When David went to the front lines to check on his brothers in obedience to his father, he was confronted with the taunting of Goliath. He immediately began to stir up the people around him in 1 Samuel 17 saying that there was a cause for which to fight. Goliath had not done anything personal to David. David’s fight with Goliath was impersonal. What David fought for was a cause. Goliath had made an attack on God and His people. David chose to fight for God’s cause.

In the following chapter of 1 Samuel, Saul began to mount a personal attack against David. He ignored the attack. But God didn’t. God fought on David’s behalf. David was a man who did not fight out of anger or emotion—he fought for causes (at least at this point in his life).

As I sat at lunch today talking with other missionaries we reflected on how important it is to not take confrontation and attacks personally. We need to look at the reason we are on the mission field and fight for the cause. When you start internalizing the frustrations you begin to think that the whole country and culture needs to change to match your perspective of the world. You forget that you are there for a reason. That reason is not to change a country, but to win people for the Lord. As you fight for the right cause you will see the personal attacks as being petty and unnecessary to fight.

Allow God to fight on your behalf when personal attacks come. Your cause is to bring others to Christ.

Reading in 1 Samuel the other day I read the story in chapters 4 through 7 where the ark was taken from Israel by the Philistines.

3 And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the Lord was come into the camp. 7 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. 8 Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

—1 Samuel 4:3-9

The presence of the ark represented the presence of God. However, in this passage it seems that the focus is on the ark itself and not on the God of the ark.

In the next chapter the baby named Ichabod was born. His name means “the glory is departed.” His mother was the daughter-in-law of Eli, the priest who raised Samuel. When the baby’s mother learned that the ark was taken and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, she also died in childbirth. Spiritually and emotionally this was a tough time for Israel.

We don’t need to depend on a physical object that can be taken away from us to have God’s power and glory in our lives. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have the presence of God with us at all times. It is a matter of acknowledging God’s presence and allowing Him to work in and through us.

Through the course of the story the Philistines were punished by the presence of the ark. They even gifted the ark to one of their enemies as a way of bringing God’s judgment on that nation as well. The enemy understood the awesome power of God even if the Israelites occasionally took God’s power for granted.

Like most kids growing up in a Christian school I had to read a little bit about George Washington Carver as part of my education. However it has been many years since I read about this great scientist and Christian. I was excited for the opportunity to read about Dr. Carver again. Thomas Nelson has a new series called the Christian Encounters Series in which they have biographies of great Christians of the past. I had not read any of these books before, but will likely read more based on this title.

This biography focused on two things that shed some interesting light on the man and the time period. First was his relationship with Booker T. Washington. The second was his view of the scientific method. With those two items the author wove in some of the socio-political environment that surrounded the time.

Booker T. Washington was the man who started the great school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where Dr. Carver spent the majority of his career as a teacher and researcher. While these two men worked with each other for many years, they had a rough personal relationship. They both had common goals, but their approach was completely different on how to achieve those goals. This brought tension in their day-to-day work environment. It seemed Carver tendered his resignation a couple of times each year while Washington was still alive. Washington never accepted the resignation letter because he knew that he was completely dependent on Carver and what he added to the school. They had a mutual respect for one another and publicly spoke highly of the other man. However, privately they seemed to struggle and were constantly frustrated with the actions of the other.

Carver believed that God revealed to him what facets of research he should be engaged in. Because of this, he did not have any regard for the scientific method (the idea that a scientist would document each variable in his research so that he could know what did and did not produce the results that were seen). Since Carver did not take exhaustive notes of his research, he had to rely on intuition and past experience to know what caused the results. This was not because of laziness on his part. He honestly believed that if one was in tune with God and His leading, then God would reveal and guide the scientist to the right answers. Carver understood the scientific method, but he believed it was an un-Christian way to do research.

For all the good points Dr. Carver had, he seemed to be overly focused on recognition for his accomplishments. He would rather have someone publicly recognize his achievements as opposed to give him large sums of money for his work. This need for public recognition was much of what caused the tension between him and Washington. Money meant nothing to him. In fact, he saved virtually every dollar he earned and gave it away to different causes towards the end of his life.

The book is well written and moves the story along. While not everyone is looking for a quick read, I personally like an overview-type biography. This book is just 176 pages. Though I have not read any books by John Perry, I am interested in other books he has written in the Christian Encounters Series.

George Washington Carver by John Perry. Thomas Nelson 2011.

[Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book.]