Podcasts about o lord almighty

Delivered by Evelyn from the Parish of Holy Spirit in the Archdiocese of Singapore. Isaiah 49: 1-6; Rs psalm 71: 1-2.3-4a.5-6ab.15.17; John 13: 21-33.36-38.THORN IN THE FLESH Our meditation today is entitled: Thorn in the Flesh.The saying "thorn in the flesh" is common to our conversation. Meat wassupposed to arouse the appetite, it turned out to be untasty and not satisfyingto those who were having a meal because there were thorns in it. We should havean advantage or a life of joy and peace, but it turned out that there washatred or slander boiling and disturbing our life together among brothers andfriends.  Who are the thorns really? It could be you, a friend,an acquaintance or a family member. The factors of evil and human weaknessescan be so instrumental for the making of persons who are seen as"thorns" or diseases in our lives together. Every person has naturalweaknesses such as laziness, anger, greed, and arrogance. He was born carryingthe seeds of weakness. When these weaknesses are not treated well, the Evil Oneor Satan will freely take advantage of the given opportunity. In a community of believers of a local parish, itsmembers together keep the commitment to the services and fruitful cooperationamong the parishioners, that a life of peace, calmness and unity may berealized. However, if there is someone or two who start to be the culprit ofgossip, spreader of slander, or troublemaker, that person obviously becomes aburden and destroyer of the community. This is the same with all othersituations. If the source of the trouble is not identified and at least theevil or its work pattern is not revealed in public, this will remain a"thorn in the flesh" that will continue to disturb and damage life. Yesterday, the personage of Judas Iscariot opened themask of his evil only part of it, but today Jesus Christ opens it all the more tomake more transparent, that he was a "thorn" to the community thatJesus himself led. The eyes, minds, and hearts of Judas and his fellow apostleswere opened. They all came to know who the real troublemaker and destroyer ofthe community was, when Jesus said: "What you want to do, do it quickly." The lesson we can learn from this story of the Gospel wouldbe about the courage and certainty on our part to identify and take action onthe source of the problems that always confuse and disturb our lives. Ineveryone, there could be one or two major weaknesses possible to be the sourceof problems. For example arrogance or laziness, if it is confirmed that this alradybecomes "thorn" or "Judas Iscariot” in our houses or communities,we must take action upon it immediately. In our family, community and society, there must becourage and certainty in revealing the hidden source or person who always makestrouble. If the identification is able to be made, there would be a solutionfor it.Let us pray. In the name of the Father... O Lord Almighty,may we remain steadfast in our faith in You, even though there is a threat fromthose who are hostile and want to harm us. Hail Mary full of grace... In thename of the Father...

Our former office was, literally, for the birds! I mean it was like they lived in the attic above our top floor offices. And you know what, they would sometimes show up flying down the hall. Every once in a while we could hear them when we were recording radio programs, it was a little "chirp" in with their singing. But there was a problem with this apparently safe place, they thought. The birds began wandering around up there in that large dark attic, especially at night. And evidently, they lost their way and they became disorientated. In the morning – you've got to take my word for this, I was an ear witness to it – I heard their little footsteps walking back and forth and their unhappy chirps. There was no food or water in that attic. When birds get in tiny little spaces like that, it's difficult to rescue them, and they often die. That attic that looked so inviting, so comfortable, so secure. It turned out to be a dangerously hostile place! I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Safe Place." Our word for today from the Word of God is in Psalm 84. And by the way, birds aren't the only creatures looking for a place to feel safe and secure. We all have a need to find a person, or a place, or a position, where we're safe, where we can have a comfortable nest. The only problem is, as many of us have found out, some of what looks like a place where you can find security turns out to be a place where you get lost, you get starved, you get hurt! Psalm 84: "'How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord,' my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, "A place near your altar O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your presence, they are ever praising you." Here's a picture of a vulnerable little sparrow who finds a truly safe home. She nests right at the place where you meet God, the altar. The Psalmist says that that's where he has finally found security as well, in the Presence of the Living God. But so many people have nested in the wrong place. See, we can't see Jesus, so instead we settle down where there is comfort and safety we can see. In doing so we often end up in a place that ends up hurting us. Maybe you're there right now? A wrong relationship that looks like a secure place to land, but it costs too much. Maybe you ran to a wrong job, a wrong career, maybe you ignored or abandoned what the Lord was telling you to do for something a little more secure. The nesting place has let you down, hasn't it – pulled you down? Or maybe you're tempted right now to make a choice based on security largely. "I'll do what looks comfortable and safe." That's how I'll decide. Well, that could turn out to be a bird brain choice. Choices based on security are very often God's will mistakes, and comfort becomes a trap. Can I invite you to the altar of God? In fact, in your heart you may need to come to an altar and surrender your life anew to the Savior who died for you. He's the only One who can anchor your needs and you'll know that you'll never end up lost or wounded – not in His care. You've tried other nests that advertise security. They've been disappointing substitutes for the real thing, which is the love and the leadership of Jesus Christ. Anyone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong. He's your safe place. You can know that because He loved you enough to die on the cross for you. You want to reach out to Him today; make Him the leader of your life? Maybe you've never done that. I'd love to help you do that and that's why our website is there - ANewStory.com. And believe me, when you give your heart to Him it will be the beginning of a new story. The search for security led those birds above my head to some fatal choices. Don't make the same mistake. Run to the strong arms of Jesus, for as the Bible says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1).

Grace is a word we use very often. Sometimes I wonder if we haven't lost touch with the full meaning or impact of the word. Biblically, grace is said to mean: • Unmerited favour or underserved favour. • A gift that cannot be worked for or earned. • Grace gives and gives freely. Grace comes from God – God is the source of Grace – Ephesians 1:6-7. God is the God of all grace – 1 Peter 5:10. Grace begins with God. God is grace, just as He is love, etc. The Psalmist concludes this Psalm 84 in verse 12: “O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.” NIV • How lovely it is when our lives become the dwelling place of God, when He inhabits our innermost being, when we find our home and our rest with Him. • How rich and wonderous is the life of those whose sun and shield is God Himself. Truly blessed are the men, women, or children who put all their trust in Him. TASTE AND SEE THE LORD IS GOOD.

  John 1:27 "It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose." 28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 "This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.'            In this tremendous passage of scripture we see John the Baptist still saying he is nothing compared to Jesus. He tells us that before he talks about Jesus and then again after he points us to the Lamb of God. He will tell us about that glorious Lamb that takes away the sin of the world and was predicted all the way back in Genesis 3:15, and spoken of so many times in the Old Testament sacrifices. He tells us that Jesus is the only one who can take away our sin and provide salvation. Verse 26   "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."John replied by implying that his authority to baptize as he did came from an authoritative figure who was present but yet unknown. John did not identify Him then. This would have exposed Jesus to the scrutiny of Israel's leadership prematurely. John only realized that Jesus was the Messiah after he said these words (cf. v. 31). John simply referred to this One and implied that he baptized in water under divine authority. He stressed the great authority of Jesus by saying he was unworthy to do even menial service for Him. Thus John bore witness to Jesus even before he identified Him as the Messiah.1st He tells them he only baptizes with water and cannot do any more·         The baptism signified when the Gentiles were converted into Judaism·         It signified repentance and becoming a people of God·         This was amazing as they hated Gentiles and they were saying they were as Gentiles·         Repenting in anticipation of the return of the Messiah2nd He points them to the one all of our lives should point to Christ·         One that can do for them what he cannot Next he tells them that Jesus stands among them·         God is often nearer to us than we know·         Christ is to be preferred over him·         Notice that the priests and Pharisees do not ask John where the Messiah is·         They wanted to harass him ·         The did not come to receive instructions so their ignorance was willful·         They might have known Christ but would not, this is willful rejection of ChristPsalm 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. "To get the full impact of this we must bear in mind that disciples did do many services for their teachers. Teachers in ancient Palestine were not paid (it would be a terrible thing to ask for money for teaching Scripture!). But in partial compensation disciples were in the habit of performing small services for their rabbis instead. But they had to draw the line somewhere, and menial tasks like loosing the sandal thong came under this heading. There is a rabbinic saying (in its present form dating from c.

