S is for Shamgar: What’s in Your Hand?

S is for Shamgar: What’s in Your Hand?

During World War II, American soldiers were marching through a French town when an old woman with a broom joined their ranks.  The captain smiled at her and said, “You can’t do much with that broom!”  “No,” She replied, “but I can let people know whose side I’m on.”

Name:  “Stranger” or “Sword”

Date 13the Century BC

Identification: 3^rd judge of Israel, son of Anath from Beth Anath in Naphtali.

Story Line:  Shamgar used an ox goad as a weapon, killing 600 Philistines.

Read it in the Bible:  Judges 1:27-36; 3:31; 5:1-7.

Some of God’s best servants were not His best qualified or equipped.  But they were His most willing.

Shamgar was such a servant.

We know little or nothing about Shamgar except that God used him to stop Philistine incursions into Israel’s towns.  Shamgar put an end to Philistine oppression by using the only weapon he had—an ox  goad.

A goad was a stick about eight feet long, tapered at one end.  The slimmer end was sharpened and used for prodding the cattle.  On the other end may have been a small iron wedge-shaped tip farmers used to remove the clay that stuck to the blade of their plough.  And ox goad wasn’t very sophisticated weapon of war, but when wielded by a strong arm, it became a dangerous weapon.  Shamgar used his ox  goad to kill 600 philistines.

It’s important that we obtain as much education as we can, gain as much skill as we can, and get as much experience as we can, but God is pleased to use anyone who will give whatever he or she has to serve Him. 

So what do you have?  A  Computer?  Language skills? Medical experience? A Hammer? Effective service for God doesn’t mean you have to possess the latest equipment, but it does mean you have to possess a willing heart.  God can use whatever you give Him.   

                   —Dr, Woodrow Kroll 

Source: 

Confident Living Magazine

Back to the Bible Intl.

Ruth The Glue of Family

Ruth

The Glue of Family

Video Credit. Levitt.tv

“A family is more than the sum of its parts,” says Kay Shurden.  “It is a living, shaping, powerful unit that teaches us our most important lesson in life.  It teaches us who we are, how to act, whom to relate to, and what is important in life.”

Name: “Friendship”

Date:  11^th Century BC.

Identification:  Moabites widow, who married Boaz, became David’s ancestors.

Story Line:  Ruth refused to break up her family, God rewarded her.

Read it in the Bible:  Ruth 1:1-18; 4:9-22.

Elimelech took his family—wife, Naomi, and sons, Mahlon and Chilion,—to Moab because of a severe famine in Bethlehem.  There his sons married Moabite girls Ruth and Orpah.  Then Elimelech and his sons died, and three widows were traumatized.  Naomi wanted to return to Bethlehem, but Orpah opted to stay in Moab.  That produced one of the strangest families ever—Naomi and Ruth, a Jewish mother-in-law and a foreign daughter-in-law. 

Their prospects for success were dismal, but they were a family and refused to be torn apart.  When Naomi suggested Ruth remain in Moab too, Ruth replied, “Entreat me not to leave you… for wherever you go I will go, and wherever you lodge,  I will lodge….” (Ruth 1:16).  There was no turning back.  They would face the future together.

Families need each other.  We learn from each other.  We are glued with a kind of super glue that enables us to stick together to find solutions to family challenges.

If you have family members counting on you, don’t see that as an obstacle; see it an opportunity to minister to the people who need you most, and will appreciate you most—your family.  God never created anything more precious than a family.  As Rudyard Kipling wrote: “No person is ever alone who is a member of a family.”

