Come and See: Final Authority - 2 Timothy 3:14-17 - July 17th

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2 Timothy 3:14-17

So yesterday I left you in a place where you needed to make a decision about Who you believe, in the depths of your soul, Jesus truly is. I asked you to think about it and decide basically, is Jesus lunatic, liar, or Lord.

And afterwards, my attention was drawn to the thought  of where we get our information regarding Jesus from. Specifically the Bible. And I haven’t really spent much time, on how we can know that Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament can be looked at as truth.

Remember – our society is much like the Israelites that lived during the time of the Judges. In fact, since we have finished that study a few days ago and started this one,       I have witnessed more and more situations that are around us today in our country, our society that lean into the subjective relativism we find in the book of Judges.  Biblical truth is not accepted in most places anymore. And sadly that includes our country, the United States of America. I believe it truly is that everyone simply does what is right in their own eyes.

The late Ravi Zacharias wrote an article entitled “Biblical Authority and Cultural Relativism” and this on the subject:

“Over the span of life, the Word can be tested time and time again and its truths will stand tall as our culture's fascination with the subjective proves itself to be hollow and false. By contrast, the biblical documents have withstood the most scrutinizing analysis ever imposed upon any manuscript and have emerged with compelling authenticity and authority. No other ancient literature demonstrates such a high degree of accuracy. Yes, repeatedly the Bible rises up to outlive its pallbearers.”

http://rzim.org/just-thinking/biblical-authority-and-cultural-relativism/

Believing in the authority of the Bible, is an important step of faith for anyone who wishes to know the truth about Jesus. The world is full of subjectivism that changes frequently and proves itself to be superficial.

In all of the Gospels, there are comments in situations regarding the authority by which Jesus teaches the Scriptures, or teaches those around him about the Scriptures. And it seems as if everyone is amazed.        I guess before we can decide Who Jesus is, we have to decide if what we know about Him is truth.

Paul had this to say about Scripture when he wrote to his son in the Lord Timothy.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV) But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We should keep in mind that, as Paul says this to Timothy and to us today, Jesus also read, taught, and spoke Scripture – and we need to remember that in their time was what we call the OT. If it were important then, it’s important now.

And in all of this, Jesus told us that all of the Law and the Prophets are contained in what He designates as being the most important directive given to humanity to follow. Love God with everything you are and love others as yourself. So, can we agree that what we are going to study, The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to John, can indeed be trusted as truth – even for us today.

Come and See: Who Do You See? - John 1:35-46 - July 16th

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John 1:35-46

So yesterday we were talking about who do you and I believe Jesus to be.    Is Jesus simply a good teacher or is He indeed both human and divine. And when we started this we talked about how in our minds we want Jesus to be 50% human 50% God, but in reality we learned that Jesus is 100% human and 100% God. And to say any different would interfere with Him being the Sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

Hebrews 2:14-18 (NIV) Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

So again we can agree, that Jesus had to be 100% human and at the same time He had to be 100% God. So what do we do with this strange thought because the math doesn’t work?        We remember that God is always more – more beautiful, more  majestic, more loving, more gracious.

John 1:35-46 (NIV) The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.

I love that how Nathanael asks can anything good come from Nazareth?! But again – that’s one of the prophecies that Jesus fulfils from the Old Testament, so that we indeed to know He is Messiah.

Here we can see that the disciples who followed John the Baptist, turned and followed Jesus. Why – because John the Baptist, had convinced them of that very thing in his teachings.

When John the Baptist is asked about Jesus, he talks about how Jesus surpasses him in everything.  John the Baptist talks about how he is only the one calling out in the wilderness. Basically John the Baptist, is pointing everyone to Jesus. John the Baptist knows who Jesus is, and John the Beloved Disciple is showing us that in his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to leave you with this today, it’s a quote from CS Lewis that might help you come to a conclusion about who you believe Jesus is.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (c) 1952, renewed (c) 1980, p.52).

Wherever you are today on this journey of discovering, I pray that God will indeed open the eyes of your heart to Who Jesus truly is.

Come and See: In The Beginning - John 1:1-5 - July 15th

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Something that will help us all stay connected is to keep up the discussion on the Live Stream. Don’t forget to like, follow, and Share these devotions. And comment today where you’ve seen God lately, look for God sightings.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning…Now that’s a great line! That was a line from a Christmas drama I was a part of performed in Pomeroy at the Church of the Nazarene there. But it is truly a great opening line, especially when we are speaking about Jesus.

John 1:1-5 (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Those words…In the beginning…are used elsewhere in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1 (NIV) In the beginning God created…

B’Resheet bara Elohim, now if you know Hebrew and I have to say that I know very little, you will understand this phrase.  I have studied these words, and here is what I’ve learned. This word Elohim – is actually plural. El is the oldest name we have of God with the suffix of im gives us a plural form.  But the verb created is actually singular. So you have a plural noun with a singular verb. Now there are some who argue that the singular verb renders the word Elohim completely singular – even though that rule is not always applied in every situation in Hebrew.

You have a plural noun and a singular verb which makes then for an interesting discussion. Elohim – the “im” part of that word is what makes it plural however, in this case you have that pesky singular verb. When we encounter grammatical issues such as this there is something here we need to pay special attention to because there is so much more.

I listened to a rabbi explain some of this and he spoke of how in the Hebrew language they have so many words that have multiple meanings.  And so when you encounter Scripture where it seems as if the normal grammatical rules do not make sense you need to look for the more. And even in that you might just have to settle that – like in this case the more is in God.

What this phrase is saying here is that there is so much more to God than we can fully understand. Whatever you think about God, how majestic or beautiful He is more, He is so much more than we imagine.

So – back to the beginning of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. It was important for John to write his Gospel account telling his readers who Jesus is to him. And as we read the book of John, we need to ask ourselves the question – Who is Jesus to us, to me?

Laura Sweat Holmes and George Lyons write in the New Beacon Bible Commentary, John 1-12 A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition © 2020 Beacon Hill Press. p45.

“In the infinite epochs before Creation, the Son of God existed in eternal unity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. And yet, a close reading of John reminds us that there was a time when ‘Jesus’ did not exist – before ‘the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us’ (John 1:14), sometime between about 5 BC and AD 30. As Jesus faced crucifixion, He assured His disciples, ‘I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father’ (John 16:28)”

John’s gospel is the only gospel that begins with the story of Jesus Christ not as He appears on the earth, but as He existed before time as the Logos—“the intelligence” of God, Who gave birth to everything that exists. And who also became “the Word.”

Come and See: The Gospel of Jesus Christ According to John - John 1:14-18 - July 14th

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John 1:14-18

Before we get started I need to send a Happy Birthday to my Son-in-Law, Michael Wade. And my grandson Collin James, A BIG HAPPY 5th Birthday to CJ. Papa loves you so much!!! Micheal you know I love you more than my luggage….(ba-dum-bum)

We are going to start a new devotional series today. The Gospel of Jesus According to John, or – the 4th Gospel, the book of John.  We live in a world that loves Jesus as a teacher but doesn’t care for Him much as God. The truth is, though, that we can’t have one without the other.

Jesus didn’t come as simply a wise man, but as both fully God and fully man. I know the math doesn’t work because we want 50/50 (50% human and 50% God) but truly Jesus is 100/100 – if He’s not, then the sacrifice He makes on the cross and the resurrection doesn’t pay the price for sin, the sacrifice doesn’t work. How we react to this truth will affect how serious we take our Christian faith.

To accept Christ is to go all in. We can’t be a 50% disciple. A friend of mine a few years ago talked about riding the fence.  It’s a saying that people use when they talk about not being all in.  The problem is you can’t have one foot in heaven and the other in hell, it just simply doesn’t work.  We have to be 100% in, we have to be offering Him our entire lives.

John 1:14-18 (NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

This devotional series on the Gospel of John calls for us to "come and see" the person of Jesus detailing his divinity through both His ability to save us, and through His victory over sin and death.

Think about it for a moment. Jesus was and still is the solution for a sin-ridden world. I know, I sure would just have liked it better if God had just not let evil in – not put the serpent in the Garden of Eden.        But that’s not the solution to deal with sin.

Think about an empty cup, you cannot remove it’s emptiness – except that you fill it with something. In the same way, removing evil from this world is not the solution to deal with sin.  Filling this world with the presence of the one true living God – now that’s a solution!

God did not remove the problems that Adam and Eve’s sin brought into this world, He did not remove the darkness. Instead He is shining His light. It’s the presence of the Holy Spirit. That’s the solution to the problem.

Just like you can’t solve emptiness simply by focusing on emptiness, you don’t overcome the problem of sin by focusing on sin – you overcome by focusing on God.  I want you to learn an old name, which is made up of three Hebrew words: Eem – Anu – El…With – Us – God.  That’s Who Jesus is.

Without A King: Who You Say I Am - Judges 21:24-26 - July 13th

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Judges 21:24-25

So what do we actually learn from the book of Judges. You know, growing up I thought of Gideon and of Samson, and all the other judges in the book of Judges, as heroes. But after looking at them now, they did some heroic things, but they sure wouldn’t cut it in my book as heroes.

Let’s be real for a moment. Truly out of all of the Judges it seems like Deborah is a heroine, if you will, but some of the ones that we skipped – good grief – They are really terrible people.

Abimelech – son of Gideon kills 70 of his brothers to become king.  What’s worse is that the people of Israel give him the financial backing to hire thugs to finish the job.  However, Jotham his youngest brother escapes. Eventually the people want him as king.        He tells them a parable about trees, which basically pronounces a curse on all of the tribes for their terrible behavior, and then he runs away. I think except for Deborah, Jotham might have the smart one out of the entire book of Judges.

Other things happened too. If you look at Jephthah in chapters 10-11, he was the son of a prostitute and an outlaw. In other words he should have never been considered for leadership.  He had no rightful standing in his tribe.  But you know, God often does that.  God often chooses those who are the least of these to be leaders.  However, while he is away from home and preparing for battle he makes this crazy oath.  Before he goes to battle, he vows if God wins the war for him, whatever comes out of his house first, he would sacrifice – UGH!!!

Guess what, the first person to him was his daughter. And that’s what he did, he sacrificed his own child.  You know, when they first went into the Promised Land, child sacrifice was one of the things God didn’t want.  He didn’t want that from His chosen people. Jephthah’s sacrifice was an abomination to God.

The closing chapters of this book show not only a lack of national leadership, but a lack of unity among the tribes. It’s like Israel no longer exists. Each tribe claims their inheritance, and they forget why they inherited and who gave them the Promised Land in the first place. The identity of Israel was not lost because they were conquered by a foreign nation. They were lost because they forgot who they were – The Children of God.

So here is where they leave it. After the Benjaminites steal maidens from another town so that the tribe would have wives to populate the tribe, this is what happens.

Judges 21:24-25 (NIV) At that time the Israelites left that place and went home to their tribes and clans, each to his own inheritance. In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

As I have read through this book again, I have noticed how often the Israelites forget. They forget who they are and so they forget Who God is. It reminds me of the scene in the Disney movie the Lion King. The part where Simba has ran off, met his two new friends and he’s settled down to eating the grubs – the crème filled kind that are slimy but satisfying. And then the crazy baboon – Rafiki – comes and the clouds roll in. Through the clouds Mufasa speaks to Simba, and this is what he says.

“You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Simba. You are more than what you have become.” — Mufasa, The Lion King

If the Israelites had simply remembered who they were, and why they had inherited the land – Who they had inherited it from, I can’t help but believe that they indeed would have remembered God and all He had done for them. Now I say that and yet you know, there are times that I need to remind myself of who I am in Christ Jesus. I would think that you might as well.

Without A King: Everyone's Right - NOT! Judges 20:46-48 - July 11th

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 Judges 20:46-48

Yesterday we ended with all the other tribes of Israel demanding justice from the tribe of Benjamin for the death of the Levite’s concubine.

Now, the Levite didn’t really tell the entire story about how he was the one who gave her up to the gang to save his own skin.  I think he had a bit more responsibility to take in this entire situation than he did. Would it have made a difference, I don’t have a clue, here’s what happens next.

These eleven tribes decide the tribe of Benjamin must pay for this atrocity.  So they raise an army and go to Benjamin, demand that the tribe hand over the guilty parties.  And that is probably the right thing to do – hand over the guilty parties. But, true to the philosophy of relativism, the tribe of Benjamin basically say who are the other tribes to tell us our people acted wrongly? So they go to war, and it’s a devastating, bloody civil war. After three days of fighting, sixty-five thousand people die before the tribe of Benjamin is defeated. Judges 20:46–48 (NIV) gives us a little glimpse into how this civil war ended.

Judges 20:46-48 (NIV) On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters. 47 But six hundred of them turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months. 48 The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.

Seriously…the tribe of Benjamin is going to defend what happened, regardless of the entire circumstance. It still seems like the tribe of Benjamin could have avoided – along with all of Israel – this terrible bloody civil war – regardless of what the gang did wrong. The criminals should have been handed over.

If you continue to read the next chapter, you will see it’s not over yet. In the aftermath of the war another problem emerges. The other 11 tribes of Israel are feeling guilty about basically wiping out the tribe of Benjamin. Oh – there were 600 men who ran off to save their lives, but the other tribes went back and made certain that everyone else including the livestock was dead.

And to top it off, if they are going to rectify their wrong, the other 11 tribes need to come up with wives for the tribe of Benjamin to re-populate. The problem is, the other 11 tribes took an oath not to give any of their daughters to them.

So, here’s what the other tribes do, they raid a city untouched by the war and kill everyone except the virgin girls, whom they cart off to become the wives for the 600 men of the tribe of Benjamin. It still isn’t enough – they only come up with 400.  So they snatch even more young women from one of the other tribes which is having some sort of celebration.  That way the tribe would be able to save face and say they didn’t give their daughters to Benjamin, instead that the daughters were kidnapped and stolen.

This is a completely broken society. The people of God have fallen victim to civil war. Then, when they realize the error of their ways, they resort to murder and human trafficking to “fix” the problem they created.

The very last words of Judges are, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25) It is both an ending and an introduction: Welcome to the world in which everyone does what they think is right.

Without A King: Just A Family Thing? Judges 19:25-30 - July 10th

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Judges 19:25-30

So – here we are almost to the end of this study, and again the story is not that great. Remember there are no more Judges in the history of Israel. There are a few stories here from the remainder of that time period, and it gets kind of gruesome.

Yesterday we ended with relativism. That’s where truth becomes so individualized that it results in selfishness, that ends up treating people as less than human. And that’s the story we are going to see today.

Remember, yesterday we spoke about a young man named Micah.  And commentators believe this is the son of Delilah and Samson.  And with the disfunction of that family – one might assume that this relativism is a part of that.  But it is not just a family thing in Micha’s family. This relativism is a problem in the society of God’s people.

So let’s get a bit more of the story we are going to look at today from Judges 19.  We encounter a Levite priest and his concubine traveling. They stop in a city called Gibeah for the night. Gibeah is within the area of Israel assigned to the tribe of Benjamin.

There an old man takes them in for the night, but a gang within that city pounds on the old man’s house demanding that he turn the Levite over to them to be raped. Very similar to the situation with Lot and the angels that visited him. The man and the Levite try to reason with the gang, this is what happens.

Judges 19:25-30 (NIV) But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!”

Guess what happens then? Eleven tribes get mad. The Levite gives them a twisted version of the truth. And no one cares after all, Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit.

Now, that doesn’t sound familiar, does it? We don’t live in a world where when something tragic or horrific happens we get upset, pass judgment, and demand vengeance before getting the facts, do we?

Honestly, I believe this has been happening all throughout human history. You see when we leave truth, when we reject the truth of God, we open ourselves to an extremely selfish version of broken humanity.  And that creates relativism – which is rampant in our society today.

