His ways are not our ways

New Guest: Like this one, most entries are devotional. Those related to Car Biz can be located by searching the blog archives for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first entry, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog. I hope you'll record your responses as you read, since these entries serve best as the first remarks in a coversation.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will


Friday, August 13, 2010

Devotions: Ps 102, 107:1-32; Jdg 14:20-15:20; Acts 7:17-29; Jn 4:43-54

Lord, hear and answer me in this, my day of distress. My days pass away like smoke; my bones burn as in a furnace; I can't sleep, can barely function. My days are like a gray shadow, and I'm dried and withered like dead grass. I know You are in control, Lord—let all who will consider come to understand that God hears and answers the groans of the troubled on earth. God has broken my strength, but now I abide in Him, and commend my children and grandchildren to God's care. Let us thank God, Who Is good. He cares for the sojourners in every corner of earth. He delivers the desert wanderers. He sets free the prisoners from their affliction, irons and gloom. He helps the sicke and suffering. All these God delivers from our distress; let us thank YHWH for His steadfast love and faithfulness. He watches over those who fare on the seas and engage in commerce. Let all extol Him in the congregation of the people and praise him among the elders. How astonishing and wonderful is our God!

Samson's first wife was given to his best man after Samson killed thirty men in Asheklon to pay the wager he had made with the male attendants at his wedding in Timnah. Later, at the time of wheat harvest, bringing a kid as a gift, and expecting to have intimacy with the woman. But her father would not allow this, telling Samson that the woman had been given to another man. The father-in-law offered Samson her prettier, younger sister. But Samson was again enraged, and plotted revenge. He caught three hundred foxes, tied them together in pairs, and tied burning torches to their tails, then set the foxes free in the Philistine's grain fields. The foxes set fire the shocks and standing grain and the olive orchards. The Philistines investigated and found that Samson was behind the devastation, and they responded by burning up the father-in-law and Samson's first wife. Samson responded by killing many of the Philistines, 'smiting them hip and thigh', and then he withdrew to a rock cave at Etam. The Philistines raided Lehi, seeking Samson. The Judeans asked why they were invading, and the Philistines said they were seeking to arrest Samson. So the Judeans sought out Samson and protested to him. Samson allowed his countrymen to bind him with two new ropes and brought him up, and transported him to Lehi, where the Philstines swarmed forth to kill him. But God's Spirit came on Samson mightily, and he snapped the ropes, snatched up the fresh jawbone of a donkey, and with it, Samson killed a thousand Phililstines—great piles of corpses. Then he threw the jawbone aside. He was very thirsty and asked God's help, and God provided a spring of fresh water that refreshed Samson—a spring now called 'the Spring of He Who Called,' En-hakkore. Samson led Israel for twenty years, during a period of conflict with the Philistines.

Stephen's account of Israel's history continued: 'As the time for God to deliver Israel from bondage approached, there arose a new Pharaoh who knew nothing of Joseph. He was unfair to the Israelites and forced them to murder their male babies by exposure. But in that period, Moses was born, beautiful before the Lord, and he was hidded for three months. When his parents finally set him on the Nile waters, Moses was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, who raised him as her own son. So Moses was taught all the wisdom of Egypt and was mighty in words and deeds. When he was forty, he was moved to visit his native people. He witnessed a son of Israel being mistreated by an Egyptian and struck down the oppressor. The next day, he came again and tried to reconcile two quarreling Israelites, but they challened him, saying "Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?" Realizing his violent act was known, Moses fled and into exile in Midian, where he became the father of two sons.'

After His days in Sychar, Jesus completed His journey into Galilee. They welcomed Him there, recalling all He had done in Jerusalem. And presently, Jesus came again to Cana, where He had turned the water to wine. An official from Capernaum had a son who was very sick, and when he heard that Jesus was again in Galilee, he came to Cana and begged Jesus to heal his son. Jesus replied, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.' The official replied, 'Sir, please come down before my son dies!' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your son will live.' The man believed Jesus and began his journey homeward. Along the way, some of his own servants met him and told him that his son was alive and well. He asked them the hour when his son's recovery was evident, and they said, 'Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him' The man knew that was the very hour when Jesus told him, 'Your son will live.' And so the man and all his household put their faith in Jesus. This was the second sign the Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.