email : Webview : Duane Brooks - Every Day with Jesus

May 17, 2018

1 Samuel 3:19-20

The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

New International Version (NIV)

                  The Israelites called these “history books” the Former Prophets. The writer of the books of Samuel and Kings intertwines the stories of prophets and priests and kings as he tells God’s love story with his people Israel. The story begins with wayward priests in Eli’s family and a mother who prays. Eli’s poor vision mirrors the loss of visions among God’s people. He sees Hannah praying and thinks she is drunk. But God hears Hannah’s prayers and gives her a son who becomes the leader of Israel. She names him Samuel, meaning, “I asked the Lord for him and he heard.”

                As I begin my twenty-first year as Pastor at Tallowood Baptist Church, would you pray this for me? Pray that my words will not fall to the ground. Why didn’t Samuel’s words fall to the ground? He learned to listen for God’s voice. “Speak Lord your servant is listening,” he prayed. Because Samuel cultivated the ability to hear God’s voice he was able to speak God’s words to others. Then the Lord who had been strangely absent appeared again at Shiloh. This all began with one mother in Israel who prayed.

                Years ago, I encountered a thin space, a holy place in an apartment at Cambridge in England. Seeking out a tea cup in the morning I came across a note taped to the inside of the cabinet. There I found David Lyle Jeffrey’s vivid description of how revival begins among God’s people. With imaginative words he portrays a woman at prayer in Wales, pleading with God for revival. “Perhaps it will be this very morning that a lifelong faithfulness of intercession will begin to be gathered in the hand of the Master Weaver toward the base of his own great loom, a thread of purest gold, burning and shining, reflecting and revealing his matchless light.”

Pray with me:

Father, as we bow hearts and heads before you today, we dare to ask that you would reveal your presence again among your people. We know we need you. There is salvation in no one else. Will you not revive us again? Is today the day when you will take our intercession and bring your light and love to our lives and your world? We pray that you will, believing in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This year we focus our Every Day with Jesus readings on Jesus’ story. With references to Tallowood's Read Through the Bible in 2018 daily reading plan, let's focus our undivided attention on Jesus and follow where he lead. He will not fail. Neither will we!
Joyfully,
Duane

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Houston, TX | 77024 US

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