                                               Myles and Katharine Weiss 

Q is for Quirinius - Verifying God’s Word

_Quirinius

_{Verifying God’s Word}

_{When God’s authors recorded important events in the Bible, they often took time to verify their accuracy.}

_{One way was by referring to historical events generally known apart from the Bible. Another way was by mentioning historical figures who could be dated apart from the Bible.  Some events were so important the Bible writer would double-reference or even triple-reference the event, intersecting two or three historical people to pinpoint an event.  such was the case with the birth of Jesus.}

_{Name: “One Who Governs”}

_{Date 1st Century AD}

_{Identification:: Roman governor of Syria during the time of Jesus’ birth.}

_{Story Line:  Quirinius supervised the Roman census in his region.}

_{Read it in the Bible:  Luke 2:1- 20}

_{Luke records, “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria” (Luke 2:1-2).  The first intersecting life at Jesus’ birth was Caesar Augustus who ruled Rome from 44 BC until AD 14.  But the census registration that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem also occurred when Quirinius was governor of Syria. That’s intersecting life number two.}

_{According to the Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 3. 48), Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was elected consul of Syria in 12 BC, Around 7 BC, he became governor of Syria during the reign of Herod the Great, the third intersecting life dating Jesus’ birth.  Since Quirinius became governor of Syria in 7 BC and Herod died at Jericho in the spring of 4 BC, the birth of Jesus had to be sometime from 7 BC to 4 BC.}

_{How masterfully accurate God’s Word is!}

_{The more we read it, the more reasons we have to be convinced of its veracity and accuracy.  Take some time today to mine the gold that is found only in God’s Word.}

Source_:

_{Confident Living Magazine}

P is for Philip (Making a Comeback)

Picture Credit Confident Living Magazine

Philip

(Making a Comeback) 

By Dr. Woodrow Kroll

East Carolina played Marshall in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.  At the halftime, East Carolina had a 38-8 edge.  But Marshall quarterback Bryon Leftwich orchestrated an incredible comeback, tossing an 8-yard touchdown pass in the second overtime to stun East Carolina, 64-61.

NAME: “Lover of Horses”

DATE:    1^st Century AD

IDENTIFICATION:   A native of Bethsaida, Philip became one of Jesus’ Twelve.

STORY LINE:  When God wanted faith, all Philip could give Him were facts.

READ IT IN THE BIBLE:  John 1:43-49; 6: 1-13; 14: 1-12.

Comebacks are always exciting, especially with people.  Take Philip, for example.

Philip was one of Jesus’ Twelve, a native of Bethsaida.  When Philip first met Jesus he eagerly embraced the Savior.  In his fledgling faith, Philip quickly found Nathanael and introduced him to the Lord, too.  But at the feeding of the five thousand, Philip’s faith faltered.  Jesus tested him with a question about where they could find enough bread to feed everyone.  Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them” (John 6:7).  Philip’s calculations were almost dead on, but while Jesus was looking for faith, all Philip could give Him were facts.

Finally, when Jesus told His disciples  “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also” (John 14:7), Philip’s faith failed completely.

He responded, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Each time we encounter Philip in John’s Gospel his faith is weaker.  But thank God it didn’t stay that way.  After ministering in Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch, tradition tells us that he settled in Hierapolis and became “the great light of Asia (Minor).”

How’s your faith today?  Do you need to make a comeback?  When Jesus is looking for faith, do you just give Him facts?  Show Him by your life that you believe all things are possible with God.

                                              

                           

Source:
Confident Living Magazine,
Secunderabad, A.P. India.

Gems from the Original: From Glory to the Cross

Gems from the Original: From Glory to the Cross

Harold J B

           THE PHILIPPIAN CHRISTIANS were to have the same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5).  In telling them this, the Apostle Paul explained the kind of attitude that characterized the Lord Jesus Christ.  Although as to His “form” (v 6), He was God, He did not consider it something to be grasped after to maintain the glory He had with the Father.

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men (2:7).

 The phrase “made himself of no reputation” is literally “he emptied himself.”  The emptying of Himself is the opposite of grasping after what He had in the presence of the Father—independent exercise of authority and the free expression of His attributes.  Thus, it could be said that He “made himself of no reputation.”

Instead, He “took upon him the form of a servant.”  The word translated “form” is morphe, the same word translated “form” in verse 6. as to His inner essence, He was God, but upon His choice to come to earth, He took on also the inner essence of a servant.  The Word Paul used for “servant” was the common word in the New Testament times for “slave.”  What a contrast!  Jesus Christ gave up the highest glory imaginable—a position of complete independence—and took the lowest position thinkable.  A servant, or a slave, is one who has no will of his own but is entirely subjected to serving the will of another.  Jesus Christ came to earth to do the will of His Father and at the end of His earthly life was able to say to the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth:  I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4).  The love of the Lord Jesus Christ for fallen man is indicated that He would not have had to give up His position of glory and take on the form of a servant.  He could have insisted on His rights to retain the glory He had with the Father.  This is the exact point Paul was making to the Philippians.  Although it was the right of the Lord Jesus Christ to retain this position He had with the Father, He willingly gave it up for others

In being willing to give up His position of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ “was made in the likeness of men.”  These words reveal His identification with mankind, for His appearance was similar.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (2:8).

