One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend is coming and I have a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

Don't waste God's warnings. There are a lot of warnings from God in the Bible and most of them regard in what or in whom we will place our trust. It's an act of grace when God says, "Thou shalt not." And this weekend's passage, 1 Samuel 8, is one of those acts of grace. Israel is about to put their trust and seek their security as a nation in something other than God in spite of God's explicit warnings.

We're not all that different. We often say the right things about trusting God, but in our hearts we're trusting something else. How can we learn to put our ultimate trust in God alone? What happens when we blow it? Come and see.

F.Y.I

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra on "Pew: Evangelicals Stay Strong as Christianity Crumbles in America--Amid changing US religious landscape, Christians ‘decline sharply’ as unaffiliated rise. But born-again believers aren't to blame.

3) Evangelicals convert many and retain their kids - Pew found a "remarkable degree of churn" in the US religious landscape. But evangelicals are the “major exception” to the national pattern of Christian decline, and the only major Christian group in the survey that has gained more members than it has lost through religious switching.

One More Thing

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."—Martin Luther King Jr.

One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, It's the weekend and there are a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

This weekend we launch a new series, The David Story: Finding Strength in God. It's an eight-week journey through 1 Samuel. 2 Samuel and the rest of David's story will follow.

Before the David story is the Samuel story, the man who anoints David king. And before the Samuel story is the story of his mother, Hannah. From Hannah we learn what it means to dedicate something of great value to God.

We have several child dedications and it's Mother's Day weekend, so you can imagine how happy I am that this text fell on today and not David and Bathsheba!

FYI

Sarah Bessey on "Motherhood: Transformation by Interruption"

By nature, by nurture, and by training, I'm a planner. I've always been able to make a plan, work a plan, stick to a plan. It's one of my greatest strengths, a dedication that has served me well in everything from my former work in strategic development and marketing to my life now as a writer and a mother.

Amy Julia Becker on "Ordinary Moms, Everyday Heroes: Every mom has the makings of a hero"

I wonder how many young women realized they are also embarking on a hero’s journey when they become mothers.

One More Thing

Dale Ralph Davis writes:

Hannah, therefore, shares in the fellowship of barrenness. And it is frequently in this fellowship that new chapters in Yahweh's history with his people begin--begin with nothing. God's tendency is to make our total inability his starting point. Our hopelessness and our helplessness are no barrier to his work. Indeed our utter incapacity is often the prop he delights to use for his next acts. ...Once we see where God often begins we will understand how we may be encouraged. (1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart, p. 16)