...............................................................................................................................................................
..
Os
Hillman
“David therefore
departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam” (1 Samuel 22:1).
"How
did it all come to here?" "Hadn't I honored Saul? Hadn't I honored
God? Didn't you anoint me to be king, God?"
David must have been
thinking these thoughts as he looked out from his cave over the rocky cliffs
below.
Rejected. A fugitive.
A man without a country. No army. No resources. He'd just faked madness to stay
alive.
How did life get to
this dead-end? Such can be the fate of a leader in whom God is doing the deeper
work.
David must have
identified with the same feelings as Job when he could not make sense of his
calamities.
"Look,
I go forward, but He is not there,
And
backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
When
He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
When
He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But
He knows the way that I take;
When
He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
My
foot has held fast to His steps;
I
have kept His way and not turned aside.
I
have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I
have treasured the words of His mouth
more
than my necessary food" (Job 23:8-1).
God handpicked David
to be the heir to King Saul's throne over Israel. He removed Saul due to his
disobedience.
God instructed the
prophet Samuel to make a house call to Jesse's family. He had eight sons and
one of them was to be the next king of Israel. Samuel did not know who that
would be until he saw him in person.
David was the
smallest of the litter and even his father did not consider him a candidate as
he was not very kingly as a small shepherd boy.
Father Jesse's
failure to even bring his son before Samuel along with the other sons is
evidence of his view of his son.
Like many fathers, we
fail to see our children's potential in God. God always see our potential, not
our limitations.
In one day God took
David from delivering lunch to delivering a nation.
The calling of David as
a change agent is exemplified by all six of the stages we are discussing in
these chapters.
Crisis, character
development, isolation, the cross, problem solving and networks all define the
life of David.
David is a man whose
character was tested much like Joseph.
After David was
anointed by Samuel to be the next king, he did not immediately go into
"king to be" training school.
The Bible tells us he
went back to shepherding sheep. It is noteworthy that David did this.
How many of us when
we get a dramatic word from God want to go out and try to fulfill that word,
rather than waiting for God to fulfill it in His timing?
Soon after this God
orchestrated the event that would bring David into the first phase of his
calling as change agent for the nation of Israel as its greatest king.
He was only a
teenager, but he had killed a lion and a bear during his shepherding days.
He was also an
accomplished musician. It is interesting that it was this skill that became the
entry door to being brought into the upper echelon of the government mountain.
By this time Saul had
been given an evil spirit by God that could only be quieted by music.
Someone in his
administration had been told of David's musical gift and Saul had him brought
to him. David became a source of comfort for Saul.
As I write this
chapter I am taken by all of the Christian musicians that are being elevated in
the realm of pop music today.
The 2009 American
Idol winner, Kris Allen, was a worship leader at his church. In fact, six of
the top 13 finalists in the 2009 American Idol competition were worship
leaders.
Music can often be
the door that opens access to other cultural mountains.
Once the access door
was opened, God orchestrated another opportunity for David.
David volunteered to
fight Goliath when no other soldier, including Saul, would fight him. David was
given a platform to demonstrate God's favor on his skills as a warrior, even at
this young age.
David solved a
problem for Saul and Israel. He defeated Goliath and won the hearts of all
Israel.
This favor from God
caused jealousy and insecurity in Saul. This led to Saul's decision to kill
David. David had to flee as a fugitive for doing his job too well.
Have you ever done
your job too well to the extent that others become jealous? When you become
good at what you do, you will be surprised at where the pressure will come
from.
It is often within
your own camp. David is wrongly accused and not only is Saul after him, but so
is the entire Israeli army.
David is anointed to
be king and his training ground is fleeing the sword of his boss, Saul. God's
ways are truly not our ways.
The training ground
for a leader in the Kingdom can often mean years of difficult, unfair
treatment.
David is forced to
flee Saul and he was tested to see if he would take things into his own hands.
David understood that
despite the fact that Saul was wrong in what he was doing, it was not his right
to remove Saul from power.
This was an amazing
character trait of David that few leaders understand or live by. It is up to
God to remove those above us, even when they are acting unrighteously.
