Last night in Jail Ministry I gave a devo on David's Mighty Men from 2 Samuel 23. This is one of my favorite little sections in the Old Testament and it's one that gets skipped over a lot. The section just quickly summarizes the exploits of David's elite soldiers. Some of my favorites are Josheb-Basshebeth, who killed 800 men in one encounter with just a spear, Eleazar, who fought off Philistines till his hand froze to his sword, and Beniaiah, who armed with only a club took on a huge Egyptian who had a spear, and ended up killing the Egyptian with his own spear.
Basically I talked about how God was able to do mighty things through them and can also do amazing things through us (though hopefully less violent!). MIGHTY was the theme for last year's IMPACT and it's something that has stuck with me going into this year. Being a mighty man for God calls you to transcend the usual ho-hum and passive style of life and calls you into something greater. It was interesting, because after Jail Ministry, Coleman and I met Jimmy to hear out his plan for doing some cool service projects on Sundays. I was resistant at first because my Sundays are usually reserved for Church, food, football, napping, and more football. But doesn't following God call me to leave my usual comfortable way of living and call me into something greater?
There have been a lot of things causing me to challenge my normal way of living my daily life. Jimmy and Coleman have been challenging me a lot (especially my dream of living in a nice suburban house), Dr. Neller has challenged me to be a radical disciple in daily life, my sisters examples in China and Brazil have challenged me to truly live out your life in service to others, and the book I've been reading, Mere Discipleship by Lee Camp has challenged me go beyond my normal beliefs of Christianity and look at Jesus' call in a whole new way. All of these seem to be calling for me to leave my easy way of living and thinking into something greater.
Perhaps God is calling me, and all of us, into a relationship beyond the parameters of comfort and ease into a something that is perhaps.....MIGHTY?
1 comment:
the story of David's mighty men has always been one of my favorite also, once I discovered it. I have gotten through life through the help of the mighty men and women who have been at my side. They have been a blessing from God and I hope that there are people who see me in that role at times.
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