Saul was the first king of Israel. He looked the part. Tall, handsome, impressive, and charismatic. The problem was that it was all on the outside. He lacked one essential quality from God’s point of view. His heart was not one of obedience. Like many successful people, he could play the part but his actions did not come from a heart that was sold out to God.

In 1 Samuel 15, we find that Saul chose to do his own thing rather than obey the commands of God. God was not pleased and He had had enough of Saul’s lack of followership so He sends the prophet Samuel for a confrontation with the king. Saul did what we often do when we are in the wrong and tried to explain why his disobedience was actually a virtue. It didn’t work.

In reply, Samuel says something very significant that I need to hear often and I suspect that you do as well.

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

    as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

    and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

    he has rejected you as king.”

Saul did what we often are tempted to do. He kept the sacrifice and burnt offerings but he didn’t have a heart that wanted to truly obey God. To put it another way, Saul was great at the appearances and practices of looking religious but he didn’t truly love God, nor desire to please Him from His heart. He had what I call a negotiated relationship with God. He looked the part but he chose when and how he would respond to God by choosing what was convenient to him.

Religion is a trap. It causes you to believe that a relationship with God is about the external practices: going to church, tithing, being in a small group, saying the right things, and not saying the wrong things. Keeping certain rules about what we do and don’t do in life. But we need to hear God’s word through the prophet Samuel. Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices - the religious practices of the day, as much as in obeying the Lord? 

What God wants from us is wholehearted obedience from our hearts. That is the sign that we truly want to please Him. Anything else is not true discipleship or followership.

Father, help me to worship you by my obedience rather than by religious practices and a negotiated followership. Help me to be sold out to love you by obeying you. Amen.

The social media celebrates people who are somebody’s: whether rich, famous, good looking, successful or, for some reason, stand out from the crowd. It is easy to think that to really be somebody you have to be somebody. Ordinary doesn’t count in our world. That is largely true. But it is far from true in the Kingdom of God.

There came a time when the first king of Israel had so disappointed God with his lack of obedience that God sent His prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his son’s king. We read the account in 1 Samuel 16:4-13.

“When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?” Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.

Isn’t it interesting who God chooses to use for His purposes? Samuel never would have thought the next king would be someone from a sheep pen. He didn’t look the part and, for that matter, his training didn’t lend itself to being a king - at least in Samuel’s mind. He was looking for someone who looked the part. But God said something very significant to Samuel: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 

How often we chase after the things that will make us look good in the eyes of others. And we miss the very thing that God wants for us - hearts that love and follow Him. The first doesn’t matter much. The latter matters a lot. David didn’t look the part but that’s not what God cared about. He cared about His heart, that was one that loved and followed God. Want to be used? Focus on the right thing and God will use you.

Father, I am often seduced by the values of the world. Help me to become enraptured by the values that you care about. May my heart be in alignment with yours and let all the rest of the social nonsense drop away. Amen.

OK, you say..”my what?” That is a good question. Ebenezer is a Hebrew word that means “stone of help.” Here is the story from 1 Samuel 7.

When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Why would Samuel set up this stone on the site where God had defeated the Philistines? It was to remember, in the years to come, the blessing of God on that day. It was literally a stone of remembrance so that they didn’t forget the Lord’s goodness to them. 

How easily we forget what God has done in our lives. I have in my home office several pictures of me in an ICU bed that I occupied for thirty days years ago hovering between life and death. I was surrounded by 15 machines that were connected to my body including the machine that breathed for me. But God intervened even after the doctors had told the family on several occasions I would soon die. Those pictures are a reminder of God’s goodness to me. They are my stone of remembrance. It is also why I journal. I want to be reminded in the years to come of God’s work in my life.

Always remember to remember the Goodness of God in your life. That past goodness is the encouragement we need in today's challenges. They remind us of the power and blessings of God. Find ways in your life to remember. Find your own way to find the Ebenezer’s that will remind you of God’s grace and intervention in your life.

Father, I thank you for your faithfulness to me and the many times you have intervened in my life. Help me to remember to remember your goodness and let those remembrances fuel my faith today. Amen.

Many of us remember the account of Gideon in the book of Judges, chapters 6 and 7. This was a time when Israel was in a vulnerable position relative to the people who lived around them. This time it was the nation of the Midianites who were so oppressive and dangerous that the Israelites literally prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 

We read that “Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.”

That help arrived in the form of Gideon, who was told by an angel of God that he would lead the force to destroy the Midianites. Like you and I when we are tapped by God for an assignment, he was reluctant. But God made it clear that He was with him. So Gideon summoned the Israelites and 10,000 men showed up ready to fight. But then an interesting event occurred. God told Gideon that he had too many men and that Israel might be tempted to think that it was their strength rather than God’s that they defeated the Midianites. Twice, the Lord told Gideon to send men home and he was left with 300 men. This was an impossibly small group to go to battle. But what seems impossible to us is never impossible to God.

In the middle of the night, at Gideon’s instructions, the 300 men surrounded the camp of the Midianites. They had torches hidden inside jars and at Gideon’s signal they smashed their jars revealing the torches, blew their trumpets and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” Overwhelmed by fear and thinking that they were surrounded by huge numbers of men, the Midianites actually ran for their lives, breaking their military positions, and fought one another in their confusion. The end result was a total rout of the Midianites and victory for Israel.

The next time you think something is impossible, think of Gideon. God is not intimidated by our lack of resources. He is able to do the impossible and actually loves to do so to remind us that it is His power that matters in our lives and ministries. God can take the few, or the little, and do the impossible. In times of discouragement this is a lesson to remember.

Father, thank you that you are not limited by our meager resources. Encourage me, when life looks impossible, that you are the God of the possible. Amen.

We make far too much of the men in the Bible and far too little of the Godly women who God used to lead people and serve God. One of these is Deborah who was a prophetess and led Israel during the time of the Judges. She was a wise, godly woman and we read that the “Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.” 

She was responsible for defeating Jabin, the Canaanite King who harassed the Israelites until she defeated them with God’s help. You can read about it in Judges 4 and 5.

Then there is Ruth, who has a book named after her, who chose to stick with her mother in law Naomi after Naomi’s husband died and Ruth’s own husband had died. She was a Moabite woman and the words she spoke to her mother in law when Naomi tried to convince her to go home are famous. Here was her reply to Naomi.

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die and there I will be buried.” So they went together back to Bethlehem where Ruth was married to a man by the name of Boaz. And so this Moabite woman who chose to follow the God of Israel gave birth to a man named Obed who was the father of Jesse who was the father of David. Thus she is in the lineage of Jesus who came from David’s line.

Or I think of Hannah, who was married to a man named Elkanah, who was barren and could not conceive. Each year they would go to Shiloh to worship God and we read about it in 1 Samuel 1:9-11. “Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on 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.”

God heard the prayer of this Godly and-faith filled woman, gave her a son named Samuel who became one of the great prophets in the Old Testament. 

Scriptures are full of Godly men and women who answered the call of God and served Him well. Don’t overlook all the woman heroes of the Scriptures. They are many, if we will pay attention.

Father, thank you that you used whoever is willing to be used by you. Thank you for the many women heroes in the Scriptures. May each of them challenge my faith and obedience. Amen.

Final words are important words. At the end of his life, Joshua shared his final words to the people of Israel. It is found in Joshua 24:14-15. “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 

He starts by calling the people to fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. He pleads with them to put God first in their lives and to make Him their highest priority. All of us prioritize what is important in our lives. How we spend our time and what our highest concerns are, is indicative of those priorities. Our priorities are what drive our lives, for better or worse. 

This is why Joshua turns to a second issue that is connected with the first. He says “throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.” 

All of us serve something. In Joshua’s day, the temptation was to serve the idols and gods of the nations around them. These were practices associated with the worship of idols. They were pagan pursuits. How lucky we are, we think, that we don’t live in a pagan society like that. But wait! We also have our gods. In fact, anything that is more important to us than Jesus Christ is a rival God.

