King Saul lost his kingdom in the hill country of Bethel. There and his large army of 3,000 faced off against a Philistine army of 3,000 chariots, 6,000 men on horses, and soldiers “as numerous as the sand on the seashore.” As daunting as the odds were it was not the enemy that destroyed him. King Saul’s destruction came from inside him. He failed for lack of faith. Continue reading
How to Deal with Negative People
I hope you know the difference between minor and major negative people in your life. The High Priest was a major negative person in the life of Jesus. People who laughed at him were just minor. When you have a major threat by a major negative person you have to take it seriously. You cannot ignore it, but I hope you know which is major and which is minor. I confess that I sometimes struggle with telling the difference.
On one occasion Jesus was going to an official’s house to heal a dying girl. He was late getting there and the girl was dead. The flute players and other professional mourners were already on the scene and showing sorrow. What Jesus did on that occasion was amazing.
Matthew tells us, “When Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute- players and the crowd in noisy disorder, He said, ‘Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.’ And they began laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been sent out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up” – (9:23-25)
From this we see three truths about negative people.
- There are negative people. Even Jesus had them in his life. They weren’t sneaky about it, but openly laughed at him. If you go through life hoping not to encounter people who will try to put you down, you are setting yourself up for pain.
- If you find yourself surrounded by the naysayers do what Jesus did. Tell them to leave. Do not be rude. Jesus simply said, “Leave.” You cannot do your work surrounded by negative folks.
- Do not let anyone stop you from doing good. Once you figure out what God wants you to do, the rest is just details.
Lonnie Davis
On Falling Down
To me, the most amazing event in all of sports is not the Superbowl or pitching a perfect game. The most amazing event is the high jump. In a world class high jump, the competitor runs up and jumps over a bar that is higher than the top of the front door of your house. I just don’t understand how that is possible. It is not like he grabs it and pulls himself over it, he completely jumps over it. In 1993 one man jumped over a bar that was over eight feet high! That means he could jump over your ceiling. That is amazing.
If that is an amazing feat, one of the most amazing facts is that the high jump always ends in failure. They keep raising the bar until the competitor can not jump it anymore. He walks away with the bar on the ground and he has failed.
I’m glad God doesn’t do me like that. I’m glad he doesn’t keep changing the bar to make me fail. God is on my side. As a Christian, we keep trying until we succeed. We do fail. We fall down, but we keep getting up again and again. Finally we get up one more time than we have fallen down.
The wise man said, “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again,
but the wicked are brought down by calamity.” (Prov 24:16). God does not expect perfection from us. He expects us to keep on trying. He knows we will fall down. He expects us to get up again. When we do fall down, the real test of Christianity begins. If we get up and try again, we are righteous. If we fall and quit trying, if we just lay there in our failure, then we have failed the righteousness test.
Dear Brother or Sister, have you failed? Have you stumbled? Have you fallen down? Get up again. In Biblical literature the number seven is usually not a literally number, but rather stands for a number that means “an unlimited number of times.” God is really saying to us, “As many times as you fall down, a righteous person will get up again.”
It is not how many times you fall that counts. It is how many times you get up that makes the difference.
Lonnie Davis