Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us,…

This is one of the hardest chapters to read and find our way out of. In the history of us, God doesn’t sugarcoat what our sins have done. Sin causes great harm within and to others. In those days Israel had no king. Judges 19:1. Who is our King? There’s a woman in this chapter…

This morning as I was sitting quietly in prayer after reading Scripture, the quiet was punctuated with passing vehicles, sirens in the distance, my own thoughts spinning. Even when I try to listen for God’s voice, the sound of the vehicles keeps pulling me away. What noises pull us away? I thought about the span…

Given our Prayer Group discussion this morning, that question may seem counter intuitive. Jesus asked those He healed not to tell anyone but to present themselves to the priests. Can you imagine? No one does that. Jesus wasn’t looking for glorification. He gave all glory to the Father. Do we? How can we unless we…

As I look at this world today, I can’t help but think about the lessons Samson learned in Judges 16. He put his trust in his powerful strength and in a woman named Delilah. His powerful strength didn’t come from him and Delilah trusted in different things. Remember Samson’s mother? Remember how the angel of…

Sometimes when we worry we feel a weight that doesn’t let us move forward or backward or up or down. We are held. The greatest weight is for those we love who are in pain. We feel it in every fiber of our being and its weight is heavy. I thought about that this morning…

Yesterday I was listening to Hillsong Worship in the car and the beautiful song So Will I (100 Billion X) written by songwriters Benjamin William Hastings, Michael John Fatkin and Joel Timothy Houston played on my CD. As I tried to sing along I knew I was missing beautiful words so I printed them out…

In how many ways do we doubt God? In how many ways do we underestimate Him? In how many ways are we oblivious? There is a remarkable story in Judges 13. An angel of the Lord appears to a woman and talks to her. He tells her she will bear a son and then gives…

Have you ever thought about how many grains of sand layer a seashore? How many pebbles or rocks build hills and mountains? How many drops of water form the deep oceans? Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:…

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5. I read that verse yesterday in Hearing God and it resonated in so many ways today in what I read in Judges 11. We meet an illegitimate son of a man named Gilead. Jephthah was a mighty warrior v. 1, whose…