Fairhaven Shorts: All Saints Sunday 2023

David's Trust in God

David is reflecting on this whole experience and on God, and he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Now, David could have griped at God about how mean Saul was and how unfair it was that he had to leave his home and become a refugee in another country. But David sees the turn of events as bringing about his freedom and his safety.

 And he says, I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. David does not say that David delivered him from all his enemies, although that did happen eventually. But he says that God delivered him from his fears. With God, David was fearless.

 David said, oh, fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those of you who fear him have no want. God is always there when one of God's own is in need. So that's David.

Jan Hus's Boldness

It's one thing to appeal to Jesus. It's another thing to cut off the flow of money to the Vatican. The pope called the council to look into Hus's actions, guaranteeing him safe passage, which was ignored. And Hus was burned at the stake in 1414.

 Statue of him and a memorial to his life still stands today in the Old Town Square in Prague. So today, in an era of fake news, one of the things I like to do is to listen to original sources. I like to dig back and say, what did that person actually say? So here's a couple of things that Jan Hus actually said. He said, it's better to die well than to live badly.