May 1

Judges 13:1 – 14:20, John 1:29-51, Psalms 102:1-28, Proverbs 14:15-16



Pray: Heavenly Father, today I want to begin with giving You the honor and praise for the beauty of Your creation. You set the stars into place and gave the sun and moon their course in the sky. You created the wonder of all living things of which I am a part and, although undeserving, You have given me another day to live for You. Help me to make the most of this day that You have given me and may I truly be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ today and always. Amen.

Read: Such a power packed set of readings today… We are introduced to Samson at his birth and read up to his marriage and the riddle he gave to the people of the village of the woman that he wanted to be his wife. As a result of her treachery, we see the first signs of Samson’s strength given by the Holy Spirit. Our New Testament readings tell us of John the Baptist's proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah that everyone has been waiting for, as well as, Jesus calling His first disciple to follow Him.

Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed with the struggles of life and wondering how things could ever get better? The psalmist writes today for those occasions and reminds us that there is peace and comfort found in the Lord. 

Edify: Proverbs tells us that it is prudent to be cautious as to the way that we progress about going ahead with plans. There is a need to measure the costs along the way. Would you build a house without first considering what it would cost? Would you build it without a good set of plans and drawings? Would you attempt to build it without knowing what you are getting yourself into? There are many who do that very thing… maybe not with a house, but in other areas… buying a car, entering into a relationship, etc. There are costs for everything that we do. Some are worth it while others aren’t. It is important to consider everything before jumping headfirst into something. 

Practice: When Jesus called His first disciples in our reading today, He didn’t have to say a word. Did you notice that? John notices whom Jesus was and describes Him as the Messiah and John’s followers left John and went to follow Jesus. Would you be so bold as to leave everything to follow Jesus? Would people be able to look at you and know that you are a follower of Christ? Today, take an inventory of your walk with Christ. Are you a Sunday morning Christian where your only real interaction with Jesus is on Sunday or are you a seven day a week follower of Christ where people know you must be a follower of Christ because of your life?

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.”

April 29

Judges 9:22-10:18, Luke 24:13-53, Psalm 100:1-5, Proverbs 14:11-12 



Pray: Father, help us today to see Jesus on every page of the Bible and may our hearts burn within us just as the two men on the road to Emmaus were pricked at the heart as Jesus revealed Himself to them through the scriptures, Amen.

Read: No great deeds of valor are recorded for either Tola or Jair, but they gave the nation forty-five years of peace. No foreign invaders are named, so these two judges served by solving the internal problems in the nation of Israel. These two seemed to be administrators rather than generals and God knows that at certain times you need both. When there are no battles to fight or trials to overcome, we sometimes take our blessings for granted, which can lead to laziness and sin. The people forgot God again and worshiped the gods of the enemy, and God had to punish them by an invasion by the Ammonites. The confession in verse 10 of chapter 10 seems insincere and only because of the suffering. It wasn’t until verse 15 when it is also followed by repentance that it moves from regret to true confession of the heart.

Edify: Jesus appearing to the men of the road to Emmaus is one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible. I love that these men tell Jesus about Jesus. Just imagine, the first two men to share the Gospel with Jesus! But what really makes this passage great is that Jesus shares with the two men from the Old Testament all about Himself and how all that was written before pointed to Him!

Practice: I hope we can read our Old Testament passages with a Gospel lens. Looking for Jesus to reveal Himself just as He showed Himself to the disciples, beginning with Moses and ALL the prophets.

April 28

Judges 8:18-9:21, Luke 23:44-24:12, Psalm 99:1-9, Proverbs 14:9-10 



Pray: Lord, You sit enthroned in heaven in all Your glory and holiness! You are exalted over all the peoples, may we praise Your great and awesome name! You are our great King and in Your might You love justice. May we worship at Your feet today, Amen.

Read: Gideon was a leader called of God, but Abimelech appointed himself and murdered his own brothers to become the leader. Absalom and Adonijah would make this same mistake and pay for it dearly. Jotham’s parable reveals that there is a price to pay for true leadership. Others had paid the price for Abimelech to rule, but he had sacrificed nothing on his own. A true leader must serve the people. But if good men and women will not pay the price and lead well, we will always get men like Abimelech. Abimelech’s sins eventually caught up with him, but he certainly did a lot of damage to his family and his people first.

