Serving Light
Stories
Contents
“Serving Light” by David O. Bales
“Walking With Paul Beyond Ecstasy” by David O. Bales
“Shepherd King” by John Fitzgerald
Serving Light
by David O. Bales
Mark 6:1-13
Rebecca struggled down the hall, her ancient suitcase screeching on the floor. Her father had said, “Take the big old one. Who knows what can happen to it.” The humid Belize weather made it feel twice as heavy. She’d received little sleep in the past two days, partly for the nightmare delays of three airports ending in a two hour bus ride and partly for having put off packing until the last minute and needing to go to an all night store to buy supplies for the week. Rebecca said, “I’m doing this for Jesus,” but it didn’t make her suitcase any lighter.
The driver who’d picked up her and two other arriving volunteers at the airport had carried her luggage to the dorm. Then someone yelled there was a problem at the bus. “Sorry,” he said, as he put it down. “Your room, let me see,” he rummaged his pocket for a paper, “is 12, at the end of the hall. Be to the cafeteria at noon. We’ll all be getting together there.” He pointed at a neighboring building, equally mossy green as the one she entered.
Rebecca pushed and pulled her suitcase like she was herding it. The suitcase together with her backpack weighed half as much as she did. Her high school youth leader had told her the mission trip would strengthen her faith. So far it felt like a two day survival course and she wished it had strengthened her arms. She thrashed against the suitcase, lugging and shoving it, looking at the doors for numbers. Her eyes were still dazzled from the bright sun and not adjusted to the dim interior. Some numbers were clearly painted, others scraped off. She decided that since she could read 11 on the next to the last, that the last must be 12. She’d gotten the door open a crack and was pushing the suitcase ahead of her when the door swung in quickly and a head poked around with an expectant look, which immediately changed when it saw Rebecca. “Oh,” the girl said. “When that suitcase poked into the room, I thought for sure you were Cassie.”
Behind her came a girl’s voice: “Not Cassie?”
“Nope, not yet” she said over her shoulder, and then to Rebecca, “I’m Bernice. Call me Neecy. Come on in. We were expecting a girl we roomed with last year.” She smiled and helped scoot Rebecca’s luggage into the room. The room was small and had two bunk beds. Atop one a girl waved to her, “Hi. I’m Ellen.” She closed her Bible and hopped down. “Neecy and I are from Mississippi. Where you from?”
“Michigan,” Rebecca said.
“Well,” Ellen said, “we’re all from ‘M’ states.” All three girls laughed.
The girls quickly exchanged other information about their lives and churches. They were all high school seniors, one Baptist, one Methodist, and one Quaker. They were going to spend their spring break repairing and painting buildings for an orphanage in Belize.
“There’s not much storage space,” Neecy said, as she helped Rebecca empty her suitcase. “We found that out last year. This your first time?”
“Yeah,” Rebecca said.
“I guessed it by how heavy your luggage is,” Ellen said and they all laughed, Ellen and Neecy more than Rebecca.
Ellen looked at her watch, “It’s already 11:45. We’ve been waiting for Cassie. You’ll like her.”
“The driver told me there was one more bus to arrive,” Rebecca said.
“We have to be at the cafeteria at noon,” Ellen said, “where they’ll tell us our assigned groups before lunch. The groups mean which truck we’ll crawl in at seven in the morning to undergo an hour and a half drive to the orphanage. Did you know how far we have to bounce each day in the back of a truck?”
“I don’t think the web site said an hour and a half,” Rebecca said, “but it did say it was a slight ordeal, part of which I think I’ve already endured.”
“Lots of kids bring too much,” Ellen said, “but last year Cassie won the prize. She’s now a legend.”
Neecy said, “She’s really smart and really nice. She took our razzing well last year. She told us she came so she could include a service project on her college applications. It’s a good sign she’s coming back.”
