THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

   This is one of my  least  favorite stories in the Bible, especially having a daughter myself.  Jephthah's irrational promise to God is going to take his daughter's life.  This just goes to prove, that even the best of us have the propensity to be serious "flakes" at times.  Here is a man whom "the Spirit of the Lord" is upon. Here is a man whom God is using, a man who goes out and accomplishes a great conquest for God and for Israel, but when he comes home, Jephthah must deal with a very ugly situation, that has stemmed from his only, incredible, stupid and irrational promise he has made to God.  As if he had to make this promise to God in order to gain this victory. This is a horrible story about a poor young girl, who's life is going to be cut short because of a Father who is just "a flake".  The lives of many children have been subjected to "the whims" of flaky parents and I'm talking about Christian parents. Our text today ...

      Sometimes the greatest miracle is the one that's right in front of our eyes, that we take for granted. We are looking for a leg to grow out, a cancer prognosis to be vetoed, but we miss the many other miracles that God is doing right in front of us.  Does anybody take notice of the miracle in our text we read,  in Luke 24:33 " they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. They they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ". How quickly we forget that this group wasn't a group Jesus found all together on the Basketball Court, a group of friends he called unto himself.   It’s not as if they were together before they met and followed Jesus; and of course they are together once Jesus has died, why wouldn't they?!       However, that's not the case! Luke, the one writing the narrative, is a Dr., Matthew was a sniveling, tax collector, James & John our brawley cussing Fishermen, Simon, a political zealot....the point is,...

    Imagine for one who was the Alpha and Omega, according to John He was the word who had always been. Never was death even a concept to Jesus until this moment. He was going to let himself die and BY FAITH believe that he would not remain dead, that God, the Father, would raise him from the dead. 100% of all those reading this blog will one day have to face death. Some of us will die quickly, not having a chance to even think about it, but others will die a death they know is coming, whether through cancer or some other fatal disease or even old age; they will have time to contemplate and think over their death. They will know that in a few weeks, a month or a few years they will close their eyes one last time and the question they must ask themselves is will my eyes ever open again and if they do open again, what will be the next thing that I see...Heaven or Hell? Or, will I be somewhere else in some intermittent state? Death is the scariest event any human being ...

   God wants to slim down that vast numbers of men, going to fight with Gideon, to make sure it's known, that it was He (God) that brought the victory, not their own might. So God thinks to himself, "what's the quickest way to bring that number down, substantially?" God knowing the hearts of men, goes with fear. Fear strikes the heart of so many men and women serving God today and back then. As the story goes, He tells Gideon, tell those that are afraid, they can return..well that will knock out a couple of thousand...NO, it knocks out Twenty-two (22) THOUSAND men. You have to read it twice! It's hard to believe that there was 22,000 men out there that were so afraid and given the first opportunity to return home, they would. God has not always given men the opportunity to not fight because they were afraid. How many times did God tell Joshua, "do not fear, be courageous". He told Jeremiah, "fear not their faces". Jesus tells us not to fear for...

          " 4  They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.  5  They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.  6  Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help."      The easiest (but dumbest) thing to do is step into any bad situation and without knowing the history or the facts, lash out and say, "where's God in all this? If he's so wonderful and powerful why is this happening?".  It would be easy to look upon Israel's plight and ask those same questions, as a matter of a fact, Gideon does ask that question,   13  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us,  why has all this happened to us?     FIRST thin...

         "But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”  We know Jesus is physically speaking to the Roman Soldiers, but who is He really speaking to? Is He speaking to the demonic world, is He speaking to Satan himself who has been at him for quite some time....probably all of the above! This is the hour when darkness reigns. We sometimes sing this song in church "he's under my feet, he's under my feet, Satan is under by feat"  I sing that song cautiously and not to braggadociously. Fact is, there are days, weeks, months when darkness does reign and Satan is not under our feet. It is not your triumphant hour! It can be a time of darkness, oppression, depression and very few victories to speak of other than you have not giving up your faith in Christ and you have not jumped off a bridge, but other than that, darkness reigns. This is your hour Satan, go ahead and enjoy it (and Satan thoroughly enjoyed the inhuman scouring and beating of Jesus). Howe...