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MAY 13 "DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH?"

    This is amazing….or maybe not so amazing. These men are making critical decisions about Jesus (their Savior) based on wrong assumptions and un-researched heresy. Had they cared to do their research, had they cared to “seek the truth” they would have found out that Jesus was not from Galilee, he was actually from Bethlehem. Verse 41, “Still others asked, “how can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem”. Are you kidding me?!!! Jesus is of the line of David, Jesus is from Bethlehem, He is everything they’re looking for but they are making serious judgments against Jesus based off of information they have heard, but have not researched for themselves! Jesus is just standing there listening to these men, you think He would have cried out, “hey, I am from the line of David and I wasn't born in Galilee, I was just raised there, I’m from Bethlehem!” Jesus messed up here, had He simply spok...
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MAY 12 "DO YOU HAVE AN ENTITLEMENT MINDSET?"

         I have to admit, I read this story about Saul and think to myself, "I would have done the same thing". I don't know what else to say, maybe you're different. Let's read Saul's excuse,   When I saw that the men were scattering and that you did not come at the set time and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, "now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord's favor. so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offerings"    I say, "Amen brother".    # 1 Samuel is late, # 2 the men are scattering # 3 the Philistines are assembling...there's a lot of pressure mounting here and the only thing that is stopping them is not being able to do the sacrifice and move on to attack...and where is Samuel? He made what we call today, "an executive decision". So what is the deal here?  The only thing I can derive from this is that God makes no exception "to the rules...
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MAY 11 "HE (JESUS) DROVE THEM AWAY"

         Many of us remember Jesus' repelling words in  John 6:66  (notice the number) that drove the crowds away, "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood...and from that point many turned away and followed him no more".  We remember that, but what we don't realize is before He said that he pre-empted it all with the text we read today. In our text today, Jesus is laying down some facts before He is about to "seemingly" drive the crowd away. Jesus says (verse 26) " you're not here for me, you're just here for a free hand out ,  you're here for the food, the hand out ". (paraphrased by me of course).  Then he goes on to say, "whoever God draws to me I WILL NEVER drive away (verse 37) but then he turns around and drives this crowd away after just saying he would not. Actually he says specifically "    All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.   For I ha...
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MAY 10 "SUFFERING WITH A FOOL"

We all do our best to live for God, live peaceful lives and experience Joy;  however, often infiltrating that is countless hours of drama on the phone or in person or at the coffee shop listening to the tales and drama of those that simply don't want to do right. And let me tell you, it's drama! "The cops were at our house last night, my son got put on probation, we had our car repo'd, we can't pay our rent, my 3rd grader cussed at his teacher and my husband is drinking again..." everything is doom & gloom, everything is dire circumstances, everything is negative and we leave that coffee shop, hang up that phone feeling quite drained and quite depressed ourselves. As a Christian we feel that it is our duty to continue to be friends with this person. As a Christian we feel it is our duty to be there for them every time they want to call and puke all their drama on us. As a Christian we feel it is our duty to meet with them every time they want to spew their...
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MAY 9 "DAGON STUPID"

   You would think that in the first instance where they put the Ark of God in the house of Dagon and twice found the "Supposed" god Dagon, fallen on his face and broken up that they would have realized that their god was nothing more than an idol, but the God of Israel was the true and the living God, but these people are Dagon stupid! They can't put 1+1 together to equal 2. Or maybe they're not stupid and they just don't care. Quite often we give people the benefit of thinking "they care" about the truth, about what's wrong and what's right and if we could only prove to them, somehow show them then they would believe, repent and come to church with you and be forever more, your new Christian BFFL. In our text..."is all the evidence"; we would ever pray or want for our friends or relatives to see, but yet in our text we do not read about one person converting over to the God of Israel. All we read about is the people not wanting Him ar...
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MAY 8 "RISING WHILE OTHERS FALL"

    "And Samuel, the boy grew in stature and favor, with both God and Man".  I have always been a big fan of this scripture and have prayed this over my life and my son's life, very often. The truth is we don't all have to be hated because we are Christians.  Yes, we will always have our enemies, but God's scripture teaches that while we will have enemies, we can also have favor with men and that favor comes from God as we are rightly related to Him .  What is interesting is that this scripture comes in the midst of a horrific description of Eli's sons, sleeping with women at the Temple. These boys, Hophni and Phineas as some bad, bad boys. To make matters worse, they are the Pastor's sons, so to speak. They are Eli's sons, the Priest, the Priest that Samuel is under. Samuel has been growing up under Eli, with his sons, his whole life. It would have been so easy for Samuel to think, "well if this is how Eli's sons behave, then it must be okay,...
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MAY 7 "VICTORY AROUND THE CORNER"

   Such a valuable lesson, I think we can all learn from today's reading. We know that Hannah had prayed for children many times before. We know that this has been a long standing issue with her. It's been a thorn in her side for many years and no doubt she has cried and prayed about this before. But today, for one reason or another is the day that God is going to answer her cry and prayer. Why not last year? Why not last month? We don't know, but the prayer that seems as if it is being "ignored"; on this day, is not ignored. On this day, God answers her prayer and her life will never be the same! I wonder how many of us were on the verge of getting that prayer answered and then we  gave up. We give up, never to see come to fruition what we had prayed for, forever wondering why God never answered our prayer, our cry, our need, only to find out, perhaps in eternity, that had we prevailed, persisted just a little longer, victory could have been ours.  What a testi...
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