Tag Archives: daily walk

April 12 -It’s A Giant!

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I Samuel 15-17

So often Scripture gives us examples of God’s power demonstrated through individuals. Like Moses through whom many miracles were performed. Like Gideon who took only 300 men into battle and won the war. Like what we read yesterday about Jonathan, and again today as we read about David’s victory over Goliath.

When David heard Goliath’s threats and saw the reaction of the Jewish soldiers, he didn’t get it. “Who is this Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?”

I think that, in a sense, we 21st century Christians are a bit like that army David was talking to:

The media is against us. The government is against us. The laws are against us. People say mean things about us.

Scripture says that when faced with the giant, the Israelite army “fled from him and were greatly afraid.” (17:24)

It took one person – David – to recognize that God is greater than anyone. David could face Goliath with confidence, because David’s confidence wasn’t in himself.

David’s confidence was in the living God!

We are facing a giant here in 2016. Do we believe God is more powerful than our enemy? Just where have we put our confidence?

April 11 – One + God = Victory

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I Samuel 13&14

Most of us have probably felt a time or two: What can one person do?

What difference does it make if I speak the Truth at work when I’m the only believer there? What can my measly little offering do when I drop my few dollars in the plate each week? Does my one vote really matter? Does my opinion count for anything? I’m just one person. How effective can I be?

Jonathon and his armor bearer were getting ready to take on the Philistine army. Just the two of them. Hear what Jonathon said: “… perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.” (14:6)

We can all probably agree that we need a revival in our churches. And it could start with

YOU!

God can use one yielded heart, one voice to do amazing things in His children. He is not restrained by numbers.

One + God = Victory

You + God = Anything He’s calling you to!

April 9 – I Am Afraid

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I Samuel 9-12

There are some things I am afraid of. I’m afraid of guns. I’m afraid of policemen. I am afraid of dogs. I’m afraid of water. I’m afraid of falling off a cliff.

But I love to shoot. My nephew, whom I love, is a cop. We’ve got several dogs in our family. I swim, and I go boating. And I love exploring nature in all terrains.

My fears effect how I live. But it doesn’t stop me from living. My fear of guns has me treat them carefully, and aim them purposefully at the target, because I know a bullet shot in the wrong direction can kill. My fear of cops has me driving the speed limit, because I know that they have the authority to ticket me. I don’t approach a snarling dog because I know a bite from a dog will hurt, but I pet dogs with wagging tails. I wear a life jacket, and don’t swim in the ocean alone or in a storm, because I don’t want to drown. And I never run up to the brink of a cliff, because a fall could kill me.

My fears make me aware of the danger and cause me to respect those things I fear.

I Samuel 12:24 tells us to fear the Lord “for consider the great things he has done for you.”

Do I fear God? Absolutely! He is Holy. He is a fierce Judge. He is Almighty Creator. I’ve read in Scripture what He thinks about sin. And I believe Him when He says sinners go to hell.

But does my fear of God keep me from loving Him, from spending time with Him every day, from trusting Him. Absolutely NOT!

There are many places in the Bible that tell us not to fear. But I can’t find anywhere where it says not to fear God. Don’t fear the future. Don’t fear Satan. Don’t fear what man can do to us. But I think the Bible clearly warns us that God is someone to be feared.

And loved. And trusted. And respected. God wants us to live life, to enjoy His creation, to walk boldly and share the Gospel. But I think it’s pretty clear that we need to have that healthy fear of Him who is our Judge, who demands holiness of us.

My fear of God effects how I live. It makes me aware of the penalty of disobeying Him, and causes me to respect Him and His Word. But it also gives me the awareness of just how amazing is my walk with Him. This God who is to be feared loves me. He gave Himself for me. He is my constant companion, my strength, my very life.

April 8 – God’s Heart And Soul

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I Samuel 1-2

Do you want the good news first, or the bad news? For Eli, there wasn’t much news that could be considered all that good. His sons were worthless. Their sins had angered God to the point God was going to kill them. Even Eli could expect God’s wrath because Eli knew what his sons were doing and, “he did not rebuke them.”

