Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”
Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.”
Judges 8:22-23 ESV
My heart rejoiced when I read Gideon’s words. Praise the Lord that Gideon desired for the Lord to rule over the people!
But, moments later, Gideon asks those same people to give him all the golden earrings from the spoil of their battle against the Midianites, and from those golden earrings he makes an ephod which “all Israel whored after, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family” (Judges 8:27b).
It just reminded me how quickly I can be deceived, how easily I can step off the straight and narrow path. I need to be diligent in taking every decision to the Lord, willingly following Him step by step.
Heavenly Father, You alone are the ruler of my life. I don’t want to whore after other gods, idols that make promises they’re unable to keep. Open wide my eyes that I may see You. May Your Word be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, that I might follow You and You alone all the days of my life. To the glory of Your Name I pray. Amen.
How QUICKLY our Hearts can TURN. ❤️ ↪️💔🤯
Have Mercy on Me – Anchor Hymns
Don’t Forget to Remember – Ellie Holcomb
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 59, Judges 6
I know that yesterday’s post was also from Judges 6, but I hope you’ll bear with me.
In Judges 6, God told Gideon that He is sending him to save Israel from the hand of Midian, but before sending Gideon into that battle, the Lord tells Gideon to take his father’s bulls and pull down his father’s altar to Baal. Then, Gideon is to “cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” (Judges 6:25-26 ESV) Gideon obeys God, but for fear of his family and the men of the town, he does it at night so no one sees him.
The next morning, when the townspeople awake, they notice the broken down altar and the cut down Asherah and the bull atop the altar. They immediately go to Gideon’s father, Joash, and demand that Gideon be killed for such an action.
Can you guess how Joash reacts? He defends Gideon, refusing to harm his son, and calling into question the power of Baal, saying, “If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” (Judges 6:31b)
Whoa. I was shocked, weren’t you? I expected his dad to be really mad and lash out at Gideon for destroying his stuff, especially his altar!
I wonder how many of you have had to tear down altars that your parents have built.
Maybe your parents worshipped at the altar of success, power, fame, and prestige. Maybe they worshipped wealth, spending their lives in pursuit of bigger cars, houses, and toys. Maybe they worshipped human philosophy and wisdom. Maybe they worshipped false gods of their own making or false gods made by other men through the centuries.
And maybe you, like Gideon, and me, and so many others, have been afraid to start chipping away at those altars for fear of your parents’ rejection, disapproval, or worse.
But as we saw in Gideon’s life, you never know how the Lord might work. Maybe the Lord has already begun working on your parents’ hearts and they just need you to take that first step of obedience in helping them to pull down those altars. Or maybe the Lord wants you to heed the words of Jesus in Matthew 10.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:34-39 ESV
What altar is the Lord calling you to tear down today?
Remember, friend, if you have surrendered your life to His Lordship, He is with you. Go in His power and might. Be a woman of valor for the Lord is fighting your battles for you.
Heavenly Father, please help me not to afraid – not because life isn’t scary, but because You are with me. Help me to love others more than myself and help me to love You most and best. You are worthy of it all. If you are for me, who can be against me? What can man do to me? In You I have all I need. In the Mighty, Majestic Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Worthy of It All – Cece Winans
TEARING DOWN YOUR FATHER’S ALTARS
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 57, Judges 4-5
God has often asked me to do things that, frankly, I don’t want to do. I didn’t want to homeschool. I didn’t want to start a ministry to women who were continuing their pregnancy after finding out something was wrong with their unborn baby. And every time the Lord has told me to go talk to someone I’m having conflict with, I’ve tried to come up with excuses for why I’m not the right person for the job.
Why did God call Deborah to judge Israel? Why didn’t He choose Deborah’s husband, Lappidoth, or that mighty warrior, Barak?
Why did God choose Jael to put a tent stake through King Sisera’s skull? Wouldn’t her father or her husband or her brother or her son have been a better choice?
The answer to these questions is this: I have no idea. 🤷♀️
But I do know that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-8), and God uses the weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). I do know that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5) I know that it is the Lord who gives both life and death (Deuteronomy 32:39, 1 Samuel 2:6), and He can use whoever He pleases to accomplish His purposes.
Is God calling you to do something hard, something impossible, something you don’t want to do?
Listen carefully to His voice.Fix your eyes on Him and allow Him to guide you by the truth of His Word and His Holy Spirit.
Fix your eyes on Him and allow Him to guide you by the truth of His Word and His Holy Spirit.
Walk by faith and not by sight.
Do the next thing – by faith in His power and might.
Heavenly Father, what a blessing and gift to know You, to be clay in Your hands. Use us for whatever You’ve called us to. Make us Your vessels, Your instruments, Your servants and ambassadors and ministers, that the lost would find hope and rest and peace at the feet of Jesus Christ, our judge and our deliverer. In His Name we pray. Amen.
One Set of Footprints – Heartland Harmony Girls
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 56, Judges 3
“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.
Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.
But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.”
