Posts Tagged ‘human-rights’

Spiritual Training 02 August 2012

Posted: August 2, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Samson
 Judges 13:2-5 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless.  The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son.  Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, be-cause you will conceive and give birth to a son.  No razor may used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.    

 
Samson was to be a Nazirite-a person who took a vow to be set apart for God’s service.  Samson’s parents made the vow for him.  His vow was sometime temporary, but in his case it was for life.  As a Nazirite, Samson could not cut his hair, touch a dead body, or drink anything containing alcohol.  Manoah’s wife was told that her son would begin the deliverance of Israel from Philistine oppression.  Samson never attempted to rally his countrymen in an organized attempt to overthrow the Philistines.  If he had, we know he would have been successful, for God had already approved the idea and was apparently just waiting to bless the effort.

Lets bring it home: Be faithful in following God even if you don’t see instant results, because you might be beginning an important job that others will finish.

Proverbs 31:4-7 Wisdom for the Soul

Posted: July 31, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Proverbs, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Proverbs 31:4-7 It is not for Kings, O Lemuel-not for Kings to drink win, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.  Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Drunkenness might be understandable among dying people in great pain, but it is inexcusable for national leaders.  Alcohol clouds the mind and can lead to injustice and poor decisions.  Leaders have better things to do than destroy themselves with alcohol.

We are told that every day in Washington there are many cocktail parties for our government officials.  Republicans and Democrats both have this in common-the party membership doesn’t make any difference.  It is tragic to have drinking men in high potions of government!

Spiritual Training 24 July 2012

Posted: July 25, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Judges 11:1-3 Jephthah the Giledite was a might warrior.  His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute.  Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.”

 3. So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventures gathered around him and followed him. 

Circumstances beyond his control forced Jephthah away from his people and into life as an outcast.  Today, both believers and nonbelievers may drive away those who do not fit the norms dictated by our society, neighborhoods, or churches.  Often, as in Jephtah’s case, great potential is wasted because of prejudice a refusal to look beyond ill-conceived stereotypes.

Lets Bring it home: Look around you to see if there are potential Jephtah’s being kept out due to factors beyond their control.  As a Christian you know that everyone can have a place in God’s family.  Can you do anything to help these people gain acceptance for their character and abilities?

Spiritual Training 17 July 2012

Posted: July 16, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Abimelech

People who desire power always outnumber those who are able to use power wisely once they have it.  Perhaps this is because power has a way of taking over controlling the person using it.  This is especially true in cases of inherited but unmerited power.  Abimelech’s life shows us what happens when hunger for power corrupts judgment.

Abimelech’s position in Gideon’s family as the son of a concubine must have created great tension between him and Gideon’s many other sons.  One against 70: such odds can either crush a person or make him ruthless; it is obvious which direction Abimelech chose.  Gideon’s position as warrior and judge had placed Abimelech in an environment of power Gideon’s death provided an opportunity for this son to seize power.  Once the process began, the disastrous results were inevitable.  A person’s thirst for power is not satisfied when he gets power-it only becomes more intense.  Abimelech’s life was consumed by the thirst.   Eventually, he could not tolerate any threat to his power.

But this time, ownership had change: Abimelech no longer had power-power had him.  One lesson we can learn form his life is that our goals control our actions.  The amount of control is related to the importance of the goal.  Abimelech’s most important goal was to have power.  His lust for power led him to wipe out not only his brothers, but also whole cities that refused to submit to him.  Nothing but death could stop his bloodthirsty drive to conquer.  How ironic that he was fatally injured by a woman with a farm implement! The contrast between Abimelech and the great people of the Bible is great.  He wanted to control the nation; they were willing to be controlled by God.

Spiritual Training 16 July 2012

Posted: July 16, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
The Death of Abimelech

Judges 9:56-57 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers.  God also made the men of Shechem pay for all their wickedness.  The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.

Gideon, Abimelech’s father, succeeded in military battles, but sometimes failed in his personal struggles.  Gideon was not condemned for taking a concubine (8:31), but the family problems that resulted from this relationship are clearly stated.  In the end, Abimelech killed 69 of his 70 half brothers, tore apart a nation, and then was killed himself.

Lets Bring it home: From Gideon’s life we learn that no matter how much good we do for God’s kingdom, sin in our lives will still produce powerful, damaging consequences.

Spiritual Training 13 July 2012

Posted: July 13, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
The Death of Abimelech

 Judges 9:50-55 Next Abimelech went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it.  Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women-all the people of the city-fled.  They locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof.  Abimelech went to the tower and stormed it.  But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a woman dropped a millstone on his head and cracked his skull.  Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A women killed him’ “So his servant ran him through, and he died.  When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they went home.