"How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). Jesus once asked the question, “What do you want?” (Luke 18:45 TLB) Some of you may be looking in the refrigeration to get some breakfast. I'm not interested in what you want for breakfast. When we ask this question, we generally are not interested in trivial things. We desire a deep, profound answer. Sometimes we ask it differently, “What you want written on your tombstone?” or “What you want people to say about you at your funeral?” or “What legacy do you want to leave behind?” I get irritated with stories in which a character immediately knows the answer to such a question. Most people cannot answer it quickly. Our answer will differ depending on the day and the things happening around us. I'm not always sure if there is one thing that I really want. But knowing what we want is important. Years ago, when it was still okay to say such things, G. K. Chesterton wrote, "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God." The only difference between that person and the one who kneels to receive the Lord's Supper is that the former is looking for satisfaction in the wrong place. This person does not know that it is God who is being sought for. It's the same with all our appetites and longings: a bigger house; a faster car; better make-up; successful children; political positions. We want many things. But getting these things doesn't satisfy. In fact, they tend to kill us. We humans have an infernal habit of mistaking the things God gives for the God who gives them. We tend to worship the things God gives, rather than God himself. As Paul once wrote, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised! Amen" (Romans 1:25). God made everything for His glory, to show off His greatness. The things He created all point back to Him. They remind us that He is our true home, our destination. Sin makes creatures our home rather than God to whom they point. Worshipping God's creation will be our death. The psalmist knew this. He was away from Jerusalem and longed to be home. Not because he worshipped that city but because in Jerusalem was God's temple, God's presence on earth. That is where he encountered God. That was joy. This is even truer for us, followers of Jesus. We are his temple. God is right here, where we are. But do we want him? Is he our joy? In the long road through the wilderness of our lives, we can take either of two roads. On the one road, we focus on all the things that we can't enjoy right now. We can feed our longing for them. The other road is the one the psalmist took. Rather, than feeding his longings for stuff, he fed his longing for God. We can take that road too. We can ask the Spirit to sift our desires so that increasingly we long for God. Then, when someone asks us that irritating question, “What do you want out of life?” we know our answer. Let us pray that He will always be our joy and that we will always sing His praises and not the praises of the things He made. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

Day 7: Remember Me Today we visit the story of Hannah. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. In 1 Samuel, we read of Peninnah's taunts towards Hannah for not having children while she easily bore children. Hannah was ridiculed and humiliated and pleaded with God, weeping her words, "O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life." (1 Samuel 1:11) Despite the difficult circumstances she faced, Hannah persistently prayed to God. and verse 10 says, “Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the LORD.” God wants our emotions; He made us emotional beings. In verse 16, Hannah, in her brokenness, declares to Eli, the priest, "I have been praying here out of great anguish and grief.” Is there something you desperately want from God? It is almost inevitable at some point; we will feel the “distress of the soul” described in the Amplified version of this verse. Others describe it as “the wall” or the “dark night of the soul.” It is so easy for us to feel bitterness at the circumstances of life. Embitterment is different than anger because although it involves the same outrage, it also involves feeling helpless to change things. Hannah clearly felt this. Do we let bitterness eat away and create decay as we hold onto our pain, or do we bring our bitterness, let the Lord bear it, and ultimately take it? To ask the same God who allowed your pain to then take your bitterness away requires setting aside resentment. It means a difficult, faithful acknowledgement of His place as your Creator and faithful provider. Every year in my devotionals I include Romans 8:26. This story seems fitting of this verse, “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” "Hannah prayed wordless prayers before Eli, and that caused him to ask if she was drunk. But this is the Spirit interceding for us." After God answered Hannah's prayers and granted her the blessing of her son Samuel (plus five more over time) Hannah recognises God's faithfulness. “There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides You. There is no rock like our God." (1 Samuel 2:2) She continued to pray and give thanks, acknowledging from whom her blessings came. As we know, her son, Samuel, became the greatest prophet in Israel's history, maintaining direct communication with God throughout his life. Lord, thank you for your answers to prayer, which You give when we pour our souls to You. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that You pray on our behalf when we pour out our anguish. You are the God who hears us. Lord, hear our deep prayers today for our lives and those around us. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20) Amen. Reflect and Respond - Are you discouraged or despairing? Ask the Holy Spirit to join in your prayer for your situation. -Write a prayer of thanks for your situation, thanking God for His faithfulness and sovereignty. Write out some promises that God has given you for your situation. “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Prayer Focus Pray for our communications, tech, admin and custodial teams here at the church: Communications Director: Ian Richardson Communications Team: Vanessa Dobson, Marissa Price, Jen Peters, Luke Madden Tech Director: Adam Price Tech Team: Dru Carlson, Karl Dobson, Sam Lamb and all of the volunteers Admin and Ministry Coordinators: Cheryl Carlson, Vicki Burger, Des Rypstra, Louisa Wiebe, Michelle Collins, Morley Cruikshank Custodians and Janitors: Percy Lujan, Kurtis Knuth, Brady Welsh Pray for your three prayer points.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV) – [5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; [6] in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Trust (batach) means to hie (to go quickly or in haste) for refuge; to be confident or sure; to be bold or secure; to confide in. (Multiple Sources) 1. Trust in the LORD instills confidence. 2. Trust in the LORD inspires hope. 3. Trust in the LORD requires waiting. 4. Trust in the LORD removes shame. 5. Trust in the LORD overcomes fear. 6. Trust in the LORD brings blessing. Proverbs 16:20 (NIV) – [20] Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and BLESSED is he who TRUSTS in the Lord. Psalms 84:10-12 (NIV) – [10] Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. [11] For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. [12] O LORD Almighty, BLESSED is the man who TRUSTS in you. 7. Trust in the LORD requires surrender. The word translated “trust” in verse 5 means “to lie helpless, facedown.” It pictures a servant waiting for the master’s command in readiness to obey, or a defeated soldier yielding himself to the conquering general. (Wiersbe Commentary) Psalms 31:14-15 (NIV) – [14] But I TRUST in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” [15] My times are in your hands… 8. Trust in the LORD’s unfailing love. …the cause for hope is not in one’s merit with God or in some sort of “tit-for-tat” arrangement, but only because of God’s [unfailing love], his unswerving loyalty, his gracious kindness. (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament) Psalms 13:5-6 (NIV) – [5] But I TRUST in your UNFAILING LOVE; my heart rejoices in your salvation. [6] I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. 9. Trust in the LORD answers prayer. 1 Chronicles 5:20 (NIV) – [20] They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they TRUSTED in him. 10. Trust in the LORD brings peace. Isaiah 26:3-4 (NIV) – [3] You will keep in perfect PEACE him whose mind is steadfast, because he TRUSTS in you. [4] TRUST in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.

