Today's Reading:
Romans 3.9-31, 1 Samuel 12 and Psalm 57

No One Is Righteous

Romans 3 ⁹Well then, are we Jews in any better condition than the Gentiles? Not at all! I have already shown that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ¹⁰As the Scriptures say:
"There is no one who is righteous,
¹¹ no one who is wise
or who worships God.
¹²All have turned away from God;
they have all gone wrong;
no one does what is right, not even one.
¹³Their words are full of deadly deceit;
wicked lies roll off their tongues,
and dangerous threats, like snake's poison, from their lips;
¹⁴ their speech is filled with bitter curses.
¹⁵They are quick to hurt and kill;
¹⁶ they leave ruin and destruction wherever they go.
¹⁷They have not known the path of peace,
¹⁸ nor have they learned reverence for God."
¹⁹Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgment. ²⁰For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned.

How We Are Put Right with God

²¹But now God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. ²²God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: ²³everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. ²⁴But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. ^25-26God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people's sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.
²⁷What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe. ²⁸For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands. ²⁹Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is. ³⁰God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith. ³¹Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

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Samuel Addresses the People

1 Samuel 12 Then Samuel said to the people of Israel, "I have done what you asked me to do. I have given you a king to rule you, ²and now you have him to lead you. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are with you. I have been your leader from my youth until now. ³Here I am. If I have done anything wrong, accuse me now in the presence of the LORD and the king he has chosen. Have I taken anybody's cow or anybody's donkey? Have I cheated or oppressed anyone? Have I accepted a bribe from anyone? If I have done any of these things, I will pay back what I have taken."
⁴The people answered, "No, you have not cheated us or oppressed us; you have not taken anything from anyone."
⁵Samuel replied, "The LORD and the king he has chosen are witnesses today that you have found me to be completely innocent."
"Yes, the LORD is our witness," they answered.
⁶Samuel continued, "The LORD is the one who chose Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors out of Egypt. ⁷Now stand where you are, and I will accuse you before the LORD by reminding you of all the mighty actions the LORD did to save you and your ancestors. ⁸When Jacob and his family went to Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, your ancestors cried to the LORD for help, and he sent Moses and Aaron, who brought them out of Egypt and settled them in this land. ⁹But the people forgot the LORD their God, and so he let the Philistines and the king of Moab and Sisera, commander of the army of the city of Hazor, fight against your ancestors and conquer them. ¹⁰Then they cried to the LORD for help and said, 'We have sinned, because we turned away from you, LORD, and worshiped the idols of Baal and Astarte. Rescue us from our enemies, and we will worship you!' ¹¹And the LORD sent Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and finally me. Each of us rescued you from your enemies, and you lived in safety. ¹²But when you saw that King Nahash of Ammon was about to attack you, you rejected the LORD as your king and said to me, 'We want a king to rule us.'
¹³"Now here is the king you chose; you asked for him, and now the LORD has given him to you. ¹⁴All will go well with you if you honor the LORD your God, serve him, listen to him, and obey his commands, and if you and your king follow him. ¹⁵But if you do not listen to the LORD but disobey his commands, he will be against you and your king. ¹⁶So then, stand where you are, and you will see the great thing which the LORD is going to do. ¹⁷It's the dry season, isn't it? But I will pray, and the LORD will send thunder and rain. When this happens, you will realize that you committed a great sin against the LORD when you asked him for a king."
¹⁸So Samuel prayed, and on that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. Then all the people became afraid of the LORD and of Samuel, ¹⁹and they said to Samuel, "Please, sir, pray to the LORD your God for us, so that we won't die. We now realize that, besides all our other sins, we have sinned by asking for a king."
²⁰"Don't be afraid," Samuel answered. "Even though you have done such an evil thing, do not turn away from the LORD, but serve him with all your heart. ²¹Don't go after false gods; they cannot help you or save you, for they are not real. ²²The LORD has made a solemn promise, and he will not abandon you, for he has decided to make you his own people. ²³As for me, the LORD forbid that I should sin against him by no longer praying for you. Instead, I will teach you what is good and right for you to do. ²⁴Obey the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Remember the great things he has done for you. ²⁵But if you continue to sin, you and your king will be destroyed."

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A Prayer for Help

Psalm 57 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful,
because I come to you for safety.
In the shadow of your wings I find protection
until the raging storms are over.
²I call to God, the Most High,
to God, who supplies my every need.
³He will answer from heaven and save me;
he will defeat my oppressors.
God will show me his constant love and faithfulness.
⁴I am surrounded by enemies,
who are like lions hungry for human flesh.
Their teeth are like spears and arrows;
their tongues are like sharp swords.
⁵Show your greatness in the sky, O God,
and your glory over all the earth.
⁶My enemies have spread a net to catch me;
I am overcome with distress.
They dug a pit in my path,
but fell into it themselves.
⁷I have complete confidence, O God;
I will sing and praise you!
⁸Wake up, my soul!
Wake up, my harp and lyre!
I will wake up the sun.
⁹I will thank you, O Lord, among the nations.
I will praise you among the peoples.
¹⁰Your constant love reaches the heavens;
your faithfulness touches the skies.
¹¹Show your greatness in the sky, O God,
and your glory over all the earth.

Today's Reading: Romans 2.1-3.8, 1 Samuel 10.17-11.15 and Psalm 56

Heavenly Father,
May You be glorified through all I say and do today. May You be my focus and may You find delight in me. Lord, help me to be an ambassador for You. Lord, allow me to the opportunity to share Your love to me with others in a way that they will learn about Your love for them. Lord, keep me healthy and focused on the goal for the next couple of weeks and may You be glorified throughout the challenges and the victories, in Jesus' name I pray. Bless my family, my friends, and all those I will meet and we will give You the praise and the glory, the honor and the power, in Jesus' name. Amen.

God's Judgment

Romans 2 Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself. ²We know that God is right when he judges the people who do such things as these. ³But you, my friend, do those very things for which you pass judgment on others! Do you think you will escape God's judgment? ⁴Or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent. ⁵But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgments will be revealed. ⁶For God will reward each of us according to what we have done. ⁷Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honor, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life. ⁸Other people are selfish and reject what is right, in order to follow what is wrong; on them God will pour out his anger and fury. ⁹There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil, for the Jews first and also for the Gentiles. ¹⁰But God will give glory, honor, and peace to all who do what is good, to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles. ¹¹For God judges everyone by the same standard.
¹²The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law. ¹³For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands. ¹⁴The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law. ¹⁵Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. ¹⁶And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on that Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all.

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God; ¹⁸you know what God wants you to do, and you have learned from the Law to choose what is right; ¹⁹you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness, ²⁰an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth. ²¹You teach others--why don't you teach yourself ? You preach, "Do not steal"--but do you yourself steal? ²²You say, "Do not commit adultery"--but do you commit adultery? You detest idols--but do you rob temples? ²³You boast about having God's law--but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law? ²⁴The scripture says, "Because of you Jews, the Gentiles speak evil of God."
²⁵If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised. ²⁶If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will not God regard him as though he were circumcised? ²⁷And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised. ²⁸After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. ²⁹Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.
Romans 3 Do the Jews then have any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised? ²Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews. ³But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful? ⁴Certainly not! God must be true, even though all human beings are liars. As the scripture says,
"You must be shown to be right when you speak;
you must win your case when you are being tried."
⁵But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God's doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.) ⁶By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?
⁷But what if my untruth serves God's glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner? ⁸Why not say, then, "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.

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Saul Is Acclaimed as King

1 Samuel 10 ¹⁷Samuel called the people together for a religious gathering at Mizpah ¹⁸and said to them, "The LORD, the God of Israel, says, 'I brought you out of Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and all the other peoples who were oppressing you. ¹⁹I am your God, the one who rescues you from all your troubles and difficulties, but today you have rejected me and have asked me to give you a king. Very well, then, gather yourselves before the LORD by tribes and by clans.'"
²⁰Then Samuel had each tribe come forward, and the LORD picked the tribe of Benjamin. ²¹Then Samuel had the families of the tribe of Benjamin come forward, and the family of Matri was picked out. Then the men of the family of Matri came forward, and Saul son of Kish was picked out. They looked for him, but when they could not find him, ²²they asked the LORD, "Is there still someone else?"
The LORD answered, "Saul is over there, hiding behind the supplies."
²³So they ran and brought Saul out to the people, and they could see that he was a foot taller than anyone else. ²⁴Samuel said to the people, "Here is the man the LORD has chosen! There is no one else among us like him."
All the people shouted, "Long live the king!"
²⁵Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of a king, and then wrote them in a book, which he deposited in a holy place. Then he sent everyone home. ²⁶Saul also went back home to Gibeah. Some powerful men, whose hearts God had touched, went with him. ²⁷But some worthless people said, "How can this fellow do us any good?" They despised Saul and did not bring him any gifts.

