He Wants YOU!
April 8, 2013 | Folake Ogunmola PC '15
What can I say? What can I do, but offer this… blog post up to the readers. For my contemporary Christian music junkies, yes I did just take the first two sentences from Hillsong’s song, “The Stand.” If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry. I will no longer make song references (but please feel free to listen to the song!) This post was motivated by my daily devotional. Before any pious thoughts about me pop up in your head, I should preface this by saying that I’m about 3 weeks behind. The Lord understands.
In 2 Chronicles 7, Solomon is dedicating the newly built temple to the Lord. Later in the chapter, God appears to Solomon and says:
“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel” – 2 Chronicles 7:17 - 18
Basically, great things will happen to Solomon and his kingdom if he is faithful to God like his father, David.
A little background on David is required for the significance of this passage to be understood. David was a great man of faith and chosen by God to be king of Israel. David brought Israel and Judah together, and under his rule, the nation of Israel grew great and powerful. God was on his side. He was the man after God’s own heart.
It is, however, this same David that loved another man’s wife so much that he killed her husband. It was this same David that shed so much blood in countless wars that God found him unsuitable to build a temple in His name. Solomon, his son built the temple instead. Yes, this David. But God is saying to Solomon: be faithful like David.
If you’re like me, you’re a bit confused. You wonder: does God know which David he’s talking about? Is he reading the same Bible? He knows, and he is.
There’s no mistake so great, no wrong so errant, no sin so egregious that he is unable or unwilling to forgive. He loves us – flaws and all. He wants us to believe in him, and in his son, Jesus. God was Uncle Sam before Uncle Sam was Uncle Sam – He wants YOU. God so loved the world that he sent his beloved son to die for our sins (John 3:16). It takes a great leap of faith to believe this. Often times, the greatest rewards in life require a leap of faith. So jump. You’ll be glad you did.
April 2, 2021 | By Jeremy Begbie
Many of us are haunted by the memory of a missed opportunity. Near the end of Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory, an old priest sits in his cell the night before his execution. He looks back over his life, thinking of all the things he could have done and should have done, could have said and should have said. As Greene has it, “He felt like someone who had missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place.”