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Pastor Fenelon wrote, “Your motives are not entirely pure in wanting to see people perfected for God’s glory; people’s faults bother you because you are too fussy and hard to please.” Ouch. The truth hurts sometimes. Fenelon is right though, isn’t he?! We want people to deal with their imperfections because they bug us.

Some people loathe it. Some people like it. Confrontation can be a messy business. Motives, manner, messages and timing provide mixed results. It’s hard to know if we’re saying something right. It’s hard to know how another person will receive what we are saying. Even when confrontation is loving and well done, there is a risk involved. Receiving a confrontation is also tricky. Our natural tendency is to be defensive, to justify our actions, or at worst, to attack.

The Bible is a gift to us. It convicts, instructs, encourages, fills our eyes and minds with wonder and discloses to us the nature and character of the Creator of all things. And, the Bible describes people in all their humanity. Some scholars point to the honest treatment of the Bible characters as one of the proofs of inspiration. Humans typically describe other humans, especially at death, in the most glowing of terms—read some obituaries! However, the Bible contains stories about important people that are less than flattering.

Have you ever had a close call with death? Tree stands, highways, working with electricity and climbing ladders are just a few of the places that life can be a little precarious. According to our text for Sunday, Saul had a close call with death in the bathroom. He and David were in the same restroom, but Saul didn’t know it. The only thing that saved Saul’s life was the sensitive conscience of David.

On Sunday, we’ll look at the account of Jesus’ appearance to His disciples on the Sunday He was raised from the dead (John 20:19-23). It must have made quite an impression! On that day He sent them into the world to proclaim the message of forgiveness. God’s heart longed to forgive. Christ’s work paid the debt. But people must hear and receive it. For those who have received Him and His grace, there are four Old Testament passages that describe the extent of our forgiveness. I first learned these from Jerry Bridges’ book Transforming Grace. Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”