I Sam 3:10 and Luke 17:31 "Live Into This" (April 22)

I Samuel ~ What it means to be human, desiring a good story for my life. One thousand years have passed since the calling of Abraham. It will one more thousand years of living before Christ comes, the Savior. We read looking back. We know the Story. I Samuel 1:18 - No More! Hannah. God will hear your childlessness. I Samuel 3:10 - Speak God, for your servant Samuel listens. I Samuel 2:9 - God will guard the feet of his faithful ones. Luke 17:31 - The Kingdom is coming. Don't look back for your purse, your possessions, your prize. "The biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us 'Live up to this,' nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, 'Think like this and you will live well.' The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us, 'Live Into This.' ... We do violence to the biblical revelation when we "use" it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide color and spice to our otherwise bland lives. That results in boutique spirituality---God as decoration. God as enhancement. The Samuel narrative will not allow that. Submit our lives to what we read and we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but to see our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves."