Marching Forth!

When God says His thoughts and ways are above ours, He isn't wrong.  How often we look at situations without knowledge necessary to understand what God's purposes are!  Samson's parents faced such a dilemma with their son's choice of a spouse.  He demanded they go to Timnath and arrange a marriage with a Philistine woman who lived there. Initially Manoah and his wife gently rebuffed the idea, suggesting there must be a woman among their countrymen who would be a more suitable match.  But Samson would not be deterred.   Judges 14:4 reveals this particular choice was of God:  " But his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD --that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel ."  It seems odd God would "seek an occasion" against the Philistines in such an...unorthodox way...as if there is an orthodox way.  Reading this emphatically demonstrates God is ...

It is a natural tendency for us to focus on faults we perceive in ourselves or others.  Sometimes these faults are merely a matter of preference, style, or opinion.  Yet in all of us there are genuine faults, damning sins to be repented of:  selfishness, pride, deceit, greed, and covetousness.  These blemishes cannot be covered up or ignored because everyone does them.  Bad behaviour and sinful characteristics in people provides instruction for the wise coupled with the insight of the Holy Spirit:  every fault we see in someone else and condemn, we are guilty of the same. Finding fault in others might be the easiest task ever.  Doing this also plays to our own pride, thinking we are somehow superior to others because we have not made the same mistakes.  What we fail to recognise is whilst we may not have made the precise mistake because our circumstances differ, the sinful heart and mind found in us is just as deeply flawed and calls for judgme...

My memory was jogged the other day during conversation to look up a passage in 2 Thessalonians.  Paul wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians the day of the LORD would come as a thief in the night, suddenly and unexpectedly.  This commonly employed phrase "day of the LORD" throughout the scriptures means a time of judgment from God.  With the persecution and tribulation of the early church, it appears there were some who taught the day of the LORD had already come.  Perhaps they wondered if they had somehow missed the rapture of the church.  Paul refuted this in his second letter, explaining necessary events which much happen first. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 , " N ow, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2  not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come ."  Paul wrote intendi...

Genuine faith in God is expressed through obedience to Him.  Righteousness is imputed by God to those who trust in Him as is seen in the life of Abraham and others.  A great example of the impact of faith in the lives of people is seen with Elijah and the widow and her son who dwelt in Zarephath. There was a severe drought in the land and God directed Elijah the prophet to travel to Zarephath.  He saw a woman gathering sticks and asked her for a drink of water.   1 Kings 17:11-14 reads, " And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 12  So she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." 13  And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake ...