Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Apr 4th Who Is Able To Stand Before Envy?

Today’s Passage – I Samuel 19-21; Proverbs 4

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 7 – 8; Memorize 1 Corinthians 1 – 4)

“And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.” – (1 Samuel 19:1)

I feel sorry for Saul. I don’t think that deep down inside he wants to hate David, but there is something about david that Saul just can’t get past. He is so envious of David; so afraid that the people are going to love David more than him, and more than his son Jonathon. David has done nothing to warrant this treatment from Saul. He has never challenged Saul’s authority; he has never rebelled against Saul’s orders; he has never failed to exceed anything that Saul has ever asked him to do. David’s sin is that he does things too well. Saul sees very plainly that the hand of God is upon David, and what’s worse is that Saul also knows that God is no longer with Saul. Samuel had told Saul that there was going to come another man, a man after God’s own heart, that God would use to replace Saul. Saul was smart enouth to realize that David was the man that God had chosen.

I said that I feel sorry for Saul because I know what it is like to be envious of other people. It is something that I pray about all the time. I think envy is rooted in insecurity. Saul was insecure. He didn’t trust himself (or God) enough to fight Goliath, so he let a young boy do his fighting for him, and when David succeeded and was praised by the people it made Saul even more insecure. We can plainly see what Saul’s problem is, but how could it be fixed? And how can we get rid of the green eye of envy from our own lives? Well, to begin with we must recognize the problem; and then, like any other sin, we must confess it and ask God’s help in overcoming it. I don’t think, however, that it is a problem that will go away overnight. I have been struggling with envy all of my life. I am gradually learning, though, to not compare myself with anybody else. God has uniquely designed me for a specific purpose, which is very different from anybody elses purpose. My job is to be the best that I can be at what God has called me to do. And I need to keep my focus on God, and His will, not on anyone else. You can see that Saul couldn’t see God’s will, because he was consumed with David. What a shame.

Can you relate to Saul? Do you ever find yourself being jealous and envious over other people’s abilities or maybe their possessions? Ask God to help. I believe that if we really want to be delivered from the bondage of envy, and are willing to humble ourselves before God, He will help us.

Apr 3rd (No Title)

Today’s Passage – I Samuel 17, 18; Proverbs 3

(Second Milers – Matthew 5 – 6; Memorize 1 Corinthians 15:1 – 4)

Apr 2nd The Saturday Morning Post by Pastor Ted Stahl

Today’s Reading: 1Samuel 15-16; Matthew 3-4; Proverbs 2.

Today’s Passage: 1Corinthians 1:10.

Good afternoon. Sorry I’m late. I’ve been battling with a sinus infection since Friday. Too many Ibuprofen will wipe you out. After getting home from our Saturday morning church prayer, around 8:00 am, I too 1000mg more. Then I laid down for a few, which turned out to be 6 hours. That’s why I’m late.

You also may be wondering why am I using 1Corinthians 1:10, which is outside the scheduled readings. Because of Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose: Preacher never changed the reading schedule, I was in a fog and never noticed, and that’s how the Lord led us to 1Corinthians 1:10. Talk about mysterious ways, huh?

God sends out an invitation through Paul here…

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1Cor 1:10)

Is your church like that? Neither is ours. We have our share of gossip, worldliness, and drama. I’m not quite sure what the ladies mean by ‘drama’. I guess I don’t watch Days of Our Lives, or As The World Turns enough. If our church, and your church, would speak the same thing, and be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment imagine what the Holy Spirit could do through us. We need the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. The best way is through reading your Bible and prayer. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)

There were seven of us at the church praying this morning. Seven from a church that runs over a hundred. That’s less than 10%. Usually it’s 10% doing 90% of the work in churches. I guess, as spirits grow cold, that percentage will keep getting lower. That’s why I give this invitation: if your church has an early morning prayer time -be there. If they do not – start one. And read your Bible daily. If you don’t have time, what I do is burn a CD with all the tracks for this weeks reading, and play them while driving to and from work. It’s not as good as reading, but it helps.