However, when we accept the truth of Christ, when we lay down our lives and put on the life of Christ as His disciple, we learn to love God with heart soul mind strength. And in turn God’s love draws us to love others as we love ourselves. You know it’s that simple – filter life through the life and love of Christ.

Paul said it like this…

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 (NIV) “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

Love God – Love others – honestly it truly is that simple.

Without A King: American Idol – Judges 17:1-6 - July 9th

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Judges 17:1-6

We are getting to the end of the book of Judges. And like I said – it’s not getting better, it seems as if it’s only getting worse. And just when you think you’ve hit bottom, well – the hole is deeper and deeper…

Judges 17:1-6 (NIV) Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have that silver with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!” When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.” So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used them to make the idol. And it was put in Micah’s house. Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

When we look at this story it starts out with a man named Micah. He wants his mother’s money so he steals it. Right at the beginning, he has broken two of the Ten Commandments. It seems likely that she initially asked him if he knew what happened to the money, and he lied because when she utters a curse on the person who stole the money, this frightens Micah and to avoid being cursed, he confesses and returns the money to her. He doesn’t do this because it’s the right thing to do, he does it to save his skin. He doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of that curse.

You have to look at what is happening here today in the United States of America.  You have a society that has turned away from God, away from what is truth, and towards making up their own gods – and making up their own truth. We call that relativism.

The common motive in a society ruled by relativism is self-interest. You don’t believe me, turn on the news today. Truth in America as we once knew it simply is gone – relativism rules.

Let’s get back to our Scripture. Micah’s mom responds by saying she’ll give it all, 1100 shekels of silver, to the Lord. But she isn’t telling the truth either. She only gives two hundred pieces of silver. Worse still, she uses her offering to have an image carved and an idol cast which she then places in her son’s house. This is a total and complete disregard for what God has ordained.

Now, no matter what one person does, we all have a choice to live rightly and follow God’s truth. And what does Micah do? He gladly accepts the gift of the idol she had made, then he gets some more idols. Has an ephod made (a priestly garment), and commissions one of his sons as his own personal priest for all of these gods.

Everything in these five verses is an intentional violation of God’s law. The disrespect of a parent, theft, the graven image, the idol worship, the ephod, even turning the home into a place of worship was a violation of God’s law.

But Pastor Dan in our world today this sounds fine—doesn’t it? So what if he wants to worship God, at home in his own way, putting up other idols and ordaining his own pastor/priest to do so? Who are we to judge what’s right or wrong?  The problem isn’t us judging what’s right or wrong.  The issue is measuring what we do against Scripture – because Scripture is our source of God’s truth. In some cases, while we may not go somewhere and have an idol cast or carved, we have still created idols. And not just in our homes but also in our churches.

The problem is that in this case God’s law was no longer truth. When you remove truth, however, you end up with people treating other people as less than human. That’s where again this story ends up. And that’s where we have come to be as a people – as a society – as a nation. You ever wonder what it would be like if we were to all turn back to God, and listen and live His truth once again…?

Without A King: Reign In Me - Judges 16:15-21 - July 8th

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 Judges 16:15-21

As we continue to read through the story of the Judges I wish I could tell you that something would be better. But it doesn’t get better. There’s a reason we don’t hear about many of the other judges in Children’s Church or Sunday School or maybe Vacation Bible School. There is one we do usually hear about, and his name is Samson.

Samson is the last of the Judges. And like the rest, he fails miserably. He broke the vows that a Nazirite vowed his entire life. The list of his issues is long, too long for today’s devotional. Just know that it when we read his story it honestly seems he Doesn’t even attempt to live according to the Nazirite covenant promised to God before he was born.

But after all of that, where we pick up the story, Samson marries another Philistine woman – Delilah. When we heard this story as a kid growing up, didn’t it seem that it was about Samson who was good and Delilah who was all bad?  But that’s not a good representation of what the Bible says about Samson.

Judges 16:15-21 (NIV) Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it. So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.

It’s very clear, from before his birth, Samson was special and he was to live a certain way and he knew it. In his final response to Delilah when we see him confess what gives him strength – he as much as admits he knows how he is supposed to live. But we find, just like today, his life was about serving himself. Even his last act was an act of revenge for what the Philistines did gouging out his eyes.

“What is the motivation for revenge? Is it a matter of justice? Righting a wrong? Or is it more a matter of dominance and control?  What is to be personal matters we should heed the words of Paul, who counsels us to let God be the one to bring justice while we return good for evil.” Judges: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition © 2009 Robert D. Branson & Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City. (p139).

Romans 12:17-21 (NIV) Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says he Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Even in the end of this story, I’m not certain that God restored Samson’s strength so he could have his revenge, killing the Philistines and ultimately killing himself. There is no note here that the Spirit of the Lord – who left him when his head was shaved, came back to him to give him his strength.  And it wasn’t said that God heard his prayer and relented, remembering the covenant – like earlier in this book.  None of the wording used here implies that God is involved at all. What is noted, is that his hair started growing back after it had been shaved off.

I find that interesting.  If you look at Samson’s life, never once did he deliver the Israelites from their oppressors.  He killed a few here and there, but they were never driven out of the land – like what happened with the other judges in this book.  Then look, even still, Samson retained his strength.  Even though Samson did not fulfill his promise to God – or his parent’s promise to God – he still retained his strength.  Which the writer ties back to his hair. But that brings me to this point, revenge is not a Christian thing.  And I believe in this Scripture we can clearly see that revenge is what comes out of a selfish heart. Because revenge is not what we do, if we are a disciple of Christ.

