Life Here and There

Tomorrow, I’m beginning a new series of messages on the battle between David and Goliath. That’s where we are in our journey through the Word, right in the middle of 1 Samuel, and I’m going to slow down and dedicate the four Sundays of March to this wonderful story.

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This article is adapted from my sermon from 1 Samuel 2-3

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Above is the audio from a recent message I preached at Bethel from 1 Samuel chapter 2 – Hannah’s song of praise to God.

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This article is adapted from a sermon on 1 Samuel, chapter 1

I’ve read a lot this week about the earthquake and ensuing tragic situation in Haiti, the country we’ve forgotten about as long as possible. But the most powerful thing I’ve read was written by James MacDonald…

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I, like most men I know, enjoy movies with some action and movement. Fire… explosions… suspense… these are the elements that get us excited. None of those “chick flicks,” right? My wife will sit and cry over all the sad and happy parts and I’m there strictly for the comic relief. But I will honestly admit, I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy – a love story with a happy ending. We all are – we’re suckers for it (whether we’ll admit it or not).

In a conversation the other day, I was telling my seven-year-old the story of Romeo and Juliet. I’m not sure how we got onto the subject, but she kept wanting to know more. About two thirds of the way through, I realized I was going to have to try to explain how it ended – they both die! For some reason, during the Elizabethan era, we thought that was romantic!

Romeo and Juliet was a romantic tragedy, but our culture is addicted to happy endings, so we will accept nothing other than a romantic comedy in which everyone lives “happily ever after.”

That’s the story of Ruth and Boaz. Here it is in short (based on Ruth 3-4): Ruth finds Boaz overseeing the threshing of his wheat crop and uses an ancient cultural tradition of the time to essentially propose marriage to him. He takes her up on the offer, protects her reputation, and goes out of his way to buy the land that she will forfeit without a husband. He further marries her and they have kids. And they live happily ever after.

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In our journey through the Word (I’ve been preaching through the entire Bible on Sundays), we’ve come up to the book of Ruth – one of my own favorites in the Old Testament. Ruth’s story takes place during one of the darker ages of the history of the Israelites. It’s a dark time in her nation, her life, and her family, yet Ruth manages to make some pretty great decisions along the way.

ONE GREAT TRUTH: Life presents a series of circumstances to us that are really opportunities for us to make a godly choice.

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This is adapted from a sermon based on Judges 16

In every legend, the story of every hero or villain, there is always a source of power that can be discovered and exploited. For Superman, it’s kryptonite. For Zurg (Toy Story), it was the double AA battery (or so Buzz thought).

I believe that for the believer, our secret source of power has to do with our inner walk with God. Deep in the recesses of the heart and soul, where we walk and talk with Him, where we have our conversations with Him, in the closet of prayer and intimacy, there is our secret source of power.

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Back in September, I mentioned that I was beginning a wild goose chase, meaning that I was beginning to read the book Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. I haven’t written an official review, but the short version is that I’ve been challenged since reading the book to break out of some cages in my life to keep pace with the Holy Spirit.

Now we’re studying Samson, one of the Bible’s wildest heroes. He messes up constantly. He takes a wife from the Philistines, touches a dead animal, sleeps with a prostitute, and gives away the secret of his power with God. Yet God chose him even before conception to “begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines.”

David lived a rough life too, and he was a man after God’s own heart. Peter put his foot in his mouth continually, but God chose him to be the lead Pastor of the first church of Jerusalem. God likes wild men.

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This is adapted from a sermon based on Judges 13

I really don’t have to belabor the point of how morally confusing these times are, do I? We hear the news. We read the stats. And we know how tough it is to be growing up in this present culture. That’s how things were for Israel when Samson was born.

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Nestled in the middle of the book of Judges is an intriguing story of an intriguing man – Jephthah. Though not specifically called a “judge” he certainly bears all the marks of the others. He rose up to lead Israel to freedom from oppression when it was desperately needed. But his story offers some interesting twists and turns.

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