So many people both churched and unchurched struggle with this one fundamental question, “What purpose does my life serve?” The church refers to one’s purpose in life as a “calling.” So why is it referred to as a calling? It is referred to as a “calling” because we believe that God is the one who calls to us and makes us aware of our purpose. In other words, it is a duty that we are summoned to fulfill by God. God made us with that purpose in
mind.   Everything in our life, prepares us to answer the call of God. You see our past, no matter how imperfect it maybe, is not a liability; it is the testimony of the transforming power of God.  Our past, reminds of the need to remain humble in all things.
Regardless of what your calling is, one thing is true of all Christians; we are all called to do something. People receive their calling at different stages in their lives, so some people like me receive their
calling early in life, but others receive their calling much later.  In this lesson, we will not focus on what your calling is. Our focus is discerning whether it is God’s voice that you hear calling you as opposed to your own inner voice or the voices of other people.
1 Samuel 3:1 tells us that when Samuel was a boy the word of the Lord was rare and visions where not widely known.  There were people who served as priests meaning that they interceded or spoke to God on behalf of the people. However, given the rarity of the word and the lack of vision there were few prophets in the land.  Prophets were responsible for speaking to the people on behalf of God. We are not sure exactly how old Samuel was at
that time but it says that he was a boy. Samuel was studying to be a priest under the tutelage of Eli. It is amazing that God had placed Samuel under authority and tutelage of Eli, even though Eli’s sons were wicked in the eyes of
the Lord. God had given him several warnings about his sons’ behavior. However, Eli was unable to get his sons to change their ways. So, God held Eli and his entire household responsible.

In 1 Samuel 3:2, when it refers to Eli’s eyes growing weak, it symbolizes Israel’s inability to receive visions because its spiritual leadership refused to turn from its evil ways.  It was within this context that God calls Samuel. God calls out three times but Samuel did not know it was the voice of the Lord. After the third time, Eli recognizes that it is the Lord calling the boy. Eli tells Samuel how to respond.  It is amazing to me that Eli could not get his own sons to listen and respond to the word of the Lord, but he could get Samuel to respond. So, what was different about Samuel? Samuel had a desire to obedient to the word of the Lord. 

Many of us are just like Samuel in the sense that we are not sure if it is the Lord who is doing the calling. The first step to hearing the call of the Lord is being able to discern if it is God who is doing the calling. This requires a process of discernment.  Keep in mind that God called three times before Samuel finally answered
on the fourth time.  He needed Eli to help him discern that it was the voice of the Lord. This often requires a
person who can help you work through the process. In Samuel’s case it was Eli. This person is often referred to as a mentor.  Mentors are wise and trusted counselors.  After discerning that it is the voice of God calling, the next step is discerning what God is specifically calling you to do and God’s vision for your ministry. For example, you may sense a call to preach but that does not necessarily mean you are called to serve as a pastor. You could be called to be a lay speaker,  evangelist, or a deacon. In the case of Samuel, God’s call was both visual and
  audible. God called him but God also supplied a vision. The same is true for us. God both calls/summons us to a ministry, and God provides the vision to carry out that call.


What is a calling?


What is a prophet? What is a priest?


Have you heard a call from God? Did you answer the call?


Are you going through a period of discernment?


Write down what you think our church and community would look like if we all answered God’s call.


If you feel that God is calling you to a particular ministry area, please inform the pastor.

