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Day 80, or March the 21st. How will you be remembered?

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Our thought today is from 1 Samuel chapter 25

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verse 1. Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled,

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and mourned for him, and they buried him at his

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home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the

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desert of Paran. First, the big picture of this

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verse. As David continues to be on the run from

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Saul, he finds he is given a golden opportunity

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to kill him, but rejects it, and then attracts

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his attention when he shouts, in chapter 24,

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verse 12, May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps

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the Lord will punish you for what you are trying

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to do to me, but I will never harm you. He really

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was a faithful servant of the Lord's anointed,

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and honoured him as such. In the next chapter,

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David has another chance to kill Saul, but despite

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encouragement from his men to finally conclude

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the whole issue, David won't, because he sees

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Saul as his king, not as his enemy. You would

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think that David's loyalty was now beyond question.

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But Saul never seems to get it, as he struggles

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with the idea of David rather than Jonathan succeeding

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him. Now our action step for today. When Samuel

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the prophet and kingmaker dies, he doesn't even

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get a whole verse announcing it in the Bible.

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He is the only man in the Old Testament who has

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two books that bear his name, and yet his passing

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is almost overlooked. I know some folk who have

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already planned their own funeral, and if that

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is in order to keep it brief and point people

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to Jesus, that's fine. However, if it's simply

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to make sure that none of their great works or

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deeds is forgotten, then they should get those

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plans out and take another look at them. I would

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like to think that I have lived my life so that

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whoever takes my funeral will be able to tell

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the truth. That seems to me a fitting tribute

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for any of God's children. The last thing I want

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is for my funeral to be so abounding in praise

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that folk begin to ask, whose funeral was that?

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I think I've come to the wrong one.