{"id":4539,"date":"2023-01-30T20:01:30","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T02:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4539"},"modified":"2023-01-30T20:01:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T02:01:30","slug":"devotional-on-1-samuel-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-1-samuel-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 1 Samuel"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-_28-zXj2Y8E\/Xdcm4nFbopI\/AAAAAAABC4A\/nLYV6oQqS8IdcR0KX2h4w1BpyjvMZCWogCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/100_3620.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Colorado River Thousand Trails &#8211; Columbus, TX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Early retirement<br \/>\n1 Samuel 12: &#8230;you find nothing against me &#8212; no faults, no complaints.<br \/>\nAs Moses concludes his ministry he brings a final message that\u2019s most of the book of Deuteronomy. Later on Joshua concludes his leadership with his &#8220;as for me and my house&#8221; sermon. Now we find Samuel delivering his concluding sermon. However, the situation is very different than it was with Moses and Joshua. They signed off because the end of life was near. Samuel, though old and gray, is taking an early retirement. He\u2019ll be God&#8217;s man, bringing his message, for years to come. In fact, he\u2019ll even make a &#8220;post-death&#8221; appearance! So why is he preaching a farewell message now? It\u2019s because the people want to be led by a king rather than a prophet. Samuel&#8217;s leadership is being cut short by that decision. As he delivers this farewell, Samuel doesn&#8217;t pull any punches. Even as their ancestors of the book of Judges forgot God, they\u2019re walking dangerously close to the edge of that same cliff in preferring the leadership model of the nations of Canaan rather than the one put in place by the Lord. This farewell sermon proves to be a memorable one, complete with special effects. As I read it I find myself thinking of how different it could have been for these people had they not insisted on this common sense solution to their leadership concerns. God&#8217;s way is always the best way and I want to live close enough to him that I can always hear his Voice providing direction in my life.<br \/>\nTake Away: Common sense must always take a back seat to God\u2019s way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early retirement 1 Samuel 12: &#8230;you find nothing against me &#8212; no faults, no complaints. As Moses concludes his ministry he brings a final message that\u2019s most of the book of Deuteronomy. Later on Joshua concludes his leadership with his &#8220;as for me and my house&#8221; sermon. Now we find Samuel delivering his concluding sermon. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1473,7],"tags":[114,501,668],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14228,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions\/14228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}