WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL ME?

Posted on May 28, 2025 by randscallawayffm

The leaders of the tribe of Ephraim delivered a message to Jephthah with the same pride and anger they had shown to Gideon (See Judges 8:1). As before, these “separatists,” so to speak, wanted to share the glory of the victory, but they weren’t too eager to risk their lives in the battle. “Why didn’t you call me?” is merely an excuse and a lie to cover up for their lack of response.  Jephthah was having none of that and decided he had enough of them!  The Ephraimites had absolutely no respect for the new ruler of the Transjordanic tribes so they went to battle with a mighty warrior and got more than they bargained for in their foolishness. 

Judges 12

Jephthah and Ephraim

The Ephraimite forces were called out, and they crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.”

2 Jephthah answered, “I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn’t save me out of their hands. 3 When I saw that you wouldn’t help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?”

4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

7 Jephthah led Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in a town in Gilead.

Ibzan, Elon and Abdon

8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. 9 He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women as wives from outside his clan. Ibzan led Israel seven years. 10 Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

11 After him, Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. 12 Then Elon died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

13 After him, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, led Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel eight years. 15 Then Abdon son of Hillel died and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1

Perhaps Jephthah should have practiced Proverbs 15:1 and 17:14 and avoided a war, but then, maybe it was time somebody called Ephraim’s bluff and taught them a lesson. The men of Ephraim resorted to name-calling and taunted the Gileadites by calling them “fugitives of Ephraim and Manasseh.” Thus, the words of the Ephraimites were an insult to the Lord and his servants.  However;

“Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.” Proverbs 17:14

Nobody wins when we fight among the family of God. 

When we lose respect or just plain envy other members of our church family or our own extended family; we, too will sometimes “go to war” with various weapons of hate.  We might disown them as if they never existed as members of the family.  We try to put them out of minds by ignoring them and not including them. We might escalate the war with gossip filled with slanderous lies both openly or behind their backs.  And the greatest hurt of all—manipulating their family and friends to see us as evil and throw all allegiance to them. Sigh.

Us versus Them.  We play these war games in the God’s church established by God’s Son, Jesus Christ who sacrificed Himself to save us!  Oh, how this grieves God’s Holy Spirit, who is God in us!  We war with each other more often than we care to admit.  We must realize that when we enter in war:

We sin against God and each other while delighting the real Enemy of God.

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

Paul, the great missionary planter of churches, was often compelled to lovingly but sternly teach the love of Christ in us, the One who guides our behaviors with the help of God’s Holy Spirit who is our power. We cannot overcome evil without His power freely given to us!  We must realize this truth: what or who we truly believe will be displayed in our behaviors!  Our behaviors will either demonstrate the love of God therefore displaying God who lives in us OR we will display our sin nature of hate, envy, pride, arrogance, to name of few, behaviors not of God’s character!  His work in us is to teach all “created in His image” to be more like Him. Our work is to submit and surrender to His work made complete in us.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” –Paul to the church, Ephesians 4:29-32

We seem to easily form enemies when we disagree. Truth bomb to consider: When we disagree with actions of hate, we are falling for the promptings of our real enemy—the Enemy of God. who is evil in every way. 

Jesus taught us to not only to love our enemies but to pray for them. Why?  Because God desires that no one perish but have eternal life. We also learn that our opinions of hate begin to fade when we present our “enemy” to God with His love permeating our hearts!  We begin to see this “enemy” and hear their story from a different perspective—with the eyes of God.  There is no one on planet earth that God does not love. And neither should we.

Therefore, we love as commanded by Jesus— “Love each other like I have loved you.”  That means without evaluation of their worthiness.

What God’s love looks like in our daily relationships is expressed by Paul—again to the family of God called church, (that’s us!):

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always, Always looks for the best,
Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” 1 Corinthians 13, MSG

Lord,

May your love in our hearts guide all we think, say, and do in your Name for your glory and our good.  Holy Spirit, by your power, you are welcome to convict, correct, comfort, and compel us to be more and more in every way like Jesus.

It is in His Name we pray, Amen.

Yes, come Lord Jesus!

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JEPHTHAH—THE REST OF THE STORY

Posted on May 27, 2025 by randscallawayffm

Jephthah was yet another unlikely candidate chosen to save Israel from the consequences of their own sins of betraying God in the worship of the gods of unbelievers.  He was the unwanted son of a prostitute and Gilead.  Gilead tried to make him a member of his family but this son would have no inheritance.  The other members of his family rejected and humiliated him and sent him packing. Jephthah moved to Tob.

In Tob, Jephthah became a mighty warrior who attracted other warriors who were equally effective as scoundrels to be feared.  The leaders of Israel, distraught over the bullying of the Ammonites, decide Jephthah is now just the man they need to rescue them! Jephthah was an unopposed leader. Jephthah’s brothers didn’t want him, but Israel needed him.  Mm…

The writer of Hebrews wrote that Jephthah was a man of faith and his victory was a victory of faith (Hebrews 11:32). The circumstances of birth or family are not a handicap to the person who lives by faith. In his message to the king of Ammon, Jephthah revealed his knowledge of the Word of God, and this Word was the source of his faith.

Jephthah accepted the assignment to go to war but paused long enough to explain the history of Israel as it applied to the current situation with the Ammonite leaders.  This is further proof of his faith that knew the history passed down!  The Spirit of the Lord came upon him when the the Ammonites were through talking and ready for war.  It is then that Jephthah made a vow to God, more of a bargain if you will, that if God would help him defeat the enemy, he would give to God whatever greeted him upon his return as a sacrifice of burnt offering to God.  Jephthah would soon regret the conditions of his vow but would carry it through.  Victory over the Ammonites was had but his vow he thought he needed to make to insure the victory resulted in the loss of his one and only child.

Jephthah vow was unnecessary. God chose Jephthah to rescue Israel therefore God would indeed provide the victory.  As Paul Harvey would say, and “now you know the rest of the story.”  Read on, to see what God’s Holy Spirit will reveal to us…as we find ourselves in the story of God.

Judges 11

Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.

4 Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”

7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”

8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”

9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?”

10 The elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.

12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”

13 The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”

14 Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, 15 saying:

“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16 But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.

18 “Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.

19 “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’ 20 Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.

21 “Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, 22 capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.

23 “Now since the Lord, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? 24 Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess. 25 Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? 26 For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? 27 I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”

28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”

36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”

38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jephthah emphasized the Lord in all his negotiations with the leaders of Israel. It was the Lord who would give the victory, not Jephthah, but a public agreement between him and the elders must be ratified before the Lord at Mizpah as tradition.

