Devotion 2.52/104: 1 Samuel 3:10: Listening

Presented to River Street Cafe, 16 June 2017

Read 1 Samuel 3:2-10:

One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Samuel, it doesn't seem, was used to listening to God. He didn't recognize His voice when God was calling him. Eventually someone else had to tell him it was the Lord speaking to him and what to say.

Samuel was asleep, Samuel was young, Samuel was away from his parents' home. There was lots going on in his life being raised by a foster-type family with two older foster-type brothers who were not all that great.

It was in this context that the Lord called to Samuel, like He may call to each and anyone of us. But, because of all this or for some completely different reason, Samuel did not recognize the Lord.

My question for us today is what are some of the things in our life that get in the way of us hearing from the Lord?

My encouragement for us today is this: even in the midst of everything, the Lord did not give up calling Samuel. He will not give up calling us; so as there is something that He is trying to talk to us about, next time you hear His prompting let us say, 'yes Lord your servant is listening'

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1 Samuel 17:46-47:The Battle belongs to the Lord

Presented to The Salvation Army: Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on July 6, 2008; Swift Current Corps on May 2, 2010; Warehouse Mission Corps, Toronto on July 17, 2016; 614 Warehouse Regent Park, Toronto, June 11, 2017. By Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the 2016-17 Toronto version; to view the earlier Saskatchewan versions, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/07/1-samuel-1746-47-battle-belongs-to-lord.html

So I played a bit of sports growing up.  I won a few soccer trophies. I tried baseball – my team won a trophy once for winning the season. I tried basketball too. Now given my great height and size in general (5’7”), one would think that by rights I really shouldn’t be any good at basketball. But you know what? … I’m not. I tried out however for the grade six team…and I was one of ONLY two kids in my whole class -  NOT to make the team.

One day when I was in university, we went down to the park to play some basketball. Now my friends – they were really good at basketball. Some of them actually made the teams growing up.  Because they were all good sports and had a certain degree of patience, they would actually take the time to explain to me that hip checks, slide checks and nose tweaking were not acceptable defensive manoeuvres. Who knew?

After most of guys had gone home, I was left with a few of the more serious players and they decided to have a bit of a competition to see who was the best shot. How this would work was that one player would try to pick a tricky shot and if he could make it, all the rest of us would have to make it too – or we would be knocked out of the competition. So they would be doing these reverse lay-ups, shots from the three-point line and the like and due to the grace of God, I was actually able to keep up but then came my turn…

So for my turn - I clarified that I could do any shot that I wanted – I clarified that if I made the shot that they would have to do exactly the same thing – so I would make up the most elaborate shooting routine that I could think of: I would do things like roll on the ground eight times, while singing a children’s song and then throw the ball with my back to the net. Or at one point I think I bounced the ball in off another player after tripping and falling over myself. And – guess what - by the grace of God, the ball actually found the net; so here were all these too serious, too skilled players trying to concentrate on these shots while laughing and not being able to concentrate at all and - at the end of the competition - I was indeed the last man standing. /// It was weird but in life there are times when we can’t really rely on our own skills and abilities to carry us through. After all is said and done we must confess that the battle is not to the strong and the race is not to the swift (Eccl. 9:11). The battle -as 17:47 says- the battle belongs to the Lord.

Now we all know the story of David and Goliath that we read about today (1 Samuel 17), about how a young inexperienced soldier toppled a professional fighter and we know that the battle belongs to the Lord but instead of this – the fact that the battle belongs to the Lord - we often concentrate, when retelling this story, on how a person with just a sling can topple a well-armed soldier.

While it is true that Goliath is painted as a giant of a man, somewhere between 6’9” and 9’9” tall (depending on your translation: MT or LXX, 1 Samuel 17:4) and it is true that he is portrayed as having the most advanced weaponry of his day and age. Remember that the Israelites did not have any iron technology at all (1 Samuel 13:19). Remember that the Philistines forbade them from defending themselves– and remember that after they disarmed them then they attacked them - much like the USA in the second Iraq war or today with some countries and nuclear technology where they are doing their best to make sure that they are the only ones who will use these weapons. Here in our text today, Goliath has his century’s version of the depleted uranium bombs NATO dropped on Yugoslavia: Goliath has an iron spearhead that ways about 600 sheckles of iron (17:7). He is a formidable foe with superior technology…nonetheless the battle belongs to the Lord.