Judges 3:7-9 ESV
My weight has fluctuated by twenty or so pounds for the past two decades. Gradually, I put on weight, filling my plate with more calories than I can burn and indulging in too many sweets. Then, finally, one day, I look down at the scale and think, “What happened?!?” In the years leading up to that epiphany, there were plenty of signs: aches, pains, bloating, not sleeping well, in addition to the obvious problem of not fitting into my clothes. And yet, I kept going down that road until suddenly, one day, the realization that things had gone too far. Twenty pounds? I’ve got to do something!
I see this same phenomenon in our own Christian life. One day we’re tired, sick, or busy, so we skip reading the Bible that day. A few days later, we have another crazy day, and we miss our time with the Lord again. After a few weeks or months of that, we finally awake to the fact that we’ve abandoned our times of communing with Him already.
The Israelites had wandered away from God. In His mercy, He was bringing them back … Through the pain of slavery, followed by the joy of deliverance.
Have you wandered away? Have you seen the Lord’s hand of discipline on your life? Are you ready to return to Him? He’s calling you. He’s already sent a deliverer, and His Name is Jesus. Come back to Him. His arms are open wide.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Jesus, our Great Deliverer. I pray that our nation would return to You, that we would remember the heights from which we have fallen and cry out to You, TODAY. Forgive us, Father, for we have wandered away from You, the One True God. We have chosen to serve gods of our own making, God’s made by human minds and human hands. Forgive us, Father. Save us, please! Deliver us! Turn our hearts and minds back to You! We need You! It is in the matchless, Almighty Name of Jesus that we bring these requests to You. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 52, 2 Corinthians 13
My heart breaks with Paul as he closes this letter. I know what it’s like to desire reconciliation and harmony with people who keep going back to their sin. It’s hard to stand by and watch as people continue to turn their backs on the goodness of God’s grace. But, ultimately, we aren’t in charge. We speak words of grace and truth, and we pray, and leave the results up to God.
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 ESV
Heavenly Father, I trust you in the good things and in the hard things. I know that often the hard things are the good things. Please encourage my heart so that I can encourage others. I pray for unity in the body of Christ. And I pray that the body of Christ would be a holy, separate people, unstained by the world. I pray that your children would be faithful to exhort their brothers and sisters to love and good deeds and to share the good news with the lost. Conform us to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ. May we be humble and kind and gentle and bold and courageous. In His Name I pray. Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 49, 2 Corinthians 8-9
Have you ever thought about the idea that true love cannot be forced?
I can make my kids do lots of stuff. Sometimes all I have to do is ask, but sometimes my request needs more incentives, maybe offering a reward (or a punishment) for compliance.
“Sweetheart, would you please go empty the dishwasher?”
“Honey, please go clean your bedroom?”
“After you finish mowing the lawn, I’m going to take you out for ice cream.”
“If you don’t get all your schoolwork finished by 4 o’clock, there will be no media for the rest of the day. Get going!”
But, does love work that way? Can I compel my children to love something … or someone? I may be able to force some kind actions, but genuine love from the heart, by definition, requires a person to freely and willingly give of themselves.
Likewise, genuine generosity can never be forced. If your parents, your pastor, or your government demands that you share your stuff with someone else, then you are no longer being generous.
Part of what makes the Macedonian churches’ generosity in 2 Corinthians 8 so remarkable is that they were giving generously “beyond their means, of their own accord.” (2 Corinthians 8:3) I want to be more like that. I want to givegenerously, willingly, and cheerfully, of my time, treasures, talents, and testimony, in both my abundance and my lack.
Heavenly Father, You delight in a cheerful giver. Help me to give sacrificially and cheerfully. Help me to give freely, rather than under compulsion. Help me to be generous with my time as well as my money. Help me to remember how much You have given to me, that there is nothing I have that I have not been given. Make me more like Jesus and less like the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
Want more? Listen to this great sermon, “Generosity & Grace” by Austin Cox at Collierville Bible Church.
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 47, 2 Corinthians 7
October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day, a day set apart each year to remember those babies that have gone from our arms too soon.
In God’s providence, unaware of this date (or had it just not been established yet?) I had planned my own baby’s memorial service for October 15, 1998, because it was the one-month anniversary of his passing. In today’s reading in 2 Corinthians 7, I was struck by verse 10.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV
The greatest times of growth in my life have always come on the heels of the greatest griefs. Sometimes that grief has taken the form of physical and emotional pain – losing a baby, marriage and parenting struggles, and financial hardships. Sometimes that grief has taken the form of spiritual pain, the result of grieving over my own past or present sin.
And yet, it is quite possible for that very same grief to turn us away from God rather than toward Him. The loss of a baby, the infidelity of a spouse, a wayward child, the recognition of our own sin, all of these things can drive us to doubt God’s presence or goodness.
This, I believe, is one result of what Paul here calls “worldly grief,” grief turned inward rather than heavenward. We think God must not care for us if He has allowed such pain to enter our lives, forgetting the profound wisdom of a mother who chastens her child for his good.
Do you find yourself today in the midst of an unending sea of grief? Cry out to God. Ask Him to rescue you by the mercies of His Son, Jesus, who came to Earth to seek and save the lost, who surrendered His own life that you might have the gift of eternal life.