Jephthah tried peaceful negotiations with the Ammonites, but the negotiations failed. Nevertheless, this section does tell us two things about Jephthah: (1) He knew the Scriptures and the history of his people, and (2) he was not a hothead who was looking for a fight. We don’t always get to choose the confrontations that occur in life, but we can make it our practice to behave in a godly way in any confrontation.

Jephthah declared that the God of Israel was the true God and that His will had been fulfilled in allowing Israel to take the land.

While going out to battle, Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. Jephthah’s vow was really a bargain with the Lord: If God would give the Israelites victory over the Ammonites, Jephthah would sacrifice to the Lord whatever came out of his house when he arrived home in Mizpah. One of the crucial conclusions we need to draw is that if we want our words and promises to be taken seriously, we must make sure we are willing to back up what we say. We must make sure we don’t make promises we know are too painful to keep.

Did Jephthah really put his one and only child to death?

“Jephthah knew that Jehovah didn’t approve of or accept human sacrifices. More than one expositor has pointed out that the little word waw in the Hebrew that follows “when I return in triumph” can be translated either “and” [I will sacrifice it] or “or” [I will sacrifice it]. If we take the latter approach, then the vow was twofold: Whatever met him when he returned home would be dedicated to the Lord (if a person) or sacrificed to the Lord (if an animal).” –Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible

Wiersbe further comments: “It is doubtful that Jephthah’s friends and neighbors would have permitted him to slay his own daughter in order to fulfill a foolish vow. Jephthah could have learned from any priest that paying the proper amount of money could have redeemed his daughter (Leviticus 27:1–8). As a successful soldier who had just returned from looting the enemy, Jephthah could easily have paid the redemption price.

Since he was met by his daughter, Jephthah gave her to the Lord to serve at the tabernacle (Ex. 38:8; 1 Sam. 2:22). She remained a virgin, which meant that she would not know the joys of motherhood and perpetuate her father’s inheritance in Israel. This would be reason enough for her and her friends to spend two months grieving, for every daughter wanted a family and every father wanted grandchildren to maintain the family inheritance.

Nowhere in the text are we told that Jephthah actually killed his daughter, nor do we find anybody bewailing the girl’s death. The emphasis in Judges 11:37–40 is the fact that she remained a virgin. It’s difficult to believe that young Israelite women would establish a custom to lament the awful sacrifice of a human being, but we can well understand that they would commemorate the devotion and obedience of Jephthah’s daughter in helping her father fulfill his vow.”

Jephthah declared that the God of Israel was the true God and that His will had been fulfilled in allowing Israel to take the land.

“And now you know the rest of the story…”

Our vows do not secure our victory—only Jesus, sent from God to redeem us from our sins.  Do not test or bargain with God.  Believe and trust that where God guides HE will provide all we need for victory over our real enemy who is not flesh and blood.  To God, alone, be all the glory, honor, and praise! He is our Victor!

Lord,

This story of you working through a rejected son proves once again that you are God alone. What you say happens because who you are never changes. You are our compassionate, faithful, loving God who delights in all the detail of our lives. We can be blessedly assured of our place in glory without bargaining with you.  Help us to refrain from our sin nature of bargaining. You did for us what we cannot do for ourselves—by your love, mercy and grace—you saved us, forever!  Victory is already ours!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, by your power, Amen

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ONE REJECTED BECOMES KING 

Posted on May 26, 2025 by randscallawayffm

Turning away from God, the idol-worshiping Israelites suffered foreign invasion and devastation. Finally, desperate for relief, they turned to God, and God raised up a deliverer, Jephthah. This passage leads us from the treacherous leadership of Abimelek, to Issachar and to Jair who led Israel in peace.  In the next generation, however, the Israelites began to worship all the gods of the cultures living around them.  It always happens slowly until God is no longer their God. This sin of bending to manmade gods and rejecting the God of Israel led to doing all things evil “in the eyes of the Lord.”  They need forgiveness and deliverance yet again.  God’s first response of reprimand was, “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”  Ouch. But God wants them to realize what their habitual cycles of sin are doing to them, their families and most of all, their relationship with God who loves them still.

God’s love is like no other love.  God’s love is unchanging and forever.  But does this mean we can take advantage of God, knowing that even if we turn our faces from him and do what we want, He will still love and get us out of trouble? This is dangerous ground to walk!  God knows our hearts—better than we know our hearts—which are deceitful at times.  God stands ready to discipline us as a loving Father who wants His best for us.

God knows our sin with what we deserve but replaces our punishment with his unending grace. However, He will allow us to live with the consequences of our sin while strengthening our faith in Him in the maturing process.  When we want our own way so bad we test God’s love; we sin against Him.  We hurt ourselves and all who are around us in the fallout of our foolishness. God knows what is best to teach us His ways that are perfect and holy to combat all that is unholy in us. 

A man named Jephthah, born of a prostitute, rejected and later sent away from his family, will be the very one who God will use to rescue His beloved Israelites from rejecting Him.  God has a habit of choosing the unlikely in the eyes of man to do what others cannot and will not—rescue and save.  In this passage we are introduced but tomorrow we will see how God will use the “rejected one” to rescue his people.           

Judges 10

Tola

10 After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir.

Jair

3 He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. 4 He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys. They controlled thirty towns in Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth Jair. 5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

Jephthah

6 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, 7 he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, 8 who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress. 10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”

11 The Lord replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”

15 But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.

17 When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. 18 The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

THE PROBLEM

If there is ever a time in our lives, (and there will be for all have sinned), when we think we can live without God and He won’t know it…think again!  “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”  This is God allowing His people to live with what they have chosen—a life without Him. 

THE SOLUTION

Turning away from God, the idol-worshiping Israelites suffered foreign invasion and devastation. Finally, desperate for relief, they turned to God, and God raised up a deliverer, Jephthah.  The act of getting rid of foreign gods was an act of “putting to death” as Paul writes all the sins that stand between God and His people.  This act was a desperate, humbled attempt to show God the realization of their sins against Him along with honest, sincere confession of those sins. When we come to the end of ourselves, God is there.  God was always there.  God waits until we come into His Presence seeking His love, mercy, and grace.  That’s why God’s love is unlike any other we can think or imagine.  And that’s why there is no one like our God!  No other god can be or do what our God has done, is doing, and will do!  God was, is and always will be God—not matter what we believe at any given moment.

God is faithful even when we are not. God’s love is unchanging, unending, and relentless.  God wants us to love Him back. God looks for those whose hearts are honestly seeking and seriously committed to Him.  “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 This verse adds— “how foolish you have been”—whenwe turn our hearts to anything other than God.  “From now on you will always be at war.”  We live with the choices we make.  But God can and does intervene when we pray like Jesus taught us: “May Your will be done” and we believe, trust, and obey His will.

