Life Around "The Fire"
This podcast is dedicated to those wanting to experience a living and real relationship with God as well as growing together in love for one another. We consider that to be a true sign of spiritual growth as we journey along The Way. If this is you then come along with us as we co-operate with God in what He is doing around the corner and around the world!
Life Around "The Fire"
Beyond Broken: Finding Freedom in a Dysfunctional World
When life's dysfunction threatens to overwhelm us, we need the powerful reminder that God is greater. This deeply personal message explores how our heavenly Father exceeds any brokenness we face, whether in mental health struggles, addictions, family trauma, or relational difficulties.
Through the remarkable story of Samuel, we witness divine intervention in profoundly dysfunctional circumstances. Born to Hannah in a tension-filled polygamous household, then handed at age three to an elderly priest whose sons were stealing offerings and engaging in sexual immorality, Samuel's upbringing was far from ideal. Yet God spoke directly to this young boy, calling him to become one of Israel's greatest prophets and judges despite his surroundings. The powerful lesson? Your dysfunction is not bigger than God.
The host vulnerably shares his own journey of creating dysfunction through wounded bitterness that led to unbelief, immorality, and substance abuse. His testimony reveals how these choices impacted his family—particularly his sons—with tragic consequences. Yet even in this deeply painful story, God's redemptive power shines through. "He has forgiven me much and because of that he's placed his love in my heart and I can now love much."
This message offers genuine hope for anyone trapped in dysfunction or suffering its consequences. God doesn't just rescue us from difficult situations—He transforms them into platforms for ministry to others experiencing similar struggles. The journey through brokenness becomes preparation for purpose. Most importantly, relationship with God brings freedom from guilt, fear and shame that no circumstance can diminish. Your greatest wounds may become your greatest ministry. What dysfunction are you ready to overcome?
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
I'm going to make a statement concerning the greatness of God. To begin with, we're looking at the book of 1 Samuel, and in the first couple of chapters we see some pretty incredible things, and I want to do a little overview of that and then tell a story and make a few points involving this. One particular point concerning the greatness of God, and that is this God is greater, more loving, more powerful. He's capable of doing things in your life that exceed any dysfunction you might be facing, whether that dysfunction happens to be in the area of mental health, chemical dependency, a broken family, family upbringing, marriage problems, the dysfunction that you're facing is not bigger than God. In fact, if your dysfunction is bigger than God, your God is too small. Your God is too small Because God, our Father, god the Son, god, the Holy Spirit, the wonderful three in one, the one in three, the one true God, is greater than any and all dysfunction. In fact, he's capable of taking the dysfunction or the difficult situation that we've encountered in our own lives. Maybe we've produced them or they've been forced upon us. Regardless, he is capable of turning those things around and actually using them for instruments of benefiting other people's lives. He could turn them around for good.
Speaker 1:Now in the book of 1 Samuel we pick up the story with a gentleman by the name of Elkanah. And Elkanah was from the tribe of Levi. He was a Levite, a Kohathite In fact. He had in his lineage a particular responsibility in the area of serving God. But he was not from the line of Aaron, he was not a descendant of Aaron, he was not an Aaronic Levite, so he wasn't a priest in the sense that he would serve in the temple, like Eli, hophni and Phinehas were priests serving in the temple. In the book of 1 Samuel we find that out right away. And Elkanah was a good man. However, he had a polygamous relationship. He had two wives, hannah and Penina.
Speaker 1:And Hannah and Penina had a rivalry because Hannah was barren, she wasn't able to produce children, was barren, she wasn't able to produce children. And Penina had the ability to produce children and she rubbed it in Hannah's face. So there was tension in the household Until one day Hannah, in her desperation, just poured her heart out to God and Eli, the priest at the time, thought she was drunk because she was mouthing her prayers but nothing was coming out vocally. So he thought she was drunk. He said put away that wine. She was far be it from me, lord, I'm not one of those. And then Eli said well, whatever you have prayed, god grant you prayer. Well, lo and behold, hannah went home and Elkanah loved Hannah in a way that was different than his relationship with Penina. Penina was more of a producer of children, but Hannah was really Elkanah's love, and so the scripture says that they had relations, they knew each other and, lo and behold, hannah conceived, and she had made a vow that if she conceived she would give that child over to the service of the Lord all the days of her life and a razor would not touch his hair on his body, meaning he'd be a Nazirite.
Speaker 1:So Samuel was born, and Samuel means God hears, and God heard Hannah's prayer and so she raised Hannah, raised Samuel until he was weaned, which probably had been about the age of three. But get this, the household was still not that happy household. There was still tension, but Hannah now had some sense of vindication. But still that vibe, that unhealthy, you know what I'm talking about. In a house that's got that uncomfortable vibe, things just aren't right. And Samuel was raised in that Now he had a loving father and a loving mother, but there was an atmosphere that was unhealthy.
Speaker 1:Now, at the age of three, hannah fulfills her vow and presents this young boy, who was raised in a loving but tense environment, dysfunctional hands, him over to an elderly priest by the name of Eli. Eli was advanced in age, and so here comes a three-year-old boy, and Hophni and Phineas were Eli's sons, and they were some characters, man. They would steal from the offerings the Lord to God, straight from the altar or while they were even still boiling in a pot to prepare them for a sacrifice still boiling in a pot to prepare them for a sacrifice. They would take portions for themselves, give some to their dad, but also keep some, and who knows what else they would do with it Perhaps sell it, get rich, whatever throw parties. They didn't really have any regard for the things of God. They treated the priesthood like a job that they were entitled to, and so they were not only unhealthy that way, but they also were having sex with some of the temple workers, some of the women that were serving in the temple. They would have sexual relationships with them, and so the environment you get it.
Speaker 1:The environment was really spiritually on a decline, and Eli wasn't doing really anything to correct his sons. He was kind of like letting it happen because they would give him some food and Eli was getting fat. Literally he was a fat man, big, heavy man, fat from the offerings, and his sons were running roughshod. And Israel, the spiritual atmosphere, was on a decline. And the three-year-old boy is being raised in that environment. Talk about dysfunction. His mother hands him over, he's no longer in the house that he grew up in, he's in a strange environment with strange people doing strange things and he's supposed to be learning the ways of God. Talk about some strikes against you as a person or him as a man, young man, right, put yourself in his place. And yet, at about the age of 12, so nine years, underneath this kind of environment, with Eli training him up, hoffney and Phineas doing their thing, the atmosphere, the vibe again right, the vibe, the dysfunctional vibe that he was in, could have shut just about anyone down.
Speaker 1:But at about the age of 12, like I said, at about the age of 12, god speaks audibly to Samuel. He calls him into the role of being a prophet and a judge in Israel, one of the greatest. But at the age of 12, at the age of 12, he didn't know the voice of the Lord until then. He was just going through what was in front of him things to do. You know how it is Just put one foot in front of him. Things to do. You know how it is, just put one foot in front of the other. And he was learning who knows what. He was learning All the things that he saw.
Speaker 1:I mean, it wasn't always pretty, let's put it that way. Sometimes when we read the scriptures it can be kind of sterile. We look at it like it's almost too good to be true or we don't really necessarily see the actual color commentary. It really is going on and things were unhealthy. And yet God speaks to Samuel in the midst of that dysfunction and tells Samuel what he's going to be doing. Powerful God is bigger than any dysfunction. He was bigger than that dysfunction that Samuel was raised in A home that was a little bit tense, becoming a child in an environment that he didn't even know anything about, three years old, little bit tense. Becoming a child in an environment that he didn't even know anything about, three years old, being raised by an elderly man, stepbrothers that were wild. And yet God spoke to him and imparted into him something that was bigger than that dysfunction. He can do the same thing in your life. He does it. In fact, he used some of those things that Samuel was raised in to help him become a better prophet and a better judge, because he understood people.
Speaker 1:There's something about experiencing tough stuff in life that equips us to minister to people that are going through tough stuff. What we go through, we can actually use that to help others. When we're out of that situation and God brings us out, he delivers us from evil. So that's one of the points in prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. Concerning prayer, he said we pray like this, in this way, in this fashion, and part of it was to say God, deliver us from evil, amen, being delivered from evil. Evil is a heavy thing. Evil is a real thing and evil can suck the life out of anybody, no matter who you are. But God is bigger than evil. He can bring us out of evil and he did that in Sam's life. He can do it in yours Now.
Speaker 1:Dysfunction it is humbling for me and that's good, because periodically it's important, real level. In my own life, I have been the person who has created dysfunctional environments not always, but I have and the ones that I created were due to first. The first one that I created was due to the fact that I had let hurt, bitterness and unbelief get into my life because I was wounded in the church. Church life had wounded me deeply and I thought if this is what this is all about, who needs it? And if that, in fact, this is what God's all about, who needs him? And I let bitterness turn into unbelief and unbelief started to choke out the life, not only within me, but it began to affect the people around me, because some of the behaviors that I chose to do while that was going on was immoral. I became an immoral man, sexually immoral. I became immoral in my thoughts. I became literally someone who abused alcohol and other drugs because I thought well, you know what, if this is all there is, I might as well enjoy myself, regardless of what the effects are in other people's lives. Let them deal with it, and deal with it. They had to, in fact, because of my stubbornness, my woundedness, my just unforgiveness and unbelief.
Speaker 1:The example that I set for my sons I had three sons the example that I set for them when they were in their teen years, because that's when I checked out things. They were raised in a dysfunctional setting, broken home, and it affected one of my sons the other one so deeply that he made choices in life that ultimately led to his early death at the age of 36. Now, do I take full blame for that? Perhaps not full blame, but I take a significant amount of it, because I was the farmer who let the fox come in the gate and get into the chicken coop. I could have prevented that, and it pains me to know that that was in part what took place and a consequence of my own rebellion and unbelief, dysfunction and unbelief, dysfunction. But but God is bigger than that. He has forgiven me much and because of that he's placed his love in my heart and I can now love much.
Speaker 1:I can have compassion on people who've done crazy things and have created some real complicated situations, but I can also say that there's hope outside of it. You don't have to stay in it. God can lead you through it and into something bigger and better, and that's his presence. His presence alone is worth it. Regardless if you do anything, being in relationship with God and in good relationship with others is worth it. Everything else is a bonus. Everything else is a bonus, but God is bigger than any dysfunction, bigger than problems that those things create within our minds. I can say for a fact this very day I'm a free man. I don't have guilt, fear or shame. It's not a fairy tale, it's not some sort of Shangri-La, it's a reality.
Speaker 1:There were some significant processes that I had to go through, but through is the opposite word he led me through. It's the opposite word he led me through. Deliver us from evil. Through it not just to it or in it Not just a temptation, but a deliverance. God is bigger than any dysfunction. He was bigger than the dysfunction Sammy was raised in. He's bigger than the dysfunction that I created, and now he has given me an opportunity to share things with others around the world that I could never have dreamed of.
Speaker 1:But again, that's the bonus. The real, real, real prize is my relationship with God. It's right, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I'm a citizen of his kingdom, I'm free, and when the sun sets free Jesus, that person is free. Indeed, you can walk on that, I guarantee you. And in fact, if some of the things that you've experienced in life are very difficult, that could just mean that there's a very great call upon your life to do significant things. But again, things are not the prize.
Speaker 1:Relationship with God and with one another, that's the prize For us to be one even as Jesus and the Father are one with the Spirit, one In perfect love, in perfect harmony. Peace, joy. Holiness is the freedom from evil. Holiness has no evil in it. God is holy. He's called us to be holy, just like he said let there be light. He said be holy. He said let there be light, and there was light. He said be holy. We're going to be holy. We're going to be free from evil, the dysfunction that evil brings. We're going to be free from it now and completely, at the end of this age.
Speaker 1:Hallelujah, let's pray. Father, god, you alone are God. There is no one greater than you. There's nothing greater than you. There's no dysfunction that's greater than you. And I honor you, we honor you and we say that, holy Spirit, you're capable of leading us in the paths of righteousness for the namesake of Jesus. So we invite you to do that. And, jesus, we honor your name. We exalt you as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, savior of our lives. I place my faith in you and stand here in your name and declare that these things are right and true and they'll be fulfilled in our day and age. And I say once again amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, we love you. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire, at gmailcom. That's our email address, or type in lifearoundthefire. Look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, god bless you. Adios amigos.