Heavenly Father, I lift up the person reading this post. I pray that You will draw them into Your loving arms. I pray that You will chasten them like a wayward lamb, that they will come running through the narrow gate of Christ and find safety in the fold of forgiveness. You are so good. I am so thankful for Your righteous judgment and Your boundless mercy. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Good Shepherd and King, I pray. Amen.
Blessings – Laura Story
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I grew up in the great state of Iowa, where the corn grows tall and people pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. My parents were hard workers, raised by hard workers. Maybe that’s why Matthew 11:28-30 is so special to me. I have labored ( to memorize this passage, treasuring it in my often weary heart. Indeed, I have labored, and indeed I am thankful for the rest Jesus promises me.
“Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This past week, as I’ve been studying this passage in more depth, I’m finally seeing the context in which Jesus is speaking.
These verses are sandwiched between Jesus denouncing the Jewish cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and Jesus telling the Pharisees that they don’t understand what “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” means. This paragraph begins in Matthew 11:25 with, “At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children.'”
Jesus is talking to the Jewish religious sect called the Pharisees. Despite being eyewitnesses to Jesus’s miracles and hearing His preaching first-hand, they did not recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. The Pharisees remained unrepentant. The Pharisees would have been considered the wise and understanding, but they missed the joy, peace, and freedom that faith in Jesus could bring.
Like Jesus explains in Matthew 23:4, the Pharisees “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Read Matthew 23 for more on this)
These heavy burdens are not farmers’ chores, like plowing fields, slopping pigs, and shoveling out horse stalls, nor are they housewives’ chores, like cleaning your house until the floors shine, cooking three nutritious gourmet meals every day, and homeschooling a dozen children. Rather, the Pharisees’ heavy burdens are religious duties designed to earn salvation from God. Religious duties like strictly tithing, offering animal sacrifices, and keeping the Sabbath down to the minute detail.
In the modern American Christian homeschooling circle that I ran with, it may indeed include cleaning your house until the floors shine, cooking three nutritious gourmet meals daily, and homeschooling a dozen children, along with keeping your kids in church with you, teaching your children’s Sunday school class, volunteering at your church’s VBS ministry, knocking on your neighbors’ doors to share the gospel, and serving at your local food pantry.
Friends, these are all good things. Please serve your church and community. Take good care of your children and your home. Please serve the homeless and share the gospel with all your neighbors. Please work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, as Colossians 3:23 instructs. Please be workers at home, like Titus 2:5 says. Please do! But do these works, because you’re following Jesus.
Does your SOUL need rest? Are you tired of working to pay God back? Are you tired of trying to earn salvation? Are you tired of trying to atone for your own sins?
Let your life flow from a place of rest and abiding in the vine, a place of joy and blessing. Jesus loves you, and He wants to work through you to bring Him glory. Wow! What a privilege that this little girl from Iowa has been chosen to bring glory to the Lord of Heaven and Earth!
Jesus, the promised Messiah, took my sins upon Himself by his death on the cross. Jesus bore my griefs. Jesus carried my sorrows. I have been healed by His wounds. Isaiah 53:4-6
Jesus invites us to give Him our burdens, to come to Him with the trusting faith of little children. In Jesus, we can find rest, not only for our bodies, but for our SOULS.
Friend, you can never, ever be good enough. Never. You can never pay God back. You will never deserve being saved.
Jesus paid the price for you. He is inviting you to take His yoke upon you and learn from Him, that you can have soul-rest.
Heart-check:
How are you tying up heavy burdens for yourself to carry? For others?
Have you come to Jesus and taken His yoke? What stands in your way?
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for giving me work to do, and thank You for giving me the strength to do it. Help me to have joy in the journey, to follow Christ, to give grace to others as I have received it from You. Keep me humble and fill my heart with Your peace. In the Name of Jesus, my Savior and Master. Amen.
Come Unto Jesus – Laura Story, Jordan Kauflin, Keith & Kristyn Getty
All My Boast is in Jesus – Keith and Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 39, 1 Corinthians 16
We hear 1 Corinthians 13 read at every wedding. Love is patient and kind. Love does envy or boast. Love is not proud or rude. Isn’t it beautiful?
But love is also steadfast and firm, immovable and strong. Love is a mother telling her toddler, “No,” a hundred times in the same day. Love is a grown daughter telling her alcoholic mom that she’s got a problem. Love is refusing to stand idly by while pornography tries to ruin your marriage or homosexuality tries to steal your teenager.
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 ESV
Love takes guts. Love takes strength. Love takes the stamina of a thoroughbred racehorse and the patience of Job. Love requires you to be willing to get battle scars for the sake of another because you believe they’re worth the fight.
Ladies, sisters, friends, act like men. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
Heavenly Father, Your Son, Jesus Christ, is the perfect manifestation of manhood and love. Strength and humility. Stamina and kindness. Make us more like Him. Teach us, show us, how to love like He loves, how to give up our lives for another, to be willing to suffer to save someone else. We need You, Father. We can’t do it on our own. In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Lover of my Soul. Amen.
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