A key word in this verse is the one translated “fashion” (schema), which emphasizes the outer appearance.  As to His inner essence, Christ was the God-Man, but outwardly He appeared “as a man.”  So thoroughly was His appearance as a man that many of His contemporaries did not know He was also God.

 In this passage, which emphasizes what the Lord Jesus Christ gave up, Paul said, “He humbled himself.”  The Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be born into a family of low estate.  It was one thing for Him to be willing to give up His glory with the father and to be born into the human race, but it was quite another thing for Him to be willing to be born into a family which had very little of this world’s goods.  He could have chosen to be born into the family of the Roman Emperor, thereby assuring Himself of eventually ruling the then-known world.

By being born into any Roman family, thus being a Roman citizen, he would have been protected from the most horrible form of execution—crucifixion.  This was reserved for non-Romans and even then for only the grossest of criminals.  But Jesus Christ willingly gave up the glory He had with the Father and became a member of a family existing on the level of poverty.  What a lesson His example was to the first-century Philippian Christians, and what a lesson it ought to be to 20^th-century Christians.

Jesus Christ “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  It is difficult enough to imagine the Lord Jesus Christ giving up His glory with the Father and taking a position that would involve death, but it is especially difficult to imagine that He would agree to experience “the death of the cross.”  Even the unsaved in Philippi, with their Greek culture, probably shuddered at the thought of the ugly death on the cross, and now Paul was telling the believer that this is precisely what Jesus Christ chose in contrast to His former position.  No wonder the Apostle John said, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation  for our sins”  (I John 4:10).

Paul had told the Philippians “Stand fast in one spirit” (1:27), and, “Be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (2:2).  A believer’s attitude toward another believer is tremendously important as they serve Christ together.  It is not always easy for a Christian to have the right attitude toward another Christian.  Paul did not indicate that it was easy, but by stating what the Lord Jesus Christ gave up in order to pay the penalty for sin, he thereby indicated that if Christians have the same attitude, they will be able to live together harmoniously.

 

Bad News Birthdays?

Bad News Birthdays?

by Elisabeth Elliot

Aging seems like an impossible subject to discuss because nobody is aging.  “Who is aging?”  I hear people say. “I’m a “Keenager,” or “You’re only as old as you feel.”  And it’s always somebody else who is old.  But of course, if we’re honest  and sensible and realistic—which I try to be—we have to recognize that we are all aging and we are all aging at exactly the same rate.

Interestingly enough, when I was washing dishes the other morning, I heard on the news that there some new data being turned about the different rates at which people age.   Obviously, all of us are a year older this year than we were last year, but some people show the signs of aging more quickly than others.  I was listening with both ears at that point, because I thought. Goody. Here is some material that maybe I can add to my radio talk.  But it was simply a matter of genetics and I thought, Oh well, there’s nothing that you and I can do about that.

If it was a matter of how we can live now in order to do better at aging, in order to make our old age fruitful—then I wanted to hear that part.  But we can’t fend it off.  We’re constantly reminded of it by the cosmetic industry, the vitamin industry, things like that.

A friend of mine in his late 70s showed me a birthday card he recently received.  It said something like this:  “Aging is all in your head.  The baldness, the bifocals, the loss of memory, the bridge in your mouth, the loss of memory, the hearing aid, the loss of memory, and PS.: Did I mention the loss of memory?”

What about this business of being only as old as you feel? What about the “we’re not getting older, we’re getting better” philosophy?  Well, I would hope that as we’re getting older, we’re getting better, because we’ve had more experience, more opportunities to learn lessons that some of us should have learned a long time ago.

