Love is Not Easy
Bradon: Jon, can you tell me what I am thinking about right now?
Jon: uh, something about food, oh, better yet, coffee!
Bradon: I mean, easy guess, that’s on my mind 90 % of the time!
Jon: Have you ever felt that you could predict something or that you knew what was going to happen before it happened?
Bradon: Tune in to our next episode to see why Jon asks such funny questions.
Discussion Episode
1 Samuel 14
About the Story
Bradon: You know what, I am good! I have found that as of January 2022, I have turned a corner on the whole global pandemic thing. I feel lighter and am excited about summer and the ministry we get to do here at Covenant Bay. Life has challenged me in a few ways and has pushed me to grow closer to Jesus!
Jon: That is awesome! I appreciate the answer!
Bradon: How about you, friend? How are you?
Jon: You know I am probably not quite in the same positive space as you, but I am growing and finding life challenging me in new ways. For that, I am grateful.
Bradon: Thanks for sharing, and as always, if you want to reach out to us with questions or tell us how you are doing, please do! We love when you guys do that! Please find us at biblestorypod on Instagram!
Jon: or mail us a letter! Or carrier pigeon, or a telegraph!
Bradon: If anyone has a telegraph machine, and we get a message! I will pay you 20$
Jon: you heard it here! Someone has to come through!
Bradon: Alright, enough of Jon’s outdated references! Let’s get back into the saga of Samuel – and I mean saga – there has been a lot going on!
Jon: Absolutely, We are now in a part of Samuel and sauls story that is riddled with war. There are enemies of Israel wanting to fight or go to war from all corners.
Bradon: We have also read about Saul – who the people chose to be king even though Samual the prophet warned against it – that Saul is continually not following God’s orders or instruction.
Jon: Right, This story sounds pretty brutal actually – specifically what God orders Saul to do, but we can talk more about that as we go through.
Bradon: it is a good thing to note. As we read through, it is essential to remember some of the history of Israel and God and Saul the king.
Jon: it ends up being a rather complex situation
Bradon: absolutely!
Application
Bradon: Alright, so amid the difficulty of this story, what should our focus be?
Jon: Well, what do you think? How can we help someone understand the breadth of God’s love even when the story is hard to understand?
Bradon: I kind of like the idea that love is not easy.
Jon: hmm, go on.
Bradon: Well, I think we would like it to be. We would like it to be simple and laid out before us. But it isn’t. Jesus’ life and death were not easy either, and even though we both have relationships with God and are loved in that, it doesn’t mean that relationship or accepting that love is easy.
Jon: That’s great; I like that thought!
Bradon: makes sense?
Jon: I think so. I think we can all imagine a time when we have had a hard time loving someone or a hard time accepting the love of someone else.
Bradon: so, today’s lesson is that Love is not easy.
Jon: there is always a complex story behind it, and I think we saw that very clearly in our scripture today. So in light of what’s happening in our world with Russia and Ukraine. What do you think?
Bradon: Jesus in John 14:15-18 Very clearly, there is a connection between our obedience to God and our Love for God.
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,e who will never leave you. 17He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.
Jon: Right, but in today’s story, we see the Amalekites, who consistently tried to destroy or enslave the Israelites, were not at all trying to obey God. But Israel wasn’t exactly perfect in obeying God either!
Bradon: Right, we also know God is full of compassion and slow to anger. God gave the Amalekites decades to figure this out, and now it seems the most compassionate thing he can do is stop them from harming and destroying others.
Jon: To bring it back to today’s war, the most compassionate thing that anyone can do is stop Putin from harming and destroying others as soon as possible. I am not sure how best this is done.
Bradon: This is such a difficult situation, and we must continue to pray for our world leaders to make the best decisions to end this war as soon as possible. We need to be praying for those hurt or who have lost their homes and country. Pray that everyone in the world will come to know the truth.
Jon: I have to say we did not plan on this story for this week. My heart broke as we shared today’s story and talked about current events in Ukraine.
Bradon: Mine too!
