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I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are Acts 13:20-21; 1 Samuel 3; 7; 8; 1 Chronicles 8.
1 Samuel 3 (Selected Verses)
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days.
Eli’s eyesight had grown dim, and he was lying down. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
The Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli. But Eli said, “I did not call; lie down again.” This happened three times, until Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. He said, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’”
The Lord came and called, “Samuel! Samuel!” And he said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel… I will punish Eli’s house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.”
Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me.” So Samuel told him everything. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him. All Israel knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for he revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord.
When I was 11 years old, I set up our kitchen step-stool in the living room, made a seat for my sister and reenacted the Lord’s Supper with her. I’m not certain it was blasphemous, but I ask God’s forgiveness if it was. That may fall into the Psalm 19:12 category of hidden faults: Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Perhaps I knew I would one day become a pastor.
I also recall thinking sometime later, I don’t want to be a pastor. You have to go to church every Sunday, and you have to stand up there and yell at people. Now I literally hate to miss worship. And I try earnestly not to yell at people. I believe the quiet voice of the Gospel message is the best tool of the Holy Spirit’s work.
But, oh, the pathway to arrive at that posture. It was years of poor school performance, tried and failed vocational pathways, and abandoned dreams that led me to that conversation late one night on Interstate 55. My friend Jerry said, “Dave, I think you’d be a better pastor than you would a real estate broker.” I couldn’t argue with his logic, but more important I realized that was actually God’s call on my life.
I recall the hymn that marked my seminary experience was, Hark the Voice of Jesus Calling, with it’s refrain, “Here am I, send me, send me!” The rest is history: 46 years of ministry (and still counting), challenges, joys, successes, and rich, rich blessings – one after another. Thanks be to God.
The refrain, here am I… is found in the reading today from 1 Samuel 3. Three times God comes to the boy Samuel before he realizes it is the Lord calling him, not Eli. The burden given to Samuel was heavy: announcing God’s judgment on Eli and his household, and serving as judge for Israel, and ultimately to anoint Saul to be Israel’s king – despite the warnings to the people against having a king.
This same refrain is found in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah has the vision of the Lord in his temple with the six-winged creatures flying back and forth, extolling the Lord God. Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” The heavenly being take an ember from the altar and cleanse the lips of Isaiah, and God calls, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then [Isaiah] says, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
God calls everyone to himself by the Gospel message, calling us to repentance and faith in Jesus. We are each sent as an emmasary of his grace and truth. The voice may not be as mysterious as it was to Samuel. It may not be as dramatic as it was to Isaiah. It may not be as clear as Jerry’s voice to me. But when the Holy Spirit calls us to faith, he calls us all to an adventure of faith to which we can say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant listens.”
David Bahn - Reflections 
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