Saul Defeats the Ammonites

1 Samuel 11 About a month later King Nahash of Ammon led his army against the town of Jabesh in the territory of Gilead and besieged it. The men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a treaty with us, and we will accept you as our ruler."
²Nahash answered, "I will make a treaty with you on one condition: I will put out everyone's right eye and so bring disgrace on all Israel."
³The leaders of Jabesh said, "Give us seven days to send messengers throughout the land of Israel. If no one will help us, then we will surrender to you."
⁴The messengers arrived at Gibeah, where Saul lived, and when they told the news, the people started crying in despair. ⁵Saul was just then coming in from the field with his oxen, and he asked, "What's wrong? Why is everyone crying?" They told him what the messengers from Jabesh had reported. ⁶When Saul heard this, the spirit of God took control of him, and he became furious. ⁷He took two oxen, cut them in pieces, and had messengers carry the pieces throughout the land of Israel with this warning: "Whoever does not follow Saul and Samuel into battle will have this done to his oxen!"
The people of Israel were afraid of what the LORD might do, and all of them, without exception, came out together. ⁸Saul gathered them at Bezek: there were 300,000 from Israel and 30,000 from Judah. ⁹They said to the messengers from Jabesh, "Tell your people that before noon tomorrow they will be rescued." When the people of Jabesh received the message, they were overjoyed ¹⁰and said to Nahash, "Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you can do with us whatever you wish."
¹¹That night Saul divided his men into three groups, and at dawn the next day they rushed into the enemy camp and attacked the Ammonites. By noon they had slaughtered them. The survivors scattered, each man running off by himself.
¹²Then the people of Israel said to Samuel, "Where are the people who said that Saul should not be our king? Hand them over to us, and we will kill them!"
¹³But Saul said, "No one will be put to death today, for this is the day the LORD rescued Israel." ¹⁴And Samuel said to them, "Let us all go to Gilgal and once more proclaim Saul as our king." ¹⁵So they all went to Gilgal, and there at the holy place they proclaimed Saul king. They offered fellowship sacrifices, and Saul and all the people of Israel celebrated the event.

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A Prayer of Trust in God

Psalm 56 Be merciful to me, O God,
because I am under attack;
my enemies persecute me all the time.
²All day long my opponents attack me.
There are so many who fight against me.
³When I am afraid, O LORD Almighty,
I put my trust in you.
⁴I trust in God and am not afraid;
I praise him for what he has promised.
What can a mere human being do to me?
⁵My enemies make trouble for me all day long;
they are always thinking up some way to hurt me!
⁶They gather in hiding places
and watch everything I do,
hoping to kill me.
⁷Punish them, O God, for their evil;
defeat those people in your anger!
⁸You know how troubled I am;
you have kept a record of my tears.
Aren't they listed in your book?
⁹The day I call to you,
my enemies will be turned back.
I know this: God is on my side--
¹⁰the LORD, whose promises I praise.
¹¹In him I trust, and I will not be afraid.
What can a mere human being do to me?
¹²O God, I will offer you what I have promised;
I will give you my offering of thanksgiving,
¹³because you have rescued me from death
and kept me from defeat.
And so I walk in the presence of God,
in the light that shines on the living.

China

• favor with the Olympic and government leaders
• artists, athletes, volunteers for Jammin
• earthquake affected families

Wisdom

• for work
• for usage of time
• for family

United States

• Leadership and governmental decisions
• Judiciary decisions and choices
• People to stand up for what is truth and what is right

Canada

• the people of Quebec need to hear and accept
• people to stand up for what is truth and what is right

The children

• The orphans
• The abused
• Those in foster care
• Those who will get to attend camps like RFKC

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day and all that You have done in it. I praise and worship all that You have done and ask that be glorified by all those who call upon Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Lord, help me to have ears to hear and eyes to see what You speak to me. Lord, help me to prioritize and accomplish the things that are important to You. Lord, as I prepare for EETWC, help me to speak in hope, love, and truth to those in the audience and please ensure that the right audience who would benefit from the presentation will appear. Lord, as I prepare to be an advisor at RFKC, prepare my mind, my body, and my spirit for all the experiences and transformation that will take place. I trust You and love You for I know that You have done infinitely more than I could have asked or imagined in my life and can't do anything but testify and glorify You. May you receive all the praise and all the glory and all the honor, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Pray for China - those impacted by the earth quake, those involved with the Olympics, those working on Jammin

Pray for Bob - Hope and Courage - Journey Across America

Pray for Royal Family Kid's Camp - Creating positive memories for abused children - sign up for their newsletter

Pray for Wisdom

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day. I thank You Lord that You give me the opportunity to read Your Word and draw strength and comfort, wisdom and understanding through Your word written so long ago knowing that I would read it today. Lord, help me to make time for prayer. Lord, help me to make time for devotionals. Help me to keep first things first and complete the work You put before me. Lord, You spoke through a friend who I hadn't seen in a very long time yesterday a seed, an idea, an opportunity. Help me Lord to know what to do with it. Help me Lord to not let go of any idea and adventure You have a desire for me to pursue. Lord, I lift up this day and ask that You give encouragement not only to me, but to those who are in need, who are in want, who are sick, who are sad, who are discourage I pray. For I know that You bring opportunities each day for us to be encouraged. Help us to receive them and praise You, in Jesus' name I pray. Lord we will give You all the praise and all the glory and all the honor, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day. I thank You for the incredible blessings that You have brought into my life and I ask You to give me wisdom in making the right decisions and in prioritizing my work. Lord, You see the struggle against nature that I face as many of my chickens have been lost over the winter and again last night. I think to Your Word where You tell of the story that if we knew when the thief was coming we would stay awake waiting, in my case because I forget some nights, I come out to discover something has come into my hen house and stolen/killed one of the hens. I know that there are many animals that could be the cause as I have seen opossums, raccoons, coyotes, hawks, and eagles. Lord, as I look at every aspect of my life, I need Your wisdom so that I can be prepared by day and by night. Lord, I need to be ready in and out of season. Lord, I lift up my life to You and submit it to You asking that You would give me wisdom to understand, wisdom to plan, wisdom to act, in Jesus' name I pray. Lord, I thank You for the incredible blessings and give You all the praise and all the honor and all the glory, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today's Reading: Acts 24.10-27, Judges 21 and Psalm 46

Heavenly Father,
I thank you for this new day. I thank You for the blessings of my family and friends and pray that You will allow me to be a blessing to them and all those I encounter. Help me Lord to walk in truth and to shine as an ambassador of Christ in Jesus' name. Lord, there are so many things that You have shown us in order that we may see and know and trust in Your love. Today I lift up Bob and his family as they start their journey of Hope and Courage cycling across America. Today I also lift up China as they have been through an incredible disaster and there are still many people who are missing and many that have died. Lord, I pray for the believers in China to help encourage and be encouraged through this time. Lord, I also pray for Jammin' as it prepares to be a part of the Olympics and that You will use this event to help transform the nation to one that trusts in You, that allows people to freely praise and worship You, that allows people to share the incredible testimonies of what You have done in their lives. I pray for the athletes who will participate. I pray for the artists who will perform. I pray for all those who will get to share their testimonies and that people's lives will be changed by this event. Lord, I pray that they will find favor as You have done so far with the Olympic committee and the Chinese Government, with the musicians, singers, NBA stars, and all those who will be involved in the event. God, I also pray for all those affected in the cyclone that You will touch the heart of the people and of the government to provide for support and change. I thank You for this day and this time and will give You all the praise, the glory, the worship, and the honor, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Paul's Defense before Felix

Acts 24 ¹⁰The governor then motioned to Paul to speak, and Paul said,
"I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, and so I am happy to defend myself before you. ¹¹As you can find out for yourself, it was no more than twelve days ago that I went to Jerusalem to worship. ¹²The Jews did not find me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor did they find me stirring up the people, either in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. ¹³Nor can they give you proof of the accusations they now bring against me. ¹⁴I do admit this to you: I worship the God of our ancestors by following that Way which they say is false. But I also believe in everything written in the Law of Moses and the books of the prophets. ¹⁵I have the same hope in God that these themselves have, namely, that all people, both the good and the bad, will rise from death. ¹⁶And so I do my best always to have a clear conscience before God and people.
¹⁷"After being away from Jerusalem for several years, I went there to take some money to my own people and to offer sacrifices. ¹⁸It was while I was doing this that they found me in the Temple after I had completed the ceremony of purification. There was no crowd with me and no disorder. ¹⁹But some Jews from the province of Asia were there; they themselves ought to come before you and make their accusations if they have anything against me. ²⁰Or let these who are here tell what crime they found me guilty of when I stood before the Council-- ²¹except for the one thing I called out when I stood before them: 'I am being tried by you today for believing that the dead will rise to life.'"
²²Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, brought the hearing to a close. "When the commander Lysias arrives," he told them, "I will decide your case." ²³He ordered the officer in charge of Paul to keep him under guard, but to give him some freedom and allow his friends to provide for his needs.

Paul before Felix and Drusilla

²⁴After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he talked about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵But as Paul went on discussing about goodness, self-control, and the coming Day of Judgment, Felix was afraid and said, "You may leave now. I will call you again when I get the chance." ²⁶At the same time he was hoping that Paul would give him some money; and for this reason he would call for him often and talk with him.
²⁷After two years had passed, Porcius Festus succeeded Felix as governor. Felix wanted to gain favor with the Jews so he left Paul in prison.

