Falling in love can happen within minutes.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

When we recognize what God is calling us to do, we must pursue that calling.   ~~~   What are you pursuing? You might say you are pursuing your passion. Is pursuing your passion always a good thing? It depends on the heart behind it and the motivation. Is it rooted in the spirit or rooted in the flesh? There IS a big difference. For me, as a believer in Jesus, I am motivated by the spirit of the living God in me. No longer is it about my will and my way, it’s His will and His way for my life. I am not my own. I was created for a purpose for such a time as this. Here’s the cool part, that purpose, becomes my passion because I was gifted for it and designed to fulfill it. That’s the way God works. Oftentimes though, we get distracted. We get overwhelmed. We lose sight of what matters most and we clutter up our heart, life and home with things that lead us away from that passion and purpose. We settle for idols, cheap imitations and substitutes of God’s best for our life and as we pursue those things, we find ourselves lost. Thankfully God is a new morning mercy kind of God. His grace is sufficient and his love for me never fails. His desire is for me to know His will. In this season, when so many find themselves Spring cleaning and clearing out the clutter to move forward, I am taking steps to do the same. Pray. Purge. Pursue. These three steps have led me to be still and listen to where God is leading me to move forward in areas of my life. I’m doing more listening than speaking and if you know me, you know that’s not easy. But where I am weak, He is strong and I am leaning IN to hear God’s voice and be moved to ready myself for what He has for me. Pray and listen to what God wants to gently reveal to you. Purge and clean out what needs to be made new, pruned or thrown out of your life. Pursue with passion where God is leading you. Pursue is our last step. This is where we are confident of what God has spoken and we know the steps we are to take by faith and we are now at the starting block getting ready to run! Our feet are locked and loaded and the path is clear. Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Do you see the example of Jesus? Pray. Purge. Pursue. He listened to the Father. He spent time in prayer. He knew the Father’s will. He laid down His own. He ran the race that was set before Him, endured the cross and made a way for you and me. Even though the world may tell you different, this life is not about you. God created the world and knit you together in your mother’s womb for a purpose. That purpose rests completely IN Him. He has joy for you today and it is found when you pursue Him, because as you do, the path and purpose for your life becomes clear and you can’t help but pursue it with passion. That’s the truth. Don’t be overwhelmed in this season, do what I’m doing. Pray. Purge. Pursue. Joy isn’t found in doing all the things we should be doing, it’s found at the feet of Jesus. We listen for His voice, move by his leading and pursue the plans He has for us. Let’s ready ourselves for the race we were created to run. I’m Lori Cline.

Jesus, our perfect King, walked into the heart of death and darkness to release us from sin’s entrapment.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   As we consider the life of David, we see he had missteps and made bad decisions, and needed to be rescued from his own sin and entrapment. So we still need a king; in fact we need an eternal King after God’s own heart. And that is who we have in Jesus—the perfect King. He had no missteps and made no bad decisions. But He still needed rescue from sin’s entrapment of death, because as a perfect King, he was also the perfect atoning sacrifice, taking our sin upon Himself. He was held down into death by our sin. He was trapped in the clutches of death. Like Saul at the end of chapter 28, Jesus went away into the nighttime and darkness of death. But like David, Jesus is released from sin’s entrapment early in the morning. Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Which proves Jesus as God’s choice for King, fulfilling all promises of a righteous and holy and glorious king.

Do we get so caught up in religion that we forget to look for God?

The Bible can change the lives of those who apply it.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

An in-depth Bible study does not have to be reserved for scholars.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!