That being said, sometimes in playing up Goliath we play down David a little too much  – remember that David is already referred to as a warrior in 1 Samuel 16:18 and, as a shepherd, he has a lot of experience with his weapon of choice – the sling. And you’ll note also that his weapon of choice is a real weapon that real soldiers really did use in battle. They could fire a rock from a sling at over 100 km/hr. and an expert could be deadly accurate. IT WAS LIKE A GUN SHOT (2 Ki 3:25, 1 Chr 12:2, 2 Chr 26:14): Judges 20:16 says that some men who were left-handed could even sling a stone at a hair at a distance and not miss. This is not a child’s toy; it is a pretty powerful weapon that David chooses to bring into the battle.

David is not just a child; he is a pretty powerful tool that the Lord chooses to bring into battle. So then part of the miracle of the Lord’s victory in this battle here is NOT the fact that David is good with a sling but part of the miracle could be that the Lord apparently conceals this sling from Goliath’s sight until the contest begins (notice that in his taunts of 16:43 there is no mention of the sling – only of the David’s rod) so it appears then that Goliath and his shield-bearer – even with their superior superpower class technology - are ill-prepared to face their opponent and why? … Why? Because the battle belongs to the Lord. Goliath and David’s speeches make that quite clear (17:43-47). This isn’t a contest of two men who serve different gods; this is a contest of two gods (one real and one imagined), who have chosen as their weapons/armour different men. This is a significant difference (repeat). The battle belongs to the Lord.

IT ALWAYS REMINDS ME OF THIS CLIP FROM INDIANA JONES. 

THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD.

In our own lives, this is true too and I think that we too often forget that indeed the battles we have before us actually do belong to the Lord as well. I have been involved with a couple of different AA (alcoholics anonymous) groups in my time.

You should hear some of the testimonies in these different AA / NA groups. Steps 1-3 of AA’s 12 step programme confess that we are powerless over our foe, that only a power greater then ourselves can restore us, and that we need to turn our will and our lives over to God. This is true. When they forget that in AA it is not pleasant. When we forget that in our life it is not pleasant but when we remember it…when we remember it, all of a sudden the seemingly insurmountable can be surmounted because really life’s battles do belong to the Lord. They are not ours to fight.

What about us here? What do we do when we are faced with life’s conflicts? King Saul set up monuments to what he saw as his own accomplishments. Are we any better than Saul? Do we set up monuments for ourselves by taking credit for what God does through us? Do we set up monuments to ourselves in our minds by thinking that we are the reason that we won this or that we got that or that this worked out okay for us? Do we think that we have anything to do with the price of tea in China or the price of groceries or anything else here or do we remember that the battle belongs to the Lord?

When we are faced with life’s battles, do we just strap on the amour that society offers us - our education and experience - like the amour that Saul offered David and try to fight on our own strength? When we are faced with life’s battles, when we are deciding what to tell a friend, what to do with our cheques, what jobs to take; when we are faced with the battle of deciding what to do with the time and money we have been entrusted with– do we ask God? (really)  Do we pray? Do we read the Bible when we are faced with challenges (like this one from Goliath)? Do we, like David, realise that the battle belongs to the Lord. Or, instead do we try to face life’s challenges purely on our own strength (cf. 1 Samuel 15)? God has given us our experiences, and our education and they are indeed as formidable as a stone in David’s sling but only if we remember that it is the Lord’s battle. We need to seek Him because, indeed, life’s battles do belong to the Lord.

In our text today that is made very clear in verses 46 and 47. David says to his foe, “This day the LORD will hand you over to me…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

It is not by the sword or the spear that the Lord saves. This is the same in our world. We can have an education that is the equivalent of the king’s armour. If we don’t use it for God it really is useless.  We can have as much money as a superpower spends on weapons. It means nothing if we don’t submit to the Lord.

So I know that life sends us many struggles. Everyday, some are facing a new Goliath. I know many people who are struggling with addiction. I know many friends who are struggling with serious health and family concerns. I know that there are those here that have real decisions to make about their home, their future, their children and their life.

As this is true, as this is all true, I invite you; I implore you to remember that the battle belongs to the Lord. So then let us load up our slings with the stones of effort, education, experience, talent, and know how but let’s do so in faith. Remember, no matter how difficult life’s challenges are; no matter how big are the Goliaths in front of us; no matter what seemingly insurmountable difficulty we are facing today – as we turn to Him, as we turn to our Lord, through prayer and Bible study – as we turn to Him, He will be successful for indeed the battle belongs to the Lord.

