For a fuller treatment of this passage, I highly recommend Alan Redpath’s “The Making of a Man of God…Studies in the Life of David”. I won’t do it justice in one brief sentence, but Redpath shows that just as “everyone who was in distress…in debt…and discontented gathered to [David]“, he was a type (picture) of Christ. The Gospel is this: God loves us rebellious sinners so much that rather than punish us as we deserve, His first preference is to offer us amnesty against His righteous judgment, and He does so through the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. Like those of old running to David for safety and shepherding, we who are distressed by our sin, indebted by our sin, and discontented in our sin can find protection and peace through the greater than David, Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

Note here that David honors his parents by bringing them to the Moabite king that he would give them care while his own life, by all natural appearances, was in grave danger. This detail includes something important: a period of time. How long we don’t know, but the text says “and they dwelt with him all the time David was in the stronghold.”

In another sense, we do know exactly how long that period of time was. We know for a certain fact that it was exactly as long as the Lord willed that it would be. Not one second longer. The Lord can do what He wants, for as long as He wants. Just because He loves us as much as He does, God absolutely never abdicated His Sovereignty over all things. He is God, and He deserves all praise. It was the Lord who chose David to eventually be king and would one day raise him up for such a purpose. But, for now, it was the Lord who allowed this time of waiting in David’s life.

Why? That’s between the Lord and David. But we can surmise at least a couple reasons: One is time for people to come and find their safe harbor in David. Another is that God was honing David’s leadership skills. Of course, God was also working in David’s life to make him evermore reliant upon Him.

Believer, how long is your Adullum? I don’t know and neither do you. But use the time to take stock of the goodness of God, forget not His mercies and love. (David wrote Psalm 34 during this time. I’ll post it next so you can see what God was doing in his life.) Know also that God is assuredly using this to discipline you, to grow you, and to accomplish whatever other purposes He has for others around you.

Keep trusting the Lord. David’s time in the cave didn’t last forever, and neither will yours.

I was trying to avoid a third consecutive post of other peoples’ words, but as I’m sitting awake at 4am (after my flesh was frankly *not* wanting to take time to be holy) they seem rather appropriate.  As Christians, our desires all died with Christ when we were converted–at least doctrinally.  In practice however, it is a constant wrestling match between our ugly, lazy flesh and renewed, Christ-loving spirit.  The simple fact is that our money is God’s money, our time–day or night–is God’s time, etc.  This fact trumps any and all inner turmoil.  Every single fiber of our being is to be lovingly, devotedly cast at our Savior’s feet–feet, remember, that were pierced for us, instead of us.   (1 Cor 6:20; Col 3:2)  That said…

Take Time to Be Holy
W.D. Longstaff & G.C. Stebbins

Thank you for visiting this little blog.  God bless you today.

I started doing some research into the many, many “New User Registration” emails I get. Most are offshore spam junk accounts. I’ve not really taken the time to research or prohibit them, but enough’s enough.

I’ve put a few new requirements on being a subscriber and commenter, namely requiring the use of the familiar ‘captcha’ floaty letter-number schemes to valid a human is trying to register, not a program. So, sorry for the initial inconvenience for the new folks.

Also, I’m starting to go through the existing subscriber list. I’m guessing about 90% of them are bogus. In fact, in a brash demonstration of my own ignorance, I went ahead and deleted about 600 subscriber accounts. I started being a little more judicious after the first few hundred, so your account may very well have been deleted. If so, I apologize and invite you to re-subscribe.

If you are a subscriber, THANK YOU! My hope is that this site and its content are an edifying part in your overall walk with the Lord. I’m honored by your partnership with me in this little blog experience.

If you are not yet a subscriber, let me invite you to add your email and get regular updates when new things are posted.

Thanks again!
-Anthony

It’s a question that makes even the crankiest person roll their eyes and transports them immediately back into it. Before they can even tell you what it was they’ve already cruised a mile or two in it.

Not including the 1983(ish) Mustang hatchback that I bought in 1989 from my friend Anthony’s cousin Frankie for $300–the car that only ran once and I ended up getting a flatbed to take for nothing–my first *real* car was a 1990 Chevy Cavalier “VL” (“Value Leader”!) coupe.

I bought my car brand new, even had to wait for it to be built and shipped, in April of 1990. I was 19 years old and thought I was rich with my first job out of high school delivering flowers for the now-defunct Chateau Florist & Gift Shoppe. I still remember the sales guy’s name at the stealership 21 years later because the man totally ripped me off. Granted, I seriously lacked wisdom and self-control, but the guy knew it. For a car that retailed for $7,577, I ended up paying $15,300! It was terrible! Well, I did get 5 years, 100,000+ miles, and a car full of memories, so I guess that makes it all good.

Tonight I did a search on Craigslist and found someone selling the exact same Cavalier I had–same color, same rims, same everything. See the pics below! I wish I could tell you that now I’m 40 I have a little more wisdom and self-control, but for a few hundred bucks and an 600 mile odyssey, I’d love to reminisce behind the wheel again.

How about you? What was your first car?

Break Time is Over At the start of the winter break I preached at our local church Christmas morning. In January I got to guest-preach at another church. Then I finished a writing project for a ministry in California and jumped right into a new and exciting editing project for a client. I can’t tell you more yet, but it’s going to be great book and will help a lot of people who wonder if it is possible to ever really know for sure if they are saved. Looking back, I guess my break time wasn’t much of a break!