God uses His people, the church, to spread the good word of His salvation.   ~~~   We are to be cultivating our joy in God, with God’s people, to God’s world. The mission is spreading the message of God’s mercy to the world. We live in a world of misery and distress at every turn, people enslaved by their own sin, being abused by other’s sin…in every part of the world. There is not a part of this globe that hasn’t been touched and tortured by this. And yet, God is in process of executing His unstoppable plan and mission of gathering up His children, from far and wide, and He does it through His church—People who are trophies of his mercy and grace. You have a song to sing, a message to spread, a God of mercy to worship, and a King of glory to proclaim. Last week I asked you to think about two people to pray for during the week. I encouraged you to let them know that you were praying for them and for you to ask them how you could pray specifically for them. Maybe some of them let you know some type of misery and distress they were suffering under. What a great opportunity to let them know of the mercy of God that He extends to His children in all sorts of surprising ways. Maybe it will open up conversations about whether they are God’s child, who has Jesus as their Savior/king.

Music can help us remember things more clearly.

We must ask God to purge our lives of the sins that draw us away from Him.   ~~~   What is God leading you to in this season? Where is He wanting to mold you? Are there areas of your life and heart that need a clean out? It is Spring. What work needs to be done now that will lead to making room for growth and good fruit down the road? While I love the idea of Spring cleaning, I do not want to do the Spring cleaning. That is in a way what led me to seek the Lord in this season and it really doesn’t have much to do with vacuuming or dusting. I’ve simply been overwhelmed. I know many of you can relate. As I have taken inventory of my life, home and heart, and all the things that seem obvious that I NEED to do, I’ve been stuck in ways, not even knowing where to begin. That’s when God gave me the words pray, purge and pursue. Instead of getting stuck in a cycle of what I should be doing, my heart is seeking what the Lord wants to LEAD me to do. One way is full of shame and guilt while the other is full of grace and is an open invitation to move closer to who God wants me to be and the plans He has for me. We began last time with pray. If you missed it you can find it at Lifeword.org, but to recap a bit, we’re asking God to lead us to the things and areas of our life and heart that need attention. Pray till you pray, is the first step and words are not required. The purpose of the ‘pray’ step is to be still and know God wants to move you closer to His heart and will for your life in every area. So listen and see where He leads you. The next step we are looking at today is PURGE. We begin with prayer. Once God reveals our area of focus, it’s time to purge. Now when I think of purge I think of the physical act of cleaning OUT. Get rid of it. And in fact, that may be what God wants you to do. To purge is to cleanse, purify or remove. When you have the urge to purge, you act quickly! I love that! For me, this is where the spirit comes in. Where I am weak, thank God He is strong. I can lean on the Lord to give me the strength to follow through with any action of obedience the Lord moves me to take. (2 Corinthians 2:10) I will never have the urge to do things that aren’t easy, but in His strength, I can do all things! What this step looks like for you will be different from what it may look like for me. Ask God to reveal your step forward and then to give you the urge or desire to take it! Where and what do we need to purge? God will reveal it. We can look to Psalm 51 as an example. David’s sin was revealed and instead of sweeping it under the rug or ignoring it, he responded, took action and brought it to the Lord. Psalm 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. God revealed what needed to be cleaned out in David’s heart. David responded with repentance and surrender. He wanted to have the sin cut out and his life made new. He moved closer to God through the process. We can do the same whatever that looks like. Be still and listen to His voice. By faith, you can throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. (Hebrews 12:1) You can cut out what is dead in your life and prune back areas of growth to produce more fruit. (John 15:2) You can take an honest inventory of where your treasure has been and realign your heart to what matters most. (Matthew 6:19-21) Wherever God leads us, those are the steps we can take to respond. That’s the truth. We pray then we purge. God reveals and we respond. It’s Spring cleaning that goes beyond the surface. Next time we’ll move beyond the purge to PURSUE what God has in store. Join me at lifeword.org. I’m Lori Cline.