Rebecca finished unpacking and stuffed her suitcase under the bed. The door opened and another teenaged girl stepped in, “Hi guys,” she said, holding out her arms. Ellen and Neecy leaped to her and hugged her. “Great to see you two,” she said.
“This is Rebecca,” Neecy said, as she held her arm out to Rebecca, “our other roomy for a week.” They said hello to one another. “Which one’s my bed?” Cassie asked. Ellen pointed to the bunk below hers. Cassie tossed her back pack on it and said, “Driver said we have to be to the cafeteria at noon. Better get ready.”
“Ok,” Ellen said, “let’s get the rest of your luggage.”
“This is it?” Cassie said, pointing to her backpack.
Neecy and Ellen opened their mouths and it was a couple seconds before Ellen chuckled, “What do you mean ‘this is it?’ Come on, let’s get your stuff.”
“Don’t have anything but what I’m carrying.”
“Are you crazy?” Neecy said. “You can’t spend a week with just what you’ve got in the backpack.”
“Sure I can,” Cassie said as she looked around at Ellen, Neecy and Rebecca. “If I need anything, I can borrow from you guys.”
“Us?” Ellen and Neecy said in unison. They looked at Cassie in astonishment and then at Rebecca as if she could answer their unspoken question of what was wrong with Cassie. Rebecca stepped back, leaned against the bunk bed, and waved her hand in front of her, gesturing that she wasn’t involved in what was going on between the three.
“Last year you guys told me I had four times more than I needed and you could loan me anything. So, our youth leader said Jesus instructed his missionaries not to take anything extra and they’d be provided for.” She paused as she gazed at Ellen and Neecy’s gasping faces. “A lot of things have happened to me this year, good things with following Jesus. I couldn’t wait to tell you. I’ve left a lot of things behind for Jesus. I knew you’d be happy for me.”
Ellen and Neecy looked sideways to Rebecca as if awaiting her opinion. Cassie smiled at her too. Rebecca nodded, “That’s great. I’m pleased for you. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Jesus meant, but I can tell this is going to be a great week serving him.”
Preaching Point: Sometimes serving Jesus is more important than preparing to serve him.
* * *
Walking With Paul Beyond Ecstasy
by David O. Bales
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
“These Corinthians!” Paul turned his face to the sky. “What am I going to do with them?” He was shouting, puffing, and walking so fast that Timothy, although younger, could hardly keep up with him. Timothy said nothing, however. He knew that right now the apostle was working out his bad feelings, making sure that he’d hold no anger in his heart when the sun went down.
They were cresting a low, brush-covered hill as they walked away from the village. No matter the difficulty of the climb, Paul’s pace didn’t slow. Occasionally he’d ask Timothy for his opinion on what they might write next in his ongoing correspondence with the Corinthian Christians. But often Paul didn’t wait long enough for Timothy to pull his ideas together. Timothy had been through this before with Paul. He’d wait.
“It’s like they’ve learned nothing,” Paul said as he rubbed his knuckles on his forehead. “Christ was here serving in this life, this dust-in-the-teeth, pebble-in-the-sandal life. He wasn’t gliding like a bird, high above it all, enjoying himself with the view. He plodded around Galilee and Judea serving and suffering. And he did it for others, not himself. He wants us to serve joyfully for God’s sake, not for our self-glorification. They seem concerned only with ‘me and me and us and us’ and miss the target completely that Christ’s spirit strengthens us to live for him and for others.”
Timothy caught up with Paul where the path changed from dust to a rock outcropping. He said, “Maybe we can say that our life with Jesus is as earthly as it is heavenly.”
