Judges 13 - Sampson's parents (continued again)

The final thing that I was wondering about in Judges 13 isn't spelled out in the text and is just one of those things as a parent I wonder about. I know how Sampson's life turns out. I know that choices he made, I know how God used the poor decisions that Sampson made. I just wonder what role his parents played in him making poor judgments. Did they coddle him and speak to him about how special he was all the time so that he began to think he was better than others? Did they just do that things the angel said and forget to teach him about God's law? Did they teach him everything they were supposed to teach him and he still choose the path that he did? We may never know this but I would like to think that I am raising my girls to know God and follow His will for their lives. I just have to remember that I need to do what God has called me to do and leave the outcome in His hands. If you look at Sampson's life you see that God used Sampson's sins for His own glory. God can and will use all things for His glory and I need to trust Him with my children.

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents (continued)

Another thing that I never saw before in this story is contained in verses 6-8. The angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah who was barren. He tells her that she will bear a son and that he is to be a Nazirite from birth. She comes home and tells her husband. In verse 8 we see how Manoah responds. He prays to God for the man to come again to teach them how to raise this child. What I found significant was that he didn't doubt what his wife said to him from what was recorded. He trusted her and went to God with it. And God answers his prayers in verses 9-14 by sending the angel of the Lord to them. I was convicted because sometimes I don't have the level of trust in my own wife that Manoah showed. And the problem isn't that she has done things to lose my trust. I just don't put the trust in her that she deserves. I need to work on this one in my daily life.

to be continued...

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents

I was reading through Judges 13 this morning and I was struck by a few things. The first thing that jumped out to me was that once again the people of Israel turned from God and He put them under the rule of the Philistines for 40 years. That is a long time. If I lived in that day and I was born at the beginning of this time of subjugation to the Philistines there would still be 6 more years left before Israel is delivered. It took that long for the nation to wake up and turn back to God. I hope and pray it doesn't take 40 years for God to get my attention to turn back to Him if I fall into sin. Sometimes the hard things in our lives are the result of sin. We reap the consequences of what we have done wrong. Some choices we make now, will affect us later in life in ways we can't even understand. That is why it is important to stay in God's will since He know what the future holds for us.

I will share the other things that jumped out to me in future posts.

Gideon and his legacy

I have been reading in Judges this past week or so in my quiet time. When I was in Proverbs it was easy to find something to apply to my live and hear God speaking. In the book of Judges I have had to dig deeper into the stories to get at the heart of what is going on. I read through the story of Gideon and it is a great story of how God works with and through people who yield to him. But at the end of chapter 8 in verse 30 that Gideon had seventy sons because he had many wives and he even had a child with a concubine with whom he had a son. Now it is virtually impossible if you have that many children to raise them properly much less remember all their names. Yet Gideon continued to expand his family. The problem is that it leads to the next chapter of Judges where the son of the concubine kills all his brothers except one who escaped. Abimalech (the son of the concubine) then is proclaimed king. His kingship doesn't last long and both the city that initially put him forth as king and Abimelech are killed. I see this as the fault of Gideon for not controlling himself and having more children than he could possibly raise. He did not use wisdom in how he ran his household and out of this came the survival of only one son who escaped. The decisions we make in our lives and how we live will affect our children for good or bad and we need to be aware of this so that all our decisions are guided by God's word.

Patience

I read a really good article on patience yesterday. It was a very comprehensive overview of patience and why we need it so badly in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. If you would like to read the article is in on Christianity Today's website and it is entitle The Virtue of Patience. Or click on the title and it will lead you to the article. One of the things suggested was practicing patience and how the author had read a book years ago that talked about how you can go about putting the practice of patience to work in your life. I was up last night for a few hours unable to sleep. I was getting impatient with being awake and I remembered one of the things that the article put forth. So I attempted to put it into practice. One suggestion was to take 10 minutes and just slowly count as high as you can without rushing. Sounds easier said than done especially after you have been lying in bed awake for over an hour. Over the next hour or so I did attempt this several times but never for the full 10 minutes. I can't say I failed because I did attempt it. Some things just take practice before you can do them. Read the article if you get a chance and maybe something will jump out at you to put into your life.

Proverbs 10:19

"When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise." This is something to take to heart. If you talk way to much eventually there will be something said that brings conflict. Once you get someone talking they will eventually share something that they probably should not have shared. Time and again we are asked to restrain our lips in scripture and told that even a fool is thought wise if he keeps his mouth shut. What we say matters in this life and we will be called into account for all that has come out of our mouths. Sometimes it is better to bite your tongue and be thought wise than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Proverbs 14:3

"In the mouth of the foolish is a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will protect them." What the fool speaks will eventually bring a rob to his back. Some sort of discipline will come upon a fool because of what he says to others. It will come back and beat him at some point. But, the lips of the wise will protect them. The wise one uses words as a shield to protect themselves from needing a rod of discipline. Are our mouths the mouths of fools or of the wise?