"How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). What do you want? How would you answer this question if it was popped on you randomly? Pause your listening or reading and ponder this question for a while. Before you carry on, wonder about it again. Confession time! I get irritated with stories in which a character immediately knows the answer to such a question. Or, if some conference speaker infers that we ought to know. For myself, I find it depends on the day and its circumstances. I'm not sure if there is one thing that I know I want. Most of us are not so fully in tune with our hearts as to always have an answer ready. But knowing what we want is important. Consider what G. K. Chesterton once wrote, "Every person who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God." The only difference between that person and the one who kneels to receive the Lord's Supper is that the former is looking for satisfaction in the wrong place. The former does not know that it is God who is being sought for. It's the same with all our appetites and longings: a bigger house; a faster car; better make-up; successful children; political position. We want many things. The thing is getting these things doesn't satisfy. In fact, they tend to kill us. We humans have an infernal habit of mistaking the things God gives for the God who gives them. We want the creations rather than the creator. It is easier for us to worship the things God gives rather than their Maker. As Paul once wrote, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised! Amen" (Romans 1:25). God made everything for His glory, to show off His greatness. For God, that is not egotistical; it is just true. His glory puts everything in perspective. The things He created all point back to Him. They remind us that He is our true home, our destination. Sin is wanting the signs, the created stuff. Sin is making the signs our home rather than God to whom they point. Worshipping God's creation will be our death. The psalmist knew this. He was away from Jerusalem and longed to be home. Not because he worshipped that city but because in Jerusalem was God's temple. The temple represented God's presence on earth. It was the symbol of God's presence; that is where he encountered God. That was her joy. This is even truer for us, followers of Jesus. God's house is Christ Himself and we, the church, are his body. God is right here, where we are. But do we want him? Is he our joy? What do you want? The psalmist answer is simple: to be with God. If that is what we want to want, how do we shift our wanting from created things to the creator? There is no ‘one size fits all' answer to this. We are all on the journey either towards or away from God. For today, consider this: our spiritual practices (things like communal worship, prayer, scripture, giving) are not ends in themselves. They are meant to be means through which we draw close to God, means by which are “wants” are changed. So, use them well! Also, this: Jesus suggests that our prayers should not be too long. Many Christian traditions encourage short prayers prayed regularly. Rooted in this psalm, make such a prayer, and offer it several times a day.

Have you ever wanted something so badly, you poured out prayers and tears asking God for it? I've had a few times like that. I received some of the answers I sought. For others, not yet. Today, we look at a woman who prayed with tears to overcome infertility. 1 Samuel 1:10-11 says, ‘In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD. And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty , if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”' (NIV) God answered Hannah's prayer! She bore a son named Samuel and dedicated him to the Lord. That was no easy thing. When Samuel was a few years old, she left him miles from home to be raised by the priests at the tabernacle. Once a year she would journey there to worship and see her son. Each year, she brought him clothes she had made. Samuel eventually became a leader in Israel. This week, the podcast will look at mothers from the bible. Hannah was a remarkable mother. She reminds us that dedicated mothers make sacrifices so their children will follow God. Take a moment to remember the sacrifices your mother made for you. How to leave a review: https://www.sparkingfaith.com/rate-and-review/ Please provide feedback and suggestions at: https://www.sparkingfaith.com/feedback/ Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

~ This is the audio from the January 24, 2022 live social media broadcast of encouragement and prayer by Impact Prayer Ministry’s director, Tom Lemler. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living […]

Psalm 43: Why are you downcast, O my soul?… Put your hope in God! Psalm 44: I do not trust in my bow… but you give us victory over our enemies! Psalm 45: Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever! Psalm 49: Why should I fear when the evil days come? Psalm 84: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! Psalm 85: Restore us again, O God Our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. Psalm 87: Glorious things are said of you, O city of God.

God's presence is a lovely place to be. Those who love the Lord yearn for his presence. They long to be where He is. Do you love the Lord?

Revelation 12:11 That we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony   PROTECTIVE MOTHER   “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king’s edict” Hebrews 11:23.   Mother’s protect us in many ways: -Physically: protect us from danger -Morally: by teaching us right from wrong -Emotionally: shield us from things they know will hurt us -Spiritually: teach us to love and serve the Lord   INSTRUCTIVE MOTHER   This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus. I am writing to Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. 2 Timothy 1:1-5 NLT   The mothering heart teaches their children a few things: -Teaches them about Jesus They should hear about Jesus from you first. -Teaches them the Bible (Read to them in whatever stage they are in) -Teach them the importance of attending church Be the example by making it a priority and actually going.   NURTURING MOTHER   “But the child’s mother said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.’” 2 Kings 4:30   -Listen with compassion Hear them and let them know you are a safe place -Offer encouragement Share guidance and wisdom -Dig Deeper Challenge them on their journey, help them push through -Give them opportunity Help them to progress in their call, give them resources and connections.     SUPPORTIVE MOTHER “And she made a vow, saying, ‘O Lord Almighty, if you will . . . remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life’” 1 Samuel 1:11.   There are three things that we can learn from Hannah. 1. God answers prayer concerning our children 2. To release our children to the Lord to use them as He sees fit. 3. To support our children in doing the Lord’s will.   LOYAL MOTHER   John 19:25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother.   -Moms don’t give up! -Always be their home                      

"How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). Yesterday, Pastor Anthony mentioned that we had been considering spending some time with the Old Testament prophets. Our idea was to dig around in some interesting but unfamiliar passages. We made these plans in mid-December. Then, we went into a second lock down and I went on a two-week vacation. We don't talk when either of us is on vacation, giving each other space for Sabbath. But both of us were questioning if we needed to reconsider our plans. We didn't have time to lay any new plans. We received a few responses to his request for suggestions. Hopefully, more of you will give us ideas. In the meantime, I invite you to today consider Psalm 84. Let's enter the text with a simple question, “What do you want?” Some of you may be looking in the refrigeration to get some breakfast. I'm not interested in what you want for breakfast. This is one of those annoyingly profound questions like when you get asked what you want written on your tombstone or what you want people to say about you at your funeral. What do you want for your life? or from your life? I get irritated with stories in which a character immediately knows the answer to such a question. I find it depends on the day and the things happening around me. I'm not always sure if there is one thing that I really want. But knowing what we want is important. Years ago, when it was still okay to say such things, G. K. Chesterton wrote, "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God." The only difference between that person and the one who kneels to receive the Lord's Supper is that the former is looking for satisfaction in the wrong place. The former does not know that it is God who is being sought for. It's the same with all our appetites and longings: a bigger house; a faster car; better make-up; successful children; political position. We want many things. But getting these things doesn't satisfy. In fact, they tend to kill us. We humans have an infernal habit of mistaking the things God gives for the God who gives them. We tend to worship the things God gives, rather than God himself. As Paul once wrote, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised! Amen" (Romans 1:25). God made everything for His glory, to show off His greatness. The things He created all point back to Him. They remind us that He is our true home, our destination. Sin makes creatures our home rather than God to whom they point. Worshipping God's creation will be our death. The psalmist knew this. He was away from Jerusalem and longed to be home. Not because he worshipped that city but because in Jerusalem was God's temple, God's presence on earth. That is where he encountered God. That was joy. This is even truer for us, followers of Jesus. We are his temple. God is right here, where we are. But do we want him? Is he our joy? In the long road through the wilderness of this pandemic, we can take either of two roads. On the one road, we focus on all the things that we can't enjoy right now. We can feed our longing for them. The other road is the one the psalmist took. Rather, than feeding his longings for stuff, he fed his longing for God. We can take that road too. We can ask the Spirit to sift our desires so that more and more we long for God. Then, when someone asks us that irritating question, “What do you want out of life?” we know our answer. Let us pray that He will always be our joy and that we will always sing His praises and not the praises of the things He made.

