Reflection on 1 Samuel 17:1-58

Scripture

David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies – the God of the Armies of Israel whom you defied.”

Observation

David, at his father’s request, leaves the flocks to take supplies to his brothers in Saul’s army. There he sees that a giant named Goliath taunts the Israelites, demanding that someone come out to fight him.

David finds out that the king has promised his daughter and exemption from taxes to the man who defeats Goliath. He volunteers and discovers that Saul’s armour and sword are too heavy for him.

So David responds to Goliath’s taunt. He frames Goliath’s challenge as a defiance against the Lord. Armed with just his sling, David kills Goliath. Emboldened by this, the Israelite army massacres the fleeing Philistines.

Application

David recognises that the Philistines’ hostility to Israel was not just a military or political issue, but a matter of spiritual warfare. They were not fighting against flesh and blood, but against the Lord of Heaven’s hosts.

He could go without armour or sword because his trust was in the Lord. He knew that the battle belonged to the Lord.

Similarly, our battles are not in the flesh, but in the spirit realm. We must fight these battles in the spirit realm using the gifts and weapons of the Holy Spirit.

Whether it is family or work issues that overwhelming us, it is the Lord’s battle. Human wisdom will not give us victory, but the power of the Holy Spirit will.

Prayer

Thank you Lord that, as I put my trust in you, then you will help me to overcome the giants in my life. Amen.

‘I Saw Jesus’: In Christmas Miracle, Paralysed Athlete Walks Again

‘I Saw Jesus’: In Christmas Miracle, Paralysed Athlete Walks Again

CBS News screenshot
CBS News screenshot
“Jesus has healed me.”

Those are the words of Naomi Bogale, an Ethiopian runner who moved by herself to Colorado filled with visions of athletic renown. That, though, was before everything changed.

“All my body was paralyzed, my legs, nothing, zero,” she told CBS News, recalling the horrific accident she was in just seven months ago, when the car she was riding in wrecked, leaving her with a broken back and a severe spinal cord injury.

For the first time, the center of her universe — running — was no longer possible, a heartbreaking setback that came just after she suffered an Achilles-tendon injury and lost her partnership with Nike.

Bogale had moved to the U.S., dreaming of a comeback. She had access to world-class training and equipment, working herself into the best physical shape she’d ever been in, until it all came crashing down.

Many of the medical professionals Bogale spoke with told her the chances she would walk again were very slim and, if it was even possible, it would take years to achieve. Doctors gave her a projection of two to three years and, even then, it was always no more than a “maybe.”

 

Bogale’s devout Christian faith led her to a different conclusion. Thanks to a dream, the Ethiopian athlete was confident the doctors’ prognoses were wrong, because they didn’t account for miracles.

“I saw Jesus on my bed [in a] dream and God is taking my hands, too, and Jesus has healed me,” she said.

Fully determined to return to her passion, Bogale began to work out again, only this time she was no longer training as an athlete. Instead, as she described it, she was “like a baby” learning to walk again.

Now, just two weeks until Christmas Day, Bogale has turned a miraculous corner: she’s taken her first steps.

“God is good,” she said. “God is great.”

All the credit, Bogale added, belongs to the Lord.

 

Read the full story at faithwire.com

Jo Nova: The coldest summer day in Australia and nobody notices

It’s funny how the BOM is always banging on about the “hottest year ever”, the “warmest winter day on record”, “unprecedented rain”, but nobody notices the coldest summer day on record. Maybe it doesn’t fit the approved narrative

The coldest summer day in Australia and nobody notices

By Jo Nova

Weatherzone report that Thursday was the equal coldest morning ever recorded anywhere in Australia in summer time. Oddly, there were no preemptive emergency warnings the night before, no news stories announcing the area “might” hit a new record, no camera teams visited the scene and the BOM did not invent a Coldsnap Emergency Alert System to tell Australians to put on a jumper.

On Thursday, Perisher Valley in the Australian Alps got down to minus 7.0 C (19F) equaling the record set in Perisher in January 1979 and which was also reached at Charlottes Pass in December 1999.

Oddly, no one blamed this on climate change, or mentioned that it would have been worse if we hadn’t burnt all that coal. After all, without CO2, it would have been minus ten, right?

There were more news headlines about the heat that didn’t happen than there were about the cold that did.

While no media outlets have mentioned this cold record, many have run the story that temperatures might reach 48C this weekend and they issued plenty of warnings. As it happens the 48C was a fizzer on Saturday (the hottest was 44.9), and looks like missing tomorrow too (the forecast peak is now 45C). Hence imaginary heatwaves beat actual cold.

Apologies to Northern Hemisphere friends in winter, we know “it’s nothing”. But it is supposed to be hot here in December. Yet snow has continued to fall on Australian ski fields in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania this year with a “staggering 25cm” falling on Perisher just days before summer officially began.

 

From Jo Nova