Click on the above Scripture to read today's text!
Please remember to pray for me and the folks at Calvary Baptist Church in Leavenworth, KS. as we begin the weekend revival prophecy seminar!There are some great lessons for us to learn out of today's text...
1) What to do when you feel abandoned by the Lord! As we begin today's reading, chapter 7 starts off with the sad account of how "all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them." And, it was true! God had abandoned them! He didn't want to, but Israel was at fault here. They had sinned against God! They had turned their backs on their Creator and started worshipping the gods of the local, pagan people. It says in 1 Samuel 3:1 that "messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon." It had gotten so bad that as Phinehas' wife gave birth to a son, she called him "Ichabod" meaning "the glory has departed from Israel." The feelings of abandonment they were feeling were absolutely right on! God had abandoned His own children, but He did it due to their wicked ways and lack of obedience.
There are many of us today who has felt at one point or other in our lives that the Lord had abandoned us. For Israel, it was due to sin. In your case, only you can figure out why you sense a period of abandonement. Either way, there's a "CURE" for that! Notice what Samuel prescribes to the nation of Israel:
a) Get rid of anything that might be offensive to God (7:3)! Is there anything standing in the way between you and God? Are you doing something that He doesn't approve of? Get rid of it!
b) Determine to obey the Lord no matter what it takes (7:3)! Can you find any aspect of your life that you KNOW God doesn't want to be there or needs changing? If Jesus could come and live with you for a week, what aspect of your daily life would change? The way you talk? The way you treat others? The way you conduct business? The way you treat your family? What you say in private? The priorities you make for yourself each day? If so, change!
c) Start worshipping Him on a daily basis (7:4)! Spend time in His Word! Spend time in prayer! Take a few moments out of the day to sing some songs to Him or thank Him! Since "worship" is what we'll be doing in Heaven throughout eternity, you might as well start doing it now!
d) Take time to FAST (7:6)! Fasting can be done in a variety of ways - for one meal, one day, one week, or one month - it's something you and the Lord decide on. Either way, fasting shows God just how serious you are concerning the matter. Fasting should be a part of EVERY Christian's life, just like praying or reading the Bible. Jesus didn't say "if" you fast, He said "when" you fast. Try it some time this month! The longer you fast, the sweeter your relationship with Christ grows!
e) Confess any sin (7:6)! Sin separates us from enjoying an intimate relationship with God. Search your heart and life and see if there is anything that's offensive to the Lord. If so, confess it to Him, and repent! A Holy God wants us to be holy just as He is holy!
2) God wants us to be different, but Satan wants us to yield to conformity! In 1 Samuel 8:20, the Israelites openly confess to Samuel just how they feel about being different than other nearby nations! They told him, "we want to like the nations around us." In other words, rather than being a holy, Godlike people, who trusts in God as their king, they would like to have a human king - just like everyone else! Israel is tired of trusting in a God they can't see! They're fed up with exercising faith in something that is intangible! They keep trying to reduce God down to an image they can see and feel. Since they keep getting into trouble trying to do that, they now want a human king.
Listen to what God says to Samuel, "Do everything they say to you, for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don't want me to be their king any longer. Every since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods" (8:7-8).
Why is it we want to be like the unbelieving world? Why is it we don't want to stick out from the crowd and be God's holy people?
Think about this for a moment...the person that does is the most popular person throughout the spiritual world! While living holy isn't popular in the physical realm, it's what makes angels stand in awe, and it's what pleases the heart of God who sends forth his angels in your behalf and causes demons to cringe in fear! May God help us all to be different than the rest of the world and live the life God wants us to live!
3) God uses unusual events to bring us to the place where He wants us! It's interesting in chapter 9 how God uses a donkey to bring Saul to Samuel to be annointed the first king in Israel! Isn't it interesting how we never know what God is doing behind the scenes of certain events. I'm sure Saul was fairly upset that his donkey had wandered off. And, I'm sure he was even angrier and more frustrated that he couldn't find the donkey! In the midst of this frustrating and fruitless endeavor, God orchestrates a powerful event - the meeting of Samuel and Saul.
Perhaps you're frustrated about something going on in your life. Have you ever stopped to think that "Maybe it's God at work!" Perhaps, God is orchestrating events behind the scenes to bring you into a different place, or perhaps He is trying to get your attention on Him! Whatever the case, go to God in prayer about these circumstances and ask Him what He's doing. Ask for His help in trusting Him concerning the events and the outcome!
I hope this ministers to you today! God bless, and may His rich mercy and grace be upon you today!
1 comment:
The NEWEST Pretrib Calendar
Hal (serial polygamist) Lindsey and other pretrib-rapture-trafficking and Mayan-Calendar-hugging hucksters deserve the following message: "2012 may be YOUR latest date. It isn't MAYAN!" Actually, if it weren't for the 179-year-old, fringe-British-invented, American-merchandised pretribulation rapture bunco scheme, Hal might still be piloting a tugboat on the Mississippi, roly-poly Thomas Ice (Tim LaHaye's No. 1 strong-arm enforcer) might still be in his tiny folding-chair church which shares its firewall with a Texas saloon, Jack Van Impe might still be a jazz band musician, Tim LaHaye might still be titillating California matrons with his "Christian" sex manual, Grant Jeffrey might still be taking care of figures up in Canada, Chuck Missler might still be in mysterious hush-hush stuff that rocket scientists don't dare talk about, John Hagee might be making - and eating - world-record pizzas, and Jimmy ("Bye You" Rapture) Swaggart might still be flying on a Ferriday flatbed! To read more details about the eschatological British import that leading British scholarship never adopted - the import that's created some American multi-millionaires - Google "Pretrib Rapture Diehards" (note LaHaye's hypocrisy under "1992"), "Hal Lindsey's Many Divorces," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)" and "Thomas Ice (Hired Gun)," "LaHaye's Temperament," "Wily Jeffrey," "Chuck Missler - Copyist," "Open Letter to Todd Strandberg" and "The Rapture Index (Mad Theology)," "X-Raying Margaret," "Humbug Huebner," "Thieves' Marketing," "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal," "The Unoriginal John Darby," "Pretrib Hypocrisy," "The Real Manuel Lacunza," "Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism," "America's Pretrib Rapture Traffickers," "Pretrib Rapture - Hidden Facts," "Dolcino? Duh!" and "Scholars Weigh My Research." Most of the above is written by journalist/historian Dave MacPherson who has focused on long-hidden pretrib rapture history for 35+ years. No one else has focused on it for 35 months or even 35 weeks. MacPherson has been a frequent radio talk show guest and he states that all of his royalties have always gone to a nonprofit group and not to any individual. His No. 1 book on all this is "The Rapture Plot" (see Armageddon Books online, etc.). The amazing thing is how long it has taken the mainstream media to finally notice and expose this unbelievably groundless yet extremely lucrative theological hoax!
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