Connect to Us: Read Hosea 11:1-11
In much of the book of Hosea, God appears to be extremely angry with the people of Israel. God appears to be an angry Father who is ready to open up a can of whooping on his children. Take a look at the following
sub-headings from my bible: Chapter 2: Israel Punished and Restored, Chapter 4: The Charge Against Israel, Chapter 5: Judgment Against Israel, Chapters 6&7: Israel Unrepentant, Chapter 8: Israel to Reap the Whirlwind, Chapters 9 &
10: Punishment for Israel, Chapter 11: God’s Love for Israel, Chapter 12 Israel’s Sin, Chapter 13: The Lord’s Anger Against Israel, and Chapter 14: Repentance to Bring Blessing.  If you were to simply thumb through the pages of this prophetic text, you might come to the same conclusion as the great awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards
famously who preached “We are Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God.”  While I agree that God does get angry, I contend that anger is not the essence of who God is. 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. Love is the essence of who God is, not anger.  Many of us have embedded theologies or ways of thinking about God that come from our own experiences with our family of origin, culture, and religious background.  While the Old Testament is filled with plenty of examples of God’s wrath, it is also filled with acts of grace/love.  For example, shortly after Adam and Eve sin in Genesis Chapter 3, they hide their nakedness by covering their bodies with fig legs. Can you say OUCH!!!  Who wants to wear fig leaf underwear, it is guaranteed to chaff and irritate.  In an act of grace God makes comfortable clothes for them from animal skin.  God also evicts them from the Garden. You see God is both just and loving. While some of the chapters in Hosea focus on the anger of God and the punishment of Israel, chapters 3, 11, and 14 focus on the love of God for God’s people. 

Scripture in Context
In the first chapter, Hosea was told by the Most High God to marry an adulterous woman and have children of unfaithfulness.  Hosea was obedient to God and he married Gomer as a prophetic symbolic
action. This prophetic symbolic action paints a clear picture of nature of the relationship that the Triune God had with Israel. God had been a faithful husband and father to Israel but Israel had been unfaithful to God. 
In chapter two Hosea threatens to strip his wife naked, expose her in the day, and kill her with thirst.  Once again, the point is to make the audience understand how God feels through the prophetic symbolic action of Hosea. This in no way justifies the abuse of women. In chapter 3, God tells Hosea to reconcile with his wife, even though she had done nothing to deserve reconciliation. Hosea did as God commanded. This prophetic symbolic act demonstrates how God extends grace to the people of Israel.  Even though the people did not deserve reconciliation, God would reconcile with them.
In Chapter 11, Israel/Ephraim is personified as a child, and we see the true essence of God has a loving father. God talks about Israel just as a parent would who has been heart broken by a wayward child. God reminisces about
the good times that they enjoyed together up until Israel learned to walk. The point here is that Israel learned to walk, and then walked away from God. Even though Israel walks away from God, God pursues Israel. While God is angry, God’s love is greater than God’s anger. The God who is love pursues Israel. God then decides that he will make Israel a great nation again if they repent from their sins. So what were their sins? Their sins were idolatry, failure to care for the most vulnerable members of their society, and unholy alliances with foreign governments. Therefore, God wanted them to give up their worship of idol gods, care for the least, the last, and the lost, and give up their dependence on foreign military power and foreign trade.
 
Connect Heads:
What is the grace of God?

How does God pursue us?

Connect Hearts:
Share a time with the group when you turned your back on God but
God pursued you.

Share a time when other people turned their backs on you, but God
remained faithful to you.

Connect Hands:
Write down things that may be idols in your life?

Connection Challenge:

Make a sacrificial offering to the Lord this month. 
Read Romans 12:9-13
Pray each day
Devote 15 minutes to silent meditation




 

Connect to Us: Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
This Week’s Connection Topic: Giving
I will give 10% of my financial resources for the growth of God’s kingdom . Malachi 3:24, Luke 3:12-14.
Purpose: To encourage us to give extravagantly
Human need: Giving helps us become what God wants us to be.

In today’s text, Paul is encouraging Corinthians to be generous. Paul quotes the example of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 as a means of encouraging the Corinthians to practice generosity. At the same time, he is encouraging the Macedonians to practice generosity by quoting the Corinthians.  It seems as though Paul was trying to capitalize upon the competitive giving spirit among the churches. So what was Paul’s purpose? Paul is trying to raise money for the Christian church at Jerusalem. One could argue that Paul was trying to get Corinthian and Macedonian churches to pay their apportionments to support the mission of the church in Jerusalem. The church at Jerusalem was poor in comparison to the wealth of the churches in Corinth and Macedonia.

In 2 Corinthians 9, our key text, Paul has grown concerned that the Corinthians may let him down. The purpose of this part of the letter to the church is to encourage the Corinthians to give generously, so that the Macedonians will continue to do likewise. The purpose of this Morningside Letter is to encourage you to give generously.

