Scripture

David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the LORD was with him.

~1 Samuel 18:14, NLT

Quote

When opposition arrises, do not be resentful. Maintain your confidence in Christ and be obedient to His word.

~Charles F. Stanley

I learned early on that not everyone will celebrate your success. You would think that church related work would be an exception but it is not. Growth always threatens the turf lords or the stock holders. I have seen people get very angry over things that should have made them rejoice. I had a pastor friend {45 years ago} who was very good at personal evangelism. In all my years, I have never seen anyone better at leading others to faith in Christ. He accepted the call to an independent Baptist church in Franklin County and he was setting the woods on fire. He was going door to door sharing the gospel and people were responding. He was baptizing folks every Sunday. I went down to help him in a revival and by the middle of the week, he confessed that he had a mad deacon who doing everything in his power to quench the Spirit of the revival. He asks me to go with him to confront the deacon who had not attended a service all week long. The man was not uneducated: he was a principal at a local school. The guy who was actually trying to run the church was his father but he never attended: he just told his son what to do. So we get invited into his living room and the conversation begins: suddenly the man erupts and he says to the pastor, “You are ruining my church by reaching all these people.” I don’t know if he used the term “white trash” or not but he was angry that the pastor was baptizing some low income people. When he used the term “My church,” I reacted. I was seated until he said that and when he did I came up…“What do you mean, ‘your church’, did you die for it?” That is when the pastor realized he had made a mistake in bringing me along and he jumped between us. The man also admitted that his fear was that the pastor would have a larger following than he and his dad. Folks, this is real, it is not imagined. Growth threatens turf lords.

David had great success. He never lost one battle. Saul lost more than one. David’s success in the field brought him instant popularity. He was the talk of the town, so to speak and this unleashed a deadly strain of jealousy in Saul. The man literally went insane with envy. David was his greatest asset and yet Saul played the fool and considered David his greatest foe. Of course David is shocked and saddened by Saul’s evil response. The moral of the story is always expect the unexpected. It is almost a spiritual law: when the LORD gives a great victory, someone gets upset and comes against you. Elijah had a hay day at Mount Carmel but it stirred the ire of Jezebel and she came after Elijah. Expect the unexpected.

EXTRA

Speaking of the unexpected, it is my understanding that they took Mark Lindsey off of the vent last night. I don’t think that expected a good outcome. I called John Harold to see if he knew about Mark and found out that he has been very sick and is not out of the woods yet. So pray for my friend John Harold Hayes. I told Hannah last night, my goal for each day is not to get more bad news. Danville has been hit hard by Covid. On the bright side; the weather has been great. Strange year in away, leaves are falling like crazy but they are changing in color. You would think with all the rain that the leaves would be beautiful. It is the middle of October and I haven’t seen in beautiful leaves yet: they are either green or dead. Have a great day and if you know any bad news, don’t tell me about it. Hey, the Braves won and in dramatic fashion. I am going to follow them until they change their name. If the cancel culture {marxist} get to them, I will drop them just like I did the Indians.