The disciple of Christ is about two things: Loving God – with everything we are and loving others – as we love ourselves. Jesus not only reminded us of this, He said everything – all of the law and prophets hang on those two commandments.

As Christians to be able to love God and love others as Christ instructs us to, we only accomplish it if we let Christ rule and reign our hearts – so that the Holy Spirit conforms us to the likeness of Christ through the renewing of our hearts and minds.

Without A King: Oh, Good Grief - Judges 8:4-7 - July 7th

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 Judges 8:4-7

Gideon starts out great, he’s humble looking to be obedient, but gets a bit distracted after he has a small taste of victory. And honestly it’s not really his victory. He did very little, but what happens next ugh!

Judges 8:4-9 (NIV) Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”

Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”

From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had.  So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”

When he does kill the two opposing kings, by the way it doesn’t say that God told him to do that, but Gideon makes good on his threat. And the people he threatens are the people he was supposed to be protecting.

Remember the situation of Israel. They are cohabitating in the promised land with people that God had commanded they drive out. Then they started intermarrying with them, which leads them to start worshipping other gods. When they do that, they end up enslaved to these idols and to the people associated with them. Humanity does not like to be enslaved, when it happens the Israelites naturally cry out for help. God sends a judge who delivers them then, after a time of peace, they turn back to idolatry and once again become enslaved. This is the cycle of sin and it’s the reality of the situation for Israel.

Understandably, Israel wants this cycle to end. But instead of realizing that to break the cycle, they need to come to terms with their sin and their God, they think the way out is through some sort of stable, human-created government. And so they ask Gideon to be their king.

In fact, they ask him to establish a dynasty not just a kingship but a dynasty. That’s why they ask for Gideon, his son, and his grandson to rule over them. And because they had misplaced their hope in him, the cycle of disappointment never ends. Gideon dies, and everything returns to a lifestyle of idolatry and slavery. That’s what happens when we place our hope in a human being instead of placing your hope in Jesus.

If you place your hope in Jesus, the Bible promises us that He will never forsake you. Jesus died for you and He died for me. It’s easy to see how other people let us down. It’s also true that each one of us fall short of God’s standards. That is why we need Jesus. We need Jesus to live in us and through us so that we can be found blameless when Christ returns. There is no other answer other than Jesus. We need Jesus – He truly is the answer.

Without A King: Waiting - Judges 7:19-22 - July 6th

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 Judges 7:19-22

Remember last week, I talked about the cycle of sin the Israelites were caught in. And briefly about how as we go further and further into the book of Judges, that you will find some of these judges – actually most of them – are not people of high moral regard, not by any means. That’s Gideon’s story as well.

Now many of us remember the story of Gideon. Gideon starts out great, but aside from his obedience Gideon did very little in the battle against Midian.  In fact, the Bible tells us that God did it all.

Judges 7:19-22 (NIV) Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

Did you hear that, God’s Word tells us that God caused the enemy to turn on themselves. Now we do have to give some credit to Gideon, he was obedient here. Gideon dismissed men from his army and dropped the number from about 30,000 all the way down to 300. And indeed God did turn the Midianites against each other. So it wasn’t Gideon who defeated them.

Now, if Gideon had just left things there, the story would be completely different. It would be a story of faith and obedience. Unfortunately Gideon doesn’t leave it there and he becomes vengeful – over someone taunting him. You know, sometimes I believe we forget to read the rest of the story. And we are going to get to more of Gideon’s story tomorrow, but for now lets just learn something good from this part of his story today.

It really is something to walk in step with God. Not lagging behind, not running ahead, not jumping around side to side, but actually be in step with God. This is truly where we need to be as Christians. You know, the rest of Gideon’s story shows us that we indeed need to listen and obey.

Freedom: Our Responsibility - Galatians 5:13-14 - July 4th

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We are taking a break from the book of Judges and since it’s the 4th of July, we are going to look at freedom and what freedom really means for a Christian.

In Christ, we are free from earning our righteousness by the law. And we are free to walk in the Spirit. But our freedom gives us a responsibility because our freedom gives us the ability to love God and other people sincerely.  You see we cannot love God and others, except that God does this work in us and through us. We can’t love on our own, in the brokenness of humanity.

Galatians 5:13-14 (NIV) You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We don’t just have freedom from sin, death, and legalism. We have freedom to live as Christ lived, as a beloved and empowered child of God. We have this freedom because of our access to God through the Holy Spirit. Here’s what Paul told the Church in Corinth.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (NIV) Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

This is simply reminding us where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. You know one of the freedoms we receive in Christ is freedom from ourselves. Further in the same chapter of His letter to the Galatians Paul wrote this.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Our sinful nature leads only to death. But in Christ, we receive his indwelling Spirit. And we become the best version of ourselves. We become who God intended us to be as our personalities begin to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

I want to invite you today to experience true freedom. I want to invite you to be able to live the way God intended human beings to live when He first created us. It really is simple – it’s just like picking up the phone and making a call.  All you need to do is to pray and ask God to forgive you of your sins. Ask God for His help to turn away from sin and towards Him. In light of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection from death, Proclaim Jesus Christ Lord of your life, and begin to follow His teachings as you read His Word. Honestly it is that simple.

If you prayed that prayer for the first time, or if you recommitted your life to Christ – you need to let someone know.  I would love to be that someone, but maybe you just need to tell someone who is close to you that you have become a child of God today.

I just want to leave you with this, and say to you, welcome to the family, I’m so glad you are here with us.  Go in God’s blessing today.

Without A King: A Good Start - Judges 6:11-16 - July 3rd

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Towards the end of the study we are doing in the book of Judges, I am planning to have a discussion about the violence on behalf of God – or by God – that we see in the Old Testament.  This is a hugely debated subject and there are lots of good thoughts about it.  I just need to do some more study before we talk about it.  If there are enough people interested, I’d be willing to host a “Zoom” discussion on this.

So, now that we have entered the part of the book where some might say we begin to see a scary pattern emerge regarding the Judges. You see as we read through we find out that these people God works through are not necessarily  good people. You would think that a judge sent by God would be someone of noble character. But almost every judge was terribly flawed. Kind of like all of us here on earth. As the story progresses we will see that as Israel devolves more and more into chaos and violence, so do her leaders.

The judges look less and less like saviors towards the end of the book and more and more like mobsters. Today we will look at one of the more famous judges, Gideon. And we’re not going to look at his entire story today.  Just part of it.

Judges 6:11-16 (NIV) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

The book of Judges is not kid-friendly, this isn’t My Little Pony, full of unicorns and rainbows. But Gideon is probably someone you would remember from Sunday School, Children’s Church, or VBS. And truly when I remember this story told to children I have to say we have cleaned it up.  We talk about his battle to save Israel from the oppression of the Midianites, and we forget to tell the rest of how horrible Gideon is when he operates on his own strength.

If we remember from our childhood, Gideon is famous for setting out fleeces and leading Israel in a successful battle with only 300 men, some torches, and some trumpets (horns).

I want to note here, that just like others throughout the Bible, Gideon starts out great. He’s humble, understands his weaknesses and he realizes there are limitations to what he can do on his own.  Oh – if he could have just stayed right there.  Oh – if we could operate out of that frame of mind.

And that’s where I want to stop today.  I want us to know that this is not the entire story of Gideon. But it’s a good place to stop, look at ourselves and ask ourselves some important questions.

Do we seek God in humility, do we tell God about our weaknesses and limitations? Or do we simply try to do God’s work in our own strength.  I say that because we are all ministers – we, the Body of Christ, the Church, are all ministering to someone – or we should be.  The Bible tells me that my job as a pastor is to equip the saints – that’s all of you – to go and do the good works of the kingdom.

The only way we do this is to tap into the power of God – the Holy Spirit working in us and through us to those around us. And God’s power doesn’t come from His military might, it comes from the power Christ has through His death and resurrection.  We need to tap into the power of His love for us – that changes lives.

Without A King: Deborah - Judges 4:14-16

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Judges 4:14-16

Wow – if you read the story of Deborah, it’s fairly dark and seems so violent. And when we read the New Testament, doesn’t it seem as if God is different? Jesus tells His Disciples this.

John 14:8-10 (NIV) Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

So why is it that it seems as if     God is so angry – especially in Judges, and we see the opposite of that in the New Testament?  We see God personified through His Son, Jesus Christ. Here’s the thing, God can work through some of the most evil things and bring good.

Judges 4:14-16 (NIV) Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

If you read the rest of the story, Barak indeed does not get credit for routing the armies of Sisera. And he doesn’t get credit for killing Sisera that day. Deborah prophesied that credit would go to a woman. Scholars conclude that this was in response to Barak’s hesitation when Deborah told him to gather up and go – and he wouldn’t unless she went with him.

The honor as Deborah predicted, goes to a woman—but not Deborah herself. As his army is defeated and begins to flee, the general Sisera flees as well. And Jael, the wife of one of Sisera’s allies deceives him until he’s asleep in her tent. Then Jael creeps over and kills him. It is at this point in the story, that the reader looks up and wonders, “Why on earth is something like this in God’s Word?”

Of course that’s not the end of the story. The Bible tells us on that day, in the end it was God that subdued Jabin the King of Canaan. And from that day the hand of the Israelites pressed harder on Jabin until they destroyed him. And we really don’t know what that means other than Jabin is no longer oppressing the nation of Israel.

But who is it that liberated Israel, was it Deborah, Barak, Jael No – it was God. It wasn’t Deborah’s wisdom, Barak’s military might or the actions of Jael, The Bible is very clear that it was God.

So how could God work in such a dark, violent way here. Let’s look back quickly to a story in Genesis where Joseph told his brothers who enslaved him that God worked through their destructive cruel behavior for good.

Genesis 50:20-21 (NIV) You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

It isn’t that evil actions become good, rather it is that God can take the terrible things of this world, the brokenness of this world, and work through them to bring about goodness. And He does all of this, in spite of the things we do. The book of Judges is a good reminder of the God Who is always at work through the most unexpected people and circumstances.

Bring that into today’s societal issues, can God take the entire global mess of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and the societal problems regarding systemic racism, and turn that all around to work in His favor - to bring about good in our lives – you bet He can.

Without A King: Who Are the Judges? July 1st

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Judges 4:1-10

So we’ve done some background on the underlying themes within the book of Judges the last few days. We’ve looked at the Israelites cycle of sin, we’ve looked at God and His response to His Children.

When we read chapter 3, we see very little written about Othniel , Ehud, and Shamgar. Shamgar gets two sentences – and that’s all. They don’t seem to be men of significance in this part of Israel’s history, except they belong with the group of leaders we call the Judges.