David recognized the
office more than the individual in the office. He knew it was God who placed
men into their places of power.
David passed this
test with flying colors in spite of his followers advising him to kill Saul,
even affirming to him that he would be justified in doing it.
David's low-point was
when he had to escape the fury of Saul to the Cave of Adullam.
The King would have
good reason to kill David for killing his greatest warrior. But the king saw
David as no threat because David faked madness in his presence.
David
fled to his cave and was alone and totally distraught. He felt abandoned by
God. I am sure David asked the question, "Is this how you train the
next king of Israel?"
Such are the ways of
God. The ways of God are fraught with unfairness, crisis, isolation and doubts
on the road to leadership.
David
penned the following words in Psalm 142 at the low point of his life. "I
cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my
supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my
trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In
the way in which I walk. They have secretly set a snare for me."
We will all enter the
Cave of Adullam at some time in our life.
Doubt may be such a
cave. Persecution may be such a cave. Sickness may be such a cave. Bereavement
may be such a cave. Conflict in relationships can be such a cave.
However, there is no
cave dark enough to shut out God.
Adullam was a place
of safety for David but it was a place to do business with God, not knowing
whether he would avoid the sword of the very man he supported, honored and
promoted.
Some of us will be
forced to retreat to our own cave of Adullam to avoid being destroyed by the
Sauls in our lives.
Betrayal becomes our
place of Adullam. David tried his best to honor Saul and not take revenge into
his own hands. He operated righteously and with justice.
God was testing the
mettle of David and was preparing him for a new chapter in his life.
Charles Swindoll
describes the role that isolation and the cave may play in a leader's journey.
"David
has been brought to the place where God can truly begin to shape him and use
him. When the sovereign God brings us to nothing, it is to reroute our lives,
not to end them.
“Human
perspective says, 'Aha, you've lost this, you've lost that. You've caused this,
you've caused that. You've ruined this, you've ruined that. End your life!'
“But
God says, 'No. No. You're in the cave. But that doesn't mean it's curtains.
That means it's time to reroute your life. Now's the time to start anew!'
That's exactly what he does with David."
"David
therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his
brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
“And
everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was
discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were
about four hundred men with him."
The
writer of Hebrews makes reference to David when he said, "They wandered
in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth."
Such are the ways of
God. First, David is used to solve a problem for Israel, to replace ungodly
leadership with Godly leadership.
The next phase of
David's life finds him training his men as a network, or in this case, his army.
Networks are always
necessary to create change in culture. No one man can do it by himself.
Some of Us Enter the
Cave of Isolation Due to Our Own Sins
Some of us do not
enter our cave of isolation as a result of the call of God upon our lives;
rather, we enter because of our pride, arrogance and presumption.
Even so, God uses
this time to sanctify our lives for the purpose and calling He has for us if we
are willing to repent and gain the freedom this process is designed to achieve
in our lives.
Such was the case of
Joseph. Joseph was the eleventh son to be born to Jacob in his old age.
However, he would not
be the last; that notoriety would belong to Benjamin.
However, Joseph was a
favored son because he was born to Rachel, Jacob's beloved wife who birthed
Joseph and Benjamin, his younger brother.
Jacob showed much
favoritism to Joseph which enraged the other ten brothers.
So, when Joseph
received his dream from God that someday he would rule over them and then had
the boldness and arrogance to flaunt that dream before his brothers and his
father, this caused bitterness to grow in his brothers that almost resulted in
murder had not Reuben interceded on his behalf.
This was Joseph's
first evidence of pride. This would launch Joseph into his first
"isolation experience" when he was sold as a slave.
His second isolation
experience was when he was serving as a slave and servant of Potiphar's house.
He was a faithful
servant and his character was unquestionable. Potiphar's wife made several
attempts to seduce Joseph in the palace.
However, we find that
Joseph made a strategic error on one occasion.
We find
this in the following passage: "But it happened about this time, when
Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was
inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, 'Lie with me.'"
Joseph oversaw all of
Potiphar's household. He should have known that Potiphar's wife would approach
him again and that for his own protection he needed to have others around the
house.