“God loves you just the way you are. If you think his love for you would be stronger if your faith were, you are wrong. If you think his love would be deeper if your thoughts were, wrong again. Don’t confuse God’s love with the love of people. The love of people often increases with performance and decreases with mistakes. Not so with God’s love. He loves you right where you are. To quote my wife’s favorite author:

God’s love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn him. Ignore him. Reject him. Despise him. Disobey him. He will not change. Our evil cannot diminish his love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it any more than our stupidity jeopardizes it. God doesn’t love us less if we fail or more if we succeed. God’s love never ceases.

God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way.” –Max Lucado, The Encouraging Word Bible

OUR RESPONSE

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” Psalm 37:23

God’s Word tells us He “delights in all the details” of our lives.  Tell God, He loves to listen at a time in our world most people only listen long enough to prepare a response of only their opinion without understanding.  God hears and understands! 

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

Isn’t it great to know that God not only can change our hearts but even desires to do so? Allow God to cleanse our hearts of all that is impure, ungodly while removing all that does not belong.  Here is a prayer of the Psalmist that I pray often;

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” Psalm 51:10-12, ESV

Lord,

May the desires of YOUR heart match my desires.  Change my heart that transforms my behaviors to demonstrate my love, trust, and faith in you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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KING THORNBUSH VS. JOTHAM!

Posted on May 24, 2025 by randscallawayffm

As retired public school teachers and former pastors; my husband and I encountered many types of families with many different philosophies of raising their children and living life.  We saw families who were split and broken apart by the sins of the fathers and the mothers which affected the belief systems, actions, and reactions of their children.  Children only know to do, how to feel, how to behave by what they see their parents do unless someone else enters their lives to show them other options. 

On day, one of my first graders came to me after a brief visit by my husband to our classroom.  I had introduced him as Mr. Callaway, of course.  She came to me puzzled and asked, “What was his name, again?”  I told her it was Mr. Callaway to which she replied, “Same last name? That aint right.”  In her world, that was uncommon.  Her mom in her twenties, had six kids. Each one had a different last name. Each child born to a different dad. So, it really blew her mind when I told her the names of our three children—all with the same last name!  Her little mind thought that over and I added, “this is the option for living we chose and we love it.”  One man marries one woman and they have children then we all have the same last name.  “Mm, okay.”  She accepted that and smiled.  I learned later that this little one lived in an apartment with not only her mom and siblings but with grandma and great grandma and other kids produced from that lifestyle.  Three generations in all. 

Gideon (Jerub-Baal) produced seventy sons with various wives, including one in particular from his female slave.  This son, Abimelek did not follow Gideon’s love and devoted service to God.  Abimelek was a conniving, devious, power seeker. Jotham, the youngest son of the clan, stood for what was right in the eyes of God—like his father.  Here is their story of how God intervenes when evil persists to destroy. 

We can be born into the same family but have very different views of who God is with how He works in our lives!

Judges 9

Abimelek

Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, 2 “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.”

3 When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, “He is related to us.” 4 They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. 5 He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding. 6 Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king.

7 When Jotham was told about this, he climbed up on the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted to them, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem, so that God may listen to you. 8One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’

9 “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’

10 “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’

11 “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’

12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’

13 “But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’

14 “Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’

15 “The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

16 “Have you acted honorably and in good faith by making Abimelek king? Have you been fair to Jerub-Baal and his family? Have you treated him as he deserves? 17 Remember that my father fought for you and risked his life to rescue you from the hand of Midian. 18 But today you have revolted against my father’s family. You have murdered his seventy sons on a single stone and have made Abimelek, the son of his female slave, king over the citizens of Shechem because he is related to you. 19 So have you acted honorably and in good faith toward Jerub-Baal and his family today? If you have, may Abimelek be your joy, and may you be his, too! 20 But if you have not, let fire come out from Abimelek and consume you, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and let fire come out from you, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and consume Abimelek!”

21 Then Jotham fled, escaping to Beer, and he lived there because he was afraid of his brother Abimelek.

22 After Abimelek had governed Israel three years, 23 God stirred up animosity between Abimelek and the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously against Abimelek. 24 God did this in order that the crime against Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons, the shedding of their blood, might be avenged on their brother Abimelek and on the citizens of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers. 25 In opposition to him these citizens of Shechem set men on the hilltops to ambush and rob everyone who passed by, and this was reported to Abimelek.

26 Now Gaal son of Ebed moved with his clan into Shechem, and its citizens put their confidence in him. 27 After they had gone out into the fields and gathered the grapes and trodden them, they held a festival in the temple of their god. While they were eating and drinking, they cursed Abimelek. 28 Then Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelek, and why should we Shechemites be subject to him? Isn’t he Jerub-Baal’s son, and isn’t Zebul his deputy? Serve the family of Hamor, Shechem’s father! Why should we serve Abimelek? 29 If only this people were under my command! Then I would get rid of him. I would say to Abimelek, ‘Call out your whole army!’”

30 When Zebul the governor of the city heard what Gaal son of Ebed said, he was very angry. 31 Under cover he sent messengers to Abimelek, saying, “Gaal son of Ebed and his clan have come to Shechem and are stirring up the city against you. 32 Now then, during the night you and your men should come and lie in wait in the fields. 33 In the morning at sunrise, advance against the city. When Gaal and his men come out against you, seize the opportunity to attack them.”

34 So Abimelek and all his troops set out by night and took up concealed positions near Shechem in four companies. 35 Now Gaal son of Ebed had gone out and was standing at the entrance of the city gate just as Abimelek and his troops came out from their hiding place.

36 When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!”

Zebul replied, “You mistake the shadows of the mountains for men.”

37 But Gaal spoke up again: “Look, people are coming down from the central hill, and a company is coming from the direction of the diviners’ tree.”

38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your big talk now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelek that we should be subject to him?’ Aren’t these the men you ridiculed? Go out and fight them!”

39 So Gaal led out the citizens of Shechem and fought Abimelek. 40 Abimelek chased him all the way to the entrance of the gate, and many were killed as they fled. 41 Then Abimelek stayed in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his clan out of Shechem.

42 The next day the people of Shechem went out to the fields, and this was reported to Abimelek. 43 So he took his men, divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose to attack them. 44 Abimelek and the companies with him rushed forward to a position at the entrance of the city gate. Then two companies attacked those in the fields and struck them down. 45 All that day Abimelek pressed his attack against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he destroyed the city and scattered salt over it.