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Wives for the Tribe of Benjamin

Judges 21 When the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, they had made a solemn promise to the LORD: "None of us will allow a Benjaminite to marry a daughter of ours." ²So now the people of Israel went to Bethel and sat there in the presence of God until evening. Loudly and bitterly they mourned: ³"LORD God of Israel, why has this happened? Why is the tribe of Benjamin about to disappear from Israel?"
⁴Early the next morning the people got up and built an altar there. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burned some sacrifices whole. ⁵They asked, "Is there any group out of all the tribes of Israel that did not go to the gathering in the LORD's presence at Mizpah?" (They had taken a solemn oath that anyone who had not gone to Mizpah would be put to death.) ⁶The people of Israel felt sorry for their brothers the Benjaminites and said, "Today Israel has lost one of its tribes. ⁷What shall we do to provide wives for the men of Benjamin who are left? We have made a solemn promise to the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters."
⁸When they asked if there was some group out of the tribes of Israel that had not gone to the gathering at Mizpah, they found out that no one from Jabesh in Gilead had been there; ⁹at the roll call of the army no one from Jabesh had responded. ¹⁰So the assembly sent twelve thousand of their bravest men with the orders, "Go and kill everyone in Jabesh, including women and children. ¹¹Kill all the males, and also every woman who is not a virgin." ¹²They found four hundred young virgins among the people in Jabesh, so they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
¹³Then the whole assembly sent word to the Benjaminites who were at Rimmon Rock and offered to end the war. ¹⁴The Benjaminites came back, and the other Israelites gave them the young women from Jabesh whom they had not killed. But there were not enough of them.
¹⁵The people felt sorry for the Benjaminites because the LORD had broken the unity of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶So the leaders of the gathering said, "There are no more women in the tribe of Benjamin. What shall we do to provide wives for the men who are left? ¹⁷Israel must not lose one of its twelve tribes. We must find a way for the tribe of Benjamin to survive, ¹⁸but we cannot allow them to marry our daughters, because we have put a curse on anyone who allows a Benjaminite to marry one of our daughters."
¹⁹Then they thought, "The yearly festival of the LORD at Shiloh is coming soon." (Shiloh is north of Bethel, south of Lebonah, and east of the road between Bethel and Shechem.) ²⁰They told the Benjaminites, "Go and hide in the vineyards ²¹and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance during the festival, you come out of the vineyards. Each of you take a wife by force from among them and take her back to the territory of Benjamin with you. ²²If their fathers or brothers come to you and protest, you can tell them, 'Please let us keep them, because we did not take them from you in battle to be our wives. And since you did not give them to us, you are not guilty of breaking your promise.'"
²³The Benjaminites did this; each of them chose a wife from the young women who were dancing at Shiloh and carried her away. Then they went back to their own territory, rebuilt their towns, and lived there. ²⁴At the same time the rest of the Israelites left, and every man went back to his own tribe and family and to his own property.
²⁵There was no king in Israel at that time. Everyone did whatever they pleased.

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Paul's Defense before Felix

Acts 24 ¹⁰The governor then motioned to Paul to speak, and Paul said,
"I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, and so I am happy to defend myself before you. ¹¹As you can find out for yourself, it was no more than twelve days ago that I went to Jerusalem to worship. ¹²The Jews did not find me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor did they find me stirring up the people, either in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. ¹³Nor can they give you proof of the accusations they now bring against me. ¹⁴I do admit this to you: I worship the God of our ancestors by following that Way which they say is false. But I also believe in everything written in the Law of Moses and the books of the prophets. ¹⁵I have the same hope in God that these themselves have, namely, that all people, both the good and the bad, will rise from death. ¹⁶And so I do my best always to have a clear conscience before God and people.
¹⁷"After being away from Jerusalem for several years, I went there to take some money to my own people and to offer sacrifices. ¹⁸It was while I was doing this that they found me in the Temple after I had completed the ceremony of purification. There was no crowd with me and no disorder. ¹⁹But some Jews from the province of Asia were there; they themselves ought to come before you and make their accusations if they have anything against me. ²⁰Or let these who are here tell what crime they found me guilty of when I stood before the Council-- ²¹except for the one thing I called out when I stood before them: 'I am being tried by you today for believing that the dead will rise to life.'"
²²Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, brought the hearing to a close. "When the commander Lysias arrives," he told them, "I will decide your case." ²³He ordered the officer in charge of Paul to keep him under guard, but to give him some freedom and allow his friends to provide for his needs.

Paul before Felix and Drusilla

²⁴After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he talked about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵But as Paul went on discussing about goodness, self-control, and the coming Day of Judgment, Felix was afraid and said, "You may leave now. I will call you again when I get the chance." ²⁶At the same time he was hoping that Paul would give him some money; and for this reason he would call for him often and talk with him.
²⁷After two years had passed, Porcius Festus succeeded Felix as governor. Felix wanted to gain favor with the Jews so he left Paul in prison.

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Wives for the Tribe of Benjamin

Judges 21 When the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, they had made a solemn promise to the LORD: "None of us will allow a Benjaminite to marry a daughter of ours." ²So now the people of Israel went to Bethel and sat there in the presence of God until evening. Loudly and bitterly they mourned: ³"LORD God of Israel, why has this happened? Why is the tribe of Benjamin about to disappear from Israel?"
⁴Early the next morning the people got up and built an altar there. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burned some sacrifices whole. ⁵They asked, "Is there any group out of all the tribes of Israel that did not go to the gathering in the LORD's presence at Mizpah?" (They had taken a solemn oath that anyone who had not gone to Mizpah would be put to death.) ⁶The people of Israel felt sorry for their brothers the Benjaminites and said, "Today Israel has lost one of its tribes. ⁷What shall we do to provide wives for the men of Benjamin who are left? We have made a solemn promise to the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters."
⁸When they asked if there was some group out of the tribes of Israel that had not gone to the gathering at Mizpah, they found out that no one from Jabesh in Gilead had been there; ⁹at the roll call of the army no one from Jabesh had responded. ¹⁰So the assembly sent twelve thousand of their bravest men with the orders, "Go and kill everyone in Jabesh, including women and children. ¹¹Kill all the males, and also every woman who is not a virgin." ¹²They found four hundred young virgins among the people in Jabesh, so they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
¹³Then the whole assembly sent word to the Benjaminites who were at Rimmon Rock and offered to end the war. ¹⁴The Benjaminites came back, and the other Israelites gave them the young women from Jabesh whom they had not killed. But there were not enough of them.
¹⁵The people felt sorry for the Benjaminites because the LORD had broken the unity of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶So the leaders of the gathering said, "There are no more women in the tribe of Benjamin. What shall we do to provide wives for the men who are left? ¹⁷Israel must not lose one of its twelve tribes. We must find a way for the tribe of Benjamin to survive, ¹⁸but we cannot allow them to marry our daughters, because we have put a curse on anyone who allows a Benjaminite to marry one of our daughters."
¹⁹Then they thought, "The yearly festival of the LORD at Shiloh is coming soon." (Shiloh is north of Bethel, south of Lebonah, and east of the road between Bethel and Shechem.) ²⁰They told the Benjaminites, "Go and hide in the vineyards ²¹and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance during the festival, you come out of the vineyards. Each of you take a wife by force from among them and take her back to the territory of Benjamin with you. ²²If their fathers or brothers come to you and protest, you can tell them, 'Please let us keep them, because we did not take them from you in battle to be our wives. And since you did not give them to us, you are not guilty of breaking your promise.'"
²³The Benjaminites did this; each of them chose a wife from the young women who were dancing at Shiloh and carried her away. Then they went back to their own territory, rebuilt their towns, and lived there. ²⁴At the same time the rest of the Israelites left, and every man went back to his own tribe and family and to his own property.
²⁵There was no king in Israel at that time. Everyone did whatever they pleased.

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God Is with Us

Psalm 46 God is our shelter and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
²So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken
and mountains fall into the ocean depths;
³even if the seas roar and rage,
and the hills are shaken by the violence.
⁴There is a river that brings joy to the city of God,
to the sacred house of the Most High.
⁵God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed;
at early dawn he will come to its aid.
⁶Nations are terrified, kingdoms are shaken;
God thunders, and the earth dissolves.
⁷The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
⁸Come and see what the LORD has done.
See what amazing things he has done on earth.
⁹He stops wars all over the world;
he breaks bows, destroys spears,
and sets shields on fire.
¹⁰"Stop fighting," he says, "and know that I am God,
supreme among the nations,
supreme over the world."
¹¹The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Today's Reading: Acts 21.37-22.29, Judges 17-18 and Psalm 43 

Paul Defends Himself

Acts 21 ³⁷As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the fort, he spoke to the commander: "May I say something to you?"
"You speak Greek, do you?" the commander asked. ³⁸"Then you are not that Egyptian fellow who some time ago started a revolution and led four thousand armed terrorists out into the desert?"
³⁹Paul answered, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Please let me speak to the people."
⁴⁰The commander gave him permission, so Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand for the people to be silent. When they were quiet, Paul spoke to them in Hebrew:
Acts 22 "My fellow Jews, listen to me as I make my defense before you!" ²When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they became even quieter; and Paul went on:
³"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in Jerusalem as a student of Gamaliel. I received strict instruction in the Law of our ancestors and was just as dedicated to God as are all of you who are here today. ⁴I persecuted to the death the people who followed this Way. I arrested men and women and threw them into prison. ⁵The High Priest and the whole Council can prove that I am telling the truth. I received from them letters written to fellow Jews in Damascus, so I went there to arrest these people and bring them back in chains to Jerusalem to be punished.

Paul Tells of His Conversion
(Acts 9.1-19; 26.12-18)

⁶"As I was traveling and coming near Damascus, about midday a bright light from the sky flashed suddenly around me. ⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?' ⁸'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute,' he said to me. ⁹The men with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. ¹⁰I asked, 'What shall I do, Lord?' and the Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that God has determined for you to do.' ¹¹I was blind because of the bright light, and so my companions took me by the hand and led me into Damascus.
¹²"In that city was a man named Ananias, a religious man who obeyed our Law and was highly respected by all the Jews living there. ¹³He came to me, stood by me, and said, 'Brother Saul, see again!' At that very moment I saw again and looked at him. ¹⁴He said, 'The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see his righteous Servant, and to hear him speaking with his own voice. ¹⁵For you will be a witness for him to tell everyone what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶And now, why wait any longer? Get up and be baptized and have your sins washed away by praying to him.'

