A Changed Heart

1 Samuel 10:5-9

5 “After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. 6 The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. 7 Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

8 “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.” 9 As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.”

Saul was changed into a different person.  He was not changed physically, but he was changed spiritually.  God changed Saul’s heart.  

Jesus spoke often of the heart and the condition of our hearts.  The heart is the center of our spiritual lives, A basic tenet of our faith is that the Holy Spirit dwells within the heart of each believer.  The Holy Spirit works within each of us, leading us, guiding us, opening our eyes to God’s truth, and enabling us to hear God’s voice.  

But Saul, at some point, began listening to his own voice and not the voice of God.  This is the danger; that we begin believing that our thoughts are God’s thoughts.  To avoid this, We must remain open and vigilant to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit.  

We do this through living a life of prayer, worship, study, service and sacrifice.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Responding to God

1 Samuel 3:2-5

“2 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.”

How is it that Samuel mistook God’s voice for the voice of Eli?  God speaks in many ways.  In the Bible we read of visions, dreams, burning bushes, signs, thoughts and angels that God uses to communicate with people.

We always think that if God spoke to us we would immediately recognize God’s voice.  But God speaks to us all the time and most of the time we pay no attention or we attribute the message to something else.

We laugh at Samuel, but in many respects, we are Samuel. 

How should we respond when we think God is speaking to us?  Listen to the advice of Eli:

“So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (1Samuel 3:9a)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Thread of Love

Ruth 4: 13-17

“13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” 16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

Ruth, the lowly Moabite widow, became the great grandmother of the future King of Israel, and an ancestor of the Messiah (Matthew 1:5).   Under Jewish law, it was strictly forbidden for Jews to have anything to do with a Moabite. (Deuteronomy 23: 3-6). 

The world told Boaz that he should hate Ruth, the Moabite.  But God, in His ultimate wisdom, was sending the Messiah into the world for the entire human population, not just the Jews.  And God caused Boaz to love Ruth. 

The thread that ties the genealogy of Christ together is the thread of love...God’s love for the world.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Lord, I am Willing

Ruth 2: 2-3

“2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.”

There is a hymn entitled “Lord I Am Willing” in which the refrain says:

"Lord, I am willing ever to be, Useful in service only for Thee; So take and use me, imperfect still, Save as I strive to follow Thy will."

Ruth was willing; willing to follow Naomi to a foreign country; willing to work in the fields for their survival; and willing to sacrifice for the love of another.  She was not perfect, by any means, but she was willing, and she served gladly.

God has plans for us, and most of those plans require us to be willing to walk in faith; willing to roll up our sleeves and work in less than ideal conditions; willing to love when it makes no sense; and willing to make sacrifices that deny self but glorify God.  

God is not expecting us to be perfect in His service.  

But we do have to be willing to serve, and to serve with a glad heart.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

We are Blessed

Ruth 1: 3-7

“3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. 6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.”

Naomi was an Israelite woman whose hardships and sufferings took her far from her home, to the land of the Moabites, where she was met with even more heartache.  But, underneath all of these tribulations was a blessing, in the form of her daughter-in-law, Ruth.

While Ruth could not bring Naomi’s husband or sons back to her, she was the key to Naomi’s future life in Israel.

In the ever unfolding events of life it is often hard to realize that we have been blessed…. even when those blessings are standing next to us.

How is God blessing you today?

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Transformation

Judges 18:27-31

“27 Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a people at peace and secure. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. 28 There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob. The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. 29 They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. 30 There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses,and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. 31 They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.”

The Danite priests were the grandson and great grandsons of Moses.  And they worshiped an idol; an idol made by the mother of Micah.  

The actions of Micah’s mother affected the actions of her son and eventually an entire tribe of Israel.

We do not live in a vacuum.  We cannot spew hate and expect love.  We cannot teach retribution and expect forgiveness.  We cannot worship idols and expect the world to know God.  

If our actions and words do not reflect the example of Christ in the world, then the world will never know Christ.

Transformation begins with us.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

God’s Place

Judges 17

“1 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim 2 said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!” 3 When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.” 4 So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house. 5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

Micah stole money from his mother, then he returned it to her.  She took part of the silver Micah returned and had it melted down and shaped into an idol.  It was placed in Micah’s home where Micah had a shrine and other religious things.

The odd thing is that before the idol was made, Micah’s mother consecrated the silver to the Lord, as if this consecration made the idol acceptable to the one true God.

In the world today, there are still many idols, although we do not call them idols.  We worship money, material things, power, and authority, to name a few.  

We think we have worked out the perfect arrangement with God.  Our idols have their necessary places and God has His necessary place.  And this is how we justify putting God last. 

We have consecrated our silver, so to speak.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)