Week Five, 2025
All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’” When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. 2 Samuel 5:1-3
He was designated as a future king and waited fifteen years until he was thirty to become king. By all the worldly standards he did not appear to be a king. But, while David did not look like a king, he had the heart of a king.
He was “ruddy”, but handsome, but not someone the world would choose as a king, but he had what counted to be a king. Likewise, we cannot see the spiritual condition of a person’s heart. So, we should reserve our judgment about their value in the Kingdom of God.
Some of God’s most faithful servants do not look like people the world thinks of as successful. God does not always call people to serve Him because of their ability, but because they make themselves available. We cannot see the spiritual condition or openness of a person’s heart. So, we should not judge their openness to the Gospel.
Don’t judge the value of a person by outward appearances means that you should not form an opinion about someone based solely on how they look, as their true worth lies deeper within their character and personality, not their physical appearance; essentially, don’t judge a book by its cover.
I admit I sometimes judge a person’s value, especially spiritual value by outward appearances. It’s easy to fall into that trap, but God tells us that the value of a person is in the inside more than in the outside.
Remember in His kingdom, He is more interested in availability than in ability. Are you available to God for whatever He calls you to do to use the talents He has given to you in creation?
Be careful how you judge people and accept them as they really are, remembering God has a purpose for all and created us all as we are.
Sometimes True Stories
A church in Switzerland has created a computer-generated avatar of Jesus. St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, ironically the nation’s oldest church, now has cutting-edge technology that enables people to talk with an AI version of God’s Son. When you enter a confessional booth, a lifelike avatar on a computer screen offers advice based on the Bible and is available in more than one hundred languages. Around nine hundred conversations between people and the machine have been registered so far.
However, visitors are warned against sharing personal details and informed that their interactions with the avatar are at their own risk.
Of course, the real Son of God already knows every detail of our lives (cf. Luke 5:22; Hebrews 4:13). Interactions with him are not a risk but a blessing beyond compare (Hebrews 4:16).
And there’s the fact that we need a God who will not only give us advice, but actually act in our lives and our broken world on our behalf.
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Canada recently released its updated statistics for how many people died last year from physician-assisted suicide, and the numbers continue an alarming trend. The country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program was used by roughly 15,300 people to end their own lives. This makes it the fifth leading cause of death in 2023 and represents a 16 percent increase over the previous year.
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Your skeletal system is constantly regenerating! On average, every bone in your body will be completely replaced within a decade. This regeneration process slows down with age, resulting in bones becoming thinner over time.
Quotes You Can Use
The key is not for God to give us what we want, but to learn to want what God gives. Richard Blackaby
Be careful what you define as mundane – it is a sliding scale. Michael Smith
Rational people and institutions respond to things they cannot afford by finding alternatives – sometimes those alternatives are not buying them at all. Michael Smith
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. General George S. Patton
You may have been given a gift that is under the Christmas tree, but it is not a gift you have received until you open it and claim it for yourself. Dwight Short
The best way to keep yourself in the love of God is to realize that Jesus is coming soon. Dan Shock
Be reminded that there is nothing that you may be facing Jesus, himself, has not already faced. Nothing He cannot overcome. Marty Stubblefield
The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high, and we miss it, but that it is too low, and we reach it. Michelangelo
We should love others truly, for their own sakes rather than our own. -Thomas Aquinas, Theological Texts
Joyful worship is the proper response to our salvation and the hope of Christ’s return. Joyful worship flows from knowing and treasuring Jesus. Rejoice in your salvation! Worship should be awakened and sustained by truth and only assisted by music. God is the object of our worship, and worship is the response to the Truth of who He is and what He has done. The one who is forgiven much, loves much! Edgar Aponte
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