Ruf Mississippi State University

Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.

Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.

Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.

All corners of our world and culture, religious and not, are trying to define womanhood by how you look and what you do. In Proverbs 31 we find a rather remarkable picture. The culmination of wisdom, according to the author, is finding the excellent woman. "An excellent woman, who can find?"

Our hope and prayer is that Mercer students would find RUF a safe place for the convinced and unconvinced to process the truth claims of Christianity.

While the conclusion of the David narrative in the book of Samuel seems to show David lacking, it actually serves to show us once again his greatness as he points us to the mercy of God.

II Samuel 23 records the names and feats of David's mighty men. As we focus in on one particular story which took place early in David's reign, we begin to see what it means to be mighty in God's eyes.

The most heartbreaking episode in the life of David, without a doubt, is the rise and fall of his son Absalom. We look at Psalm 63 as we trace the story that spans 2 Samuel 13-19.

What do you expect the chapter after Bathsheba to contain? An answer to David's grievous sin, yes, but perhaps not the one you would expect.

In one of the most unsettling chapters in the whole Bible, King David, the man after God's own heart, flies headlong after his own desires and pleasures and into sin. What do we do with a villainous king?

Rev. Josh Garrett steps in and leads us through 2 Samuel 9, where David shows us what it is like to show the love that you have been shown, to give what you've been given, to see the world and people as God sees them.

2 Samuel 7 is one of the most important passages of the entire Old Testament as God covenants with David that his throne will be forever.

One of David's top priorities in his new kingdom was to bring the ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem. Surely the Lord would bless this priority, but the turn of events in bringing it back left David and us confused. How can we be close to a holy God?

As I Samuel's account of David's rise to the throne draws to a close, we see how the true king is found in the wilderness.

Jesse McCallister takes into the cave at Engedi in I Samuel 24 where David is handed King Saul on a silver platter.

No sooner had David stepped off the battlefield victorious did he learn a vital truth. If he was going to be God's anointed one, he was going to need friends, and God provided one in a beautiful way.

I Samuel 17 - One of the most well known stories of the Bible swells with significance at the front end of David's rise to the throne. Once again the theme of "things are not as they seem" arises to point us to the true king, the man after God's own heart.

We encounter King David where God introduces him to the story and to us in history in I Samuel 16. Israel's first king, Saul, has failed, but God has provided for himself a king for his people. How does a king who lived 3000 years ago have anything to do with us?

This final installment failed to record at RUF large group, but here it is recorded as it was preached again at North Macon Presbyterian Church on Sunday, January 4, 2015.

The gospels and Jesus himself make one thing very clear: he came to die. In Luke 23 we find all the details Luke wants us to know concerning the darkest day in all of history.