we all need God's strength, grace, peace, love, power, and mercy.

2 sam 23-24

the king's strong men
recorded in history
known as great men, mighty men, the faithful guard of david.

they had this in common.

when they faced battle--terrible, fearsome enemies
they stood their ground, looked to God,
and God granted them victory
and each slayed a few hundred of their enemies at a go.
each risked his life for the king

when we say we want to be mighty soldiers or God
what do we do in that regard?

and david himself, honoured God
with sacrifice, with a heart of worship
that moved the heart of God.

stand your ground
look to God
set your heart on his.

back to where we lasted

2 sam 20-22

david had good, strong men
men of god
to help him and support him
in kingship
and in righteousness


thank you Jesus for giving me a good strong circle of friends to do likewise.

its also a reminder that for our leaders to stay upright and kingly
they need good strong men (like us haha) to support them.

but i love david's song in chapter 22
he said:
the Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom i take refuge,
my shield and the forn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour--from violent men you save me.
i call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and i am saved from my enemies.
the waves of death swirled about me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
the cordds of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
in my distress i called out to the Lord;
i called out to my God.
from his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.

i'm not going to type out the rest of it.
haha
its too long.
but its beautiful.
it tells of such a deep relationship with God.
of trust, hope, faith, dependence
on the one true source of light, strength, and life itself.

i hope one day the song can be mine.

all good things must come to an end

yest i read 2 sam 15-17
i didnt quite know what God was trying to tell me.

esp when he directed me to matt 18:23--the kingdom of god is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants(the parable of the unmerciful servant)

maybe it was linked.
mm, i think i see it now.

david was being gracious.
llike the king inthe parable, he showed grace.
hence the recipient should prove worthy of that grace by living like a man saved by grace.
he should be gracious.
and forgive the debt of his fellow servant.
lest he gets punishment many times over than that which he metes on his fellowman.



lord, help me live a life of grace.



and today i read chapter 18 and 19.

it appears, that while david was a righteous king, he sometimes had flawed vision.
like he treasured a rogue son more than his loyal army.
and he risked losing was was important and precious and what he really had.
it does show a father's love, but here i think he was just blind to the things he did have.

that being said, he had good men to guide him back. like joab. now i'm not sure he was entirely right in disobeying his king's command and killing the king's son.
but he did bring the king back from being irrational.


its both, then. one has to be gracious, but one also needs to open his eyes to what is proper and right and not let his vision be clouded by his immediate circumstance and his emotions.
mm.

i read 2 sam 13 and 14


from amnon and tamar, i see that, love that isn't true--lust--produces hate when it does not get its way.


also

2 sam 14:14
like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. but god does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person might not remain estranged from him.

i dunno about you, but this gives me hope
for the people who need God
and for us.

THE COOL LIFE SPECIALIST

today i read from 1 sam 22, and and i didnt stop, till i finished 2 sam 4

in those passages was written all that david did from the time he fled saul, till the time he became king.

all those years, he faced hard times.
and his hard times make our hard times look like fun.

i mean, he warred. his king pursued him and sought his life.
and all the while his heart was faithful. faithful to God; to a strong sense of morality.

such that when he refused to "touch the lords anointed" and things like that, it wasnt a strategy to win people's favour, it wasnt just for show, but he really meant everything that he did.

and everything that he did fell in line with Gods word.

THAT is remarkable.

love the lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.

we learnt that last night. i think david modeled it.
and i think i shall strive to set my soul, and my mind on God. at least then the heart might follow.

