With your whole Heart

Twenty years after the Ark returned to Israel, the people finally got tired of serving the Philistines. Why did it take so long before they sought true victory?

It is amazing that we also wait a long time before we are willing to turn to the Lord with our whole heart. We don't like paying the old gods and things that bind us, but we also don't want to empty it all out to the Lord.

My prayer is that we will not continue to hold out like Israel did, but rather let God be our champion and fight for us.

Pastor Wayne

Who can stand?

The Philistines won. They beat Israel, and they captured the God of Israel.

But then they discovered that winning can sometimes mean losing. They brought the Ark home, and then discovered what Emmanuel truly meant.

They had heard the stories about God's greatness over the Egyptians. Now, they discovered it for themselves, and He was too much for them.

So, they sent Him away.

The Ark returned to Beth Shemesh and the people rejoiced. But they also did not truly know the greatness of their God. So they looked into the Ark, and 70 men died.

So they sent God away,
for who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?

But then we have the people of Kiriath Jearim. They came and brought this holy God into their town, and he dwelt there 20 years, and God blessed them.

They brought him close.

What do we do when confronted with the holy?

do we submit and honor him,
or do we send him off to a distant place so we can continue our less-than-holy lives?

do we change our ways and hearts,
or do we hold him at a distance?

Just how do I stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?

Talismans and the Lord

Israel was losing to the Philistines. This was not supposed to be. God was to help them win.

Because of the loss that occurred in I Sam 4, the Israelites came to the conclusion that God was not with them. The only solution was to bring God into the camp. They had the mistaken idea that God was somehow tied to His Ark.

We find ourselves doing the same thing at times. When we are losing, we feel the need to bring God into the camp so that we can win. We do this by a bit more reading of the Bible, longer prayers, more repetitions of the chorus, and perhaps even a bit of fasting. By doing so, we can guarantee ourselves the same success as Israel did. then we proclaim the Glory has departed, when in fact, it left a long time ago.

Has the Glory departed from our lives, and we didn't notice?

consider why you pray and read your Bible, and then do it for the right reasons.

Pastor Wayne

Growing up in the Lord

Sending your children off to Christian boarding schools can be very difficult. Hannah sent Samuel off to the Tabernacle to learn about God.

But just as in Christian schools, or even home schools, there are good boys and bad boys. Phineas and Hophni were bad boys, but Samuel remained true to God.

Chapter 2 and 3 contrast these two responses to the word of the Lord. In spite of a bad context, Samuel grew in stature and in the presence of God and man.

The message of chapter three was not for Eli, but for Samuel. Eli already knew what God had to say, but Samuel needed to learn the answers to the following questions.

What does the voice of God sound like?
What does speaking the truth cost?
Is family more important than God's message?

Do we know the answer to these questions? Can it be said of us that we are growing in the Lord, or are we beginning to look a little like the bad boys?

God bless,
Pastor Wayne