I hope this will be a help to you. Let me leave you with a little bit more of Romans 12…

“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. (Romans 12: 4-18)

Peace (Romans 12:18)

Apr 1st Heavenly Honey

Today’s Reading – 1 Samuel 12 – 14; Proverbs 1

(Second Milers also read  Matthew 1 – 2; Memorize  John 10:29 – 30)

“Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.” – (1 Samuel 14:29)

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” – (Psalm 19:9-10)

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” – (Psalm 119:103)

In chapter 14 of 1 Samuel we see a great victory for Israel against their enemies, the Philistines. It all started when Saul’s son, Jonathon, and his armour bearer decide that they are going to trust God to bring a great victory. This is a very similar situation to the account of David and Goliath. Here, the massive army of the Philistines is encamped near the much smaller army of Israel. Saul, Israel’s king, is not really taking any action; so Jonathon decides to do something. Him and his armourbearer go up to where the Philistines are, and God goes with them, and gives them a great victory. This starts a chain reaction where the Philistines start running for their lives, and even fighting each other. Saul is watching this from a great distance, and is not sure what is happening, but soon realizes that his enemy is leaving. Now he decides to get involved. The rest of the people of Israel along with Saul join the chase, and attempt to kill all of the Philistines before they completely escape out of Israel. Saul then does something dumb. He tells all of his people that they are not to eat anything until the battle is completely over.  Anybody who violates this command will be put to death. The people don’t eat, but Jonathon does. He come upon a little honey in the woods as he is chasing the Philistine army, and he eats it. Now Jonathon did not know about Saul’s order. However, the Bible says that his “eyes were enlightened”.  By the way, if the rest of Israel was allowed to have a little of that honey, they would have had a lot more energy to continue in the battle. In fact, they are so famished that when it does come time to eat, they don’t even cook their meat; they eat it raw, which was forbidden by God.

There is a wonderful picture here regarding the honey. The honey is a picture of the Word of God. Notice the other verses above that compare honey to the Word. As Christians, we are supposed to be in a battle; and we need to recharge our spiritually batteries often throughout the battle. We need to take time to open the Bible, and allow God’s Word to “enlighten our eyes”,  giving us the wisdom and strength that we need to face the battles that will come our way. Have you eaten your honey today? Don’t let the Saul’s of this world keep you from tasting the sweet Word of God.

By the way, have you noticed that Saul has a rather insecure and obsessive personality. Why would he come up with such a rule anyway. He wants total control over the people. He didn’t want their eyes to be enlightened. Religion can be like that today. They frown upon the people tasting of the heavenly honey themselves, because they want to control completely what spiritual nutrition the people receive.

Mar 31st Humble Beginnings

Today’s Passage -I Samuel 8-11; Proverbs 31

(Second Milers also read – Revelation 19 – 22; Memorize John 10:29 – 30)

“And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.” – (1 Samuel 10:24)

The life of Saul has always fascinated me. Saul started out so well. If I were reading the Bible for the very first time, and just read up to chapter 11, I would see no indication at all that Saul would eventually turn bad. So far all that we have read about Saul is good. In chapter 8, we see him serving his father by searching the countryside for some lost asses. In chapter 9, he is met by Samuel the prophet and is told that “all the desire of Israel” was on him. Upon hearing this statement, Saul humbly states that he and is family were  from the least of the tribes of Israel, basically stating that he was not even worthy of consideration. When it comes time for Samuel to announce to the people That Saul would be king, Saul is hiding. I don’t see even a hint of pride in this young man so far. Even when he is opposed by some ungodly men, he holds his peace, and then later when he was annointed king, some of his supporters remembered the opposition and tried to have them executed, but Saul refuses. He seems to be making all of the right moves thus far. He is humble, yet he demonstrates strong leadership when his people were threatened by the Ammonites in chapter 11. He rallies all of the people of Israel to come to the battle, and they destroy the invading army from Ammon. Saul starts out great.

