Recognizing God's Voice

1 Samuel 3:1-10

 1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

 2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.
4 Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”

   “Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” 5 He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

   “I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.

 6 Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!”

   Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

   “I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”

 7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. 8 So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

   Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

 10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

   And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

One of the truths that I have discovered in my years as a Christian is that there is really never a shortage of God speaking, just a shortage of me hearing.  As this story unfolds, we see an elderly priest whose ability to hear God’s voice has been compromised by His years of ignoring it. You see Eli’s sons were doing evil in the temple of God, and Eli overlooked it because they were his sons. God decided to go to Samuel and use him to get the message across to Eli. 

Learning to recognize the voice of God is a process. We see Samuel beginning that process in this story. Losing the ability to hear God’s voice is also a process and we see the end result of that process in the life of Eli. Destruction comes to both the High Priest and his family.

Which process are you heading towards today? Are you ignoring the voice of God and thus slowly losing your ability to hear? Or are you eagerly jumping at the chance to hear God’s voice like the young prophet Samuel and saying “speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

 

Birthday Pondering

I love birthdays mainly because it is a day when people celebrate you for something you had nothing to do with. I did not do any work 37 years ago. I did not choose the day. I did not choose the parents. I did not choose the doctor or hospital. Yet every year, because of something I had nothing to do with, I get presents and lots of attention. Its the best! I do not like the thought of how long I have been alive mainly because I do not like the thought of how long I have left to live. I do not know how long that may be, but I thank God for the days I have been given. I am the most blessed person with the grace of God because He has treated me way better than I ever deserved. I have an amazing wife. I have an amazing family. I work at an amazing church with an amazing group of people. My life is filled with the amazing grace of God and today I want to give Him thanks! Thank you God for the people you have gifted into my life. I am a blessed man.

Sooooo Sorry!

I know that I have been a slack dawg when it comes to updating my blog lately. I can say that I have been busy, but that's not that good of an excuse. Let's just say I am sorry.

So that you will know what is going on around Hargettville, I though I would give you an update. Brandy and I are going to be having surgeries in October that will hopefully correct some of the issues that have kept us from getting pregnant the last 9 years. We are both a little nervous about the surgery, but excited about the possibilities. Please keep us in your prayers.

At work things are so exciting. We are starting two new satellite services on Sunday morning. I am helping to disciple and oversee the leadership for these new services. God is doing some amazing things. It is a great day at CFA to be sure.

I will try to do better about blogging in the future. Email me and let me know you are reading this at steve@inspireworship.com.

Lessons From Camp

Brandy and I just finished a week at Royal Family Kids Camp. This is a camp that we have participated in for the past three years. The camp ministers to kids 6-11 who have been victims of abuse and are now in the foster system in some capacity. It was once again an amazing week. I always leave this camp having a renewed understanding of why the book of James says that religion that is acceptable to God is to take care of widows and orphans and to keep oneself from being contaminated by this world. 

I could write about so many lessons about life, about love, and about God that God taught me this week through these kids. You may be reading about several of these lessons in upcoming blogs. The lesson that I want to talk about today deals with the Father's attention.

On Thursday I found myself sitting under a tree on the ground watching a ten year old boy blow bubbles. Not just any bubbles but very large bubbles with a large wand that he would dip in a bowl and then wave through the air. I know this does not sound very exciting and to be honest it wasn't. But I sat there with my full attention given to this young boy saying things like, "wow that's amazing" and "that's the biggest bubble I have ever seen." I wasn't really 'that' impressed but I wanted to let this boy know that he had my attention and to praise him every chance I got. Every time that he made a bubble he would look my way to hear my comment. If he messed up and the bubble burst before he could fully form it, he would look my way wondering what my reaction would be. I would simply say, "thats ok you will get this next one." This young boy acted as though he had never had a father that had been so totally engrossed and attentive to his actions. You could tell he was eating it up and soaked in the praise.