Paul's Call to Preach to the Gentiles

¹⁷"I went back to Jerusalem, and while I was praying in the Temple, I had a vision, ¹⁸in which I saw the Lord, as he said to me, 'Hurry and leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your witness about me.' ¹⁹'Lord,' I answered, 'they know very well that I went to the synagogues and arrested and beat those who believe in you. ²⁰And when your witness Stephen was put to death, I myself was there, approving of his murder and taking care of the cloaks of his murderers.' ²¹'Go,' the Lord said to me, 'for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'"
²²The people listened to Paul until he said this; but then they started shouting at the top of their voices, "Away with him! Kill him! He's not fit to live!" ²³They were screaming, waving their clothes, and throwing dust up in the air. ²⁴The Roman commander ordered his men to take Paul into the fort, and he told them to whip him in order to find out why the Jews were screaming like this against him. ²⁵But when they had tied him up to be whipped, Paul said to the officer standing there, "Is it lawful for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried for any crime?"
²⁶When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked him, "What are you doing? That man is a Roman citizen!"
²⁷So the commander went to Paul and asked him, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?"
"Yes," answered Paul.
²⁸The commander said, "I became one by paying a large amount of money."
"But I am one by birth," Paul answered.
²⁹At once the men who were going to question Paul drew back from him; and the commander was frightened when he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had put him in chains.

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Micah's Idols

Judges 17 There was once a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. ²He told his mother, "When someone stole those eleven hundred pieces of silver from you, you put a curse on the robber. I heard you do it. Look, I have the money. I am the one who took it."
His mother said, "May the LORD bless you, my son!" ³He gave the money back to his mother, and she said, "To keep the curse from falling on my son, I myself am solemnly dedicating the silver to the LORD. It will be used to make a wooden idol covered with silver. So now I will give the pieces of silver back to you." ⁴Then he gave them back to his mother. She took two hundred of the pieces of silver and gave them to a metalworker, who made an idol, carving it from wood and covering it with the silver. It was placed in Micah's house.
⁵This man Micah had his own place of worship. He made some idols and an ephod, and appointed one of his sons as his priest. ⁶There was no king in Israel at that time; everyone did whatever they wanted.
⁷At that same time there was a young Levite who had been living in the town of Bethlehem in Judah. ⁸He left Bethlehem to find another place to live. While he was traveling, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. ⁹Micah asked him, "Where do you come from?"
He answered, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a place to live."
¹⁰Micah said, "Stay with me. Be my adviser and priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, some clothes, and your food." ¹¹The young Levite agreed to stay with Micah and became like a son to him. ¹²Micah appointed him as his priest, and he lived in Micah's home. ¹³Micah said, "Now that I have a Levite as my priest, I know that the LORD will make things go well for me."

Micah and the Tribe of Dan

Judges 18 There was no king in Israel at that time. In those days the tribe of Dan was looking for territory to claim and settle in because they had not yet received any land of their own among the tribes of Israel. ²So the people of Dan chose five qualified men out of all the families in the tribe and sent them from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol with instructions to explore the land and spy on it. When they arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed at Micah's house. ³While they were there, they recognized the accent of the young Levite, so they went up to him and asked, "What are you doing here? Who brought you here?"
⁴He answered, "I have an arrangement with Micah, who pays me to serve as his priest."
⁵They said to him, "Please ask God if we are going to be successful on our trip."
⁶The priest answered, "You have nothing to worry about. The LORD is taking care of you on this trip."
⁷So the five men left and went to the town of Laish. They saw how the people there lived in security like the Sidonians. They were a peaceful, quiet people, with no argument with anyone; they had all they needed. They lived far away from the Sidonians and had no dealings with any other people. ⁸When the five men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, the people asked them what they had found out. ⁹"Come on," they replied. "Let's attack Laish. We saw the land, and it's very good. Don't stay here doing nothing; hurry! Go on in and take it over! ¹⁰When you get there, you will find that the people don't suspect a thing. It is a big country; it has everything a person could want, and God has given it to you."
¹¹So six hundred men from the tribe of Dan left Zorah and Eshtaol, ready for battle. ¹²They went up and camped west of Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why the place is still called Camp of Dan. ¹³They went on from there and came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.
¹⁴Then the five men who had gone to spy on the country around Laish said to their companions, "Did you know that here in one of these houses there is a wooden idol covered with silver? There are also other idols and an ephod. What do you think we should do?" ¹⁵So they went into Micah's house, where the young Levite lived, and asked the Levite how he was getting along. ¹⁶Meanwhile the six hundred Danite soldiers, ready for battle, were standing at the gate. ¹⁷The five spies went straight on into the house and took the wooden idol covered with silver, the other idols, and the ephod, while the priest stayed at the gate with the six hundred armed men.
¹⁸When the men went into Micah's house and took the sacred objects, the priest asked them, "What are you doing?"
¹⁹They told him, "Keep quiet. Don't say a word. Come with us and be our priest and adviser. Wouldn't you rather be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for the family of one man?" ²⁰This made the priest very happy, so he took the sacred objects and went along with them.
²¹They turned around and started off, with their children, their livestock, and their belongings going ahead. ²²They had traveled a good distance from the house when Micah called his neighbors out for battle. They caught up with the Danites ²³and shouted at them. The Danites turned around and asked Micah, "What's the matter? Why all this mob?"
²⁴Micah answered, "What do you mean, 'What's the matter?' You take my priest and the gods that I made, and walk off ! What have I got left?"
²⁵The Danites told him, "You had better not say anything else unless you want these men to get angry and attack you. You and your whole family would die." ²⁶Then the Danites went on. Micah saw that they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back home.
^27-28After the Danites had taken the priest and the things that Micah had made, they went and attacked Laish, that town of peaceful, quiet people which was in the same valley as Bethrehob. They killed the inhabitants and burned the town. There was no one to save them, because Laish was a long way from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any other people. The Danites rebuilt the town and settled down there. ²⁹They changed its name from Laish to Dan, after their ancestor Dan, the son of Jacob. ³⁰The Danites set up the idol to be worshiped, and Jonathan, the son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, served as a priest for the Danites, and his descendants served as their priests until the people were taken away into exile. ³¹Micah's idol remained there as long as the Tent where God was worshiped remained at Shiloh.

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The Prayer of Someone in Exile
(Continuation of Psalm 42)

Psalm 43 O God, declare me innocent,
and defend my cause against the ungodly;
deliver me from lying and evil people!
²You are my protector;
why have you abandoned me?
Why must I go on suffering
from the cruelty of my enemies?
³Send your light and your truth;
may they lead me
and bring me back to Zion, your sacred hill,
and to your Temple, where you live.
⁴Then I will go to your altar, O God;
you are the source of my happiness.
I will play my harp and sing praise to you,
O God, my God.
⁵Why am I so sad?
Why am I so troubled?
I will put my hope in God,
and once again I will praise him,
my savior and my God.

Today's Reading: Acts 20.17-38, Judges 14-15 and Job 42

Paul's Farewell Speech to the Elders of Ephesus

Acts 20¹⁷From Miletus Paul sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. ¹⁸When they arrived, he said to them, "You know how I spent the whole time I was with you, from the first day I arrived in the province of Asia. ¹⁹With all humility and many tears I did my work as the Lord's servant during the hard times that came to me because of the plots of some Jews. ²⁰You know that I did not hold back anything that would be of help to you as I preached and taught in public and in your homes. ²¹To Jews and Gentiles alike I gave solemn warning that they should turn from their sins to God and believe in our Lord Jesus. ²²And now, in obedience to the Holy Spirit I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. ²³I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit has warned me that prison and troubles wait for me. ²⁴But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.
²⁵"I have gone about among all of you, preaching the Kingdom of God. And now I know that none of you will ever see me again. ²⁶So I solemnly declare to you this very day: if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible. ²⁷For I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God. ²⁸So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he made his own through the blood of his Son. ²⁹I know that after I leave, fierce wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. ³⁰The time will come when some men from your own group will tell lies to lead the believers away after them. ³¹Watch, then, and remember that with many tears, day and night, I taught every one of you for three years.
³²"And now I commend you to the care of God and to the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the blessings God has for all his people. ³³I have not wanted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. ³⁴You yourselves know that I have worked with these hands of mine to provide everything that my companions and I have needed. ³⁵I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, 'There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.'"
³⁶When Paul finished, he knelt down with them and prayed. ³⁷They were all crying as they hugged him and kissed him good-bye. ³⁸They were especially sad because he had said that they would never see him again. And so they went with him to the ship.

Samson and the Woman from Timnah

Judges 14 One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain young Philistine woman. ²He went back home and told his father and mother, "There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her."
³But his father and mother asked him, "Why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can't you find someone in our own clan, among all our people?"
But Samson told his father, "She is the one I want you to get for me. I like her."
⁴His parents did not know that it was the LORD who was leading Samson to do this, for the LORD was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.
⁵So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring. ⁶Suddenly the power of the LORD made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done.
⁷Then he went and talked to the young woman, and he liked her. ⁸A few days later Samson went back to marry her. On the way he left the road to look at the lion he had killed, and he was surprised to find a swarm of bees and some honey inside the dead body. ⁹He scraped the honey out into his hands and ate it as he walked along. Then he went to his father and mother and gave them some. They ate it, but Samson did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the dead body of a lion.
¹⁰His father went to the woman's house, and Samson gave a banquet there. This was a custom among the young men. ¹¹When the Philistines saw him, they sent thirty young men to stay with him. ^12-13Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. I'll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can't tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over."
"Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."
¹⁴He said,
"Out of the eater came something to eat;
Out of the strong came something sweet."
Three days later they had still not figured out what the riddle meant.
¹⁵On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Trick your husband into telling us what the riddle means. If you don't, we'll set fire to your father's house and burn you with it. You two invited us so that you could rob us, didn't you?"
¹⁶So Samson's wife went to him in tears and said, "You don't love me! You just hate me! You told my friends a riddle and didn't tell me what it means!"
He said, "Look, I haven't even told my father and mother. Why should I tell you?" ¹⁷She cried about it for the whole seven days of the feast. But on the seventh day he told her what the riddle meant, for she nagged him so about it. Then she told the Philistines. ¹⁸So on the seventh day, before Samson went into the bedroom, the men of the city said to him,
"What could be sweeter than honey?
What could be stronger than a lion?"
Samson replied,
"If you hadn't been plowing with my cow,
You wouldn't know the answer now."
¹⁹Suddenly the power of the LORD made him strong, and he went down to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty men, stripped them, and gave their fine clothes to the men who had solved the riddle. After that, he went back home, furious about what had happened, ²⁰and his wife was given to the man that had been his best man at the wedding.
Judges 15 Some time later Samson went to visit his wife during the wheat harvest and took her a young goat. He told her father, "I want to go to my wife's room."
But he wouldn't let him go in. ²He told Samson, "I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your friend. But her younger sister is prettier, anyway. You can have her, instead."
³Samson said, "This time I'm not going to be responsible for what I do to the Philistines!" ⁴So he went and caught three hundred foxes. Two at a time, he tied their tails together and put torches in the knots. ⁵Then he set fire to the torches and turned the foxes loose in the Philistine wheat fields. In this way he burned up not only the wheat that had been harvested but also the wheat that was still in the fields. The olive orchards were also burned. ⁶When the Philistines asked who had done this, they learned that Samson had done it because his father-in-law, a man from Timnah, had given Samson's wife to a friend of Samson's. So the Philistines went and burned the woman to death and burned down her father's house.
⁷Samson told them, "So this is how you act! I swear that I won't stop until I pay you back!" ⁸He attacked them fiercely and killed many of them. Then he went and stayed in the cave in the cliff at Etam.

