Helen Pretorius

Addicted to GRACE...
Embracing the mess...

[Helen Pretorius @HelenPretorius1]

Kindly please switch over to my new X/Twitter account.
@HelenPretorius9

[Helen Pretorius @HelenPretorius1]

Account restored. Kindly please report suspucious activity on my account via direct message. e.g. Violence, abuse, sex trafficking, nude videos, etc. Sincere thanks

[Helen Pretorius @HelenPretorius1]

@brandonlake
https://t.co/TI2EnF6MDi

[Helen Pretorius @HelenPretorius1]

Kindly switch over to my new Twitter/X account. Thanks
@HelenPretorius9

[Helen Pretorius @HelenPretorius1]

It's time.
@RickWarren
https://t.co/UA8SauKjMH

[James Dorman IV @alfredsparks]

"He that is down, needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride:
He that is humble, ever shall Have God to be his guide.”

—The Shepherd Boy in the Valley of Humiliation | Pilgrim’s Progress 2: Christiana’s Story, Christian Focus Publications, Pg. 85

[Wealth Director @wealth_director]

The price of greatness is losing more than most are willing to try.

[Louie Giglio @louiegiglio]

In the midst of trial, surrender comes when we raise our hands and say, “God, I can’t do anything to change this situation. But You can. You have finished the work on the cross, and You have won this war. I surrender my life—and this problem—to You.”

[Dale Partridge @dalepartridge]

The Bible is approximately 1 million words. It has 66 books, 40 authors, and was written over 1500 years.

There is not one mention of a prayer to dead saints or Mary.

All 650 recorded prayers are to God alone.

[De Christian Life @DeChristianLife]

Waiting until marriage for intimacy?

[Helen Pretorius @HelenPretorius1]

🤷

[Louie Giglio @louiegiglio]

With Jesus in the story, there is always one more move.

Watch the full talk—One More Move—here: https://t.co/L9PNsGyJ5B

[Tullian Tchividjian @TullianT]

Your weaknesses aren’t in the way of your ministry—they are your ministry. The parts of you that feel unusable? Those are exactly the places where someone else will find hope.

God comforts the crushed through crushed people. He brings life through those who’ve died a thousand deaths. Your pain isn’t pointless. And your brokenness? It’s not a disqualification—it’s a doorway.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

David’s first and last recorded words have to do with killing someone.

When we first meet the teenager David, visiting his brothers on the battlefield, he is asking, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?” (1 Sam. 17:26). Afterward, he heroically and famously kills Goliath.

When last we hear from the old man David, lying on his bed, giving a “hit list” to Solomon, he is saying, “Now therefore do not hold [Shimei] guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol” (1 Kings 2:9).

At the beginning, David kills the giant enemy of his people. At the end, David orders the killing of an old man—a man whom he had supposedly forgiven and sworn would not be harmed (2 Sam. 19:23).

The overall portrait of David’s last years is ugly and obscene and depressing. This old man is in bed with a beautiful teenage virgin, his “bed warmer,” in his last days. Before that, his kingdom is in tatters, beleaguered by Absalom’s coup that, once squashed, gives way to another rebellion. And right before he dies, he makes sure that his son will settle his old scores with Joab and Shimei—the first of whom David had many chances to “deal with” himself, but did not, the second of whom he had sworn would not be harmed.

David’s final recorded word is “Sheol.” Not a good way to go.

Yet here’s the unsettling surprise: David is frequently held up as the paragon of kingship. Most every king after him pales in comparison.

There are many lessons that we can learn from this, but the one that sticks out for me is this: even the best of men have feet of clay, their souls full of the catacombs of death, and their past is never as golden as it might seem.

Was David a hero? Yes.
Was he a model king? Yes.
Was he also a mess of twisted humanity? Yes.

“Put not your trust in princes” the psalmist sagely sings. Amen. Put not your trust in mortal people, easily swayed by egotism, caressing old grudges, nailed down to the earth. History is full of example after example of the crowd’s divinization of this leader or that leader, only to discover the god-like man or god-like woman is nothing but one more sinner in a long list of sinners.

Put your trust, rather, in the Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. A man? Yes. But also true God. Tempted? Yes, but not one who gave in. Selfless. Merciful. Just. He will not let you down. Instead, he will be faithful, forgiving, truly heroic in his love for us.

He is the kind of King we need, and have.
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We read 1 Kings 1-2 today in Bible in One Year. For more information and to sign up, visit https://t.co/XxNvEtNH7e