WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THE WORD?
Eli responded thus to the message of God for his family through Samuel "...it is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him" (1Sam. 3:18)
The Result was this '...Israel was defeated and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. the ark of God was captured and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas died... Eli fell over backwards from his seat by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died...now the daughter-in-law the wife of Phinehas was pregnant about to give birth. When she heard the news that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth; for her labour pains overwhelmed her. As she was about to die...she named the child Ichabod, meaning, the glory has departed from Israel' (1 Sam. 4:10-11, 18,19,21)
King Hezekiah a noble man who kept all the commandments of God as was given by Moses {2Kgs.18:6-7} fell ill and received a message from God through Isaiah (2 Kgs.20:1-8, Isaiah 38:1-8) he took it but did not accept it rather he turned his face to the wall then placed his youthful exuberance for righteousness before God and God changed his plan for his life by healing him and adding fifteen {15} more years to his life.
Delay to change your ways ("but by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed" Rom.2:5) and embrace righteousness in all its ramification can be very disastrous {"...a man who turns back from righteousness to sin the Lord will prepare him for the sword" Sirach 26:28}
Ignorance of the Word of God and the purpose why God created you on earth is not an excuse ("but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more" Jer.31:33-34)
You have been baptised and anointed with the oil of Chrism hence you have no excuse rather should strive to give up all those dirty passions we harbour and nurture with cheap phrases like "the body is weak" forgetting that the Spirit is willing besides the body has nothing to offer if the spirit of man is not willing to accept such {'the Spirit gives life to the body since the body has nothing to offer on its own, the words I speak to you are Spirit and they are life' Jn.6:63}
God is waiting for you ("listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me! Rev.3:20)
Do not keep him waiting too long for you might regret it eternally {'...and be sure your sin will find you out' Numb.32:23}
The mistakes of many people {boys/girls/men/women} in the past are hunting them now and will continue because no one will wipe out your past but those who repent truly will always see there past as a stepping stone to higher ground ["for Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret but worldly grief produces death" 2 Cor.7:10]
Are you ready to discipline yourself now and have a blissful future as well as be sure of eternal life if death comes the next second since no one knows the hour, place or circumstance that would surround our death (Mtt.24:42)?
Are you still contented with doing whatever your impulse tells you yet not ready to face its reality and pain when other people attend to you and your relations with the same attitude?
THE CHOICE IS YOURS AND MINE TO MAKE!!!
Eli responded thus to the message of God for his family through Samuel "...it is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him" (1Sam. 3:18)
The Result was this '...Israel was defeated and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. the ark of God was captured and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas died... Eli fell over backwards from his seat by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died...now the daughter-in-law the wife of Phinehas was pregnant about to give birth. When she heard the news that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth; for her labour pains overwhelmed her. As she was about to die...she named the child Ichabod, meaning, the glory has departed from Israel' (1 Sam. 4:10-11, 18,19,21)
King Hezekiah a noble man who kept all the commandments of God as was given by Moses {2Kgs.18:6-7} fell ill and received a message from God through Isaiah (2 Kgs.20:1-8, Isaiah 38:1-8) he took it but did not accept it rather he turned his face to the wall then placed his youthful exuberance for righteousness before God and God changed his plan for his life by healing him and adding fifteen {15} more years to his life.
Delay to change your ways ("but by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed" Rom.2:5) and embrace righteousness in all its ramification can be very disastrous {"...a man who turns back from righteousness to sin the Lord will prepare him for the sword" Sirach 26:28}
Ignorance of the Word of God and the purpose why God created you on earth is not an excuse ("but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more" Jer.31:33-34)
You have been baptised and anointed with the oil of Chrism hence you have no excuse rather should strive to give up all those dirty passions we harbour and nurture with cheap phrases like "the body is weak" forgetting that the Spirit is willing besides the body has nothing to offer if the spirit of man is not willing to accept such {'the Spirit gives life to the body since the body has nothing to offer on its own, the words I speak to you are Spirit and they are life' Jn.6:63}
God is waiting for you ("listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me! Rev.3:20)
Do not keep him waiting too long for you might regret it eternally {'...and be sure your sin will find you out' Numb.32:23}
The mistakes of many people {boys/girls/men/women} in the past are hunting them now and will continue because no one will wipe out your past but those who repent truly will always see there past as a stepping stone to higher ground ["for Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret but worldly grief produces death" 2 Cor.7:10]
Are you ready to discipline yourself now and have a blissful future as well as be sure of eternal life if death comes the next second since no one knows the hour, place or circumstance that would surround our death (Mtt.24:42)?
Are you still contented with doing whatever your impulse tells you yet not ready to face its reality and pain when other people attend to you and your relations with the same attitude?
THE CHOICE IS YOURS AND MINE TO MAKE!!!
