Ephraim complained to Jephthah                       verse 1- 2 

And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together

            and went northward – and said to Jephthah

Wherefore passed you over to fight against the children of Ammon

and did not call us to go with you?

                        we will burn your house on you with fire

And Jephthah said to them

            I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon

                        and when I called you

you delivered me not out of their hands 

Jephthah answers their complaint                      verse 3 

And when I saw that you delivered me not

I put my life in my hands

And passed over against the children of Ammon

            and the LORD delivered them into my hand

                        wherefore then are you come up to me this day

                                    to fight against me? 

Jephthah gathers to fight Ephraim                     verse 4 

THEN Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead

            and fought with Ephraim

and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim

BECAUSE they said

            You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites

and among the Manassites 

Ephraim couldn’t pronounce word right            verse 5- 6 

And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites

            and it was so

that when those Ephraimites which were escaped

said

Let me go over – that the men of Gilead said to him

            Are you an Ephraimite?

IF he said

            Nay

Then said they to him

            Say now Shibboleth – and he said Sibboleth

                        FOR he could not frame to pronounce it right

Then they took him – and slew him at the passages of Jordan

            and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites

forty and two thousand 

Jephthah judged Israel for six years                   verse 7 

And Jephthah judged Israel six years

            THEN died Jephthah the Gileadite

                        and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead 

Ibzan judged Israel seven years                           verse 8- 10 

And after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel

and he had thirty sons – and thirty daughters

whom he sent abroad for his sons

And he judged Israel seven years

THEN died Ibzan – and was buried at Bethlehem 

Elon judged Israel ten years                                verse 11- 12 

And after him Elon – a Zebulonite – judged Israel

and he judged Israel ten years

And Elon the Zebulonite died

and was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulun 

Abdon judged Israel eight years                          verse 13- 15 

And after him Abdon the son of Hillel – a Pirathonite – judged Israel

and he had forty sons and thirty nephews

      that rode on threescore and ten ass colts

                  and he judged Israel eight years

And Abdon – the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died

and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim

      in the mount of the Amalekites

COMMENTARY:          

 

DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers 

:  1       And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said to Jephthah, wherefore passes you over to fight against the children of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire. (8313 “burn” [seraph] means kindle, destroy by fire, absorb with fire, consume, bake, or burn completely)

DEVOTION:  Have you ever known a cry baby? Have you ever had one on your sports team? Have you had one in your family? There seem to be many people who cry when they don’t get their way. They want to take up the toys and go home.

Here we have a group from the tribe of Ephraim confronting Jephthah because they said they were never invited to go to war with him. They wanted to be part of the victory. However, they were invited. They probably didn’t go because they were afraid that Jephthah would lose.

These are people from the same tribe that confronted Gideon because he didn’t invite them to fight with him. Gideon reacted differently than Jephthah. He was more diplomatic. He also was not a willing leader. He didn’t want to fight another battle.

Now Jephthah is very different from Gideon. He didn’t placate the men of Ephraim. He took their threat seriously and told them that he would go to war with them.

He was not one to back down from a fight. The men of Ephraim probably thought he would back down like Gideon. They were wrong. We need to watch who we confront.

Sometimes we think we have a reason to confront someone about something that is happening in our life or the life of the church. We think it is all going in the wrong direction and we want to find someone to blame and we whine about it instead of doing something positive.

God wants us not to be complainers but workers that bring glory to HIS name. The men of Ephraim ended up with over forty-two thousand men dead. Jephthah was the wrong one to confront with the wrong facts.

CONCLUSION: When you confront make sure you have all the fact right and realize some people don’t take confrontation well. 

DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers 

: 3        And when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are you come up unto me this day, to fight against me? (3467 “delivered” [yasha] means to be open, wide or free, avenging, defend, help, preserve, rescue, be safe, or get victory.  5414 “delivered” [nathan] means to give, add, apply, appoint, yield, or give over)

DEVOTION:  We find that this verse uses two different Hebrew words for deliver. Man is the deliverer in the first part of the verse using this word and the children of Ephraim didn’t come to help. They came to Jephthah and complained that he didn’t call them to battle. He said he did and they didn’t come. Why this conversation? The men of Ephraim were complaining that they were not called to battle. The problem was that they were called but chose not to come but when they saw that there was booty and victory they wanted in on the rewards of victory. They threatened Jephthah.

