YOU and GOD

The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw skeptically wrote, “Kings are not born, they are made by universal hallucination.”

That may be true of some of the kings known to mankind throughout the history of nations. Many have ruled despotically, and their kingdoms were corrupt. Too many have had the attitude of Napoleon Bonaparte, who said, “What is the throne—a bit of wood gilded and covered with velvet. I am the State. France has more need of me than I of France.”

But this study is not concerned primarily with secular kings. I am writing with reference to two kinds of kings: those whose reigns and records are part of biblical history, specifically, the kings of Israel. Secondly, I am writing about another class of kings whose rule is yet future. These kings are born into the royal family through the new birth. Their rule is yet future. We read of them in Rev. 5:10: “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on earth.”

The lives of the Old Testament kings of Israel—their strengths and weaknesses, their faith and failures—can afford us lessons on how to prepare for our future reign with Christ. We can learn what to do and what not to do—and gain wisdom, learning important lessons—by looking at their lives.

This article focuses on Solomon, son of David. Saul reigned first, then David, then Solomon, and after Solomon’s reign the kingdom was divided into a northern sector, commonly called Israel, and a southern sector, known as Judah—comprised of just two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

Solomon is the classic enigma as a person and as a king. No king before or after, in Biblical or in non-Biblical history, was his equal. He enjoyed more power, more wealth, more wisdom—more of everything—than any person born into this race called “human.” We will look briefly at his blessings, his blemishes, and his blame:

Blessings

• Solomon was blessed with immeasurable wealth. He was served by a host of subjects; he possessed a navy of ships; he enjoyed a worldwide reputation; he had a magnificent throne; his was a storehouse of gold and silver as well as other precious things. (I Kings 9:20,21; 26-28; 10:1ff.)

• He was also blessed with wisdom unsurpassed before or after him. He prayed for wisdom, and God gave him a “wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.” (I Kings 3:12,13)

Blemishes (I Kings 11:1-8)

• Solomon’s fundamental weakness was that he “loved many strange women.” The sins that he warned his son of (Proverbs 5 & 6) were the ones that he so lavishly embraced.
• Solomon compounded his sin of “loving” many strange women by willfully bringing these women into his home, the palace, ignoring God’s warning that “they will turn away your heart after their gods.” (I Kings 11:2)
• Solomon’s weakness and willfulness were followed by his wickedness in polygamy, taking 700 wives and 300 concubines, building for them a high place of abominable idolatry, so that it was plainly said, “Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord.” (I Kings 11:6)
• All of the above resulted in Solomon’s woefulness: “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” (I Kings 11:4)

Blame

•  God indicted Solomon severely for what he had not done, that is, he had not kept God’s commands: “’And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and had commanded him that he should not go after other gods; but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.” (I Kings 11:10)
• God indicted Solomon, as well, for what he had done: “Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, forasmuch as this is done of thee…I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.” (I Kings 11:11)

Such is the sad saga of Solomon. “His morning sun rose beautifully; it sank in the evening clouded and dark.”

Of his wealth, world power, and wisdom, the visiting Queen of Sheba said: “It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts and wisdom; howbeit I believed not their words until I came, and mine eyes have seen it; and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me.” (II Chr. 9:5,6)

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon catalogues his wealth, power, and pleasure as being limitless. Yet, his life ended dismally, with God pronouncing severe judgment upon his posterity. Five-hundred years later, Nehemiah remembers Solomon, not for his wisdom and righteous reign, but for his willful sin: “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these many things?” (Nehemiah 13:26)

Some takeaways from the study of Solomon’s sad saga: (1) A perfect environment, with every advantage known to man, is no guarantee that one will not fall into Satan’s trap; (2) Favor with God does not make one immune to succumbing to the weakness of the flesh, and yielding in disobedience to sin; (3) Sin comes with an astronomical price tag; (4) Wisdom (with knowledge) is no guaranteed shield against the fiery darts of the wicked one.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Pet. 5:8)

For almost 250 years, Americans have enjoyed freedom: freedom of speech, worship, work, and the pursuit of happiness. These freedoms are guaranteed to America’s citizens in the US Constitution; and the three branches of government—executive, legislative and judicial—work together to certify that daily life in America can be pursued by its citizens without fear of oppression by those who rule over us.

