From the Blog
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What’s In a Name?
What about your name? Does God know your name? We all love to be called by our names. It means that someone knows us. They recognize us. And yes, God knows your name. He knows you better than you know yourself. As we return to our study of Judges today, we’ll see that God not…
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Misunderstandings About God
What’s your view of God? How do you see Him? Is He up in heaven with a gray beard, wearing a black judge’s robe, with a gavel in His hand, ready to judge you? Or is He like a celestial Santa Claus waiting patiently for your wish list to come in through the prayer line?…
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When Spoils Spoil Us
“Spoils” are the reward of having won a victory, as in the “spoils of war.” For in our study today, we’ll see how Gideon’s victory, his success, actually revealed a problem that he had, indeed that we all are apt to have, namely–– we often let success go to our heads. It’s one thing to…
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Living Hope
For many, their hopes are like wishes, and their hopes are often broken. So that they begin to say to one another, as if it were true wisdom, “Don’t get your hopes up.” Many people today are living without hope. But when the Bible speaks of hope, it speaks of much stronger stuff! It’s a…
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Triumph in Weakness
Admitting our weaknesses, goes against our human nature doesn’t it? We value strength, influence, wealth, possessions, beauty… We don’t care much for weakness, for humility, for being impoverished or downtrodden. Yet, did you know that you can be too big, too rich, too full of yourself to see God’s victory, God’s triumph in your life?…
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Obedience over Fear
We all struggle with various fears and phobias. But God wants us to choose obedience to Him over our fears. He wants to help us overcome our fears in order to obey His Word and His calling on our lives. In chapter 6 of Judges, the Israelites have again fallen back into that repetitive cycle…
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Answering God’s Call
What’s God’s calling on your life? Or do you not think you have a calling? You don’t think He could use you? You don’t have any special talent or ability? Awesome! God loves using ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. Or maybe you’re going through a time of trouble? Sometimes God uses suffering to get…
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Forgetful Hearts
Spiritually speaking, the heart is the seat of the will, the driver’s seat of our lives. Yet we have this human tendency to have forgetful hearts. And when we forget the Lord in our hearts, we put our very lives at risk. For we open our hearts up to temptation and every kind of sin…
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Could Not or Would Not?
In these first two introductory chapters today, we see that Israel had not fully placed their hope and trust in God to fully obey Him. They said they “could not.” But God essentially said, they “would not.” This is a question worth asking ourselves. Where have you made flimsy excuses to God because you’ve put…
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A Vision for Spiritual Formation
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave them a vision for being a church that builds up believers in love, growing them to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus. We can get a vision for being built up in love, growing up to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus.