This is the Wilkins Family and from left to right is Duane, Miah (now days taller than his Mom), our youngest daughter, Natalie, Erika (a bit taller now), and Alesha. As already mentioned, they served for years in The Gambia, West Africa, and are currently on a leave of absence from ABWE. Currently they live in New York State.

As you have read God's Word, have you ever given consideration to the importance not only of the very words, but their sequence. In the book of First Samuel we read in the fourth chapter of Israel going to war against their enemy, the Philistines. Although God had given them a prophet who had been duly recognized as such throughout the land, from "Dan to Beersheba" as Scripture says, there is no record that Israel bothered to consult him, or to pray, or to in any fashion seek Divine guidance. They then suffered a crushing defeat. As is common when we have been defeated, we scramble to come up with a better and improved plan. Their brilliant plan was to send to Shiloh, some 35 miles north of the battle front, and have the Ark of The Covenant of God brought to them. Accompanying the Ark were two notable bums, total losers, but these qualities not withstanding, they were ordained priests and the sons of Eli. The names of these two profligate and undisciplined lads were Hophni and Phinehas.

With a great deal of hoopla and confidence the soldiers of Israel again marched into battle against the Philistines and this time with their secret weapon, the Ark of God. The battle was exceedingly short, or at least the Bible's description of it is. Again Israel was defeated and even worse, the Ark was captured by the pagan, profane Philistines and Hophni and Phinehas were killed. This devastating news was taken back to the 98-year old and very obese Eli who fell from his chair upon hearing the news. The fall broke his neck and he died. The wife of Phinehas was pregnant and went into labor and died in childbirth. Before taking her last breath, she cried out, "Name the baby, Ichabod!" The meaning of Ichabod is, "the glory has departed." She was referring to the Ark being taken from Israel and falling into profane hands.

Chapter five of First Samuel describes all the grief that came to the Philistines during the seven months the Ark was in their possession. Chapter six tells how the Philistines managed to get the Ark back to Israel and in Chapter seven we are told that the Ark is back in Israel and placed in a private home where it remained for the next 20 years. Now, after being defeated twice in battle and losing the Ark of God to their enemy, Israel is prepared to listen to Samuel. Verse three reads, "If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." Notice first of all that this is one of those IF/THEN propositions. But it was the sequence of the words I wanted to point out. This verse can be summarized in this way: RETURN, REJECT, PREPARE, SERVE.

To wander from God seems to be our natural disposition. "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love," is how the hymnist put it. And the farther and longer we wander the more we adopt the pagan and profane ways of the culture surrounding us. It was true of the people of Israel, it is true of us. Realizing that we are His and should walk in His ways we often forget that God's pathway to Him is today the same as it has always been. RETURN. To whom or to what? To the Lord. It is from Him that we departed, it is to Him that we must return. Our wayward and downward journey began in the heart, our return must be a return of the heart. It is a heart matter. And it must be with ALL our heart. You doubt it? Go back and read the verse. Next, REJECT. As Samuel said, "put away the foreign gods and Ashtaroth (a goddess of sex that was particularly loathesome to God) from among you." All four steps in this sequence are essential, none can be skipped over. One cannot RETURN, PREPARE, and SERVE and say, "I'll come back to the REJECTING part later and REJECT my vicious and vile addictions later one by one, gradually, as God enables me."

No! A thousand times, No! That is not God's way. God's way is to RETURN whole heartedly to Him, then to view those vile, pagan, profane foreign gods and the goddess of sex as He views them. To utterly hate and despise them. To totally REJECT them. You doubt it? Go back and read the verse. Then we are at the place where we can PREPARE our hearts before the Lord. We can absorb and interact with His Word in our hearts. Heart preparation. The hardened, packed down soil of our heart can and must be broken up to accept the good seed. Finally, we are refitted and outfitted to SERVE the Lord. This is the sequence. Is even the sequence of the words of Scripture divinely inspired? Yes.

One more thing from this seventh chapter. Well, two more things. First, the people of Israel did as Samuel instructed. They returned, rejected, prepared, and served the Lord. And Samuel gathered them together at Mizpah, that is, "Watchtower." How very significant. Having returned to the God we love, we must ever be vigilant, on the watch. We never want to stray again. And there at they "drew water and poured it out before the Lord." This, we must conclude, is symbolic of something, but of what? I submit to you that it was symbolic for them of what they had just done, it was symbolic of the spiritual transaction of returning, rejecting, preparing, and serving. Think of it. Think of the importance of water. Think how it slakes the thirst and refreshed and renews. Then picture taking a pitcher of clear, clean, cool water and instead of refreshing yourself, you pour it out onto the ground and there it is absorbed. Now, put the water back into the pitcher. It cannot be done. Your action of pouring out is irreversible. In a word, you have surrendered the water in totality and finality to the ground before you. That is surrender. That is the symbol. That is the picture. Are we prepared to do this with our lives, our wills, our plans, our future, our family, our all? All to Jesus to thus surrender?