Many, maybe most, of the world’s population, both past and present, have never enjoyed such privileges. Because of the inherent sin nature of mankind, warped and oppressive systems of government, foisted upon the masses and enforced by might, have too often ruled the day.

America has been an oasis of freedom. This is not to say that there are not those—some in high places—who have bought into the falsehoods known commonly as “socialism,” “communism,” and “totalitarianism,” who are working feverishly to replace free enterprise, capitalism, and a constitutional republic with their own devilish and despotic versions of “the good life.”

As part of my ministry while serving as “senior pastor,” I made several trips to various countries, either to visit missionaries that our church supported or to conduct limited evangelistic campaigns.

First, in 1989, it was my privilege to visit, with Natasha Vins conducting our itinerary, the Soviet Union—specifically Russia, beginning in Moscow, then to parts of what is now Ukraine, including Kiev,  Kharkov, and finally St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad.  Natasha’s father, Georgi Vins, and many of her friends had spent years in Soviet concentration camps, simply for their faith in Jesus Christ and for their unwillingness to cease preaching the gospel.

The purpose of our trip was to visit churches whose members, and often pastors, had suffered severe persecution under the rule of communists. Dr. Ed Nelson, now with the Lord, was the other pastor on this trip, and he met often with these pastors, encouraging them in the faith. After that two- or three-week trip, Dr. Nelson initiated a project of getting Strong’s Concordance of the Bible translated into Russian, so that it could be distributed to as many pastors as possible in the now former Soviet Union. Shortly after that trip, the “iron curtain” came down, and visits to Russia and Ukraine by westerners became more common. I remember well, though, when we were visiting in 1989, the Russian believers often shared their belief with us that the “freedoms” they were then experiencing on a limited basis would not last indefinitely. And, today, those “freedoms” in Russia are non-existent.

So, since it is not uncommon to hear from some that what we need in our nation today is “more government controls and regulations,” I simply want to share a few things that I observed when visiting three of the countries that have been for decades under what is generally characterized as “communism.”

First, Russia. Early on in our visit, in Moscow, some Americans who had been living there, doing studies, invited us to visit a “supermarket” with them. It was an astonishing sight, more like visiting a food pantry here. There were not many shelves. Different items were in stacks on the floor. The warehouse-like facility was not very big; yet our hosts said this was the best, if not the largest, “supermarket” in Moscow.

After a couple of days there, it was not a stretch to observe that living in Moscow then, in the late 80s, would be like turning the page back to what it was like in America five decades earlier. It would not be a happy exchange. To say nothing of the freedom issues, life in Russia, under decades of communism, was not even comparable to life in a country that enjoyed freedom. One of our Russian hosts, who himself had been imprisoned in St. Petersburg for his faith, shared with us a “joke” that the Russian people passed around amongst themselves: “We pretend to work, and they (the government) pretend to pay us.” I asked a young adult in Kiev if he would like to come to America sometime. His answer: “Everyone in Russia would like to come to America.” So much for the benefits of living under communism.

The second country I want to speak briefly about is Cuba. In the late 1990s, my friend, Pastor Collins Glenn, now with the Lord, and I teamed up with an evangelistic team led by Evangelist Mike Crain, to visit the island that had  been controlled by the Castro communists for almost 50 years. We were blessed to visit some groups of believers who, though not operating with uninhibited freedoms, were tolerated by the Castro regime. These precious folk were rejoicing in their walk with Christ. They exuded in their singing the joy of the Lord. They spoke, when asked, of the limitations there; such as the rationing of food—maybe an egg a month if available—per family. No one drove any car that was manufactured later that the mid-fifties. A rural family had Pastor Glenn and me for a Sunday dinner. The house was pretty much a shack. The wife served us what appeared to be the scrawniest broiled chicken we had ever seen. It was hard to keep the tears back as, not wanting to be ungrateful, we ate a piece of that chicken, which was no doubt the best meal that family would look forward to for months to come. So, people who shout the praises of communism, where everyone is fed by the government, should visit Cuba and just take a look around. We did very much enjoy our time with the churches that we visited there, and I could never forget the worship services where people lifted their hearts up in unabashed praises to their great God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, China. Ellen and I visited Beijing in 2016 with missionary Ron White. We could feel the oppression. Every time we left our motel room, there was a man standing in the hallway who, after a while, we assumed was keeping tabs on us. We lost any internet connection soon after checking into our room. But, we visited on Sunday a missionary who led a congregation of 100 believers, meeting in the second story of a high-rise apartment, occupying all the space of that second story. They met for worship in one bigger room, then had a meal together in another adjacent room. The members witnessed by passing out tracts on the street. They sang great hymns of the faith with exuberance, and told us that at one time they could not sing these songs out loud for fear of government oversight, so they “lipped” the words. It was a vibrant church; the missionary family provided a Christian school for the youngsters, much like a home-school here. Well, we were not surprised when we read, not too long after our visit there, that this missionary had been expelled from China.

