When you start to move down a new path, obstacles will come. Getting things done is hard, or more people would be making changes. Accept the fact that endings are difficult. You will go through new waters, and there will be waves—big bumpy, ones—and it takes courage and perseverance to keep going.
Sr Captain, @Jojoki_12 capped off a brilliant career by becoming a League Champion. Jonah has earned First Team All Empire League for the 3rd consecutive szn. His leadership on both ends of the court helped the Cents bring the 🏆 back home!
#CypHype#allempireleague
🚨Cypress 2023-2024 Recap🚨
✅ Win last Empire Lg
✅ 20 win reg szn (21-6)
✅ Beat Ranked teams
✅ 5 in 🍊C, 3 in preseason top 10)
✅ #8 & #15 in NV
✅ Top 10 in 🍊C (unranked->#6)
✅ Top 5 in CiF 2A (unranked->#3)
Next up CiF Playoffs!!!
#CypHype@FrankieBur@HoopsCal
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.
Francis Collins saw Tim Keller through chemotherapy, an experimental immunotherapy trial, and a hospital worship service.
“Being with him during this time was a gift of profound significance to all of us who were able to be connected.”
https://t.co/oCd4hxxjfC
“If you’re falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith, but on the object of your faith.”
—@TimKellerNYC
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