46 On hearing this, the citizens in the tower of Shechem went into the stronghold of the temple of El-Berith. 47 When Abimelek heard that they had assembled there, 48 he and all his men went up Mount Zalmon. He took an ax and cut off some branches, which he lifted to his shoulders. He ordered the men with him, “Quick! Do what you have seen me do!” 49 So all the men cut branches and followed Abimelek. They piled them against the stronghold and set it on fire with the people still inside. So all the people in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, also died.

50 Next Abimelek went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it. 51 Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women—all the people of the city—had fled. They had locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof. 52 Abimelek went to the tower and attacked it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, 53 a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.

54 Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelek was dead, they went home.

56 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelek had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Abimelek is the bad son who was “born to be wild”. His “thorny” life is filled with evil, displaying all the character traits of evil such as arrogance, greed, pride, envy, and hate.  Did all his sin traits begin with resentment and bitterness from his station in life as the son of his father’s slave girl?  We don’t know, but still no excuse, for his behaviors!

Jotham is the “good” son, raised by someone who knew God. Jotham knew enough to listen to God. God led Jotham to stand up to his brother, Abimelek with God’s words of prophecy expressed in a parable of righteousness. 

“Jotham tells the story. He is a son of Gideon and the sole survivor of a seventy-man massacre. Abimelek authorized the slaughter. He sought to kill any person who might keep him from the throne. Jotham comes out of hiding just long enough to address the citizens of Israel and tell them the story (see 9:7–15).

Via the parable, Jotham warns the Israelites against thorny Abimelek. Via the parable, God warns us against greed-driven promotions.

The trees entice the olive tree, fig tree, and grapevine with a throne-room invitation: “Reign over us!” One by one they refuse the offer. The olive tree wants to keep giving oil. The fig tree wants to keep giving figs, and the vine wants to keep bearing grapes. All refuse to pay the price of promotion.

These plants take pride in their posts. Why abandon fruitfulness? In the end, only the thorn bush takes the offer.

Be careful, the story instructs. In a desire to be great, one might cease being any good.

Not every teacher is equipped to be a principal. Not every carpenter has the skill to head a crew. Not every musician should conduct an orchestra. Promotions might promote a person right out of his or her sweet spot. For the love of more, we might lose our purpose.

Sin brings judgment. Turn away from the sin that you enjoy. Seek help to remove the sin that reoccurs in your life. Don’t let patterns of sinfulness destroy your life; repent and seek Christ’s help.”—Max Lucado, Encouraging Word Bible

“All are born into sin”, (even in the “best” of families in the eyes of the world.)  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  (Romans 3:23-24) This means no one on planet earth is “good”, no, not one!  Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Jesus was sent by God to save the world from sin, including all that sin has done to affect and infect our lives. Jesus, who was without sin, took all sin and willingly allowed sin to be nailed securely sin to His cross.  Jesus obediently took all our shame of sin and humbled Himself in public view to die in our place of punishment.  Three days later, God resurrected Jesus to prove His power as the Victor over death.  Jesus is our hope of eternal life!  God proclaimed Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords! (Philippines 2)

In Jesus, we are offered a new life, set free from our repented sins.  It doesn’t matter what family we were born into or what lifestyle has been imposed upon us—we are redeemed!  We are born again as new creations who belong to a new family known as “children of God,” “joint heirs with Christ,” when we repent of our sins to Jesus!  Like Jotham, Jesus told parables so that we would know God and relate to Him as “Our Father in Heaven.” 

Jesus is our new life source that guides our new lifestyle!  Our yes to Jesus aligns us immediately with God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a part of God who lives within us to guide us to all that is truth and light!  God’s Spirit has the same mighty resurrection power that can guide us from dead-end living to abundant, joyful, living—no matter what circumstances are going on around us!

Lord,

I believe. I choose You as my Life Source who gives life eternal!  I love you because you first loved me.  You lived to die for me.  I’m humbled by the depth of love you have for us!  I surrender. My life belongs to you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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TWO SPIRITS VIE FOR OUR FOCUS

Posted on May 22, 2025 by randscallawayffm

Believers are faced with two choices daily, even hourly. We must decide whose thoughts will lead us.  In fact, what thoughts are leading you right now? What is your first thought as you read this and question why we would bring this to light?  Recall yesterday’s activities and behaviors.  Did we wonder why certain people acted as they did without giving much thought about us and our feelings? Are we disappointed in them? 

Are we thinking about a problem that should be solved in the way we think it should be dealt with and settled once and for all?  Sometimes we follow our own assumptions and presumptions about people and our problems and it becomes a snare.  When we behave in this way; we stand as the judge, jury, and executioner without sitting down to communicate with them directly.  Misunderstandings lead to the deconstruction of relationships. But do we even care?

We are all born into sin so it’s easy to follow sin’s behaviors. The Spirit of Darkness, God’s Enemy and ours, works diligently with his demons to plant unholy thoughts that we have the power to dismiss—if we call on God’s Holy Spirit’s power.  But do we tap into this power of God’s Holy Spirit in us as our first defense?

The Enemy plants thoughts in our minds which challenges us to “have it our way,” “you deserve all you can get,” “follow your own heart,” so you can “be all you want to be.”  We fall for it because we are naturally selfish.  We learn from Jesus that “no one is good, only God is good”.  We learn from Paul, the missionary and church planter that, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

Are we just hopeless pawns for the enemy?  The Enemy pursues us day and night to stay engaged, bonded, and chained to sin.  The Spirit of Enemy is evil which is in direct opposition to God’s Holy Spirit who is Truth.  The limited power of the Enemy uses tools of distraction and deception for the purpose of dismantling our faith in God. The end goal of the Enemy is eternal death. God has power over the Enemy and extends that power to us. The end goal of God is eternal life. We decide.  We have a choice.  Life or death.  So, let’s call them for who they really are: Two opposing Spirits vying for our focused attention. One loves us; the other one hates us. One is Life. One is death.

All behaviors of sin come to fruition because of our selfishness and deceptive hearts that believe that when we are in control, handling life on our own; we are “good.”  We must continually be at the top of our game, however, so we compare our accomplishments to others, eyeing what they do, with plans to be even better.  We work our plan to climb over them as we are driven to seek the top rung of the “ladder of success.” We will do anything to have the top position and stay there.

Our behaviors are then driven by the “attached” sins of envy, greed, jealousy, arrogance and pride.  When we see others do good; we put them down only because we feel bad that we didn’t have a part in their accomplishment.  It’s called FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out.  This troublesome disease today causes people to do things that shouldn’t be doing, good or bad, for it is all about them wanting to be included in the glory of the accomplishment. Yikes!

Two choices.  Will we trust the Spirit of God’s Enemy who uses our human sin nature of self will to have control over us? Or will we put our trust in God’s Holy Spirit who leads us to all that is True and Right—for our good and God’s glory?    