Proverbs 29:25

"The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted." I don't know about you, but I don't want to be caught in a snare. I have some knowledge of trapping animals and a snare was not about catching an animal alive. It was about killing it. Fearing men can lead you into a trap that could bring about death, maybe not death right now, but eternal death as you decide not to follow Jesus Christ because you fear man. But this proverb doesn't end with a snare. It goes on to show what happens to those who trust in God. They don't fear man, they fear God who is the one who has ultimate control and God will exalt those whose trust is in Him. Maybe not in this life, but throughout all eternity we will experience the riches of His grace. Trust in Him today and everyday and leave the trap that fearing man brings behind.

Proverbs 29:7

"The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor, the wicked does not understand such concern."
One of the ways we can show God how much we love Him is to be concerned about the things He is concerned about. He looks out for those in need and so should we. We should be aware of how we can help those in need around us and in the global economy we live in around the world. Items we purchase may be used to keep others down and don't pay them enough to live on. Be a well informed shopper who knows what items you purchase only support the large corporation and not the person who actually does the work. If you don't care about the poor, then you need to examine your heart and find out why. Ask God to change you and make you desire the things that He desires.

Blessings

We do need to be reminded from time to time how much God has blessed us. In Sunday's sermon, Dave Mannon shared about how God has blessed us for a reason. He hasn't blessed us just because. He has blessed us so that we can make His salvation known to all the world. We have many opportunities to do this. We can pray for people all over the world to come to know Christ. We can give and support missionary work both local and international. We can go and serve in a mission field or stay home and serve in a mission field. God has blessed you in many ways for a purpose. Make sure you are living your life for His purpose which is to make His salvation known in all the earth.

Interruptions

Have you ever prayed that God would work through you and then all your plans go out the window? How do you respond? This happened to me this week and at first I was really annoyed that what I had planned to do wasn't working out. But God is good and He reminded me that I had asked Him to be in charge of my life and it is about what He wants to do in me and through me that is important. I shouldn't look at interruptions as bad things but as God changing my plans to fit His. How will you look at interruptions in your life? Pray that God would use you and then look to see how He does it. He will use you if you let Him.

Proverbs 26:20-21

"For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down. Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife."
I have experienced this many times both inside churches and in the workplace. All it takes is one person sowing the seeds of discontent to fan something in a large fire that is very destructive. But when that contentious person isn't there things move along fine. There may be embers of discontent about but without the fuel to get the fire going the embers die out. We need to be on the lookout in our lives that we are not influenced by someone who is contentious into starting a fire but also that we are not that person who adds fuel to the embers and fans it into flames.

Proverbs 25:4

"Take away the dross from the silver, and there comes out a vessel for the smith;" Until the dross or impurities are removed from silver it cannot be used by the smith to make anything useful. Our lives are like the silver and we contain a lot of impurities that need to be removed for us to be used effectively in God's service. God uses many things to bring this about. We experience trials and suffering so that we can be refined into a useful piece of silver in God's hands. He is not content for us to be only 80% pure or even 99% pure. His desire is to make us into the image of His son and He will continue to leads us through the refining process until we get there. Just remember that whatever you face each day, whatever challenges or struggles are all part of the process to remove the junk from your life. Everything we face in life is an opportunity for God to work out some impurities that we sometimes don't even realize are there.

Proverbs 24:1

"Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their minds devise violence and their lips talk of trouble."
This proverb is good warning for everyone to take into account in their daily lives. We see things on tv and in the media that show people in a way that encourages us to envy what they have and instills the desire to be with them. We put forth people as heroes that never would have merited that moniker before. Yet at their heart, they are evil because they are enemies of God just as we were at one time until we experienced the grace of God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our culture constantly puts for evil as good and seems to make good things evil. We have gotten things so upside down. We need to keep this in mind, that evil men devise violence (which is all over tv and movies) and their lips constantly talk of trouble. Be on guard against envy of evil men because in the end they are still under the judgment of God because of their sin. Pray for them and guard your mind.