MIGHT HAVE A LAXATIVE EFFECT WHEN TAKEN IN EXCESS

1 sam 18-22

this is one of those passages where i look at God(in a manner of speaking)
and go, God, what exactly do you want to say to me here?

and i'm not sure if its just me,
but i felt that the reply was this:
you don't need girls.

david and jonathan (oh is that why the twins are named so? huh mr tay?)
loved each other as he loved himself.
they covenanted and took care of each other.
furthermore in chapter 21 david was allowed to eat of the bread of the presence only if they hadn't been with women.
not that women are unholy, since god gave them, and marriage, to man.
but i guess that is the human element that separates us from God, our inadequacy in and of ourselves that we need another, a partner to lean on.

but before i get distracted.

who needs girls--or women for that matter--when you have brothers?
and i don't mean in the happy sense--as in, as a lark
surely paul must have seen something when he said in 1 cor
he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better.
of course he was talking about an engaged person, but the preceding paragraph laid out that it does not matter if one is married or not,
or whether ons is slave or not
or whether one is anything. or not.
what matters is loving and serving God.

sometimes i ask myself, when i begin to talk like that, is it just sour grapes?
placating myself in self denial?
i'd like to think not.

but just to be sure, i think i shall be sure.
and spend the day loving God.

cheers

be brave

1 samuel 15-17

i think this is the first time--or one of the first times
that i read david and goliath straight from the bible and not from a children's book.

but one verse stood out:
1 sam a5:22-23
does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
to obey is better than sacrifice
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
for rebellion is like the sin of divination
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
because you hae rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.

even a slight deviation from the word of God is insufferable.

but all it takes, i learnt today, is "bravery"
just steeling yourself and telling yourself, you have to do it
and do it.
and see it through.
and remind yourself if you need to.
just be strong.

i need to learn to please God.
and cast aside excuses of struggles, temptations, urges,
cast aside that which so easily entangles
and simply, surely,
choose to obey god.

aye.
so help me god.

its been too long

1 sam 1-3

hannah prayed from the DEPTHS of her heart and God answered.
GOd grant us the same conviction and fervour
that we may be effective in prayer.

1 sam 2:9
it is not by strength that one prevails.

nay, but by God, i say. only He can prevail.



now samuel was "attested as a prophet of the lord"

and methinks, he's just a boy. he never really did anything.
thing is, no matter who we are, we cant do anything to earn anything from God.

but samuel had two things:
1. he was dedicated to God
2. he obeyed God and served Him with the heart of a child (its the only one he had)

what do you say my brothers?
let us dedicate our lives to Him and have faith like a child.



also, the other day, joshua said to me
phi 3:8
what is more, i consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord, for whose sake i have lost all things.

don't be aunt agony

judges 20-21.

btw the past few days of G12 i did my devotion, but just didnt post them. there was samson in judges 14-16
and judges 17-19 was scary.it showed what depths you can plummet to when you have no king in your life.

and here in judges 20-21 comes israels response.

in chapter 19 there was a levite with a concubine. the concubine ran away and went back to her fathers house. so he went to get her back. on the way back they stayed at a town of benjamin. and the benjamites did exactly what sodom and gommorah did. they went to the house where the visitors were staying and demanded for the man so they could rape him to death. they foolishly offered the concubine and the house owner's daughter, but it was perhaps good for them that the benjamites wouldnt hear any of it. but they sent the concubine out to the crowd, who 'raped and abusd her throughout the night' and she died.

so the levite cuts her up and sends her limbs and body parts to every tribe in israel.
to get their attention to this "lewd and disgraceful act" they'd committed.

and israel warred against benjamin. israel lost 30 000 in the first two days. they started out with 400 000. so israel fasted and prayed and god promised them the victory. and they ambushed benjamin, losing only 30 men, and killed 25 000 benjamites. six hundred benjamites fled, but the towns and cities were completely destroyed by israel.

then israel gathered, and said they'd kill anyone who didnt turn up at gods assembly. they wiped out a city, but ll the virgins in the city they spared and gave to the benjamite survivors, be cause they didnt want to give their daughters to the benjomites. they'd said, 'cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a benjamite'


civil war! result of the great sin. at least it was purging.
what they did after wasnt so great.

there were two hundred benjamites without wives, so israel got them to attack a village that was having a festival. when the girls came out to dance, the two hundred men carried them off to be their wives.


all this because there was no king.



and they strayed from God because they got distracted. by the new things in their land, by other gods, by success, by the things that surrounded them.