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[1] Ronald F. Youngblood. The Expositor's Bible Commentary.  Pradis CD-ROM:1 and 2 Samuel. The death of Goliath (17:1-58), Book Version: 4.0.2: The purpose of such contests was "to obviate the necessity of a general engagement of troops which would spill more blood than necessary to resolve the dispute" (Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., "A Hittite Analogue to the David and Goliath Contest of Champions?" CBQ 30 [1968]: 220). Whether this kind of radical limitation on warfare is ever sincerely accepted by either side remains in itself a matter of dispute (for a nuanced treatment of the issue, cf. George I. Mavrodes, "David, Goliath, and Limited War," Reformed Journal 33, 8 [1983]: 6-8). It is clear, however, that contests of champions (to be carefully distinguished from duels, which are individual combats not representing larger groups) such as that between David and Goliath or between Menelaus and Paris (Homer Iliad bk. 3) were not uncommon in ancient times (for additional examples, see Hoffner, "A Hittite Analogue," pp. 220-25).

2 Ibid.: By any standard of measure, the Philistine champion was a giant of a man (v.4). Some LXX MSS give his height as "four cubits and a span" (so also 1QSama; Jos. Antiq. VI, 171 [ix. 1]), others "five cubits and a span." The MT reads "six cubits and a span" (thus NIV mg.), making him "over nine feet tall." Other comparable heights in the OT are those of "an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet tall" (1 Chronicles 11:23) and Og king of Bashan, whose size is not specified but whose bed/sarcophagus was "more than thirteen feet long" (Deut 3:11). The MT account of Goliath's height is paralleled in modern times by reports concerning Robert Pershing Wadlow, who was eight feet eleven inches tall at the time of his death on July 15, 1940, at the age of twenty-two (Insight [18, 1985]: 51).

3 There is much debate as to whether chapters 16 and 17 are placed chronologically in order or even if they both originate from the same source or were both originally about the same people for that matter.

4 This may have contributed as well to David’s great speed in battle as he was not as encumbered with defensive amour as was Goliath. David was the light infantry as it were.

5 AA 12 Steps: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org

6 ^{http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com}

Luke 9 (Ro 1, Jn 3:16) and the Miracle of Salvation

Presented to The Church in the Village at Shepherd Village

Scarborough, ON, June 2017, by Captain Michael Ramsay

To view a 2019 version presented to Grace Point Ministries, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/04/luke-9-and-miracle-of-salvation.html

  

Hello, I am Captain Michael Ramsay. My wife and I have 3 daughters: two are in high school and one is in kindergarten. We are blessed to be Salvation Army Officers - I am from Victoria originally and we have served in BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and we are currently serving in Regent Park. We have seen many of God’s blessings in all of those settings. Today I want to ask us a question even before I delve into our text: Do miracles still happen? Let me attempt to answer this with a story.

There was a fellow who decided to go parachuting with his friend. As neither of them had ever been parachuting before they needed to be trained. They spent the day at the airport studying wind trajectories, physics, the speed of acceleration of a free falling object, as well as what to do if your parachute fails to open. The one friend did not understand it at all and even when they practiced with a mock parachute, he didn’t get it. He couldn’t even get the mock parachute to work. He didn’t get it.

Then they went to the plane. Flipping a coin to see who would go first, the friend lost and was supposed to jump first. Discovering, however, at about 850 ft in the air that he was afraid of heights, he convinced his companion to jump first.

They were jumping from 3000 ft. As this was their first jump, cords were tied to their parachutes so that they would open automatically upon exiting the plane because you never know if someone new will be able to pull the cord to release the parachute or not. The companion climbed out on the wing (as he was supposed to) jumped, counted to five (as they practiced), looked up saw that the parachute had opened beautifully and enjoyed one of the most peaceful experiences of his life noticing the miracles of God’s creation while drifting to the ground on this perfectly windless day.

The friend, emboldened, does the same: climbs onto the wing, jumps, counts and looks to see the parachute; he reaches to grab the steering toggles on his parachute…they aren’t there. His parachute isn’t there (most of it anyway). It isn’t working. He has to take it off his back and pull the emergency chute all the while following faster and faster towards the ground. As he pulls the cord, he prays: “Lord, please save me.” He pulls the cord, looks, and the emergency chute didn’t open properly either. It isn’t catching any wind. It isn’t slowing him down. He falls beneath the trees towards the power lines and highway below.

