Be my Guest

Our beautiful daughter, Rebecca
Senior Portrait, 2000

"In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams." (Acts 2:17)



Today's guest writer: Rebecca Glassco Figert (July 10, 2015)

So I was reading 1 Samuel 15 this morning. That's the part of the story when King Saul loses favor with God because he doesn't destroy every last bit of the Amalekites. They even spared the Amalekite king, Agag. So at the end of the chapter, Agag thinks he's safe until the prophet Samuel (who I thought was a nice guy) hacks Agag to pieces (1 Samuel 15:33)!

My brow furrowed with disbelief, "How could he? Is this really God's way?"

My day continued, and I let the hacked pieces of Agag settle in my mind and mostly forgot about it until my mom told me about her thumb.

Yeah, her poor thumb is suffering from a bacterial infection. When I begin to pray for her healing, it was like God spoke, "When I told Samuel to tell Saul to get rid of every last remnant of the Amalekites, I wanted to keep Israel clean and pure - just like your mom's thumb, every last trace of bacteria must be killed."

That made a lot of sense to me. We'd never want to leave a little bacteria on a wound; one single speck of bacteria infects the entire site. God knew what He was doing. This connection also reminded me that God does not tolerate sin. We must let Jesus' blood completely cleanse us, letting go of every single speck of sin.

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles..." (Heb. 12:1)

"[God] is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son [Jesus] and forgave our sins." (Eph. 1:7 NLT)


(Afterword: The thumb is well on it's the way to full recovery. All signs of infection are gone. Thank You, Lord Jesus. And thank you beloved friends and family for praying to the One who is able.)