April 1, 2012 … KOKO In Christ !!!

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Judges, Chapters 8-9 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

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Highlight Reference Passage : Judges 8: 28-35 … 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 [i.e., Gideon] 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.

My Journal for Today: Reading through the closing chapters on Gideon as a Judge for the Israelites (see linked chapters for your reading), we see that Gideon, once he surrendered to God’s leadership, under the guidance and authority of Yahweh and the Old Covenant, he was successful; and for many years he did well in leading Gods’ people, following His Lord; but as we read in the highlighted passages above, Gideon did not finish well.

We read in Judges 8: 28-35 that his later life was tinged by a lack of moral/sexual purity. He had many wives and likely many concubines (having 70 sons – and who knows how many daughters). And like we’ll later see in the life of Solomon, this lack of sexual vigilance produced one son, Abmelek, who later became a rotten apple, trying to become king and leading the people back into Baal worship (see Chapter 9 from the link above).

What this says to me – and probably should say to all Christians – has to do with steadfastness of faith. Our Christian lives are much better compared with a marathon than a sprint. Once our lives are converted and our eternal heavenly future is sealed by God’s grace because we have come into the family of God in faith, we begin the process of letting God’s Spirit reform us into the image of Christ (see Phil. 1: 6); but that process (i.e., sanctification), which God will accomplish, is either hastened and facilitated by our steadfastness and vigilance or, if we fail, it is retarded and dampened.

Gideon is an example of one who surrendered in faith (with some degree of wrestling) to God; but over the course of his life, he waned in vigilance and the “stickability” to finish his marathon well; and viewing what transpired after his death, we see [at least in my estimation] that his lack of spiritual vigilance and steadfast faith resulted in God’s people falling away from God’s will. And when that happened, the cycle of sinful and idolatrous living once again caused God to have to force the issue by His people being cast – for a season of selective abandonment – into subjugation by the pagan cultures which consumed God’s people.

Sure, God would stay with His children and discipline them over and over again. But these cycles of disobedience and subjugation were so unnecessary … just as are the consequences of sinful living in the life of Christians. Satan cannot have our souls once we’re saved; but he can have a temporary victory in our lives if we cannot, or more likely, will not, stay in vigilant surrender mode to the ways and will of God. It is only through living a vigilant and well disciplined marathon of Christlike faith that we can and will remain powerful in being able to witness and carry out God’s will and purpose for our lives.

May we all keep-on-keeping-on in our relationship, walk, and witness for Christ in our lives, shining His light into an ever darkening world and allowing others to see us wearing His robes of righteousness rather than displaying our rags of sin when we let our vigilance wane for even a moment.

Stay strong, my fellow warrior; and become that “hero” which God saw in Gideon before this Judge let his life slowly fall apart. I don’t know about you, my fellow Christian, on this April 1st; … but I want to remain vigilant and God’s warrior rather than becoming Satan’s April Fool.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, I run the race, this marathon of living, doing all I can to remain strong by surrendering to Your grace in my life. Amen

January 16, 2012 … Traveling Through Life In Faith And In Fear

[Note: Click on map to see a larger view - then click on "renew/restore" on your browser to return to the blog for reading]

Passage of the Day: Chapter/Verse Reference: Genesis, Chapters 12-15 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Genesis 12: 1-4: … [Abram Goes Out in Faith] … 1 The Lord had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. 2 "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
Genesis 12: 10-13: … [Abram Travels In Fear] … 10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are.12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live.13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."


My Journal for Today: Moving back from the Book of Job, in my chronological read through the Bible this year, the reading plan has me (and any reading with me) to go back into Genesis; … this time doing a read into God’s calling of Abram (later, of course, to be renamed “Abraham” by God). And here, mostly focusing on Chapter 12 in my journaling today, we see how great and how small a believer’s faith can be as they travel through life; and Abram is a prime example of a follower of God having a rather schizoid faith.

At the outset of Chapter 12 in Genesis, our highlighted hero, Abram, is living in the land of Ur, which, you can see on the attached map above [click on image to enlarge for viewing], is now located in modern Iraq, very close to where the supposed garden of Eden might have been, near where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join. Abram was a very wealthy Bedouin sheepherder, traveling the deserts of the Chaldean region of that area. And for whatever reason, God chose Abram to be the father of two so-called great nations … that of the Jewish line and that of the Arab line of peoples, both who claim “Abraham” as their “father.”

And what the Holy Spirit has impressed on my reading today is the vacillation in faith exhibited by the one Chaldean tribesman with whom God chose to bring His everlasting covenant of salvation [which you will read about in Genesis, Chapter 15 of today’s reading plan]. Note, however, in reading above in the early verses of Chapter 12, God calls Abram, likely through a dream or vision, to pick up his family and all he has and head northward. And without much contemplation, Abram, in full surrender to God’s call, pulled up stakes, followed God, and moved to Haran (also spelled “Harran”), which on the map provided above is about 600 miles northwest … from what is now southern Iraq, moving to southern Turkey … a significant trek with all of Abram’s family and belongings. Yes, Bedouins in that time were used to picking up and moving to find water or food; but this was a major move; and God had not told Abram where to go. God just said GO “… to the land I will show you;” … and Abram, in faith, went.

