A Friend Like Nathan by Michael Garner
Today’s Passage – 2 Samuel 12 – 14 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)
(Second Milers also read – Matthew 21 – 22; Proverbs 11; Psalms 51 – 55)
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 47:1
Read the “0411 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Read a previous post from this passage – “The Consequences of Sin”
“1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: 3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. 4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. 5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: 6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. 7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; 8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. 9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. 11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. 13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. 15 And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.” (2 Samuel 12:1-15)
In this passage, we read of Nathan confronting David after he commits adultery with Bathsheba and kills Uriah the Hittite.
Nathan begins to tell David a story of a rich man stealing a poor man’s only lamb to help himself from a wayfaring man. David would get angry at this man and would think of ways to punish him. But when he asked who it was, Nathan would reveal to David that he was talking about David! The Lord had sent Nathan to deliver a message. The Lord was very upset with David and his recent actions. The Lord would tell David all he would do as punishment. David would realize what he had done and confess his sin. Nathan would be there to comfort him but also tell him the truth. He would tell him that he wouldn’t die and the Lord would forgive him but he would still face punishment because of his sin.
In this story, we can learn a couple of things about Nathan.
- Nathan Was Close (vs. 1) – the Lord and sent Nathan as a messenger to deliver His message to David. He was chosen by God to speak to David.
- Nathan Was Confrontational (vs. 2 – 12) Nathan didn’t back down from David and said what needed to be said. It was probably though telling David the punishment that he was going to receive, but it was needed.
- Nathan Was a Comforter (vs. 13) – after all God had told to David about his punishment, Nathan would comfort David in telling him that God would forgive him and not kill him.
- Nathan Was Consistent (vs. 14 – 15) – even though we has comforting David, he didn’t let go of the fact he had sinned and that God was still going to have to punish him.
Two takeaways we can learn from this story of Nathan
- HAVE a Friend Like Nathan- we must have friends that are close withGod. Friends that will notice when we messed up and need to be confronted. Friends that do this not because they want to, but because the care for us and don’t want us to sin. A great friend will tell you the truth, even if it hurts.
- BE a Friend Like Nathan- we must be this to someone. We must tell people the truth, when if it hurts. We must be that friend that is close to God to show them what God wants them to do. If you love them, you’ll tell the truth!
Posted in Devotions by Michael Garner with 4 comments.
My Shepherd … by Michael Garner
Today’s Passage – Deuteronomy 12 – 14 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)
(Second Milers also read – 2 Corinthians 9 – 13; Proverbs 5; Psalms 21 – 25)
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – SSIsaiah 40:31
Read the “0305 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
“A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1)
To break down this first verse of Psalm 23, we look at the Lord being OUR shepherd! As Christians, we must be ecstatic that the Lord is our shepherd and that He made a way for Him to be our shepherd. He came here as a baby just like you and I. Lived a sinless life. Helping others on this planet. But He came for one reason and one reason only: to die for us. It was nothing we could do to pay for our sins, but by His blood being shed. When we think about this, we think about our own sins. We think about how we fail Him everyday. No matter how hard we try, we are never going to be perfect. It is our sinful nature. This flesh only wants wicked and carnal things in life. The sins we commit everyday is the reason He came and died on the cross. We were on His mind when He was up on the cross. He loved us so much that He would die for us! But it doesn’t end there. He has risen! He rose of the third day and is alive in heaven! the shepherd was slain and rose up again! How powerful! He left here to go prepare a place for us in Heaven, wait for the day we unite with Him. The great thing about it all is the the gift of salvation is that He made it free! He made it so simple and easy! What a God! We don’t deserve it! We don’t deserve to have a shepherd like we do. A shepherd that would do anything for his sheep, knowing that they would fail his countless times. All we must do to inherit eternal life it to ask Him. He will then give it to us. He’s just such a great God! The second part of this verse reads …I shall not want. When we trust Jesus Christ as our Savior, we will need nothing else in this life! This world is full of broken heart and emptiness, saying they have the answer to all your problems when in reality they don’t. They themselves have problems and can’t even get them fixed. They will never get fixed unless they have Jesus Christ as their shepherd in their life. They have no guidance. The try to go day by day living life with no direction, leader, or purpose. This a sad reality we live in, but it is what we see in the world on a daily basis. When we have Jesus Christ as the shepherd leading us through life, what more would we need? He blesses us everyday! He gave us His Word, telling us how to go about life. He gave us prayer and the opportunity to come into His presence. He allows us to walk with Him daily. He hears us when we cry. He is the answer to everything. What more could you need? Anytime we need Him, He is there!