Psalm 84: verses 1-4 (NLT)How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty.I long, yes I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.Even the sparrow finds a home there,and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young - at a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God!How happy are those who can live in your house,always singing your praises.Music "Windswept" by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4629-windsweptLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Psalm 84 1 A psalm. How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Today's Bible Readings: Deuteronomy 2; Psalms 83-84; Isaiah 30; Jude"For the LORD God is a sun and a shield: the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you” (Ps. 84:11-12).Much of this psalm exults in the sheer privilege and delight of abiding in the presence of God, which for the children of the old covenant meant living in the shadow of the temple. “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Ps. 84:2). To have a place “near your altar” is to have a home, in exactly the same way that a sparrow finds a home or a swallow builds a nest (Ps. 84:3). “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you” (Ps. 84:4; see also the meditation for April 17).But what about the last two verses of this psalm? Don’t they go over the top, promising too much? The psalmist insist that God withholds “no good thing” from those whose walk is blameless. Well, since we all sin, I suppose there is an escape clause: who is blameless? Isn’t it obvious that God withholds lots of good things from lots of people whose walk is about as blameless as walks can get, this side of the new heaven and the new earth?Consider Eric Liddell, the famous Scottish Olympian celebrated in the film Chariots of Fire. Liddell became a missionary in China. For ten years he taught in a school, and then went farther inland to do frontline evangelism. The work was not only challenging but dangerous, not the least because the Japanese were making increasing inroads. Eventually he was interned with many other Westerners. In the squalid camp, Liddell was a shining light of service and good cheer, a lodestar for the many children there who had not seen their parents for years, a self-sacrificing leader. But a few months before they were released, Liddell died of a brain tumor. He was forty-three. In this life he never saw the youngest of his three daughters: his wife and children had returned to Canada before the Japanese sweep that rounded up the foreigners. Didn’t the Lord withhold from him a long life, years of fruitful service, the joy of rearing his own children?Perhaps the best response lies in Liddell’s favorite hymn:Be still, my soul! the Lord is on thy side;Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.Leave to thy God to order and provide;In every change, He faithful will remain.Be still, my soul! thy best, thy heav’nly FriendThrough thorny ways leads to a joyful end.This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 1) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan.