God has a plan that cannot be thwarted by any human being.   ~~~   We do see God extending mercy in David’s time of distress and misery, but remember, there is something bigger going on than just God working in David’s life. God was working for the future of Israel and for us. 1 Samuel is all about having the right type of King over your life. Saul was not the right type of King, but he was exactly what the people had asked for. In fact, there is an eerie comparison between Saul and Achish. Both kings benefitted from David’s military might. Both kings brought David close into their ranks. But Saul did not trust David, and was paranoid about him, when he had no reason to be. Achish, on the other hand, was fond of David and trusted David, when he had no reason to do such. And what we see from this comparison is that Saul is like the other kings of the nations, in that neither of them had any spiritual insight at all. But David was a man after God’s own heart. And God is able to provide Israel with what they needed—not a king like the other nations, but a king sensitive to God and His word. The Philistines could not thwart God’s mission of providing the right type of King for Israel. They could not keep David from being King of Israel, because God’s providence protected David and delivered David. So we see that there is a plan, and God owns the plan, and runs the plan, and executes the plan, which should cause us, today, to be eager to join in God’s plan. God’s plan didn’t end with providing Israel a king. That was only part of it. God’s plan was to have His kingdom proclaimed throughout all the earth, to all peoples, in all times. And that plan is still in effect.

The Christian life is full of highs and lows, victories and defeats, but God is with us through it all.   ~~~   What is the difference between David and Saul? Why does David receive mercy, and Saul receive judgment? The answer is a simple one—David’s relationship with God. David’s heart was soft and tender towards God. Saul’s heart was hardened against God. One was an apostate. The other was a backslider, who repented and was saved by the grace and mercy of God. We are learning that the life of the Christian is not one of a continual rise to new spiritual heights, is it? The life of a Christian is full mountain peaks and valley dips, bumps and bruises, peace and storms, heartbreak and hallelujahs. And through it all, God’s mercy carries us.

Christians should complement one another with our abilities.

What my toddler taught me with his dirty little hands.

Grieving a lost loved one can lead to death.

We should be constantly praying with the knowledge that God knows our need before we ask.   ~~~   Now that it’s Spring, what do many of us find ourselves doing on a sunny afternoon? Spring cleaning! Ok, maybe I should have rephrased that and asked, ‘what SHOULD many of us be doing’? Yes, it’s time for Spring cleaning, but to be honest, if I have a free sunny afternoon, the last thing I want to do is clean. But, there IS something about coming out of winter, with all its cold and dark days, into the beauty and warmth of Spring. You do want to throw the windows open, let the fresh air in, whistle while you work and allow all the woodland creatures to come clean your home like they did for Cinderella! Oh if only that could happen. If you’re like me in this season, honestly, I’m overwhelmed. Maybe you can relate. My heart is still mourning the loss of my Dad, we’ve had many losses around us, people are hurting and life hasn’t slowed down for any of it. In fact, I think it sped up! Now hear me, I am blessed through it all. God’s grace and mercy IS new for me every morning and His goodness is all over my life, still it’s a lot at times. My heart is embracing the beauty of lament and I do find myself praising through the storms. Still, in that place, I’ve felt stuck when it comes to the things I SHOULD be doing, like Spring cleaning! With an honest heart, I wanted to share with you what God has gently led me to in this season, to take some steps forward in areas that I find it difficult to move. It’s three steps. Pray. Purge. Pursue. Write those down if you feel led to. Pray. Purge. Pursue. We can journey together. I’ll dig deeper into each one over the next 3 broadcasts. The thing is, in any season, God wants us to know Him more. He wants us to abide deeper in His presence and as we do, the light of truth shines bright on areas of our lives that may need some attention. As the spirit of God REVEALS, we then are moved to take steps of obedience as we RESPOND to His leading. Then the beautiful thing is our movement or action steps aren’t rooted in comparison, shame or defeat. Our steps are a response to an invitation to move closer to healing, closer to health, closer to God’s will for our lives and ultimately closer to who God has called us to be for such a time as this. So, if you’re ready to join me in this season to take some steps forward, whatever that looks like for you, we begin today with prayer. The first step is to pray till you pray. Make time. Get quiet. Be still. Shut out distractions and take some deep breaths. This is the most important step. If you miss this, you’re motives and movements can be way off. Don’t look to what the world or social media says you need to be doing in this season. What does God say? Psalm 46:10 says ‘be still, and know that I am God’. To hear God’s voice, we must still our own and others. This is the primary focus of the first step. Silence the noise and wait on the Lord to reveal the areas of your heart, life and home that may need attention. Your heart may need time to open. That’s ok too. Words aren’t required when we pray. The spirit intercedes for us, Romans 8:26 tells us and I’m so glad. Often I have no words and I think that’s where God wants us to begin. Just be still. Jesus invites us to come and find rest. In Matthew chapter 6 Jesus gives us His example in how to pray. I love the Lord’s prayer, but it’s the verse right before it that in this season, moves my heart. Matthew 6:7-8 ​​And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you pray till you pray. No words are required, simply a heart open to hear. And if you know me I love words, but God is gently reminding me, I don’t have to even speak. My Father knows what I need before I even ask. Pray. It’s the first step. Your Father already knows what you need, and the process of prayer and listening to His voice is what allows Him to reveal it to you. That’s the truth. God is very present and He wants you to know what steps to take in this season. Be still. Know He is good and He has a good plan for your life and He has good steps for you to take today. Take this first step with me and pray. Together we’ll discover what comes next. I’m Lori Cline.

