Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 1-2
Samuel is undoubtedly one of the greatest men who ever lived. But, as we will see in subsequent readings, even great men of God have their own personal failings. In our reading today we see the birth of Samuel and Hannah’s beautiful prayer. We also see Eli’s failure to discipline his sons. An unidentified “man of God” condemned Eli for his failure to discipline his boys. This messenger said that this failure caused Eli to honor his sons more than God. God commands us to discipline our children, and our failure to do so is to exalt our children above the God of heaven. Undisciplined children are a dishonor to their parents, the church, and to God Himself. There is a disgraceful lack of respect for authority in our society today. There is no respect for the rule of law or for those in authority such as policeman or our enlisted men and women. But this lack of respect does not begin in the teen or young adult years; it begins from the earliest age in the home. As a husband and father of public school teachers, I can tell you that undisciplined children are as an oozing sore in our schools and a future blight on society. A lack of discipline in the home led to the demise of God’s plan for His people, and it is leading our nation down the road to ruin. Worse still, we now have a generation with no respect for the divine appointments in the church, which has led to the demise of many local congregations.
New Testament reading: Matthew 24-25
“They never had any oil to begin with.” This is the only logical conclusion concerning the five foolish virgins among those who believe in the doctrine of “once saved, always saved.” Any time a professed believer falls away, such is always explained, “He never was saved to begin with.” In the parable of the ten virgins, the oil represents readiness to meet the bride. All ten virgins are prepared to meet the bridegroom (i.e., saved, Matt 25:1). It is not until verse 5 that half of them are found unprepared (e.g., lost). At some point, they lost their readiness (salvation). I guess they never really had any oil to start with. Or, we might be better off to conclude the doctrine of the impossibility of apostasy (once saved, always saved) is false.
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