Read 2 Samuel 6:13–14
The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastor’s conference. We had not met before, so all he knew about me was what he’d heard there. Stuff like ex-Marine, Texan by birth, schooled in a seminary, committed to biblical exposition, pre-mil, pre-trib, pro-this, anti-that. You know how all those scary labels go. But those were the labels he’d stuck on me.
I really think he expected your basic, squeaky clean preacher: dark suit; white shirt; tight-knot tie; pocket stuffed full of tracts; a five-pound study Bible; thunderous shouts.
Since that’s not what he got, he was thrown a low curve over the inside corner of the pulpit. Finally, toward the end of the week, he decided to drink a cup of coffee with me and risk saying it straight.
It went something like this: “You don’t fit. What’s with you? You’ve got the roots of a fundamentalist, but you don’t sound like it. Your theology is narrow, but you’re not rigid. You take God seriously, but you laugh like there’s no tomorrow. You have definite convictions, but you aren’t legalistic and demanding.”
Then he added:
“Even though you’re a firm believer in the Bible, you’re still having fun, still enjoying life. You’ve even got some compassion!”
That did it. By then both of us were laughing out loud. A few eyes from other tables glared at us.
Pay close attention: to have convictions and to be firm in your trust in the Bible doesn’t mean you check your joy at the door. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. Imagine if this scene broke out in your Sunday morning church service:
After the men who were carrying the Ark of the LORD had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. And David danced before the LORD with all his might. (2 Samuel 6:13–14)
When God’s Word was revered and held with conviction, there was dancing and praise, shouts of joy and loud celebration. Do those things mark your life and your worship? It might be time to lose the pious frown and kick off your sandals and trade them in for a trumpet!
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681.
