Here is the Website of the Elisha Foundation for more information
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This is a new friend that I met at a conference. We became instant friends because of our commonality in the Down Syndrome community, but we also have a deeper connection in Christ, and I love their ministry. Check this video out and love and pray for their ministry with me. Here is their Website Elisha Foundation
Fearless: Samson
Judges 13-16
Samson was altogether a pretty rebellious person. We have started to see some rebellion in our 5 year old daughter Ana. We have started to count to three. If you are a parent you have done the same thing. Just the other day I was asking Ana to come to me she got the idea that I don't want to come to you Daddy. So I proceeded to count to three. I said "1...2..." and when I got to three she plopped herself down on the ground and cried out "3" in defiance! I almost had to laugh, but it was pretty serious rebellion nonetheless. Samson seemed to do the same thing by rebelling against what the Lord had asked him to do, but to his credit he turned to the Lord when it counted. Samson grew in fearlessness by overcoming three areas of weakness where he learned to lean on the strength of Jesus Christ
Weakness Area #1 Women
First wife was a philistine which was prohibited by God. He visited prostitutes, and the worst wife in the bible (maybe besides Job's wife and Jezebel) was Delilah. How could this guy be such a dummy when it came to women? I am a one woman man I don't even look at other women. I have never even had friends who are women that are not also the friends of my wife Simone. This is the only way to go. I just make sure that there is no other way. Not even the opportunity or possibility to be tempted in this area. This is how I lean on the strength of Christ. I make my wife my main accountability.
Judges 14:3-4
Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she looks good to me." However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
God was at work even in Samson's terrible weakness to do His righteous plan. Even though Samson may have never recognized it.
Weakness Area#2 Discretion:
Discretion is the the trait of judging wisely and objectively: this guy had hardly any discretion. He hung out constantly with the enemy. There was a wedding feast where he told them a riddle and told his wife the answer to it. After they figured out the answer to the riddle, by asking his wife, he got so angry that he burned their crops down with three hundred foxes. His biggest failure in discretion was that gave up the secret to his strength after being asked three times. You would think on the second time being asked he would get the picture that they want to capture him, but no he tells them anyway.
Judges 14:4
However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
Judges 15:3
Samson then said to them, "This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm."
He was growing in discretion here. He basically says I'm gonna kick major butt and I'm gonna do it with discretion and blamelessness! I'm gonna take care of business this time!
Weakness Area #3 Loss of physical strength
after he killed 1,000 Philistines Judges 15:18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" God Delivered him and gave him something to drink. After he was blinded and captured Judges 16:28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, "O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."
In his greatest weaknesses he called on God. My area of weakness now is patience with my family. It is becoming so hard to have patience with a two year old and a five year old getting into so much mischief. Last week my youngest daughter decided to bring the sandbox into our house bucket by bucket and pour each bucket into our easy chairs and onto our carpet. It is hard to be patient, but I am asking God to turn this area of weakness into an opportunity for an "occasion against the Philistines", or better put an "occasion against my flesh", What is one area of weakness in your life right now? And how can you lean on the power of Jesus in that weakness?
Do you remember sissy tests growing up? We used to do the stupidest stuff like rubbing the back of your hand with an eraser until it bleeds, knuckle fighting, hand slaps, shooting bottle rocket fireworks at each other. As I look back at things it seemed pretty stupid to do those things. Abe Kuhn even told me about a guy who his mother helped in the hospital that she worked in who was drunk and was dared to put a fire work in his mouth and it exploded adn he lost almost half of his face. We do some pretty dumb stuff and call them "sissy tests". In the Bible Gideon a man who God really used started off as a wimpy sissy. How do I know Gideon this man of God started off as a wimp? The angel of the Lord met him in a winepress where he was sifting wheat. You are supposed to press grapes in a winepress not sift wheat. The bible even says he was hiding from the Midianites Israel's oppressors (Judges 6:11-12)
Gideon the wimp became courageous and fearless by asking God to reveal himself by passing three sissy tests Gideon asked God to pass. He became courageous not because He was a courageous guy, but because He saw God was a great God!
Sissy test #1:
Is this really you God? (Judges 6:16-17 angel of the Lord burns up an offering, fleece: Judges 6:36-40)
The angel of the Lord revealed His power to Gideon by burning His sacrifice
The Lord showed Gideon it was really him in making the fleece dry and wet
Gideon's confidence in God started to grow
Sissy test #2
Are you really gonna use me God? (cutting down the Asherah pole at night judges 6:27)
Gideon was scared to follow God's directions to cut down the Asherah pole so He did it a night
Later on His father had to come to His defense. Gideon Hardly stood up for Himself
Sissy test #3
Are you sure you only need 300 God?
God delivering Midian into their hands with rams horns and torches
They started out with 32,000 men they went down to 10,000 men and finally down to 300 men
These seemed like good odds for God 300 men with torches vs. an army as many as a swarm of locusts or as many as the sand on the seashore (Judges7:2)
How is God showing you his greatness and overcoming your fear. If you are honest you and I are really wimps at heart, and are totally afraid in so many ways. We need to put God to the test and see how great and big he is, and our fear will slowly disappear.