Sometimes in life, taking a deep breath allows us to realize the grace and glory before us. You must slow down in order to speed up. Living life in the fast lane only goes fast for so long. At some point, a detour occurs, or worse yet, you run out of gas. No more fuel for your busyness or chaos. Desire to be supported and encourage by other like-minded women? Join us at Women of IMPACT. http://facebook.com/groups/thewomenofimpact So why do you keep trying to do the impossible? Remember that point where a detour occurs or you run out of gas? Well you don't want to get to that point at all. Because when you do, it comes with a cost. You see, everyone is searching for freedom. But we have to understand that there is a cost to everything in life. It doesn't matter if you are an infant, a second-grader, or the CEO of a top Fortune 100 Company. There is a cost to absolutely everything. Love has a cost. Success has a cost. Failure has a cost. Hope has a cost. But one thing that's forgotten is grace and glory. Grace is a gift. And the glory that comes from grace is given to God. So why do you keep running faster and faster? Your heart only becomes heavy and disheartened. You look for an escape, but the one thing still missing is grace and glory. "For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you!" Psalm 84:11-12 How much of your trust is being given to the wrong person or activity? Relying on another flawed human being is a recipe for disaster. Don't fret what you can't control. The K.I.S.S. ~ Grace and glory! A gift for you. And the awesome benefit is those whose walk is blameless, the good is present. God is there to protect and guard you. He is the sun and shield. So why are you putting your trust in outcomes you can't control? Why are you questioning what to do when God has already given you an answer? Grace and glory! One cannot be separated from the other. It a packaged deal in your every day. Think of it as Prime Day, every day! If Amazon can have an incredible deal, I promise God can top any prime deal. Instead of flying through your day haphazardly, put your trust in God. Don't back down because you don't have the answer you're looking for. Keep going through the doors God opens, and be grateful for the ones He closes. Life is a series of moments strung together to create your now. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow isn't guaranteed. But you have today, so celebrate indeed. The opportunity to live, love, and impact are in your heart. Grace and glory! "Trust in the Lord with all your heart! God's got you!!"   #Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation  - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. 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When the storms in life strike, as they inevitably do, it feels as though we're caught in a small bout out on a stormy ocean. At that point, what we really need is some solid ground beneath our feet. And fortunately, God knows that only too well.   Dealt a Cruel Blow You know you can always tell when we are starting a new series – I am excited. I love to get onto a new series in God's Word and that's what we are doing today. We are starting a series called “On Solid Ground” to listen to what God has to say into one of the central dilemmas of our lives and that dilemma is this: dealing with the storms of life. I remember when I was a young boy – I was about four or five years old. My mother and my sister and I sailed in a ship from Australia to Europe. Now that was a four week sail through the Suez Canal and back again. It's a long way and I remember, even to this day, there were some huge storms along the way. I remember they had ropes in the corridors on the ship to hang onto. I have never forgotten those storms and remember, this was a large cruise ship and yet it seemed to get tossed around in those storms. I was sea sick; I was very afraid as a young kid, even though I was on this big cruise liner. I remember going out onto the deck and seeing the huge waves and the winds and the ship was pitching around in this fearsome ocean and for me, there is nothing as frightening as an angry sea and a violent storm – the ground as it were, moving under your feet. For some people life seems to be a constant storm. The ground under their feet is never solid – there is always some fear and some uncertainty and they can never quite figure out why. What is going on – why is my life always like this? Now many of these people believe in God and yet life seems to be one endless storm. What we really want to have is solid ground under our feet. When you are in a storm the question is – how? That's what we are going to be exploring in this series called “On Solid Ground” starting right here and right now. Now if you have a Bible, I'd like you to grab it because we are going to be spending most of our time in the first eight chapters in a Book called First Samuel, in the Old Testament. We are going to discover the truth that we kind of know or we should know and yet it gets lost in the world that we live in. See this is a ‘me' centred world where so often we find ourselves going to God asking Him for things for me, for me, for me and little by little, instead of God being God we expect Him to start being like a performing dog – to do tricks on our command. It may seem harsh but you get God the wrong way around and it spells dog. Am I expecting God to start dancing to my tune or am I dancing to His? It's a good question. That's what we are going to be exploring in this story and it begins in the storm. It's a story about a woman called Hannah and it turns out that she is going through some incredibly tough times in her life but she has the Creator/creature relationship the right was up. Open you Bible – let's go to First Samuel – it's the ninth book of the Old Testament. It's kind of just over a third; between a third and a half way in. We are going to start at the first verse of the first chapter of First Samuel. There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham the son of Elihu the son of Tohu the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah, the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh where Hophni and Phinehas the two sons of Eli, were the priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb. And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year – whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord her rival provoked her until she wept and wouldn't eat. Elkanah, her husband would say “Hannah why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you down hearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" Pretty tough! Anybody who has ever gone childless or had someone in their family who has gone childless will know the incredible pain of a couple who would like to have a child and yet they can't conceive. Can you imagine this going on year after year after year and in between these annual trips, as well? And of course, there were two wives – now the Bible doesn't talk about the fact that there were two wives – obviously the author doesn't feel a need to comment – praise God that has gone away. But never the less, poor old Hannah had a pretty tough time – a real storm, year after year, the pain of being childless and she had lots of choices in that space. She could have been angry; she could have lashed out; she could have withdrawn. And her husband is pretty useless; typical male – "What's the matter, why are you crying? You've got me!" So what does Hannah do? Let's look at First Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 9: Once they had finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the door post of the Lord's temple. In the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord and she made a vow saying “O Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon Your servants misery and remember me and don't forget Your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head." As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” “Not so my lord” Hannah replied, “I'm a woman whose deeply troubled. I haven't been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Don't take your servant for a weak woman – I have been praying here about the great anguish and grief that I have.” And Eli answered “Go in peace. May God of Israel grant you what you have asked Him.” She said, “May your servant find favour in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. Turns out she does have a son, calls him Samuel, gives him over to God as soon as he is weaned and he comes and serves as a priest in this temple under Eli, whom we discover later is one bad dude. He is the priest; he is supposed to be the go between, between God and His people and yet he and his sons have no respect for God. We will look at them later and also we will see Samuel's fate. At the start of the programme I talked about this "me, me, me" thing – always asking God for stuff; kind of turning things the wrong way round, instead of us being made in God's image, we try to remake Him in ours. And yet here is this story – this story that begins in a storm – this story that begins with Hannah in a storm and she is asking God for something. Did you notice she doesn't lash out or whine or complain? She humbles herself before God and asks her sovereign God; pours her heart out to Him. Eli, this scoundrel, with as much spiritual insight as my pet cat, thinks she is drunk and feeds her with platitudes – "May the Lord give you what you ask for." Yet here is a simple woman at the bottom of the heap, pouring her heart out to her God. And notice what it says after she does that, in verse 18 of chapter 1: “Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast.” See Hannah's feet were on solid ground – even before her prayer is answered – a seemingly impossible prayer. You know what that tells me? She trusted her God – no matter what His answer would be – she trusted Him; she let it go; she stopped worrying and God answered her prayer. I'm not saying "Let's all be like Hannah" – we are clearly not, our storms are different to hers but what we discover in this story is that when we put God in His rightful place – God – He honours that. We are going to have a look at her understanding of her God again next.   