Judges 11:1-4
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. And Gilead's wife also bore him sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.” Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.
After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel.
Tag: God uses the outcast
In the book of Judges we have the cycle of Israel falling into sin - God sends a nation to oppress them because of their sin - Israel cries out in repentance and asks for deliverance - God rises up a "judge" to lead them to repentance and into battle against the oppressor God sent - God delivers them from the oppressor He sent to oppress them because of their sin - The people rejoice - the people fall into sin and the cycle repeats. Here in the above passage we see the background of one of the "judges" God sends to lead them into Repentance and battle. Jephthah is an outcast. Throughout Judges we see the least of those in the nation become leaders. God does not start with the rich and mighty. He does not deliver them via the "top shelf" people - but rather through the "lowly." God is a God who values those He can use because they are the lowly. They don't have their own riches, status or power to rely on. God uses those who trust in Him and He is all they have. God sues those who have nothing so that at the end of the battle it is not their power, wealth or status they can point to, but rather their complete and utter trust in God. God uses fishermen to tell his story not royal scribes of learned universities. God uses the weak to confound the wise and the strong.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
Tag: Bitterness will consume you - Genesis 24-27
Genesis 27:41
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Tag: Bitterness will consume you
To say Esau was bitter would be an understatement. For a mere bowl of soup he gave up his birthright to his brother Jacob. By trickery Jacob, following his mother's lead, he also stolen the blessing from his father, Isaac. This all could have been voided if mom and dad would have communicated and trusted in God's plan. It is assumed, or imagined, that Rebekah did not tell Issac about God's Word that was spoken to her when she was carrying Esau and Jacob in her womb.
Genesis 25:23
And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”
God has ordained this to happen. Yet, instead of teaching their boys this truth and promise from God mom and dad turned it into a war. Esau's bitterness was birthed by Rebekah and Issac's failure to communicate and teach their sons the glory of God. Esau becomes a bitter man because he had his flesh in mind. Jacob is sent off to another country because Rebecca had her flesh in mind. Bitterness is a result of flesh thinking not faith thinking. The suffering in this family was because they failed to see the glory of God in His plans.
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Tag: Bitterness will consume you
To say Esau was bitter would be an understatement. For a mere bowl of soup he gave up his birthright to his brother Jacob. By trickery Jacob, following his mother's lead, he also stolen the blessing from his father, Isaac. This all could have been voided if mom and dad would have communicated and trusted in God's plan. It is assumed, or imagined, that Rebekah did not tell Issac about God's Word that was spoken to her when she was carrying Esau and Jacob in her womb.
Genesis 25:23
And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”
God has ordained this to happen. Yet, instead of teaching their boys this truth and promise from God mom and dad turned it into a war. Esau's bitterness was birthed by Rebekah and Issac's failure to communicate and teach their sons the glory of God. Esau becomes a bitter man because he had his flesh in mind. Jacob is sent off to another country because Rebecca had her flesh in mind. Bitterness is a result of flesh thinking not faith thinking. The suffering in this family was because they failed to see the glory of God in His plans.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Tag: Christian Love vs. Evil - Romans 12
Romans 12:9
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Tag: Christian Love
It is interesting, in the verse, that Paul ties love with abhorring evil. In today's society the interpretation would be love conquers all and if you love you will ignore evil. The the world love means allowing others to live in evil. To the modern thinker, interfering with the way someone lives, even if it is evil, is "unloving." Yet, what we see from Paul is that for our love to be "genuine" we must "abhor" what is evil. The one is not separated by the other. In fact, the Greek word for "genuine" carries the meaning to love without hypocrisy, but also carries the meaning to properly discern. We are to make sure our love is not polluted. Love can't look past sin. It must discern the difference between good and evil and choose good. Love can cover sin, but it cannot mix with sin. You can't love and ignore sin. You can conquer sin by love, but the two can't dwell in the same room and breath equally the same air. Christian love is to love the world and love the person in sin, but not to abhor the sin.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Tag: Christian Love
It is interesting, in the verse, that Paul ties love with abhorring evil. In today's society the interpretation would be love conquers all and if you love you will ignore evil. The the world love means allowing others to live in evil. To the modern thinker, interfering with the way someone lives, even if it is evil, is "unloving." Yet, what we see from Paul is that for our love to be "genuine" we must "abhor" what is evil. The one is not separated by the other. In fact, the Greek word for "genuine" carries the meaning to love without hypocrisy, but also carries the meaning to properly discern. We are to make sure our love is not polluted. Love can't look past sin. It must discern the difference between good and evil and choose good. Love can cover sin, but it cannot mix with sin. You can't love and ignore sin. You can conquer sin by love, but the two can't dwell in the same room and breath equally the same air. Christian love is to love the world and love the person in sin, but not to abhor the sin.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Tag: Fear of Man - Matthew 14-16
Matthew 14:6-9
But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given.