Rival gods can be as simple as a drive for success that clouds out time for God, a focus on wealth without generosity to Him, an all consuming relationship, again, that turns our focus from God. I suspect that for many, busyness becomes a God as it keeps us from Him. Rival gods are anything that takes a higher priority than our relationship with Jesus and seen that way, we all struggle to keep Jesus central in our lives. 

All of this is a matter of choices that we make. Joshua says, “choose yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living” - or, in the Addington translation, the gods and goals of our current society. But, says Joshua, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Others may do as they like. But I am going to serve the Lord, says Joshua. Remember, who we serve and what we serve is always a choice.

Father, thank you for this important reminder. Help me to keep rival gods away from my commitment to you first and foremost. Help me to say daily, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Amen.

Courage has been defined as “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous.” While we may not be faced with dangerous situations often we are daily faced with the difficult. For instance, it is difficult to be generous in a world that is selfish. It is difficult to swim against the tide of our culture in order to follow the paths of God. It is difficult to forgive others when they have hurt us, yet God requires it. It is difficult to be satisfied with what God gives when those around us seem to have more. It is difficult to trust God in those areas where we have no control such as illness or personal situations.

Life takes courage, and the Christian life takes even more courage because God calls us to a very different life than those around us. A life of obedience, followership, putting Him first, choosing righteousness over sin, and allowing Him to renovate our hearts and lives. In fact, Jesus says that to truly live, we need to die to self. That is a courageous choice.

Choosing courage is a prerequisite to following God. As Moses was transferring the leadership mantel to Joshua at the time when the Israelites were going to enter the promised land, this is the instruction he gave Joshua. 

Joshua 1:6-9. “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Three times Moses says “Be strong and courageous.” And he connects that courage with following the Law of God, following Him closely. Moses knew that Joshua and the people would be faced with all kinds of temptations as they entered the promised land. Temptations to forget God, to assimilate into the lifestyles of those around them, to follow other Gods, to live in fear of the threats around them. 

We face the same kinds of pressures to conform to the patterns of our world, to do our own thing and to downplay the life that God has called us to. It takes courage to align our lives with the teachings of God. It takes courage to be willing to look different when that is necessary. It takes courage to trust God with our circumstances rather than trying to force something ourselves. 

Meditate today on the word courage as it relates to your followership of Jesus. Where are you showing courage and where do you need more of it? Thank God for the courage he has given to you in areas where you are doing well and ask Him for the courage to do better in areas where you are not. The life of discipleship is a life of courage. We are called to courage. 

Father, I pray that you would give me the courage today to make the right choices in my life so that I follow you more closely. I know that dying to self so that I can find true life take courage. Through your Holy Spirit, give me that courageous spirit today. Amen.

Here is an interesting question. What is the central core of our lives? Think of the many details that make up your life and there are many. We have work, concerns, hobbies, families, relationships that sustain us, things we can celebrate and things that we know need God’s intervention. Areas of anxiety that dog us and numerous blessings that we can look back on, or are experiencing today.

With all the complexities of life, what is the central core? What is it that makes life…life? That makes life meaningful and integrates all of life into a story that makes sense?  Moses had something to say about that in his final instructions to the Israelites just prior to his death.

In those instructions he pleads with the people to choose to serve God rather than themselves or rival gods. After all, we all have a choice as to whether we will make God central to our lives or leave him on the periphery of our lives. The choice we always have is to choose our way or His way. 

Here is how Moses put it in Deuteronomy 30:19-20.  “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 

Blessing comes, Moses says, as we choose life which is, in fact, choosing God and loving him, listening to his voice, and holding fast to Him. That is where God’s blessing comes and then Moses drops one phrase that it is easy to miss but is at the core of this discussion. That phrase and truth is this: “For the Lord is your life.”