Chalk and Cheese What comes next in this story is Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving. She is in this storm; she asks God for the impossible; she has got the taunts of the other wife and she comes to God in a prayer of humility; pouring out her soul and God answers her with a son and she gives that son back to God for the rest of his life. Now listen to what she prays and how she rejoices. We are now at chapter 2 of First Samuel, beginning at verse 1: Then Hannah prayed and said ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord, in the Lord my horn is lifted high, my mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in Your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides You. There is no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance for the Lord is a God who knows and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of warriors are broken but those who stumble are armed with strength.' And this prayer goes on and on ... read it for yourself in First Samuel chapter 2. And you know what it's all about? The power and the sovereignty of God! It's about a Hannah who went to God with this in her heart – God is above all things. Not this attitude of "Let's reform God in my image. Let's turn Him into a performing poodle." You know how I know that? Because when she poured out her heart to God she offered her son back to Him and she honoured that promise when God delivered her son. There is a challenge there for each one of us about how we go to God – how we see Him – as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords or some puppy dog that performs tricks on our command? Come on! And how can we tell the difference? See, this is a very hard thing to discern sometimes. How can we tell the difference between a right and a wrong attitude towards God? Let's go back to His Word and we will see what a wrong attitude looks like when we look at the priest Eli and his sons. Join me is First Samuel chapter 2 verse 11. Remember Eli was the priest that was at the temple when Hannah went to pray. Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people, that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three pronged fork in his hand, he would plunge it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the servants of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing “Give the priest some meat to roast – he won't accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” If the man said to him “Let the fat be burned up first and then take whatever you want, the servant would answer “No, hand it over now, if you don't I'll take it by force.” So this sin of the young men; the young priests was very great in the Lord's sight for they were treating the Lord's offerings with contempt. You see the way we tell the difference about our heart attitude towards God is through how we behave. Hannah could have complained; Hannah could have fought back; Hannah could have acted up badly; she could have lashed out at her husband; she could have grumbled at the other wife and yet, in her pain, who could have blamed her? She could have shaken her fists at God and instead she went to Him with her mission impossible and poured out her heart to God and trusted Him because He is God and then she had peace. He honoured that! Here's an amazing truth – it's one of those pivotal passages in the Bible that tells us a huge amount about why, when we have a wrong heart toward God, things go badly in our lives. Listen to First Samuel chapter 2, verse 30; this is a verse that's worth writing down. God says: For those who honour Me, I will honour. And those who despise Me shall be treated with contempt. And what we read in the remainder of chapter 2 of First Samuel, starting at verse 27, is that God deals with Eli and his two sons and He sends a prophet to Eli and this is what happens. First Samuel chapter 2, verse 27: Now, a man of God came to Eli and said to him “This is what the Lord says” “Did I not clearly reveal Myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt, under Pharaoh? I chose your father out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to go up to My alter to burn My incense, to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. "So why do you scorn My sacrifice and offering that I prescribed from My dwelling? Why do you honour your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by My people Israel?” Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares “I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before Me forever,” but now the Lord declares “Far be it from Me; those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise Me I will disdain. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your family and you will see distress in the dwelling and good will be done to Israel. In your family line there will never be an old man. Every one of you that I do not cut off from My alter, will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and grieve you heart and all your descendants will die in the prime of their lives. And what happens to your sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign to you - they will both die on the same day. And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will firmly establish his house and he will minister before My anointed one always. Then everyone left in the family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a crust of bread and plead "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat." The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the Word of the Lord was rare – there were not many visions. There it is – these priests were in a position of power and authority and responsibility and they ... they didn't honour God, in their words and in their deeds, they rejected Him. And God dealt with them. Hannah on the other hand – well, she was like chalk and cheese compared to Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah was the lowly of the lowly – these priests were on the top of the social religious register but that made no difference to God. “I will honour those who honour Me and those who despise Me shall be treated with contempt.” The priests failed! The Word of the Lord was rare – their job was to tell people what the Word of the Lord was and yet, in those days it was rare. You know, if you can't change the people, sometimes you have to change the people and that's exactly what God does here. Ultimately, young Samuel becomes the priest and the prophet of Israel – he is the one that grows in favour and we are going to look at his story next week.   It's About Honour Let me ask you something. Who was on solid ground, Hannah who honoured God or the priests Eli, Hophni and Phinehas who pleased themselves? See, it's so easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas but it's hard to be like Hannah. You know why? Because we can't really see God – not like we can see the physical reality that we are in – not like we can see our circumstances – not like we can see the storm and feel the fear. All those things seem so much more real than this notion of a God that we can't see – a God that we have to put our faith in instead of being able to touch and hear physically. And so this present reality takes over and God has to fit into our present reality. Absolutely, it is easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas! It's easy to relegate God to one of the things that has to fit into our present daily agenda. But God is no less real for the fact that we physically can't see Him. He is no less powerful for the fact that we interact with Him in faith. God is God and solid ground is the place that Hannah knew – she stood before God. I once heard someone say that peace is trusting in the sovereignty of God. Hannah had that peace. For that very reason – in the eye of her perfect storm, in that place of taunts and disappointments and hurts that she couldn't even utter when she poured out her heart to God – Hannah discovered God's peace through a simple, simple act of faith. So many times over these recent years for me, when the storms have blown in – so many times and you know, in a sense - each time I feel so inadequate to deal with those storms. Isn't that the point? When we are on that ship in the ocean, doesn't matter how big the ship is; doesn't matter how strong we are, we are nothing compared to those storms. People come against you – circumstances, finances, things that really hurt, things of real fear, horrible things that people do – and we feel so inadequate just going and praying about them, well, "What good is that?" But you know what that prayer of faith is? That prayer of anguish and pouring out our hearts before the Lord, like Hannah did, it's honouring Him as the sovereign God. It's saying "God I may be smaller than this storm but this storm is nothing more than a pin prick for You. You are above all things, above all powers, above all dominions and circumstances and storms." And listen again to God's Word. First Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. God says: I will honour those who honour Me and those who despise Me will be treated with contempt. Who had solid ground under their feet – Hannah or Eli, Hophni and Phinehas? Now next week we are going to see how God's contempt was poured out on Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Remember that prophesy from the man of God, saying to Eli, “Your two sons Hophni and Phinehas are going to die on the same day as a sign to you that there will never be another old man in your line.” We are going to see that happen next week and we are also going to see how God's honour was carried forth for Hannah through Samuel her son. We haven't talked a whole lot about him today but this Book is named after him – First Samuel. We will see that next week on the programme. God blesses Samuel – God sets him up as the priest and the prophet and the judge over the whole of the nation of Israel. This nobody woman, this Hannah, who couldn't have a son, honours her God and God takes that and changes the course of history. God's blessing to Hannah flowed on, down the generations through her son. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: when I look at my life, when you look at your life, do we look like Hannah or Eli? Because that's how I figure out whether I'm someone who honours God as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, as the sovereign of all things. Is this the God I go to, to pour my heart out to? Or do I steal His stuff? Is He the God I rejoice in when He answers me or the God who I try to kind of fit into my schedule when I can be bothered? That God who I manipulate and massage and mould into whatever I want Him to be. Make no mistake – God takes His honour and His glory very, very seriously. He gives them away to no man and to no woman. And as we will find out in the lives of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, it's a matter of life and death.