This showed a lack of
discernment in Joseph. This led to Potiphar's judgment against him because
Joseph could not defend the accusation because he did not have a witness.
This led to his
isolation and personal cave experience in prison for many years.
Many of us men can
relate to the error of Joseph. As a Christian man we should not do certain
things that open the door to the enemy's schemes against us.
In this day of
openness and anything goes, it is easy to get caught in the web of
inappropriate actions that can lead to our downfall.
For instance, making
it a policy to keep doors open when there are meetings between the opposite sex
in an office so others can see in this office is wisdom today.
Never traveling with
the opposite sex without your wife or another male is another wise policy.
For years I viewed
the Joseph story as a man being the victim to his circumstances.
However, today I see
that Joseph had a great deal to do with his getting thrust into his
adversities. Yes, God turned it all for good.
And, God may have had
to allow Joseph to go through the fire of isolation and adversity to purge all
of the pride and arrogance out of him to become God's future change agent.
For years I believed
that my times of isolation and adversity were due to a Joseph type calling upon
my life.
However, today I see
there was more due to generational sins that caused me to make decisions that
put me in my isolation times.
These were actually
times of reproof from God and an effort to bring me out of sin, that in many
cases, I could not recognize.
Generational sin is
often hidden under the subconscious. God redeems those times and causes
something very good to come from those painful isolation periods because God's
nature is redemption.
I do not believe God
necessarily wants to take us into those periods, but our sins cause us to
warrant time in the desert for God to perform the deeper work and bring
deliverance from our places of bondage.
His desire is to
bring us into maturity and joy, and to discover our true self and purpose in
Him, and in our closest relationships.
Israel's Isolation in
the Desert
"And
you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years
in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart,
whether you would keep His commandments or not."
God kept the nation
of Israel in their own desert place for forty years because of a stubborn
heart.
God said He tested
them in the desert to see what was in their heart. What was in their heart was
stubbornness and rebellion.
They stayed in the
desert for forty years because of that stubbornness and a whole new generation
had to be raised up to take the Promised Land.
Isolation Removes
Things that Hinder Us
Isolation changes us
and removes things that hinder us. God uses isolation to force us to draw deep
upon His grace. Isolation is only a season in our life.
When He has
accomplished what He wants in our lives in the isolation, He will bring us out.
The desert is another
form of isolation God uses.
The
prophet Haggai tells in Hosea 2:14-15 "Therefore, behold, I will allure
her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give
her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope."
Achor means trouble in
Hebrew.
For some, God gives
us a mission to fulfill that can only be fulfilled after we have spent adequate
time in preparation in the desert.
Fear not the desert,
for it is here you will hear God's voice like never before. It is here you
become His bride.
It is here you will
have the idols of your life removed. It is here you begin to experience the
reality of a living God like never before.
The desert may mean
being put on the shelf for a season. It is here you learn to adapt to a new
environment that often has less resources to draw upon.
Someone
once said, "God uses enlarged trials to produce enlarged saints so He
can put them in enlarged places!"
"He
brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in
me."
Jesus
chose times of isolation with His disciples to explain parables to them. "But
when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything" (Mark 4:34).
It is when we are
alone and away from the distractions of life that can be the most productive
times for us to hear the voice of God in our lives.
We must initiate
these times ourselves by meeting with God in the early morning.
There are other times
when God initiates these times in order to get our undivided attention to set
us apart for a work He may be preparing for us to do.
This often comes in
the form of a job loss, illness, or marriage separation. They usually are not pleasant
circumstances that force such times.
C.S.
Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our
conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf
world."
David
gives us a little insight into the reason for the isolation time. "For
in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place
of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock."
The process of
elevation often requires being hid away for the deeper work of God in our
lives.
Adullam -
"Justice of the People"
Names of places often
give us additional insights into the spiritual meaning behind events and where
they take place.
"Adullam"
means "justice of the people". It is a town of the Canaanites, who
also represented the merchants, or the mountain of business.
This area was
allotted to Judah, lying in the lowlands. David represented a people that
represented justice in the eyes of God.
