The Home Devo (Page 42)

  DISCUSSION                                              As they say, one poor decision often leads to another and such is the case with King Saul.  After taking matters into his own hands with the burnt offerings, he now continues his mindset of usurping God’s process and justifying his sin.  However, this time it is on a much larger scale.  God had instructed Samuel to tell Saul to utterly wipe out the Amalekites because of their mistreatment of the Israelites…

  DISCUSSION                                       Here is the situation; the Philistines are preparing to come down and face the Israelites in battle. Due to some previous raids that were successful by Jonathan, the Philistines were getting prepared to take their revenge on Saul and the Israelites.  This sent the Israelites into a frenzy. Although some were ready for battle with Saul, many of the Israelites became afraid and hid themselves in caves and dens fearing the worst.  Saul…

  DISCUSSION                                                   Someone told me years ago that you can’t please everyone and if you do, then you must be doing something wrong.  The older I get the more I understand their point.  It doesn’t matter how much you try to be the best person you can be, there will always be those that want to criticize, ridicule or demean who you are or what you do.  What makes it difficult is that those are usually…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                    Have you ever heard the expression “the grass is always greener on the other side”?  This phase came from an old Latin proverb that said, “The corn in another man’s ground seems ever more fertile and plentiful than our own does.”  Why is that?  Why do we always look at other people’s situations and think that they have it much better than we do ourselves?  It is all about perception; we perceive that others have…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                     In Genesis 19:37, we read that the Moabites descended from Moab, the son of Lot, and his oldest daughter. Yes…his oldest daughter. When Lot and his family fled from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah per the instruction of the angels, they fled into the mountains. Lot’s daughters were so afraid that they might be the only people left in the world that they seduced their…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                   John Maxwell, the author of several successful books on leadership, once said, “ A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Successful leadership has its root in being a good example. When there isn’t a leader to serve as that example, chaos ensues. Solomon once wrote, “ Where there is no guidance, a people falls” (Proverbs 11:14). Sadly, that serves as…

  DISCUSSION                                     Judges 16 is perhaps one of the most well known Old Testament narratives. Maybe it is because it has the elements of a modern day blockbuster, or because we learn it (or most of it) at such a young age. Either way, most are familiar with Samson’s downfall and his death. What we are not as familiar with are the two chapters (17-18) that come after the chronicle of Samson. Chapters 17 and 18 recount…

  DISCUSSION                     The roller coaster continues with God’s people. We read about how Jephthah, the son of a prostitute, rose up to lead God’s people as a Judge. He was a righteous leader and led the Israelites back to God. Now in Judges 13 we read, “the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord .” This is where the lesson of Samson starts. God needed a leader and he had a…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                   Tola and Jair. Their names are familiar because they are Judges, but we are only given five verses to describe their actions. These five verses can tell us, perhaps, more than we realized. In Judges chapter 9, we see how the Israelites fall into idolatry under the leadership of Abimelech, the self-appointed king. God exalts those who humble themselves, but brings down the proud. Isaiah 2.12 speaks of a…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                   “Exhausted, yet pursuing…” These are the words Samuel used to describe the efforts of Gideon and his 300 men in Judges 8:4. In chapter 7, Gideon started with a force of over 30,000. After he gave the men an opportunity to go home, only 10,000 remained. God still thought that was too many. He knew with Gideon’s leadership as a Judge and His power, the Israelites could have…

  DISCUSSION                                                                       Once again, the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and the Lord caused them to fall into the hands of the Moabites.   While under their oppression, the children of Israel cry out for help and God “raises up for them a deliverer, Ehud” (Judges 3.15).  There isn’t a whole lot mentioned about this judge.  First, we learn that he was left-handed (a trait…

  DISCUSSION                                                           The book of Judges is a book that sounds like it repeats itself throughout its entirety.  As Joshua is their leader, they follow the path that God provides for them.  However, when Joshua dies we have this “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of…