In the following passage of Gideon and the Three Hundred’s accomplishment; many attitudes, good and bad, come to the surface—even FOMO!  “Why didn’t you call us…?”

Judges 8

Zebah and Zalmunna

Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they challenged him vigorously.

2 But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.

4 Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. 5 He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

6 But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”

7 Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”

8 From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had. 9 So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”

10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. 11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army. 12 Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.

13 Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. 14 He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town. 15 Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” 16 He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. 17 He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.

18 Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?”

“Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”

19 Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.” 20 Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.

21 Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.

Gideon’s Ephod

22 The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

23 But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” 24 And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)

25 They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. 26 The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. 27 Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Gideon’s Death

28 Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.

29 Jerub-Baal son of Joash went back home to live. 30 He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. 31 His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek. 32 Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

33 No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god 34 and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. 35 They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The Israelites “did not remember the Lord their God.”  Focus on God and His Spiritual leading was lost to entertain the Spirit of Darkness—which often happens in times of peace and rest.  “During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.”  We can become complacent when we are not challenged openly but inwardly by the opposition.  We learn that this is the very time to refocus on God!

All sin will always be judged by God. Consequences from our past sins often come back to haunt us. Gideon and his army, though greatly outnumbered, defeated the Midianite invaders with God’s blessing. Yet after Gideon died, the Israelites again abandoned God and worshiped Baal. Deciding to follow and worship a manmade god led to another foolish decision—choosing Abimelek as their king. He decides later to murder sixty-nine of his seventy brothers and the Israelites help him!  God repaid the treachery and idolatry of Abimelek and the town of Shechem with death and destruction.

Ah, but we get ahead of ourselves…Tomorrow, in chapter nine; we will learn of one lone survivor, Jotham, who will stand to tell the truth of God through a parable to Israel!  Stay tuned!

Lord, our God,

We are all hopeless sinners in need of a Savior and you gave us Jesus. Thank you, God for sending your Son to save us from ourselves and the sins that engulfed our beings. Thank you, Jesus for laying down your life for our deserved punishment. Thank you, Father for your resurrection power of Jesus who restored our Hope of eternal life with you. Thank you, Holy Spirit of God, who is God, for leading us back daily to all that is truth with resurrection power to live it—out loud! Thank you for forgiving us and leading us home.  Thank you for being with us always.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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WHEN LESS IS MORE!

Posted on May 21, 2025 by randscallawayffm

Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem so small and little known?
Well, it is great if God is in it
And He will not forsake His own

Little is much when God is in it
Labor not for wealth or fame
There’s a crown, and you can win it
If you go in Jesus’ name

As a young adult I didn’t quite understand the meaning of this song until life took turns that forced me to fully rely on God. I came to Him with nothing it seemed—only my trust in Him with humbled obedience, seeking His will.  The words of this song, first written by Dwight Moody Brock and Kittie J. J. Suffield and later sung by the Gaither band is a reminder that when God is with us, and we are in His will, small and even insignificant resources can accomplish great things. And, of course, the Lord delights to use less to do more by His power as He accomplishes His purpose. The weaker we are, the greater the glory that will be seen by Him! 

As I grew in the faith, I noticed that some people misunderstood the words of the song.  They “leaned on their own understanding” and resorted to laziness, thinking, “I don’t have to do anything for “little is much.”  This thinking also was used as excuse to give less time, little offerings, and less of their talents to God’s work.  If I noticed, I’m sure God did!

We are to give all we have to the One who owns all and uses what we have for our good and His glory!  As further evidence for understanding; God inspired James to write, “your faith without works is a dead faith.”  (James 2:26)  Lazy stewards of God’s Kingdom work are not pleasing to the Lord, either! BE before Doing anything of significance is what God as taught me. “BE still, (letting goof what you think and possess), and Know God” is the wisdom of Psalm 46.  Being with the Lord, seeking His will and direction, hearing His details of His plan with an obedient heart—implementing what God says with your current resources, even if you might not understand; is exactly what God wants from us. 

God created all, is in all, and above all.  Nothing is too difficult for God!  God knows what He is doing in and through us to accomplish His will and plan for our good and His glory, “so no man can boast,” Paul writes, and take credit of his own limited abilities—only our unlimited God can do what God does in ways we could never dream or imagine! THIS is the true meaning of “Little is much when God is in it.”

“God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we ask or think.”(Ephesians 3:20)Whatever you’re believing for, whatever you’re dreaming about, God has a way of broaden the scope and vision to what brings out His best in us.  To God be the glory!

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9. God, through Jesus, His Son, did for us what we cannot do for ourselves—redeem us from all our sins, make us new, and set us free!  We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, we cannot do enough works for it—Salvation is a gift from God. 

Trust God, He know what He is doing! 

Read and prayerfully observe what God does in and through a timid, but obedient Gideon with a “few good men”! 

Judges 7

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

14 His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”

15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” 16 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

17 “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. 18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’”

19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. 23 Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”

So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

PLACE AND EMBRACE

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.”—Paul to the church, Romans 12:1-3, MSG

God’s Word is the story of God who loves and forgives and wants us to love Him back and trust Him in all His ways.  Gideon was obedient even when he didn’t understand.  Notice that God assured Him before the battle of trumpets, breaking jars, and shouting.  God knows us inside out and knows exactly what we need when we need it most.  I love that about God!

When God is the focus of our attention; His Word reveals Truth.  With His Holy Spirit living in us; we are given the power to recognize God’s will.  We are given His wisdom to discern what is right and wrong in this world in which we live. God gives this beyond ourselves wisdom to us.  All we need to do is ask. (James 1) Realizing that God truly wants to bring out the best in us, loves us unconditionally, and thinks we were valuable enough to “die for” that set us free from the bondage of sin; the greater our intimate relationship with God grows and matures. 

In fact, the more we realize the great, profound love God has for us and is forming in us—the greater our love for each other grows and matures!  THIS is who God is and what He does to save us. To know God is to know Love—Love that is always authentic in Truth, relentless in His behaviors toward us, unchanging in His character, and is for now and into eternity! 

How can we turn a love like this down and look the other way?  I cannot. Can you?

Lord,

The story of Gideon is just another example of your wonderful power and strength that declares your glory so others will know you.  Your Word is filled with examples of taking what we have and using it for our benefit and your glory!  And, You still do that today.  I love you and love that you delight in all the details of our lives.  Thank you for bringing our full focus and attention to even more of who you are today as we give ourselves to you as an offering. I need to stop counting my resources as much as I count on you and your blessings!  You are an amazing and forever God!  I trust you with my life for you are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen

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UNCOMMON PATIENCE

Posted on May 20, 2025 by randscallawayffm

We are fallible, impatient, intolerant, sin-filled humans who worry and stew about every detail of life.  When faced with a new circumstance beyond our control and not on our radar we melt into a puddle of fear.  Those who know, love, and say we trust God first ask; “Why me, why am I going through this difficulty, God?” “I try to obey You in all your ways.” “Life isn’t fair, God, can you make it be more equitable, and make this go away?”  “Can you take away the pain consuming us and change this circumstance?” 

