Our Speaker during Family Bible Hour was Mr Steve Modrzejewski.

His message was based on Samuel's life and the lessons we can learn from it (1 Samuel,chapters 1 to 5).  Here's a quick summary; The full message is available on DVD; please see Romy:

Now there was a certain man...and his name was Elkanah...And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah:  and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children...but the Lord had shut up her womb... 

Lesson 1 from above:  God uses our personal circumstances for His glory and for other people to learn by.

Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord...Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord:  for men abhorred the offering of the Lord...Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto their father, becase the Lord would slay them.

Lesson 2 from above:  As leadership goes, so goes the Nation

...but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.  Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. 

Lesson 3 from above:  God knows when there's no possibility of change for a person; God will have His way.

...Israel was smitten before the Philistines:  and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men...Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies...And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again...And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent:  and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.   

Lessons 4 from above:  Religious practice does not equal spiritual reality.  The Isralites had placed their faith on the ark of the covenenant, and not on the Lord (a picture of Man's attempt to get close to God). 

When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.  And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord.  And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him...But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. 

Lesson 5 from above:  God shares His glory with no one. 


The full message, in context, is on DVD.  Please see Romy.