Samuel & the challenge of hearing from God. MJ

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

Heb 12 V 1-3

Psalm 123

AJ

An act of giving something of value for the sake of something tht is of greater value or importance

Why was Jonah angry?

Why did he run?

Jonah did Gods will without love. Jesus did Gods will with love.

Easy to be angry harder to love.

Phil 2 V 5-11
How did God reveal himself to this world? JB

John 4 V 4-42
“then leaving the water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “come , see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

“Who do you say I am?”
Matt 16 V 15

Jesus motivated by compassion (moved inwardly to do something)
What was the disciples motivation? (wordly wisdom)
A difficult situation where kingdom love/power/provision was demonstrated.
Faith to believe that Jesus can do. AJ

Love the Lord your God
Not just head knowledge but heart knowledge.
*Rizpah (2 Sam) by her action of love shamed a nation to behave right.

Rizpah’s story is a sorry one. It’s like something you’d read in a terrible ‘true stories’ magazine and wonder if a story that tragic could possibly be real, or if someone with an overactive imagination has come up with the most pitiful story they could concoct. Even reading the text makes me wince. What this woman went through! Where is God in all this? How might a story this tragic inspire us?
And Rizpah?

Rizpah the political pawn; Rizpah the accused; Rizpah the powerless; Rizpah the widow whose sons have just been taken from her and brutally executed. Rizpah goes to the place of this atrocity and camps out to protect the bodies of her sons from the wildlife that would devour them. A royal concubine, she chases off birds with sticks. She beats away animals with stones – she utterly humiliates herself, puts herself at great physical risk – from animals, robbers, the Gibeonites, anyone really! Why? To protect the decomposing bodies of her boys. They might be men, but they are her boys and no one else is protecting them – no one else even has the honour to bury their sorry, broken bodies. No one else is outraged, no one else cares enough to help. It’s just her. From the day of their death until the rains came she guards them in the dark, in the heat of the day, just her, alone.

The courage of a powerless mother, who could not save her sons, who could not save her reputation, who was caught in a web of intrigue and injustice. Her courage shames the powerful into action, brings justice.   RO