These prayers seem vain and shallow as we are really praying for perfection for ourselves in an imperfect world tainted by evil.  Maybe, just maybe, we need to stop asking why.  Maybe we need to stop trying to control and make demands of God—who already knows.  We need a huge dose of truth from God’s Word along with the wisdom of His Holy Spirit who stands ready to help us. Truth: God uses all the things of this world—the good and the bad—to change us in the circumstances we find ourselves. 

Our awesome, all knowing, relentlessly loving, extremely merciful, full of grace God has uncommon, not of this world, patience with us.  When we really believe, trust and obey God; we will cease to ask why a little more often.  Our daily work is to submit and surrender to God and ask for His agenda of purpose for us.  “What are you teaching me today?” would be a more appropriate demonstration of our love for God. (See Romans 12 for how this works.)

Gideon is called of God to deliver His Israelites yet again from the evil they not only allowed to reside with them in The Promise Land God gave them; they joined in their evil ways.  Worship of Baal means losing God.  They shoved God aside and worshipped the manmade idols of Baal and others.  God’s protection paused but He did not leave them.  The Midianites are given free reign when left unchecked and turn on the Israelites, bringing them to ruin.  When God’s people came to the end of themselves—they cried out to God.  God, with uncommon patience, comes to their rescue with an unlikely, timid, unsure candidate to lead them—Gideon. 

Judges 6

Gideon

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

19 Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind o altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”

27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

28 In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

29 They asked each other, “Who did this?”

When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.”

30 The people of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”

31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” 32 So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, “Let Baal contend with him.”

33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.

36 Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND? 

The Backstory: “The Midianites were desert marauders related to the Israelites through Abraham’s second wife, Keturah, and her son, Midian. For centuries they were at odds with Israel, especially during the period of the judges.  At one point, when the Midianites and their allies were about to invade Israel again, God raised up the judge Gideon. As a test, God asked Gideon to destroy his father’s altar to Baal and offer one of his father’s bulls as a burnt offering to the Lord. This step of obedience was the first step toward the defeat of the Midianites.”Max Lucado, The Encouraging Word Bible

God raised up Gideon as the one who would transform from grain farmer to warrior leader.  Gideon’s first response to God is not uncommon to us, “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”  We all want to why because we like reasons for explaining all our problems.  If we have reasons then we feel we can solve them.  We need to stop this annoying habit that is dangerously close to saying God doesn’t know what is happening while demanding our own way in the solution!  Wow, our God is so patient with us!

God’s discipline of love is wanting His best for us at our worst. The discipline of God is evidence of God’s hatred for sin and His love for His people. We can’t conceive of a holy God wanting anything less than His very best for His children, and the best He can give us is a holy character like that of Jesus Christ who demonstrated all the characteristics of God for He was God in the flesh!  Daily surrender to God’s will with willing obedience builds His character to bear the spiritual behaviors of His character. (Galatians 5:23 has the list!)  Sins of evil destroys our character.  God cannot sit idly by and watch His children destroy themselves. 

Once God has called and commissioned us; our part is to obey Him by faith, and He will do the rest. Faith means obeying God in spite of what we see, how we feel, or what the consequences might be.  God uses the things of this world that produce darkness to transform us into the beauty of all that His Light provides!  “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,” a chorus of my youth, is the heart cry of my heart today and always!

This is our story…We have been dealing with litigation over an accident for almost a full year. God has used this circumstance in our lives to humble us in surrender to Him while He changes and transforms us! And He is still working on us!  So, we know personally what God can do in all circumstances.  Like James taught us; we can truly “count it all joy whenever we face trials of many kinds, because we know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 (Emphasis mine.)

The circumstance remains to be settled; but God has settled us as we surrender to Him!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? —Jesus, Matthew 5:25-27

Jesus is saying that worry demonstrates a lack of faith in God. Therefore, worry actually becomes a sin! Worry demonstrates a lack of trust in God’s love because it implies that God doesn’t really care about our needs. It shows lack of faith in God’s wisdom because it implies that God doesn’t know what He’s doing.  We are set free from worry, figuring life out by ourselves, fear of the unknown by loving, trusting, serving, and worshipping a Known God who loved us before we loved Him back!  Read this again, prayerfully asking for God’s Holy Spirit to correct us, until all fear is gone! 

God was so very good and patient with Gideon who “laid out the fleece”, not once but twice, so he could be sure of God’s calling and will.  When you consider the kind of man Gideon was at this time, we do wonder why God selected him, but God often chooses the “weak things of the world”, the unlikely like you and I, to accomplish great things for His glory (1 Corinthians 1:26–29). Gideon wasn’t a man of strong faith or courage. God had to patiently work with him to prepare him for leadership. God is always ready to make us what we ought to be if we’re willing to submit to His will. The phrase “putting out the fleece” is still used in religious circles. However, “putting out the fleece” is not a biblical method for determining the will of God. Rather, it’s an approach used by people like Gideon who lack the faith to trust that God will do what He said He would do. Surrender to God is the way to discovering the “good, perfect pleasing will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2) The fact that God stooped to Gideon’s weakness only proves that He’s a gracious God who understands how we’re made and is uncommonly patient with us!

Oh Lord,

How amazing You are!  How gracious, loving and faithful you are to us.  You gave so that we might live forever.  There is no one like you.  Thank you for all you provide when you guide us in surrender to your will.

In Jesus Name, for Your glory, Amen

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THIS IS MY STORY—THIS IS MY SONG!

Posted on May 19, 2025 by randscallawayffm

A poem or song, as we see throughout the Psalms of David and others who love the Lord and seek His will and His ways, isn’t something we can easily understand at first until we learn the story for the song. The “songs that fill our hearts” spring up from a spontaneous emotional expression that often defies analysis unless we learn the story behind the song. Unlike classical English poetry, Hebrew poetry contains recurring themes expressed in different ways with frequent outbursts of praise and prayer.

This Song of Deborah comes immediately after God’s will is accomplished through her leadership of Israel. Deborah is praising God for all His people who came willingly when summoned to help destroy another enemy of Israel.  She begins with praising God for those people and then praises God for individuals who had a part in God’s victory.  God’s People praise God immediately following the miraculous acts of God.