Samson Defeats the Philistines

⁹The Philistines came and camped in Judah, and attacked the town of Lehi. ¹⁰The men of Judah asked them, "Why are you attacking us?"
They answered, "We came to take Samson prisoner and to treat him as he treated us." ¹¹So these three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are our rulers? What have you done to us?"
He answered, "I did to them just what they did to me."
¹²They told him, "We have come here to tie you up, so we can hand you over to them."
Samson said, "Give me your word that you won't kill me yourselves."
¹³"All right," they said, "we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won't kill you." So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff.
¹⁴When he got to Lehi, the Philistines came running toward him, shouting at him. Suddenly the power of the LORD made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. ¹⁵Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it. ¹⁶So Samson sang,
"With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men;
With the jawbone of a donkey I piled them up in piles."
¹⁷After that, he threw the jawbone away. The place where this happened was named Ramath Lehi.
¹⁸Then Samson became very thirsty, so he called to the LORD and said, "You gave me this great victory; am I now going to die of thirst and be captured by these heathen Philistines?" ¹⁹Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore; it is still there at Lehi.
²⁰Samson led Israel for twenty years while the Philistines ruled the land.

Conclusion

⁷After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant Job did. ⁸Now take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer them as a sacrifice for yourselves. Job will pray for you, and I will answer his prayer and not disgrace you the way you deserve. You did not speak the truth about me as he did."
⁹Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did what the LORD had told them to do, and the LORD answered Job's prayer.
¹⁰Then, after Job had prayed for his three friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had had before. ¹¹All Job's brothers and sisters and former friends came to visit him and feasted with him in his house. They expressed their sympathy and comforted him for all the troubles the LORD had brought on him. Each of them gave him some money and a gold ring.
¹²The LORD blessed the last part of Job's life even more than he had blessed the first. Job owned fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, two thousand head of cattle, and one thousand donkeys. ¹³He was the father of seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴He called the oldest daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the youngest Keren Happuch. ¹⁵There were no other women in the whole world as beautiful as Job's daughters. Their father gave them a share of the inheritance along with their brothers.
¹⁶Job lived a hundred and forty years after this, long enough to see his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. ¹⁷And then he died at a very great age.

It's better to give than to receive

Leave the honey alone

Be persistent and never give up.

If we wait upon the Lord, He will renew our strength

Will you humble yourself and repent for what you have said and done against God? If you will, He will forgive you and restore you.

Will you speak the truth or will you try to get your own way?

How great it will be to see and receive the inheritance of God and from God.

Today's Reading:

In Corinth

Acts 18 After this, Paul left Athens and went on to Corinth. ²There he met a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, for Emperor Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, ³and stayed and worked with them, because he earned his living by making tents, just as they did. ⁴He held discussions in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks.
⁵When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul gave his whole time to preaching the message, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. ⁶When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, "If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." ⁷So he left them and went to live in the house of a Gentile named Titius Justus, who worshiped God; his house was next to the synagogue. ⁸Crispus, who was the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his family; and many other people in Corinth heard the message, believed, and were baptized.
⁹One night Paul had a vision in which the Lord said to him, "Do not be afraid, but keep on speaking and do not give up, ¹⁰for I am with you. No one will be able to harm you, for many in this city are my people." ¹¹So Paul stayed there for a year and a half, teaching the people the word of God.
¹²When Gallio was made the Roman governor of Achaia, Jews there got together, seized Paul, and took him into court. ¹³"This man," they said, "is trying to persuade people to worship God in a way that is against the law!"
¹⁴Paul was about to speak when Gallio said to the Jews, "If this were a matter of some evil crime or wrong that has been committed, it would be reasonable for me to be patient with you Jews. ¹⁵But since it is an argument about words and names and your own law, you yourselves must settle it. I will not be the judge of such things!" ¹⁶And he drove them out of the court. ¹⁷They all grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But that did not bother Gallio a bit.

The Return to Antioch

¹⁸Paul stayed on with the believers in Corinth for many days, then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. Before sailing from Cenchreae he had his head shaved because of a vow he had taken. ¹⁹They arrived in Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He went into the synagogue and held discussions with the Jews. ²⁰The people asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent. ²¹Instead, he told them as he left, "If it is the will of God, I will come back to you." And so he sailed from Ephesus.
²²When he arrived at Caesarea, he went to Jerusalem and greeted the church, and then went to Antioch. ²³After spending some time there, he left and went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the believers.

Apollos in Ephesus and Corinth

²⁴At that time a Jew named Apollos, who had been born in Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. ²⁵He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm he proclaimed and taught correctly the facts about Jesus. However, he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home with them and explained to him more correctly the Way of God. ²⁷Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the believers in Ephesus helped him by writing to the believers in Achaia, urging them to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who through God's grace had become believers. ²⁸For with his strong arguments he defeated the Jews in public debates by proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.

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Abimelech

Judges 9 Gideon's son Abimelech went to the town of Shechem, where all his mother's relatives lived, and told them ²to ask the men of Shechem, "Which would you prefer? To have all seventy of Gideon's sons govern you or to have just one man? Remember that Abimelech is your own flesh and blood." ³His mother's relatives talked to the men of Shechem about this for him, and the men of Shechem decided to follow Abimelech because he was their relative. ⁴They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him. ⁵He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and there on top of a single stone he killed his seventy brothers, Gideon's sons. But Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, hid and was not killed. ⁶Then all the men of Shechem and Bethmillo got together and went to the sacred oak tree at Shechem, where they made Abimelech king.
⁷When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, "Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you! ⁸Once upon a time the trees went out to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, 'Be our king.' ⁹The olive tree answered, 'In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and human beings.' ¹⁰Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come and be our king.' ¹¹But the fig tree answered, 'In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.' ¹²So the trees then said to the grapevine, 'You come and be our king.' ¹³But the vine answered, 'In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, that makes gods and human beings happy.' ¹⁴So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, 'You come and be our king.' ¹⁵The thorn bush answered, 'If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don't, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.'
¹⁶"Now then," Jotham continued, "were you really honest and sincere when you made Abimelech king? Did you respect Gideon's memory and treat his family properly, as his actions deserved? ¹⁷Remember that my father fought for you. He risked his life to save you from the Midianites. ¹⁸But today you turned against my father's family. You killed his sons--seventy men on a single stone--and just because Abimelech, his son by his servant woman, is your relative, you have made him king of Shechem. ¹⁹Now then, if what you did today to Gideon and his family was sincere and honest, then be happy with Abimelech and let him be happy with you. ²⁰But if not, may fire blaze out from Abimelech and burn up the men of Shechem and Bethmillo. May fire blaze out from the men of Shechem and Bethmillo and burn Abimelech up." ²¹Then because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech, Jotham ran away and went to live at Beer.
²²Abimelech ruled Israel for three years. ²³Then God made Abimelech and the men of Shechem hostile to each other, and they rebelled against Abimelech. ²⁴This happened so that Abimelech and the men of Shechem, who encouraged him to murder Gideon's seventy sons, would pay for their crime. ²⁵The men of Shechem put men in ambush against Abimelech on the mountaintops, and they robbed everyone who passed their way. Abimelech was told about this.
²⁶Then Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem with his brothers, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. ²⁷They all went out into their vineyards and picked the grapes, made wine from them, and held a festival. They went into the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and made fun of Abimelech. ²⁸Gaal said, "What kind of men are we in Shechem? Why are we serving Abimelech? Who is he, anyway? The son of Gideon! And Zebul takes orders from him, but why should we serve him? Be loyal to your ancestor Hamor, who founded your clan! ²⁹I wish I were leading this people! I would get rid of Abimelech! I would tell him, 'Reinforce your army, come on out and fight!'"
³⁰Zebul, the ruler of the city, became angry when he heard what Gaal had said. ³¹He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah to say, "Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are not going to let you into the city. ³²Now then, you and your men should move by night and hide in the fields. ³³Get up tomorrow morning at sunrise and make a sudden attack on the city. Then when Gaal and his men come out against you, hit them with all you've got!"
³⁴So Abimelech and all his men made their move at night and hid outside Shechem in four groups. ³⁵When Abimelech and his men saw Gaal come out and stand at the city gate, they got up from their hiding places. ³⁶Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, "Look! There are men coming down from the mountaintops!"
"Those are not men," Zebul answered. "They are just shadows on the mountains."
³⁷Gaal said again, "Look! There are men coming down the crest of the mountain and one group is coming along the road from the oak tree of the fortunetellers!"
³⁸Then Zebul said to him, "Where is all your big talk now? You were the one who asked why we should serve this man Abimelech. These are the men you were making fun of. Go on out now and fight them." ³⁹Gaal led the men of Shechem out and fought Abimelech. ⁴⁰Abimelech started after Gaal, and Gaal ran. Many were wounded, even at the city gate. ⁴¹Abimelech lived in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem, so that they could no longer live there.
⁴²The next day Abimelech found out that the people of Shechem were planning to go out into the fields, ⁴³so he took his men, divided them into three groups, and hid in the fields, waiting. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he came out of hiding to kill them. ⁴⁴While Abimelech and his group hurried forward to guard the city gate, the other two companies attacked the people in the fields and killed them all. ⁴⁵The fighting continued all day long. Abimelech captured the city, killed its people, tore it down, and covered the ground with salt.
⁴⁶When all the leading men in the fort at Shechem heard about this, they sought safety in the stronghold of the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant. ⁴⁷Abimelech was told that they had gathered there, ⁴⁸so he went up to Mount Zalmon with his men. There he took an ax, cut a limb off a tree, and put it on his shoulder. He told his men to hurry and do the same thing. ⁴⁹So everyone cut off a tree limb; then they followed Abimelech and piled the wood up against the stronghold. They set it on fire, with the people inside, and all the people of the fort died--about a thousand men and women.
⁵⁰Then Abimelech went to Thebez, surrounded that city, and captured it. ⁵¹There was a strong tower there, and every man and woman in the city, including the leaders, ran to it. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof. ⁵²When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he went up to the door to set the tower on fire. ⁵³But a woman threw a millstone down on his head and fractured his skull. ⁵⁴Then he quickly called the young man who was carrying his weapons and told him, "Draw your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a woman killed me." So the young man ran him through, and he died. ⁵⁵When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.
⁵⁶And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.