The second use is the LORD coming to give over the enemy to Jephthah. The LORD gave them victory over the enemy. Jephthah was able to defeat the Ammonites and keep the land that Moses had won in a battle three hundred years earlier.

The tribe of Ephraim was judged liable for not helping Jephthah. They told Jephthah that they were coming to war with them. Jephthah set up part of his army at the passage of the Jordan. And each man who tried to cross the Jordan had to answer a question.

The reason for the question was that the Ephraimites couldn’t pronounce the “h” in Shibboleth. This gave away who they were and caused their death. There were over 42,000 men killed for confronting Jephthah and not helping them in the defeat of the enemy.

This should cause everyone to learn how to pronounce words right. Right? Not really but it gives an idea what can cause us to be recognized for who we are. Are we true followers of the LORD? Maybe we can pronounce the words right but the life doesn’t show or our vocabulary doesn’t show that we love the LORD. Do Christians speak differently from those outside of Christ?

CHALLENGE: Our vocabulary is important to the LORD. If there is a choice between men or God to give us victory, who should we chose? Are we fighting our battles with the right helper? Remember to make the right choice!!!

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: 4        Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites. (6412 “fugitives” [paliyt] means refugee, escaped one, someone who flees from an uncongenial situation, escaped by flight, those spared, or survival)

DEVOTION:  Here the people of Ephraim were calling the men of Gilead names. They called them fugitives. They were calling the men of Gilead those who ran from the battle in past history. This was an insult.

We are not to insult people. That is not what the LORD wants us to do. We are not to make fun of something that happened in the past in a person’s life. We are not to be name callers.

Too often when we are fighting with someone we say things that we will regret later. The LORD wants us to watch our tongue. If we can’t say something nice we shouldn’t say anything at all unless it is in private conversation with the leading of the LORD but never to belittle someone.

We are all sinners saved by grace. Even those outside of Christ need to be respected when we talk with them or they won’t listen to what we have to say about our LORD.

The name calling backfired on the people of Ephraim because after the battle those who “escaped” were killed. The same Hebrew word for fugitive is the one for escape here. That means that they ended up being what they called the men of Gilead.

Many times we pay the consequences of our actions by being what we called other people.

CHALLENGE:  Watch your words to others. 

DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers 

: 6        Then said they to him, “Say now Shibboleth”:and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of The Ephraimites forty and two thousand. (3559 “frame” [kuwn] means to be or become sufficient to meet a need or task, set up, to confirm, accomplish, do, make firm, to arrange)

DEVOTION: Here we find that language determined whether a person lived or died. If they couldn’t pronounce a word right, they were killed. Apparently, this is true even today. There are some words that people from other parts of the country can’t pronounce the way others think they are supposed to.

Here we have one tribe asking another tribe to pronounce just one word. They were not able to say the word correctly from the perspective of those asking the question. They knew their enemy well. They knew that this one word would make a difference between life and death.

We know that there are many people who say that they have made Christ the center of their life. They know many of the right words to say. But the LORD will ask on the Day of Judgment, if they were are genuine follower of HIM. If they don’t say it right, they will be cast in the Lake of Fire where the devil and his angels are going to be for eternity.

Our responsibility is to make sure those who say they are followers of Christ are real. Sometimes asking the right questions will reveal if they are genuine followers of HIM.

We need to know how to ask the right questions. Church membership will not get people into heaven. Giving ten percent or more will not get people into heaven. Doing good deeds will not get everyone into heaven.

Sometimes we can be fooled but the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom to know what the right word is that needs to be asked to make sure people genuinely know Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior.

CHALLENGE: We are not to assume that someone is going to heaven. We need to be sure someone is going to heaven by asking the right questions.

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: 9        And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad, and took in thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. (2351 “abroad” [chuwts] means the outside, the region or area that is outside of something, without, countryside, out of the house, or out of the city, the fields, country)

DEVOTION: Here we have a man who has thirty sons and thirty daughters compared to Jephthah having only one child that died without any children. This man brought in wives for his sons from other places rather than from just his own tribe as the LORD had commanded.
It is thought that because of the intermarrying of the tribes there would be peace in the land without the tribes fighting with one another. Also, the daughters were married to men from other tribes.

