Month: November 2016

The Consequences of Disobedience

 

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Everyone faces the consequences of their sin every day.

Maybe you disobeyed your parents and got grounded. Maybe your mom or dad got pulled over for speeding. No matter how big or small the sin, there are always consequences.

In today’s passage from Judges 16:4-22, we will see the horrible consequences Samson faced when he disobeyed God’s law and did what he wanted instead.

When we look at Chapter 16, verse 4 shows Samson’s horrible mistake right away. He committed adultery with a woman he wasn’t married to, which God commands against in Exodus 20:14, where He says, “You shall not commit adultery.” 

To make matters worse, this woman, whose name is Delilah, is a Philistine, not an Israelite. God told Israel not to marry women from other nations to protect them from being drawn into those women’s false idol worship. Solomon made this same mistake years later, in 1 Kings 11:2, which says, “They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.”

Clearly, Samson is already breaking two big commands from God. However, things get worse.

The Philistines wanted to capture Samson because of all the times he had attacked them, but they first had to find out the secret to his superhuman strength, which was his long hair. He had never cut his hair as part of a vow to God.

They convinced Samson’s new lover, Delilah, to find out Samson’s secret for them. When Delilah tries to find out the secret in Verses 6-14, Samson lies to her 3 times, further adding to his sin.

Samson should have ran far away from Delilah the first time she tried to get him to spill the beans, but instead, he continued living in sin with her for many days, lying the whole time.

In the end, in Verses 15-21, he finally tells Delilah the reason for his enormous strength, and Delilah has his head shaved in his sleep. This is further disobedience against God, since Samson had vowed never to cut his hair. The consequences come quickly when the Philistines capture Samson and brutally gouge his eyes out, putting him in prison for the rest of his life.

Samson ended up losing his freedom and sight, all because of his disobedience to God.

So what can we learn from this extreme example?

The truth is that every single sin we commit has consequences, whether we know it or not. We will never, ever get away with a single sin.

Sometimes it might seem like we have gotten away with doing something wrong.

Maybe no one found out that you snuck out of the house one night, or no one saw you steal candy from the grocery store. The truth is, though, that God sees every single sin, even if no one on earth has, and He will bring those secret sins into the light, judging every single one. (Ecclesiastes 12:14, Romans 2:16)

You can escape man, but no one can ever escape God, no matter where you go.

Everyone has sin, whether it’s secret or not, so what do we do to fix this judgement that God says He’s going to bring on them?

The answer is in Jesus Christ.

If you have given your life to Christ, know that your sins are forgiven. Now live your life for God, doing your best through His power to get rid of sin in your life and asking forgiveness when you don’t. And most importantly, tell others this good news that has changed your life so much. Jesus tells us in the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations.

That is a command for every Christian, so we all need to be working our hardest to tell everyone we know about Jesus, who has saved us from the consequences of our sin.

Finally, if you do not know Jesus, know that He came to take God’s judgement for your sin upon Himself on the cross when He died. All you have to do is confess and turn away from your sins and trust in Jesus for your salvation, choosing to live your life for Him from now on.

If you do this, you will have new life in Christ and be saved from the wrath.

If you have never given your life to God, do that today!

It is so important. You don’t have to be like Samson, stuck in your sin and facing horrible consequences. Just turn to Jesus today.

Johnathan

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What is a time where you have disobeyed God and suffered the consequences?
  2. Who can you share the good news of the Gospel with today?
  3. Have you accepted Christ as your savior?

Good Morning Guys Resources {Judges 16-21}

judges-16-21-resources-for-guys

 

Welcome back to the Good Morning Guys Study through Judges!

If you’re new, feel free to jump right in and follow along. Everything you need for this week is below, including this week’s Bible Reading Plan, Reflection Questions, and Verses of the Day.  Don’t forget to check back on Friday for my weekly blog post.

Here’s This Week’s Bible Reading Plan

Monday – Judges 16

Tuesday – Judges 17

Wednesday – Judges 18

Thursday – Judges 19

Friday – Judges 20-21

The Reflection Questions for the Week

{These questions are included inside the journal .  If you do not have the journal, I encourage you to reflect on these questions and answer them in your notebook.}

Monday-Chapter 16:

Samson’s choice to follow his own human nature allowed him to be captured by his enemies.