Tag: Fear of Man
Before we look at the above text, note what "King" Solomon tells us about being in authority and having a fear of man:
Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
Herod was not a real king. He was the ruler of a "client" state of Rome. His territory was subservient to Rome and he was "allowed" by Rome to rule the "client kingdom." With that in mind we look at the above verses. When Herod heard that Jesus was performing miracles, he thought John the Baptist must have rose from the dead (interesting that he believed someone "could" raise from the dead "now" but won't believe Jesus "did" raise from the dead later. The death of John the Baptist was based upon King Herod's fear of man. He didin't kill him earlier because "he feared the people." But, he would have him beheaded later because he feared the "guests" that were with him. The fear of man is a snare that corrupts leadership. When we make decisions based upon the attitudes of men and not the principles of God we fall into a trap. The trap is that we have to make sure we don't do things because we fear what men will think of us, or what men will do to us, or what men will say about us. If we act simply on principle it doesn't matter what they say, feel or how they act against us, as we have acted on principle and that should be enough to allow us to rest on our decision. There is, however, a difference between "fearing man" and having "empathy for man." Empathy will be the conduit we used to act toward man. The "fear of man" tends to be the reason we act. We can act on principle with empathy. We should act on principle with empathy. Herod failed as a leader because feared the reaction of men and not the glory of God.
But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given.
Tag: Fear of Man
Before we look at the above text, note what "King" Solomon tells us about being in authority and having a fear of man:
Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
Herod was not a real king. He was the ruler of a "client" state of Rome. His territory was subservient to Rome and he was "allowed" by Rome to rule the "client kingdom." With that in mind we look at the above verses. When Herod heard that Jesus was performing miracles, he thought John the Baptist must have rose from the dead (interesting that he believed someone "could" raise from the dead "now" but won't believe Jesus "did" raise from the dead later. The death of John the Baptist was based upon King Herod's fear of man. He didin't kill him earlier because "he feared the people." But, he would have him beheaded later because he feared the "guests" that were with him. The fear of man is a snare that corrupts leadership. When we make decisions based upon the attitudes of men and not the principles of God we fall into a trap. The trap is that we have to make sure we don't do things because we fear what men will think of us, or what men will do to us, or what men will say about us. If we act simply on principle it doesn't matter what they say, feel or how they act against us, as we have acted on principle and that should be enough to allow us to rest on our decision. There is, however, a difference between "fearing man" and having "empathy for man." Empathy will be the conduit we used to act toward man. The "fear of man" tends to be the reason we act. We can act on principle with empathy. We should act on principle with empathy. Herod failed as a leader because feared the reaction of men and not the glory of God.
Friday, February 10, 2017
Tag: Prayer - Isaiah 29-33
Isaiah 33:2
O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
Tag: Prayer
Perhaps the greatest prayer we could pray are the words of this verse. When we are in the place of understanding that only God can be our help and only God can be our salvation and only God can give us grace: We are in a good place. We should start each day with this frame of mind: "O Lord, be gracious to us!" Those who are far from God and do not recognize Him in their lives, do not live with the words, "... be gracious to us ...". Those are words of someone who realizes it is God who sustains us and protect us. This is a prayer we should pray every day. It is only by His grace that we can do His work. It is only by doing His work we can bring Him glory.