So, I must conclude. Nothing in this post should be considered political. I write, though, as one who has observed the lives of believers in three different countries in widely differing parts of our world, which have lived and are living where the freedoms we enjoy, especially freedom to worship, are denied or severely restricted. Please do not be confused by anyone who says that what our country needs is more government regulation.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” (Provs. 29:2)

Just before Jesus ascended back into the heavens, forty days after His resurrection from the tomb, He instructed a handful of His disciples: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the world.” (Acts 1:8) We have not reached the uttermost part of the world yet; His commission is still in effect for all of His followers.

As a youngster, Robert Louis Stevenson, looked upon a dark street in Edinburgh and suddenly cried out, “I see something wonderful; I see a man coming up the street, and he is poking holes in the darkness!” It was, of course, the lamplighter who was lighting the gas lamps on the dark streets. What that lamplighter was doing with a lamp lighter, each believer ought to be doing with the gospel of Jesus Christ: poking holes in the darkness with the message of the Light of the world.

We are, Paul says, “ambassadors” for our Lord and Savior.” (II Cor. 5:20) There is a story told of an old preacher who walked up to a lady on the mezzanine floor of a hotel and said, “Lady, Lady! Are you saved?” The startled lady began to cry as he quoted a scripture verse and walked away. When her husband came and found her crying, he asked, “Dear, what is the matter with you?” “Oh,” she said, “a man walked up to me a few minutes ago and asked me if I were saved.” Her husband then said, “Why didn’t you tell him to mind his own business?” To which the shaken wife said, “Oh, but dear, if you had seen him, you would have thought he was minding his own business.”

“A college professor who was noted among his fellow-teachers for his habit of addressing young men upon their personal relations to Christ, was asked by one of his fellow professors, ‘Do they not resent your appeals as an impertinence?’ He replied, ‘No! Nothing is of such interest to any man as his own soul and its condition. He will never resent words of warning or comfort if they are prompted by genuine feeling. When I was a young man, I felt as you do. My wife’s cousin, a young fellow not yet of age, lived in our house for six months. My dread of meddling was such that I never asked him to be present at family worship, or spoke to him on the subject of religion. He fell into the company of a wild set, and was rapidly going to the bad. When I reasoned with him of Christ, he said, ‘Do you call yourself a Christian,’ assuming an astonishing look. ‘I hope so,’ I replied. ‘But you are not. If you were, He must be your best Friend. Yet I have lived in your home for six months, and you have never once named His name to me; no, He is nothing to you!’ I have never forgotten that rebuke.” (copied, Epworth Era)

I have a cousin who was reared in a home where the father was an alcoholic. Jimmy, as I called him when we were children, sadly, grew up to follow in the steps of his father. Jim had a bright mind but largely wasted it; and, due to his addiction, he lost at least one wife, as well as many good jobs in the publishing business. He finally did come to know Christ as his Lord and Savior, and his story has been broadcast on the Moody network in their series of programs called “Unshackled.”

“Before Jim’s conversion, and even some times after—as Jim was still struggling—my oldest sister often kept Jim in her home. Mary Ann and her husband, Tom, as they did for so many, even to some strangers, offered Jim kindness, hospitality, grace, and, of course, the gospel. When Jim, later in life, heard of the passing of my father, Jim’s uncle, he wrote the following (unedited):

“Thank you for letting me know about your Dad. I understand your supernatural sorrow, but thankfully I also understand the supernatural comfort that can only come from the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And while I know it cannot replace the sense of loss, his earthly legacy will not be forgotten soon. Your Dad is one of a very few people in this world that I don’t believe I have ever heard anyone speak unkindly about. His love of the Lord and his outlook on life made him a joy to be around. I tell the story often that while I was staying in your home 15 years ago, when he and your mother would come to visit, I would say, ‘How are you doing this morning, Uncle Ted?’ He would smile and reply, ‘Well, Jim, I woke up this morning, and I knew I was off to a good start.’ [Dad lived to be 94 years old.]

