DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY APRIL 8:
WORD OF WISDOM
It's never too late to change your life for the better. You dont have to
take huge steps to change your life. Making even the smallest changes to
your daily routine can make a big difference to your life.
___
DAILY DEVOTION
Faith that Does not Waver
"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in
faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had
promised, he was able also to perform."
Romans 4:19-21
The Christian life cannot be separated from faith. We are saved "by
grace.through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). We "walk by faith" (2 Corinthians
5:7). We "live by faith" (Romans 1:17). Yet despite this truth many people
do not really understand what faith is. In its simplest form, faith is
believing what God says and then acting on it. It is treating what God says
as true even before it happens.
Over and over Scripture tells us that nothing is impossible for God. Yet all
too often Christians live as if they were orphans, with no Heavenly Father
able and willing to work in their lives and meet their needs. George Mueller
said, "Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no
glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's
power ends."
Can your life and work for God be fully explained by things that can be
seen, or is there something going on that shows God's power? Do you believe
the things that God has said in His Word are true? Are you living as if they
are true? When God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, no one had
ever been resurrected. Yet Abraham believed that would happen. He went to
Mt. Moriah "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead" (Hebrews 11:19). Let nothing shake your faith today. Every promise of
God is certain and true, and you can trust it completely.
Trust God today for things that are beyond your ability to accomplish and
believe that He will work.
___
DAILY BIBLE READING
NOTE: I have been having problems with Bible Gateway for the past couple of
weeks. I don't know what the problem is. For some reason for today's
reading, it would only let me use the New International Version (NIV), so
that's why it may appear to be a little different.
I will try to see if I can figure out what's going on tomorrow.
Deborah
Judges 4 (NIV)
4 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was
dead. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who
reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth
Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had
cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord
for help.
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading[a] Israel at
that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and
Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to
have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh
in Naphtali and said to him, The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you:
Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up
to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabins army, with
his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your
hands.
8 Barak said to her, If you go with me, I will go; but if you dont go with
me, I wont go.
9 Certainly I will go with you, said Deborah. But because of the course
you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver
Sisera into the hands of a woman. So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up
under his command. Deborah also went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of
Hobab, Moses brother-in-law,[b] and pitched his tent by the great tree in
Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount
Tabor, 13 Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all
his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, Go! This is the day the Lord has given
Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you? So Barak went
down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15 At Baraks
advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword,
and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all
Siseras troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17 Sisera, meanwhile,
fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because
there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber
the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, Come, my lord, come right
in. Dont be afraid. So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a
blanket.
19 Im thirsty, he said. Please give me some water. She opened a skin of
milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 Stand in the doorway of the tent, he told her. If someone comes by and
asks you, Is anyone in there? say No.
21 But Jael, Hebers wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went
quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg
through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet
him. Come, she said, I will show you the man youre looking for. So he
went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his
templedead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.
24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin
king of Canaan until they destroyed him.
Footnotes
a. Judges 4:4 Traditionally judging
b. Judges 4:11 Or father-in-law
