Have you ever had that moment when you thought, “I Wonder if that was God’s voice?” I don’t mean like an audible voice, though He is God and if he chooses to speak OUT LOUD He can, but that still small voice inside. Yea, me too! Most of the time it is, “Mike, do you really want to go there?” Don’t lie, you have been there, too! 🙂
In the third chapter of First Samuel there is a familiar story of God speaking to Samuel. According to I Samuel 3:1 (NLT) this was a pretty big deal…”Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.” So when Samuel heard it he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am!”. But it was not Eli that called him. After the third time this happened Eli said to Samuel, “…That’s when it dawned on Eli that God was calling the boy. So Eli directed Samuel, “Go back and lie down. If the voice calls again, say, ‘Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.’” I Samuel 3:8-9 (The Message)
I was reading in Oswald Chamber’s “My Utmost For His Highest” earlier this week and this is what he said about this passage:
“Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance. Every time circumstances press in on you, say, “Speak, Lord,” and make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline— it is meant to bring me to the point of saying, “Speak, Lord.” Think back to a time when God spoke to you. Do you remember what He said? As we listen, our ears become more sensitive, and like Jesus, we will hear God all the time…Never ask another person’s advice about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will almost always side with Satan. “…I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…” Galatians 1:16 (NIV)
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. To hear the Father’s heart we must put our hearts in a position to listen…”If the voice calls again, say, ‘Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.”
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It is a balmy -1 today here in the winter wonderland of America’s “Last Frontier” and the sun is stretching across the cloudless sky. What a beautiful sight. The only thing more amazing was the Northern Lights dancing across the morning sky a week ago. God truly has magnificent ways to show us His beauty! I did have to wake up “Sleeping Beauty” to see the lights. The last time she thought she saw them was when she saw the light from the airport tower! 🙂 You got to love her, she always keeps thing fun here!
It has been a good week, no a very good week! Last Saturday night for youth pizza night we decided to show the movie “Do You Believe?” The guy who has been working with these kids thought it was time to move toward spiritual things with this group. The time hanging out and playing games with them is great, but we need to start speaking to their hearts about Jesus. After the movie there was a lot of silence. I was very surprised, no one really moved. After a few minutes he began to share the gospel in a very simple way. I made a point to watch the kids as he was speaking. Every eye was engaged with him. He did a great job with what he said and I believe he planted many thoughts in those hearts! God is AMAZING! I believe over the next few weeks we are going to see much fruit from this night!
K4G (Kids 4 God) is getting off to a good start. We have had small groups but it gives us more one on one time with the kids that come. There are a couple of young boys that I might start meeting with. They always hang around after kids club! We have nicknamed this this “Sloppy Saturday” because we have been serving sloppy joes for lunch!
ATTENTION VBS FOLKS….I am looking for 4-5 college age or young adults to help with our summer VBS. The team that has been coming the past few years is running into conflicts with their schedules. The dates are June 23 to July 3! The cost of the trip is $800 plus airfare. I am working on a new budget to try to cut some costs, but we have set the bar pretty high for the quality of the VBS we do. The kids really look forward to this time and we do all we can to make it a fun week. The last two years we have a “Fun Day” for the kids on day 5. We play games, and invite the parents to come join us for the games, cookout, and closing program. Last year we had 39 kids in VBS and for the closing program almost every kid had a family member there. This was amazing! There will time to really enjoy the Alaska bush see how beautiful it is. If you are interested, or need more info, please email me at [email protected].
Sunday worship times have been sweet. A couple of weeks ago, it was suggested that we have a time for people to share what God is doing in their lives, share a Scripture that has meant something to them that week, or just share what was on their heart. I thought this was great. The first week the new teacher in town stood up first. This was his first time with us and he shared about how we try to work our plans out and they usually fail, and God just looks downs and smiles…no he said, God LAUGHS! That was very cool. This past week, another teacher who has been coming regularly, but a very quite person, shared about how many times the Father will hear us say what we will or will not do, or where we will or will not go. She said that she told God that there was one place she did not want to go for her work. What did God do, He moved her about 30 miles away from where she did not want to go! You got to love His sense of humor!
I had a very interesting thing happen this past Sunday. After the service a young girl came up to me and asked me if I thought a young that attended the service was saved! I told her that I did not know the young man, and asked her why she asked. She showed me a tract and said she wanted to give it to him. (This was very big for this young girl who just got saved this past summer at camp) I told her to just go up to him and tell him you wanted him to have it. She said that she was afraid. I asked her if she wanted me to give it to him, and she said yes. I looked around and he had walked out the door. I walked outside and call him. He came back and I gave him the tract and told I was just the messenger, someone wanted him to have it. He looked at it and told me he had been thinking about my message the previous Sunday and been thinking about a lot of stuff. I asked him when he was leaving McGrath and he said Tuesday. I told him I would be at the church Monday, just stop by I would love to talk to him. I left the church for a few minutes around lunch, and when I came back I saw a note from the young man that he had been by. I called him and told him I was at the church to stop back by. He said he was on a tight schedule before he left Tuesday. He said he would call later to see if I was available. It was after 7pm when called back. He said he had a few minutes and was coming by. We had a good conversation, just getting to know him and where he was in life. The young man has a pretty good head on his shoulders, but is dealing with some things that he needs to come to terms with. We talked about where he was spiritually and he said that he didn’t know. That opened the door to share a brief gospel word with him. I truly believe this young man is close to giving his life to the Lord, but as we continued to talk his cell kept going off with text messages. He understands the position he is in, separated from Christ, but was not ready to make a decision. I prayed with him before he left. He said that he never intended to come back, but all day long something told him to come back. I am glad he did. I plan to follow up with him as he goes back home.
The Father is at work in McGrath, Alaska! We appreciate your prayers for the work here. I plan to send out a newsletter the first of next week hopefully. Watch the website, your email or old fashion snail-mail for your copy. Here are a couple of pictures from the week!
