I SAMUEL

Well, once again God blessed with such a good day yesterday and what a wonderful missions conference.  If you are in the area, you certainly will want to be there tonight at 7:00pm.  It is great.  God has spoken to our hearts about a world in need of the Gospel.  If you don't care about a lost world, then there would be no need to come out.  It challenges us! I'm in I Samuel today, and I have time only to write a little, so here goes: 1) WILL WORSHIP- So many times, we want to worship God on our terms... serve Him on our terms... sacrifice what we pick out.... do what we determine God would like.  All of this is a form of "will worship".  Saul knew this in I Samuel 13:35.  It was the start of his demise.  Here is what it says:  "And Saul built an altar unto the LORD: the same was the first altar that he built unto the LORD."  Now he is the first king who builds an altar, but will not be the last.  In each case however, God is not pleased at all.  He built the altar and asked God advice, but God did not answer him.  You see God is not pleased when our worship comes from our own desires.  It reminds me of trying to "drum up" spirituality in a service.  You come in tune, you don't let the music tune you up.  We do not manufacture worship.  We can only drum up emotion, but that is not worship.  Worship is living God's way and doing things God's Way.  We worship God not in an hour, but each hour of each and every day!  Don't be like Saul and worship and serve God on your terms.... let Him be in control of your life. 2) SAME HOUSE, TWO DIFFERENT MEN- In I Samuel 25:3,4, we see illustrated how two people can grow up in the same house, same family, same church, same relatives, and yet turn out so very different.  It is not the environment alone that makes the difference, because it can be the very same and people chose to go in different directions.  Notice these verses: "Now the name of the man was Nabal;..... the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.  (4) And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did sheer his sheep."  Nabal was of the house of Caleb... and so was David!  Each was from the tribe of Judah of which Caleb was too!  Relatives!  Yet, they were so different.  It all comes down to the heart.  How is your heart?  Do you have a heart for God?  I hope so today.  May God bless you.  Pastor Mike Mutchler