long time

what's everybody!!!  i know that its been a long, long time and i know i have two followers now.  pretty amazing.  thanks for being faithful even when i haven't been on here.  so much as happened since i last wrote and i need to tell you about.  first i'm going to start with some scripture....a story that i have been thinking about lately.

1 samuel 15

v.1 samuel said to saul, " i am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 

v.2 this is what the Lord Almighty says: ' I will punish the amalekites for what they did to israel when they waylaid them as they came up from egypt.  

v.3now go, attack the amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.  do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"

v.4 so saul summoned the men and mustered them at telaim--two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from judah.

v.5 saul went to the city of amalek and set an ambush in the ravine.

v.6 then he said to the kenites, "go away, leave the amalekites so that i do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the israelites when they came up out of egypt."  so the kenites moved away from the amalekites.

v.7 then saul attacked the amalekites all the way from havilah to shur, to the east of egypt.

v.8 he took agag king of amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.

v.9 but saul and the army spared agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good.  these they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

v.10 then the word of the Lord came to samuel:

v.11 "i am grieved that i have made saul king,  because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions."  samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

v.12 early in the morning samuel got up and went to meet saul, but he was told, "saul has gone to carmel.  there he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to gilgal."

v.13 when samuel reached him, saul said, "the Lord bless you!  i have carried out the Lord's instructions."

v.14 but samuel said, "what then is this bleating of sheep in my ears?  what is this lowing of cattle that i hear?"

v. 15 saul answered, "the soldiers brought them from the amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally the rest."

v.16 "stop!"  samuel said to saul.  "let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night."  "tell me, " saul replied.

v.17 Samuel said, "although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of israel?  the Lord anointed you king over israel.

v.18 and he sent you on a mission, saying, 'go and completely destroy those wicked people, the amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.'

v.19 why did you not obey the Lord?  why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?

v.20 "but i did obey the Lord," saul said.  "i went on the mission the Lord assigned me.  i completely destroyed the amalekites and brought back agag their king.

v.21 the soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord you God as gilgal."

v.22 but samuel replied: "does the Lord delight in the burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

v.23 for rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance the evil of idolatry.  because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king."

you could read this everyday and God will point something new out to you.... where we are in ministry is basically waiting on the Lord to clearly tell us where to go and start and to do it.  that is what he wants.  please pray for us to be ever praying and listening to Lord and doing completely what he says.  pray that God tells us all the same thing.  

what scares me about these verses is that in his own head saul thought he was doing "good."  God did ask for sacrifices, but saul missed that we the biggest sacrifice we can give is submission in decision by decision obedience to Jesus Christ....you know.

another thing that scares me...is how fast saul celebrated and set up a statue to honor himself...i pray that that won't be me in philly.  i believe God has called me here and some amazing things are going to happen...not because of mike but because of Jesus.

yet another thing..is this...saul was asked to get rid of the amalekites...which meant getting rid of everyone of them...but he saved the king agag...which made no sense...cause the king stood for his people..he represented them...it says they killed the things that were weak and despised...what in my life do i need to get rid of...that represents something...like its easy to stop doing certain things but that doesn't get to the root of the problem...what are the kings in my life that are still representing that i need to kill?  you know what i'm saying.

just a thought...please marinate on that scripture this week....

prayer requests...

1. direction in where God wants us to be

2. continued family growth

3. volunteers

4. church partnerships/men of peace

5. money

6. that Christ will be our focal point and his name will be exalted not younglife or anyman