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The LORD Answers Job

Job 38 Then out of the storm the LORD spoke to Job.
The LORD
²Who are you to question my wisdom
with your ignorant, empty words?
³Now stand up straight
and answer the questions I ask you.
⁴Were you there when I made the world?
If you know so much, tell me about it.
⁵Who decided how large it would be?
Who stretched the measuring line over it?
Do you know all the answers?
⁶What holds up the pillars that support the earth?
Who laid the cornerstone of the world?
⁷In the dawn of that day the stars sang together,
and the heavenly beings shouted for joy.
⁸Who closed the gates to hold back the sea
when it burst from the womb of the earth?
⁹It was I who covered the sea with clouds
and wrapped it in darkness.
¹⁰I marked a boundary for the sea
and kept it behind bolted gates.
¹¹I told it, "So far and no farther!
Here your powerful waves must stop."
¹²Job, have you ever in all your life
commanded a day to dawn?
¹³Have you ordered the dawn to seize the earth
and shake the wicked from their hiding places?
¹⁴Daylight makes the hills and valleys stand out
like the folds of a garment,
clear as the imprint of a seal on clay.
¹⁵The light of day is too bright for the wicked
and restrains them from doing violence.
¹⁶Have you been to the springs in the depths of the sea?
Have you walked on the floor of the ocean?
¹⁷Has anyone ever shown you the gates
that guard the dark world of the dead?
¹⁸Have you any idea how big the world is?
Answer me if you know.
¹⁹Do you know where the light comes from
or what the source of darkness is?
²⁰Can you show them how far to go,
or send them back again?
²¹I am sure you can, because you're so old
and were there when the world was made!
²²Have you ever visited the storerooms,
where I keep the snow and the hail?
²³I keep them ready for times of trouble,
for days of battle and war.
²⁴Have you been to the place where the sun comes up,
or the place from which the east wind blows?
²⁵Who dug a channel for the pouring rain
and cleared the way for the thunderstorm?
²⁶Who makes rain fall where no one lives?
²⁷Who waters the dry and thirsty land,
so that grass springs up?
²⁸Does either the rain or the dew have a father?
²⁹Who is the mother of the ice and the frost,
³⁰ which turn the waters to stone
and freeze the face of the sea?
³¹Can you tie the Pleiades together
or loosen the bonds that hold Orion?
³²Can you guide the stars season by season
and direct the Big and the Little Dipper?
³³Do you know the laws that govern the skies,
and can you make them apply to the earth?
³⁴Can you shout orders to the clouds
and make them drench you with rain?
³⁵And if you command the lightning to flash,
will it come to you and say, "At your service"?
³⁶Who tells the ibis when the Nile will flood,
or who tells the rooster that rain will fall?
³⁷Who is wise enough to count the clouds
and tilt them over to pour out the rain,
³⁸ rain that hardens the dust into lumps?
³⁹Do you find food for lions to eat,
and satisfy hungry young lions
⁴⁰ when they hide in their caves,
or lie in wait in their dens?
⁴¹Who is it that feeds the ravens
when they wander about hungry,
when their young cry to me for food?

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day and all that is within it. Help my family today through Your divine healing to rebuke this sickness that has affected me and my family. Give us strength and wisdom to press through and conquer this sickness in Jesus' name I pray. Lord, You are so much greater than any sickness or distraction that the enemy would put before us. We thank You and praise You, worship You and honor You, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Lord, I try to tell of all You have done for me.
Lord, I try to record the great and incredible miracles that You have performed for me and my family so that for generations to come You will be remembered and they will not sway from You.
Help me Lord to capture the great things You have done for me so that I will never forget and all of the generations after me will also cling on and build up the great things they have done for You and that You have done for them. And Lord, we will give You the all the praise and all the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Reading: Acts 17.16-34, Judges 7-8 and Job 37

In Athens

Acts 17 ¹⁶While Paul was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he was greatly upset when he noticed how full of idols the city was. ¹⁷So he held discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentiles who worshiped God, and also in the public square every day with the people who happened to come by. ¹⁸Certain Epicurean and Stoic teachers also debated with him. Some of them asked, "What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?"
Others answered, "He seems to be talking about foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹So they took Paul, brought him before the city council, the Areopagus, and said, "We would like to know what this new teaching is that you are talking about. ²⁰Some of the things we hear you say sound strange to us, and we would like to know what they mean." ( ²¹For all the citizens of Athens and the foreigners who lived there liked to spend all their time telling and hearing the latest new thing.)
²²Paul stood up in front of the city council and said, "I see that in every way you Athenians are very religious. ²³For as I walked through your city and looked at the places where you worship, I found an altar on which is written, 'To an Unknown God.' That which you worship, then, even though you do not know it, is what I now proclaim to you. ²⁴God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. ²⁵Nor does he need anything that we can supply by working for him, since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone. ²⁶From one human being he created all races of people and made them live throughout the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live. ²⁷He did this so that they would look for him, and perhaps find him as they felt around for him. Yet God is actually not far from any one of us; ²⁸as someone has said,
'In him we live and move and exist.'
It is as some of your poets have said,
'We too are his children.'
²⁹Since we are God's children, we should not suppose that his nature is anything like an image of gold or silver or stone, shaped by human art and skill. ³⁰God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways. ³¹For he has fixed a day in which he will judge the whole world with justice by means of a man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising that man from death!"
³²When they heard Paul speak about a raising from death, some of them made fun of him, but others said, "We want to hear you speak about this again." ³³And so Paul left the meeting. ³⁴Some men joined him and believed, among whom was Dionysius, a member of the council; there was also a woman named Damaris, and some other people.

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

Judges 7 One day Gideon and all his men got up early and camped beside Harod Spring. The Midianite camp was in the valley to the north of them by Moreh Hill.
²The LORD said to Gideon, "The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit. ³Announce to the people, 'Anyone who is afraid should go back home, and we will stay here at Mount Gilead.'" So twenty-two thousand went back, but ten thousand stayed.
⁴Then the LORD said to Gideon, "You still have too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will separate them for you there. If I tell you a man should go with you, he will go. If I tell you a man should not go with you, he will not go." ⁵Gideon took the men down to the water, and the LORD told him, "Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue like a dog, from everyone who gets down on his knees to drink." ⁶There were three hundred men who scooped up water in their hands and lapped it; all the others got down on their knees to drink. ⁷The LORD said to Gideon, "I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites with the three hundred men who lapped the water. Tell everyone else to go home." ⁸So Gideon sent all the Israelites home, except the three hundred, who kept all the supplies and trumpets. The Midianite camp was below them in the valley.
⁹That night the LORD commanded Gideon, "Get up and attack the camp; I am giving you victory over it. ¹⁰But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. ¹¹You will hear what they are saying, and then you will have the courage to attack." So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the enemy camp. ¹²The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribesmen were spread out in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and they had as many camels as there are grains of sand on the seashore.
¹³When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying, "I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground."
¹⁴His friend replied, "It's the sword of the Israelite, Gideon son of Joash! It can't mean anything else! God has given him victory over Midian and our whole army!"
¹⁵When Gideon heard about the man's dream and what it meant, he fell to his knees and worshiped the LORD. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, "Get up! The LORD is giving you victory over the Midianite army!" ¹⁶He divided his three hundred men into three groups and gave each man a trumpet and a jar with a torch inside it. ¹⁷He told them, "When I get to the edge of the camp, watch me, and do what I do. ¹⁸When my group and I blow our trumpets, then you blow yours all around the camp and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon!'"
¹⁹Gideon and his one hundred men came to the edge of the camp a while before midnight, just after the guard had been changed. Then they blew the trumpets and broke the jars they were holding, ²⁰and the other two groups did the same. They all held the torches in their left hands, the trumpets in their right, and shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" ²¹Every man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole enemy army ran away yelling. ²²While Gideon's men were blowing their trumpets, the LORD made the enemy troops attack each other with their swords. They ran toward Zarethan as far as Beth Shittah, as far as the town of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.
²³Then men from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both parts of Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. ²⁴Gideon sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim to say, "Come down and fight the Midianites. Hold the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah, to keep the Midianites from crossing them." The men of Ephraim were called together, and they held the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah. ²⁵They captured the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at Oreb Rock, and Zeeb at the Winepress of Zeeb. They continued to pursue the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now east of the Jordan.