Proverbs 23:17

Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always. As I read this verse, God brought to mind how I have done this in my life. From looking at others "things" that I could have if I worked more or didn't tithe. I have been guilty of looking at what others have and wanting it for myself. I have also seen the other side of things. I see how they have stumbled into work because of a late night out involving lots of alcohol. I see how their relationships crumble so easily without the bedrock of Christ. I see the downside of how sinners lead their lives and yet because I am still a sinner in need of a savior I am still pulled in their direction. But the verse doesn't just end with do not let your heart envy sinners, it has a but in there. But live in the fear of the Lord always. This is how I counteract the draw of sin in my life. I live in the fear of God always. Each and every day I live in the fear of God. This makes me take stock of the future and realize that the life of a sinner leads to death. I am on the road to life and need to live like it.

Proverbs 23:12

Proverbs 23:12 says this, "Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge." Sometimes verses jump out at me as I read them and this was one of them. I have been contemplating how I can apply my heart to discipline. To begin with, I need to remind myself that discipline is not a bad thing in my life. I actually need discipline if I want to live a successful life in God's eyes. I can't do anything without discipline except sit on the couch and watch tv. So I need to change my thinking about how discipline works in my life to be a positive good thing for me and not a negative thing to avoid. The verse also say to apply your ears to words of knowledge. I should be listening to things that increase my knowledge. I have been working on this for a while to be listening to things that challenge me and help me understand God better. I have tried to avoid those things that don't increase my knowledge and are in a sense only empty calories for my brain. I should also listen to those people in my life who have knowledge in areas that I lack so that I may gain insight and understanding.

King Saul and the witch of Endor

This past Sunday we spent time looking at an episode at the end of King Saul's life where he faced an army and when he went to God for help all he received was silence. Instead of taking time to examine his life and see if there was unconfessed sin in his own life, Saul went to get direction from someone else. He sought out a medium to find out what he was to do next. He gave up on getting direction from God and went to other sources. No one else know the future but God. He is the only one who knows what is going to happen so when we go somewhere else for direction we are saying to God that we don't trust Him. We don't believe in our hearts that He really knows what He is doing and that we know better. We set ourselves or others up at a god, or idol, to us when we do this. We say that someone or something else knows things that God does not know. This even applies when we go to someone for direction who doesn't follow Jesus Christ. When we read a self help book that isn't based on Biblical principles we are saying the human wisdom is better than God's wisdom. When we listen to a someone on a tv show because they are famous we put their wisdom ahead of God's. We need to be very careful who we seek guidance and direction from so that we don't fall into the same trap Saul did which led to his death.

Adoption

Lisa and I are looking into adopting. We have had this on our hearts for years but it never seemed to be the right time. We were living in an apartment and there was no room for another child or 2. Now we have a house and space and things seem to be moving in that direction. I am looking forward to the process and learning more about God's love for each one of us as we go through with this. The parallels between God adopting us into His family and us finding a child to bring into ours is amazing. I know there will be ups and downs through all of this but I have faith that God will see us through to completion.

Boxes

I have been thinking lately about how we try to box God into our preconceived ideas of how we want things to work. We say to God in effect that I will only accept something as coming from you if it fits into these specific parameters. We limit where God can work in our lives and in the lives of those around us by saying that you can to x, y and z but not a, b and c in our lives. God has a way of making us look outside these boxes to expand our ideas of how He can work and use us. Where have you boxed God in? Is it a career choice and you say God you can only give me a job with this amount of income and these hours? Could it be looking at a circumstance in your life and saying that God needs to do something but you have limited the options to what is acceptable to you and disregarded God's plans? In our church, could we be boxing Him in with our list of what we want to see happen, where we meet and what the facility looks like, what the name of the church is and how it came about? We come to God so many times and say do this when what He wants to do in us and through us is the complete opposite of what we want. Is following God about our desires and wants or about Him? It should be about Him but often we make it about us. Let's allow God to work for His glory through us an stop trying to box Him into our limited point of view.

King Saul

This past Sunday I spoke on one episode of King Saul's life. As I have been studying about him I have found a lot of things that have applied to my life. Take the fact that in Deuteronomy 17:18-20 God tells the king what he is supposed to do in advance of Israel even asking for a king. What he is supposed to do is keep God's commands, His authoritative prescriptions on how to live your life always before him. The king needed to be in God's word daily so that he would stay the course. Saul did not do this and it led to his downfall. Just as in any new thing we add to our lives we need to integrate a lifestyle change for it to work long term. We can't say I will just tack this on to everything else. We need to mesh it with what we do already and get rid of stuff that isn't working in our lives for it to become part of us and make a difference in our lives. We need to integrate spending time in God's word and in prayer (or dialogue) with God daily if we are to become the people He wants us to be. How can you integrate your time with God on a daily basis? What would need to change in your life for this to happen?