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Saul, a leader of squandered potential
Title: Saul, a leader of squandered potential Aim: To follow God’s guidance in choosing leaders. Scripture: 1 Samuel 9:1–2; 10:17–26 The worsening situation in Israel, 1 Samuel 9:1–2 In Samuel’s old age, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Yet, unlike their father, who was a great prophet and leader, these men proved to be greedy (1 Sam. 8:1–3). The sons not only accepted bribes but also perverted justice. In response, the leaders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. They demanded that he give them a king like all the other nations had (vv. 4-5). Samuel was upset by the request of the…
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Paul’s Damascus Road Experience and Its Consequences
The Lord’s mission of reaching the lost through Paul (Saul) began with his conversion from Christian-hater to devout disciple. The account, which forms a significant part of the apostle’s life and legacy, is described in three places in Acts (9:1–19; 22:2–21; 26:9–18). The basic narrative is the same in each case, but there are slight differences in the details in each telling of the account. After persecuting the believers in Jerusalem, Saul decided to go after those Christians who had fled the city, to bring them back to face trial before the Sanhedrin and possible execution (9:1–2; 22:4–5; 26:9–11). On the road near Damascus (9:3), about noon one day…
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Confessions of a Control Freak
Recently, I got to be the crazy lady at the car wash. Ever wonder what happens if you go through an automated car wash without putting your car in neutral first? You go flying through that baby like a bat out of the netherworld. I kept thinking, "Hmmm, I don't think I've ever gone through a car wash this fast before" and, "Gee, I sure am catching up to that other car quickly." The attendants turned off the car wash and had me pull my car back out and try again—in neutral. I gave the attendants their adrenalin rush for the day. Me? I got so tickled about the whole…
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The Grace Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life A Majority of One Among a Minority of the Many Some men are a wilderness in themselves. Full of anger and hatred, they lash out at others like a fire-breathing dragon, setting the entire landscape aflame. Saul of Tarsus was one such man… Apparently a small man based on his comments about himself, he made up for his size with a brilliant mind. Saul grew up in a devout Jewish family among the Gentiles in Tarsus, then part of Syria in the Roman Empire (now modern day Turkey). It appears that his growing…
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The Profitable Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life What would it be like to be left out of your own family? To be unvalued and know it because you are not invited to major family events. You are sent on menial errands to help other family members who then tell you to “shut up” and not make any problems. How painful can it get? Do you think you could grow to be a leader coming out of that kind of rejection? Of course you can, but what kind of a leader would you be? Man’s Look, God’s Look It…
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Bewitched: A Bible Story for Halloween
As the world focuses on goblins, witches, death, and cemeteries, we find in the Word a lesson for the season (borrowed from a previous post)…. Double, double, Saul in trouble/Flew to Endor on the double. The year was about 1007 BC. When our story in 1 Samuel 28 opens, the prophet Samuel has died and King Saul has removed all the fortunetellers and mediums from the land—one of his few obedient acts. When his enemies, the Philistines, assembled at Shunem in the north part of Palestine, King Saul cobbled together an army. As he camped with his troops at nearby Gilboa, the size of the Philistine force left him quaking. By all…
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God’s Thoughts and Ways – Part V (King Saul)
What is God’s standard for obedience? If God asks us to do 100 things and we do 99 of them flawlessly, is it acceptable to omit the last one? Is God going to understand and round up? Can your obedience to God be close enough like with horseshoes, hand grenades, and H-bombs (i.e., thermonuclear weapons)? What if you attend Sunday School, Worship Service, read your Bible daily, pray often and fast some, etc. Surely, God understands when you talk about others, overeat, “borrow things from work”, cheat a little on taxes, or speed a little on the road! Certainly, your service to Him offsets your small disobedience. Right? Let…