I almost want to stop reading here while everything is “still good in the hood”. What happens to Saul? Does he stay on the right path or does go off course somewhere? Well, we will read all about it in the next few days, but let me give you a little hint here. As we have already seen, Saul starts out very humble, but he will eventually become full of pride; and pride will bring about his destruction. Pride is a huge problem for most of us. Consider the following verses:

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” – (Proverbs 16:18)

“Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” – (Proverbs 13:10)

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,” – (Proverbs 6:16-17)

“A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.” – (Proverbs 29:23)

The Bible has a lot to say about pride. As we read these next few chapters, watch out for pride developing in the heart of Saul; but more importantly watch out for the development of pride in your own life.

Mar 30th Get It Out!

Today’s Passage – 1 Samuel 4 – 7; Proverbs 30

(Second Milers also read – Revelation 16 – 18; Memorize John 10:29 – 30)

“So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.” – (1 Samuel 5:11)

“And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.” – (1 Samuel 6:21)

In our reading today we see the ark of God being taken from the Israelites by the Philistines; and then we see the voluntary return of the ark back to the people of Israel. Nobody seemed to want the ark. The story begins in chapter where the Israelite are losing in battle to the Philistines. The elders of Israel come up with the idea of getting the ark and bringing it to the battles because “it” would help them. Notice carefully the use of the word “it”. They were trusting in God to help them, they were trusting in a “good luck charm”. The Philistines seemed to have a better understanding of what the ark represented. They knew that the ark represented a powerful God, and though they did not know Him, they feared Him, and God gave them the victory and the ark. The moral to that part of the story is that God is not your good luck charm.

Once the ark was brought into the land of the Philistines, however, they began to experience some major problems. They put the ark of God in the Temple of Dagon. God does not like to share His glory with anyone so He knocked over Dagon, and chopped off his head and hands. To make matters much worse the people of city of Ashdod are all plagued with “emerods”. Now I don’t want to be graphic on this site, so I won’t go into deep explanation as to what emerods are, but I will tell you this: they can be helped with a little “Preparation H”. However, since the people of Ashdod didn’t have Preparation H at the time, or a CVS to buy it from, they opted to just get rid of the ark.

The ark then travels to two more cities of the Philistines where the same thing happens, so the Philistines wisely decide to send the ark back to Israel, along with some golden mice and emerods. Now that the ark is back in Israel, into the city of Bethshemesh, the people of Israel are very happy. Their happiness subsides, however, when they decide to take a little peek inside the ark. Not smart. About 50,000 of them died that day. They knew better. So the people that were left of Bethshemesh decided also to get rid of the ark, and they sent it to Kirjathjearim, where it remained for many years until David comes to get it.

We see here what happens when people dabble with the things of God, but do not actually know God. God gave clear instructions to the people of Israel as to the ark of the covenant. They should have known better. God will be worshipped on His terms or He won’t be worshipped at all. These people didn’t want God around them because they refused to submit to His Lordship. People are the same way today. They will not submit to God, so they would rather just not have Him around. And Christians who ought to know about God are so Bible ignorant that they have no clue what He expect from their lives. We need to get back into the Word of God in order to find out what God wants, and then we need to submit ourselves to His will.

Mar 29th He Restrained Them Not

Today’s Passage – I Samuel 1-3; Proverbs 29

(Second Milers also read – Revelation 11 – 14; Memorize John 10:29 – 30)

“Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.” – (1 Samuel 2:17 KJV)

“For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.” – (1 Samuel 3:13 KJV)

In these beginning chapters of 1st Samuel, we see the miraculous birth of Samuel, and the downfall of Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Often, when I reflect on this portion of Scripture, I am drawn to the subject of Samuel and how that God answered the prayer of Hannah (his mother) through Samuel’s birth. However, this morning I am thinking about the two evil sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. The first reference above tells us that the sin of these men was “very great before the Lord”, because it actually caused the people of God to hate coming to the Temple to give their offerings. These priests were not only corrupt in their handling of the offerings of the people, but they were also immoral with women who came to the Temple. These men had to go. God’s patience with them was running out. God was further angered by this situation because their father, Eli, the high priest, knew about what was going on, and he didn’t do anything to stop it.