LORD, GUARD MY HEART, GUARD MY MIND.

listen closely

judges 11-13



japhthah saves israel. three more judges follow, then samson.


now japhthah.

he vowed to the lord that he'd offer in sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house to greet him. surely he knew it'd be a person. his wife, or daughter, or maidservant. though i dont think your servant would be more eager than you wife or only daughter. did he think the first thing coming out would be a goat?

and he kept to his word. he gave the daughter some time to grieve with her friends, then offered her. i thought god was repulsed by human sacrifice. but a vow is a vow right? if he was foolish enough to make such a vow he was to learn his lesson.


point is, he kept a vow even though it hurt alot.



point taken.

HUMANS ARE NOT MINDLESS AUTOMATONS

yet so many times we appear programmed to fail and flounder.


why am i so irritable?



righteousness guards the heart.
...............................................................................

so today it was judges 9-10

although i can't remember where i read it,

i distinctly remember seeing somewhere it was written israel sinned because they had no king.

no king to rule over them, so they went their own way.

and when they did appoint a king, they appointed a murderer. and they eventually wiped out each other. tsk tsk.

i am reminded to focus on God and never look away, lest i lose my way like the israelites.

insulpack styrotek

judges 6-8

gideon!

again the israelites were notty.
so this time it was gideon that the lord used

thing is, when God fights for the israelites, they got SO POWERFUL.

three hundred people defeated hundreds of thousands. and the rest of the army pursued the surivors, a hundred and twenty thousand fell to ten thousand israelites. and then gideon's three hundred finished up the final group with the help of the ephraimites.

but forty years later they sinned.

did they not teach their kids?

makes me wonder how i'm gonna parent next time.


so distracted by the lure of other Gods. so foolish.

gideon made an ephod out of the plunder he received, and the people worshipped it.
sheesh.
"and it became a snare for gideon and his family"


God, help me to not get distracted and fix my eyes on you and you only

please place your order at the counter

judges 4-5

i was slightly taken aback at the explicit nature of which sisera, the leader of the enemy army, was smote(or is it smitten).
his army decimated, he fled to the tent of a descendant of moses' brother-in-law, with whom he'd been on good terms. the lady of the house received him, waited till he fell asleep, and drove a tent peg through his temple. i give it an M18 for violence.

but deborah's song was beautiful. is beautiful. and probably has more meaning than i can fathom at this time. but this verse sums it up:
judges 5:31
so may all your enemies perish, O Lord!
But may they who love you be like the sun
when it rises in its strength



the blessings are many for those who trust God, and trust him with ALL their heart.

such as for the holy judge that God uses.




i asked a question yesterday, a one that i thought answered itself.
but let me intimate my true intention.

i'd read that, while the israelites kept falling into sin, should they so cry out to God, he'd answer and send help.
when God sends help, he picks a holy, righteous person to lead the people into victory--in today's reading, the prophetess Deborah
my question was, can it be me? and you?

it was, and is, a challenge. a call to arms; to gear up for battle.

i've been shown this before, and again in recent months: i seem to know people with problems. as in, i know them. i see the problems AROUND me. and sometimes my heart aches with desire to just do something. now i know i can, in a manner of speaking.

i know God didn't give me friends and family--"neighbours"--who have such problems for nothing. i find myself in a position where i see, if not me, then who?

then like the prophet isaiah, i want to say, "here am i, send me!"

i need, then, to pursue God--live a life that is blameless--and cry out to him; open my ears to listen for his word, so that i may bring His salvation, His deliverance, His freedom, His Love to these in need.





aye, who's with me?

your complete imaging and entertainment hub

judges 1-3

and a new genereation of israelites grew up
and the generation that fought with joshua against the canaanites passed away.

and that fighting generation sinned; they didnt completely clear the country because it was too difficult.
so each tribe had like one or two cities or peoples living among them, who they subjected to slave labour.

but their kids came up and married these "slaves" and worshipped their gods nd that made God angry.

so everytime israel was faced with a war challenge, they got pwned. God like increased their handicap so they couldnt win.

but because God still cared for his people, when they cried out to him in desperation
he raised up a judge, after which the book was named.

but oh the folly!!! time and time again, they strayed, and God raised judge after judge.



