{"id":34032,"date":"2025-01-01T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T05:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_18_1-18-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-12-25T00:53:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T07:53:48","slug":"2-samuel_18_19-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_18_19-33\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Know You Have Passion and What Is God’s Passion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Samuel 18:19-33 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 18:19-33.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 18:19-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, “Let me run and take the news to the king that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has delivered him from the hand of his enemies.”
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“You are not the one to take the news today,” Joab told him. “You may take the news another time, but you must not do so today, because the king’s son is dead.”
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Joab said to a Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed down before Joab and ran off.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ahimaaz son of Zadok again said to Joab, “Come what may, please let me run behind the Cushite.” But Joab replied, “My son, why do you want to go? You don’t have any news that will bring you a reward.”
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He said, “Come what may, I want to run.” So Joab said, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a019-23: \u00a0Joab chooses a Cushite to deliver the news about Absalom’s defeat to King David.\u00a0 But Ahimaaz really wants to run and try to deliver the message as well, even though there was no monetary reward he could get for it (v22).\u00a0 Ahimaaz keeps politely asking Joab for the opportunity to run and when Joab lets him run, Ahimaaz ends up outrunning the Cushite (v23).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 How do you know when God has given you a passion for something? You can tell from these five clues that Ahimaaz displays:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0No one needs to tell you to do it.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0You just do it out of your own initiative.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0No one needs to pay you to do it.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0You do it because you love it.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0You do it well.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Just as Ahimaaz outran the Cushite, in your area of passion you tend to outrun the competition.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0You do it repeatedly.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0This wasn’t the first time Ahimaaz ran to deliver a message.\u00a0 We saw him do this before when he delivered a life saving message to David in\u00a02\u00a0Samuel\u00a017:17.\u00a0 Likewise, when you’re passionate about something, you won’t settle for doing it just once.\u00a0 You’ll want to keep on doing it.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0You do it persistently.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0When you\u2019re passionate about something, you don’t let obstacles get in your way and you don’t quit easily.\u00a0 Notice that when Joab passed over Ahimaaz and choose a Cushite to run instead, Ahimaaz remained persistent and polite toward Joab.\u00a0 Ahimaaz did not step over his leader or rebel against him; rather he politely asked his leader again and eventually he got the opportunity to run.\u00a0 True passion always comes out in the form of persistence.\u00a0 You do it even when it hurts.<\/p>\n

What has God given you a passion for?\u00a0 Run with it and do it for His glory.<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 18:24-33 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked out, he saw a man running alone.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The watchman called out to the king and reported it. The king said, “If he is alone, he must have good news.” And the man came closer and closer.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the watchman saw another man running, and he called down to the gatekeeper, “Look, another man running alone!” The king said, “He must be bringing good news, too.”
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The watchman said, “It seems to me that the first one runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok.” “He’s a good man,” the king said. “He comes with good news.”
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Ahimaaz called out to the king, “All is well!” He bowed down before the king with his face to the ground and said, “Praise be to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God! He has delivered up the men who lifted their hands against my lord the king.”
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king asked, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” Ahimaaz answered, “I saw great confusion just as Joab was about to send the king’s servant and me, your servant, but I don’t know what it was.”
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king said, “Stand aside and wait here.” So he stepped aside and stood there.
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Cushite arrived and said, “My lord the king, hear the good news! The\u00a0LORD\u00a0has delivered you today from all who rose up against you.”
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king asked the Cushite, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” The Cushite replied, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man.”
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you–O Absalom, my son, my son!”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 24-33: \u00a0To me this is one of the most heartbreaking passages in the Bible.\u00a0 I could imagine that when David gets the news that Absalom has been killed, he is at first shocked, but his shock gives way to absolute heartbreak.\u00a0 For a moment David probably questions how Joab and his soldiers could allow his son to be killed despite his strict orders to protect him.\u00a0 But then his heart can’t stay in that train of thought. Instead, David thinks about his son.\u00a0 I could see David recalling the day Absalom was born, the day he first held Absalom in his arms, Absalom’s first steps, Absalom growing up, things about Absalom that David loved.\u00a0 Then David probably thought of Absalom’s rebellious years as a teenager, and all the heartbreaking things that unfolded between them as Absalom got older.\u00a0 As David remembers his son he thinks of all the things he wish he had done differently as a father.\u00a0 And then David thinks about how Absalom died \u2013 in great pain and fear, alone, without having seen his dad before he died.\u00a0 There are so many emotions that David is feeling — tremendous grief, shock, regret, horror, unbelief — that all David can say is, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you–O Absalom, my son, my son!” (v33)<\/p>\n

This is the worst moment of David’s life.\u00a0 Any parent who has ever lost a child can relate.\u00a0 David was not the perfect father. Absalom was not the perfect son.\u00a0 But there is no doubt that David loved his son Absalom from the bottom of his heart.<\/p>\n

That is how David grieved for his son Absalom, a son who rebelled against David in the worst way, who stole David’s throne, who plotted to kill David and who ran him out of the country.\u00a0 If that is how much David grieved over a rebellious son,\u00a0imagine the grief that our Heavenly Father experienced when His perfect, always obedient, always loving, always adorable son Jesus was killed on a cross by ruthless men<\/strong>.\u00a0 I know that weather is not necessarily a sign of God’s emotions, but on that day when Jesus hung on the cross, I can’t help but think that the reason why darkness came over the entire land was because the Father’s heart had never been so broken (Luke 23:44).<\/p>\n

I began today’s GAME sharing talking about Ahimaaz’s passion for running and delivering messages.\u00a0 But do you know that long before people used the term “passion” to describe things such as our interest in music, sport or people, the term “passion” was originally used to describe the suffering Jesus went through on the cross?\u00a0 That’s why you get the term the “passion of the Christ”.<\/p>\n

On this day let’s not make light of how David felt when he lost Absalom, or how the Father must have felt when His Son Jesus died.\u00a0 If Jesus had to suffer and die for us to be saved, what a high price God paid to save us.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You for passion — not just the passion you give us individually for music, sport or other things, but even more for the passion of Jesus Christ who died on the cross so that we could be reconciled to God.\u00a0 Thank You that it was passion that drove Jesus to the cross.\u00a0 May we love Him passionately in return.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

opyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 18:19-33.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 18:19-23 (NIV)
\n19\u00a0\u00a0Now Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, “Let me run and take the news to the king that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has delivered him from the hand of his enemies.”
\n20\u00a0\u00a0“You are not the one to take the news today,” Joab told him. “You may take the news another time, but you must not do so today, because the king’s son is dead.”
\n21\u00a0\u00a0Then Joab said to a Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed down before Joab and ran off.
\n22\u00a0\u00a0Ahimaaz son of Zadok again said to Joab, “Come what may, please let me run behind the Cushite.” But Joab replied, “My son, why do you want to go? You don’t have any news that will bring you a reward.”
\n23\u00a0\u00a0He said, “Come what may, I want to run.” So Joab said, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a019-23: \u00a0Joab chooses a Cushite to deliver the news about Absalom’s defeat to King David.\u00a0 But Ahimaaz really wants to run and try to deliver the message as well, even though there was no monetary reward he could get for it (v22).\u00a0 Ahimaaz keeps politely asking Joab for the opportunity to run and when Joab lets him run, Ahimaaz ends up outrunning the Cushite (v23).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34041,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34032\/revisions\/34041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}