Eli knew he was guilty. His response to the bad news concerning his sons was: “It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

But God did tell Eli a bit of good news. God was going to raise up a faithful priest, one who would act according to God’s heart and soul, and God would build an enduring house. This faithful priest would walk before God’s anointed always. (2:35)

My mind is whirling with all kinds of scenarios. Is Samuel the faithful priest God spoke about? Or is God looking ahead to Jesus, our forever priest? And as I sat here all caught up in those details, God seemed to nudge me to look outside the box.

The big picture here is that God hates sin, judges sin, and condemns sinners to death, sending them to hell. My NASV says the Lord “desired” to put Eli’s sons to death because of their sin and refusal to repent.

But these chapters also tell me God honors obedience. Whether it’s talking about Samuel or Jesus – or me as part of God’s Kingdom of Priests, God blesses those who obey Him.

What I learned today is that I want to “do according to what is in (God’s) heart and in (His ) soul.” I would love to be able to be described in that manner. I think God deserves it.

April 5 – It’s Insane

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Judges 16-18

Isn’t the definition of “insanity” said to be doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome? I think Samson was insane.

Three time Delilah tried to get him to tell her what made him so strong. Three times Samson told a lie. And all three times Delilah went to Samson’s enemies and set up an ambush. Three times.

So why – WHY – would Samson think that on the fourth time, he could tell Delilah the truth and she wouldn’t go to his enemies with that information? It’s insane.

But, as He does whenever I read His Word, God is asking me to check myself. Haven’t there been times I’ve wanted something, but God clearly closes the door? Haven’t I been known to try again and again to get what it was I wanted, only to have the door slammed in my face each time? Did I think the door would somehow open when it hadn’t so many times before?

Have you ever wanted someone to love you, but they clearly weren’t interested? Have you tried and tried to get their attention, only to be sadly disappointed every time? Yet something tells you it’ll be different next time.

After reading about Samson today, I realize I want to be more sensitive to God’s nudges, and his outright denial of what I think I want. I want to recognize the signs. If God closes a door, I want to trust Him enough to walk away and look for an open door somewhere else.

I don’t want to read about Samson and think, “that man was insane” without doing a sanity check on my own life.

God, help me read the signs you so clearly put in my path. Help me make decisions based on those nudges that come from You, my loving Father.

April 4 -Revenge

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Judges 13-15

Samson is an interesting character. From the moment he was conceived his mother didn’t drink alcohol. His parents raised him to be set apart for God’s work. Samson acted differently, and looked different from everybody else.

God used Samson in amazing ways. He killed a lion with his bare hands, a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Yet he had terrible taste in women, seemed to have no common sense, and made revenge a driving force in his life.

When the men of Judah came to him and asked him why on earth he would burn the Philistine crops, Samson answered like a two year old. “They started it.”

Is revenge a right? When someone wrongs you, are you entitled to payback? Doesn’t the Bible say something about an eye for an eye?

I used to tell kids in my school that revenge is like a game of tennis. Someone serves the ball into your court by being mean to you, so you hit the ball back to them by doing something back at them. Does the game of tennis stop after both players hit the ball just once?

Well, it might when I’m playing. But that’s not the point.

When the ball is hit into the player’s court, he or she does everything possible to hit it back into the opponent’s court. The game stops only when someone quits hitting the ball.

Does getting revenge ever solve the problem? Does it ever even the score? Or does it make the problem grow? Read these chapters in Judges and see how living for revenge worked for Samson.

What does Jesus say? Love your enemies. Do good to those who harm you. Paul tells us to overcome evil with good.

I wonder how Samson’s story would have ended if he had learned that lesson.

I wonder how your story will end.

April 1 – It’s No Joke

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Judges 6&7

Sometimes obeying God can be scary. God told Gideon to tear down his father Joash’s Asherah pole and the altar of Baal. Gideon obeyed. But he did it at night because he was afraid of his dad. As it turned out, the neighbors were more angry than Gideon’s father. Joash told his neighbors that if Baal was such a great god, let Baal take care of Gideon for destroying the altar. Gideon’s dad had his son’s back after all.