Paul didn’t immediately respond, but finally he stopped and glanced over Timothy’s shoulder back at the village below. His gaze settled on the house of Petronius, the patron of this Christian group in Macedonia. The elders were gathered there praying for Paul and Timothy. Paul made a grumbling sound and then said, “I see what you mean. I agree; but putting it that way is pretty thin and airy.” He stared again down the hill, “They miss Jesus’ legitimate joy because they shun his genuine service. They want a technique that brings ecstasy and then they want admiration while they are woefully short on love. They don’t comprehend that ecstasy isn’t a reward for believing.” He shook his head vigorously, “or, of course, is it a reward for serving in any way.” He let out a deep sigh, “They want the wrong things from God and right now they want too much from me. All the authorities they’ve ever lived with have exercised power over them. They still can’t grasp how God has dealt with us in the powerless way of Christ’s death. Christ doesn’t use his authority by pushing us around, but by giving himself for us, loving us all the way to death.”
Paul stood silent for a while, looking at the ground, as though peering into the soil. Timothy said, “Maybe you could tell them of spiritual ecstasies that other Christians have experienced and then explain that it’s a gift for some and not the center of the faith. I would agree that, certainly, the Spirit leads to ecstasies for some people, but not for everyone, not all the time, but always for the intention of bolstering our faith, love and service for God.”
Paul considered this as he rubbed a hand over his eyes and said, “Hum,” tapping his sandal against a protruding rock.
“Start right where they are,” Timothy said, “their boasting and grasping for honor, and then lead them away from their desires and around in a circle to God. You can affirm that ecstasies are among God’s gifts, but then yank the rug from under their feet so they fall back onto God’s grace. Where else can they go but the grace that seems so weak in Christ’s death? To those who stood around his cross it looked like complete and utter helplessness; but, it was God’s true strength in suffering love. Draw them back to living within that kind of grace whatever our gifts.”
Paul, holding his chin thoughtfully, turned abruptly back down the trail. He muttered, “I think so.” He then walked faster, motioning to Timothy to follow. “Yes, I think so. Let’s go back, talk this over with the elders, then return to the table with our ink and papyrus. We’ll see if we can put one more convincing piece into this letter.”
Later that afternoon after praying with Timothy and the elders, Paul continued his letter, scratching out these words: “I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows -- was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
Preaching Point: The Christian life offers blessings for everyone and even ecstasies for some, but it also demands and inspires suffering service from all.
* * *
Shepherd King
by John Fitzgerald
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Psalm 48
Last week we celebrated our nation’s birthday on July 4th. It is a privilege to be a citizen of the United States where balance of power in government is divided between three equal branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.
Several countries around the world maintain an ancient system of having one person ruling as king with absolute authority to rule and reign. This form of governing might be abhorrent to Americans accustomed to democracy. However, the idea of kingship is biblical and can have some positive virtues.
King David of scripture is considered Israel’s greatest keeper of the throne. Our Bible lesson describes how Israelites clamored for David to become King. David ruled for forty years both in Hebron and Jerusalem.
The move by David from Hebron to Jerusalem accounted in 2 Samuel chapter 5 caused him to proclaim his new home as “City of David.” City of David or Jerusalem has been habitation of the Lord ever since this time.
Verse 8 from Psalm 48 highlights what future generations came to think of Jerusalem, “As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever.” To this day, Jerusalem continues to be a city blessed by divine favor and protection.
What is really revealing from our two scriptures in 2 Samuel 5 and Psalm 48 is the promise God makes to David upon his assuming the throne. 2 Samuel 5:2 reads, “In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, “You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.”
God expected David to rule as Shepherd King. This means the young shepherd who became king must have compassion and fierce sense of protection for his people. David learned at an early age how to care in a personal way for the sheep of his flock. This boy who became king also stood up in strong fashion to ward off wild beasts who threatened his sheep. These attributes must be put into action as David ruled over Israel.
The familiar words of Psalm 23 written by David indicate the relationship with God that anyone who knows Him as a Good Shepherd can have: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me besides quiet waters, her refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the deepest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff they comfort me.”
