The Voice Of The Lord Is Speaking To Us

"The boy Samuel ministered before The Lord under Eli ... One night Eli ... was lying down in his usual place ... and Samuel was lying down in the temple of The Lord, where the ark of God was. Then The Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am." And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down. Again The Lord called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." "My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and 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 realized that The Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say, 'Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for Your servant is listening." 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (NIV)

Because he did not yet know The Lord, Samuel did not recognize the voice of The Lord. When you know The Lord, you know His voice. Jesus said My sheep know Me and know My voice. (John 10:4 & 14) When The Lord speaks to us, His voice is described as "a still small voice." (1 Kings 19:12) Multiple times throughout Deuteronomy the people were told to "hearken unto the voice of The Lord" but frequently they did not listen or obey.

Years ago, some cartoons would depict a character with a miniature devil standing on one shoulder whispering in one ear, and a miniature angel standing on the other shoulder whispering in the other ear. The cartoon character knew which was which, but frequently first listened to the devil and got in trouble before he listened to the angel. Most of us are just like that character, we hear the voice of The Lord, but we do not listen to it, or obey it.

We need to read our Bible more and listen to the voice of The Lord and obey it. We should respond as Isaiah did when he heard the voice of The Lord, "Here am I; send me." (Isaiah 6:8) The Lord is speaking to us, the question is are we listening to Him?

Don't Be Like Eli's Sons

"Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for The Lord ... Now Eli (the priest), who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among The Lord's people. If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against The Lord, who will intercede for him?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke ... Therefore The Lord, The God of Israel, declares: ... Those who honor Me I will honor, but those who despise Me will be disdained." 1 Samuel 2:12-30 (NIV)

The point here, according to John Mac Arthur, was that if God would judge when one sinned against another man, how much more would He bring judgement against those who sinned against Him. There is a price to pay for flagrant disobedience. F J Dake states "Christ is the One who can mediate man's cause with God and He is the covering for the sins of all men should they avail themselves of such services of reconciliation." (Matthew 26:28)

Willful disregard for and rejection of The Lord Jesus, The Christ, will result in eternal damnation. Don't be like Eli's sons. When you mess up, "fess up", and get right with God. You cannot be saved from the penalty of sin without accepting the covering of the blood of Jesus.
Do not invite the wrath of God on your life.

Be Careful What You Ask God For

"... 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 asked of Him. So now I give him to The Lord." 1 Samuel 1:1-28 (NIV)

For years, Hannah had been unable to have children so she prayed to God for a child. Eli, the priest, had observed her praying in the temple and thought that she was drunk. After hearing her story he prayed for her, that she would get what she asked for. Hannah prayed for what she wanted. She made God a promise. God blessed her with what she asked for. She kept her promise to God and gave the child back to God. She was blessed to have six more children.

Be very careful what you ask God for, you just may get exactly that, and you may receive more than you asked for. Also, when you make God a promise, keep it. It is not good to disappoint God. All to often after God blesses us, we forget about the promises that we made to Him when we were asking for His help. Hannah remembered and kept her promise to God and she was blessed even more afterwards.

There Is A Time For Everything

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

"What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 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. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment--wickedness was there, in the place of justice--wickedness was there.

"I thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed." Ecclesiastes 3:1-17 (NIV)

Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, said that God has fixed a time or a season for everything. Every event or activity on earth is part of God's permissive will and occurs at some fixed point in time, including an appointed time for God's judgement of all mankind. Every thing will occur in its time, not when we want it to occur, but in God's time. We should pray for patience and wait upon The Lord.

For The Love Of Money

"But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:8-10 (NIV)

There is nothing wrong with money, or having lots of it. The problem is the love of money, the things that people do in pursuit of money, and the things that people do with it when they have excessive amounts of it. Money is a tool to be used for the glory of God. It is the means to an end, and not the end itself. It is not to be horded, but the shared with the less fortunate or used to help them after we take care of our basic needs and the needs of our family.

Some of us will never have a large sum of money because The Good Lord knows that we would not know how to handle it. Most of us have not been good stewards over the few things that God has put us in charge over. We must first learn to be faithful over what we have before we can expect God to give us more. As Jesus taught us in the parable of the talents, "His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Matthew 25:21

Don't let the love of money ruin your life. Pray for God's help, guidance and direction in all of your pursuits, including the pursuit of money. And pray that you will be a good steward over what He has given you, and over what He will give you in the future.

The Worst Of The Sinners

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." 1 Timothy 1:12-16 (NIV)

Paul thought that he was the worst of the sinners. Given our sinful thoughts, in addition to our sinful acts, most of us could compete with Paul for that title. "The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked ..." Proverbs 15:26 I cannot even begin to count the number of sinful thoughts that I have each day, and I am sure that I am not alone.

God is blessing us abundantly in spite of our sinful nature. We are living examples and proof
of the fact that Christians are not blessed because we are perfect or sinless. It is because of our faith in Him that He uses us to be living examples of His Word in an effort to save the lost souls. None of us is so great a sinner that God cannot use us, we just have to believe and offer ourselves for His service. Hopefully, we can all repeat Paul's words here and know that they apply to our lives as well.

Don"t Welcome Everyone Into Your Home

"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love. Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the Antichrist ... Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work." 2 John 1:6-11 (NIV)

In the past itinerant preachers and teachers would survive based upon the hospitality of the believers. Here John is warning them and us not to help, or welcome into our homes, those who would teach against Christ. This is not to speak against helping the unsaved non-Christians, or against having them into you home. We should not help or associate those who teach an anti-Christian doctrine. It is okay to have discussions with people who have different opinions or beliefs, but we should avoid those that actively teach against The Word of God.

How can two walk together unless they agree? (Amos 3:3) Loving your enemy does not mean following his teachings. We should read and study the Bible for ourselves (2 Timothy 2:15) so that we recognize false teaching when we hear it.