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The following text was written during a time the biblical David’s life was rife with conflict.
Multiple battles with the Philistines. 
People ceaselessly trying to take his life.
Yet, he saw His God as the protector of that life.
2 Samuel 22 (NIV1984) David’s Song of Praise
David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; 3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—from violent men you save me. 4 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.
5 “The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 6 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. 7 In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.
8 “The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because he was angry.9 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.10 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. 11 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky. 13 Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. 15 He shot arrows and scattered the enemies, bolts of lightning and routed them. 16 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. 18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. 19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. 20 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 “The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not done evil by turning from my God. 23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. 24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. 25 The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.
(It is thought that this took place BEFORE David’s sins of murder and adultery. Even after that though, it is still maintained that David’s heart was to return and to stay within the guidelines God had set for him)
26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless,27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. 28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. 29 You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 30With your help I can advance against a troop with my God I can scale a wall.
31 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. 32 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? 33 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. 35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great. 37 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
38 “I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed.39 I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. 40 You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. 42 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the Lord, but he did not answer. 43 I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
44 “You have delivered me from the attacks of my people; you have preserved me as the head of nations. People I did not know are subject to me, 45 and foreigners come cringing to me; as soon as they hear me, they obey me. 46 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.
47 “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior! 48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me, 49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me. 50 Therefore I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing praises to your name.
51 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”
Have you had multiple battles?
Multiple attacks?
Does it seem as though God is absent?
Note in verse 8 how God was angry at those who tried to hurt David.
So angry that the heavens shook.
Note in verse 15 God scattered David’s enemies and in verse 20, He rescued him and brought him into a spacious place.
Why? Because He delighted in him.
In verse 28 God saved David when he was humble and brought low his enemies who were proud.
God made him strong and able to do battle.
Why? Because David asked.
So go ahead. Ask. The same is true for you.
God awaits your call. (verses 4 & 7)
He wants to do the same for you.
Why? Because God delights in you.
*
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I received so much love from the ones I love today.
I am truly blessed.
My heart and mind are turned to my own Mom.
Although she has been gone ten years,
The love she had for me,
goes on well past her life and death.
You see, back in the day, the late fifties, being an unwed mom was to to wear the scorn of every person you came in contact with.
Mom’s early story was one of loneliness and despair. She was for all intents and purposes looking for love in all the wrong places. The unwed part was hidden from me for my entire life. I only found out after her death in 2001.
What love did she have for me when she could have ended my life, or she could have decided to give me to another? Either would certainly have made her life easier.
The fact remains. She chose life. She chose life for me and a more difficult life for herself. Through the pain and loneliness and scorn, she raised me the best she could. Through a need for love from a human or just because she felt it the right thing to do, she chose life.
I am who I am because of the courage of this woman.
Not all the choices made were the right ones, naturally, but she did make the choices.
One of those choices was to be married again, hopefully giving more stability to her life.
What it gave her were three more children, with whom she shared her great love, and even more heartbreak than choices she had made before.
It is my belief that one choice that she made later in her life, was the life-giving choice to follow Jesus Christ.
Knowing full well that she required more help than any mortal man could give to her. She found that the decisions she made would have a great effect on me and my siblings.
She chose Jesus.
Her life and ours were never the same.
His sacrificial love for her and us,
brought us through to today where we bless His name,
and where - Her children arise and call her blessed – Proverbs 31:28
I love you Mom.
I’ll see you when I get there.
Until then,
I still choose Life.
I still choose Jesus.
I still choose Joy.
*
If you have not yet chosen Him~
Please refer to the Resucue tab at the top of this page.
A life-giving choice awaits.
*
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Way before the Palm Pilot ,
There was the “palm pilot” .
And long before that,
the most important palm,
the Pilot for all .
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands
Isaiah 49:16 (NIV1984)
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Psalm 139 (NIV1984)
1 O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
5 You hem me in —behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths,[a] you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to[b] me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
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Staring at the stained glass windows was actually an act of worship.
The very doing of it must have wrapped my heart in His love.
(And safety)
Not even, did I know about it.
Not then.
I am beginning to know it only now.
How sweet and beautiful is the protection of the Lord.
Saved for a PURPOSE!
This is what was spoken into my heart during worship at a recent conference.
There were two main topics; one of which was human trafficking.
The speaker had a list on her power point with three columns.
If one or more items were chosen from each column, then a circumstance would be considered human trafficking.
I didn’t take notes like I usually do, but without being all that specific; I can tell you I was shocked when I identified with many things on this list.
Never had I thought of my life as being trafficked, and I don’t think you could call it that, but I could sure relate.
I was never taken away from my family, but for almost as long I can remember, I had been forced to do things against my will.
Things I knew didn’t feel right; things that made me feel shame.
What a deficit to begin a life with.
Where does the stained glass come in?
Before I remember even going to church, I remember lying in my bed and looking out at the night sky.
The leaves were gone on the tree, and I “imagined” the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, right up there in the tree.
I don’t even recall church because I was so young.
I don’t think I knew “Jesus loves me this I know” or how I even knew about Mary and her baby, but I do recall that seeing them there gave me a great peace.
When I mentioned it to my mom she must have poo-pooed me, because I never spoke of it again, only tried to re-create it for the sense of calm it gave me.
Trauma and loneliness came again and again and I tried to re-create it even more times.
Although I didn’t see it with my eyes again, I found I could, if I concentrated enough, experience that peace and calm.
Then, when I was around 7 or 8, the drama in our home life became even more intense.
I remember lying in the bed and looking out at the trees again.
It was a different house, with a much bigger tree, and there, in the night sky, was Jesus, holding a rod in one hand and a lamb in the other. His robes went to the ground. His face was serene.
I didn’t dare tell anyone, but I knew that He was there to watch over me.
I slept in peace that night.
We moved one more time, and we began going to a Lutheran church.
There, to my surprise, were enormous stained glass windows, and there, right above me and to my left, was Jesus, holding a rod in one hand and a lamb in the other. His robes went to the ground. His face was serene.
I never listened much to the sermons, I was just too squirmy, but I did at times, stare at those stained glass windows until I felt at peace.
I did that until I was in high school and we changed churches to one with plain blue glass.
The peace I felt during those times didn’t make the things in my life any easier; there was always drama and trauma. Always.
But there, dotted at strategic times, there were little places of peace.
What I can recognize now, is the peace that was scattered throughout my years of seeking solace from the trauma, was actually protecting my heart. Keeping it safe from irrevocable harm, until a later time.
Now I know that what I sought was peace, but not as the world gives, but peace that only Jesus can give.
“The world didn’t give it to me, and the world can’t take it away”
So what was spoken in my heart during worship in that recent conference, suddenly, amazingly, sounds like truth.
An act of worship.
Worship of a God who knew what I needed, before I did.
Worship of a God who wrapped my heart in His love, and protected me from the world.
He so desires to do the same for you.
For a purpose.
*
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