He was the first person to share the gospel with me, and while I was stiff-necked and impenitent for so many years, it was those seeds that eventually took root and produced fruit for the Lord. And I feel certain that if it were possible to compile a list of all the people who had been so influenced by your father in his lifetime, the Lord would have to tarry long before we would have time to finish reading it.”

Dad never taught a Sunday School class. Never sang in a choir. Never attended Bible college or a seminar on how to witness for Christ. A factory worker most of his life, he spoke few words. But he did let his light so shine before men, as Jesus encouraged all of us to do, that men glorified God because of his witness.

How are you doing, Mr. or Ms. Ambassador?

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Cor.5:20)

(The following is a testimony of God’s saving grace shared by our nephew, Aaron Bridges, who now pastors in Western North Carolina. Aaron is the son of Ellen’s sister, June, and June’s husband, Ed):

“I am so thankful that God called me to preach the Word and allows me to serve in any capacity in His kingdom! If there’s anyone who was ever undeserving, it’s me.

This time 20 years ago, in 2004, I had just come out of an oxycontin overdose a few weeks prior and was in a secular rehab facility in Boca Raton, Florida. Doctors had told my parents I would be brain dead if I lived, and, at best, a vegetable due to my being without oxygen for so long. But, people around the country prayed for me and I eventually woke up and left the hospital after about a week. Unfortunately, I didn’t wake up from my spiritual blindness for quite some time.

My life was an absolute wreck. A few weeks after the overdose, I got my first DWI (yes, the first…not the last) after wrecking my car; and I was arrested for that charge, along with two drug-possession charges for marijuana and Xanax. Hence, the trip to rehab, which was truly just an attempt at lowering my charges when I went to court. The following two years of my life were an absolute disaster and train wreck, with a continual descent into alcoholism. In my mind, I reasoned that alcohol wouldn’t be as bad as drugs because it was ‘legal’ (more lies and deception).

However, God began working on me. My coworker and boss at the time, Scotty Briggs, invited me to church with him at Faith Christian Assembly of God in Wilkesboro, NC, on a Wednesday night in October of 2006. That night, Pastor Eric Jones preached out of the book of Ephesians, and the Lord was working on my soul the entire time. On the way out, Pastor Jones asked me how I was doing, and immediately I broke down into tears and told him I needed to be saved. My life changed instantly that night, and he prayed with me until I “prayed through” and was born again.

When I got home, I had to empty out my house and my cabinets (and closet too) of the things that had been a snare in my life for far too long. That’s what “works of repentance” means. God changed me that night, and although I’ve had times of failure since then, everything was different from that point on.

A few weeks later, God called me to preach in a revival service at that same church, and I surrendered to that call and stepped out in faith, leaving my job and my home in Wilkes County to go off to Holmes Bible College in Greenville, SC. Fast forward 17 years or so, and I couldn’t be more thankful for all that God has blessed me with. A beautiful and amazing wife, the opportunity to serve the best church in Western North Carolina (Cartoogechaye Church of God), a family that is loving and caring, a nice home in the hills of Macon County, and on and on.

It pays to serve God. His dividends are out of this world. Get serious about your relationship with God because He’s about to wrap this thing up, y’all. And never forget there’s a God in heaven that is merciful and patient with you. No matter how far away from Him you are right now, He’s only a prayer away!”

“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.” (I Tim. 1:12-15)

Note:  Aaron’s parents, June and Eddie Bridges, love God and have served him faithfully all of their married life. They had their family in church regularly, and their children attended Sunday School, VBS, and all the church activities. Aaron’s sister lives in South Carolina, and she and her husband have reared their children in church faithfully. In my opinion, Aaron’s grandpa, a faithful man of God and pastor, prayed Aaron to Calvary, and June and Eddie loved Aaron into the arms of Jesus—never giving up on him or the grace of God. Aaron’s grandpa—June and Ellen’s father—never lived to see his prayers answered, but Aaron’s Godly parents have watched the spiritual transformation from a front-row seat, as it were. Eddie is battling cancer at this time. Never give up. Never stop hoping and praying. God still hears and answers prayers, and He is still in the soul-saving business!