Edify: I don’t believe there is a more powerful passage in all of scripture than to read of the resurrection of Jesus. It was too amazing for the disciples to even comprehend and when the women tell them, the scriptures tell us that they thought it was an idle tale. They soon realized that this was no joke at all and that Jesus had risen from the dead!

Practice: Let us live today remembering that our God is alive and not dead. He has risen and so have we from the old life of sin and death. Praise be to God!

April 27

Judges 7:1-8:17, Luke 23:13-43, Psalm 97:1-98:9, Proverbs 14:7-8 



Pray: God, we never know when You are using the every day things of life to test our faith. The men in Gideon’s army were tested by the way they drank water. Lord, help us to be on guard so that when we are tested we will remain faithful to You. Amen.

Read: Imagine 32,000 Israelites facing 135,000 Midianites, talk about being outnumbered. This is exactly the kind of situation that the Lord uses to glorify His Name. When God is on your side the size of the enemy doesn’t matter. The only true enemy was in the hearts of Gideon’s army. So God cut down their numbers even more from 10,000 to 300, so that the army had to trust completely in God. When God strips away those things in our life that we are trusting in for our safety or even for our prosperity, it’s not to make us poor or to put us in danger but to strengthen our faith in God.

Edify: There is so much we can be encouraged by as we read of the loving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. One moment that sticks out to me is that thief next to Jesus seeking to be saved. This man is the perfect example for us that our works will not save us. There was nothing this man could ever do to earn righteousness with Jesus. His hands and feet were literally nailed to a cross and yet Jesus tells the man “today you will be with me in paradise.” The grace of God is truly a gift!

Practice: Join me in seeking to be fully aware of opportunities for our faith to be tested just like Gideon’s men, that we might be faithful even in the small things each day.

April 26

Judges 6:1-40, Luke 22:54-23:12, Psalm 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 14:5-6 



Pray: Lord, I pray that we will trust You without needing to “put out a fleece”. I pray that we will trust Your will without You having to verify. Lord, often I seek signs for reassurance and I recognize this as weak faith. May I take You at Your Word today and obey. Amen.

Read: Gideon was an unlikely candidate for being Judge in Israel much less to be in the Hebrews “hall of faith”. When God found Gideon he was hiding. When God spoke to him he raised problems instead of trusting God. It seems like as we read this chapter, one of Gideon’s favorite words was “if”. When Gideon starts to obey God, he worked at night and had to have repeated reassurances that God would do what He said He would. Nevertheless, God stuck with Gideon and was faithful to accomplish His plans.

Edify: Pilate wanted to get rid of Jesus as quickly as possible and really wanted nothing to do with Jesus. He ends up condemning an innocent man to death and freeing a guilty one. Herod wanted to see Jesus do a miracle! The evil king would make the Son of God into a jester for his entertainment. I wonder if we don’t subtly fall into the categories of either wanting nothing to do with Jesus or just wanting Jesus to do something for us. I pray we see Him rightly as our true Savior and Lord seeking to do His will and asking what we can do for Him!

Practice: Our Psalm tells us to shout to the Lord, I wonder when the last time it was that we literally yelled out in excitement over who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Let’s shout to the Lord this day!

April 25

Judges 4:1-5:31, Luke 22:35-53, Psalm 94:1-23, Proverbs 14:3-4



Pray: Lord, I love the prayer of the Psalmist today “When I thought, my foot slips, your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” Thank You Father that You watch our every step and You keep our feet on solid ground. Amen.

Read: In today’s Old Testament reading from Judges we see an interesting story of how the commander of the Canaanite army Sisera came to an unlikely death. He went into a tent owned by Jael the wife of Heber and while he was laying in the tent Jael took a tent peg and drove it into his head! Ouch! Deborah who was the prophetess and Judge over Israel at that time had heard from the Lord that Sisera would be delivered into the hands of the Israelites, they just didn’t know the way that it would happen. Often times we are asked to trust the Lord even if we don’t know the way the Lord will work on our behalf, no matter how strange it may be.

Edify: Even Jesus, when facing difficulty knelt down and prayed. He encouraged His disciples to pray that they not enter into temptation and then we read that He prayed with such intensity and agony that great drops of blood fell from Him as He sweat. Jesus modeled the passion and intensity in which we ought to pray to the Father. When we are facing trials that seem unbearable our only hope is to pray earnestly to a loving Father that hears our prayers!

Practice: Our practice should be to remember to go to the Father in prayer in every situation remembering that we are to pray with passion and intensity and not get caught up in the routine that we can sometimes turn our prayers into.