Now, that is a model of surrendered faith to God’s will or His call on our life. And one might assume that Abram will continue – in our study of his life in Scripture – to be a compliant model of faith. However, just a few verses later in Chapter 12, we read of Abram balking in fear as He was called by God to move down to Egypt from living near Jerusalem to avoid a famine; and again Abram followed God’s leading. However, when he approached Egypt we see this Spirit-led “man of faith” become a very human “man of fear” as he hatches a scheme with his wife, Sarai, to play the role of his full-blood sister (actually she was his half-sister, though being his wife) to avoid Pharaoh taking her into his harem and claiming all of Abram’s wealth. Well, we know the outcome from Genesis. The scheme worked and Pharaoh expelled her and sent Abram on his way; but we know that these schemes only worked because of God’s mercy and His covenant with Abram to take Abram’s descendents into a promise land, which, again was based on Abram’s faith.

All of this speaks volumes to my heart; and being a man of faith who can, in times of challenge, become a man of fear, I’m lifted up by the fact that God has given me the hope of His eternal NEW COVENANT, which is far superior to the OLD COVENANT which inspired Abram, later to become “Abraham,” to follow God in faith. I know, because of God’s covenant of salvation (see Romans 10: 9 -13) which was perfected and completed in the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God, my Savior and Lord, Jesus, I can and will find the promised land of glory with God, the Father, because I’ve placed my faith in Jesus, as Lord and Savior, Who died to save even sinners of wavering faith like Abram and Bill Berry.

Praise God that He sees in Bill Berry, just as he did in Abram, enough faith and something of purpose to call me to be with my LORD forever. In doing so, I will one day be in Heaven, with Abraham, worshipping Our Savior and Messiah, Jesus. And now that our God has called me, and I have come as did Abram, in faith, … He will do what He promised, through Paul in Phil. 1: 6 … to complete me and reshape me into the image of the One Who died to give me His forever covenant of everlasting life.

My Prayer Today: … To God be the glory! And HALLELUJAH! … Amen

Map of Abram's Journey ...

2010 – September 23 – The Pedigree of Faith

Study from God’s Word… Ezra 1: 1-6 [2Chron 26: 22-23], Ezra, Chapters 1 – 3, Ezra 4: 1-6 … Passage for Reflection: Ezra 2: 59 … NIV The following came up from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended from Israel.

My Journal for Today: You know there are many today who call themselves “Christian” because their parents identified themselves as “Christian.” Family traditions can be very important to self identification, but nowhere near today are family religious ties as important as it was for the displaced Hebrew people at the time of the book of Ezra, from which today’s text arises.

The Jews who had been in captivity from Babylon, the Medes, and the Persians for over 70 years were now allowed in 538 BC to return to the City of David, … Jerusalem. This repatriation occurred by the edict of King Cyrus of Persia, an event which exactly fulfilled the prophesy of Jeremiah; and it released the captive Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild their Temple. Oh how important for the descendants of Abraham to be identified as a “Jew” in those days. However, there were many, as chronicled in today’s text, who could not prove their Jewish lineage, which would prove very problematic for these people. Hence we see the many genealogical lists in the Old Testament (i.e., Old Covenant) Scripture. For Jewish traditions, it was even important in the New Testament for God’s word to establish the genealogical record of Jesus, the Christ, Who was, being a descendant of Abraham’s, the very fulfillment of the Old Covenant.

Today, in the New Covenant, established by Jesus Christ, we don’t have to be able to trace our spiritual lineage back to be in the family of Abraham by genetic/physical genealogical records. Our way of proving that we are part of the Family of God, being Children of God, is by faith, not genealogy. All I have to do, which I have done, to be grafted into the Family of God is to repent of my sin, believing that Jesus is The Christ, Who died for my sin on Calvary and was raised again to allow me to be grafted into the Family of God through my faith in Him.

So, no one today should be claiming to be in God’s family, who is identifying himself/herself as a “Christian,” because their family were/are Christians. No, our family ties to God are established by our faith in the Son of God, who loved us enough to become the Lamb of God, dying on the cross so that all who believe on Him might be saved and become Children of God (see 1st John 5: 10-12 and Romans 10: 9 – 13); and if – in faith – any of us comply to God’s established way of giving us access to His eternal family tree, we are in the family of God; and the Angels have celebrated in Heaven over our being grafted into God’s family.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I say “Hallelujah” that I am part of the family of God. Amen