Think about that for a moment. The Lord is your life. He is what makes life whole and meaningful and blessed. Life without Him at the center, says Moses, is not real life. Real life is having Him at the center of who we are and how we live. He is our life.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon made this profound statement. It is found in Ecclesiastes 3:11 and is the central truth of the book: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” This is why we are restless until we find God. He has implanted in us a sense of eternity. A sense that there is more to life than the treadmill that makes life life. And that eternity He has planted in us is this: the Lord is your life. With Him at the center life makes sense and is blessed by the creator. Without him at the center we miss out on the life that God created us for. Remember today this truth. The Lord is your life. 

Father, help me remember in the busyness of life that You are the very definition of life. You came to give us life and life abundant. Help me to keep you at the center and, in the process, to experience the life that is real life. Amen.

Many of us have been or are in a small group of other believers. In my experience I have always looked forward to that weekly meeting because it is a source of great encouragement. The encouragement comes from doing life with fellow pilgrims who are seeking to follow Jesus in the craziness of life with its many challenges. And at the center of relationships with fellow believers are discussions about what God is doing in our lives, and how we walk with Him even when life is hard and hope is scarce. When life is hard we need the encouragement of others. Sometimes we need encouragement and sometimes we give it.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds us of the importance of keeping God at the center of our lives and conversations. This is what he said in chapter 6:4-9. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Conversations about God are to be central in our lives because those conversations fuel our faith and hope and our love for Him. Moses is pretty practical here. Talk about God’s counsel at home, on the road, when you wake and when you go to bed. Carry His word with you and put reminders in places where you will see them. In other words, do anything that will keep Him central in our thinking and our lives.

Think of the fellow believers who encourage you the most. My guess is that they remind you often of God’s faithfulness and goodness. They pray for you when you need it and provide counsel when you are down. I hope that each of us does the same with those around us. 

God conversations should be at the center of our lives. Reminding ourselves and others of the hope and faith we have in Jesus. We need that each day, just as we need His counsel through His word each day. Ironically, as a child, I had to memorize a verse of Scripture each week in order to get my allowance. I didn’t exactly like the practice but those verses have stuck with me all of my life and I remember them today. This week, keep Him central in your thinking and talk with fellow believers about what God is doing in your life. This practice will help us to love Him with all our heart, soul and strength.

Father, remind me often of your goodness, blessings, and counsel from your word. Help me to make conversations about you central in my life in order to be reminded often of who you are. And to remind others of the same. Amen.

One of the consistent themes of Scripture, and of Jesus in the Gospels, is that of generosity. Not only to Him but also to those among us who have needs. The book of Deuteronomy has often been called the Gospel of the Old Testament. It echoes many of the themes we find in the four gospels in the New Testament and one of those themes is that of generosity. Here are two passages that speak to this issue.

Deuteronomy 15:7-11. “If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need….Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

And then Deuteronomy 24:19-22. “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.”

These are strong words. Don’t be hardhearted or tightfisted but be openhanded and freely lend. Give generously without a grudging heart. Care for the foreigner among you along with the widow and the orphan. 

I think that this is a challenge for us in the West where we believe in rugged individualism. What I have is mine and what you have is yours and if you don’t have enough that is your issue. We have much to learn from God about what a generous life is all about. In fact, He, the Creator, became like us, a creature, in order that we could know the Creator. And then He gave his life so we could be redeemed. That is off the charts, crazy, generosity. 

We also have much to learn from other cultures where generosity is practiced daily with those in need. I am married to a Philippina and am always amazed at how generous fellow Philippinos are when there is a need. To help financially is second nature to them. The same is true in many countries in the world.

But ultimately it is a matter of our heart in following God. The God of generosity calls us to a life of generosity and reminds us to be aware of those who have needs around us. And then to be openhanded rather than Scrooges (ok, that is the TJ version of the text, but to the point).

Father, I am going to pray a bold prayer today. A scary prayer. Give me the opportunity to help someone in need even in the coming days. And when I see that opportunity help me to remember your command to be generous and give me a willing and happy heart as I practice your command. Amen.