In times of battle, women were sometimes asked to join the men at the city wall to drop heavy objects on the soldiers below.  A millstone would have been an ideal object for this purpose.  It was a round stone about 18 inches in diameter with a hole in the center.  Millstones were used to grind grain into flour.  The grain was placed between to millstones.  The top millstone was turned, crushing the grain. Abimelech’s death was especially humiliating: he was killed by a woman, not by fighting; and he was killed by a farm implement instead of a weapon.  Abimelech therefore asked his armor-bearer to stab him with his sword before he died from the flow of the millstone.

Spiritual Training 12 July 2012

Posted: July 12, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Abimelech

Judges 9:22-24 After Abimelech had governed Israel three years, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, who acted treacherously against Abimelech.  God did this in order that the crime against Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons, the shedding of their blood, might be avenged on their brother Abimelech and on the citizens of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers. 

Abimelech was the opposite of what God wanted in a judge, but it was three years before God moved against him.  Fulfilling Jotham’s parable.  Those three years must have seemed like forever to Jotham.  Why wasn’t Abimelech punished sooner for his evil ways?

Lets bring it home: We are not alone when we wonder why evil seems to prevail.  God promises to deal with sin, but in his time, not ours.  Actually it is good news that God doesn’t punish us immediately because we all have sinned and deserve God’s punishment.  God, in his mercy, often spares us from immediate punishment and allows us time to turn from our sins and turn to him in repentance.  Trusting God for justice means (1) we must first recognize our own sins and repent.  (2) we may face a difficult time of waiting for the wicked to be punished.  But in God’s time, all evil will be destroyed.

Spiritual Training 11 July 2012

Posted: July 11, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Abimelech

 Judges 9:6-20  Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelech King.  When Jotham was told about this, he climbed up on the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted to them, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem, so that God may listen to your.  One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves.  They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king’.  “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and men are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’ “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’ “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’  “Finally all the trees said to the thorn-bush, ‘Come and be our king.’ “The Thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thorn-bush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’ “Now if you have acted honorably and in good faith when you made Abimelech king, and if you have been fair to Jerub-Baal and his family, and if you have treated him as he deserves-and to think that my father fought for you, risked his life to rescue you from the hand of Midian (but today you have revolted against my father’s family, murdered his seventy sons on a single stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his slave girl, king over the citizens of Shechem because he is your brother)-if then you have acted honorably and in good faith toward Jerub-Baal and his family today, may Abimelech be your joy, and may you be his, too! But if you have not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume you, citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and let fire come out from you, citizens of Shechem and Beth Milo, and consume Abimelech!”

In Jotham’s parable the trees represented Gideon’s 70 sons, and the thorn-bush represented Abimelech.  Jotham’s point was this: a productive person would be too busy doing good to want to bother with power politics.  A worthless person, on the other hand, would be glad to accept the honor-but he would destroy the people he ruled.  Abimelech, like a thorn-bush, could offer Israel no real protection or security.

Jotham told the story about the trees in order to help the people set good priorities.  He did not want them to appoint a leader of low character.

Lets bring it home: As we serve in leadership positions, we should examine our motives.  Do we just want praise, prestige, or power?  In the parable, the good trees chose to be productive and to provide benefits to people.  Make sure these are your priorities as you aspire to leadership.

Spiritual Training 09 July 2012

Posted: July 9, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Abimelech

Judges 9:4-6 They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Ball-Berith, and Abimelech used it to hire reckless adventures, who became the followers.  He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Ball, But Jotham the youngest of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding.  Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelech King. 

Politics played a major part in pagan religions such as the worship of Baal-Berith.  Governments often went so far as to hire temple prostitutes to bring in additional money.  In many cases a religious system was set up and supported by the government so the offerings could fund community projects.  Religion became a profit-making business.  In Israel’s religion, this was strictly forbidden.  God’s system of religion was designed to come from an attitude of the heart, not from calculated plans and business opportunities.  It was also designed to serve people and help those in need, not to oppress the needy.

Lets bring it home: Is your faith genuine and sincere or is it based on convenience, comfort, and availability?


Spiritual Training 06 July 2012

Posted: July 6, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Abimelech

Judges 9:1-5 Abimelech son of Jerub-Ball (Gideon) went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s (Gideon) sons rule over you, or just one man?  Remember, I am your flesh and blood.” When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow “Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Ball-Berith, and Abimelech used it to hire reckless adventures, who became the followers.  He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Ball, But Jotham the youngest of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding. 

With Gideon dead, Abimelech wanted to take his father’s place. (Jerub-Baal is another name for Gideon; see 6:32.)  To set his plan in motion he went to the city of Shechem, his mother’s hometown, to drum up support.  Here he felt kinship with the residents.  These relatives were Canaanites and would be glad to unit against Israel.

Israel’s King was to be the Lord and not a man.  But Abimelech wanted to usurp the position reserved for God alone.  In his selfish quest, he killed all but one of his 70 half brothers.  People with selfish desires often seek to fulfill them in ruthless ways.

Lets bring it home: Examine your ambitions to see if they are self-centered or God-centered, Be sure you always fulfill your desires in ways that God would approve.

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