Month: August 2025

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father . . .” 2 Samuel 16:21 A couple months ago, we had an open house at which there was a lot of…
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Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. But if he says, “I have no pleasure in you,” behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems…
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Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, ‘Absalom is king at Hebron!’” 2 Samuel 15:10 I’ve never consciously thought that I could do a better job than God and I’ve never really thought, I should be God. I have,…
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Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” 2 Samuel 15:3 Having done too many sit-ups at the gym one day this week, I was driving my pickup later that day when I was hit with an agonizing cramp…
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For by the command of Absalom this has been determined from the day he violated his sister Tamar. 2 Samuel 13:32 As I’ve said before, in my drug use I didn’t set out to lose my job, derail my career, and destroy my family. No one purposefully does that. I simply didn’t weigh the possible…
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When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry. 2 Samuel 13:21 A few years ago, on a flight with my family, we observed as a few young children ran up and down the aisle screaming and raising a ruckus. The flight attendant had to intervene, instructing the parents to act like…
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And her brother Absalom said to her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? Now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother; do not take this to heart.” So Tamar lived, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom’s house. 2 Samuel 13:20 I don’t like the fast-food drive-thru for many reasons, but one…
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Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. 2 Samuel 13:15 In my drug use, my craving for opioids assumed control of my mind, becoming my only motivation. Everything else was secondary and I’d sacrifice…
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Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him . . . 2 Samuel 12:24 I wrote yesterday that if we believe God is God, then we have little choice but to trust…
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And the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 2 Samuel 12:15-16 Last week, we had a tornado-spawning storm move through, knocking down several large trees…
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