The Final Defeat of the Midianites

Judges 8 Then the people of Ephraim said to Gideon, "Why didn't you call us when you went to fight the Midianites? Why did you treat us like this?" They complained bitterly about it.
²But he told them, "What I was able to do is nothing compared with what you have done. Even the little that you people of Ephraim did is worth more than what my whole clan has done. ³After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?" When he said this, they were no longer so angry.
⁴By this time Gideon and his three hundred men had come to the Jordan River and had crossed it. They were exhausted, but were still pursuing the enemy. ⁵When they arrived at Sukkoth, he said to the men of the town, "Please give my men some loaves of bread. They are exhausted, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings."
⁶But the leaders of Sukkoth said, "Why should we give your army any food? You haven't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet."
⁷So Gideon said, "All right! When the LORD has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briers from the desert!" ⁸Gideon went on to Penuel and made the same request of the people there, but the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Sukkoth. ⁹So he said to them, "I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear this tower down!"
¹⁰Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army. Of the whole army of desert tribesmen, only about 15,000 were left; 120,000 soldiers had been killed. ¹¹Gideon went on the road along the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise. ¹²The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.
¹³When Gideon was returning from the battle by way of Heres Pass, ¹⁴he captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the seventy-seven leading men of Sukkoth. ¹⁵Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, "Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn't give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!" ¹⁶He then took thorns and briers from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth. ¹⁷He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.
¹⁸Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, "What about the men you killed at Tabor?"
They answered, "They looked like you--every one of them like the son of a king."
¹⁹Gideon said, "They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you." ²⁰Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, "Go ahead, kill them!" But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.
²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, "Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job." So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.
²²After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, "Be our ruler--you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites."
²³Gideon answered, "I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The LORD will be your ruler." ²⁴But he went on to say, "Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took." (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)
²⁵The people answered, "We'll be glad to give them to you." They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken. ²⁶The gold earrings that Gideon got weighed over forty pounds, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were around the necks of their camels. ²⁷Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his hometown, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.
²⁸So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.

The Death of Gideon

²⁹Gideon went back to his own home and lived there. ³⁰He had seventy sons, because he had many wives. ³¹He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. ³²Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.
³³After Gideon's death the people of Israel were unfaithful to God again and worshiped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god, ³⁴and no longer served the LORD their God, who had saved them from all their enemies around them. ³⁵They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for healing my body. I thank You for returning to me physical strength. I pray for my daughters as they are now fighting this sickness and ask in the name of Jesus that You will strengthen and heal their bodies and protect the rest of my family from getting sick. Lord, You are awesome and can do infinitely more than I can ask or imagine. Help me Lord to keep my focus on You and that how I react, how I respond, what I do and what I say may be glorifying to You. Help me Lord to remember that it is all about You and not just about me. Help me Lord, to do the right things in Your sight. I love You, I praise You, I will always worship You and honor You, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Reading: Acts 17.1-15, Judges 6 and Job 36

In Thessalonica

Acts 17 Paul and Silas traveled on through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue. ²According to his usual habit Paul went to the synagogue. There during three Sabbaths he held discussions with the people, quoting ³and explaining the Scriptures, and proving from them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from death. "This Jesus whom I announce to you," Paul said, "is the Messiah." ⁴Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas; so did many of the leading women and a large group of Greeks who worshiped God.
⁵But some Jews were jealous and gathered worthless loafers from the streets and formed a mob. They set the whole city in an uproar and attacked the home of a man named Jason, in an attempt to find Paul and Silas and bring them out to the people. ⁶But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city authorities and shouted, "These men have caused trouble everywhere! Now they have come to our city, ⁷and Jason has kept them in his house. They are all breaking the laws of the Emperor, saying that there is another king, whose name is Jesus." ⁸With these words they threw the crowd and the city authorities in an uproar. ⁹The authorities made Jason and the others pay the required amount of money to be released, and then let them go.

In Berea

¹⁰As soon as night came, the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue. ¹¹The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true. ¹²Many of them believed; and many Greek women of high social standing and many Greek men also believed. ¹³But when the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul had preached the word of God in Berea also, they came there and started exciting and stirring up the mobs. ¹⁴At once the believers sent Paul away to the coast; but both Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. ¹⁵The men who were taking Paul went with him as far as Athens and then returned to Berea with instructions from Paul that Silas and Timothy should join him as soon as possible.

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Gideon

Judges 6 Once again the people of Israel sinned against the LORD, so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years. ²The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills. ³Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them. ⁴They would camp on the land and destroy the crops as far south as the area around Gaza. They would take all the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on. ⁵They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land, ⁶and Israel was helpless against them.
⁷Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help against the Midianites, ⁸and he sent them a prophet who brought them this message from the LORD, the God of Israel: "I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. ⁹I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land. ¹⁰I told you that I am the LORD your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you have not listened to me."
¹¹Then the LORD's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him. ¹²The LORD's angel appeared to him there and said, "The LORD is with you, brave and mighty man!"
¹³Gideon said to him, "If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the LORD used to do--how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites."
¹⁴Then the LORD ordered him, "Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you."
¹⁵Gideon replied, "But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family."
¹⁶The LORD answered, "You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man."
¹⁷Gideon replied, "If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the LORD. ¹⁸Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food."
He said, "I will stay until you come back."
¹⁹So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the LORD's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him. ²⁰The angel told him, "Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them." Gideon did so. ²¹Then the LORD's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.
²²Gideon then realized that it was the LORD's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, "Sovereign LORD! I have seen your angel face-to-face!"
²³But the LORD told him, "Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die." ²⁴Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it "The LORD is Peace." (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)
²⁵That night the LORD told Gideon, "Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it. ²⁶Build a well-constructed altar to the LORD your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down." ²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the LORD had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people in town to do it by day, so he did it at night.
²⁸When the people in town got up early the next morning, they found that the altar to Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been cut down, and that the second bull had been burned on the altar that had been built there. ²⁹They asked each other, "Who did this?" They investigated and found out that Gideon son of Joash had done it. ³⁰Then they said to Joash, "Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it."
³¹But Joash said to all those who confronted him, "Are you arguing for Baal? Are you defending him? Anyone who argues for him will be killed before morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself. It is his altar that was torn down." ³²From then on Gideon was known as Jerubbaal, because Joash said, "Let Baal defend himself; it is his altar that was torn down."
³³Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribes assembled, crossed the Jordan River, and camped in Jezreel Valley. ³⁴The spirit of the LORD took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him. ³⁵He sent messengers throughout the territory of both parts of Manasseh to call them to follow him. He sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they also came to join him.
³⁶Then Gideon said to God, "You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel. ³⁷Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel." ³⁸That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, "Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet." ⁴⁰That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.

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Job 36 ^1-2Be patient and listen a little longer
to what I am saying on God's behalf.
³My knowledge is wide; I will use what I know
to show that God, my Creator, is just.
⁴Nothing I say to you is false;
you see before you a truly wise man.
⁵How strong God is! He despises no one;
there is nothing he doesn't understand.
⁶He does not let sinners live on,
and he always treats the poor with justice.
⁷He protects those who are righteous;
he allows them to rule like kings
and lets them be honored forever.
⁸But if people are bound in chains,
suffering for what they have done,
⁹ God shows them their sins and their pride.
¹⁰He makes them listen to his warning
to turn away from evil.
¹¹If they obey God and serve him,
they live out their lives in peace and prosperity.
¹²But if not, they will die in ignorance
and cross the stream into the world of the dead.
¹³Those who are godless keep on being angry,
and even when punished, they don't pray for help.
¹⁴They die while they are still young,
worn out by a life of disgrace.
¹⁵But God teaches people through suffering
and uses distress to open their eyes.
¹⁶God brought you out of trouble,
and let you enjoy security;
your table was piled high with food.
¹⁷But now you are being punished as you deserve.
¹⁸Be careful not to let bribes deceive you,
or riches lead you astray.
¹⁹It will do you no good to cry out for help;
all your strength can't help you now.
²⁰Don't wish for night to come,
the time when nations will perish.
²¹Be careful not to turn to evil;
your suffering was sent to keep you from it.
²²Remember how great is God's power;
he is the greatest teacher of all.
²³No one can tell God what to do
or accuse him of doing evil.
²⁴He has always been praised for what he does;
you also must praise him.
²⁵Everyone has seen what he has done;
but we can only watch from a distance.
²⁶We cannot fully know his greatness
or count the number of his years.
²⁷It is God who takes water from the earth
and turns it into drops of rain.
²⁸He lets the rain pour from the clouds
in showers for all human beings.
²⁹No one knows how the clouds move
or how the thunder roars
through the sky, where God dwells.
³⁰He sends lightning through all the sky,
but the depths of the sea remain dark.
³¹This is how he feeds the people
and provides an abundance of food.
³²He seizes the lightning with his hands
and commands it to hit the mark.
³³Thunder announces the approaching storm,
and the cattle know it is coming.

Today's Reading: Acts 16.16-40, Judges 4-5 and Job 35

God can take every instance of your life and use it for His glory - if you respond properly and allow yourself to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Will worship God in your times of trouble? Will praise Him in your times of trial? How will you respond?

