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Sunday, October 10, 2010

holy friendships, pt. 2

Is God Talking to Me?
Reflections on Nathan and David in 2 Samuel 12

What do I take away from this story?

I read a pretty thorough description of God’s story of creation, sin, consequence, and redemption, both in story form with the poor man and the lamb, and in David’s life as God redeemed him from his own self-destruction.

I recognize that it is not enough to know the story at arm’s-length. Just as God used Nathan to say “You are the man!” to David, God would have me recognize that I am the man! Likewise, if you miss this, you’ve missed the point of this text. You are the man; you are the woman; you are the boy; you are the girl.

God created you for goodness, for obedience, for a relationship with Him. You and I and every other human in history has messed up God’s creation like a three year old kicking over the tower of blocks I carefully built. But we cannot destroy God’s creation, just mess it up. God’s gracious invitation through Jesus Christ is to hear His Word and Spirit, and in our conviction that we (I!) have sinned, turn back to God with a broken and contrite heart and say, “Help me!” And God will rebuild our lives and give us life with Him.

That’s the promise; that’s the Good News. That’s the Word of hope that folks need to hear when they are turned or turning away from God. A friend who will speak that Word of hope – that’s a friend worth having and that’s a friend worth being. Amen.

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