By the way, there is an excellent book by John Elmore that I have used in counseling and have found  very helpful: “Freedom Starts Today: Overcoming Struggles and Addictions One Day at a Time.”

Thank you, Pastor Aaron Bridges, for sharing your powerful story with “You and God” readers.

Since yesterday marked the 59^th anniversary of our wedding date, I would like to reflect a bit on the past six decades of our journey as husband and wife, and as a “team” in ministry. I hope you will indulge me the few minutes it will take you to read the following.

Ellen and I met as students at Bob Jones University, when I was a junior and she was a first-year student. Her major was accounting and I was in the BJU ministerial class. She was from North Carolina, having been reared in a pastor’s home; I was from Iowa and my father was employed by John Deere. I was called to preach while attending another college in Iowa, preparing, I thought, to eventually become a lawyer. Ellen enrolled in BJU, thinking she was heading for a business profession, with a resolve that marrying a preacher was not in her future plans. The Lord brought us together in the fall of 1963 when, assigned in the large Dixon-McKenzie BJU dining hall to spend three weeks at Table T-1, we met. I was not thinking of meeting a girl for the purpose of an ongoing relationship; nor was she thinking of meeting a young man at that particular time, to whom she would become engaged and married in August of 1965. But God…

I have said many times that it had to have been God’s leading in my life, for I surely was not smart enough—or wise enough—at that time in my maturing as a young adult to discern that Ellen would make the perfect wife for this pastor-in-the-making. God knew exactly what and whom each of us needed though, and I have never forgotten to thank Him for that “chance” table assignment that brought us together for a family-style meal three times a day for three (or maybe six, I can’t remember) weeks.

In the 1960s, the way couples communicated with each other at Bob Jones U. was the “note system.” At 10 p.m. each night, a “delivery” team would pick up mail written in the girls’ dorms and deliver it to the addresses in the guys’ dorms; and vice-versa. My first attempt at asking Ellen for a date was a note I wrote her through this note system, asking her for a date to one of the campus Thanksgiving Day activities. Sadly, she had already been “asked” for; so I “got in line” and kept trying until finally, for me, it was “pay-day!” The rest is history. We became engaged in the summer of 1964. I was working in an Indiana youth camp that summer, and the way people communicated long distance then in rural Indiana was on a “party-line” phone. There were always “clicks” heard down the line when you got a call from someone, so there was a “party” on the line—of who knows how many folk—listening in. Needless to say, we did not call each other that summer, but picked up our romance when school began again in the fall.

Our August wedding was held in Ellen’s home church, a beautiful, small chapel in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. My family came down from Iowa; and one of my sisters, Mary Ann, and her children, coming to our wedding from Denver, were swept off the highway by one of those Nebraska summer storms, ejecting Mary Ann and her boys out of the VW bug in which they were traveling. The car was demolished, but a family friend, a pilot from Denver, came to the rescue, flying them all to Wilkes County, NC, in time for the Saturday evening wedding. It was a striking demonstration of the grace and goodness of God that a funeral did not have to be planned after the wedding.

We spent a couple of weeks on our honeymoon, visiting National and State parks, traveling in a small trailer that my parents loaned us, pulled by my Dad’s ’64 Impala as I recall.

In late August/early September, we pulled a 4×6 trailer jam-packed with all of our earthly goods, behind the ’64 VW Beetle that I owned, to Minneapolis, where I was enrolled in Central Baptist Theological Seminary. We did not know anyone there, did not have a place to live, did not have a job lined up; but we had each other, with hearts full of love and confidence through faith that God was leading us, and that He would provide for us. We spent one night in the attic of the Minnesota Baptist Convention house, thanks to the goodness of Dr. Arthur Allen. I went job hunting the next day and was hired at the Pako Corporation, the first stop on my list, where I worked for four years—until the day we left Minneapolis for Dallas, Texas, where I was accepted into a graduate program at Dallas Theological Seminary. We lived all our time in Minneapolis in a fully-furnished house that a widow who had just died left in an estate. Our “rent” was $50 a month, and the house was a block from the seminary. When we left the Twin Cities, we had two children, Sandra and Marti, and a thousand dollars in the bank, with all bills paid in full! Driving our U-Haul to Dallas, we were mindful that we knew only one family in Dallas, had no job lined up, and did not know where we would live when we got there. But God….