What is our story, what is our song?  Consider these questions as we “sing” with Deborah!

Judges 5

The Song of Deborah

On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

2 “When the princes in Israel take the lead,
    when the people willingly offer themselves—
    praise the Lord!

3 “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
    I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
    I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.

4 “When you, Lord, went out from Seir,
    when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook, the heavens poured,
    the clouds poured down water.
5 The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai,
    before the Lord, the God of Israel.

6 “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
    in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
    travelers took to winding paths.
7 Villagers in Israel would not fight;
    they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
    until I arose, a mother in Israel.
8 God chose new leaders
    when war came to the city gates,
but not a shield or spear was seen
    among forty thousand in Israel.
9 My heart is with Israel’s princes,
    with the willing volunteers among the people.
    Praise the Lord!

10 “You who ride on white donkeys,
    sitting on your saddle blankets,
    and you who walk along the road,
consider 11 the voice of the singers at the watering places.
    They recite the victories of the Lord,
    the victories of his villagers in Israel.

“Then the people of the Lord
    went down to the city gates.
12 ‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
    Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, Barak!
    Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’

13 “The remnant of the nobles came down;
    the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.
14 Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek;
    Benjamin was with the people who followed you.
From Makir captains came down,
    from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s staff.
15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
    yes, Issachar was with Barak,
    sent under his command into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
16 Why did you stay among the sheep pens
    to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
    And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast
    and stayed in his coves.
18 The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;
    so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.

19 “Kings came, they fought,
    the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo,
    they took no plunder of silver.
20 From the heavens the stars fought,
    from their courses they fought against Sisera.
21 The river Kishon swept them away,
    the age-old river, the river Kishon.
    March on, my soul; be strong!
22 Then thundered the horses’ hooves—
    galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.
23 ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord.
    ‘Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the Lord,
    to help the Lord against the mighty.’

24 “Most blessed of women be Jael,
    the wife of Heber the Kenite,
    most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk;
    in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
26 Her hand reached for the tent peg,
    her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
    she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 At her feet he sank,
    he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
    where he sank, there he fell—dead.

28 “Through the window peered Sisera’s mother;
    behind the lattice she cried out,
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
    Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’
29 The wisest of her ladies answer her;
    indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
    a woman or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
    colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments for my neck—
    all this as plunder?’

31 “So may all your enemies perish, Lord!
    But may all who love you be like the sun
    when it rises in its strength.”

Then the land had peace forty years.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God chose unlikely leaders and players in this story in a culture where women are not considered as important as men, much less worthy of leadership. Deborah’s blessing on Jael reminds us of Elizabeth’s words to Mary (Luke 1:42). Because of Barak’s hesitation, Deborah announced that a woman would get the credit for killing the captain of the enemy army (Judges 4:8, 9).  Jael followed God’s leading and put an end to the leader of the enemy of Israel.  Deborah sang of Jael’s bravery and courage with praises to God for her work.

Deborah was grateful that the people offered themselves willingly in the service of the Lord. They were not “summer soldiers” but brave men who were serious about fighting the Lord’s battles. However, there were four tribes that didn’t volunteer to do their share of fighting. The people of God today are not unlike the people of Israel when it comes to God’s call for service: Some immediately volunteer to serve and follow the Lord; some risk their lives; some give the call of God to help serious consideration but say no; and others keep to themselves as though the call had never been given. At times, we might find ourselves in one or more of these categories. Invite the Holy Spirit into all the decisions of our lives and see what happens when we trust and obey!

Deborah’s closing prayer contrasts the enemies of the Lord—who, like Sisera, come to their end in darkness—with the people who love God, who rise like the sun in all its power. The battle at Megiddo was more than just a conflict between opposing armies. It was a conflict between the forces of darkness and the forces of light. We have the choice to follow darkness or light.  We either love Christ and walk in the light, or we are His enemy and perish in the darkness. Consider the two choices prayerfully for it is a matter of Life or death!

Lord,

This is my story and this is my song.  You came to me as a child offering me salvation for my soul with the bonus of eternal life with you.  I chose you then; I choose you now.  I love you because you first loved me.  I give my life to you again this morning as an offering of gratitude to you. I seek your will and agenda for this day.  Thank you for daily cleansing my heart, renewing my mind, refreshing my soul, and restoring the joy of you in me and me in you.  This is a relationship that is intimate, growing stronger and sweeter day by day. To you be the glory! I’m not perfect and have not arrived; but I’m yours and I am perfectly forgiven and redeemed by your love forever!

In Jesus Name, Amen

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TWO WISE WOMEN OBEY GOD

Posted on May 17, 2025 by randscallawayffm

On the playground and in the classroom, teachers discover quickly the obvious cycle of disobedience in human behavior: 

  1. Disobedience to authority because our way provides instant gratification
  2. Denying the disobedience because, “everyone else is doing it”
  3. Lying about the disobedience, “she did it first so I thought it was okay”
  4. Rationalize and rank the disobedience, “what I did is not as bad as what he did”
  5. Admitting the sin without regret, “okay, I did it, but it didn’t hurt anyone”
  6. Giving up trying to defend the sin, “well, I suppose that is wrong”
  7. Repenting of the sin when it can be no longer hidden “I give up, you’re right, it was wrong”, but without sincerity.
  8. Offenders fall to their knees in humbled remorse for their disobedience, “I am so sorry. I do not want to do that again!”
  9. Realize the full measure of sin that affects everyone.  “Beg for forgiveness. Ask for merciful punishment; “Please forgive me, for I have sinned against you. I deserve punishment. Please be merciful.”
  10. Lead and teach me. “I’m ready to learn and grateful for your forgiveness.”

I am reminded of Jesus story of the Arrogant Pharisee and the Humbled Tax Collector. (See Luke 18-9-14) Bottom line; those who are honest before God; “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” will be justified before God. 

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul tells the world. (Romans 3:23” So, no one can boast of perfection!  God knows our hearts and gives us who we need.  God gave us a Perfect Savior to redeem us by taking the punishment we deserve but could not pay. Jesus who was without sin and died in our place for our punishment for sin.  Talk about mercy! —God is the definition of mercy demonstrated in his Son, Jesus!

This cycle of wrong doing called sin began with Adam and Eve. Sin, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord with defiance, continues as the children of God settle in the Promised Land. God gave the Land with a stipulation—remove all who do evil.  But they did not. 