This judge made political alliances that helped him keep the peace between the tribes and made Israel united against any enemy who thought about coming to possess their land.

This also gave Israel a time period of peace where they could rebuild after having wars with other nations. It was a time of rebuilding their faith in the LORD as well.

It is great when a nation can have peace from war from their enemies. It usually doesn’t last very long but it is great when it happens. God wants us to work for peace in our world.

If we work for peace does that mean there will never be war? The answer is no as we see in the rest of the book of Judges. It means that it prepares us for the wars to come in the future.

In our life we can have peace in spite of war going on all around us. The LORD wants us to have peace in the midst of the storms of life.

CHALLENGE: HE wants us to trust HIM in times of peace and in times of strife. HE is always there by our side.

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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:

BODY 

Chastity (Purity in living)

Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)

Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)

Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)

Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone) 

SOUL 

Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)

Frugality (wise use of resources)

Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)

Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)

Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God) 

SPIRIT

Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)

Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)

Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)

Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)

Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group) 

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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:

Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)

God the Father (First person of the Godhead) 

LORD – Jehovah                                                      verse 3 

God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)

God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)

Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)    

Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)

Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation) 

Children of Ammon                                                  verse 1- 3

Amalekites                                                                   verse 15 

Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels) 

Complaint of children of Ephraim                          verse 1 

Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins) 

Delivered                                                                    verse 3 

Israel (Old Testament people of God) 

Ephraim fights with Jephthah                                 verse 1- 6

            Want to burn Jephthah’s house          

        

Jephthah                                                                    verse 1- 7

            Gathers the men of Gilead              

            Fought with Ephraim

            Smote Ephraimites

Ephraim calls Gileadites: fugitives                         verse 4

Manassites                                                                       verse 4

Gileadites took the passages of Jordan                   verse 5

Mispronounce a word means dead                         verse 5, 6

            Gileadites asked those trying to

                        cross to pronounce a word

            42,000 men didn’t pronounce right

Jephthah judges six years                                         verse 7

Ibzan judged seven years                                         verse 8- 10

            Buried in Bethlehem

Elon – Zebulonite judged ten years                        verse 11, 12

Abdon judged eight years                                         verse 13- 15

            Forty sons and thirty nephews

            Son of Hillel the Pirathonite

            Buried in land of Ephraim 

Church (New Testament people of God)

Last Things (Future Events) 

Jephthah dies                                                              verse 7

Ibzan dies                                                                     verse 10

Elon dies                                                                       verse 12

Abdon dies                                                                   verse 15 

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QUOTES regarding passage

The proud and powerful tribe of Ephraim had earlier denounced Gideon for failing to invite them to participate in the victory over Midian (8:1–3). Gideon had soothed them by involving them in the campaign and praising their contribution. Once more Ephraim challenged another general of Manasseh, and this time the exchange did not end so amicably. Jephthah was not about to be bullied by his ungrateful neighbors, and a tragic civil war broke out between these two tribes descended from Joseph.

1–3 The Ephraimites voiced their complaint after crossing the Jordan and coming to Zaphon, a town about five miles north of Succoth (v.1). They threatened to burn down Jephthah’s house, as if he were no more than a petty prince (cf. 15:6).

Understandably, Jephthah was greatly irritated by the Ephraimites’ arrogance. During the eighteen-year oppression, the people of Gilead had doubtless asked for help from Ephraim and other affected tribes (cf. 10:9), but no assistance was forthcoming (v.2). In the recently completed campaign, there was no mention of an invitation to Ephraim (11:29), though Jephthah indicated that a general call may have gone out. The fight against the Ammonites was a perilous one at best. Yet Jephthah defeated them and gave God the credit (v.3). Why should the Ephraimites complain about a victory accomplished through God’s intervention for the benefit of all the tribes? It was a strange jealousy that spurred on Ephraim. (Wolf, H. (1992). Judges. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, p. 458). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)

