The "Church of Adullam"

 

"ADULLAM...WHERE...ALL WHO WERE DOWN ON THEIR LUCK CAME." 1 SAM. 22:1-2 TM
 
David didn't choose wilderness living, he had nowhere else to go when Saul isolated him from his family, ended his military career and banned him from the palace. The wilderness experience starts out with feelings of disconnection and isolation, and usually gets worse before it gets better. Hoping to form an alliance with the Philistines in Goliath's hometown, David went to Gath. After all, when Saul's your mutual enemy you naturally become friends, right? Wrong! The Philistines wanted nothing to do with David. So with yet another door closed, he escaped to the cave of Adullam where he turned back to God. There he became a magnet for "those who were in distress or in debt or discontented" (1 Samuel 22:2 NIV). The Bible says, "They came to David...to help him, until it was a great army, like the army of God" (1 Chronicles 12:22 NKJV). Not exactly a model congregation!

Do you know what the name Adullam means? A place of refuge! Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31-32 NIV). Strong churches are built from people who were "in distress or in debt or discontented." Do you remember being there? Paul said, "Take a good look...at who you were when you got called...I don't see many of the 'brightest and the best'...not many influential, not many from high-society families...God deliberately chose men and women...the culture overlooks...exploits and abuses, chose these 'nobodies' to expose the hollow pretensions of the 'somebodies'" (1 Corinthians 1:26-28 TM).

Welcome to the "Church of Adullam."