A walk with God gives leaders the ability to be good shepherds for their people. Those who hold political office in any nation must have these qualities to be successful. We only wish more good shepherds like King David would be appointed by the Lord to govern in 21st Century America.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 8, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“Serving Light” by David O. Bales
“Walking With Paul Beyond Ecstasy” by David O. Bales
“Shepherd King” by John Fitzgerald
Serving Light
by David O. Bales
Mark 6:1-13
Rebecca struggled down the hall, her ancient suitcase screeching on the floor. Her father had said, “Take the big old one. Who knows what can happen to it.” The humid Belize weather made it feel twice as heavy. She’d received little sleep in the past two days, partly for the nightmare delays of three airports ending in a two hour bus ride and partly for having put off packing until the last minute and needing to go to an all night store to buy supplies for the week. Rebecca said, “I’m doing this for Jesus,” but it didn’t make her suitcase any lighter.
The driver who’d picked up her and two other arriving volunteers at the airport had carried her luggage to the dorm. Then someone yelled there was a problem at the bus. “Sorry,” he said, as he put it down. “Your room, let me see,” he rummaged his pocket for a paper, “is 12, at the end of the hall. Be to the cafeteria at noon. We’ll all be getting together there.” He pointed at a neighboring building, equally mossy green as the one she entered.
Rebecca pushed and pulled her suitcase like she was herding it. The suitcase together with her backpack weighed half as much as she did. Her high school youth leader had told her the mission trip would strengthen her faith. So far it felt like a two day survival course and she wished it had strengthened her arms. She thrashed against the suitcase, lugging and shoving it, looking at the doors for numbers. Her eyes were still dazzled from the bright sun and not adjusted to the dim interior. Some numbers were clearly painted, others scraped off. She decided that since she could read 11 on the next to the last, that the last must be 12. She’d gotten the door open a crack and was pushing the suitcase ahead of her when the door swung in quickly and a head poked around with an expectant look, which immediately changed when it saw Rebecca. “Oh,” the girl said. “When that suitcase poked into the room, I thought for sure you were Cassie.”
Behind her came a girl’s voice: “Not Cassie?”
“Nope, not yet” she said over her shoulder, and then to Rebecca, “I’m Bernice. Call me Neecy. Come on in. We were expecting a girl we roomed with last year.” She smiled and helped scoot Rebecca’s luggage into the room. The room was small and had two bunk beds. Atop one a girl waved to her, “Hi. I’m Ellen.” She closed her Bible and hopped down. “Neecy and I are from Mississippi. Where you from?”
“Michigan,” Rebecca said.
“Well,” Ellen said, “we’re all from ‘M’ states.” All three girls laughed.
The girls quickly exchanged other information about their lives and churches. They were all high school seniors, one Baptist, one Methodist, and one Quaker. They were going to spend their spring break repairing and painting buildings for an orphanage in Belize.
“There’s not much storage space,” Neecy said, as she helped Rebecca empty her suitcase. “We found that out last year. This your first time?”
“Yeah,” Rebecca said.
“I guessed it by how heavy your luggage is,” Ellen said and they all laughed, Ellen and Neecy more than Rebecca.
Ellen looked at her watch, “It’s already 11:45. We’ve been waiting for Cassie. You’ll like her.”
“The driver told me there was one more bus to arrive,” Rebecca said.
“We have to be at the cafeteria at noon,” Ellen said, “where they’ll tell us our assigned groups before lunch. The groups mean which truck we’ll crawl in at seven in the morning to undergo an hour and a half drive to the orphanage. Did you know how far we have to bounce each day in the back of a truck?”
“I don’t think the web site said an hour and a half,” Rebecca said, “but it did say it was a slight ordeal, part of which I think I’ve already endured.”
“Lots of kids bring too much,” Ellen said, “but last year Cassie won the prize. She’s now a legend.”
Neecy said, “She’s really smart and really nice. She took our razzing well last year. She told us she came so she could include a service project on her college applications. It’s a good sign she’s coming back.”
