Dave’s Monday Blast – March 22, 2021
Christ Followers are Christ’s Ambassadors. St. Teresa of Avila stated it this way: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks with compassion upon this world.” Bottom line…the only Jesus some people will ever encounter is you! I know…that is a lot of pressure!
Scripture is filled with very interesting and unusual accounts of individuals being used as Ambassadors. Some knowingly, some unwittingly, but all left their marks as Image Bearers of Christ. What can we learn from them?
Four characteristics of Ambassadors that consistently Leave their Mark for eternity:
1. Faith in Spite of Circumstance (2 Kings 5:1 – 4)
2. Prepared to Share All to Serve Others (John 6:1 – 9)
New this Week:
The third characteristic is found in 1 Samuel 23:16 & 17. Belief in the sovereign plan of God.
From the time of his anointing recorded for us in 1 Samuel 16:13, until he ascended the throne of Judah recorded in 2 Samuel 2, thirteen years had passed. In verse 16 we have another unlikely Ambassador coming to minister to David, “And Jonathon, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God.” (Encouraged here means to strengthen his hand) Then verse 17, “Thus he said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father shall not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.'”
I suspect that after 13 years and numerous attempts on his life, David was discouraged and questioning God’s sovereignty; certainly His methods and His timing. God used a very unlikely, yet faithful Ambassador to speak words of encouragement and truth about God. This is what Ambassadors for Christ do, they rise up and go and speak on behalf of the Father. They believe in His sovereignty.
