Month: April 2025

And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.” 1 Samuel 12:20 I’ve met those who fear that they’ve done things so terrible that God cannot forgive them. Even in my…
Read more

And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking for yourselves a king. 1 Samuel 12:17 As a child, I understood that I had two sets of parents. On the one hand, my first set of parents were kind and loving.…
Read more

Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes. 1 Samuel 12:16 My wife boasts an impressive collection of heart-shaped rocks, which are on display in our yard and in our home. Wherever we go, she seems to find them. You know who never finds heart-shaped rocks?…
Read more

If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD . . . it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will…
Read more

Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.” 1 Samuel 11:14 Every February means the beginning of a months-long, worldwide competition cycle for those of us at our gym. I placed high enough in February that I graduated to the second step this month, and if…
Read more

Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has worked salvation in Israel.” 1 Samuel 11:12-13 Since my most obvious…
Read more

Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me. 1 Samuel 9:16…
Read more

There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish . . . And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. 1 Samuel 9:1-2…
Read more

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations . . .” 1 Samuel 8:19-20 Before I went off to kindergarten, my parents were the dominant voice speaking into my life. With a…
Read more

So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. 1 Samuel 8:10 A couple of years ago, my wife and I bought a property with the intention of building on it. We had, in our mind, a budget that we thought we could afford.…
Read more