Rebecca finished unpacking and stuffed her suitcase under the bed. The door opened and another teenaged girl stepped in, “Hi guys,” she said, holding out her arms. Ellen and Neecy leaped to her and hugged her. “Great to see you two,” she said.
“This is Rebecca,” Neecy said, as she held her arm out to Rebecca, “our other roomy for a week.” They said hello to one another. “Which one’s my bed?” Cassie asked. Ellen pointed to the bunk below hers. Cassie tossed her back pack on it and said, “Driver said we have to be to the cafeteria at noon. Better get ready.”
“Ok,” Ellen said, “let’s get the rest of your luggage.”
“This is it?” Cassie said, pointing to her backpack.
Neecy and Ellen opened their mouths and it was a couple seconds before Ellen chuckled, “What do you mean ‘this is it?’ Come on, let’s get your stuff.”
“Don’t have anything but what I’m carrying.”
“Are you crazy?” Neecy said. “You can’t spend a week with just what you’ve got in the backpack.”
“Sure I can,” Cassie said as she looked around at Ellen, Neecy and Rebecca. “If I need anything, I can borrow from you guys.”
“Us?” Ellen and Neecy said in unison. They looked at Cassie in astonishment and then at Rebecca as if she could answer their unspoken question of what was wrong with Cassie. Rebecca stepped back, leaned against the bunk bed, and waved her hand in front of her, gesturing that she wasn’t involved in what was going on between the three.
“Last year you guys told me I had four times more than I needed and you could loan me anything. So, our youth leader said Jesus instructed his missionaries not to take anything extra and they’d be provided for.” She paused as she gazed at Ellen and Neecy’s gasping faces. “A lot of things have happened to me this year, good things with following Jesus. I couldn’t wait to tell you. I’ve left a lot of things behind for Jesus. I knew you’d be happy for me.”
Ellen and Neecy looked sideways to Rebecca as if awaiting her opinion. Cassie smiled at her too. Rebecca nodded, “That’s great. I’m pleased for you. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Jesus meant, but I can tell this is going to be a great week serving him.”
Preaching Point: Sometimes serving Jesus is more important than preparing to serve him.
* * *
Walking With Paul Beyond Ecstasy
by David O. Bales
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
“These Corinthians!” Paul turned his face to the sky. “What am I going to do with them?” He was shouting, puffing, and walking so fast that Timothy, although younger, could hardly keep up with him. Timothy said nothing, however. He knew that right now the apostle was working out his bad feelings, making sure that he’d hold no anger in his heart when the sun went down.
They were cresting a low, brush-covered hill as they walked away from the village. No matter the difficulty of the climb, Paul’s pace didn’t slow. Occasionally he’d ask Timothy for his opinion on what they might write next in his ongoing correspondence with the Corinthian Christians. But often Paul didn’t wait long enough for Timothy to pull his ideas together. Timothy had been through this before with Paul. He’d wait.
“It’s like they’ve learned nothing,” Paul said as he rubbed his knuckles on his forehead. “Christ was here serving in this life, this dust-in-the-teeth, pebble-in-the-sandal life. He wasn’t gliding like a bird, high above it all, enjoying himself with the view. He plodded around Galilee and Judea serving and suffering. And he did it for others, not himself. He wants us to serve joyfully for God’s sake, not for our self-glorification. They seem concerned only with ‘me and me and us and us’ and miss the target completely that Christ’s spirit strengthens us to live for him and for others.”
Timothy caught up with Paul where the path changed from dust to a rock outcropping. He said, “Maybe we can say that our life with Jesus is as earthly as it is heavenly.”
