“The Little Condo on the Prairie” (11-19-13)

Posted on 2013/11/19 by Shawn Thomas

FFB WOES
Monday night, Cheryl and our daughter-in-law Ashley were virtually tied in their fantasy football matchup for the week, and each had a couple of players left in the game that evening. But Cheryl’s hopes vanished when her quarterback, Green Bay’s Aaron Rogers, went down early in the game with an injury. Then her other player, a wide receiver, left with an injury later and it was all over but the crying.
As they hauled her player off the field, I turned to Cheryl and sympathized: “Some people get all the breaks — and some get all the, well … BREAKS!”

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Just A Number of Days

Posted on 2013/11/19 by Shawn Thomas

I Samuel 27:7 says: “The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.” The chapter begins with David thinking that Saul would eventually kill him if he stayed in Israel, so he fled to Philistia, to live with Israel’s enemies. Verse 7 then tells us that the number of days he stayed there was only a year and four months. At the time it must have been very difficult, to live among the very enemies of God’s people, and he must have wondered how long it would last. Continue reading →

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Book Review: THINK: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper

Posted on 2013/11/18 by Shawn Thomas

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In the introduction to John Piper’s Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, Piper writes that his book is a plea not to be “either/or” regarding thinking and feeling, that we need them both. And he asserts: “thinking is one of the ways we put the fuel of knowledge … on the fires of worship.” The former is surely an appropriate admonition, and the latter is one of the salient points made in his book. Thinking is NOT intended to be fuel to “puff us up” (which in reality it too often does!) but fuel for us to appreciate God more specifically for Who He is and what He has done. I believe that although Piper was inconsistent (and sometimes frustrating to this reader) in places, that he achieved his main goal for the book, which was to encourage people to better love God through the discipline of thinking. Continue reading →

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The Race That is Set Before Us

Posted on 2013/11/18 by Shawn Thomas

Hebrews 12:1 encourages us: Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
There is so much we can learn from this verse, but let us focus for a minute on the words: “the race that is set before us.”

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The Obedience of Love

Posted on 2013/11/16 by Shawn Thomas

In Psalm 119:57 the Psalmist writes: “Yahweh is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words.” Here we see the key to the kind of obedience that God wants from us.

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The Counsel of the Word

Posted on 2013/11/15 by Shawn Thomas

Psalm 119:24 says: “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” In Hebrew, “they are my counselors” is literally: “the men of my counsel.” What a picture God has given us here: that those who testify to us about their experiences with God through the word of God are in a very real sense “counseling” us and giving us insight and direction! Continue reading →

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When Doing Nothing Is The Most Important Thing

Posted on 2013/11/14 by Shawn Thomas

There are times when we should trust God, but then act, knowing that He is working through us (see devotion here) but there are also times when we are to totally leave things in God’s hands, and when we are to do NOTHING but allow Him to act.

David was in a situation like that here in I Samuel 26:9-11. He definitely wanted Saul “out of the way” so that he would stop persecuting him without cause. But despite several opportunities which presented themselves to him, David was NOT going to raise his hand to do anything against Saul. Here a second time (see chapter 25) David could have easily killed Saul, but did not.
Instead he trusted that God would do it without his help. David said: “As the Lord lives, surely

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The Law & The Need For Grace

Posted on 2013/11/13 by Shawn Thomas

Psalm 119 is a great paean to the Law of God, extolling many marvels and facets of His word. Verses 1-8 (in which each verse begins with the Hebrew letter Aleph, as Psalm 119 is an acrostic in Hebrew) open the Psalm with a blessing for those who keep God’s Law. The problem for the thoughtful reader, however, is: WHO can live up to the standard proclaimed here?

Notice the depth of commitment and obedience that is required to the Law of God: Continue reading →

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Modeling the Golden Rule

Posted on 2013/11/12 by Shawn Thomas

In I Samuel 26, David and Abishai stealthily crept into Saul’s camp and came upon him while he was sleeping. Abishai took this as God’s providence, and as the chance to do away with Saul. But David stopped him. Verse 9 says: “But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be without guilt?'”

This is now the second time David has had an opportunity to kill Saul, and did not. Both times he mentioned the same reason for his reticence: he would not lift his hand against God’s anointed. (See also Chapter 24:6)

It is not insignificant that David HIMSELF was also God’s anointed!

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Look to the Reward

Posted on 2013/11/11 by Shawn Thomas

Hebrews 11:26 says that Moses considered “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” In this chapter which extols faith, we find here a glimpse of how it practically works in a given situation:

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