O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
Tag: Prayer
Perhaps the greatest prayer we could pray are the words of this verse. When we are in the place of understanding that only God can be our help and only God can be our salvation and only God can give us grace: We are in a good place. We should start each day with this frame of mind: "O Lord, be gracious to us!" Those who are far from God and do not recognize Him in their lives, do not live with the words, "... be gracious to us ...". Those are words of someone who realizes it is God who sustains us and protect us. This is a prayer we should pray every day. It is only by His grace that we can do His work. It is only by doing His work we can bring Him glory.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Tag: God's Sovereignty- Job 11-12
Job 12:7-9
“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
“Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
“Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
Tag: God's Sovereingty
Do you know what God is doing? Do you stop to ponder God's work in the day-to-day functions of life? In this section of Job, the suffering servant is trying to, once again, make his case that he is innocent and his friend's accusations are baseless. Job sincerely believes God has given this suffering to him and wants to talk to God to present his case before Him. His argument in the above passage is that God has put wisdom into the minds of these animals to know that NOTHING happens without it being from God. His reasoning is that since these animals know this, you, my friends, should know this. His main argument is that these animals are highly conscious of God's work, are we? Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that the lilly flower doesn't get all worked up, but knows that God will care for it. He told us that the birds of the air don't worry about their food, because God will care for them. Yet we, His most marvelous creation, worry about life and unconscious of His activity in our lives. Job is wrong about who "did this" to him (Satan did it, yet, with God's approval). But, Job is not wrong that the creation around us is much more conscious than we are about Gods involvement in our activity.
“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
“Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
“Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
Tag: God's Sovereingty
Do you know what God is doing? Do you stop to ponder God's work in the day-to-day functions of life? In this section of Job, the suffering servant is trying to, once again, make his case that he is innocent and his friend's accusations are baseless. Job sincerely believes God has given this suffering to him and wants to talk to God to present his case before Him. His argument in the above passage is that God has put wisdom into the minds of these animals to know that NOTHING happens without it being from God. His reasoning is that since these animals know this, you, my friends, should know this. His main argument is that these animals are highly conscious of God's work, are we? Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that the lilly flower doesn't get all worked up, but knows that God will care for it. He told us that the birds of the air don't worry about their food, because God will care for them. Yet we, His most marvelous creation, worry about life and unconscious of His activity in our lives. Job is wrong about who "did this" to him (Satan did it, yet, with God's approval). But, Job is not wrong that the creation around us is much more conscious than we are about Gods involvement in our activity.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Tag: Prayer for vindication and justice - Psalm 15-17
Psalms 17:1-2
Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry!
Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
From your presence let my vindication come!
Let your eyes behold the right!
Tag: Prayer for vindication
When we are being attacked by others, prayer for help from God is the best and only, real, approach. Psalm 17 is such an approach. David is feeling threatened, unjustly. This could be at any time in David's life. He lived under the threat of constant judgement. David's prayer was for God to vindicate him. He doesn't just want God to reward him, he wants God to act in His justice to vindicate him. But, not according to David's own justice system, but according to God's justice system. Only God can really judge, justly. Man has a failed sense of justice. We all want justice, but our justice is evil, because we are evil. We are sinners and therefore we have an inability to judge righteously. David pleads to God to "hear" him. He wants God to have His "eyes behold the right!! In this Psalm David will go on to share with God that he is innocent. Not that he is innocent of evil, but rather he is innocent of what this person(s) is saying about him. He doesn't defend himself, however. He allows God to defend him.
Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry!
Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
From your presence let my vindication come!
Let your eyes behold the right!
Tag: Prayer for vindication
When we are being attacked by others, prayer for help from God is the best and only, real, approach. Psalm 17 is such an approach. David is feeling threatened, unjustly. This could be at any time in David's life. He lived under the threat of constant judgement. David's prayer was for God to vindicate him. He doesn't just want God to reward him, he wants God to act in His justice to vindicate him. But, not according to David's own justice system, but according to God's justice system. Only God can really judge, justly. Man has a failed sense of justice. We all want justice, but our justice is evil, because we are evil. We are sinners and therefore we have an inability to judge righteously. David pleads to God to "hear" him. He wants God to have His "eyes behold the right!! In this Psalm David will go on to share with God that he is innocent. Not that he is innocent of evil, but rather he is innocent of what this person(s) is saying about him. He doesn't defend himself, however. He allows God to defend him.
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