This passage of Scripture admonishes me in two areas. First, I must remember that as a leader in God’s service, I bear a tremendous responsibility to deport myself well. My actions will affect others. If I become corrupt or immoral I will not just be impacting my own relationship with God, but I will become a big stumbling block for others. This idea is especially important for people who are leaders in the church, but it applies to all Christians. People are watching us. We must be careful that we are not leading them astray. We have an obligation to “adorn the gospel”, which basically means we are to make God look good.

My second thought from this passage regards parenting. We are to restrain our children, which must begin when they are very young. If we can instill in them the fear of God at a young age it will not depart from them when they are old. It is obvious from this passage that Eli did not discipline his boys when they were young. Again, this applies to every parent, but it is especially important for preachers, deacons, and other leaders who are commanded to have their houses in order. Parents need to stop trying to be their children’s “buddy”, and they need to start being parents; and parenting involves love, instruction, and correction.

“Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.” – (Proverbs 19:18 KJV)

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – (Proverbs 22:6 KJV)

“Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.” – (Proverbs 23:13-14 KJV)

“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” – (Proverbs 29:15 KJV)

“Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.” – (Proverbs 29:17 KJV)

Mar 28th Better Days Are Coming

Today’s Reading – Ruth 1 – 4; Proverbs 28

(Second Milers also read Revelation 7 – 10; memorize John 10:29 – 30)

“And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?” – (Ruth 1:20-21)

I have read the story of Ruth and Naomi many times since I became a Christian, and every time that I have written or preached on the subject my focus would either be on Ruth or Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. However, this morning I got to thinking about Naomi. Naomi was a great lady, who in many ways was a victim of circumstance. Things just didn’t work out for her in life as she had probably hoped and dreamed they would. I can relate to that. Sometimes I reflect on my own life and wish that I could re-do some things; perhaps make some better choices. Hindsight always reveals the wisdom of our choices. Anyway, Naomi left the land of Canaan with her husband and two sons many years prior to the time of our text. They intended only to sojourn in the land of Moab for a short time, until the famine was over in their homeland. I appears that they stayed a lot longer than they intended. While living in Moab, her two sons marry women from Moab, which was also not according to God’s perfect plan because these women were not worshippers of the God of Israel. To make matters worse, her husband, and both of her sons die while she is there. Now she is left in a strange land with two daughters-in-law that were in many ways still strangers to her.

Naomi is faced with a decision. Life is not working out for her in Moab, and she realizes she needs to get back to her people; to the worship of her God. Good decision. But what was she to do with her daughters-in-law? She understands that feel obligated to her, and in a very real way, both of them had become very attached to her. She must have demonstrated much love toward them, because both of them loved her; and one of them (Ruth) was willing to forsake her own happiness in order to go with Naomi. In facy, Ruth was willing to become a worshipper of Naomi’s God. It appears that Naomi represented her God very well.

The point of all of this is that though Naomi didn’t not make all of the right decisions through the years; and although things did not work out for her as she would have hoped; God still was very gracious to her, and was willing to use her still. She left Canaan full: full of dreams and full of hope. She left Moab empty: empty of a husband, empty of her sons, and empty of material possessions; but she did have Ruth. God had graciously given her a wonderful daughter-in-law in Ruth who proved to be more of a blessing to her than her sons ever were. I bet if there were another chapter to the Book of Ruth we would heae Naomi say, “change my name back to Naomi, I was ‘Mara’ for a while, but things are looking up.

Can you notice a pattern here that you and I can relate to? Life sometimes starts with hopes, dreams, and ambitions. They rarely work out the way we want them to. We make many mistakes along the way that further complicate things. But, God just may turn our lives around before it’s all over. We may find that delight (Naomi means delight) after all; and it may just come through an unexpected source. Don’t lose hope. Keep following God. Better days are coming.