217 - A La Peanut Butter Sandwiches

This morning, Lord, I am getting a bit of a late start. When Clay is traveling I like to stay up late doing things - well, just doing things. So that does not make it easy to get up the next monring and this morning i let it get the best of me. The kids are off to school and Elleigh is watching Thumbalina. So thank you for this small amount of time to get in a good WORD.

I found myself at I Sam. 4:1-11. This was great. I have made the comment before - If i could just spend 30 minutes with Beth Moore or Ruth Graham or Kay Arthur then how wonderfully blessed I would be. Or i have heard comments and probabaly said them myself - Oh, I just want to brush up against her or be near her - the sillyness can go on and on. But the bottom line is that we, me, are putting some kind of "superness" to these regualr, but wonderfully spiritual people. We think and it may not even be a conscious thought that we would be better off if we had lunch with so and so. Or if we brushed up against so and so our prayers would be answered, we would be enlightened, we would be more holy. I know as crazy as it sounds, i have done it myself and it is silly. This just does not border on idol worship, It Is!! I confess i think so much of Beth Moore and the awesome teacher that she is that i have to be careful. I can get so caught up in being excited about what hse is doing and where she is going that i can lose my perspective of why she is doing it - Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, forgive me of that. Allow me to be enthralled in You because of what You have done through her, not her and what great clothes she wears. ha ha!!!

In this passage of scripture the Israelistes had been defeated by the gorrillas - Phillistines... 4000 in fact was what the Word said. SO the leaders were real upset they had been defeated and began to think back on how victories were won in the past. They immediately thought about how the ancestors carried the Ark with them into battle. Oh that must be it. We need a "good luck charm, a brush up against something, a lunch with, a prayer spoken over us" of course in a retorrecical way...

SO that is just what they did. Eli's sons, the ones that are so terrible and disrespectful towards the Lord in His temple, went to go get the Ark. Wrong choice. Even if you had good intentions of using the Ark in the right way, that was the wrong men to go get it and be responsible for it. Leadership can make a whole ship go down and that is exactly what happened. With their "good luck charm" and that is exactly how it was being used - 40,000 were killed in the next battle. That may not be the exact number - memeory is failing me now that i am dressing a babydoll and trying to write. haha! But it was a bunch.

Lord Jesus, we can not worship a spiritually strong person other than Jesus, we can not worship a church building, we can not worship a conference, a book other than the Bible, or even a statue or cross. We must worship the ONE that made all those things have significance. We must worship the one that shed His blood on those things and for those things and because of those things. We must worship Him and with respect. We, I, can not come to You disrespectfully and expect my prayers to be answered or even heard! Lord, help me. Help me to change my heart and be a purly devoted Christian. I see so many things that need to be worked on. DO your work because i want to do for You. I love ministry and want to be used. I want to worship You and You alone. Forgive me Father for hurting Your feelings! Lord, I love you!!