The first judge we have some substantive information about is Deborah. Umm…what do you mean, was that a man’s name back then? No – it wasn’t she’s – a woman. Which brings me to what I’d like to talk about today.

Sometimes we predetermine what a leader should look like, they should have their hair cut and combed just so. How old they should be, our pastor should at least have pastored other churches, have gray hair, at least teenaged children, and on their way to obtaining a doctorate in theological studies. Oh, and then the big one, what gender they should be – male. Even all the way back then, God confronts our biased expectations we hold to what a leader should be like. Here in this chapter we will see where the real leadership comes from.

Judges 4:1-10 (NIV) Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

“Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.

Now when you read these accounts of the judges you will find that none of them (especially Deborah), fits the mold of what we would expect of leaders in this period of history, and maybe any point in Israel’s history. But God drives home an important point. Ultimately, He is the one at work in and through those who are willing to be the instruments to further his will. And isn’t that what God still does today?  Are you willing to follow Him?

Without A King: Lord Hear Our Prayer - Judges 2:16-18

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Judges 2:16-18

Have you ever noticed that God tends to intervene when His children suffer. It’s not always right away. When the Hebrew Children were in Egypt as slaves, they were there for quite a while. If you do all the math – and I’ve read and checked up on this, they actually spent about 144 years in slavery. They were there a total of around 430-450 years, but remember when they first lived in Egypt, prior to the years of slavery, they lived as refugees. My point is this – and we are going to read bout it before we get to our main Scripture today – when they were enslaved they cried out to God. And this is what the Bible says about that.

Remember Moses had ran to the wilderness to avoid prosecution for killing a slave master who had beaten a Hebrew slave. During that time he takes a wife, has a child, and eventually will see the burning bush.

Exodus 2:21-25 (NIV) Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Did you hear what the Scripture says, that God heard their groanings – then He remembers His covenant – and became concerned about them.

Let’s look at our text, from the book of Judges for this morning.

Judges 2:16-18 (NIV) Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.  Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.

Again we read that God hears their groaning and that God relented because He hears them. So we can come to the conclusion that God hears…God hears His Children, when they cry out.

I have some dear friends in the Roman Catholic Church. And when they pray together as a congregation, they offer up prayer requests. Sometimes it’s the priest, other times it’s a person in the congregation praying their request to God in the service. Here is what is awesome, at the end of each one of the requests, those who are in agreement say together, “Lord, hear our prayer.”

I realize that I’m not Roman Catholic – and I’m not saying I’m going to be, but I do have a few friends who are witnesses to Christ, and who walk in step with the Holy Spirit – and the Holy Spirit just oozes out of them who are in the Roman Catholic Church.  And when I participate in a mass and hear this, something in my spirit jumps - in a good way. And I believe it’s because they are acknowledging that what they are saying together is heard by God. And not only that but they are asking God to listen to their prayers.

When we cry out to Him from our hearts – He listens. Our world needs us to cry out together today, to genuinely cry out to God – and we can do just that.

Without A King: Here Comes the Judge - June 29th

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Judges 2:16 - 23

Today we are going to look at another character in this story in the book of Judges, and that is the person of the judge. What does the judge do, who do they represent?

But before we do, remember that Israel is in the Promised Land.  However, they didn’t do what they were told. They didn’t drive out the other nations, and instead they enslaved people - which we know is not God’s plan. They worshiped other gods, incorporating the religions of the surrounding nations. But then there’s something interesting the Bible tells us here…

Judges 2;16-23 (NIV) Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

We may spend a day or two in this passage. First is that you will notice that God raises up each judge.        Hmmm, wait, what does that mean?

Well – the judge wasn’t an elected official. This wasn’t someone who was out to establish themselves as a leader for God’s people – they didn’t rise to power on their own strengths. The judges were not people of political intelligence or violence, but someone who God brought up or chose, to lead His people.

And their leadership was different from the leadership of a king or priest. The judge would lead God’s people spiritually, politically, and militarily. God worked through the judges who would lead armies to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of neighboring nations. They would lead then from the apostacy of worshiping other gods or idols, and back to worshiping the One true God.

And there was one thing that the people of Israel simply needed to do, and that was obey. It all comes back to simple obedience. It was the People’s job to listen and obey the judge – simple obedience.

It’s not that difficult, and today I’m convinced we have a leg up on the Israelites in that we have the Holy Spirit living in us and through us. But we still need to listen to and choose to obey the Holy Spirit for all of this to work.

Without A King - Half-Hearted Devotion - June 27th

You can find the video here:  https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/193447348723712/

Something that will help us all stay connected is to keep up the discussion on the Live Stream. Don’t forget to like, follow, and Share these devotions. And comment today where you’ve seen God lately, look for God sightings.

Judges 2:10

So yesterday we talked about how the nation of Israel had gone into the cycle of Sin. How God would raise up a judge who would deliver them, and while that judge remained alive the people would serve God. Once the judge died, everyone forgot and did what they saw fit for their own lives. You know there’s a lot of that going around today in our society.

Judges 2:10 (NIV) After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

In one of the places that Bobbi and I served as lay-leaders in the church, we encountered grown adults who had not Been brought up in church. And so they endeavored, to teach a Sunday School class, and a small group, basic Bible stories for adults.

