We are all called to be champions for Christ. Paul speaks the word of God and if someone does not agree with him about the scriptures, he says that God will show the person the truth. If we want to know the truth, we should ask God and He will reveal the truth to us. God gives direction to those committed to doing whatever God says. Once God shows us something, we need to obey and do anything that He says. God's word is to be our guide. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. The earth is not our mother, God is our Creator and one day we all will stand before Him. Those in Christ Jesus eagerly await His return. God will one day make His children more glorious than we have ever been. God is not against us, instead He is rich in mercy and He chose to save us.
There are a lot of people who find it difficult to love and be loved. Love is not about feeling. The only way anyone gets saved is if God opens our hearts. He takes away the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. If the Apostle Paul had not been mistreated in Acts 16, the jailer would not have been saved. Is is believed that the church at Philippi, in part, begun by this jailer and his family. No one can escape God, we will either face Him as His dearly loved child or as His enemy.
Sex is designed by God to be an expression of love between a man and a woman who are married to each other. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. If these statements, which are from God, were obeyed, our nation and world would be in a much better condition. We must be content with what we have. The Lord will take care of all of His children and give them all they need. He has promised it.
In this passage Dinah had done nothing wrong, and yet she was raped. This evil was not due to anything that Dinah had done. Rape is not the fault of the person abused, the sin falls on the rapist. God designed such a wonderful, beautiful thing with love, marriage, then sexual relations. Jacob's sons plotted to murder the men of Shechem. The muder of every man in Shechem was sin and not okay. The only good out of this story is God. We all mess up, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Sometimes when we try to do the right thing we end up messy and even messier then we know. We need to have confidence in Christ alone.
Program for 05/17/16 SAS Devotions: Judges 19, A Horrible Thing
Program for 09/10/15 Covenant Community Church: Acts 16:16-40, part 1