So, to wrap this up, after Dallas (’69-’71) we lived in Kansas for eight years, where I pastored two churches, then accepted the call to pastor Thompson Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis, where I would be privileged to serve as pastor for the next 40 years. We have been in the “retirement” mode for five years now, still attending TRBC and preaching and helping out at the Pleasant View Baptist Church in Noblesville, IN, a couple Sundays a month. I am serving as part of the Interim Pastor program of Gospel Fellowship Association, directed by Dr. Marshall Fant.

God has been so marvelously good to Ellen, myself, and our three children (yes, our boy, Theo, was born at Baylor U. Hospital in Dallas!) these past 59 years. We would not, if we could, rewrite the script in any way. There were, and still are, challenging times to be sure; but the grace and kindness of our great God has never been absent. I have had my own personal accountant-wife all of these years; and Ellen, never intending to marry a preacher, has had her own personal pastor for most all of these years. It’s been a fulfilling 59 years, and every day we face the “home stretch” with thanksgiving, joy, peace—and, always, expectation!

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it….” (Ps.127:1)

What would you think if I introduced you to a man of whom I said the following: “He has been married to at least eight women. He has several children, including one who is a murderer, one a rapist, one a seditionist, and one a womanizer. He has a history filled with tragedy. On one occasion he had an affair with a married neighbor, then tried to cover it up by having her husband killed when he learned that a child was due to be born as a result of their tryst.”

Sounds pretty sordid doesn’t it? What if I were to add: “This man is a man after God’s own heart!”

You’d probably think I had flipped! How absurd to think that a polygamist adulterer who had committed murder could ever be called a man after God’s own heart! Though most of us are not from Missouri, we’re maybe mule-headed enough that we’d have to see it to believe it on this one.

Well, here is a New Testament commentary on the life of the man I just described: “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom he gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill my will.’” (Acts 13:22)

What Paul said in his sermon in a synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia was just a verse from I Samuel 13:14, when the prophet/judge Samuel said to Saul, in announcing that God would set Saul aside from being king because of his disobedience: “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”

Do not think, however, that David got a pass for all of his gross transgressions of the law. He paid an awful price as a husband, father, and leader/king, a price that was crushing to his heart and soul. But, God saw in David, flawed as he was, a man who had a heart for God—for many reasons, I think, including the following:

1.  David was a man of courage:  “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” (Ps.56:3) He had squared off with the Devil face to face in the person of Goliath. But he would testify that “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty…Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh In darkness…A thousand shall fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand…for He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” (Ps.91:1ff.)

• David was a man of compliance to the Word of God. When God’s prophet rebuked the king for his sin, David’s immediate response was “I have sinned against the Lord.” (II Sam. 12:1,2) He would later testify, “I delight to do thy will, O my God,” and “I have chosen the way of truth,” and “I have refrained my feet from every evil way,” praying “Order my steps in Thy word.” (Ps.40:8; Ps.119:30; Ps.119:101; Ps.119:133)

• David was a man of compassion. His worthy watchfulness over the surviving descendent of Jonathan, Mephibosheth, to fulfill a promise, put his compassionate heart on display. (2 Sam.9:1ff)

• David was a man of contrition, as evidence by his broken heart, soul and spirit—seen in his anguish in Ps.51. He acknowledged that his sin was against God, v. 4; that he himself had a sin nature, v. 5; that he had grieved God’s Holy Spirit, v.11; and that his sin had caused his worship of God to be hindered, v. 19.

David was the second king over Israel. He was anything but perfect, and his administration was full of tragedies. In many respects, he failed God. But of him it was said, “He was a man after God’s own heart.”

If you are saved, you too are a “king.” (Rev.5:10) God calls you that. Yet, since your salvation, you too have failed God many times. Tragedy may have blotted your record and marred your testimony. Like David, though, it can be said of you: “There is a person after God’s own heart.”

Do you have courage in God’s power? Are your compliant to His Word? Do you have a compassionate heart? When confronted by God with your sin, are you contrite and penitent?

“Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile…I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.” (David, Psalm 32:2,5)