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For the past couple of weeks we’ve been looking at some of the unknown heroes and zeros of the book of Judges. We started with Ehud – the left-handed man who rescued the Israelites by defeating King Eglon. Then we looked at Deborah, Barak, and Jael last week as they defeated King Jabin and the commander of his armies – Sisera. But today we’re going to look at another judge – one who is a little more well-known then some of these others. Today we’re going to look at the life of Gideon.

You’ll remember the cycle of sin that we’ve been talking about in the book of Judges. Israel would sin and so God would send their enemies to punish them. And after several years of enduring this oppression, the Israelites would repent and cry out for God to save them. Which of course, God did by sending them a judge – that is, a rescuer – like Ehud or Deborah. But then, as soon as the enemy was defeated and that particular judge died, the Israelites would go right back into sinning again and the cycle would begin all over. Sin, oppression, rescue, sin, oppression, rescue.

And so, it’s quite predictable, that after 40 years of peace after Deborah rescued Israel from King Jabin and his commander Sisera, that Israel would again sin, and God would have to send another enemy to oppress them. And this time, the enemy was a doozy. If you have your Bibles you can turn to Judges chapter 6 – verse 1. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we began looking at some of the heroes and the zeros in the book of Judges.  The book of Judges is full of some very colorful characters and provides some of the most fascinating and bizarre stories in the Bible. We first looked at Ehud, a left-handed man, considered to be disabled & weak because of his left-handedness. And yet, it was because of this ‘disability’, that God was able to use Him to free His people from the oppression of the fat king Eglon.

Now you’ll remember that we talked about the cycle of sin in the book of Judges. Israel would sin, God would send an oppressor to punish them, the people would cry out to God, and God would have mercy send them a judge – that is, a rescuer to rescue them. However, as soon as that judge died, the people of Israel would go right back to sinning and the cycle would begin again. Sin, oppression, rescuer – sin, oppression, rescuer.

And as we can see in Judges chapter 4 – verse 1 – that is exactly what happen. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bible is a grand story book. It has some of the most fantastic, movie-worthy stories that you will ever read. Some of them have become quite famous – like the story of David & Goliath – but there are many other stories just as fantastic, that many people haven’t even heard of. For example, how many people here know the story of Jael & Sisera? Or the story of Abimelech? Or Jephthah?

These aren’t exactly the most recognizable names, are they? But I’d like to change that. For the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at the book of Judges. And while we’re looking at some of those famous stories like that of Gideon & Samson, we’re also going to find some of those undiscovered stories in the Bible – like Ehud, Jael, & Deborah -  Because their stories are no less important than these other famous ones.

I’ve labeled this series “Heroes… and Zeros” because I’ve found that most of the characters in the book of Judges fall into one or the other of those two categories. Either a hero or a zero. Some characters fall into both categories. Quite often God takes a zero and turns them into a hero. And that’s the case in our first story that we’re going to look at today. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we wrap up our three week mini-series looking at the attributes of God. And in case you missed one or both of those previous weeks, let me give you a brief summary of what we’ve talked about so far.

Taken from the "Discover God" NLT Study Bible

In our first week, we looked at God as Creator. We saw that He made the entire universe and everything in it out of nothing. And in doing so, we found that God is all-powerful – He can do anything. He is also all-knowing – He knows everything. He is ever-present – He is everywhere all the time. And He is sovereign – He can do whatever He wants without restriction or interference. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we began a three week mini-series entitled “God is…” and the goal of this series is to help us discover who God really is by looking at some of His attributes as found in the Bible. There are so many different opinions out there of who God really is… Is he like a sweet, old Grandpa? Is He like the force on Star Wars? Is He the ultimate policeman? We need to know what the Bible says, because what we believe about who God is, completely effects everything about how we live our lives.  Read the rest of this entry »

Today we are going to launch into a three week mini-series entitled “God Is…” Bill Bright, who was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, who also wrote the “Four Spiritual Laws”, and who was responsible for the “Jesus” film – He repeatedly said throughout his life, “The most important thing we can teach another believer is who God is.” Because everything about our lives – our attitudes, our motives, our desires, our decisions, our actions, and even our words – are influenced by our view of God.

For example if you believe that God is a sort of Grandfathery Santa Claus who exists only to give you everything you ever wanted – you’ll probably live differently than if you believed that God is more like a grumpy traffic cop – just waiting to pounce on you the moment you break the law.

Or if you believe that God is sovereign and has a will and a plan for your life, you’ll probably live differently than if you believe that God is like “The force” from star wars and is something that you can learn to control and use for your own purposes.

What we believe about who God is profoundly effects how we live our lives. And so it is absolutely imperative that we have an accurate view of God. We need to know who God really is. And that can be quite a challenge because there are so many people in this world with so many different views about God. Even among Christians, you’ll find different people that have different views of who God is. So how do we know the truth? How do we really know who God is?

Well, of course, the answer Read the rest of this entry »