Name a time when you ignored God’s instructions and you failed.

Tuesday-Chapter 17:

During these times, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

What problems arise when we all do what we feel is right instead of seeking out God’s counsel first?

Wednesday-Chapter 18:

The priest was easily convinced to help those who robbed Micah with the promise of a promotion.

Have you ever been placed in a situation where you had to choose between personal desires and God’s desires?

Thursday-Chapter 19:

The Levite and the man of the house protected themselves over the protection of the women in the home. They selfishly did what was right in their own eyes.

Selfishness hurts those around us, especially those in our own home. Do you struggle with selfishness in your home?

Friday-Chapter 20:

God waited until Israel was willing to confront their own sin before delivering the victory to them against the tribe of Benjamin.

Is there something God is attempting to get you to confront so that He can bless you?

Chapter 21:

The tribe of Benjamin was allowed to rebuild after they had been dealt with.

Name a time that you had to rebuild certain areas of your own life to get back on track with God.

The Verses of the Day

Monday: O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me-Judges 16:28

Tuesday: In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes-Judges 17:6

Wednesday: Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord-Judges 18:6

Thursday: Peace be to you-Judges 19:20

Friday: Purge evil-Judges 20:13

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes-Judges 21:25

 

Don’t forget to join me out on Instagram every morning at GuysInTheWord.

I’ll see you back here this Friday as we wrap-up our week of Bible Study.

Johnathan

You Can’t Live Life Alone

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Have you tried to do anything without God’s help before?

Many times we try to do things our own way, and by our own strength. We forget to ask God for His help and guidance when life gets rough.

This is because we don’t actually trust God when He says that He “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.” (Romans 8:28, NASB)

We forget that He is in control, so we try to control the situation ourselves. However, we should look to the example of Samson in this week’s passage to see how we should respond when things get rough in our lives.

This week we will be specifically looking at Judges 15:18-19.

These verses tell the story of Samson after he had just finished defeating the enemy Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. At the beginning of Chapter 15, Samson had tried to visit his wife, who was a Philistine, only to discover that her dad had given her to another man to marry! Understandably, Samson was very angry, so he got revenge on the Philistines by burning up all their crops. The Philistines tried to come and kill Samson, but Samson fought and killed 1,000 of them with the jawbone of a donkey, defeating their army. It was a great victory for Samson and Israel, given to them by God.

After the battle, in our story today, Samson is in the wilderness where the battle had just taken place. He was understandably very tired and thirsty, but since he was in the desert, there was nothing at all to drink!

Samson was sure he was going to die of thirst out in the desert, but He knew he could rely on God to save him.

Samson cried out to God in Verse 18 and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the Philistines?”

He gave God glory for the victory, and then asked Him to rescue him from his certain death in the wilderness. In verse 19, God came through for Samson by splitting the ground open and causing water to gush out! Samson was miraculously saved.

We can learn so much from this story of Samson’s deadly problem and God’s miraculous provision.

When life is good, we tend to forget about God. When we forget about God, we don’t seek His council when trying to make decisions, and instead try to make everything work for ourselves.

Maybe we want to date someone, or we want to get a job, or we want to buy a car. Whatever it is, when we don’t trust God in those decisions, it always inevitably leads to failure.

Instead, we must learn to trust God in the good times by looking to Him in His word and through prayer for advice when we are making these decisions. Only then will we be truly successful because only then will we be following God’s will.

When we are in a difficult situation, we often lose sight of God as well. Instead of turning to Him to help us, we try and figure things out ourselves.

The problem is, we aren’t able to bear our burdens by ourselves. God didn’t make us that way. God made us to rely on Him when we are struggling. This is what gives God the most glory.

When we are going through rough times, God wants us to cry out to Him in prayer like Samson did, so He can come to our rescue. This gives God glory because we acknowledge our weakness and God is glorified as strong in saving and helping us.

You can not live life without God, whether in good times or bad. Always look to God when making decisions, and thank Him for your many blessings, because none of us deserve the many blessings we have been given by God. And when life gets rough, follow Samson’s example and cry out to God for help. He will never abandon you.

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What is something you are trying to do your own way instead of trusting God?
  2. How has God helped you make it through a difficult time in your life?

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