Morning Musings: Judges 13:13

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“And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Manoah didn’t believe his wife.  The text doesn’t come right out and say this, but I suspect that’s what was really going on here.  And think about why: In that culture a childless couple was considered cursed by God.  It was a step worse than a couple who couldn’t have a son.  This was the life of Manoah and his wife.  Then she comes to him out of the blue and announces that God told her she’s going to get pregnant and have a son and that the son is going to save Israel from the Philistines who had been oppressing them for a generation.  This would be a little like someone coming and telling you he had a dream that you were going to get that big promotion at work and a big raise and you won the lottery as well.  Naturally, he was suspicious. Read the rest…

Steep Rates

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This past Sunday we began a new teaching series called Hard Sayings.  For the next few weeks we are going to be examining some of the hard things Jesus said to see if we can’t make some sense out of them.  We’ll see if perhaps even though they are hard, they’re also just as important for us to know as some of the easier things like, “For God so loved the world…”  Stay tuned in the weeks ahead as we journey together to see that everything Jesus said is important…even if we don’t like the way it sounds at first.

 

Steep Rates

What are some of your favorite sayings of Jesus?  Just shout them out as you think of them if you are willing.  As I was sitting writing this a few stood out to me: “I am the good shepherd;” “I will be with you always, even to the very end of the age;” “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest;” “Do not be anxious about your life;” “For God so loved the world…” “Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do;” “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it;” and there are probably more, but these are what came to mind first.  Those are all really nice and encouraging sayings.  It would be great if the things Jesus said were pretty much limited to these kinds of things.  You know what I’m talking about: things such as, “I love you,” “I’ll take care of you,” “I’ll give you eternal life,” and the like. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 12:7

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“Jephthah judged Israel six years.  Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Most of the Judges receive some kind of a summary statement that the people sought the Lord for the extent of their leadership and then turned away from Him afterwards.  Jephthah just gets this note that he died and was buried in Gilead.  This is a reflection of the continued decline in the spiritual state of the people.  They cry out to God for help, but don’t even both to turn to Him when He answers.  They are reaching a dangerously low point.  I think there are a couple of reasons for this. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 2:14

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“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

We recently purchased a new house–our first.  We are pretty excited about it still.  Before we could move in, there was quite a bit of work to do including taming the jungle the previous couple of owners had allowed to grow up in the backyard.  With some excellent and most appreciated help from several of the men in our church, we got that and whole lot of other work finished. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 8:33-35

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“As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.  And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The epitaph for Gideon is presented as an indictment of the people of Israel.  They were so incorrigibly wicked that they turned away from God at the first chance they had and didn’t honor the memory of this great leader.  But, I tend to see this as more of an indictment of Gideon himself.  He may have fulfilled the calling God placed on him to free the people from the oppression of the Midianites, but he was a terrible leader and not a very good person to boot. Read the rest…