We are exploring a very critical spiritual disciple that we call Going on a God Hunt. What we’re doing is learning how to look for evidences of God making His presence known in our everyday worlds.

In today’s blog post, I want to continue to explore the area of service or ministry, and how God frequently chooses to work right alongside us when we are involved in His business.

We began in the last blog post by looking at the Old Testament portion of Scripture found in Judges, Chapter 7. If you’re just joining my blog with today’s post, you may want to scroll down and at least read the last blog post—if not scroll all the way down to the beginning of this series. That way, you’ll be right up to date.

So, Gideon is in a pickle. God has whittled down the number of troops Gideon has to fight the Midianites from 32,000 to 300! But God doesn’t leave Gideon dangling. In the terminology of our present series, he provides his commander with a wonderful God Hunt “Sighting.” What I’m going to share with you next is a God Hunt passage related to the category I’ve been calling “any help to do God’s work in the world.”

 “Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack, the camp.” The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”

I’ll leave it to you to read further about the great victory of these 300 men. But for now, suffice it to say that at a time in Gideon’s service for the Lord when he had reason to be a bit shaky, God provided the aid he required to carry out his assigned task. Jehovah graciously gave his servant the help that was needed to do his work in the world.

In Monday’s blog post, I will plan to offer you a more contemporary illustration of this God Hunt principle. I hope that you will enjoy some time in worship over the weekend. May God refresh you as you celebrate His Presence in your life. And, when Monday rolls around, I hope you will come back to this blog as I continue to explore this important spiritual discipline of seeing God’s Hand in our everyday lives.

——————————————–

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy

When Jesus called people to serve him, you get a feeling from reading the Bible that men and women viewed this as an exciting opportunity. It’s like they felt privileged to be asked. There was no sense of obligation, or “Do I have to do this?”

I believe it should be the same today. It should be viewed as one’s incredible good fortune to be asked by Jesus to work alongside of him. Unfortunately, that’s not where some people are coming from. They see it as an obligation. This could be because they don’t understand the secret I’ll share with you this visit.

We are exploring a very critical spiritual disciple that we call Going on a God Hunt. What we’re doing is learning how to look for evidences of God making His presence known in our everyday worlds.

For example, the first type of God Hunt “Sighting” was about obvious answers to prayer. We should savor such times. Certainly don’t treat them as strange coincidences.

The second type of God Hunt “Sighting” emphasized being on the lookout for unexpected evidences of God’s care.

Then, we looked at the third type of God Hunt “Sighting,” namely, to take special note of the way God lovingly looks after us. It’s about how, if you please, our guardian angels work at keeping us from harm in any of a number of ways. Also, how God regularly meets our needs and more.

In today’s blog post, I want to begin to explore the area of service or ministry, and how God frequently chooses to work right alongside us when we are involved in His business.

I want you to share with you some thoughts about the Old Testament book of Judges, Chapter 7. Israel’s commander, Gideon, had 32,000 fighting men. That sounds like a large number. Compared to the enemy, however, it wasn’t all that many.

Let me begin by sharing with verse two:

 “You have too many men…” says the Lord … “too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

Imagine such an announcement being made today to our forces in Afghanistan: “Anyone here who’s frightened by what’s going on has our permission to fly home.”

The text continues:

 “But the Lord said to Gideon, ‘There are still too many men.’”

Come on now, poor Gideon has just seen over two-thirds of his army walk away, and the Lord says there need to be additional troop cuts! This seems even worse than the looming “Sequester!” There are still too many men …

 “Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separated those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Put yourself in Gideon’s place for a moment. You started with 32,000 fighting men, which really wasn’t enough. That number was cut to 10,000. Now you’ve lost another 9,700. So, for every 100 soldiers you began with you now have one left! That would have to leave even a Leon Panetta feeling a tad insecure, to say nothing of people like us.

We’ll have to pick up this story in tomorrow’s blog post. So, if you can spare the time, please make plans to join me as I continue to explore this important spiritual discipline of seeing God’s Hand in our everyday lives. Okay?

——————————————–

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy

Here’s yet another blog post about going on a God Hunt—learning to look for God in your everyday worlds.

You may wonder how age factors into going on a God Hunt. What age category would you say is probably going to be the best at picking out God Hunt sightings as they happen? If we set up a playoff bracket by decades, 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71 and above, which decade would you say will probably end up in first?

Well, I’d advise seeding the 1-10’s and the 71’s and above as one and two. They’re the groupings most likely to win. That’s because young children, once they catch on to the idea, are incredible “God Hunters.” Then again, whereas old age may mean less perfect physical sight, that’s when people’s spiritual sight usually starts to improve a great deal.

Maybe we should also seed the 11-20 group because the preteen element—those remarkable 11 and 12 year old, the Paul’s-nephew types—usually have some real champion players.

The last seed in most churches would normally be the 61-70 group, because some of them start to retire and are often looking for a new challenge.

It’s the middle years, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, that are characteristically the tough ones. Why? It’s because everyone is so busy with all kinds of other challenges. So you who are between 21 and 60 will have to give this an extra push if you have any thoughts whatsoever of coming out on top! Of course upsets can always happen, and the game’s never over ’til it’s over.

In Thursday’s blog post—after taking one day off for my usual Wednesday “Preaching Tip” for pastors—I’ll talk about the God Hunt category of any help to do God’s work in the world. For now, all of us have another day to work at becoming mature in this unique discipline. Again, how well you do will be determined to a great degree by whether or not you get started keeping a God Hunt Diary or notebook. It’s so important to keep writing down your God Hunt Sightings.

In closing let me again quote the famous detective Joey Schmidt, who I figure was somewhere around 10, 11 or 12, (the book doesn’t say, but he’s at that really good “God Hunter” age). Anyway, Joey Schmidt pointed out, “If you’re gonna be first class and really find things, you gotta keep records!”

——————————————–

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy