Ask God questions -1 Samuel 23

A lot of the teachings nowadays I hear tend to tell us to learn the Godly principles and then make decisions by ourselves.But in this chapter David's example is that he enquired God of every move he had to make. He asked God, in detail, and then God answered him in detail. He asked a lot of questions, like,"Shall I go and attack these phillistines?" he wasn't sure if he's heard right so he asked again and God answered him again; He asked,"...Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard?" ..."Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?"...The reason that David could play hide and seak with Saul without being found and killed was because he asked God specifically about everything. And God was quite happy to answer his questions. It would be a disaster if he missed asking God and just made his own decisions based on his own judgements.I think God would still like us to ask Him questions. Sometimes we might not be happy with the answers we get, like Daivd might not be happy why he had to be in the wilderness for so long. Sometimes we might not understand why God wants us to do certain things. But if we obey and follow the directions and orders, it will turn out much better than if we just go ahead and try to change the situations by ourselves.

Giving -1 Samuel 25

I don't know if anyone has used 1Sam25 as a tithing message...anyway I think it pretty cool to be related with giving in church.Nabal was rich but refused to give, and he caused God's anger; Abigail was generous in giving, and her attitute and perspective toward God's people was right. So she found favor and blessing with God.Same family, but different response. We can choose to be grumpy and stingy like Nabal, or we can choose to be cheerful and generous like Abbie.

Hosea

I can't stand reading Hosea one chapter a day, it's like watching an action movie, but only watch 10 minutes for a day...I just have to get to the end of the book to see that tention relieved and everyone's happy like by the end of the movie.It's also like watching a child pulling up a full on tantrum but daddy is also determined that he's gonna win this time.....Jacob wrestling the whole night with the angel and the angel couldn't win so in the end Jacob had to be touched so he couldn't fight any more but to lean....the prodigal son is determined that he wants to get a life of his own, he wants to have all the fun that he could have until all is gone and there's no more fun he could possible have any more but to live with the smelly pigs....But in the end dad is dad. He lost his temper for a while, he got angry, he spanked, he warned, he yelled, ...but when the child said sorry, he cried and hugged.

Enquiring from supernatural power - 1 Samuel 28

1Sam28Saul reminds me of so many people in the world today, who are desperately seeking supernatural spiritual guidance but have nowhere to go to to get proper personal detailed spiritual guidance, so the only solution is to turn to the psychics.Open up any magazines or newspapers and you'd be able to find loads of ads for psychics, and if you ring them you'd be able to get infomation that's just for you.I'm wondering if we're missing something big here today as Christians. In Samuel's time, people would be able to turn to prophets to ask God questions. I'm sure lots of Christians are like David, capable of asking God for themselves. But what about non Christians(and Christians of course)? There's massive spiritual hunger everywhere. People want to know things about themselves. Prophetic people should be more capable than psychics in giving people spiritual infomation and guidance. Remember Moses' snake ate all the other snakes. Moses's miracles beat all the other magics.The reason that the psychic is going rampant in the world today is because of the missing of prophets that're accessble to normal people. People should be able to ring a prophet and find out infomation and guidance about themselves as easy as they can find a psychic. Yes, we have church for people to turn to. But most of the time people are more interested in specific infomation about themselves rather than general knowledge about God.There are so many ways for people to find out information from the wrong spirits, and why can't they find these things out from the right spirit?

Do the right things- 1 Samuel 30

The way David dealt with Saul speaks to me to do the right things for the moment, and give all the frustrations to God. God is in control of all situations. If we're trying to change the situations and sort things out by ourselves we'll live a very frustrated life; but if we just concentrate on each moment, and do the right things that're in our hands, then God will sort things out for us and settle things in His time, by His power.All things work for good.... all things might not look good or feel good at their moment, but in the whole picture, they all work for good.

Jephthah's Vow -Judges 11

Jephathah made a vow to God, and as a result he had to sacrifice his only daughter as a burning sacrifice. On the other hand, I was wondering, if Jephthah didn't make that vow, would he still succeed? In chapter 12, he slew down 42,000 of Ephraim. If we make a movie out of his life, and picture it vividly, that's quite a horror scene, wouldn't it?Put a modern church in that time, I think everyone would be flat out running programms of mercy, compassion, orphanage,rehab, conselling,etc. Or, put a scene like that in our current society, are we just too busy jump into the humanity side of mercy work and forget that God is actually behind the scene and He has something to tell us?When Jephthah made the vow, didn't God know what He want? Jephthah might not know what he was talking about, but was it just an accident that his daughter come out to meet him? I doubt it. There were thousands of other people that He could choose, but to make the sacrifice acceptable and worthy, I think He had the person in mind who He wanted to be sacrificed. And just for this reason, Jephthah knew that God had made the choice, not himself, not by chance, that Jephthah couldn't get out of the vow.Luke 16:8-9 has always been my favourite verse concerning giving:"And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings."In other words, all the money we make, things we treasure, when we die, we can't take any of them with us. They belong to this world. But if we're shrewd, we can actually find ways to take them away with us, to store them or invest them into a place that will last eternally. For the moment it looks gone, but when you have the mindset of an invester, you know you've spent and kept your treasure in the best place that will bring you the maximum return.Maybe for that reason God always want the best of us as the sacrifice, not the leftovers. Because when we die, and leave this world, we don't want to just take the leftovers with us into eternity, we want to keep our best!Jephthah was a sad man in the Bible, but I think when he gets to heaven, his perceptive might change. The emotion on earth didn't last forever, but the emotion in heaven will last forever.

I will harden Pharaoh's heart - Exodus 11

Exodus 11:9 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt." 10Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.Pharaoh's not the problem. The Lord hardened his heart. The Lord made it impossible for any human effort to overcome.If the Lord didn't harden his heart, then Pharaoh would have let them go much earlier, and exodus wouldn't have become such a famous scene in history.It's interesting to see that after frustrations and human limits, there're usually great miracles. Like in Judges 13:2"...Manoah's wife was barren and had borne no children..." It's unnatural for Israelites not to have children. But when there was an obstacle, a miracle appeared: Samson was born with supernatural power, and he became the next judge. Then Abraham and Sarah, Hannah,Elizebeth...This speaks to me that unusual difficulties and obstacles are often signs of unusual miracles and great wonders.God is often behind the difficulties to get people's attention for Himself to intervene.

Lost and found -Philemon

Philemon 15 "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good - no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as dear brother."Sometimes we wonder why bad things happen to good people. But treasure lost on earth could become treasure found in heaven with value of eternity.