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The Part That Matters

11/19/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
David Being Anointed By Samuel
11-20-12 The Part That Matters

Author Frank Perriti stated while speaking in chapel at Liberty University:

“Once people have a relationship with Jesus, they are often weighed down with a “cloud of shame” because they fail to live up to “customer expectations,” the differing church sub-cultures that dictate how one is supposed to act in order to be called a Christian.”

Perriti’s  “cloud of shame” caught my attention. As a pastor for most of my life I have spent hours attempting to share with men and women, and young people the love of Christ for them. Depending on their religious background, helping them to live the Christian life is much like the task of Sisyphus. The basic problem being the erroneous teaching of immediate or extended family ideas that are as scriptural as the rants of Karl Marx.

You would think that religious people would have learned a lesson from having had Saul as King in that he was head and shoulders above the sons of Israel. Physical attributes were not to be the gauge of competency. Saul had looked better.  Based on performance, David never appeared that much better than Saul. Before you protest, have you actually read David’s story? Yet, we continue to pile heaps of shame on the heads of those who refute by their actions the fallacy of Faulkner’s “perfectibility of Man” idea.

1 Samuel 16:7: “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”   Grace Teaches.

Copyright © Larry Lilly


1 Comment
Oral Deckard link
11/19/2012 12:51:16 pm

And God, looking not at the outward appearance, but at the heart, chose the best in the land to become the king of Israel, Saul.

The description of Saul at the time he was chosen is the picture of innocence itself. He was not seeking to become king, and when Samuel declaring him king, he had to send men to find him hiding in a storage shed.

But after 40 years in power he became less like the original and had to be replaced. And again God looked not at outward appearance, but at the heart, and chose the best in Israel. Again, the original description was the picture of innocence itself.

And again, power corrupted, leading to betraying his loyal soldier to his death so he could take his wife, among other things.

From this it is clear that, if the best that God can select out of a whole nation is corruptible, then we are in no position to assume we are not.

And seeing how power corrupted even these men, we can understand the old saw that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

But God has absolute power, so why isn't He corrupt?

Samuel explained it when he said that God is not a human being.

So power corrupts human beings. So why are we so surprised every time our favorite politician becomes corrupt? They looked as innocent as Saul or David when we first chose them and made them "kings." How could such innocent people become so corrupt? The answer appears to be that they are human beings. And a better question is, why do we keep putting our faith in human beings to fix our nation instead of God?

That is, human beings, acting according to their human nature. Human nature, AKA "The Old Nature," of which the temporary inadvertent evangelist Audrey Hepburn said "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what God calls us to rise above."

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