We tend to see the world room where we are. It's only natural. We want everyone and everything else to fit in with us. But God, well, He doesn't quite see it that way.   A Boy Called Sam Last week on the programme we spent some time talking about the fact that when the storms of life hit and they inevitably do, what we need is some solid ground beneath our feet. It's a scary place to be, out on that stormy ocean – we are not made for that. We are made for solid ground. And we began looking at the story of some people: a woman called Hannah and her son Samuel and some priests – Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah, now here was a woman who honoured God and He honoured her – the priests, on the other hand, although they should have known better, they didn't honour God. And as we will see on the programme this week, they reaped their just reward. And the reason we are looking at this story of these people, is that when we are in the midst of the storm, as we so often are, we lose our bearings. We so often lose sight of those things that really matter and for me, as I have spent time in that story, it has clarified some things for me – it's brought them into sharp focus and my hunch is that as you and I spend some time together today, well, maybe you will find that too. So let's just recap briefly on this story of Hannah. Hannah married a man called Elkanah and he had two wives: Peninnah and Hannah. And Hannah didn't have children and Peninnah did, so Peninnah would taunt Hannah and there was a lot of pain around that, so Hannah goes to God – she pours out her heart to Him in the temple and she gets God's peace. It is what always happens when we do that. Eli, on the other hand, is the priest that is at the temple at the time when Hannah comes to pour her heart out and he mistakes what Hannah is doing – he thinks she is drunk. And the priest Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas, they are bad dudes – they are plundering the sacrifices, they are not honouring God and there is a real contrast between these two – between Hannah and her family and Eli and his - this nobody Hannah and this priest Eli. See that's what we so often miss in life – God is hidden; He is invisible – we forget about Him – we go on living our lives, wondering why things are going from bad to worse. And in the middle of this story (last week we stumbled across this verse) when God was pronouncing His judgement on Eli and his family – you can read this if you have a Bible, grab it, open it up at First Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. God said: Those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise Me shall be treated with contempt. And that's kind of the pivot on which this whole story turns and this week on the programme we are going to look at how things turned out for Hannah and for Eli. There was a sharp contrast to their approach to God and there is a sharp contrast in how things turn out for them. It tells us a lot about God; it clarifies the confusion in the midst of our storm when we can't see God, necessarily. When that happens we know how to put our feet on solid ground. Well let's start today with Hannah – this pain of being childless and the taunts of the other wife. Childless couples the world over, know how painful this is. So she goes to God – let's have a look at it again in First Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 9 and she pours her heart out. Once they had finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple. In the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord as she made a vow saying “O Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon Your servant's misery and remember me and not forget Your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head.” Then she went on her way, ate something and her face was no longer downcast. Let's take a look to see what happened next. First Samuel chapter 1, verse 19: Straight after this, early the next morning they rise, they worship before the Lord and then they go back their home in Ramah. Elkanah lay with his wife Hannah and the Lord remembered her so in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named his Samuel, saying “Because I asked the Lord for him.” When the man Elkanah went up with his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfil his vow, Hannah didn't go – she said to her husband “After the boy is weaned I will take him up and present him before the Lord and he will live there always.” “Do what seems best to you,” Elkanah, her husband told her, “Stay here until you have weaned him, only may the Lord make good His Word.” So the woman stayed at home, nursed her son until she had weaned him. After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three year old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli and she said to him “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I ask of Him so now I give him to the Lord for his whole life – he will be given over to the Lord and she worshipped the Lord there.” See, Hannah had this terrible pain – she came to God with this impossible prayer – it was a humble and heartfelt prayer and God honours that. See we so underestimate the power of humble prayer; prayer from the heart; prayer that just lays it out before God the way we see it and feel it. God honours that! When He honours her with the impossible, she honours God back and gives her son over to God to serve at the temple for the rest of his life. Now that's easy to gloss over that, but can you imagine? I mean, she wanted her son more than anything and now she gives him up to honour God. God honours that – her incredible heart was to honour God, so she does. She honours Him by giving up the one thing that she desired most – her son. And what's more, she gives over her most precious to be under the wicked Eli and his sons. Now figure that out! It's not exactly a great strategic choice – this young, impressionable child, but see, God honours those who honour Him. And God honours her and protects young Samuel, and we will see, raises young Samuel up and makes him strong. See, the more we honour God, the more He honours us. Look at this - First Samuel chapter 3, verse 7: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And verse 19: The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and He let none of His Words fall to the ground and all of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba recognised that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His Word. And the word of Samuel came to all of Israel.” You see, God honoured her in her storm! Young Samuel went on to become the chief priest, the prophet, the judge of all of Israel. Why? Because this nobody; this woman Hannah, honoured her God, so simply by pouring her heart out to Him, by trusting Him. I want you to notice how insignificant that may have appeared to her at the time. She had this big hairy giant; this huge storm; the pain of being childless, the taunts of Peninnah, it was impossible but for God nothing is impossible. God honours those who honour Him! She honoured God in her naivety – giving young Sam over to Eli. And even there in that impossible situation, God honoured her and He honoured young Sam. So simple – it's so powerful.   The Contrast Continues I guess intuitively, we understand that the things we say and do, the way we think and behave – well, they have consequences. There is a link between cause and effect. We kind of know that but how easy is it to delude ourselves in this area; to make excuse for ourselves? To live out our own selfish desires and pretend that, well, really, that cause and effect stuff applies to other people but not to me! You know what I am talking about. We deny it, we deny it, we deny it and all along the warning signs grow – the storm clouds start to gather over the horizon. But sometimes it's not till that first clap of thunder that we take any notice and then, so often, it's too late. The storm has gathered momentum and all we can do is brace ourselves for when it hits. We are going to spend some time in that space today with a man called Eli because he was in exactly that situation and he left it too late. Let's make no mistake, there is a definite link in God's economy between cause and effect, especially as it turns out, in our relationship with God. We have been working our way, in this series, through the story of Hannah, this woman who honoured God and Eli, the priest, a man with his sons who did the exact opposite – even though he should have known better. And right now I want to look at how things turn out for Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These were men who were priests – their job was to be shepherding Israel, bringing them close to their God. Instead Hophni and Phinehas were plundering the sacrifices of God's people, they were sleeping with prostitutes – they were doing anything but honouring God. Look at how God reacts to that. If you have got a Bible, open it at First Samuel chapter 3, verse 1. The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the Word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord. Remember Samuel is Hannah's son. He was in the temple where the Ark of God was. Then the Lord called “Samuel” and Samuel answered “Here I am” and he ran in to Eli and said “Here I am, you called me.” But Eli said “I didn't call you. God back, lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called “Samuel” and Samuel go up and went to Eli and said “Here I am, you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I didn't call you, go back, lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel a third time and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said “Here I am, you called me.” Then Eli finally realised that the Lord was calling the boy so Eli told Samuel “Go and lie down and if God calls you again, say “Speak Lord for Your servant is listening.” So Samuel went and lay down in his place so the Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times “Samuel, Samuel”. Then Samuel said “Speak for Your servant is listening.” And the Lord said to Samuel “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything that I spoke against his family from beginning to end, for I told him that I would judge his family forever, because of the sin that he knew about. His sons made themselves contemptible and he failed to restrain them, therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice of offering.” Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli of the vision but Eli called him and said “Samuel, my son,” Samuel answered, “Here I am.” ”What was it He said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He told you.” So Samuel told Eli everything, hiding nothing from him. And Eli said, “He is the Lord. Let Him do what is good in His eyes.” Here's the paradox – Samuel is this young kid, he didn't recognise God's voice and finally Eli did. Yet Samuel is the one that listened to God and Eli didn't, even though he knew God's voice. Remember that verse: First Samuel chapter 2, verse 30. "I honour those who honour Me” says God, “but those who despise Me I will treat with contempt.” And here it is – it's happening to Eli. Here is this powerful truth working its way out in Eli's life. We can be beetling along in our own selfish ways, ignoring our conscience, treating people with contempt, treating God with contempt, ignoring God but God never stops speaking. And even someone like Samuel can hear Him. If you want to know what He has to say, just listen. He spoke to Eli over and over again but Eli didn't listen. He talks to us over and over again. How? Maybe you were just flicking around, channel surfing today and you happened across this programme – kind of by chance or by accident, it seemed – there you go. God is always trying to communicate with us; to reach out to us but eventually, enough is enough. Eventually we kindle His anger – eventually the time comes when we reap what we have sown and that's exactly what's happened with Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. And here it is coming: the first lightening strike of the storm and what God tells Samuel actually goes on to happen. You can read it in chapter 4, verses 12 to 22. This is a wakeup call! In the storms in life – yea, they happen – and sometimes they are of our own doing, as it was for Eli and his sons. And we keep going and we keep going and we keep going and deluding ourselves, pretending there is no cause and effect, but there is. Eventually, there is a day of reckoning, here in this life and one day, you and I will stand before God and He will judge us and He will! We may not like the idea, but that doesn't change anything. Today is a wakeup call. Perhaps we are in one of those stormy times of life and you know, when things are going badly we are tempted all the more to behave badly. This truth rings out – “I will honour those who honour Me but those who despise Me, will be treated with contempt.” Those are the words of the sovereign God, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords who is above all things and there is no solid ground beneath the feet of those who turn their backs on God. None! It might feel like that for a while but it will crumble.   Heading Off Without God I have said a few times that I am a confirmed landlubber – give me solid ground beneath my feet any day – I love good old terra firma. You know, what we have seen with Eli is Eli heading off in the wrong direction and you and I have done that too. How do we stop doing that? How do we not go in that place? Because it is so easy for us to head off there, go in the wrong direction, like Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas and plunder sacrifices and do all the wrong stuff that they did, in our own lives and forget that God honours those who honour Him. There is an executive summary of what God thinks about Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. It's in First Samuel chapter 2, verse 17. It says: The sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt. And remember the central theme – the pivot on which this whole story turns is in First Samuel 2, verse 30. God says: I will honour those who honour Me and those who despise Me, I will treat with contempt. Now there is a great part to this story; a great adjunct that goes with this story and it's about what happens when Israel just takes God for granted. This bad stuff has been happening among the priesthood and Israel ignores it and just expects God to keep on blessing them. Let's pick it up in First Samuel chapter 4. See, the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines, the Israelites were camped at Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines deployed all their forces to meet Israel and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines who killed about four thousand of their men. When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel said “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies. So the people sent men to Shiloh, they brought back the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord Almighty, who was enthroned between the cherubim and Eli's two sons Hophni and Phinehas were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. And when the Ark of the Lord's covenant came into the camp, all of Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. Hearing the uproar, the Philistines ask “What are those Hebrews shouting about? When they learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. “A God has come into their camp” they said “we are in trouble. Nothing like this has ever happen before, woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. Be strong Philistines, be men or you will be subject to the Hebrews as they have been to you – be men and fight.” So the Philistines fought and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great. Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers, the Ark of the Covenant of God was captured and Eli's two sons Hophni and Phinehas died. See, Israel is so used to God being on their side, they just kind of head off, assuming that He was, despite the fact that all this bad stuff was going on. Despite the fact that the two priests Hophni and Phinehas were dishonouring, they were despising God - they were doing what was wrong. They deluded themselves – see, there is a cause and effect. No, no, she'll be right! God is always on my side, He is a good God, and He blesses me. See, we take this mighty God, who created the whole universe and expect Him to become our performing poodle – don't we? He does tricks on our command, He comes along behind us. Their first defeat, they get defeated and they lose three thousand men – what do they do? They go and send for the Covenant of God – “Let's bring God to us, let's make God do what we want Him to do, to protect us against the Philistines.” But God is not like that! God is an awesome, mighty, powerful and good God and when we start dishonouring Him let's not expect Him to put our feet on solid ground – let's not expect Him to keep honouring us. He always loves us – He'll always forgive us; He'll always bring us close but on His terms, not ours. We can't sow dishonour in God's direction and expect to receive honour from Him in return. See the humiliation of this story is: they treat God like a performing poodle, by bringing Him to them and in fact the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines. This was the place of the very presence of God Himself and over the next couple of weeks we will discover that people, when they realised what they actually had, these Philistines, all they wanted to do was to get rid of Him. But that's for another day. Today, the simple message of this story is this: we can't go living out a life of stiff necked rebellion and expect God to toddle along behind us on the leash and bless us on cue. We just can't! God is a powerful and mighty God. You know when you put it that way it's pretty plainly obvious, isn't it? And to tell you the truth, that's my agenda today – to make that plainly obvious. It's blindingly, glimpsingly obvious. Let's all take a big wakeup call here. When a storm hits, do you want solid ground beneath your feet? Do you want to know that God is with you? Do you want that certain knowledge that: well, He is going to bless you, no matter what this world throws at you? Gotta tell you – I sure do! And let me get back to the central point; the central theme that the sovereign God wants to get across to us today through His Word. First Samuel chapter 2, verse 30. God says: I honour those who honour Me but those who despise Me will be treated with contempt. God is a sovereign God. God is the King of Kings. God is the Lord of Lords. We had better stop treating Him as thought He is not. You just can't send for God and expect Him to show up when we have been dishonouring Him. Hophni and Phinehas found that out because just as the man of God had prophesied, they were both killed on that same day. And later on in the story we see Eli actually died on that same day as well. God is slow to anger but God does anger and He can't bless our rebellion because if He does, we'll think “Oh great, I can do anything I want and He'll bless it.” But anything that I want is not the place of intimacy between God and me any more than adultery is the place of intimacy between a man and a wife. See just to underscore this point, this wasn't some small defeat by the Philistines, it was the mother of all defeats. How many Israelites were killed? Four thousand and then thirty thousand! That is a lot of people! And the irony of it all is that God's people did not understand the power of their Almighty God but the Philistines did. When the Philistines heard that God was in the camp they were afraid. I want to ram this home today – get right in your face with this: if we head off in our own direction, in our strength, in our own selfish ways – on our own without the blessing and covering of the power of God, we are going to come a cropper. We are not going to have any solid ground – if we do that we will reap what we sow and there is no solid ground in that place. None, only trouble! God honours those who honour Him but those who despise Him will be treated with contempt.