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12:1–6. The Ephraimites had been attacked by the Ammonites (cf. 10:9) but the former’s land had apparently not been occupied by the Ammonites as was true of Jephthah’s Gileadites. Nevertheless the Ephraimites reacted against Jephthah because he had not invited their aid in defeating Ammon. In contrast with Gideon’s tactful handling of a similar situation (cf. 8:1–3), Jephthah asserted that they had not responded to his call (though the record is silent concerning such an invitation), so he gained victory over Ammon without their help. Insults by the Ephraimites then led to their destruction by the Gileadites. The Gileadites even killed straggling survivors who tried to ford the Jordan River to return to Ephraim. The Ephraimites were easily identified by their colloquial pronunciation of the Hebrew sound sh which they pronounced as an s. This civil conflict in Israel cost the Ephraimites 42,000 lives, a high price for jealousy! (Lindsey, F. D. (1985). Judges. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 403). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)

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Explanation (vv. 2–3). Gideon had pacified the Ephraimites with flattery, but Jephthah took a more direct approach. To begin with, he reminded them that his first concern was to defeat the Ammonites, not to please his neighbors. Second, during the eighteen years Ammon had oppressed the people of Gilead, nobody from Ephraim had offered to come to their rescue. Third, Jephthah had issued a call for the tribes to assist him in his attack on the enemy, but Ephraim hadn’t responded. Without their help, the Lord gave Jephthah and his army victory; so the proud Ephraimites (who didn’t like being left out) had nothing to complain about. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1994). Be available (p. 101). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)

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Ver. 2. And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at a great strife with the children of Ammon, &c.] As to the cause of the war, or the reason of his going over to fight the children of Ammon, it was a strife or contention between the Gileadites and them, concerning their country; which the children of Ammon claimed as theirs, and the Gileadites insisted on it they had a just right to it; by which it appeared that this was not a personal contention between Jephthah and them; and therefore the Ephraimites bad no reason to fall so furiously upon him particularly; and it was a contention which chiefly concerned the two tribes and a half, and not the rest; and so could not be blamed for defending themselves alone if they could, without interesting others in the quarrel: but this is not all be has to say, he adds, and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands; it seems he had called them to assist in driving the enemy out of their coasts when there, and they refused to help him; though it is not elsewhere said, and it is not denied by them, so that it was false what they alleged; or however, since they declined giving him any assistance, when the children of Ammon were in his country, he could not expect they would join him in an expedition into theirs. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 2, p. 344). London: Mathews and Leigh.)

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FROM MY READING: 

(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)

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For all eternity we will be able to go on increasing in our knowledge of God and delighting ourselves more and more in him, saying with David as we learn more and more of God’s own thoughts, “How precious to me are your thought, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand” (Ps: 139:177-18).

 

When we realize this, the prospect of a lifelong habit of regular Bible study, and even the prospect of a lifetime of study of theology (if it is theology that is solidly grounded in God’s Word), should be a very exciting prospect to us. To study and to teach God’s Word in both formal and informal ways will always be a great privilege and joy. (p. 151, Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem)

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NO GOD BUT GOD: Breaking with the Idols of Our Age

by Os Guinness & John Seel

 

On this side of the kingdom, we are called to be as wise, faithful, loving, caring, just, and prudent as we can by God’s grace. (p. 56)

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After learning of their duties to be concerned about politics, many Christians on both the Right and Left have overinflated the importance of politics. (p. 57)

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Rather, the issue is the placing of political agendas on the same level or even in place of the more important message of the gospel itself. This is the heart of the idolizing of political ideologies.  (p. 58)

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Our unity in the church is based on the fact that we are sinners saved by God’s amazing grace, not by our politics. (p. 58)

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The very idea that Christian moral sensitivity somehow bestows the competence to make public policy recommendations on every subject imaginable is presumptuous and even arrogant. (p. 60)

