Digging Deeper

You knew it was coming didn’t you? And now, the rest of the story.

“Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in  pouch of his  shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.” -I Samuel 17: 40

The big man, Goliath, had a big mouth. The Philistines, descendants of the Greeks, who were great warriors  and worked the intimidation thing to the max, were. talking trash, insulting your heritage and basically being obnoxious. While the armies of Saul were cowering in the hills, David was becoming more and more incensed at the Philistine trashing the church and His Lord. The mode of war back then was to choose a champion to fight for the whole nation, kind of an Olympics with a really bad ending and the Philistines had chosen Goliath. Israel had no champion or at least one that they understood was their champion David loved God and this was very disturbing to him. This is the first lesson  for us to learn, when people insult us we can cower if you like, if they insult God that is entirely a different matter. Maybe I’m just getting older but I don’t stand for that anymore. Something will have to be said. I digress (again)! I am not mean about it but I do speak the truth in love. When people are changed by the power of God, it gets under your skin to have your dearest friend being insulted, much like my friend and brother that I played football with in college. His name is Jimmy Cardone. He runs God’s Gym in Indianapolis and an inner city ministry for street kids. I want to give you a mental image of Jimmy. He was our middle linebacker, 5’8” 248 lbs.of solid meanness. I say meanness because Jimmy grew up on the streets of the West Side of Chicago as a gang member and street fighter. When Jimmy found Christ, the word got around that he was going to church and dating a Christian girl. After much nasty kidding and insulting His Christ, he stood up on the weight bench and said “I don’t want to die and go to Hell with the rest of you guys, anybody got anything to say?”. Gutsy stuff right there! Nearly everyone in his workout gym had accepted Christ by the time we graduated. Awesome! I tell that story because Jim used what God had given him to go to war, just like David. The generals tried to put the king’s armor on David but it didn’t fit. So David went to what he knew he was good at..slingshot. Slingshot and staff, oh, yea and  five smooth stones. God provided the five stones. Why five stones you might ask? Tradition has it that Goliath had four brothers and they would come out to avenge his death when David killed him. David knew his God would provide the victory but he still had to walk into the valley of the shadow of Death. Because of God’s promise of the Spirit in our lives, we can face anything in our path knowing that God will be praised and victory is ultimately ours.

Prayer: God who made me, I trust in you to be with me in every battle, every time because you will never leave me or forsake me…….

by Rick Drake