Maybe today you need to remember what the shepherd provides. Maybe someone you know needs to know the shepherd. Maybe you need to realize all you need in life is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the greatest thing to ever happen to us! We need to remember this when going through life and its struggles. We must also show others who don’t know Christ as the shepherd the greatness of God and His blessings that come with it.
Posted in Devotions by Michael Garner with 4 comments.
God Has the Answers to All of Your Problems … by Michael Garner
Today’s Passage – Proverbs 25 – 27 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)
(Second Milers also read – Luke 1 – 2; Psalms 111 – 115; Proverbs 23)
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Micah 6:8
Read the “0723 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
“And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.” (Proverbs 27:27)
When I was around three months old, I was in and out of the Children’s Hospital in Washington D.C. with severe digestive problems. I had bleeding sores all down my esophagus and would stay up late screaming all night. The doctors were prescribing me with many different types of formulas, but none of them were working. After several tests being run, a stay in the NICU, and still no help, a lady at church told my mother about switching over to goat’s milk. My mother went and bought goat’s milk. That evening, my parents saw a difference! I began to sleep, my symptoms began to subside, and I became a completely different baby. My mother took me back to my pediatrician for a follow up appointment from the hospital. She told the doctor that she quit giving me the prescribed medications and the natural goat’s milk was working. The doctor became angry. He told my mother if we continued with the goat’s milk, it was going to kill me due to an excessive amount of calcium the milk contained. He did some blood work and told my mother to stop using the goat’s milk immediately. She left the doctor and went home crying, not knowing what to do. She thought she found the answer in goat’s milk, but was torn with the doctor saying it would kill me. She called her mother and told her what the doctors said. My grandmother told her to read her Bible and ask the Lord what to do. My mother hung up the phone, sat down and prayed. She opened her Bible to a random spot and began reading Proverbs 27. In verse 27, she read, And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens. She was young at the time and didn’t even know goat’s milk was in the Bible. She immediately began to cry, knowing God had spoken to her through His Word. She called her parents and told them what God had shown her and decided to stick with the goats milk. She proved the doctors wrong and it helped my body. She would use goat’s milk for all her children from then on.
In that time, my mother didn’t have an answer to our problems, but she went straight to God and He showed her the answer. When we go through confusing or troubling times and don’t know what to do, we must go to God! Through prayer and reading, God will make Himself known and will guide us to the right answer. This world will go through struggles and try to find their “answer,” but will find nothing. We have the answer! We have God!
Maybe today we need to remember when we go through confusing times, we must remember that God will always show us the answers!
Posted in Devotions by Michael Garner with 4 comments.
Proving God to Others … by Michael Garner
Today’s Passage – 1 Kings 18 – 19 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)
(Second Milers also read – Luke 1 – 2; Proverbs 23; Psalms 111 – 115
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Proverbs 27:15
Read the “0423 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.” (1 Kings 18:38-39)
In this passage we see Elijah is trying to convince the false prophets of Baal that he knows the true, living God while the false prophets try to the same with their god. Elijah challenges the false prophets to prove who was right. The challenge was whoever’s God struck fire down from above onto their sacrifice on their altar, He would be the real God. When the prophets of Baal did their sacrifice, they began to call out to their god and ask for that fire. They did it all day long and, of course, nothing happened. Elijah gets a laugh out of this and starts to mock them. The prophets kept trying and trying, and nothing worked. They had failed. It then becomes Elijah’s turn to prove the true God. But Elijah does something odd. He wanted to make things more interesting. He begins to dump barrels of water three times on the altar he built. There was so much water, it filled up the trenches he had made. But he wanted to REALLY prove that it was the truly almighty God. When he cried out to the Lord, fire struck the altar from above. When all the people saw it, they believed Elijah and knew it really was the Lord.
In our lives today, we must prove to this world we have the true, living God. In the circumstances we are under right now, people are looking for answers for getting through this virus. Why not show them God! We need to prove to people that our God is the one, true God. Tell people your testimony on how God has changed your life. Tell someone about how serving the Lord is the best life to live. Tell someone about the goodness of God. Tell someone about His faithfulness to us. Tell them about how He will never leave us. Tell someone He’s in the middle of all our problems. And the list can go on and on!
Maybe today we need to find someone that needs proof. When fire came from above and came on Elijah’s altar, the people saw the proof and knew his God was the real deal. today, let’s prove to someone that our God is the real deal!
Posted in Devotions by Michael Garner with 1 comment.