LEVITICUS 21-22:Yesterday we heard various laws that are for preserving the holiness of God's people, and various kinds of punishment for disobedience. PSALM 21:This poem is a companion to yesterday's, which was for the nation and the king in time of war. Today’s poem is the corresponding victory song. Luke 14:As we heard yesterday, Luke chapter 13 containes 4 parables. Jesus warned the people sternly to repent, and he grieved for the persistent stubbornness and hardness of heart of the people of Jerusalem. In both that chapter and today’s chapter, Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, using those occasions as opportunities to teach and rebuke his enemies. GNT Translation notes:[In this Psalm, not only does David talk to God using the 3rd person (a custom which showed reverence), but he speaks of himself also in the 3rd person. The use of the 3rd person like this can be considered ungrammatical in today’s English, and translating literally here prevents most readers from seeing this Psalm as a very personal prayer. CEV picked up on the references to God, and the special translation for translators (T4T) picked up on both the reference to God and to ‘the King’.]Ps. 21:1 [O LORD, I— the king you have chosen, am so gladbecause of the strength you have given me.//The king is glad, O Lord, because you gave him strength; he rejoices because you made him victorious.]2 You have given [me my//him his] heart's desire;you have answered [my//his] request.3 You came to [me//him] with great blessingsand set a crown of gold on [my//his] head.4 [I//He] asked for life, and you gave it,a long and lasting life.5 [My kingly glory//His glory] is great because of your help;you have given [me//him] fame and majesty.6 Your blessings are with [me//him] forever,and your presence fills [me//him] with joy.7 [I trust//The king] trusts in [You, O Lord Almighty//the Lord Almighty];and because of [your//the Lord's] constant love[I//he] will always be secure.8 [CEV: With your mighty arm, Lord,you will strike down all of your hateful enemies.//The king willcapture all his enemies; he will capture everyone who hates him.]9 [CEV: They will be destroyed by fire once you are here,and because of your anger, flames will swallow them.//He will destroy them like a blazing fire when he appears. The Lord will devour them in his anger, and fire will consume them.]10 [CEV: You will wipe their families from the earth,and they will disappear.//None of their descendants will survive;the king will kill them all.]11 [CEV:  All their [evil] plans to harm youwill come to nothing.//They make their plans, and plot against him,but they will not succeed.]12 [CEV: You will make them run awayby shooting your arrows at their faces.//He will shoot his arrows at them and make them turn and run.]13 We praise you, Lord, for your great strength!We will sing and praise your power.====Luk. 14:12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors—for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be [re]paid for what you did.24 I tell you all that none of those who were [first] invited will taste my dinner!’”35 [It has of no value at all even to mix with soil or manure compost.//It is no good for the soil or for the manure pile;] it is [just] thrown away. Listen, then, if you have ears!”

Joel Radford – What do you do when you’re distressed? – 1 Samuel 1:10-11 10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but […]

I want to hear God’s voice and know it’s God’s voice.  Do I know God’s voice? 1 Samuel 1:11 (NIV84) 11 . . . “O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life. . .”

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

I worship God when I show respect and reverence for His house. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!”(Psalm 84:1, NIV).

Life today is hectic and busy, and sometimes practically loving God takes a lower priority place on our calendar. Pastor Adam concludes our Love(d) series by encouraging us to make worship and loving on our immense God the highest priority in our lives. Loving God Love(d) | Week 4 January 29 2017 | Adam Barnett Satan loves overly busy Christians. Matthew 10:30 (NIV) Every hair on your head has been counted. God is here. Psalm 84:1 (NIV) How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! Psalm 84:2 (NIV) My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:3 (NIV) Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young – a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Psalm 84:4 (NIV) Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah. Worship isn’t just something you do, but also who you are. You are a worshipper. Psalm 84:10 (NIV) Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Psalms 84:1-12 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her […]

Psalms 84:1-12 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her […]

Psalm 84:1-2, 10 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God….10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.