August 13, 2016 – Devotions: passages from David and Goliath – What Is Conventional Wisdom?

“ Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Amos 7:14

“Understanding the power of the underdog requires an effort. It requires standing up to conventional wisdom. …look at the shepherd (David) and the giant (Goliath) and understand where power and advantage really lie. It matters, in a hundred specific and practical ways.” (David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell, p. 294) 

Many of the prophets in the Old and New Testaments were underdogs – many of them were misfits and the last person anyone would have thought would be prophets for G-d. And yet G-d used them to deliver G-d’s message of judgment, message of hope, and message of salvation. Amos is a great example. Here is a simple man of the earth – a dresser of Sycamore trees, and he becomes a voice crying out in the wilderness of affluence and greed. G-d sent warnings to Israel in the form of hunger, thirst, blight, locusts, plagues, and military defeat, but the people had refused to see his hand in these (Amos 4:6-11). Judgment must follow (Amos 4:12 through 5:20), and this punishment is portrayed in a series of verbal and visionary prophecies predicting wholesale destruction and exile. Amos was not welcome where he was sent, was an outsider and a simple person. But G-d sent him to denounce the social and religious corruption, and warn of God’s impending judgment. But the people turned a deaf ear, as they did to his contemporary, Hosea. Anyone else may have realized their status, or lack of one, would hamper their efforts. Amos did not care. He was an underdog, but he went where he was sent.

My friends, stand up when asked to stand, proclaim when asked to speak, and go when summoned. And when you feel as if you are not fit, not equipped or to nondescript, remember, so were most of the prophets. They changed the world – so can you.

Pastor Dave

August 12, 2016 – Devotions: passages from David and Goliath – An Indomitable Force For Jesus

“Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” Acts 9:1-6

“It was not the privileged and the fortunate who took in the Jews in France. It was the marginal and the damaged (in this case it was a group of Huguenots in France who were already damaged and persecuted people) which should remind us that there are real limits to what evil and misfortune can accomplish. If you take away the gift of reading, you create the gift of listening. If you bomb a city, you leave behind death and destruction. But you create a community of remote misses…one time in ten, out of that despair rises an indomitable force.” (David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell, p. 274-275) 

Can we say that Paul had a remote miss, or a near miss with Jesus? Or, did he have a direct hit? Either way, Paul turned from his path of persecuting the followers of Jesus to become one indomitable force for Christianity. Paul was seeking and searching out for more Christians to persecute, and so the Lord struck him blind. In the time when he could not see, he fasted and prayed, hoping he might find an answer. But, we have to assume that not only was he praying, but he also was listening. And in that time he was able to hear how his life’s path would change for ever. Out of the ashes of this life changing event rose one of the greatest evangelists since the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

We do not have to have in impeccable resume to be disciples. We only need to see that our experiences, the good and the bad, can be catalysts to becoming an indomitable force for G-d. All we need to do is listen for the still, small voice of G-d, immerse ourselves in the scriptures, and partake in the Sacraments – they all will feed the flames of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dave