my heart has this to say that has been impressed on it:
#1. God will always hear our cry and answer it
#2. God needs holy, righteous people to stand out, stand up, and do his work; save his people..
#3. can that be me?

aggressiveness and reinventiveness

joshua 23-24

joshua dies. he makes his final speech to the israelites and with them renews God's covenant with them.
keep obeying God, and he will continue to bless them and fulfill his promises.
turn from God and he will fulfill his promise to curse them and destroy them.

i ask God what he wants me to learn from this.

matt15:22
the canaanite woman asks Jesus for the deliverence of her daughter.

in the end jesus tells her
woman, you have great faith! your request is granted.



i didnt think the israelites needed faith to obey God. but they did. knowing god and obeying him and trusting him requires faith from anybody.
only in the passage i read, the israelites alr had evidence and experience.

i was reminded that it is more blessed to believe without seeing.


in a period of uncertainty in how i am going to balance my book out time, how i am going to maximise my free time--study or work? what course i am going to pursue in uni.

god says, have faith.

in a period, also, where i am trusting god for victory in my walk
and when my 'trust in god' didnt get the results i'd hoped for
god assures me to have faith, for faith without seeing is true faith, which has great rewards.

its a new thing, to leave your life absolutely in God's hands. a curiously free feeling, yet with the knowledge that there is control.



into your hands, i commit again.

animal-shaped shrubbery

joshua 18-20.

i didnt post one for yest. i read joshua 17-19
out of that, one veerse stood out, in chapter 17 verse 17 and 18:
But joshua said to the house of Joseph--to Ephraim and to Manasseh--"you are numerous and very powerful. You will have not only one allotment but the forested hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have iron chriots and though they are strong, you can drive them out."

today's reading was lik e it.

its one of those readings that, at first, you're like, okay, only scholars could ever learn any thing from this because the verse is like and the allot ment of foihroi was iosheoisdhf, ihfisrg,is ishef, ishij , iseioa, oaisoknc, gkewkend, nidghod,...... and it goes on, for like, twelve people's allotments.
but you do notive that the israelites took ALOT of land.

one verse stood out today as well:
chapt 19 verse 47
but the Danites had difficulty taking possession of their territory. so they went up and attacked Leshen, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it. They settled in Leshem and named itt after Dan their forefather.

to me both verses say the same thing.

while God had a grand plan for the whole country, like the whole church, the individual tribes didnt settle into lands that were all conquered and free for the taking.

they still had to make some adjustments on their own.
God has a plan for the smaller levels within his bigger plan for the collective body.

and, looking at the ephraimites, we see that with God on our side, we're alot stronger than we think we are, and we can flatten the enemy no matter what fancy gadgets they have

like daniel said, god had goood things in store for them, but they'd to GO GET IT.



god help me be a go-getter.

beauty is a pit

joshua 11-13


in his lifetime joshua conquered thirty-one kings. thirty one.

and
joshua 11:15
as the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.


wow.
who can say we did that in our lifetime?

obey everything God planned for us.
he went forward in faith and boldness,
and reaped land for his whole nation, that was fertile and abundant

can you imagine the PLUNDER from thirty countries?

i say, the Israelites were rich people!!!

so Israel got inheritance from both sides of the Jordan. since Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh chose land on the east, 'outside' the promised land, which they thought was good. and the rest got land on the west side, as God promised them.

hey, the ancient origins of the hip-hop conflict.

-_-

but isnt it a little lack of faith, for Reuben Gad and the half of Manasseh? what if they'd gone into Canaan and discovered that the land their pwned the one they chose?
er, sorry joshua, we decided we want to move here after all.

oh well.

the interesting thing here is this--and it has been repeated many times in these first six books:
Joshua 13:33
but to the tribe of Levi, Moses had given no inheritance; the Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he promised them.

the Lord is their inheritance.

whats that mean?

they have land they cant see or touch
but they have provision (from above) that will never run out or need rest(like the rest of the Land)
does that mean they inherit all God's riches and glory?

in that day there was a more literal way to see it.

they lived as temple priests, so when the Israelites(rich) brought offerings of gold/meat/grain(and mind you this was the BEST they had) the Levites got God's portion.

ah well. I'm running late.

i still feel God saying to me to take up arms
for he will lead me in conquest, and victory, at that.
otherwise i will be consumed by the foreign invaders and their Gods.

