DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY APRIL 16:
WORD OF WISDOM
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while,
you could miss it.
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DAILY DEVOTION
Obstacle or Opportunity
"And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus
spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter
answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the
water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he
walked on the water, to go to Jesus."
Matthew 14:26-29
J. Sidlow Baxter wrote: "What is the difference between an obstacle and an
opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and
every difficulty has an opportunity." When the storm arose on the Sea of
Galilee, it was so strong that even the disciples who had been fishermen,
like Peter, feared for their lives. Matthew 14:24 says, "the wind was
contrary."
It was then, when their progress was stopped and their future uncertain,
that they saw Jesus walking on the water toward them. One of the wonderful
benefits we receive as children of God is that He is always present with us,
even in our storms. In every trial of life, He is there. We are not
abandoned, even when we cannot see Him. "He hath said, I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).
God's presence with us means that every problem we face can become a
triumphant victory. We may not be delivered from the problem, as Paul was
not delivered from his thorn in the flesh; but in those cases we will
receive God's sufficient grace to deal with it. What we can know and trust
and act on is that with God all things are possible. Rather than being
daunted and dismayed by what comes into our lives, we can confidently go
forward, walking with God through the storms.
Look at the challenges and difficulties you face today as opportunities for
God to do something great in your life.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Samson
Judges 15 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Samson Makes Trouble for the Philistines
15 At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife. He took
a young goat with him as a gift. He said, "I am going to my wife's room."
But her father would not let Samson go in. 2 He said, "I thought you hated
her, so I let her marry the best man at the wedding. Her younger sister is
more beautiful. Take her younger sister."
3 But Samson said to him, "Now I have a good reason to hurt you Philistines.
No one will blame me now."
4 So Samson went out and caught 300 foxes. He took two foxes at a time and
tied their tails together to make pairs. Then he tied a torch between the
tails of each pair of foxes. 5 He lit the torches that were between the
foxes' tails and let them run through the grain fields of the Philistines.
In this way he burned up the plants growing in their fields and the stacks
of grain they had cut. He also burned up their vineyards and their olive
trees.
6 The Philistines asked, "Who did this?"
Someone told them, "Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did this.
He did this because his father-in-law gave Samson's wife to the best man at
his wedding." So the Philistines burned Samson's wife and her father to
death.
7 Then Samson said to the Philistines, "You did this bad thing to me, so now
I will do bad things to you. Then I will be finished with you!"
8 Samson attacked the Philistines and killed many of them. Then he went and
stayed in a cave in a place named the Rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines went to the land of Judah and stopped near a place named
Lehi. Their army camped there. 10 The men of the tribe of Judah asked them,
"Why have you Philistines come here to fight us?"
They answered, "We have come to get Samson. We want to make him our
prisoner. We want to punish him for what he has done to our people."
11 Then 3000 men from the tribe of Judah went to the cave near the Rock of
Etam and said to Samson, "What have you done to us? Don't you know that the
Philistines rule over us?"
Samson answered, "I only punished them for what they did to me."
12 Then they said to Samson, "We have come to tie you up. We will give you
to the Philistines."
Samson said to the men from Judah, "Promise me that you yourselves will not
hurt me."
13 The men from Judah said, "We agree. We will just tie you up and give you
to the Philistines. We promise that we will not kill you." So they tied
Samson with two new ropes and led him up from the cave in the rock.
14 When Samson came to the place called Lehi, the Philistines came to meet
him. They were shouting with joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson
with great power. Samson broke the ropes-they were like burned strings
falling from his arms and the ropes on his hands seemed to melt away. 15
Samson found a jawbone of a dead donkey and killed 1000 Philistine men with
it.
16 Then Samson said,
"With a donkey's jawbone,
I killed 1000 men!
With a donkey's jawbone,
I piled[a] them into a tall pile."
17 When Samson finished speaking, he threw the jawbone down. So that place
was named Ramath Lehi.[b]
18 Samson was very thirsty. So he cried to the Lord. He said, "I am your
servant. You gave me this great victory. Please don't let me die from thirst
now. Please don't let me be captured by men who are not even circumcised."
19 There is a hole in the ground at Lehi. God made that hole crack open, and
water came out. Samson drank the water and felt better. He felt strong
again. So he named that water spring En Hakkore.[c] It is still there in the
city of Lehi today.
20 Samson was a judge for the Israelites for 20 years during the time of the
Philistines.
Footnotes:
Judges 15:16 piled In Hebrew, the word "pile" is like the word "donkey."
Judges 15:17 Ramath Lehi This name means "Jawbone Heights."
Judges 15:19 En Hakkore This name means "The spring of the one who calls."
