another point a few hundred years later in a well-known story as recounted in 1 Samuel 17, we find David and Goliath in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by two armies. At this point David displayed a healthy “fear of God” yet without any physical or emotional fear included with it. The soldiers on both sides were watching with interest. We know the Philistine Goliath was a well-known warrior - a giant. And we know David was neither…
All miracles involved displacing natural and/or physical laws. In the NT people were healed when the Lord Jesus said they would be healed. It was immediate and unexplainable to our senses. Today we call it a miracle if miners survive a cave in and are rescued after a long period underground. Don’t get me wrong – I praise God and am pleased when people are rescued from harm’s way, when the unusual happens and lives are enriched or spared. But…
Once when asked to speak before a large crowd of people, as I looked out across the audience, I was at first unable to utter a sound. After what seemed like a long, awkward few moments, which was actually just a moment in time, I blurted out, “I’d rather face an angry teenage grizzly than you all!” Then I had more experience with grizzly bears than with public speaking, so I meant it. Some things don’t change. Fear has many…
I spend a lot of time in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is full of cases of conversions and of the stories related to the apostles, their work and the beginning of the church, as I have previously noted. At this sitting I am interested in the third and fourth chapter where the healing of a lame man and the events that followed are recorded: Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the…
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And she kept doing this for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of…
At Merriam-Webster (www.m-w.com) pardon is defined as 1) “an act officially saying that someone who was judged to be guilty of a crime will be allowed to go free and will not be punished.” Or, it is 2) “forgiveness for something.” That single internet stop makes it clear that pardon and forgiveness are synonymous. Granting pardon or forgiveness means “you’re free to go.” Remission is defined as 1) “a period of time during a serious illness when the patient's health…