Old Jerry

The rolling barley leaf in the Midianite’s dream meant that Gideon was going to go down to their camp and smash them all. I think that the Lord showed Gideon this dream to give him more courage to follow Him further.

I don’t see any significance in selecting the “lappers” from the “kneelers”. I think it was just God’s way of picking those He wanted to do the battle for Him.

We demand that God’s directions make sense to us before we’ll follow them because we don’t know how we will be able to accomplish the task if we don’t understand the instructions. But the spiritual danger maybe that we never understand and therefore never accomplish what God has in mind for us to do. I think when we ask God for some kind of conformation of what we are about to do like Gideon did, we know that God will use spiritual people whose discernment we trust to confirm those tasks assigned to us.

God felt that Gideon’s army was too large because if they had won then they would have thought it had been by their own strength and not the strength of God. The shrinking of the army’s size to a tiny band was essential in restoring Israel’s faith and allegiance because with such a small band of army personnel they would have known that it wasn’t by their own strength that they had won. The kind of pressures that Gideon would have felt by not obeying God to shrink this army would have been one of defeat. He knew that it was God who called him to this task and he know he had no idea of how to accomplish it so he needed to do what God had told him to do. Gideon was able to obey God in this task because he knew the commands were coming from God.

Gideon put out a fleece before the Lord twice because he wanted to be sure that it was really what He wanted. I think it was a sign of belief because if Gideon hadn’t believed in the Lord he wouldn’t have even put this request before Him. I don’t think that it constitute a “testing” of God. It was just a reassurance that he understood him correctly. This differs from the sinful testing of God the scripture warns against is because this was not for a selfish reason it was just for reassurance. I have asked God to confirm his direction with a sign and that has always been when I wasn’t two sure what He wanted me to do. The danger of demanding a sign is that maybe you won’t be completing the task that he assigned you because you are always trying to find a way out.

The thing that inspired Gideon to blow the battle horn and summons an army against the Midianites was God. The Spirit of the Lord was put into Gideon. The thing that Gideon had in common with the other judges and leaders of this era was it was the Spirit of the Lord that put the calling into them also.

The kind of leader that Gideon’s father Joash has been up to this point is to yield to whatever comes along. He was pleasing the town’s people and he had his Jewish religion that he was following. But Gideon’s action affected his father because he had to stick up for his son and not turn him over the towns’ people. I don’t think that Gideon should have considered the impact on his father because God had told him to do the things that he did. The impact on is father would have just been an excuse not to obey God. The sense that Joash is a flower of Yahweh was in his statement that if Baal was a god then he would have been able to protect himself.

The strategic significance of God’s command for Gideon to tear down the Baal altar and the Asherah pole is to get rid of the root cause of the people sinning. They were to erect an alter to the Lord on those places. The risk that we involved in this action is that towns’ people and his own father would be very mad at what he had done. I think that Gideon did this at night so that he wouldn’t have to fight everybody while he torn them down. I don’t think that he accomplishing this mission at night was a sign of weakness or of faith. It was a wise decision to do it at night. He could accomplish a lot more without having to fight the towns’ people or his father.

God saw Gideon as a warrior but Gideon saw himself as a least in a clan. The self-perception that is most accurate is that of God’s. And the way that our own self-perception prevents us from becoming what God has made us to be is that we will also hold back if we don’t think that we can do the job. God’s answer to Gideon’s self-image is that he isn’t depending on him to the job we are to depend on God to support us in doing what He wants us to do. An appropriate prayer to pray is light of what God has taught me today in this passage would to for me to turn-off myself image and start relying on Him.

I think that a lot of reasons that we blame God are because we don’t have anybody else to blame but ourselves. We don’t like to blame ourselves. If we keep blaming God then we will never take responsibility for our actions. So we had better start looking at what the real problem is.

According to the prophet, the reason for Israel’s oppressed state was that they were worshiping more than just God. They were breaking the first commandment. The way that they hadn’t “listened” is because they were told before entering the Promised Land not to worship any god except the God that brought them out of Egypt. The way that this same sin affects Christians today is that we worship every material thing that there is because we are always chasing after things that are not good for us.

I think the equivalent of a “holy kiss” in my congregation and culture is to shake hands and sometime hug the person. Usually from male to male it is shaking hands but male to female it is with a hug. I think that a familial greeting is so important in a healthy congregation because it bring unity to that congregation. You can have confidence in the person that you are greeting with will be you friend in need and in the good things in life. The reason that a person may resist being greeted warmly is because they don’t trust you.