Ways that We Give
The great theologian, William Barclay, said that there are least four ways that in which people may give their gifts. These four are duty, self-satisfaction, prestige, and love’s compulsion.  While duty, self-satisfaction, and prestige are not wholly bad reasons for giving, love’s compulsion should be our primary reason for giving. Therefore, giving the way God intends for us to give is not primarily a matter of how much one has in his or her pocket book, but it is a matter of the depth of God’s love in one’s heart.  It is from deep well of love in our hearts that we are able to give extravagant.

What is Extravagant Generosity
So what does it mean to give extravagantly? United Methodist Bishop and author of Five Practice of Fruitful Living, Robert Schnase says, “Extravagant does not correspond with giving that is merely dutiful, required, burdensome, mandated, or simply doing one’s part. Extravagant denotes a style and attitude of giving that is unexpectedly joyous, without predetermined limits, from the heart, extraordinary, over-the-top, and propelled by great passion. Extravagant Generosity is giving to God as God has given to us.”
Connect Heads:
What does it mean to give extravagantly?

Connect Hearts:
Search your own heart. Why do you give? Duty? Self-satisfaction? Prestige? Love’s compulsion?

Have you ever received extravagant generosity from someone else? How did you feel?

Connect Hands:
 Write down things that we can do to help us become more generous?

Connection Challenge:

Make a sacrificial offering to the Lord this month.

Read Genesis 3:1-13

Pray each day

Devote 15 minutes to silent meditation.

Connect to Us: Read  2 Kings 4:8-17
Purpose: To encourage us to make room for God and new people in our lives.
Human need: We need to be hospitable to God and others, so that we are able to truly live.
Hospitality: (noun)  friendly, welcoming, and generous treatment offered to guests or strangers. 
 
In this week’s scripture lesson, we are blessed with the image of a woman who offers radical hospitality
to a virtual stranger.  We have much to learn from the Shunammite woman who is willing to build an addition to
her home to accommodate a stranger.  What can we learn about being hospitable from the woman in this story? 
 
First of all, when Elisha arrived in Shunem, the woman urged him to stay for a meal. (2 Kings 4:8).  The use of the word urged shows that she didn’t just ask him.  Her tone had to be more convincing, more open, almost as if she is
saying:  it would be my pleasure for you to stay for a meal.   
 
Also, after he stayed for one meal, every time he stopped in that area he came by for other meals.  This indicates that she continued to open her home and her heart to this man as time went on, forming relationship
with him.  True hospitality does not stop with one act—often, a simple act is just the beginning. 
 
After the man was coming by for meals on a regular basis (often, according to verse 9), the woman suggested
to her husband that they make a room for him to stay in when he stops in.  Not only did she notice that the man
might need food, but she realized that, as often as he came to town, he would
need shelter as well.  Therefore, she had a room built for him on her roof. The woman was sensitive to the human
needs of Elisha.  It is interesting that the word “Shunem” can mean double rest. The room was a place where Elisha
could rest. The Holy Spirit moved in the woman so that she was able to detect
other needs of her guest. 

In a world full of people, it can be difficult to determine who to be hospitable to.  We should have an attitude of hospitality so that at least every person we encounter will see our love for God and our love for our neighbor.  Sometimes God will speak to us specifically about being intentionally hospitable to a particular person or a particular group.   In order to hear God speak, we must first make room for God in our lives. The world is a noisy place, there a lot of competing voices trying to arrest our attention.  A passionate prayer and devotional life will help us hear God’s voice. 

Connecting Heads:
What does it mean to practice radical
hospitality?

How can we practice radical hospitality?

Connecting Hearts:
Has any one every showed hospitality to you when other people where
rude or hostile toward you. How did this experience make you
feel?
 
Are you making room for God and new people in your life? What is the process for making room?

Connecting Hands:
How can we practice radical hospitality outside of the comfort of our homes? Now do it.

Connection Challenge:
Pray for ten minutes a day.

Read scripture for ten minutes a day.

Read Scripture: 2 Kings 4:14-21