We often seek comfort and refuge in the things of the world instead of in God.   ~~~   The last time we saw David, at the very beginning verses of chapter 28, he had been told that he would fight with the Philistine army against the Israelites, and he had just been promoted to be the bodyguard of Achish, ruler of a region of the Philistines. In chapter 29, we are snapped back to the scene with David. The location is Aphek, which, if you remember from chapter 4, is the location where the Philistines were camped when they captured the ark from the Israelites, which brought about the death of Eli, which leads the people of Israel to cry out, “Give us a king like the nations.” All five of the Philistine rulers have gathered at Aphek to mobilize their troops and get ready to march for battle. What will David do? David has been in the Philistine camp for 16 months. He had navigated the situation pretty deftly, convincing the Philistines that he was on their side by saying he was raiding Israelite areas, but all the while actually raiding and destroying other people. And now, because of his deviousness, David is forced into a decision he does not want to make. David was being asked to fight against his kinsmen; against Jonathan, his best friend. Isn’t that just the way we sometimes work, and isn’t that the temptation of sin? We oftentimes seek refuge and comfort and rest in the world, in sin, and then become friendly with it. “Hey, this isn’t so bad. This provides some relief, some comfort. My family is doing better. We are happier. Until you get to the point to where the world calls upon you to forsake your God. You realize you need to be rescued from your sin, but you are in so deep with it, that you don’t know what to do. What is the old saying? Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to give. This is the case with David and his duplicitous life. He sought temporal salvation and safety from the world. He compromised. He is like the Christian today who says he believes in Christ and generosity, but also wants the comforts of this life so he hoards his money. David is like the mom who says she finds her identity in Christ, but spends her time comparing herself and trying to live up to all the virtual supermoms on social media. What could possibly go wrong in this type of lifestyle? Well, what goes wrong is exactly what we see on this page of scripture. The two are at war with one another. So there are very real, down to earth, nitty gritty decisions to be made. What does it profit a man if he gains the world, and forfeits his life (Matthew 16:26)?

Church members sometimes have trouble expressing difficult topics.

Reading the Bible as a group is a good way to gain a deeper understanding.

Shaun's noticed some changes on the riverbank and is thinking about the potential problems that will arise if something isn't done soon. But can he find and eliminate the source of the problem? Let's find out in this episode of Outdoors with Shaun Merrell.

Men need a place where they can be vulnerable and real.

