“After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Sometimes God works through our strengths. Sometimes our weaknesses. In Samson’s case, the latter was most definitely the case. Samson has many weaknesses, but his near total inability to choose wisely when it came to women was very near the top of the list. Read the rest…
“When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is a really encouraging verse, but an often misunderstood one. Jesus is promising to have our back when we put ourselves on the line for His sake and find ourselves in the hot seat because of it. He is not telling us that we can be lazy when it comes to preparing for the possibility that we might find ourselves there. Read the rest…
In this final part of our series, Hard Sayings, we are faced with the ultimate reality: Following Jesus is worth everything. After blowing the disciples’ minds, Jesus makes this point rather graphically for them. Keep reading to see how and stay tuned for our next teaching series, Grace in Hard Times, as we walk through the book of Job.
It’s Worth It
Have you ever experienced the disorienting phenomenon known as sticker shock? Let’s say you’re walking through a department store and there you see it: the dress. What you might possibly need the dress for is entirely beside the point. What your husband might say about you buying the dress doesn’t even factor into the decision-making process. You must have this dress. Somehow you know that it will fit perfectly so you don’t even bother trying it on. You take it up to the counter, gently lay it on the counter, and smile at the cashier. Then it comes. The cashier scans the barcode, punches a couple of buttons on the register, and says, “That’ll be…” Well, I’m not sure what your price-point is, but whatever it is, this dress is beyond that…well beyond that. And it hits you: Sticker shock. It may be the dress, but…that price. Ouch. Read the rest…
“It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
I read this verse for the first time in a long time the other day and it got my attention as it hasn’t any of the previous times I’ve read it. I honestly have struggled with it some. This is the fifth reason we are given that the nations of Canaan were left in the Promised Land. Which one are we supposed to take as true? Read the rest…
“When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed my voice.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
The people of Israel were hurting and broken and desperate. They were starving. The Midianites were taking everything. They were keeping them weak and unable to mount any kind of a meaningful resistance to their reign of terror. The Israelites were but a couple of generations into the land God had provided for them and it looked like he had abandoned them to this enemy for good. Now, the reality was that it had only been like this for a few years, but when you’re trapped in misery, a few years can seem like a lifetime. They did the only thing they could: Scrape together a meager survival and cry out to the Lord. Read the rest…
The Nexus 