JUDGES-RUTH-I SAMUEL

We had another great night at the Mission's Conference and I'm trusting that God is continuing to prepare hearts.  It has been a blessing and a convicting time as we look at the needs of a world that needs Christ.  We are just one church, but we must do what one can do.  I finished up Judges, read through Ruth, and got ten chapters into I Samuel today, and here are a few simple thoughts: 1) BROUGHT DOWN BY A WOMAN- Samson wasn't the first, and certainly hasn't been the last, but here we see that the strongest man on earth is brought down by a woman.  First it is the Philistine woman he sets his heart on to marry, who got from him the answer to his riddle (Judges 14:17 says "because she lay sore upon him"); and then it is Delilah who was told the secret of his strength.  (Judges 16:16 says:  "she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death.")  He was a strong and mighty man, but he allowed two women to bring him down!  Dear men of God.... beware!! 2) DIS-FUNCTIONAL FAMILY (DIS-FUNCTIONAL LAND)  In Judges 17, we have a picture of a dis-functional family, and the rest of Judges is about a dis-functional land.  We start off seeing in chapter 17 that Micah in verse two confesses to his mother, that the 11 hundred pieces of silver that was missing, was stolen by hm.  He tells his mother:  "I took it" (vs. 2)  Then his mother says that she had "wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image:"  (she dedicated 11 hundred pieces of silver to the LORD to make an image or idol,  which God would never want made or served.)  Then having just said she dedicated 11 hundred pieces of silver to the task.  She gives "two hundred shekels of silver" to the task in verse 4.  Where went the other 900?  Now here is the problem.... in verse 6 it says:  "but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."  The rest of the book is one dis-functional event after another.  You will have to read it to see it for yourself. 3) SPEAK LORD- In I Samuel 3:9 we read where Eli told Samuel to say:  "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth."   Oh, that we would say that tody.... Speak LORD, for thy servant heareth!  Let God know today that you are ready to listen to His voice, hear His Word, hear His counsel, follow His commands.  Speak LORD.... we are all ears! 4) EQUIP YOURSELVES LIKE MEN!  1 Samuel 4:9  "Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight." The phrase:  "quit yourselves like men" means to "act like a man".  It means to "equip yourself like a man".  (not quit like a man)  We need strong men of God who act like men, not whiny wimps!  Be a man dear man of God.  Compassionate... yes!  Caring..... yes!   But strong and resolved at the same time!  Be a man! Well, I have two more to write about, but I'm out of time.  Hope you have a blessed day!  Dr. Mike Mutchler, Pastor & Friend