A couple of bad apples

1^st Samuel 2

Eli's sons were priest and they were to be taken care of by the people's tithes (Numbers 18:20-24, Joshua 13:14, 33). Slight problem though, they were corrupt and didn't know the Lord.

They took advantage of their postion to satisfy their craving for power, possessions and control. Their contempt and arrogance threatened the integrity of the whole priesthood.

Sound familiar? Priest tied to sex and money scandal, details at 11:00 (10 for those of you in the CST).

One bad apple, in this case two, can ruin a whole bunch! What about all the priest who took their calling seriously and served in obscurity, except of course before the Lord, did it change the way people viewed them?

When you hear of a scandal, does it change the way you think of your pastor, priest, or shepherd?

Here are a couple of things I thought of as I read this passage;

First, my personal holiness. I must be a man who knows God intimately, learning to love Him more daily, digesting His word and doing what it says. I must love people and use things, not love things, because I will begin to use people. I must take my calling seriously and not view what I do as a vocation. I must not look down on God's people or treat their offerings casually or with contempt, if I do I will be judged harshly by God himself.

Second, there are times when serious problems need to be confronted, even if the process and consequences could be painful. Eli knew about his son's corruption, but he also knew the consequence for their actions was death. Tough call, huh? But, by ignoring their selfish actions he allowed them to ruin their lives and the lives of many. God will not be mocked, you reap what you sow.

Remember this book (1^st Samuel) was written to teach a new generation about obedience, how will you live out what you've read today?

1st Samuel 1-2

The thing that struck me most in Chapters 1& 2 is Hannah and her prayers.

Hannah prayed, her lips moved but no words were heard.

Think about how many times we want others to know how bad we have it. She only wanted God's attention, not sympathy from others. She also didn't go to the priests to meet God asking them to "pray for me". Hannah sought God herself and found Him.

She prayed and "God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked." I'm still amazed that God responds to what I ask for. But she believed God's promises even when she hadn't received them yet.

And as she prayed directly from her heart, God gave her a glimpse of things to come (2:10). At the time Israel had no king, but her words point to the King of kings who will reign forever.

Hannah's prayers reveal her heart, her knowledge of God, her devotion to Him and her obedience in keeping the vows she had made to the Lord.

And finally Hannah releases her treasure to the Lord rather than clinging on to him.

What an incredible foundation for Samuel to start off with!

 

Obedience

Over the last couple of weeks in small group we have been looking at the 15^th chapter of 1 Samuel. There is so much great stuff just in that one chapter!

In light of that and the fact that we are starting a new series this weekend called Obey, I thought I would start to share with you somethings God is pouring into me.

This morning I went back to the beginning of 1^st Samuel and discovered a few things.

The aim for the author(s) was:

• To use the past to teach the new generation the importance of obedience to God. Wow, don't we need that!
  
• And then to answer the question of why God chose Saul and then rejected him because of his sin, while David also sinned but was not rejected.
  

 

Join me in reading 1^st Samuel and let me know what God is revealing to you.

Unity

Okay, it's been awhile. I've been "chewing" on a few things. For me, God will usually give me a passage or a topic that He wants me meditate on for awhile and He keeps directing back to it. The subject He's had me on is unity.

This weekend we will be hosting an event called "United" (www.unitedtallahassee.com), we are trying to rally the youth ministries in Tallahassee to come together and stand for Christ. So I figured I share with you what He has had me "chewing" on. Below is a blog that I've previously posted, but I thought it be worth revisitng.

In my quiet time this morning I came across something really interesting. We teach all the time that disunity is a sin. I still believe that, but this passage struck me:

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, ^[a] they found a plain in Shinar ^[b] and settled there.

 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel ^[c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11

Wow, it was their pride that caused God to bring disunity.

I started thinking about the church and wondered if the reason we have so much disunity (in the local church and in the whole body of Christ) is because of the pride of the leaders. My thinking has now changed. Of couse it is.

We as shepherds must fall on our face and confess Psalm 51.
The world wil know when we have unity. John 17:23

 

Memory Verse

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18

Nothing?

Phil 2:5-7

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,

Nothing?

Wow, I'm usually trying to make myself
something, not
nothing.

Lord, I need your help on this one, may there be less of me and more of you!

Sweat?

My hometown is a soap opera right now, no really!

The former sheriff has been indicted for trying to have sex with a teenage boy at gun point; the former city attorney, police chief, mayor, and police Lt. are being sued for interfering with a criminal investigation; and the District Attorney has an all out war with the Sheriff's Office, Police and local paper, which has caused chaos and a petition to recall him.

I read this morning that a group of "concerned citizens" is starting a petition to recall the city council for voting to provide a portion of the legal defense for these city officials.

Here's what got me – a spokesperson for the group said "the group doesn't have a date in mind for the recall and charter change election. We're talking about petitioning in cooler weather."

Really?
Cooler weather?

If you truly believe strongly about something and have a conviction to make changes aren't you willing to step out of your comfort zone to make sure they happen?

Isn't that just like us, we want change without sacrifice and oh, heaven forbid we should have to suffer!

But suffering is an essential part of the Christian life; we seem to have forgotten that.

I will suffer. I must suffer. My hope is that I'll be prepared to suffer for the glory of Christ and not worry about a little sweat running down my brow!

Here is a great talk about suffering by
John Piper