But what I’m referring to here are all the devices for the denial of a plain fact.  That fact is the fact of death. I think the devises for fending off the idea of old age are a disguise for devices for fending off the fact that we cannot face—which is death.  We want to be content in our worldliness, and the fact of death makes it impossible.  We become less and less content as we realize how very tenuous and passing the world is

First John 2:17 says,  “The world and all its passionate desires will one day disappear.  But the man who is following God’s will is part of the permanent and cannot die”  (Phillips).  Now I want to be part of the permanent, and the will of God makes me part of the permanent when I willingly and voluntarily put myself in harmony with it.

The act of aging makes the thought of death intolerable because, as we age, we become more and more keenly conscious of the fact that death is approaching us.  It is not always somebody else who is old.  It is I, for one.

There are many things that happen in the world that force the remembrance of death—earthquakes, volcanoes, political massacres, floods, hurricanes, famines—just to mention a few that have been in recent news.  Can we be content in our worldliness in the face of things like that?  Are things any different for Christians than they are for the unbelievers?  Christians suffer famines, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes and all the rest of it.  John Greenleaf Whittier wrote these lines:  “Not mindless of the growing years of care and loss and pain / My eyes are wet with thankful tears for blessings that remain.”

I am reminded of the words in Proverbs:  “The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day”  (V:18, KJV).  I usually give that verse to people when I send them a birthday card.  It’s good news if we believe this—that the path of the just shines more and more.

What is your attitude toward growing older?  Is it spiritual poise? When I think of the aging saints that I have known, and I’ve had the privilege of knowing a good many of them, spiritual poise would characterize every one.  They have demonstrated a peaceful readiness to be silent, to wait, to go and to do the next thing, to be shelved if that becomes necessary.  But they are never unnecessary to God.  Some of you may feel that you are not nearly as necessary to others as you once were, but you are never unnecessary to God.

I think of the author of that very familiar Gospel hymn “Blessed Assurance.” When Fanny Crosby was just a baby, she was blinded by the doctor’s or nurse’s mistake.  When she was nine years old she wrote, “O what a happy soul am I! / Although I cannot see,  / I am resolved that in this world  /  Contented I will be. /  How many blessings I enjoy /  That other people don’t! /  I cannot, and I won’t.”  She lived to be more than 90 years old.  And she wrote 8000 Hymns.

Old age  is a part of the will of God, and in Romans 14:7,8 we read that at every turn, life links us to the Lord.  And when we die, we come face-to-face with Him.  In life or death, we are in the hands of the Lord.

Source:

Confident Living Magazine

(Back to the Bible)

M is for Mary: (Honor or Worship)

Mary

Honor or Worship

Pic. Credit: Confident Living Magazine

The Bible doesn't tell us much about Mary.  She was a young virgin of the tribe of Judah and in the line of David. She was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph.  Life was hard but quite normal.  Then everything changed.

Name: “Sea of Bitterness”

Date: 1^st Century AD

Identification: Virgin girl of Nazareth; wife of Joseph, mother of Jesus

Story Line: Mary was honored by God to bear the long-awaited Messiah

Read it in the Bible: Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel came to Mary and informed her that she would bear a child, but not by Joseph. This child would be the Son of the Highest, the Messiah of Israel, and the Savior of all mankind.  Gabriel said to Mary, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:28)

It is obvious that Mary was virtuous.  But the favor that God brought to her—to bear the Christ child—was a gift of God’s grace, not a reward for her virtue.  The expression “highly favored” in the Greek language is the perfect passive participle.  It means that Mary was made agreeable to God to bear the baby Jesus.  It’s the same expression used in Ephesians 1:6 describing believers as being made “accepted” in the Beloved.  It is all of God’s grace, not our goodness.

Was Mary a special young lady?  She certainly was.  Was she sinless like the Savior?  She certainly wasn't.  But God honored her to be the mother of the One who would take away the sins of the world, and for that reason we honor her as well.  But honor and worship are different.  We honor Mary; we worship Jesus.  Honor belongs to those God chooses to use; worship belongs only to God.  Make sure your worship is directed toward God today.  That’s where Mary’s worship is targeted. 

                                                    by Dr. Woodrow Kroll

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