There are moments in our lives that we can look at and see the hand of God at work.   ~~~   One of the most exciting stories in scripture takes place in Judges 4. The Israelites are at war with Jabin, the King of Canaan. One of God’s fighting men, Barak, is chasing down the commander of Jabin’s army, Sisera. Sisera runs to a location and to a tent that he thinks is a safe refuge, and he asks the lady there, “Please give me a a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So the lady gave him some warm milk and a blanket and a place inside the tent to take a nap. But while he was napping, the woman, Jael, took a tent peg and drove it through Sisera’s temple, killing God’s enemy on the spot, literally. In verse 23 of chapter 4, the text reads, “So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of of Canaan before the people of Israel.” In another war story, the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, is at his wits end on what to do against the armies of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, who have come to invade the land of Judah. Jehoshaphat prays, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Then he receives a word from the prophet Jahaziel, who tells Jehoshaphat, “You will not need to fight this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD.” When it came time to fight, Jehoshaphat sent out the praise team, and they began to sing praises to God. The bible is full of stories like these, where the people look back on an event, and say, “That had to be God.” Sometimes the stories and narrators themselves provide the commentary we need to see that God was the one responsible for what took place. But then there are other times where the narrator is silent in that regard, letting the story itself provide us with the clues. Consider the book of Esther, where God is never mentioned. Are we to think that the story has nothing to do with God at all? Of Course not. We have one such occasion in our text for study starting next Tuesday. God is only mentioned in passing by a pagan king. Otherwise, he is nowhere to be found in the text, but his fingerprints are all over the story. And we can identify with that can’t we. Each follower of Christ here today, can look back over his or her life and see God working behind the scenes at different points and seasons in his/her life, to teach, to instruct, to remind, to warn.

There is a reason humans want to squeeze cute things.

When we cannot change our circumstances, Jesus is still there to comfort us.   ~~~   What is something you wish so desperately you could change, right now, but you cannot? If you’re like me, I have a mile long list. It’s a crazy feeling isn’t it? This isn’t right. I want to make it right. This wasn’t supposed to be this way. How can I fix this? This is not how my story was to be written. What can I do to change it? Is there a REDO button for this day or this chapter of life? When life doesn’t turn out like we expected or the big waves almost knock us down, we all must come to a place we simply understand that we are NOT in control. It’s that ‘throw your hands in the air’ moment of surrender. Broken moments, broken chapters, broken pieces of our lives that are beyond our control, are the very moments God uses to remind us, He IS our only hope. He is the ONE who holds it all together and no matter how many pieces there may be to our life, He is the only one who can put them back together in a way we would have never imagined. He is there, IN every moment, wanting to carrying us through it. How does a child let you know they want to be carried? They put their hands in the air. We must do the same. We come to a place where we accept the reality that we can’t, and God can. When we rest in that, there is peace. Are you familiar with the serenity prayer? It’s a prayer to God asking for calmness and peace in all matters of life. It was written by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr and promoted and published in the nineteen thirties and forties. There are two versions and I want to read you both. The short version is this, O God grant me... the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference, Amen. The full version reads like this, God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen. The line that makes me smile is, ‘so I may be reasonably happy in this life’. There are things we can’t change and there are things we can. What I love about this prayer is it is full of surrender, while at the same time accepting responsibility. God calls us to water walk in seasons and He also calls us to be carried. My prayer is that whatever any day may hold that I always know who holds it. Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Jesus holds me together, ever single day. I’m so grateful He does. Whether you choose to trust Him or not, He holds you too. He is IN it all and working through it all for your good. Believing that brings peace and accepting what we cannot change, is serenity. That’s the truth. If you’re struggling with what you cannot control, trust Jesus with it. One day all things will be made right, but until that day, we walk, rest and move by faith and find peace only when WE let go. I’m Lori Cline.

Believers must let the people in our lives know that Jesus has come.   ~~~   One last instruction for you, as we wind down 1 Samuel 28. Take note that someone, probably Samuel, Nathan and Gad, wrote this down so that others would know that God provides a better king. They wanted others to know. I want you to think of at least two people, whether they be someone who doesn’t know Jesus as Savior and King, or whether they have made a profession of faith of having Jesus as their Savior and King but yet are struggling to see Him as such. Two people. Pray for them right now. Right now while I am talking, you can call their names out to God. Pray that God would open the eyes of their heart. Pray that God may grant them strength through His Spirit so that Christ would dwell in their hearts richly. And then I want to challenge you to do this—send them a text that simply says, “I just wanted you to know I am praying for you today. Is there anything specific I can pray about?”