Fearless: Deborah and Jael (Judges 4-5)
Two women who delivered Israel were fearless because they were zealous (marked by active interest and enthusiasm) for God in three actions
1. Deborah listened to God
Under the palm tree of Ramah she listened to God and judged the people with what God was saying to them (Judges 4:5) As helpful as technology is sometimes I have to turn my phone off to hear from God.
Have you ever had to just turn everything off and listen. Silence is a spiritual discipline, and we should practice it more often
2. Jael acted on behalf of God
Jael invited Sisera (an evil King) into her tent and killed him with a tent peg! She took the tent peg and a hammer and drove the tent peg through his temple and into the ground, OOOWWWWW! (Judges4:17-24)
I think of Jael and I think of maybe a modern day Jael in the famous missionary Gladys Aylward. She lived from 1902-1970 saving children in China. She traveled from London to Peking which is 5,000 miles on the trans Siberian railroad, adopted nearly 200 children and fled to the mountains to protect them when the Japanese invaded China. What is God making you zealous for like Jael was for the deliverance of Israel. What if we were as serious about our sin as Jael was about delivering Israel from a wicked King? Would we take a tent peg through the head of our sin and kill it?
3. Deborah worshipped God (when he acted)
Deborah wrote a song about how God acted (Judges 5:1-end) She gave credit to God as being the sole mover in this deliverance (5:2-5)
Worship: sometimes we don't worship God because we don't really believe that God is the prime mover in our deliverance from sin. We think that we have a part in our own deliverance. Worship demands we believe that that God has wrought a miracle in our deliverance from sin! These two awesome women of the Bible believed God had delivered Israel and they worshiped Him for it.
I went to the U2 Concert last night at the Oakland Coliseum. I have to say it might have been the most spectacular stadium show I have ever been to.Here are some picture and thoughts to follow at the end.
Simone and Me at U2
I am not one to try to create controversy or put people on pedestals...o.k. maybe I am, and maybe I will. U2 got together in 1976 (the year I was born), and released their first album “Boy” in 1980. Since "The Joshua Tree" they have been on the fast track. I remember seeing them when I was in high school at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina when I was 16 or 17 years old. And since that time I know they have not ever notdone a “Stadium” tour. That means basically have been playing every time they do a show to 60,000-80,000 people for the past twenty years! That is incredible! The thing that most struck me, besides the awesome music and lights, (oh and by the way have you seen the stage!!!) was their uncanny ability to connect with everyone in the stadium. That has really defined their career. Someone asked me today, “What makes them so appealing?” I think it is actually a Biblical principle that makes them appealing. They are “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22). Their lyrics are so appealing and so inviting everyone feels like they have experienced what U2 has experienced (The music is pretty awesome too). But for the sake of context the rest of the passage says, “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.” This passage of scripture is not talking about just relating to people just to relate to people. I do think U2 is so popular because they do relate to people becoming “all things to all men” (thus the name U2), but have they won people to Christ with their music? I do know they are Christians and they have shied away from the pedestal that I am trying to put them on, and I actually thank them for that, but how have they fulfilled this passage. I have been encouraged by their Scripture laced songs (like Yahweh). I did not come to Christ through their music I have just been encouraged in the faith. So I wonder if there are people out there who have come to Christ through their music in some way or another. Please comment and let me know how you might have been won to Christ through the awesome music or lives of U2.
Joshua became fearless because he trusted in God's ability In four areas
1. He trusted in God's plan (Jericho 1 and Jericho 2) Marching around the city of Jericho every day for seven days and then blowing trumpets is a pretty ridiculous battle plan, but as veggie tales tells he trusted in that plan, oh I mean as the Bible tells us. (numbers 14:6-10 Josh 6:1-7) What are some pretty ridiculous things that God asks us to do? Why do we think they are ridiculous? Do we think they are ridiculous because we don't want to do them or are they ridiculous because God is mainly testing our faith?
2. He trusted in God's presence (tent of meeting exodus 33:11) He really believes that God will go with them into the land that he promised to them. I think of Jesus in Joshua's story when Jesus promises the disciples and us that, "I will be with you until the end of the age" in what ways do you feel God's presence? What are you trusting God for until the very end of the age? Take time to meet with God in your tent of meeting regularly, Seek encounters with Him to be affirmed of His presence with you.
3. He trusted in God's courage (be strong and very courageous Josh 1:6-7;9). When I was a youth pastor in Lexington, South Carolina I would have an appointment with a student once a week and we would go out to eat at a different fast food joint every week. Our purpose was to learn how to share Christ with the employees at those places. It took a little bit of courage. But God gave it to us every time. We were able to share with someone almost every time and God came through with a great deal of courage. What is one area you need to trust Christ in to have courage? What is he asking you to do that takes a little more courage than you have to give? Lean on His courage like Joshua did.
4. He trusted in Gods law (1:6-8). What is one area of obedience right now that is hard to trust God with. What I mean is, what is one way that you are having a hard time obeying God in right now? I will be honest I am having a hard time right now being patient with people. I am asking God every day to give me His love and kindness toward people. Ask God to give you his righteousness and he will do it!
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