It is at this time that the Lord’s hand reaches out and actually lifts the parachutist up in the air, opens his parachute and gently sets him on the ground without a scratch. This is a true story; I am that parachutist. Miracles do happen.

Today we are going to read about the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 as recorded in Luke 9:10-20 (NIV):

10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

In our Scripture today, I don’t think it is an accident that God and Luke put the story of Peter’s confession of faith directly after the miraculous feeding of the 5000. Luke leaves us to draw the natural conclusion from this miracle that indeed Jesus is the Christ and that God is a God of miracles.

Last week I returned from Ottawa where I was serving with The Salvation Army’s flood relief efforts. It was a great experience to be able to help people in their time of need. There were many stories we heard and experienced in Ottawa.

Today, I want to share a story from another deployment: the 2008 hurricane relief effort in Texas that I was blessed to be a part of. All of the power was off when we were there – there were no open restaurants, no working stoves, no fridges -  in the area. We had around 30 food trucks from which we helped serve 75 000 hot meals every day; and many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all.

I heard more than one account of a contemporary miracle paralleling that of the fish and the loaves. Our canteens (food trucks) were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of their food before they came in for the night. One canteen had some food left. It was getting late so they were seeking someone to give their last Cambro (container) of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them their food. They were really appreciative.

As they were feeding these men, a number of school buses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done, they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them today). Someone picked up the container from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. Providentially, there was a Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day. He began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now.

In our Scripture today, I don’t think it is an accident that God and Luke put the story of Peter’s confession of faith directly after the feeding of the 5000. Luke leaves us to draw the natural conclusion that God is a God of miracles and Jesus is the Christ. He performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 two thousand years ago and he performed the miracle of the feeding of the 800 nine years ago. He is still performing miracles today and in doing so, He is providing us opportunities to know and to help others know Jesus as Christ just like Peter, and just like the Red Cross worker.

In the Salvation Army we often serve God through feeding people in need; our challenge when doing this is to keep our eyes open to the miracles of God and to be willing to help others come to know Jesus’ love through them.

This week my mind has been flooded with memories of  the emergency disaster work with which I have been involved. One of the first was a fire in northern Saskatchewan. When I lived and worked in Nipawin, there was an explosion right behind our building that set the downtown ablaze.

We were blessed to be able to shelter and feed displaced people; feed emergency responders, and provide emotional and spiritual care. However, lives were lost and there were injuries, lost businesses, and a lost home. Animals, our pets are often a source of comfort in difficult times. There was a couple whose home was lost; they were able to escape but their home, their belongings and their dog was not. The building came crashing down on their dog and the fires raged for as long as they did over the site. That night, in his distress, the pet owner missed the comfort of his dog and he prayed, “God, please let me see my dog one last time – if only just in Heaven.”

The next morning at just before 7AM when I was delivering coffee to the people on site, I heard it: barking. The SaskEnergy employees had heard it first. They told the firefighters. The firefighters rescued him; he was pretty much unscathed. He was saved. The dog was saved! Praise the Lord it was a miracle; it really was! God is a god of miracles. God answered prayer and provided salvation that day.

I have been meditating a lot on Luke 9:10-20 these past couple of weeks in the context of The Salvation Army and the Lord’s ministry through us of feeding and helping people in their time of need and how these real miracles providing real assistance often really lead to eternal life. There are those however – not as many - who when these things happen, question why God allows tragedy and some even take that further to ask why, if God is a loving God He sends people to hell?

The answer to the question why does Jesus condemn people to hell is that He doesn’t. Listen carefully to what I am saying here… Jesus doesn’t condemn people to hell. hell is real but Jesus does not send people there. Those who are going there make that decision all on their own. Those who stand condemned, condemn themselves by denying what is plainly obvious to everyone (Ro 1&2). I truly believe that God gives us all we need to know in this life from our experiences and even creation itself (cf. Ro 1:18-24) and indeed there will still be a time when every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Ro 14:11, Philip 2:10) and then some, some who believe in the Lord and obey His commandments will go off to spend eternity with Him and some, some who deny Christ (Matthew 10:33) and do not obey His commandments (John14:15), some who simply refuse His love will go off to the hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mathew 25:31ff). This is sad.

This is particularly sad because we know that God loves us. John 3:16 says that He loves the entire world. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us (John 15). God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten, his only natural, his only sired Son to die so that we may live.

I can’t imagine how much this must hurt God that some of us do actually perish. I am a parent. Many of us are parents and grandparents here. Think about this scenario for a moment. The house across the street is on fire; there are children asleep in that house. Your child is able to save them. Your son or daughter – your ONLY son or daughter can reach them so you encourage her “…Go, go, go! Save those people.”

Your daughter goes. She goes. She suffers every peril in that burning house that everyone else in there is suffering (cf. 1 Cor 10:14; Lk 4). There is the smoke – the deadly smoke, there is the fire, and there are the falling beams. She is successful. She gets to where the children are. She can see them. She is able to make an opening in the wall. She points them to the way out. She yells for them to walk through the opening in the wall. She has made a clear path so that all of the kids can be saved - and then she dies. Your daughter dies so that all these kids can be saved. Your child dies so that none of these kids need to die but – here’s the kicker: the children did not want to be saved. They die. She died so that they could be saved but – on purpose – they died. They did not need to die but they chose not to walk through the opening. They chose to die. Your daughter dies for them and they all die anyway; they refuse to be saved.

This is what it is like for God when our loved one’s reject Him. He sent His son to this earth that is perishing. He sent His Son to this house that is on fire – and His Son died so that we may live but yet some still refuse His love for us and some still reject His Salvation. He sent Jesus not to condemn us to burn in the eternal house fire but to save us but some of us refuse to walk to safety. Some of us simply refuse to walk through that opening that Jesus died to make. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already…” of their own accord because, 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”

It was the same with our huricane relief work on Galveston Island. There was plenty of warning. The early warning system meant that no one needed to die. Everyone was saved who chose to leave the Island. Some, however, rejected their salvation.

There is a story of one 19 or 20 year-old who stood on the waterfront, intentionally defying the storm. He was swept away to his death. I met a man who lost his home and his business and praised the Lord for his insurance but he wondered why his brother chose to stay behind and die. How does he deal with the fact that his brother rejected salvation?

This is the same for us today. We praise God that the early warning for the end of times was sounded 2 millennia ago with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord, that he gave his life so that everyone can be saved  - but the sad thing is that some will reject this salvation. Some ignore the early warning system. Some defy God. Some refuse to be saved. But there is the good news. Many will be saved; as we share the Gospel of salvation, many will be saved.

Jesus died and rose again, and we, as long as we are still breathing have the opportunity to be saved from the eschataolgical hurricane and the eternal house fire. As long as we are alive we can still walk to safety through the path Jesus made through His death and resurrection. We can walk from certain death to certain life. All we need to do is believe, obey, and walk through that wall to eternal life because “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only [begotten] Son, so that everyone who believe in Him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Salvation comes from Christ alone and we who know that have a responsibility to share that news. Just like Christ provided the food and asked the disciples to distribute it and Peter then confessed Jesus as Lord; so we are asked to point people to that salvation the Jesus provided for the whole world. And we are invited to share in that salvation. Can you imagine if Jesus made the bread for all the people and the disciples never handed it out?

Romans 1:16-17 states that I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of Salvation for all. Thinking to my work with natural disasters; can you imagine if the news announcers were so ashamed of the fact the hurricane was coming that they didn’t share information? Can you imagine if the meteorologists were so ashamed of the fact that they did not know the exact time and hour the hurricane was going to strike that they didn’t tell anybody? Can you imagine if your neighbour knew that the hurricane was coming and she evacuated but she never told you because she was ashamed because she couldn’t explain exactly what, why, where, how, and when the hurricane was coming? Can you imagine the horror as you look up to see your life being swept away – and no one ever told you how to be saved?

Well, an eschatological hurricane is coming and it is a lot more dangerous than Hurricane Ike. There are people in this city here today who are sleeping in their beds or watching their TVs right now who have no idea that the end is coming. There are people out there who are lost and just waiting for us to point them to salvation.

So today, let us do that. Today let us point people to safety. None of us know when our lives are going to end. We may be taken tomorrow. None of us know when the Lord is returning and bringing with him the end to our world. But, like the weatherman watching the storm, we do know that the things of this earth are going to pass away (Mt 24:35, Mk 13:31, Lk 21:33, Rev 21:1) and it is our job to share with everyone we meet the good news of the way to salvation so that they do not need to perish.

It is our responsibility to share the Gospel for, indeed, the Gospel is the power of God for all to be saved both now and forever. To this end then, I encourage us all to look for opportunities to share the good news of salvation in the upcoming weeks here so that we may all turn to God and experience the full power of His Salvation.

