Yesterday's Man to Tomorrow's Man?

Last Sunday morning I listened to a message, from a Pastor I’d not heard before. The focus was 1 Samuel 16:1, The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

 

This was presented as an introduction to the importance of transition. In the passage of 1 Samuel, we find the transition from the past to present, from the present to the future. All right there in one verse; Saul being the one with God’s previous anointing, now having been removed, and God sending Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint God’s new chosen one, David, Son of Jesse.

 What follows are notes I made and my take-away.

“God’s anointing passes from one King to another.” This really struck me as I couldn’t help applying that logic to our political situation today. Full disclosure; I was not a Trump loyalist during the 2016 primaries, but became more so once he won the nomination and I realized just how far the haters were willing to go to destroy the man.

 Ever since the 2020 election and the recent mid-term elections, I’ve been extremely discouraged with the state of our nation. More specifically, the “leaders” of our nation. Sunday's message caused me to reconsider my frustrations.

 Pastor said something to the effect that, when you stop heeding God’s Will and direction, He removes His anointing. This made me think; has the United States of America lost God’s anointing? Were we (as I believe) anointed by God, because of the purity of our founding? And were we now losing God’s anointing?

Sidebar; I know we still allowed slavery at our founding and I’m not claiming our purity was without faults, but it certainly was more pure than previous nations who, by the way HAD NOT abolished slavery.

 Back to the message; Pastor said; “you never drift anywhere worth going.” Have we drifted? Whether or not, I somehow felt that maybe I need to accept what has happened (politically) and move forward. For the point of the message was still to come.

 The “tragedy of Yesterday’s Man” is that you get stuck there. Maybe I’ve been stuck there. Yesterday’s Man was the man previously anointed. Maybe Yesterday’s Man (Trump) had strayed just a hair too far and God was moving on, maybe not (just me considering it). That’s not to say today’s leaders are the best for God’s Will, but maybe they are simply a transition (there’s that word again).

 In 1 Samuel, Saul is seeking to preserve his kingdom, while Samuel was seeking to prepare for the future anointing of God. It sounds like Saul was drifting from God’s Will to retaining his own power. Don’t we all experience that sometimes? We think our life is good, or just or right, and we try to retain that moment in time?

 We can choose to be Saul or Samuel. Will we choose to preserve our power or prepare for the future anointing of God?

 Samuel was listening to God. Here, the Pastor made an excellent point; “if you quit listening, you don’t hear it anymore.” Certainly, he said it more eloquently than I can AND with a story attached. Suffice to say, when you live by a railroad, you eventually don’t hear the passing trains. I.e. you stop listening to them. Ergo, you no longer hear them. Have we stopped listening to God?

 All of this to transition to the “triumph of tomorrow’s man.” Tomorrow’s Man is the man with God’s anointing. God commanded Samuel to anoint David. We know the giant that David brought down.

 1 Samuel is Old Testament. We have the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Isn’t it possible we have been anointed by God? But, A BIG BUT! Could it be we only have the anointing, as long as we LISTEN?

Pastor’s message seemed to be; WORK TODAY TO IMPACT TOMORROW. He offered these three encouragements;

1.    Keep listening to God. If you quit listening, you won’t hear Him anymore.

2.    Keep risking! Regardless of the backlash, keep risking favor from the mere mortals, to move God’s Will forward.

3.    Keep blessing! The future of the church is not dependent on living in the past. The future of God’s Will does not rely on maintaining man-made traditions, but embracing younger people and their commitment to God’s Plan.

 You can choose to be Saul (trying to maintain the past or present) or, you can choose to be Samuel (preparing for the future anointing of God). Which do you choose?

What's wrong with America?

 "The problem with America is..."

   I've heard those words for many years now, uttered them myself numerous times. This week I got to thinking long and hard, about what really is wrong with the United States of America, and came to some conclusions that surprised even me.

   You know what I rarely, if ever, heard people say as a kid? "What's wrong with America is..." Oh, there were the occasional "kids today, they don't make 'em like they used to" and things like that. But, it was generally believed that The United States of America was good. That it was a place where anyone could succeed. 

   This was a nation going through struggles for sure; it was the 1960's and 1970's. At the time, there was a societal work ethic that said; whatever you do for work, do the very best you can. For hard work and perseverance are rewarded in this great country. It was generally believed, and usually proven, that products built in the U.S. were of the highest quality in the world. Other countries may have had better engineered products, but none could match the combination of quality with quantity of output of the United States.

   During the 1960's and 70's, politicians would campaign on the greatness of the United States and what they'd bring to continue our advancement and improvement. Fast forward to now, when you hear politicians and newsies speak of nothing but what's wrong with the United States. Listening to these people, you'd think there is nothing good about these United States.

   Wouldn't it be nice to hear interviews, of political candidates, start with; "what do you love about the United States of America?" or "what's RIGHT with America?" 

   You probably know, but may have been encouraged to forget some of the following;

    The United States was the first major western nation to abolish slavery. Yep. Even though slavery was a stain on our society, most other nations didn't even start getting rid of it until after the U.S. Civil War started. Our Founding Fathers were not all rich white guys, soaking the poor. John Adams, Vice President to Washington and second President, nearly went broke while serving. Thomas Jefferson, though he had many slaves and a vast property, died so deep in debt it took his family decades to clear the debts. After WWII, it was the United States that sent people and materiel to Japan to rebuild. We helped build Japan into the manufacturing powerhouse that it became. Against incredible odds, we restored Civil Rights to people who had truly been oppressed. We've even taken it so far that people of any race or ethnicity can own housing, businesses and sit in the highest levels of corporations and government. 

   We became the nation others look to when disaster strikes. Our military doesn't just exist for purposes of war. It responds with ships and personnel, in times of disaster, to provide food, water, medical treatment and infrastructure rebuilding. Just ask the people who've survived tsunamis. When tyrants brutalized entire groups of people, on foreign lands, we've welcomed refugees and gone to fight their battles for them; all in the name of Liberty and Freedom.

   Back to what I think is truly wrong with America. We simply forgot why we were formed. 

   The United States declared its independence and was formed, to preserve individual liberty; free from government's imposition of its will over our God-given rights. Read that again; our rights come from God and government is not to infringe on those.

   Individual liberty means we should not be dependent on government. That means it's our responsibility to provide food, clothing and shelter for ourselves and our family. Finding a job or paying for medical services? Yes, our individual responsibility.

   See ours is a system of government where there's no pile of money to draw from. If I ask "government" to provide, I'm really asking my neighbor to provide. For it is their tax dollars that will provide for me if my wish is granted. How many of us would walk around the neighborhood, asking for donations for our grocery run, or doctor visits? But asking "government" allows us to remain somewhat anonymous while doing just that.

   This individual liberty thing may be a hard pill for some to swallow. We've spent decades handing over so much power, to career politicians who've been more interested with lining their pockets and their own families, to the detriment of an entire populace that gave them their wealth. However, if we are to return to the greatness so many used to speak of, shouldn't we get started proclaiming our real foundational principle; INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY?