Swashbuckling adventure!

9:35 p.m. Today's project was to wrap up my notes for the II Samuel Bible study we'll begin for 2012 on June 7th. I'm still getting used to the idea, and even had to be reminded by one of my daughters when planning a lunch get together for this week, "Doesn't your study start Thursday morning?!" Yikes, I guess of all the attendees, I'd better be there, prepared and ready!

After devotions, prayer, and Steve taking off on the bus, I made my breakfast, threw some clothes in the wash, and cracked the books. Even though the Holy Spirit will teach me what to write, say and emphasize when I teach the women, it's very exciting and stimulating to my mind to read the scholarly, godly comments of the great pastors and teachers who havve gone before me. I jot down historical facts, insights, and spiritual principles that have universal application. But the Lord shows me what to speak from my heart, that wsill specifically challenge, comfort and cheer my ladies, and furthermore, embolden them to step out and be witnesses for Christ, because they have learned a book, or more likely, half a book of the Bible each summer. Knowledge of the Bible gives a believer confidence to speak to others about God's plan of salvation; and each woman's testimony rings harmoniously true with the scriptures she has learned. In speaking of the scriptures, the writer says in Psalm 119: 97-100 says,

Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
You, through Your
  commandments, make me
Wiser than my enemies;
For they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than
  all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the
  ancients,
Because I keep Your precepts.

The Lord hs given me, since 1982, the desire to see developed in each woman an in-depth understanding of the Bible that goes far deeper than knowing the facts presented.I want them to apply and practice the will of God from a solid base of Bible knowledge.

As I study, I know that is exactly what I want for myself!

We'll have some true swashbuckling adventure along the way, too, the thrill of victory on the battlefield; the execution of justice; assassinations; public exaltation and degradation; and principles of governanace still followed today in just and civil societies. I and II Samuel have it all, a full range of human experience. I'm undaunted by the fact that II Samuel is the most violent book in the entire Bible, according to New Living Translation commentator Victor P. Hamilton. I would be bothered by this, but my favorite movies are "Patton," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "How the West was Won." (But never fear. I'm also a girly-girl who sells Mary Kay and just got a set of acrylic nails put on)!

What we learn from both I and II Samuel is that victory over enemies is never easy--it's a hard-fought work of perseverance and patience, and waiting on the Lord to know how to go forward in His will.

Believer, we have enemies that seek our lives, both our bodily existence and our eternal souls: the world, the flesh, and the devil!  This world system is what I John  2:16 describes:

For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but of the world.

The devil, liar and murderer (John 8:44) and accuser (Revelation 12:10) has as his goal our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual destruction, using any temptation or deceit imaginable to rob us of our heavenly reward.  This is spiritual warfare, and we all must stand up and fight!

We'll battle through with David in his incredible rise to the throne of Israel , and experience humiliation as he almost loses that throne. And in learning the scriptural lessons contained in his life story, we'll be strengthened in our own resolve to walk uprightly with our Jesus!