I have one more story for us from my time in Texas. I want to share the story of Scott and the story of Paul. Scott was a canteen worker from central Texas who had accepted the Lord not too long before coming to Galveston to help with relief work and Paul is a twelve year-old boy.

Scott was working on of one of our canteens.  Paul lives in an apartment with 10 other people and is familiar with the neighbourhood activities of gangs and drugs.  This boy saw our canteen near his home and wanted to help.  He approached Scott and volunteered to help.  Scott welcomed him with open arms and very quickly made an impression on Paul - he kept coming back. Scott even gave him T-shirt and hat.  The look on Paul’s face was worth a million dollars or more.

 

The evening before Scott was to return home from his deployment, I had the opportunity to give him his exit interview. During this interview we began speaking about Paul. Scott told me that he had prayed with Paul on a number of occasions and that Paul was asking about Jesus. I asked if Paul had asked the Lord into his heart. Scott said ‘not yet’ and asked me to help him do that.

The next day, Sunday; Scott, Paul, and a number of other volunteers working on the canteen eagerly awaited our arrival – Paul was ready to ask the Lord into his heart.  We arrived and I encouraged Scott to lead Paul in the ‘sinners’ prayer’.  After a simple confession of sin and profession of faith, Paul was welcomed into the family of God.  We then sang a verse of Amazing Grace and Scott presented Paul with a Bible.

While we were celebrating Paul’s proclamation of salvation, two apparent ‘good-ole boys’ rolled up in a pick-up truck with their radio blaring Hank William’s “I Saw the Light.”  They were angels. They were messengers of God who had come to celebrate with us, then they were gone.

In the midst of all the turmoil and all the suffering God was there. In the midst of all our troubles and all our sufferings today, God is here. nine years ago in Texas and 2000 years ago in the NT, when people were without food, Jesus was there. Then and now in the midst of real troubles, Jesus offers us his real salvation; the opportunity to make the same proclamation of faith as the apostle Peter in Luke's Gospel and all those others in my testimony today.

Today we all here have a choice or two to make. For those of us who are presently experiencing eternal salvation we have the same choice as the disciples of our text, we need to choose whether to share the bread of eternal salvation with all those gathered around us.

And for those of us who have not yet taken advantage of that salvation Jesus has already provided for us, we have the same choice that faced the people of Galveston Island. We can either defy the eschatological hurricane and perish or we can heed the warning; we can see the light, choose to be saved; turn our eyes upon Jesus and celebrate with the Angles sent from God in Heaven.

It is my hope today that all of us will choose salvation.

LET US PRAY

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Devotion 2.51/103: 2 Corinthians 2:3: Comfort

Presented to River Street Cafe, 02 June 2017

Read 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

On the morning of Friday April 18th 2008, a terrible explosion rocked Nipawin, Saskatchewan – right behind my office. Soon the city was engulfed in flames. The Salvation Army was among the first responders to the incident because we were right there.

It was a difficult time for the community as two of our members were suddenly and tragically taken from us but there were also many blessings and miracles in the midst of this tragedy. I spoke with one lady who was on the street outside the building that exploded. Glass and debris shot out towards her. She was unscathed. I heard of another person who had just paid for their haircut and walked away from the hairdresser’s plate glass window a moment before it shattered in the explosion. Many other people, myself included, earlier in the week were standing right on the corner where the explosion took place to watch this same demolition crew at work. It was a blessing that this accident did not occur then. It was also a blessing that a windstorm that hit Nipawin after the explosion, did not hit until after the fire was out. There are many miracles that the Lord performed in the midst of this tragedy.

Now, understandably, there were upsetting times. As well as the fatalities, there were injuries, lost businesses, and a lost home. There was a couple whose home was lost; they were able to escape but their home, their belongings and their dog were not. The building came crashing down on their dog –who was a part of their family - and the fires raged for as long as they did over the site. That night, in his distress, the pet owner missed the comfort of his dog and he prayed, “God, please let me see my dog one last time – if only just in Heaven.”

The next morning before 7AM when I was delivering coffee to the people on site, I heard it: barking. The SaskEnergy employees had heard it first. They told the firefighters. The firefighters rescued him; he was pretty much unscathed. He was saved. The dog was saved! Praise the Lord it was a miracle; it really was! You should have heard the celebration!

These were some very real miracles in the middle of some really trying times. The Lord still provides miracles and comfort in the midst of our very real struggles and suffering. When have you experienced this?

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