Saul represented
injustice in the way he dealt with David. The spirit that operated in Saul
wanted to destroy David and the very destiny of a nation that would be ruled by
a righteous leader.
David represented not
only the mountain of government, but also business. He created wealth that
would be used to build the temple through his own son Solomon.
These four hundred
men were the down and outs. They could identify with David and his
righteousness as a leader who sought to do things the right way.
They saw how he
handled the opposition from Saul. David invested in these men and made them
mighty warriors like himself.
God uses the weak
things to perform His greatest exploits through. The relationship tie between
these men and David was at a deep heart level.
God will raise up
those who will defend you when you are about the work God has called you to
accomplish if you lead in humility.
You may retreat on
your own, but eventually God will raise up those who will follow, support and
battle with you.
When God takes us
into our own Cave of Adullam, we must remember this is a time of intentional
hiddenness and preparation.
If handled correctly,
others will be drawn to your anointing and they will find themselves
transformed as you allow your anointing to destroy the yoke of bondage -- it
will fall off of you and onto others you will serve.
We must be careful
not to usurp the position of any other "anointed ones" in our
midst (our Sauls), nor try to hasten our coming out of the cave.
God's timingis
perfected in our "wait" in order to prepare us to lead those
He will entrust under our care to become the Mighty Army of the Living God.
We must stand and
watch what the Lord does for those that wait upon HIM.
We must invest our
lives into the nameless men and women in the workplace that God calls us to
serve.
This is how nations
arise from the ungodly leadership of kings who want to rule for their purposes
only.
Saul was controlled
by an evil spirit. David knew of the great call on his life but I am sure he
doubted whether all that anointing stuff when he was a teenager was the real
deal.
When things begin to
happen that seem to contradict what God has said about your future, it is a
time of wrestling with what you really believe or choose to believe.
God often seems
contradictory in His ways especially when we are in waiting periods.
David was in the
fight for his life and he just had to fake madness to stay alive. He really had
no place to run. He was at a real low-point in his life.
If you are called to
be used of God in a significant way, there is a good chance you may have to
face your own Cave of Adullam that is filled with times of discouragement.
The Waiting Period
There have been many
saints in whom God used the isolation chamber to deposit something significant
in their lives that was used to minister to those who would follow behind.
In all cases there
was a waiting period that had to be endured.
Abraham had to wait
for Isaac until it was God's timing, not his.
Moses waited 40 years
before God spoke to him at the burning bush.
Joseph waited 13
years until he was freed from captivity into his destiny that resulted in an 81
year career as a change agent in the nation of Egypt for salvation and the
birth of Israel.
Elijah waited beside
the Brook of Cherith before he was physically and emotionally strong enough to
continue his mission.
Paul was hidden away
for 3 years in Arabia before he was released into his assignment. God also uses
these times to make spiritual deposits into our lives.
Isaiah
tells us: "I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches
of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who calls you by your
name, am the God of Israel."
Because Moses had 40
years of waiting in the desert for the next 40 years of taking a people through
the desert, he was uniquely prepared for that assignment by his preparation in
the desert.
David was 30 when he
became King of Israel, but He was anointed to be king when he was a teenager.
I think of Joseph and
his years in prison. Many a saint in whom God uses spent times of isolation and
more often than not, they were wrongly accused to boot as in the case of Joseph
and David.
The ways of God can
be difficult to understand in our finite minds of perceived fairness. Sometimes
a man finds his destiny on the road he most seeks to avoid.
God often initiates a
time of separation from past dependencies, by realigning our values to a
biblical economy.
If you have an
important message to convey to someone, what is the best means of getting the
message to them?
Have you ever tried
to talk with someone who was so busy you could not get him to hear you?
Distractions prevent
us from giving our undivided attention to the messenger. So too, God has His
way of taking us aside to get our undivided attention.
Messes into Messages
The cave is also a
place to process our pain and receive a message from God for our lives and for
the benefit of us and others.
Many a servant of God
has been placed in their own cave that has resulted in divine revelations that
have benefited the body of Christ.
Daniel
coined these words about the cave experience: "He reveals deep and
secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with
Him" (Daniel
2:22).
