April 12, 2012 … A Friend Closer Than a Brother

Blogger's Note: While you read through my journal entry today, click here and let this music play quietly in the background ...

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: 1st Samuel 18-20 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
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Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 11 … To study this song, go to this link -
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Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 59 … To study this song, go to this link -

Highlight Reference Passage #1: 1st Samuel 18: 1-4 … 1 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
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Highlight Reference Passage #2: 1st Samuel 19: 1-3 … 1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2 and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3 I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”
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Highlight Reference Passage #3: 1st Samuel 20: 1-4 … 1 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?” >>> 2 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!” >>> 3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” >>>
4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”

My Journal for Today: Have you ever had a friend? … No, I mean A REAL FRIEND, … like the friendship modeled by Jonathan in his covenant friendship with David. Actually, I only have one friendship which approaches the covenant relationship which we read about in the passages I’ve highlighted today, which shine a light on the almost super-friendship which is chronicled in the book of 1st Samuel between Saul’s eldest son, Jonathan, and David, the man with whom Saul had a love/hate relationship.

And my covenant friend, … really the only friend I know I can count on always, … is Jesus. And you can read about the essence of my covenant relationship, as described by Jesus Himself in John 15: 9-17; and I’m afraid that MY FRIEND, Jesus, is closer in His covenant with me than I am with Him; but I still aspire to love my Friend, Jesus, just as He loves me.

Now, in my world of human friends, I can only say that I’ve experienced a remnant of the friendship which was modeled by Jonathan in the friendship he had with David. Jonathan was willing to give up and risk losing everything, … even his birthright, for his friend, David. He loved him enough to risk his very life and even the relationship he had with his father for the covenant he established with David. Do you have a friend like that in this world of horizontal relationships? … Very few of us do?

Really, the covenant relationship we read about above between Jonathan and David is a prototype picture of the relationship Jesus was to have with all who received His “friendship” in being born-again into an eternal “friendship” with Himself as Lord and Savior. Jonathan is a picture of Jesus, the One Who was willing to given up even the relationship with his Heavenly Father and to die for his friend, David, … David being the picture of you and me when we come into covenant relationship with our Friend, Jesus.

Sure, I’d love to have a human friendship who even comes close to that modeled by Jonathan and David; but I can always know that I have such a friendship; because I have my covenant and eternal brotherhood with Jesus to rely upon forever. .

My Prayer Today: … Thank you for being my Friend, Jesus! Amen

2010 – December 20 – Choices … Friendships

Study from God’s Word… Reading two traveling letters, the books of James and Jude, written to the church written by these two brothers of Jesus, who were trying to get the persecuted Jewish Christians to remember God’s covenant and to remain faithful in spite of the persecutions of the world … Passage for Reflection: James 4: 4 … NIV You adulterous people,[a reference to adulterous Israel – see Hosea 3: 1] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

My Journal for Today: Reading the books, i.e., letters, of Jesus’ brothers, James and Jude this morning, if one cannot see the relevance of Scripture to our world today, that person would have to be a non-believer or a foolish Christian who has been duped by the paganism or carnality of worldly pleasures or materialism; and unfortunately this is a very common failing evidenced in the church and Christians today.

Dr. Smith makes the relevant case that today’s parents will try to get their kids to recognize the truth that “bad company corrupts good character;” yet, these same parents often will take up deadly close friendships with the world and allow worldly values to corrupt what God’s word teaches us. Let’s get right to Dr. Smith’s closing devotional question today (with one little addition from me): Do the decisions I make reflect a greater friendship with a faithful God or with an ever-so-fickle friend [the world]?”

Dear one, I don’t trust myself; and I acknowledge the truth of Jeremiah’s warning in Jer. 17: 9, which tells me how weak my human heart (i.e., my very HUMAN being) is; … and that I have a heart which is deceitful beyond measure. James and Jude recognized this; and they were writing (i.e., preaching) a message of warning to all Christians; yes, to those in the first century after Christ, but also to all Christians in any generation who could be deceived that we followers of Christ cannot be wooed and won by the world away from the truth which is found in God’s word.

More specifically, we see these two letters throwing up a loud warning against trafficking in worldly and fleshly pleasures and expecting us, as Christians, to be able to have a deep and abiding relationship with Christ. NO WAY! It simply cannot happen; and that is what today’s highlight text almost yells out in warning to the man or woman of “the Way,” … i.e., any follower of Christ.

So, my fellow Christian, let’s be honest and ask ourselves the question raised by James and Dr. LaGard Smith today: Are we cavorting too closely with the materialism of the world and trying to have one foot following God’s truth [i.e., the Bible] and the other foot pursuing the lured values of the world? And can we not see that such dualism will split us in half and take us away from Christ’s simple (but, oh so difficult) charge (see Luke 9: 23) to deny self, to take our cross (of Christ) daily, and to follow our Lord?

Take careful note here, my dear one, and see where your path is leading. Because if it is pursuing friendship with the world, we will be lured by the sirens of materialism and pleasure-seeking onto the rocks of death and darkness and we’ll never be able to foster the friendship offered by Christ by being obedient to Him and following Him in the friendship He and only He can offer.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I want to follow You and to stay away from the lures the world uses to divert and distract me. Amen