FIGHT

victory

joshua 8-10

joshua10:42
all these kings and their lands joshua conquered in one campaign, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.


the torah had been fun to read in that i learnt something new everytime about pleasing god, obeying god and the blessings it reaped, and of course the converse. shoes. hahahha -_-

but that was from the point of view of, living worshipful lives because God is now IN us, the temple IS us and we are a living sacrifice, which means we are PERMANENTLY on the altar, which means we have to be SPOTLESS, and every single split second, at that.

in joshua however, i see the christian life becomes a battlefield. its like, in the pentateuch its like, God is giving the gameplan to his soldiers: you need to follow me. why. and here in joshua he goes: this is how you do it. FLATTEN THEM.

its exciting, even though you know the outcome; i keep wondering what creative new way the israelites will use to win next, or how many kings will they beat at a time.

looking at the iraq war, its quite hard to believe. its like seeing the coalition force sweeping through and squashing all resistance with virtually no casualties and just taking one country after another: afganistan, iraq, iran, turkmenistan, kyrgyztan, kazahkstan, and all the members of the tan family.

you can't quite picture that, can you.


so this is how we please God with holy lives.
decide to obey him.
make it our priority.
be strong.(prepare for scrum off)
march forward.
pwn the devil!!!


haha.
ka-ching!

jericho

joshua 5-7


here we see a real life example of the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience.

joshua's obedience to God was simple, he followed all god's instructions, and two good things came out of it.
1. the israelites crossed the jordan safely
2. all the canaanites balls shrank

so that israel can circumcize the guys upon reaching the promised land.

the first thing they did was honour god!

not very wise strategy, making yourself so vulnerable in a land full of enemies.
but they put god first, and god put fear in the canaanites and kept them away.

and then, by just taking a walk, the thick walls of jericho-the city of giants--on which chariot races could be held, came crashing down, and they went in for the slaughter.

oddly enough all the incredible things God had done wasnt enough to instill fear of Him in his people. or just one joker.

i mean, there are so many cities. God said, just give me this one. ONE. GOD.
this guy, for some reason or the other musnt have seen God as a very big threat, cos he koped a robe, 2.3 kg of silver, and 600 g of gold. that isn't exactly something you slip into your pocket and forget about and "accidentally" discover later that you didnt pay for it or put it back.

in contrast to the earlier situation with jericho, the next place they went, they barely got up to theplace when the bad guys came and beat them, and even killed some of their number. can you see?

at first, no fiight, flatten city.
second time, haven't fight, kena pwned.

and as a result of his greed and folly, that joker that sinned against God, his whole family, all his sheep and donkeys and everything were stoned and burnt. hai.

in contrast Rahab and her entire family was saved.
when you obey God YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY--all the people you love the most--benefit.

more than that, Rahab had the honour of being in the lineage of THE CHRIST.


huge difference.

let us not be caught on the spur of the moment doing something stupid.
oh, god, that i never be found in that position.

obedience

and discipline.

doesnt come easy.
or easily.

learning about it is one thing, and doing it is another.

joshua 1-4

God reminded me, he'd give me victory every where i march into battle

in other words, i have to be fighting, toiling, sweating, possibly even bleeding,
but knowing that at the end of the day, the victory is mine.

seems a far cry from my present position.


on a similar note,
God told joshua, be strong and courageous

mostly i thought of it as, "don't fear"


but then i saw it was, BE STRONG.
the fear was the "courageous" part.
be strong.
thats like saying, get off your butts.
work at it.
don't be ninnies.
then, note that, you also shouldnt fear, cos i'll be with you.

God showed me that if he wanted us to do something, he'd always see us through.

somethings you kinda knew all along
and then you KNOW them.

ah,
God, help me to live a life worthy of your calling.