Job
tells us that "He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep
shadows into the light" (Job 12:22).
Isaiah
tells us God will reveal secret things in hidden places from our time of
hiddenness: "I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden
riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by
your name, am the God of Israel” (Isaiah 45:3).
Job
understood this place of isolation when he wrote: "He uncovers deep
things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light" (Job 12:22).
Pilgrim's Progress
was written because of 12 years of hiddenness in a jail cell.
Nelson Mandella was
hidden for 27 years before he became the "Joseph" of his nation.
The apostle Paul
wrote many letters from his prison cell.
John the apostle
wrote his vision of Revelation from the Island of Patmos. This is often the way
of God.
The
prophet Jeremiah understood isolation: "While Jeremiah was still
confined in the courtyard of the guards, the word of the Lord came to him a
second time. Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and
unsearchable things you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3).
Notice that while
Jeremiah was confined the Word of the Lord came to him.
Sometimes God
intentionally hides His people for a season to accomplish a deeper work in
order to craft a message through that life.
"You
shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence" (Psalm 31:20).
David wrote three
psalms while he was in his cave. The first psalm is Psalm 142 and gives us the
condition of his heart. It is the absolute low point of his life:
"I
cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my
supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my
trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path.
“In
the way in which I walk, they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my
right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; Refuge has failed
me; No one cares for my soul.
“I
cried out to You, O Lord: I said, ‘You are my refuge, My portion in the land of
the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low; Deliver me from my
persecutors, For they are stronger than I.
“”Bring
my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name; The righteous shall
surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me’" (Psalm 142:1-143:1).
David is a man looking
for purpose in all of this. I am sure he wondered how he got from being a
king's favored son to being an outlaw and having to fake madness just to stay
alive.
He probably thought
of the day when Samuel anointed him as the next king of Israel as a teen.
Like
many of us, he is thinking, "So where are you now God? I thought I was
your man."
It is clear David had
these thoughts, but he also exhibits an amazing faith and hope in God at the
conclusion of this psalm.
"You
shall deal bountifully with me" he concludes.
It takes courage to
make such a statement in the face of total defeat.
He
wrote in another Psalm: "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the almighty: I will say of the Lord, 'He
is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.'"
God is working while
His agents wait and wait and wait. Each is being selected for a handpicked
assignment.
This waiting is
preparation for a greater depth of use and greater anointing that cannot be
accomplished otherwise.
The waiting period
only adds to the authority that is given because of the waiting and the testing
you endure. The waiting period actually creates a level of authority for you to
carry out your assignment from God.
My
friend and intercessor Bradley once said to me, "God doesn't prune dead
trees, only fruitful ones."
But the process can
be extremely painful. I have written my best works during times of isolation
and adversity that forced me into the soil of God's grace as a result of
desperation and pain.
That is how TGIF
Today God Is First came about. This book was also written during an isolation
period.
Come Out of the
Stronghold
God doesn't allow us
to remain in our own cave of isolation. If we remain there too long we become
defeated by our circumstance.
It is
interesting what the prophet told David to do: "Now the prophet Gad
said to David, 'Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go to the land of
Judah.'"
Judah means praise. If we
are to overcome our circumstances, we must do something that seems unnatural.
We must praise God in the midst of our circumstances.
We don't praise Him
for the circumstance, we praise Him for who He is and that He is our deliverer.
“To
console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy
for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may
be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be
glorified”
(Isaiah
61:3).
If handled correctly,
others will be drawn to your anointing and they will find themselves
transformed as you allow your anointing to destroy the yoke of bondage -- it
will fall off of you and your anointing will fall onto others you will serve.
We must be careful
not to usurp the position of any other "anointed ones" in our
midst (our Sauls), nor try to hasten our coming out of the cave.
God's timing is
perfected in our "wait" in order to prepare us to lead those
He will entrust under our care to become the Mighty Army of the Living God.
We must stand and
watch what the Lord does for those that wait upon HIM. We must invest our lives
into the nameless men and women in the workplace that God calls us to serve.
What did the cave do
in the life of David? Well, God turned the mess of the cave into one of our
greatest messengers who wrote much of the Psalms that have comforted millions
of people over the centuries.
