Today’s Reading: Judges 12-13
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
Cana, where Jesus performed His first public miracle, the changing of water into wine, was also the hometown of one of the Twelve Apostles, Nathanael (John 21:2). Along the street leading to the Franciscan Wedding Church, a chapel marks Nathanael’s home. The Chapel of St. Nathanael is the place to read his words to Philip as they talked about Jesus. Some believe Nathanael’s famous but curious remark, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46), indicates some consternation that the hometown of the Messiah was the “ordinary” neighbouring village of Nazareth, no more noteworthy than his own.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verse: Judges 12:6
…then they would say to him, “Then say, ‘Shibboleth’!” And he would say, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.
There still are “wars and rumours of wars” as Jesus told us there would be (read Matthew 24:3-14). A new book by Joel Rosenberg, The Third Target, surely brings it all up to date. The same lands we read about in Judges is a boiling cauldron of satanically inspired evil, as it was in ancient times. I highly recommend Joel’s book as the best current read. King Abdullah of Jordan is front and centre! (click here to order The Third Target from the Crossroads eStore)
Four more Judges and 31 more years of peace and prosperity…then came one of the most unusual characters in all the Bible, Sampson. I’ve checked with experts on the historical and archaeological accuracy of this book, and it gets high marks from them all. Therefore, the stories about Sampson, no matter how hard to believe, are no doubt true also. Sampson’s birth tells us that God plans ahead for His future leaders. It also informs us that God uses very imperfect people for His purposes. We are all candidates for His call.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I thank You that You call imperfect people like me. I ask for Your continued grace and strength to take on humanly impossible tasks. I’m not asking for physical strength like Sampson, although a little would help. I’m asking for moral strength to be more like Jesus, in whose Name I pray. Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
My son-in-law’s parents are buried in the graveyard just behind the Church of Nathanael (photo above) in their home village of Cana of Galilee. Nizar and Ellen named their youngest of six children after the Apostle from Cana in whom Jesus found no guile (read John1:43 – John 2:12). I understand that Cana, located just 5 miles north of Nazareth, was the larger of the two communities. I find Nathanael’s comments, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth,” to show the human side of the Apostles…competition between the communities. My son-in-law was the heavy-weight boxing champion of the Galilee, and that’s my tenuous connection with Sampson for this blog. Nizar, like Sampson, has had to learn some very hard lessons in life. God is using him big time! (check yesterday’s blog at the end of my “100 Personal Words”).
Yours for our availability to God for His purposes,
David
Just a short walk away from Nizar Shaheen’s family homestead in Cana is the graveyard beside the Chapel of St. Nathanael (Franciscans) where Nizar’s parents are buried.
With so much talk about the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, I found this great write up on the Denison forum:
http://www.denisonforum.org/cultural-commentary/1364-3-reasons-you-must-not-see-fifty-shades-of-grey
May God guide us all in these troubling times.
Amen!
it is very said that someone actually produces movies that abuse men, women and children;
it is very sad that people actually act in thse movies; they get paid;
times today are the same as in Sodom and Gemorrah! Nothing has changed,, evil is all around, sin abounds, BUT we have a choice and that is to pray on our own and with others and pray “Our Father Who are in Heaven, Hallowed be thine Name, Thy Kingdom come”…..Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…….we all know the rest.
The pictures of Cana and the Chapel of St. Nathanael along with the graves of Nazar’s parents are special, thank you for sharing these with us.
Also for your comments affirming the scriptures and the uniqueness of Samson, imperfect, but chosen by God for His purpose. I’m so glad that God uses imperfect people like me.
And that He is faithful to “complete that which he began in me”, for His purpose.
My prayer for you Rev. David this day is for our Lord Jesus to continue to strengthen and encourage you in all you do for His purpose.
Thank you Lynda for the link you provided regarding the movie “Fifty Shades of Grey.” If that is what it is about, you are right, we do not need anymore emphasis on pornography and abuse of women than that which already exists.
Amen, Irene4. Today a dear lady, Mary, is in turmoil as her husband struggles with his remaining frail breaths. She visits him EVERY DAY faithfully at the nursing home. She brings her beautiful young daughter with her. Things do not look good just now. Extreme measures are being taken to assist him. I told her I would phone 100 Huntley St. for prayer and she was very thankful for that. Ernie has Parkinsons. thanks for prayers.
Thanks, Lynda, for the link to the article. I am praying women do not give into reading this book so as not to be led into the world of erotica or pornography or bondage. Women are abused enough. There needs to be an end to this.
Doreen, I pray for your friend Mary, and her husband, Ernie. I pray that God takes him quickly and gently. My father died of Parkinson’s and I can relate to the turmoil she and her daughter are experiencing. Strength to her and the family and peace to Ernie for God to take him so that he does not endure anymore suffering.
Seek Ye First
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juVNbDoz4Ig
Matthew 6:33 KJV
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Dear Saints, today’s message from Streams in the Desert was very profound, and I wanted to share it with you:
The hill country shall be thine (Joshua 17:18, RV).
There is always room higher up. When the valleys are full of Canaanites, whose iron chariots withstand your progress, get up into the hills, occupy the upper spaces. If you can no longer work for God, pray for those who can. If you cannot move earth by your speech, you may move Heaven. If the development of life on the lower slopes is impossible, through limitations of service, the necessity of maintaining others, and such-like restrictions, let it break out toward the unseen, the eternal, the Divine.
Faith can fell forests. Even if the tribes had realized what treasures lay above them, they would hardly have dared to suppose it possible to rid the hills of their dense forest-growth. But as God indicated their task, He reminded them that they had power enough. The visions of things that seem impossible are presented to us, like these forest-covered steeps, not to mock us, but to incite us to spiritual exploits which would be impossible unless God had stored within us the great strength of His own indwelling.
Difficulty is sent to reveal to us what God can do in answer to the faith that prays and works. Are you straitened in the valleys? Get away to the hills, live there; get honey out of the rock, and wealth out of the terraced slopes now hidden by forest.
–Daily Devotional Commentary
Got any rivers they say are uncrossable,
Got any mountains they say “can’t tunnel through”?
We specialize in the wholly impossible,
Doing the things they say you can’t do.
–Song of the Panama builders.
Streams in the Desert
February 13th
We are studying the Bible, not streams in the desert, whatever that is. I have enough to read on this blog 7 days a week.
I agree I mentioned a while back that I would appreciate this blog coming 5 days a week…I know a person can read it any time but It means alot to be able to read daily with others. Mr. Manise if you read this please consider some changes the next time around….
as for abuse to women well, the Bible had porn and harlots and everything that we have today….nothing new there and society is left with all the brokenness…..and as back then when Jesus was on earth, there was and still is a shortage of help for borken people. we are the church, we the people of God, and sometimes it gets so “RUSHED’ WITH TRYING TO HELP, sometimes I get so drained and all I can do is pray…. nothing has changed from the times of the Bible, a murder in the 2nd of chater of Geneses???? sin is all around, it was there also, and still here, and Christians need to continue to pray, to serve others, in thought, words and deeds. John 13:34 is a Valentine for everyone. Please read it.
blessings