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GOD’S POWER

…his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.
Ephesians 1:19-20
God’s power is endless. He is omnipotent. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” God asked Abraham (Genesis 18:14), and the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). His might, His power, His strength is endless. The Bible is full of this! He made everything out of nothing; He spoke and it happened. He said, “Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). He sends His frosts and His snow. Read the Psalms, and you will find that they glory in the endless power of God. This sovereign will and power of God have been manifested most of all, and most clearly, in three ways: in creation, in salvation, and in providence. And I suppose there is no greater manifestation of the power of God than the one to which Paul refers in the first chapter of Ephesians: “…his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.”
This idea of omnipotence is staggering! There are many things we do not understand about the will of God. But we are not meant to understand them; we are meant to look at them with reverence and awe and worship. We are meant to realize that there would be no hope for us at all were it not for the omnipotence of God. I say with reverence, nothing less than the omnipotence of God could save a single soul. But thank God, He is omnipotent, and we are saved by the power of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The glory of God is the biblical way of describing God’s greatness, His splendor, His majesty. We read of the glory of God filling the Temple (1 Kings 8:11) and of the glory of God being manifested in dimmed vision to certain people. This means they had some conception of the greatness, the splendor, the majesty, the might of His being.
A Thought to Ponder: Read the Psalms, and you will find that they glory in the endless power of God. (From God the Father, God the Son, pp. 67-68. By Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

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The Power of Redemptive Suffering: Ask ‘What?’ Not ‘Why?’

Recently, I’ve had occasion to ponder suffering in a deeper way than ever before. I say this not because the situation I’m in is worse than it has ever been, but because I’ve become more familiar with the true character of suffering. It isn’t about circumstances. Not really.

As pro-life author Stephanie Gray Connors explained in our recent conversation on the Upstream Podcast, suffering is the gulf between what we desperately want and what we actually have—between (for instance) the healing for which we pour out our hearts in prayer night after night and the apparent silence that answers from Heaven. My family’s return to this familiar and dreaded gulf occasions suffering precisely because it is so familiar—We thought we’d learned the lessons God intended to teach us by this. How much more gold could He possibly refine out of us?

No, I’ve realized that suffering isn’t about circumstances. It’s about the fear that your circumstances are meaningless—that God has abandoned you. I’ve always thought that anyone could suffer indefinitely if they clearly understood and believed in the purpose they were accomplishing. But what if there is no purpose?

What if you’ve learned every conceivable lesson and undergone every imaginable sanctification and the drumbeat of sorrow continues, with no end in sight? What do you do when the spiritual shepherds who assured you God was preparing a weight of glory through your momentary affliction stammer and look away, no longer able to meet your questions?

According to Connors, you stop asking “why?” and start asking “what?” That is, “What good can I bring out of this situation?”

Two months ago, I might have dismissed this reframing as trite and Pollyannaish—as a clunky way of chirping, “Look for the silver lining!” But now I’m not so sure. We Christians may have done a great disservice to each other by framing the New Testament’s words about suffering as behavior-modification. After all, if God is trying to sanctify us in the sense of weaning us off sin and self, then suffering ought to be more evenly distributed. I don’t presume to know how much dross is left in anyone’s soul, but surely it’s time for God to go work the bellows on someone else.

Again and again I asked these kinds of questions. “Why, why, why?” But I never asked “What?” As in, “What if this is the Kingdom work He called me to do?”

Connors draws inspiration from Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who said that humans, by nature, have the capacity to draw meaning from any situation. “Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in,” Connors paraphrases, “the last of the freedoms that can never be taken from us is the freedom to choose how we respond to the situation.” Our response to suffering, she says, can “unleash beauty and creativity—things that are really affirming to what it means not only to be human, but to image God.”

The reason Christ crucified is the ultimate answer to both sin and sorrow isn’t simply that His death absolves us of guilt, although it certainly does. Jesus triumphed in His agony by introducing into our fallen world something it could not possibly swallow: the infinite creative power of redemptive suffering.

To lay down your life for a loved one—to keep on turning pages when the story seems to be over— to clutch your faith on that fourth 2 AM drive to the hospital—to look up from your wheelchair and sing like Joni Eareckson Tada—these responses to suffering shake our sin-wracked world and silence the demands for intellectual answers. They do this by following the pattern God established when He gave us His Son instead of a clever theodicy.