It was during this time that the Spirit softly spoke to me again. He said, "This is the same attention that your heavenly Father gives you." At first I thought to myself that God has better things to be attentive to than my bubble making. Then again the Spirit spoke to me and said, "this is why it is so important for earthly fathers to take the time to give full attention to their child's 'bubble making' so they will understand the love of the heavenly Father which is so much greater than the love of an earthly father." If an earthly father knows how to give attention to his child, how much more does the heavenly Father know how to give attention to His child. 

So the next time you find yourself caught up in the mundane and ordinary 'bubble making' take time to look over at your heavenly Father and you just might hear him say 'well done, that was amazing."

Til next time...

Living versus Dying

Do you know that somewhere in our physical development we switch from coming alive to dying. I don't really know when it happens, but I am sure it does. It seems like there comes a point when your body has developed everything it is going to develop and you start to deteriorate or wear down. So I imagine at my age, I have started that deterioration process. At least it feels that way. So I got to thinking, with all this dying in my physical body that is going on, what can I do to make sure my mental and spiritual body are renewed. Paul wrote that we can renew our minds daily. It seems like as long as I am in the renewing process of my mind, I will avoid its deterioration.

So how do you keep your mind and spirit alive when the rest of you is dying? The first thing I came up with is to be creative. Living is creating. Instead of just accepting things the way they are, think of new things. Take a new route to work. Figure out a new way to fix your favorite recipe. Write a song or a poem. Make a new friend. Participate in the one characteristic of life that is just like our Father, be creative. 

The second thing that I thought of was to stop speaking death and start speaking life. Death talk is so depressing. Do you know what death talk is? Death talk is when you tear stuff down instead of building stuff up. Death talk is when you speak ill of people rather than speaking positive. Death talk is when you spend more time talking about the problem than you spend trying to solve it. So stop the death talk and start speaking life to those around you.

The last thing that I want to encourage you to do is to embrace Christ. Why? Because there are only really two things you can embrace, life or death. Christ equals life. Everything else has been set up by the enemy to steal from you, to kill you, and to destroy you. So embrace Christ, His teachings, His love, His power. Then you will truly know what it means to live and not die.

Prayer and Email

We can tell a lot about our priorities by our habits. One of the things that I find myself addicted to doing is checking my email. When I get up in the morning, I want to check it. When I get to the office, I check it. When I get home from work, I want to check it. I don’t know why. Most of the time its just someone peddling the latest pill or wanting me to verify my bank number so they can steal my money. But I have this feeling that I am going to miss out on something important or to not get a message from someone that needs to get ahold of me. 

I wish I had that same urgency about prayer. Don’t get me wrong. If you were to ask me what is more important prayer or email, I would definitely say prayer. But sometimes I get so caught up in the information of this physical world, that I lose my sense of urgency for information from the Spirit. I want to encourage you to join me in developing the “urgency” for our information from above. I don’t want to miss out on the vital information that the Spirit is wanting to give me to make this day a success.

Habit changer ideas:

• Each time you go to check your email, stop in silence first and see if the Spirit has a message.
  
• Each time you send an email, stop and say a prayer for someone on your list.
  
• Each time you delete an email, let it remind you to ask God to purge the sins and weights that beset you.
  
• Each time you save an email, ask God to remind you of His goodness and faithfulness.
  

Summer Musical Arts Camp for Kids

We are excited about being in the middle of our 2nd Annual Theater Camp called S.M.A.C.K. This camp provides an opportunity for kids in 1st thru 12th grade to participate in the world of musical theater. This year we are presenting Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It is going to be an amazing show. We have a lot of kids that had returned from last year. The talent level has increased exponentially. It is amazing to see what these kids can do in two weeks time. Last year's Seussical was a sold out hit and we are expecting the same this year.

One of the things that I love about this camp is that kids who never knew they could sing or dance or act or create sets get an opportunity to try it out and see what they can do. There are so may kids who do not get a chance to be exposed to the arts in this fashion and it is great to be able to do it in a safe Christian atmosphere.

If you are not doing anything on Friday, June 27th at 7:00pm, you need to get a ticket and plan to be at Willy Wonka. It will be worth the effort!

See you then!!!