We
learn the lessons from tears he shed in these times and they are a spring from
which we drink: "As they pass through the Valley of Baca (weeping),
they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools. They go from
strength to strength; each one appears before God" (Psalm 84:6).
We
realize that it is only the Lord who can illumine our path during these dark
times: "For thou art my lamp, O Lord; and the Lord illumines my darkness"
(2 Samuel
22:2).
Absalom and the Saul
Test
Fast forward now to
about twenty-five years. David was in his fifties.
He has been a
successful king for many years. He had a huge army. He had never lost a battle.
He was a beloved
king, but he had made some very bad choices in life. He slept with Bathsheba,
tried to cover up murdering Uriah, her husband and was judged by God.
The child from that
affair died and God said he would have bloodshed in his family and there would
be sexual dysfunction as a result of his own discrepancies.
However, God would
not turn his face away from him and would bless his leadership as king. He
would be known as a king who had a heart for God despite his human
imperfections.
He would fail to be a
good parent by being involved in their lives. Yet, he did love his children.
Absalom was a son who
did not have the character of David, but more exemplified the character of
Saul.
Absalom spent four
years trying to win the hearts of the people in order to overthrow his father's
kingdom.
Finally, the day came
when Absalom had achieved his goal. He was going to take over his father's
kingdom.
King David was left
with a choice. Would he fight his own son and divide the kingdom and in essence
become a Saul.
The choice was clear,
to be David, or to be Saul. David spent much time thinking about his options.
He realized if he
chose to be David, it meant he would lose everything - maybe even his life.
If he chose to be
Saul and exercise his power over the situation with his mighty army, there
would be much bloodshed and the kingdom would be divided.
At this stage of
David's life it would not be surprising for David to follow the way of Saul.
His pride of years of leading the nation could have easily swayed his actions.
However, David
decided to vacate the City of David. Just as he had done years before with King
Saul, he chose death to his future.
He would not take
matters into his own hands. Absalom, in fulfillment of a prophecy given to
David by Nathan, came into the city and laid with David's concubines on the
roof as an "in your face" symbol of rebellion.
However, in the
omnipotence of God, Absalom had an accident on his horse and was caught by
Joab, David's general and killed, despite David's instruction not to harm his
son.
The kingdom was
returned to David.
We are all tempted to
become Sauls. We fight injustice and try to control outcomes and make sure we
get what we are entitled to.
However, the way of
the cross requires a death process to outcome, our perceived futures and
injustices. It is when we release and die to our own will that we see our
destinies resurrected.
Do you find yourself
in an isolation chamber? Perhaps you are a change agent in the making. Perhaps
there is a deposit God is seeking to make into your life that will be used for
many others.
If so, let God do the
deeper work through this isolation period. Let him temper those things in you
that have needed to be tempered.
Learn to listen
during this time and let God develop intimacy with you by spending focused time
of praise, study, prayer and quiet listening.
"You've
been taken by the wind,
You
have known the kiss of sorrow,
Doors
that would not let you in,
Outcasts
and a stranger,
You
have come by way of sorrows
You
have come by way of tears,
But
you'll reach your destiny.
Meant
to find you all these years,
Meant
to find you all these years.
You
have drunk a bitter wine,
None
to be your comfort,
You
who once were left behind,
Will
be welcomed at love's table.
You
have come by way of sorrows,
You
have taken the long way home,
But
the love that waits for you,
You
will one day come to know.
You
will one day come to know.
All
the nights that joy has slept,
Will
wait til the days of laughter.
Gone
the tears that you have wept,
You'll
dance in freedom thereafter,
You
have come by way of sorrows,
You've
come over a stony ground.
But
when love calls out your name,
You
will lay your burden down
You
will lay your burden down.
-- By
Way of Sorrow, Cori Moon
Os
Hillman
is founder and president of Marketplace Leaders and is a recognized
international leader on faith and work and is author of 18 books the popular
TGIF Today God Is First daily devotional that is read throughout the world. He
is married to Pamela and they live in Atlanta with their five dogs. ...
No comments:
Post a Comment