April 16 :: 1 Samuel 30-31; Luke 13:23-35

Luke 13:23-24

Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to."

This is somewhat similar to something written by Robert Frost:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - 

I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference."

Do you see similarities between this quote and this scripture? Is the narrow door the road less traveled by? What does that mean to you in your life? What does that mean in your life THIS WEEK? Is God asking you to give up something and follow Him on a more difficult path?

April 15 :: 1 Samuel 27-29; Luke 13:1-22

April 14 :: 1 Samuel 25-26; Luke 12:32-59

April 13 :: 1 Samuel 22-24; Luke 12:1-31

What is the Lord trying to teach us about a good leader here?

1 Samuel 22:2

All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

Something about the story of Saul wrenches at my heart, for he is so aware sometimes of his own shortcomings, yet lacks the integrity to ask God for the help to bring him nearer to righteousness and further from sin. It is enough to drive you crazy and break your heart all at once!

1 Samuel 24:16-21

When David finished saying this, Saul asked, "Is that your voice, David my son?" And he wept aloud. "You are more righteous than I," he said. "You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me of the good you did to me; the LORD delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the LORD reward you well for the way you treated me today. I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. Now swear to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family."  

Let us have faith all my dear friends & build each other up in the realization of the hope we have!

Luke 12:27-28

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!"

April 12 :: 1 Samuel 19-21; Luke 11:29-54

This is one of the most beautiful passages of friendship in scripture! Just wanted to share it. 

1 Samuel 20:41-42

After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.

Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.'"

April 11 :: 1 Samuel 17-18; Luke 11:1-28

David is so much less experienced and smaller than Goliath the Philistine - yet He trusts in the Lord to fight this battle for Him. This reminds me of Luke 11:23 when Jesus says "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters." Jesus does scatter His enemies - the power of God accomplishes - and David knew that...

1 Samuel 17 :: 45 & 47

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied....All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands." 

April 10 :: 1 Samuel 15-16; Luke 10:25-42

April 9 :: 1 Samuel 13-14; Luke 10:1-24

Luke 10:1-6

Jesus Sends Out the Seventytwo

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.  "When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you."

How interesting that the peace does not stay with a person who is not a "man of peace." I wonder what this means. Consider this...

C. S. Lewis on the peace of God in "Mere Christianity"...

"The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first-- wanting to be the centre-- wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan--and that was the sin he taught the human race. ... What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could 'be like gods'-- could set up on their own as if they had created themselves-- be their own masters-- invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history-- money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery-- the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

April 8 :: 1 Samuel 10-12; Luke 9:37-62

1 Samuel 10:6

The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.

Time for some vulnerability: please share a moment when God changed YOU into a different person.

April 7 :: 1 Samuel 7-9; Luke 9:18-36

Luke 9:23-25 (Jesus speaking)

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"

What is Jesus asking us to do when he says "come after me"?  Shall we seek Him then? I was really convicted by this today. I asked myself...do I take up my daily cross and sacrifice like He did? 

Challenge this week: everyday make a point to sacrifice something for the benefit of another...

April 6 :: 1 Samuel 4-6; Luke 9:1-17

April 5 :: 1 Samuel 1-3; Luke 8:26-56