In Prison at Philippi

Acts 16¹⁶One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a young servant woman who had an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes. ¹⁷She followed Paul and us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!" ¹⁸She did this for many days, until Paul became so upset that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!" The spirit went out of her that very moment. ¹⁹When her owners realized that their chance of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities in the public square. ²⁰They brought them before the Roman officials and said, "These men are Jews, and they are causing trouble in our city. ²¹They are teaching customs that are against our law; we are Roman citizens, and we cannot accept these customs or practice them." ²²And the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas.
Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be whipped. ²³After a severe beating, they were thrown into jail, and the jailer was ordered to lock them up tight. ²⁴Upon receiving this order, the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood.
²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners. ²⁷The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he thought that the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. ²⁸But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, "Don't harm yourself ! We are all here!"
²⁹The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. ³⁰Then he led them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
³¹They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your family." ³²Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in the house. ³³At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once. ³⁴Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house and gave them some food to eat. He and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God.
³⁵The next morning the Roman authorities sent police officers with the order, "Let those men go."
³⁶So the jailer told Paul, "The officials have sent an order for you and Silas to be released. You may leave, then, and go in peace."
³⁷But Paul said to the police officers, "We were not found guilty of any crime, yet they whipped us in public--and we are Roman citizens! Then they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Not at all! The Roman officials themselves must come here and let us out."
³⁸The police officers reported these words to the Roman officials; and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid. ³⁹So they went and apologized to them; then they led them out of the prison and asked them to leave the city. ⁴⁰Paul and Silas left the prison and went to Lydia's house. There they met the believers, spoke words of encouragement to them, and left.

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for this new day. I thank You Lord that no matter where I go and no matter how I feel, You are with me, you are faithful, and You speaking to me. Help me Lord to listen. Help me Lord to not be distracted by all that is going on but remain focused on You. Lord, let me not focus on the situation, the feeling, the idea, but on You and how You are leading me and guiding me and that I may quiet my situation to hear Your still quiet voice calling out wisdom and direction to me. Lord, I have allowed something called pride to get in between You and I and I ask in the name of Jesus first for forgiveness and second that the spirit of pride in the name of Jesus it be rebuke and cast from me. I ask that You help me to become humble once more and be more focused on serving You and serving others than about "me". Help me to serve my family - to honor, to respect, to cherish, to bless, to encourage, to love. Help me to serve your people - in humility, in truth, in hope, in love, in patience.

Lord, thank You for Your Word that is new each day - a word that never changes - but that speaks new life into me each day. I praise You. I love You. I worship You. I honor You. I lift this day up to You in hopes that You will be glorified in Jesus' name. Amen.

God is for you and not against You - What will it take before You turn back to Him? Or What will it take for You to turn to Him and away from the sins that are preventing You from becoming all that He has planned for you? How low much you go before You will look up to God and call on Him?

Deborah and Barak

Judges 4 After Ehud died, the people of Israel sinned against the LORD again. ²So the LORD let them be conquered by Jabin, a Canaanite king who ruled in the city of Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles. ³Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he ruled the people of Israel with cruelty and violence for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help.
⁴Now Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet, and she was serving as a judge for the Israelites at that time. ⁵She would sit under a certain palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel would go there for her decisions. ⁶One day she sent for Barak son of Abinoam from the city of Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, has given you this command: 'Take ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them to Mount Tabor. ⁷I will bring Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to fight you at the Kishon River. He will have his chariots and soldiers, but I will give you victory over him.'"
⁸Then Barak replied, "I will go if you go with me, but if you don't go with me, I won't go either."
⁹She answered, "All right, I will go with you, but you won't get any credit for the victory, because the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah set off for Kedesh with Barak. ¹⁰Barak called the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him. Deborah went with him.
¹¹In the meantime Heber the Kenite had set up his tent close to Kedesh near the oak tree at Zaanannim. He had moved away from the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses.
¹²When Sisera learned that Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³he called out his nine hundred iron chariots and all his men, and sent them from Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles to the Kishon River.
¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! The LORD is leading you! Today he has given you victory over Sisera." So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with his ten thousand men. ¹⁵When Barak attacked with his army, the LORD threw Sisera into confusion together with all his chariots and men. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. ¹⁶Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles, and Sisera's whole army was killed. Not a man was left.
¹⁷Sisera ran away to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because King Jabin of Hazor was at peace with Heber's family. ¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come in, sir; come into my tent. Don't be afraid." So he went in, and she hid him behind a curtain. ¹⁹He said to her, "Please give me a drink of water; I'm thirsty." She opened a leather bag of milk, gave him a drink, and hid him again. ²⁰Then he told her, "Stand at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you if anyone is here, say no."
²¹Sisera was so tired that he fell sound asleep. Then Jael took a hammer and a tent peg, quietly went up to him, and killed him by driving the peg right through the side of his head and into the ground. ²²When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, "Come here! I'll show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there was Sisera on the ground, dead, with the tent peg through his head.
²³That day God gave the Israelites victory over Jabin, the Canaanite king. ²⁴They pressed harder and harder against him until they destroyed him.

The Song of Deborah and Barak

Judges 5 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
²Praise the LORD!
The Israelites were determined to fight;
the people gladly volunteered.
³Listen, you kings!
Pay attention, you rulers!
I will sing and play music
to Israel's God, the LORD.
⁴LORD, when you left the mountains of Seir,
when you came out of the region of Edom,
the earth shook, and rain fell from the sky.
Yes, water poured down from the clouds.
⁵The mountains quaked before the LORD of Sinai,
before the LORD, the God of Israel.
⁶In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael,
caravans no longer went through the land,
and travelers used the back roads.
⁷The towns of Israel stood abandoned, Deborah;
they stood empty until you came,
came like a mother for Israel.
⁸Then there was war in the land
when the Israelites chose new gods.
Of the forty thousand men in Israel,
did anyone carry shield or spear?
⁹My heart is with the commanders of Israel,
with the people who gladly volunteered.
Praise the LORD!
¹⁰Tell of it, you that ride on white donkeys,
sitting on saddles,
and you that must walk wherever you go.
¹¹Listen! The noisy crowds around the wells
are telling of the LORD's victories,
the victories of Israel's people!
Then the LORD's people marched down from their cities.
¹²Lead on, Deborah, lead on!
Lead on! Sing a song! Lead on!
Forward, Barak son of Abinoam,
lead your captives away!
¹³Then the faithful ones came down to their leaders;
the LORD's people came to him ready to fight.
¹⁴They came from Ephraim into the valley,
behind the tribe of Benjamin and its people.
The commanders came down from Machir,
the officers down from Zebulun.
¹⁵The leaders of Issachar came with Deborah;
yes, Issachar came and Barak too,
and they followed him into the valley.
But the tribe of Reuben was divided;
they could not decide to come.
¹⁶Why did they stay behind with the sheep?
To listen to shepherds calling the flocks?
Yes, the tribe of Reuben was divided;
they could not decide to come.
¹⁷The tribe of Gad stayed east of the Jordan,
and the tribe of Dan remained by the ships.
The tribe of Asher stayed by the seacoast;
they remained along the shore.
¹⁸But the people of Zebulun and Naphtali
risked their lives on the battlefield.
¹⁹At Taanach, by the stream of Megiddo,
the kings came and fought;
the kings of Canaan fought,
but they took no silver away.
²⁰The stars fought from the sky;
as they moved across the sky,
they fought against Sisera.
²¹A flood in the Kishon swept them away--
the onrushing Kishon River.
I shall march, march on, with strength!
²²Then the horses came galloping on,
stamping the ground with their hoofs.
²³"Put a curse on Meroz," says the angel of the LORD,
"a curse, a curse on those who live there.
They did not come to help the LORD,
come as soldiers to fight for him."
²⁴The most fortunate of women is Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite--
the most fortunate of women who live in tents.
²⁵Sisera asked for water, but she gave him milk;
she brought him cream in a beautiful bowl.
²⁶She took a tent peg in one hand,
a worker's hammer in the other;
she struck Sisera and crushed his skull;
she pierced him through the head.
²⁷He sank to his knees,
fell down and lay still at her feet.
At her feet he sank to his knees and fell;
he fell to the ground, dead.
²⁸Sisera's mother looked out of the window;
she gazed from behind the lattice.
"Why is his chariot so late in coming?" she asked.
"Why are his horses so slow to return?"
²⁹Her wisest friends answered her,
and she told herself over and over,
³⁰"They are only finding things to capture and divide,
a woman or two for every soldier,
rich cloth for Sisera,
embroidered pieces for the neck of the queen."
³¹So may all your enemies die like that, O LORD,
but may your friends shine like the rising sun!
And there was peace in the land for forty years.

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Job 35 ^1-2It is not right, Job, for you to say
that you are innocent in God's sight,
³or to ask God, "How does my sin affect you?
What have I gained by not sinning?"
⁴I am going to answer you and your friends too.
⁵Look at the sky! See how high the clouds are!
⁶If you sin, that does no harm to God.
If you do wrong many times, does that affect him?
⁷Do you help God by being so righteous?
There is nothing God needs from you.
⁸Others suffer from your sins,
and the good you do helps them.
⁹When people are oppressed, they groan;
they cry for someone to save them.
¹⁰But they don't turn to God, their Creator,
who gives them hope in their darkest hours.
¹¹They don't turn to God, who makes us wise,
wiser than any animal or bird.
¹²They cry for help, but God doesn't answer,
for they are proud and evil.
¹³It is useless for them to cry out;
Almighty God does not see or hear them.
¹⁴Job, you say you can't see God;
but wait patiently--your case is before him.
¹⁵You think that God does not punish,
that he pays little attention to sin.
¹⁶It is useless for you to go on talking;
it is clear you don't know what you are saying.

If you visit, I would covet your prayers today as I continue to fight flu symptoms. The Dr. gave me some medicine to help, but I know that if the people of God pray together that it will depart much quicker. I thank each of you for taking a moment to pray, in Jesus' name and that the Lord may bless for your faith and for taking time to pray. Amen.