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From The Pastor

July 12, 2019 by Rev. John Hartman

From the Pastor

There was a little girl at a carnival who was carrying a huge swirl of cotton candy. Someone asked her, “Do you really think you can eat all of that?” With little pink smudges on her nose, cheeks and lips, she answered, “Oh yes, I’m much bigger on the inside than I am on the outside.” Little David was ready to go toe-to-toe with big Goliath in battle one day. Now Goliath stood like a towering skyscraper over the army of Israel. The weight of his armor alone would make a horse in these parts of Lancaster County wobble. And even though David didn’t need to shave every day, and even though his only weapon was a sling and five smooth stones, David was, well, huge on the inside. So let me ask, how is your inside? My guess is that it is a constant battle. Our insides can be dominated by anxiety, fear, pettiness, greed, lust, hopelessness, self-obsession, and any number of other constricting forces. Or, our insides can be expanding and characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, generosity, and self-control. It certainly is clear what was inside of David!

We don’t know much about David except that he was a shepherd boy, the youngest son of a prominent Hebrew family living quietly in Bethlehem. What we do know is that the way the story is told leaves no question as to the identity of the architect of David’s enormous insides. As David explained to King Saul, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine” (I Samuel 17:37). The combination of reflecting on God's faithfulness as David does in so many of the psalms he wrote, and experiencing God’s faithfulness in his daily life gradually expanded his inner world. Goliath couldn’t see it. King Saul couldn’t see it. Even David’s own father and brothers couldn’t see it, but David was growing much, much larger on the inside than he was on the outside, — and it all came from God. Please join us this Sunday, July 14, at 10:00 A.M. for worship in the Family Life Center (FLC), as we look at the great Bible story of David and Goliath.

Pastor John

Quote of the Week

“Sometimes God will put a Goliath in your life, for you to find the David within you.” Toby McKeehan

Toby McKeehan, better known by his stage name TobyMac, is a Christian hip hop recording artist, music producer, songwriter and author.