DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY MARCH 16:
WORD OF WISDOM
Don't judge your practice sessions against other people's highlight reel!
___
DAILY DEVOTION
The Tragedy of a Hidden Gospel
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake."
2 Corinthians 4:3-5
The highly lethal Ebola virus has been known for many years, but a major
outbreak in 2014 created a global health scare. As hundreds of patients in
Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia contracted the deadly disease, the local
health care facilities were quickly overrun. International groups like the
World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders set up emergency
treatment in the effected areas. They did everything possible to let people
know that help was available. Though thousands died, many tens of thousands
were saved as the worst cases were isolated and treated. Nearly three years
passed before the outbreak was finally considered to be fully controlled.
There has been a raging sin virus spreading throughout the world since the
Garden of Eden. It is 100 percent deadly, and there is only one hope of a cure.
Yet far too often God's children, having received the cure of salvation for
themselves, fail to do their part to shine the light of the gospel into the
darkness of the world. It is a tragedy because we are God's only plan for
reaching the lost. He does not send angels to carry the message. Instead He
commands us to do it. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
We are the only hope for a lost and dying world.
We who have received God's gift of salvation have the weighty responsibility of
sharing the gospel with the world.
___
DAILY BIBLE READING
Judges 16-18New King James Version (NKJV)
Samson and Delilah
16 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. 2 When
the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and
lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all
night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.” 3 And
Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors
of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put
them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces
Hebron.
4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose
name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said
to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what
means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one
of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies,
and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”
7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet
dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not
yet dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now men were lying in wait, staying
with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you,
Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches
fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies.
Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”
11 So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never
been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him,
“The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And men were lying in wait, staying in
the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell
me what you may be bound with.”
And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of
the loom”—
14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The
Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out
the batten and the web from the loom.
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not
with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your
great strength lies.” 16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with
her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, 17 that he
told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head,
for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then
my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for
the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me
all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the
money in their hand. 19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called
for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to
torment him,[a] and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines
are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as
before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the
Lord had departed from him.
21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to
Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the
prison. 22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been
shaven.
Samson Dies with the Philistines
23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great
sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said:
“Our god has delivered into our hands
Samson our enemy!”
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said:
“Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy,
The destroyer of our land,
And the one who multiplied our dead.”
25 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for
Samson, that he may perform for us.” So they called for Samson from the prison,
and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars. 26 Then
Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which
support the temple, so that I can lean on them.” 27 Now the temple was full of
men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there—about three thousand
men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed.
28 Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray!
Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take
vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” 29 And Samson took hold of the
two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against
them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Then Samson said, “Let me
die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple
fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed
at his death were more than he had killed in his life.
31 And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and
brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his
father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
Micah’s Idolatry
17 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2
And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were
taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is
the silver with me; I took it.”
And his mother said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” 3 So when he
had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother
said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son,
to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to
you.” 4 Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two
hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into
a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.
5 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols;[b] and he
consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was
no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he
was a Levite, and was staying there. 8 The man departed from the city of
Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the
mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. 9 And Micah said
to him, “Where do you come from?”
So he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way
to find a place to stay.”
10 Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I
will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your
sustenance.” So the Levite went in. 11 Then the Levite was content to dwell
with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. 12 So
Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in
the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good
to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”
The Danites Adopt Micah’s Idolatry
18 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of
the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that
day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them. 2 So
the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of
valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it. They said to
them, “Go, search the land.” So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the
house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 While they were at the house of Micah,
they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to
him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have
here?”
4 He said to them, “Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have
become his priest.”
5 So they said to him, “Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the
journey on which we go will be prosperous.”
6 And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The presence of the Lord be with
you on your way.”
7 So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were
there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure.
There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They
were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.[c]
8 Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their
brethren said to them, “What is your report?”
9 So they said, “Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the land,
and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, and
enter to possess the land. 10 When you go, you will come to a secure people
and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is
no lack of anything that is on the earth.”
11 And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah
and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war. 12 Then they went up and encamped in
Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan[d] to this
day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.) 13 And they passed from there to
the mountains of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.
14 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and
said to their brethren, “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod,
household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore, consider
what you should do.” 15 So they turned aside there, and came to the house of
the young Levite man—to the house of Micah—and greeted him. 16 The six hundred
men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by
the entrance of the gate. 17 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the
land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the
household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the
gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of war.
18 When these went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the
household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, “What are you
doing?”
19 And they said to him, “Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and come
with us; be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest to
the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family in
Israel?” 20 So the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the
household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.
21 Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and
the goods in front of them. 22 When they were a good way from the house of
Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and
overtook the children of Dan. 23 And they called out to the children of Dan.
So they turned around and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you have gathered
such a company?”
24 So he said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and
you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What ails
you?’”
25 And the children of Dan said to him, “Do not let your voice be heard among
us, lest angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of
your household!” 26 Then the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah
saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.
Danites Settle in Laish
27 So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged to
him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck them with
the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. 28 There was no
deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no ties with anyone. It
was in the valley that belongs to Beth Rehob. So they rebuilt the city and
dwelt there. 29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of
Dan their father, who was born to Israel. However, the name of the city
formerly was Laish.
30 Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and
Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh,[e] and his sons were priests
to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 31 So they set
up for themselves Micah’s carved image which he made, all the time that the
house of God was in Shiloh.
Footnotes:
a.Judges 16:19 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Septuagint reads
he began to be weak.
b.Judges 17:5 Hebrew teraphim
c.Judges 18:7 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Septuagint reads
with Syria.
d.Judges 18:12 Literally Camp of Dan
e.Judges 18:30 Septuagint and Vulgate read Moses.
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas
Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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