God wanted Gideon to attack Midian, promising him victory with only 300 men. But Gideon got cold feet. He sneaked into the Midian camp during the night to check things out for himself. You know, in case God overlooked a detail or two.

What Gideon heard two Midianite soldiers say to each other there in the middle of the night affirmed to Gideon that God was going to help him win the battle.

God doesn’t always ask us to do the safe or comfortable things in Jesus’ name. Befriending that grouchy neighbor might scare you to death. Teaching the Bible study in your home, or taking a stand at work, or running for political office, or going to Africa to share the Gospel, or quitting smoking, or walking away from an ungodly relationship, or asking someone to forgive you can be scary.

God might be nudging you to do something way out of your comfort zone, and you are tempted to think, “This has to be a joke.”

Hear God say, if He asks you to do it, He will go before you, He will be your strength, He will give you the victory. God is very serious about using you today to win the war against Satan.

If you feel the nudge of God to talk to someone about the Savior, rest assured it’s no joke. Gather your courage and do it. God promises to be right there with you every step of the way.

March 30 – Living With The Enemy

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Judges 1-2

Israel didn’t drive out the enemy like God had told them to do. Yes, it would have involved force, it wouldn’t be easy. But, like Judah who didn’t drive the enemy out of the valley because they had “iron chariots,” the Israelites chose to live among the enemy. Clearly not what God had wanted for them. (besides, what is an iron chariot next to God?)

God had promised them He would go before them in battle. God had promised them victory. Either Israel was too lazy, or they didn’t really believe God when He told them living with the enemy would cause them to sin.

So, the Jews lived among idol worshipers. And the result? The Bible tells us that their children were “another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” (2:10)

Oh, their kids knew about Baal. But they didn’t know God.

I have lived six decades. In my lifetime I have seen the decline of morality and the reverence and fear of a Holy God. I have seen worship turn into entertainment, and the Truth replaced by a lie.

God is speaking to me today. I am a part of the decline of Christianity. Have I cleared out my own Promised Land like God has commanded me? Have I eliminated sin from my life, or do I live with a hint of jealousy? Do I watch that one ungodly TV show? Do I take God’s name in vain on occasion? Am I too busy to read God’s Word and pray, replacing my worship of Him with busyness?

Do I love this world a bit too much? Have I grown numb concerning sin, accepting sin or tolerating it?

God would have me clear out the land. He has said that living with the enemy can only turn out badly for me… and for the dear ones who come after me.

God, reveal those areas in my life where I have allowed Satan to exist. I don’t want anything to do with him. I don’t want his influence to have any hold on me. I want to be free from the bondage that results by allowing sin to exist in me. You died to free me. Forgive me for squandering that. I don’t want to live with the enemy. I want my life to be just You and me.

March 26 – God’s Sovereignty

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Joshua 12-15

Caleb went to Joshua and reminded him that 45 years earlier, Moses had promised him a certain portion of the Promised Land. Now Joshua was assigning property to the Jews, and Caleb wanted to be sure Joshua gave him the land Moses had promised. So Joshua assigned Caleb that land.

Later, Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, asked her dad for springs of water to go with the land in the Negev he had already given her and her husband. Caleb gave her the springs.

These days, with the election coming, and with such unrest in our country and the world, I often hear it said, “God is Sovereign.” Many people seem to believe that means God will put whoever He wants in the White House, that He is exacting punishment on the world by causing some people to be suicide bombers. Some seem to take the attitude that we might as well sit back and let God do His thing because, after all, He is Sovereign.

But I don’t think that means God is up there playing a game of chess with our lives.

Would Joshua have remembered Moses’ promise to Caleb had Caleb not reminded him? Would Caleb have thought to include springs of water with the land he gave his daughter had she not asked? Would the Israelites have received the Promised Land had they not fought for it?

We won’t know the answers to those questions because Scripture tells us what actually happened. Had the requests not been made or the wars not fought we would be reading a different account.

Yes, God is absolutely, without question, Sovereign. He is the Supreme Ruler. He is the ultimate Power. But God has also chosen to exist in time while we are on earth.

Actually, He’s already at the end of time, too. He’s already returned for His own in the realm of eternity. We just haven’t experienced it yet, trapped in minutes and seconds.