Reading Through the Bible When the last semester ended in December, I began an intensive Bible reading program. I’ve already read 600 pages and only have 400 to go. My goal is finish by my birthday in mid-March. You can pray that with all the busyness of the semester I don’t slack on that–an ironic thing that does happen in the lives of seminarians.

My Classes This Semester This semester I’m taking more Systematic Theology II, an intermediate Greek class, and a condensed class later this spring. In Systematic Theology, major topics we’ll be covering this semester are
- Creation and Providence
- Man (Humanity) / Man as Sinner
- The Doctrine of Christ (Christology) – His Person and His Work
- The Holy Spirit – The Person of the Godhead who applies the work of redemption to us

In April I’ll be attending the “Together for the Gospel” conference as an elective class. (Are you going to be there? If so, let’s try to meet up!)

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m taking ‘Greek Syntax & Exegesis’, a less fancy way to describe it is simply, “Intermediate New Testament Greek.” We’re applying the elementary things we learned last semester and diving right into the text, translating sentences and studying the text more closely. (If last semester was the difficulty of learning scales, this semester I’m fingering out “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”) It is exciting to be reading the New Testament in the very language the original authors wrote it in–even if I’m doing it with a lot of help!! God has blessed us with a wonderful Book!!

Before I forget–> With the semester under way, my posts may be a bit infrequent. However, please do check back often because I’ve got a tool that automatically recycles older posts and puts them as fresh new posts at the main page. Already I’ve been surprised to read something and thought, “I wrote that?!” I hope you find that something old is new again!

If You Would Like Some Things to Pray About
- Of course classes, time-management, and honoring the Lord in my studies
- I have an opportunity to study abroad this coming summer and Amy would go too. Pray for God to provide if He desires us to go.
- Preaching opportunities–I need (and want) to develop in writing and delivering sermons
- I’ve applied for 3 different tuition scholarships, every little bit helps!
If you have something you’d like for me to praying for you about, email me at ‘comments throwawayeverything.com’

Funny, Geeky Greeky Stuff In Greek class we’re learning sentence diagramming–breaking a sentence apart to see its construction. We looking at all the parts of speech and grammar (subject/noun, verbs, participles, adjectives, etc.), and all their various relationships (independent, dependent, relative clauses, etc.) Some student of Greek who has been down this path before me was inspired to express his (and now my!) learning curve in this task. I don’t know who this guy is, but he wrote a cute little song about it. No doubt he did when he needed a break from studying! Enjoy!

It should be the primary prayer of every believer that his glory would be the Lord Himself.

Psalm 5:7, “But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy: and in your fear will I worship toward your holy temple.”

Can we not use this as a template for our attitude in approaching the Lord in his heavenly temple?  When I don’t “feel” like praying it is often because my perception of who the Lord is has gotten skewed.  The Lord showed me this verse that I hope to remember next time that happens.  By first calling to mind the abundant mercy of the Lord we remember his character, not the slanderous deception of it we hold onto.  Furthermore, while we begin to rejoice in remembering his mercy we can remember to have a proper reverent fear of our God.

• The Lord will give you a voice.  I don’t have a strong, booming voice, but I found myself speaking out from my gut and my voice carried across the city street.  Normally it can barely carry across a restaurant dinner table.
• Remember questions that stump you.  Then, go home and research the answer for the next time someone asks (I’ll share what stumped me in a future post).  Answer as best you can but stay on the gospel track in the moment.
• If you are going to offer $20 to anyone who can pass a “Good Person Test” be aware that that can be insensitive to dangle that carrot before the homeless who are passing by.  They may take the test and hear the gospel just in the hopes of getting that twenty.  Personally, I may not use that approach again is all I’m saying, but do as the Lord leads you to do.
• Don’t use a dairy milk crate for a soapbox!  In Florida the fine for posessing a dairy’s milk crate is (supposedly) more severe than for posession of an ounce of marijuana.  I was politely warned of this by a security guard who told me the police will use that as a reason to stop you.  Who ever thinks of dairy milk crates being “stolen goods”??  But I suppose they are.  Fortunately, a Christian brother came by and said, “Keep preaching, I’ll make it disappear.”  Sure enough, I’ve never seen the crate since.

Frankly, from what little I see of TV, there’s already plenty of, well, little to see…clothing-wise as well as content-wise. The Court’s ruling may end up being a well-publicized moot point. Nudity isn’t needed…there are plenty of other ways to push provocative programming that amounts to little more than a softer kind of soft-porn. However, in the eyes of the networks, every little bit helps, so maybe it really is just a matter of time for American TV.

I don’t have cable, and haven’t for a few years now, so I’m pretty out-of-touch about what’s on anymore. I didn’t cancel my cable for any super-noble reasons…I just don’t watch TV, so it wasn’t worth the $$$. But I also don’t miss it, honestly.

If you’re a Christian, do you have cable/satellite? What programs are so worth watching that you have it? How much is your bill each month? Are there free channels on the lineup that you have to pass over for decency reasons? How bad does TV have to get before you would cancel your cable/dish? Would love to hear your thoughts in a comment below.