Are you confident?

⁷ My heart is confident in you, O God;
    my heart is confident.
    No wonder I can sing your praises!
⁸ Wake up, my heart!
    Wake up, O lyre and harp!
    I will wake the dawn with my song.
⁹ I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
    I will sing your praises among the nations.
¹⁰ For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.
    Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
    May your glory shine over all the earth.   Psalms 57:7-11

Are you confident that God has everything under control?

If so then we have less time to worry and more time to praise God, right?

His glory is shining all over the earth. If you do not see that then perhaps you have your eyes fixed on the wrong thing!

Please take time to see this week's video. I welcome your comments!

 

Today's readings:

 1SAMUEL 22:1-2
PSALM 57
PSALM 142
1CHRONICLES 12:8-18
1SAMUEL 22:3-23
PSALM 52
1SAMUEL 23:1-12
Tomorrow's readings:
1SAMUEL 23:13-29
PSALM 54
1SAMUEL 24:1-25:44

Transformation

⁹ As Saul turned and started to leave, God gave him a new heart, and all Samuel’s signs were fulfilled that day. ¹⁰ When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, they saw a group of prophets coming toward them. Then the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy. ¹¹ When those who knew Saul heard about it, they exclaimed, “What? Is even Saul a prophet? How did the son of Kish become a prophet?”  1 Samuel 10:9-11

God gave Saul a new heart and then His spirit came powerfully upon him.

Did you know you can have that same transformation experience with God as well?

If so do you remember when your heart changed?

Does you life reflect the Spirit of God in it?

¹⁷ Later Samuel called all the people of Israel to meet before the Lord at Mizpah. ¹⁸ And he said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has declared: I brought you from Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all of the nations that were oppressing you. ¹⁹ But though I have rescued you from your misery and distress, you have rejected your God today and have said, ‘No, we want a king instead!’ Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by tribes and clans.”

²⁰ So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by lot. ²¹ Then he brought each family of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally Saul son of Kish was chosen from among them. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared! ²² So they asked the Lord, “Where is he?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.”  1 Samuel 10:17-22

Has God called called you to lead?




Are you hiding among the baggage? 

Today's readings

1 SAMUEL 9:1-12:25

Tomorrow's Readings:
1CHRONICLES 9:35-39
1SAMUEL 13:1-5
1SAMUEL 13:19-23
1SAMUEL 13:6-18

Faithfully

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” ¹⁸ When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.  Ruth 1:16-18

Have you ever been this committed to a person/relationship?



Naomi had nothing to offer Ruth and it seemed like everything had been going wrong for Naomi.



The future was uncertain yet Ruth was faithful to her mother-in-law.



How committed are you? How faithful are you to God and others?



As you read the Book of Ruth notice the virtues of both Ruth and Boaz!



Today’s readings:
RUTH 1:1-4:12
Tomorrow’s readings:
RUTH 4:13-22
1CHRONICLES 2:9-55
1CHRONICLES 4:1-23
1SAMUEL 1:1-8

Too graphic to give a title!

²² While they were enjoying themselves, a crowd of troublemakers from the town surrounded the house. They began beating at the door and shouting to the old man, “Bring out the man who is staying with you so we can have sex with him.”

²³ The old man stepped outside to talk to them. “No, my brothers, don’t do such an evil thing. For this man is a guest in my house, and such a thing would be shameful. ²⁴ Here, take my virgin daughter and this man’s concubine. I will bring them out to you, and you can abuse them and do whatever you like. But don’t do such a shameful thing to this man.”

²⁵ But they wouldn’t listen to him. So the Levite took hold of his concubine and pushed her out the door. The men of the town abused her all night, taking turns raping her until morning. Finally, at dawn they let her go. ²⁶ At daybreak the woman returned to the house where her husband was staying. She collapsed at the door of the house and lay there until it was light.

²⁷ When her husband opened the door to leave, there lay his concubine with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ He said, “Get up! Let’s go!” But there was no answer.^[d] So he put her body on his donkey and took her home.

²⁹ When he got home, he took a knife and cut his concubine’s body into twelve pieces. Then he sent one piece to each tribe throughout all the territory of Israel.

³⁰ Everyone who saw it said, “Such a horrible crime has not been committed in all the time since Israel left Egypt. Think about it! What are we going to do? Who’s going to speak up?”  Judges 19:22-30

I really did not wish to post all of this but since there are global readers who may not have a bible I put it up.
You can also find the daily readings at the following link:



One Year Bible Readings <--------------------


First, of course, when reading this a feel angry even after all these years. I thought about it for a long time this time and decided that hopefully when this woman, probably a young woman, died God erased that dreadful memory and she is experiencing eternal bliss in the presence of Jesus.


I have daughters and I can’t imagine for a moment this happening to them.


Next thing that came to mind was justice.

⁴⁶ So that day the tribe of Benjamin lost 25,000 strong warriors armed with swords, ⁴⁷ leaving only 600 men who escaped to the rock of Rimmon, where they lived for four months. ⁴⁸ And the Israelites returned and slaughtered every living thing in all the towns—the people, the livestock, and everything they found. They also burned down all the towns they came to.  Judges 20:46-48

A lot of people died over that event but I think that justice would have been that the Levite that shoved the woman out died too.



But justice belongs to God and I know we are thankful that we do not get what we deserve. 

What are your thoughts on what we have read today?

 

Today’s reading:
JUDGES 19:1-21:25
Tomorrow’s reading:
RUTH 1:1-4:12

“But God I promise!”

Jephthah’s Vow

²⁹ At that time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he led an army against the Ammonites. ³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, ³¹ I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

³² So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. ³³ He crushed the Ammonites, devastating about twenty towns from Aroer to an area near Minnith and as far away as Abel-keramim. In this way Israel defeated the Ammonites.

³⁴ When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child; he had no other sons or daughters. ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. “Oh, my daughter!” he cried out. “You have completely destroyed me! You’ve brought disaster on me! For I have made a vow to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.”

³⁶ And she said, “Father, if you have made a vow to the Lord, you must do to me what you have vowed, for the Lord has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites. ³⁷ But first let me do this one thing: Let me go up and roam in the hills and weep with my friends for two months, because I will die a virgin.”

³⁸ “You may go,” Jephthah said. And he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children. ³⁹ When she returned home, her father kept the vow he had made, and she died a virgin.

So it has become a custom in Israel ⁴⁰ for young Israelite women to go away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah’s daughter.  Judges 11:29-40

Have you ever been in a jam and said “God if you get me out of this I promise I will _________” (fill in the blank)

This passage is a perfect example that we should be very careful about what we promise to God in exchange for something.

So again, have you ever made promises to God in exchange for something?

Look what Jepthah bargained away.

Also, I am amazed at how his daughter responded. Maybe she understood that it was better to be with God.

That’s just my thoughts. What do you think?

This weeks video~

Today’s reading:
JUDGES 11:29-15:20
Tomorrow’s reading:
JUDGES 16:1-18:31