God created a beautiful garden (no weed to pull) for his newly created man and woman to live.  Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, “in His image, they were created.” (Genesis 2)  Then sin with all practices to acquire to cover sin were introduced to them by God’s Enemy.  They fell for it, right in the middle of paradise.  They could live freely enjoying this beautiful, perfect place as long as they obeyed God’s one stipulation, “Don’t eat from this tree.”  But they ate.  Say what you will about how easily Adam and Eve fell; but we are tempted to do the same—and we do.  Since The Fall we are a hopeless lot of disobedient sinners until God sent Jesus to rescue all of us, once and for all.  He is our Hope!

Throughout the book of Judges, we will learn that the compassion of God cannot and does not fail.  God is faithful, even when His people are not faithful to Him.  In a culture where women are considered less than and certainly not equal to men by men; God tells us a story about Deborah, the Judge, who loved God. God gives this prophet of His, his wisdom to decide disputes. Deborah listened to God and told others what God said. She must have had committed heart for God, for committed hearts is what God looks for continuously to do His work with purpose and mission. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Deborah was a wise woman of God at a time when the Israelites “did evil in the eyes of God.” 

Ah, but wait, there’s another woman who bravely supported God’s mission…Jael!

Judges 4

Deborah

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 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 Jabin’s 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 don’t go with me, I won’t 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, 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 Barak’s 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 Sisera’s 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. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

19 “I’m 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, Heber’s 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 you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.

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.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We are not perfect.  Since the Fall, we were born into sin.  We are not good, even though we attempt to obey all the commandments of God. “Only God is good,” teaches Jesus. Fortunately, God does not seek perfection from us as much as He seeks a committed humbled heart of honesty.  God’s desire is for us to listen to Him and seek His wisdom.  God knows all and is in all.  God’s wants us to realize the deeply profound love He has for us that has no limits.  God is faithful and His compassions they fail not, cries out the lamenter of God; “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness!” Lamentations 3:22-23)

God chooses Deborah, the person with the strongest character to lead His people to victory at crucial times. The key elements for such leadership are faith, trust, and worship. For such a time as this; it was Deborah—who knew the culture but obeyed God’s mission as a woman of God.

Our response is to humbly ask God for His wisdom daily to guide us in all the details of our lives.  Ask God to help us develop our own character by imitation the characteristics of Christ—our Supreme Example; then imitate the godly characteristics of Christ. God answers sincere prayers such as this.  Paul writes of Jesus;

“Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:1-14

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”—Jesus, Luke 18:9-14

Jesus taught and demonstrated humility—a character trait we all must acquire and hold onto as we live wholeheartedly in the Presence of our loving, merciful God.

Oh Lord,

I, too, am a sinner in need of a daily cleansing as I rely on your redemption for sin.  All my faith, trust, love, and hope are in You for You are Life to me. I’m humbled, once again, for all you did to save my soul and all the souls who have called on your Name for redemption to be set free.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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LACK OF OBEDIENCE IS PROBLEMATIC

Posted on May 16, 2025 by randscallawayffm

“I’ll do as much as I can, Lord, but I don’t know if I can do all you say, exactly the way you tell me.”  Believers with committed faith in God see a multitude of problems with this statement. While you ponder, let’s continue. The faithful know God gives us purpose with His way to fulfil it.  We know God guides and provides all we need to fulfill His purpose, according to His plan; but when it gets really hard, our faith falters and we draw back from obeying all the details of His plan and look for easier ways out.

“God I’m only human.”  This way of thinking is dangerously close to thinking God is not sovereign after all and is asking us to do the impossible—without Him!  This mindset fixed only on ourselves and our abilities negates the power of God who lives in us!  Our lack of obedience to God who knows all and is in all with power over all will take us down a path of problems that we never dreamed would happen…because we are indeed human!

After all these years I can still hear my mom saying, “If you would have done it the way I told you to do it you wouldn’t be having this problem now.” Is that what God is thinking as He guides his disobedient Israelites back under his protection with compassionate, unending grace? 

Judges 3

These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.

5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

Othniel

7 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. 8 The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. 9 But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. 10 The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. 11 So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Ehud

12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.

15 Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18 After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. 19 But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”

The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.

20 Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. 23 Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.” 25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.

26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.

28 “Follow me,” he ordered, “for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped. 30 That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.

Shamgar

31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Bottomline: God told Israel to possess the Promised Land by ridding the land of all evil. But they did not.  God knew if they did not; they would intermingle with the remnants of evil left behind and succumb to their way of thinking and worship their idols, which eventually they did.  They were only human, after all.

God knew their hearts and longed for their obedience for their own good.  So, God used their self-inflicted problems caused by disobedience and raised up deliverers to save them.  Only God does that!  These deliverers were only human but fully trusted in God.  The power of His Holy Spirit filled them enabling them to overcome the messes created through disobedience and deliver Israel. 

God loved His created then and now for His love never ends. God provided deliverance when His people cried out to Him.  Time after time, God helped His disobedient people in ways beyond their thinking and dreaming.  God is faithful even when we are not. Are you humbled by this thought?  I am.

God loved and sent THE Deliverer.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3: 16-17 This is Jesus, Our Deliverer!

Jesus—God’s spirit and power, God in the flesh, came down from heaven and moved into the neighborhood of humanity with purpose.  (John 1) Jesus’ mission with purpose was to seek and to save the lost without God while reteaching who God is.  Jesus then willingly and obediently laid down his life for ours, fulfilling every detail of what God commanded and foretold through his prophets.  Jesus was, is, and is to come The Deliverer for all who believe.  Jesus was Son of Man (human) and Son of God (holy). Jesus who knew no sin became sin to pay for our sin.  Are you heaving a grateful sigh of gratitude right now? I am.

God’s Plan was for Jesus’ death on the cross to pay our debt in full; followed by Jesus’ resurrection from death three days later.  God’s best was giving to give us victory over death while solidifying our Hope of eternal life with Him!  Believe and be saved is the message and “only humans” can do that and then be filled with Power!  Get this and hang on to this Truth:  Our Deliverer releases and redeems us from the bondage of our sins and gives us power beyond our humanness to trust, obey and overcome all the troubles of this world because Jesus is the Overcomer of this world!  This is the secret, says Paul, “Christ in us!” (Colossians 1:42)

Nothing, absolutely nothing is too difficult for God. This means that when His Holy Spirit leads to it; He will lead us through it!  Only human?  Yes.  Christ in us? —Game changer.  Jesus changes everything!  The Light of the World!

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us not to fall for excuses of being “only human” when faced with hard stuff of life.  Help us instead to fully trusting in You and Your power working in us!  Help us to BE fully present and focused on you.  Help us to listen to you, allowing you to make us holy and moldable to your will.  Your will is who and what I seek. I know you will not disappoint. Guide all that I think, say, and do. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your compassions, they fail not indeed!  I am a mess with a message: “Christ in me!”

In Jesus Name for our good and Your Glory, Amen

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