The Bible tells us over and over how important our choices are. Why would our choices make any difference if God was “in control?”

Does God have a will concerning who occupies the White House the next four years? I am certain He knows who will be our next president. It will be the person who gets the most votes, and voting is a choice each of us must make.

I think God’s will is for Christians to fight for our land. He wills that we choose morality, obedience, and that we make our voices heard. I think His will is that we vote and make our position known. I think His will is that we take action and not sit back and assume He’s going to do it all.

If we sit at home and think that, because God is Sovereign, His will will be done with or without us, we are sadly mistaken. There are dozens of examples in the Bible where God wanted to bless His children but could not because of their choices. More than once He “gave them over” to their choices. And those times certainly couldn’t be described as His will for them.

I know that God is in control. I know He knows the end from the beginning. I know that He knows when life on earth will end. He is Sovereign.

But God’s Sovereignty does not let us off the hook. God knows what will happen if Christians stand up for themselves like Caleb and Achsah did, like Israel did when they fought for the land.

But He also knows what will happen if we don’t.

That chapter hasn’t been written yet in the realm of time. Our choices will make the difference. Yes, God knows what we are going to choose. But He wants us to choose Him. That’s His will. Everything else will fall into place, if we choose God.

Dear Sovereign God, it is comforting to know that You are who You say You are. You are all powerful, all knowing, ever present. But You, in your wisdom have given us the ability to make choices. And those choices, according to Your will for Your creation, determine life on this planet. I pray that Your children will choose You, that we will intentionally put on Your armor, that we will purposefully choose to obey You, and that we won’t just sit back and assume You are going to do a great work in spite of us. May we not give up, thinking there is nothing we can do to change the tide. You can and do great things when we choose to be vessels through which You accomplish Your will. May You find us choosing to be faithful.

 

March 23 – Friday Night Lights and Monday Morning Grind

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Joshua 1-4

I’m a band geek. I not only played clarinet in high school and college, I became a band director and spent fourteen years of my career helping kids to love making music, too.

One of my favorite memories is of high school football games and half-time shows. Every Friday, I would make sure my white bucks were polished, I’d fluff my plume, put on my blue and gold uniform, and tie my tie. I’d put that hat on my head, fasten my reed to the mouthpiece, then get in a straight line with my fellow band members.

We’d snap to attention at the director’s command. Then the whistle would blow and the drummers would pound out that cadence. We’d march, left, right, left, right, our arms snapping up on the first beat of every measure. Heads high, knees up, backs straight, we’d make our way toward the field, lights glaring and making the night come alive. Fans cheered with excitement. We were on the brink of something amazing.

I don’t care how many Friday nights I went through that routine, every time my heart would start pumping, my adrenaline would kick up a notch. My whole body would tingle with anticipation. I just new, every Friday night, something good was about to happen – and I was a part of it!

The Israelites were standing by the Jordan River. They could see the Promised Land from there. I think I can imagine their excitement.

I was struck by what Joshua said to the people in 3:5. “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

And, if you read these chapters in Joshua, you know God did do a mighty wonder when He stopped the Jordan River from flowing so the Jews could cross into the land that had been promised them so long ago, on dry land!

God is asking me today if I approach my days like that. Do I anticipate that God is going to do wonders in my life every day? Do I take time to prepare myself for His blessings by praying, by reading His Word, by confessing sin? Do I fellowship with my amazing God before I take my first steps into my day?

Sometimes our days become a grind. Our routines anything but exciting. The cares of the day, the challenges of life are like weights on our shoulders. The Jews knew they were heading toward war when they crossed the Jordan. But I don’t think that stopped them from preparing themselves to witness God’s wonders even in their struggle. If we focus on the weight of our troubles, we can miss the blessings God showers on us every day.

I want to start my days in anticipation. God is doing a great work and I have the privilege of being a part of it. I might be facing some wars, some hardships, some grief. But I also walk with the God of miracles. That makes my heart pump, and my adrenaline kick up a notch.

“Consecrate yourself, Connie,” God seems to be saying. “You don’t want to miss what I have in store for you today!”