April 30

Judges 11:1-12:15, John 1:1-28, Psalm 101:1-8, Proverbs 14:13-14

Pray: Lord, today I am reminded of the beauty of the serenity prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

Read: No person should be blamed for what happens when they are born. Why allow things that are out of your control to burden you. There is every evidence that Jephthah was a sincere worshiper of the Lord and that he knew the scriptures. He knew that the law prohibited human sacrifice and that God would not have given the Israelites victory if that were what they were doing. God’s laws are not just to keep us from doing “fun” stuff. They are meant to protect us and keep us from all sorts of danger and sin.

Edify: John chapter one is meant to take us back to creation and show us the divinity of Jesus without question. The format of his book begins like Genesis and shows us that Jesus is God and was with God from the very beginning. But the beauty of the opening of the book of John is that it also shows us the miracle of God becoming like man and putting on human flesh. John tells us that He did all of this so that you and I could have the right to become God’s children too!

Practice: Let’s imitate John the Baptist and be in the world but not of the world. Let us lay down our ministries and titles and agendas and simply proclaim as he did “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”