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Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 17

The story everybody knows and never gets old. The key to our identity in God - from God to us.

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 16

God looks on the heart. That’s what makes God, God! We look at too many dumb qualities for qualification, like height, wealth and status, but God looks on the heart. David, will make more mistakes than Saul, but his heart is right with God. God can handle our mistakes, and the issue is always an issue if the heart. Do we love God? David looks back to God’s promise of a king from Judah, but David is not the king of God’s eternal kingdom. So David will look forward to Jesus, from Judah out of Bethlehem. God is always bringing our story into his. Thank God!

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 15

Saul is busted, caught and empty. The lessons of Saul, tho, are for all of us. He is a paradox, on one hand he has successes and on the other hand he has failures. This episode, that God gives us, is full of paradox which is the place of our real learning. Wrath and mercy meet and it’s when they come together we have better understanding. God’s wrath on the Amalekites makes the mercy he is offering sweet and worth our faithfulness. Empty religious rituals are not God’s heart, joyful obedience is. He earns that and deserves that.

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 13-14

What happened 3,000 years ago happens today, because humanity can’t get out of its way. These three characters are always at play, and the Bible has a lock on how we work. Can we hear it? It’s eye opening if we can.

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 12

It’s the same old story, all over again. Can humans trust God? God loves us even when he lets the consequences of our actions play out. He always calls us to love Him with all our heart. The major ruled in Israel for a big government that would eventually oppress them, because that’s what governments do. But even our bad decisions don’t keep God from enjoying us as his people who trust Him with all our heart. To God or not to God is always the question. If humans were good like God, no government is necessary. This 3,000 year old episode plays out again and again, now and forever until God puts an end to our nonsense.

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 9-11

Hillariously, Saul seems to be afraid of his new found job and hides in the baggage until God calls him out. When he finally stands up, the people couldn’t be happier with their tall handsome King and Israel is now a bonafide Kingdom. With no castle to govern from Saul heads home to plow fields. When the Ammonites threaten with barbaric cruelty, Saul sends butchered oxen like a Godfather to unify Israel to fight. After the victory, Saul has his moment to put his new God heart on display. This will be his peak.

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 9-11

God tells Samuel to make a king like the people want, but Samuel sends them home. God gets busy when a bunch of donkeys get loose in a series of comedic events leading Saul, God’s king, to Samuel. Samuel makes Saul king in the style of a shotgun wedding, and Saul has a journey home that makes him a believer. Is this the man who would be king? God’s king?

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 8

A 3,000 year old story reads like it fits in the 21st century. Humanity is a sucker for government, and forever setting God aside to have government solve our problems. Oh the humanity. Join Samuel as the people speak, God agrees, and the proverbial foot is shot straight thru.

Talking with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 4-7

Judges all over again, Israel’s arch enemy the Philistines defeat them. “What now?” they ask, “Let’s get the Ark to save us.” Ugh. The Philly’s take the Ark too. Is God dead? Will Israel ever learn to know God and love God, or will they just keep thinking that the things God give us will save us? We all raid the glory of the Lord, when will we learn?

Talkin’ with God about Kings and Kingdoms

1Samuel 2:11-3:21

The family is God’s core institution for governing the world. Theocracy in the mind of God is each family raising their kids to know God. God pays no respect to any earthly government except his families. As self governed people, we develop institutions to assist the community in its goals and unity. If the institutions we run are corrupt, then down goes society. It’s on us, not God.