Sunday Morning in Judges and Ruth

I did not blog yesterday.  A busy day.  I did have a devotion for men with the passage of Scripture on "a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again."  Just men do fall, and the can fall often (seven times), but they do get back up and keep serving God!  I spoke on "How to Get Back Up".  Here is the outline:  1. Humbly-Your humility expresses to God your humanity and desire to serve Him.  2. Repentant- Godly sorrow over our sin should always be a part of getting back up once sin has tripped us up.  Don't just sluff it off, be repentive and see the sin as horrible as God sees it.  (no matter the sin)  3. Observant- learn from your fall.  What should you now avoid.  The Bible tells us to avoid temptation, not sin.  Avoiding one will keep you from the other!  4. Resistant- "ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin."  Every day be mindful of Satan's desire to trip you up and God's strength available to keep you from falling, and say to yourself:  "The fight is on!"  Resist the devil and he will flee from you!  Well, this was  yesterday's devotion to men and I believe it helped the many good men who attend. Today, I'm in Judges, and here is a thought or two.  1) WINE, WOMEN, AND WEALTH- Samson was the strongest man upon the earth, but these three tripped him up!  Took his strength, and caused his death.  He drank wine and that was against his Nazarite vow, He went after women who were ungodly and became the same, and poured out his heart to a woman who destroyed him, and wealth in that he made up a riddle about the lion to get wealth from 30 men, and then had to go in a rage and get the garments off of men he attacked to pay for them answering the riddle.  These same three things attack men of all sizes, and ages.  Don't let your guard down men of God.... stay away from them! 2) FIGHTING FOR WRONG!  In Judges 19, certain "men of Belial" wanted to have homosexual sex with a Levite.  At Bethlehem-judah.  He offered to them his concubine and they abused her all night unti the morning and then she died.  How wicked!!  How very wicked.  The nation of Israel is then called together to deal with this terrible sin at the end of the chapter, and in chapter 20, the nation goes against these men of Benjamin.  BUT... instead of dealing with the sin of their tribe, the men of Benjamin "gather themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel."  They were fighting for wrong!!  They were indeed fighting men, but when you are on the wrong side, it doesn't matter much.  They eventually lost and the men were destroyed and they were not to marry other women from the other tribes.  Homosexuals were again wiped out in the Old Testament.  How our courts today fight for wrong! 3) UNDER WHOSE WINGS- Boaz asked the LORD to bless Ruth, with and "recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust."  Wow!  We too are under those same wings of God that protect and provide for us.  Praise the LORD! Well, so much for today.  May God richly bless you "under whose wings thou art come to trust".  Pastor Mike Mutchler