The way that you can “cure” a church of these kinds of behaviors and sins is to have the tough love that Paul was talking about. I think that the way that you can “love Offensive” to change the spirit of a dysfunctional congregation is not to change your ways but the ways of the congregation. If you do that it will show them they there is no compromise to the true word of God.

The life-changing lesson that Paul learned from God when God denied his prayer was that he had to rely on Him and not on himself. The way that self-sufficiency limits God’s power through our lives is that we think that we know best and we don’t ask God for his wisdom. We can become dependent upon God without having to experience some “thorn in the flesh” ourselves by listening to God and staying connected to his word.

I think that this “thorn in the flesh” was given to Paul was for the reason that the bible says it was given. It was to keep him humble. I think that the purpose that God wanted to achieve through this in Paul’s character was to make it so he didn’t think that everything depended on him and that he would rely on God. When we are hurting and needing relief from that hurt then we turn go God. So we will be able to testify how God is working through us and it isn’t what we are doing. This relates perfectly with Romans 8:28 and Genesis 50:20 especially with Genesis 50:20 because there was a lot of evil things going in Joseph’s life before he was able to prevent the Egyptians from starving.

I think the way that Paul’s sufferings helps authenticate his claim to be an apostle is to show that he is willing to do anything to get the word of God out to the world. Paul was totally committed to tell everyone that he could about God. It helps to inspire me because my cause is small compared to his, but he never quit.

I think that the reason that Paul refused to require the Corinthians to support him is because he wanted to be able to preach the Good News and not be hampered by the well to do and not be able to preach the true word. It might have contributed to them taking him for granted because they know that he would be there for them no matter what. We can honor Christian workers, clergy and lay, who give of their time sacrificially to ministry for Christ by being with them and telling them how much you appreciate them. You can support them all ways mentally and monetarily. Christ is going have a special place for them in heaven.

I think the feeling of when a congregation loses its pure devotion to Jesus Christ, and instead takes on other motivations for its religious observances is one of being lost. It would be like losing somebody that you were attached to for all your spiritual advice. This is like the church at Ephesus losing its “first love” because they are lost. One way that this purity of devotion can be restored is maybe by changing pastors or the elders of the church.

I think that Paul likens his dealings with his opponents in Corinth with reducing a city wall by siege and then taking its citizens captive because first of all they will understand this analogy. But I also think that is to warn them that he is not going to stand idle by while others destroys their spiritual freedom. Paul is talking about a victory by use of incisive logic because there is a spiritual stronghold here, which is derived by the power from Satan’s kingdom.

Our giving should prompt thanksgiving because the one that knows what we are giving is from the heart. If it people that are receiving the offerings then they will be grateful for knowing it was God that prompted the person heart to give. The reason that God’s gift of Jesus is termed “surpassing” is because there has never been anything like it before nor will there be anything after except the second coming of Jesus Christ. The reason that God’s gift of Jesus is termed “indescribable” is because we don’t how to describe something that was so great.

According t these verses, the purpose of God increasing my “store of seed” is so I can give generously. Greed and generosity differ from each other because one is to give away as much as possible and the other is to hoard as much as possible. God’s promise here to generous givers is that they will have more then what they need and they will be able to give to others.

I think that the reason that pastors or other church leaders use guilt to try to compel people to give more is because they don’t think that the people have the will to give. Greed could be behind their pressure but it could also be pride. Maybe if the people give more than they could build a bigger church. The reason that pressure is incompatible with worship is because we are supposed to be there because that is where we want to be. So the cheerfulness while giving says that the condition of the person heart is on the right place. They want to give to God what was his to start with.

I don’t think that the Scripture teaches that material blessing results from giving generously to God’s work but is one of the things that does happen when you do. But I think that is the spiritual blessings are the best. These are things that cannot be bought and they give you the best rewards.

I think that the balance between living our lives wholly before God with being men-pleasers, and doing what is right in the sight of men is that you follow the principles of the Bible. I have known men who did not compromise on their principles have done greater things than those that have.

The riches that Christ had according to this verse are that of the Spirit. He became poor when we left heaven and came down to dwell among us. We are poor in Spirit because we are here in this earth. I have become rich in Jesus Christ who has given me everything.