Our Father is not preparing us for a future battle. We’re in the thick of it right now. And our faithfulness and love for one another in the fray are, you know, kind of the point. But this raises a fearful possibility—one that C. S. Lewis explored in his essay, “On the Efficacy of Prayer”: What if our kinship with Christ runs as deep as the ancient martyrs believed? What if the strongest Christians should expect the heaviest crosses? What if we are not just likely but certain to find ourselves crying along with Jesus, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

As Lewis concluded, “There is a mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore.” Perhaps the path to meaning inevitably runs through suffering, and always has. In that case it’s comforting to know Someone has blazed the trail.  (Break Point)

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Genesis 43
Jacob is forced to send his youngest son, Benjamin, to Egypt.

INSIGHT

In his commentary, F. B. Meyer regards Joseph as a reflection of Christ who, when his brothers come to him in fear, has only love to bestow on them. Meyer writes:

“Very often we move forward with dread into the unknown.” In reality, our fears are groundless. “If only we realized that [God’s] love is waiting for us there.” His love requires little from us . . . just ourselves. He enables us to live a happy life when we realize the good He has for us. So, “lift up your hearts; a feast awaits you!”

                           (Quiet Walk)

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FAITH AND REASON

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious. 1 Peter 2:7

What is the relationship between faith and reason? The best answer I can give is that faith is not a matter of reason. Some people teach that it is. They say that if only men and women would use their minds, they would be bound to become Christians; they can reason themselves into Christianity. But that is thoroughly unscriptural. They cannot because the natural man’s or woman’s reason is also fallen. Not only that, there are supernatural and miraculous elements in faith to which reason cannot attain. So true faith is not entirely a matter of reason. Indeed, I would quote to you the statement of the great Blaise Pascal, perhaps the greatest mathematician that the world has ever known and who had an evangelical conversion. He said that the supreme achievement of reason is to teach us that there is an end to reason.
So what about faith and reason? Well, faith is not mere reason, but on the other hand, neither is it contrary to reason. It is not unreasonable; it is not irrational. That is the charge that is brought against us.
“Ah,” people say, “but what you’re teaching is a kind of irrationality. You say that faith isn’t a matter of reason. Well then, is it opposed to reason?”
“No, it is not. It is not reason; neither is it contrary to reason. What is it then? It is supra-reason. It means that our reason brings us to the point where we realize that reason is not enough, and at that point we have nothing to do but submit ourselves to revelation. And that is faith. Faith is accepting this revelation.
More and more I like to think of it like this: Faith means that I deliberately shut myself down to this Book, the Bible. I refuse to philosophize. I refuse to ask certain questions. People are always asking them. They want to understand the doctrine of the Trinity. You cannot. You will never understand it. It is too great. So you accept it; and you stop asking questions.
A Thought to Ponder

Reason brings us to the point where we realize that reason is not enough,
and at that point we submit ourselves to revelation.
              ( From God the Holy Spirit, pp. 147-148, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

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The Lord Is Thy Keeper
“The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand….The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” (Psalm 121:5, 8)
One of the most precious doctrines in all of Scripture is that of the secure position of the believer in Christ Jesus. Nothing in creation is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
The apostle Peter tells us that we who are born again are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). Nothing we can do can merit salvation; similarly, nothing we do can keep it. This is God’s work, not ours, and extends to all realms of our lives. “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved [usually translated ‘kept’] blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
This keeping aspect of God’s work for us should not be a surprise, for Christ prayed for just this. With His betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and death imminent, He prayed for all who would eventually believe on Him (John 17:20). “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me….While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost….I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil [one]” (John 17:11-12, 15). We can be certain the prayer is answered, for God the Father would surely hear the intercessory prayer of His own beloved Son.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 1:24-25).

                           (JDM,  The Institute for Creation Research)

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Franklin Graham writes

Declaring today as National Sanctity of Human Life Day was one of President Trump’s last official acts in office. I am grateful that President Trump, Vice President

Mike Pence

, and their administration stood boldly in defense of the unborn over the last four years. On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose abortion to end a pregnancy. Since the ruling, more than 61 million abortions have been performed in the U.S.

A line of the Presidential Proclamation stated powerfully: “Every human life is a gift to the world. Whether born or unborn, young or old, healthy or sick, every person is made in the holy image of God.” Join me in praying that our nation will realize and understand this truth and that ending a baby’s life in the womb is not simply a “choice.” 

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