I thought it was a great idea. These people had brought their teens and children to our youth program or VBS and to Sunday School, or had been invited to come by another adult. And we found out they had never experienced church like those of us who grew up in church did. So this is what the teachers did. They did VBS and 5 Day Club and Sunday School just like when I was younger. There were flannelgraphs and the large picture story books, and craft time was a hilarious.

You know this is kind of like the story of Israel. They started out strong, but when they encountered resistance they gave up and just made do.  Instead of driving the people out of the land, they kept compromising and even incorporated some of their gods into the worship of the people. Of course, God is not pleased with the Israelite’s compromise of his will. And in the book of Judges we see the full effects of half-hearted devotion.

Half-hearted devotion leads to an entire generation who does not know God. Here is what happened, and what I believe is and has happened today in our society. When one generation compromises their faith – and I’m not talking about method or logistics – I’m talking about what you believe in your heart.  What is in our hearts drives our actions. When someone is angry and they speak words they would like to take back, they have spoken out of anger.  Or maybe it’s the opposite, where someone speaks out of deep love for someone and the words bring great healing and peace to a troubled soul.  That is our actions coming from what we believe inside – our faith. 

So when a generation compromises what they believe about God, they concede elements of their faith to unbelief and tell God they think He is wrong. It isn’t very surprising when the next generation ceases to care about God or the faith of their fathers.

What we have here is a generation that has been given a compromised faith. They know a bit about God, but they don’t know Him or the stories of His deliverance.  They have not experienced God in their lives. They see obedience as optional and are much more willing to entertain sinful ways of living.

So here’s my question for you to think about today. Are you seeking God’s face, and practicing your faith in a way that is a testimony to those around you? Or, is your faith half-hearted?

Without A King - The Cycle - Judges 2:10-19 - June 26th

You can find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/623407381863225/

Something that will help us all stay connected is to keep up the discussion on the Live Stream. Don’t forget to like, follow, and Share these devotions. And comment today where you’ve seen God lately, look for God sightings.

Judges 2:10-19

If you’ve ever taken little kids to a playground, or watched children playing, inevitably you’ll see them play tag. When they play this game they’ll usually chase each other in circles. And sometimes the object they’re running around isn’t very large. As you sit there and watch them chase each other round and round, you begin to wonder why the one who is “it” doesn’t simply just stop and turn around? If they did, they’d easily be able to tag the other child. But they don’t, no one does. Instead they just keep running in circles.

For those observing from the outside, the solution is so easy. But the kids in the game miss the obvious. This situation is a bit like the pattern of life the Israelites fall into in the book of Judges, they enter the cycle of sin.

Judges 2:10-11 (NIV) After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.

Judges 2:14 (NIV) In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

Judges 2:16 (NIV) Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

We are extremely fortunate to live on what I call this side of the cross. Why…well because even though humanity can still fall into that same trap, even though humanity can still fall into a cycle of sin, we have a Savior who has broken the power of cancelled sin.

Romans 8:1-4 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Here is an easier way to remember this. Christ deals with Sin in two ways, through His death and resurrection. First He canceled the debt owed to Sin – that pound of flesh owed in what I call a legalistic spiritual law. And second, He canceled the power Sin has in our lives. That is His resurrection has given us the power, because the Holy Spirit – or the Spirit of Christ lives in us and through us – can indeed obliterate the addictive nature to continue sinning repeatedly.

In her book Discovering Christian Holiness: The Heart of Wesleyan-Holiness Theology. © 2010 Diane Leclerc and Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City. She writes:

“When this faith is activated and grace is given, we are saved, both in our being saved from the guilt of sin and in our beginning the process whereby God breaks the power of sin.” (p. 176)

We do not have to repeat history, we do not have to follow the Israelites in the times of the Judges. We can live free from the power of sin in our lives.

Without A King: God's Promise - Judges 2:1 - June 25th

You can find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/995470810886021/

Something that will help us all stay connected is to keep up the discussion on the Live Stream. Don’t forget to like, follow, and Share these devotions. And comment today where you’ve seen God lately, look for God sightings.

Judges 2:1

Yesterday we talked about repentance and I know that repentance can be a very personal issue. I mean really, who wants their sin out in the open for everyone to see.

But here’s the thing, when we expose sin it looses it’s power. And today I want to show you why. There is a remarkable declaration about the character of God in this first verse of chapter 2 from the angel of the Lord. He says…

Judges 2:1 (NIV) The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,

I will never break my covenant with you. Those are some strong words. God was faithful in His covenant then, and God is faithful in His covenant today. Yesterday we talked about repentance and how a part of repentance is confession. I am still under the belief we need to have some safe place and a safe person in our lives, where we can confess our sins.

1 john 1:9 (NIV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

God will not abandon you or forsake you. No matter how far from God you have strayed, God will forgive you. When you turn away from sin and turn toward Him, God will forgive you.

You know back in the book of Judges, the warning of the angel at Bokim is proof of God’s mercy. His warnings and rebukes are full of grace, we know that because when the end is to encourage repentance and holy living before God, the end result then is reconciliation and restoration.

As we continue on in this study of the book of Judges, we will see just how merciful God is, and how committed He is to His covenant with His people.

I want you to think about this for a minute, John Wesley had 22 questions of self-examination that you asked yourself every day if you wanted to be part of one of his Holy Clubs. You should look it up. In fact that’s the first ever homework assignment from these devotions – look up John Wesley’s 22 questions. And try reading them each day.  You will see a difference as you allow them to open your heart to God.