Paul didn’t immediately respond, but finally he stopped and glanced over Timothy’s shoulder back at the village below. His gaze settled on the house of Petronius, the patron of this Christian group in Macedonia. The elders were gathered there praying for Paul and Timothy. Paul made a grumbling sound and then said, “I see what you mean. I agree; but putting it that way is pretty thin and airy.” He stared again down the hill, “They miss Jesus’ legitimate joy because they shun his genuine service. They want a technique that brings ecstasy and then they want admiration while they are woefully short on love. They don’t comprehend that ecstasy isn’t a reward for believing.” He shook his head vigorously, “or, of course, is it a reward for serving in any way.” He let out a deep sigh, “They want the wrong things from God and right now they want too much from me. All the authorities they’ve ever lived with have exercised power over them. They still can’t grasp how God has dealt with us in the powerless way of Christ’s death. Christ doesn’t use his authority by pushing us around, but by giving himself for us, loving us all the way to death.”
Paul stood silent for a while, looking at the ground, as though peering into the soil. Timothy said, “Maybe you could tell them of spiritual ecstasies that other Christians have experienced and then explain that it’s a gift for some and not the center of the faith. I would agree that, certainly, the Spirit leads to ecstasies for some people, but not for everyone, not all the time, but always for the intention of bolstering our faith, love and service for God.”
Paul considered this as he rubbed a hand over his eyes and said, “Hum,” tapping his sandal against a protruding rock.
“Start right where they are,” Timothy said, “their boasting and grasping for honor, and then lead them away from their desires and around in a circle to God. You can affirm that ecstasies are among God’s gifts, but then yank the rug from under their feet so they fall back onto God’s grace. Where else can they go but the grace that seems so weak in Christ’s death? To those who stood around his cross it looked like complete and utter helplessness; but, it was God’s true strength in suffering love. Draw them back to living within that kind of grace whatever our gifts.”
Paul, holding his chin thoughtfully, turned abruptly back down the trail. He muttered, “I think so.” He then walked faster, motioning to Timothy to follow. “Yes, I think so. Let’s go back, talk this over with the elders, then return to the table with our ink and papyrus. We’ll see if we can put one more convincing piece into this letter.”
Later that afternoon after praying with Timothy and the elders, Paul continued his letter, scratching out these words: “I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows -- was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
Preaching Point: The Christian life offers blessings for everyone and even ecstasies for some, but it also demands and inspires suffering service from all.
* * *
Shepherd King
by John Fitzgerald
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Psalm 48
Last week we celebrated our nation’s birthday on July 4th. It is a privilege to be a citizen of the United States where balance of power in government is divided between three equal branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.
Several countries around the world maintain an ancient system of having one person ruling as king with absolute authority to rule and reign. This form of governing might be abhorrent to Americans accustomed to democracy. However, the idea of kingship is biblical and can have some positive virtues.
King David of scripture is considered Israel’s greatest keeper of the throne. Our Bible lesson describes how Israelites clamored for David to become King. David ruled for forty years both in Hebron and Jerusalem.
The move by David from Hebron to Jerusalem accounted in 2 Samuel chapter 5 caused him to proclaim his new home as “City of David.” City of David or Jerusalem has been habitation of the Lord ever since this time.
Verse 8 from Psalm 48 highlights what future generations came to think of Jerusalem, “As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever.” To this day, Jerusalem continues to be a city blessed by divine favor and protection.
What is really revealing from our two scriptures in 2 Samuel 5 and Psalm 48 is the promise God makes to David upon his assuming the throne. 2 Samuel 5:2 reads, “In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, “You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.”
God expected David to rule as Shepherd King. This means the young shepherd who became king must have compassion and fierce sense of protection for his people. David learned at an early age how to care in a personal way for the sheep of his flock. This boy who became king also stood up in strong fashion to ward off wild beasts who threatened his sheep. These attributes must be put into action as David ruled over Israel.
The familiar words of Psalm 23 written by David indicate the relationship with God that anyone who knows Him as a Good Shepherd can have: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me besides quiet waters, her refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the deepest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff they comfort me.”
A walk with God gives leaders the ability to be good shepherds for their people. Those who hold political office in any nation must have these qualities to be successful. We only wish more good shepherds like King David would be appointed by the Lord to govern in 21st Century America.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 8, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
