Judges 16:28, NIV
Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Why did God want us to know this story about Samson’s tragic life, and about the weaknesses that he never dealt with? Obviously not so that we might gloat or point a finger, but because his life demonstrates spiritual principles that are important for us to understand.

If there are areas in our life where we resist the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then in this area where we submit to our sinful nature, we give rights to the enemy. When we allow these areas of weakness to continue, refusing to acknowledge and deal with them, other areas of our life – such as our gifting and calling – will be affected.

Samson did not appreciate or value the gifting and calling that God had given him, and as a result he did not protect it from those who wanted to destroy it (the very people he was supposed to defeat). Samson had everything he needed to be the greatest leader in history. He had charisma, charm, supernatural strength and popularity, but his story is a tragic tale of wasted potential. He slept with the enemy!

However, Samson never stopped believing in God, even after… his hair was shaved off; his strength gone; his eyes gouged out; and his freedom stolen. In the end he called on God one more time. From this we can learn no matter how far we have fallen God will listen to our prayer and can still use us. It is never too late!

Samson’s life was compromised all the way through. Compromise always weakens us and brings us into destruction, as no man can serve two masters. Ultimately, compromise will lead us to death. Like Samson, if we sow to please our sinful nature from that nature we will reap destruction (Gal. 6:8).

In the end Samson realised his utter dependence on God and in spite of his sins and weaknesses he did accomplish his God given purpose. All five Philistine kings were crushed by the temple of Dagon, when God gave Samson the power to bring it down, killing himself at the same time.

As we look today at Samson’s life, we learn that if we willingly and repeatedly walk into temptations which lead us to sin, we will suffer the consequences of our disobedience, even though God may still use us to accomplish his will in the end. Samson understood the true source of his strength was God, but we see that he never understood the true purpose of this strength.

He called out to God to strengthen him just one more time, God heard and answered his prayer. It is never too late! It is extraordinary to see that despite his failure, he is mentioned as one of the heroes of faith, in Hebrews 11. When we fail let us run to God, not from God.

Prayer: We thank You Father that Samson is just like us in so many ways. And his story proves that You are a faithful God who can and does use people of faith no matter how imperfectly we lead our lives. Would You help us today to value the gifts and calling You have given to us and to follow You without compromise, to recognise our carnal nature and to deal with the weaknesses and sins that so easily beset us. Remind us that it is never too late to turn to you! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

NETS Training Programme Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Psalm 34:18, NIV
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Ecclesiastes 7:29, NIV
“This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

When I am praying for people, especially those who have suffered many things in their lives, I have in my mind a definition of Christian healing that God gave me many years ago at the outset of the work of Ellel Ministries – the restoration of God’s order in a person’s life. So I sometimes start by asking people the obvious questions about possible roots of disorder in their own lives and the lives of their parents and those whose influence and control they have been under down the years.

Often, however, I discover that some people are only looking for the healing of their present symptoms, and are not really interested in asking God what those roots of disorder actually are. As our Scripture implies, disorder is the fruit of mankind wanting to go after the many schemes that both men and women dream up for themselves – usually with a little help from the schemes of the devil that Paul warned us about in Ephesians Chapter 6! God created mankind upright, but following the schemes of man has resulted in a lack of uprightness. And none of us can escape the reality expressed by Paul in Galatians 6:5 that there is a law of sowing and reaping which applies to our lives as well as our crops.

It is a sad fact that, in the stories of the Kings of Israel, the Bible tells us that many of their problems were caused by things like a lack of uprightness in their lives or because they were not wholehearted in following the Lord. As I read this Scripture afresh I felt God challenging me to examine my own heart and ask Him to show me any areas of my life where the schemes of man have got in the way of the plans of God. May I encourage you to do the same and trust God as you seek His best for every area of your life.

Prayer: Lord, help me to see myself as You see me. Help me to see those places where there has been a lack of uprightness in the things I have done. I want to put things right with You and anyone else who has been affected by my decisions and actions. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →

Ecclesiastes 7:29, NIV
“This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

When I am praying for people, especially those who have suffered many things in their lives, I have in my mind a definition of Christian healing that God gave me many years ago at the outset of the work of Ellel Ministries – the restoration of God’s order in a person’s life. So I sometimes start by asking people the obvious questions about possible roots of disorder in their own lives and the lives of their parents and those whose influence and control they have been under down the years.

Often, however, I discover that some people are only looking for the healing of their present symptoms, and are not really interested in asking God what those roots of disorder actually are. As our Scripture implies, disorder is the fruit of mankind wanting to go after the many schemes that both men and women dream up for themselves – usually with a little help from the schemes of the devil that Paul warned us about in Ephesians Chapter 6! God created mankind upright, but following the schemes of man has resulted in a lack of uprightness. And none of us can escape the reality expressed by Paul in Galatians 6:5 that there is a law of sowing and reaping which applies to our lives as well as our crops.

It is a sad fact that, in the stories of the Kings of Israel, the Bible tells us that many of their problems were caused by things like a lack of uprightness in their lives or because they were not wholehearted in following the Lord. As I read this Scripture afresh I felt God challenging me to examine my own heart and ask Him to show me any areas of my life where the schemes of man have got in the way of the plans of God. May I encourage you to do the same and trust God as you seek His best for every area of your life.

Prayer: Lord, help me to see myself as You see me. Help me to see those places where there has been a lack of uprightness in the things I have done. I want to put things right with You and anyone else who has been affected by my decisions and actions. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

Click Here to read Peter Horrobin`s blog

Click here to find out more about a FREE TRIAL of Ellel 365 Continue reading →