1 Samuel
Diverging from God’s will is a recipe for leadership disaster. Nobody is perfect; we all make poor choices. Being a good leader is about trying to make good decisions and having the humility to make course corrections when a prior decision turns bad. The festival of the new moon
1 Samuel
God’s people watch out for one another, accepting risk in the pursuit of truth, and genuinely desiring the best possible outcome for others. Sometimes this means we become sounding boards and offer verbal guidance. Sometimes we physically walk with members of our community through difficult moments in their life.
1 Samuel
Often, our relationships create blind spots preventing us from seeing a situation clearly. Who doesn’t want to defend their friends? Who genuinely wants to think less of their friends than the ideal? When we love and care for people, we see them as a paragon of themselves. Once Saul
1 Samuel
God is great and glorious, capable of turning evil into His glory. Many stories exist in the Bible where the world comes to foil God’s plan and do harm to His people, yet God wins out. The greatest of these stories brings salvation to those who receive it. God
1 Samuel
People who walk closely with the Lord make it easier for the people around them to also walk closely with the Lord. Sensing the Spirit in someone else increases the likelihood for a spiritual person to reveal the Spirit in them. The Bible tells us that iron sharpens iron, meaning
1 Samuel
God cannot give us free will without also giving us the opportunity to experience the consequences of our choices. To have free will implies we must deal with our mistakes. This does not mean God desires us to make mistakes, but He does let our mistakes impact our life. It’
1 Samuel
We use rational thought to determine courses of action. Leaders are easier to follow when their course is comprehensible. Friendships are easier to manage when acting in predictable manners. This doesn’t mean we cannot be passionate, but the more we are rational the easier people can relate. Saul is
1 Samuel
If God calls us to certain action and we are obedient to Him, we can expect God to fight alongside us and bring us into His vision. He desires His will be done. While He does give us freedom to do our own thing, when we fall in line with
1 Samuel
David wants to serve God, not the king. This is one of the primary differences between David and Saul. David looked to the Lord for guidance and obeyed. Saul tried to use every opportunity to promote himself into a better position. As we’ll see, David is even willing to
1 Samuel
When we walk away from God and irrationally try to solve our own problems, self-destruction is the ultimate outcome. It is one thing to try and solve our own problems through our own understanding. At least that still involves rational thought. Responding irrationally to situations while believing in a
1 Samuel
Godly people want life to be about God. He deserves the credit and the glory. God makes all things possible. David and Jonathan become instant friends. This is good for David, because Johnathan is Saul’s son and it will bring notoriety and skill to his life. This is bad
1 Samuel
God inspires the seemingly impossible. David slays Goliath using a single stone through a one-in-a-million strike with his sling. David fulfills his promise to cut off the head of Goliath even though he brought no sword into the battle with him. Who would have guessed Goliath would