The Champions Spirit
Volume 69, Issue 9
March 7, 2010
In This Issue
He Got it Right
One of the first events that we read of in the book of Judges was the capture and punishment of Adoni-Bezek. (Literally, Lord of Bezek). One might have found it somewhat shocking that his thumbs and big toes were cut off. This was a common practice in the Middle East as when it was done to a prisoner, he would be rendered unfit for future military service. (Without a thumb, it is a bit difficult to handle a sword! Without big toes, it is much harder to maintain balance. A king bereft of toes and thumbs would seem much more vulnerable and weak.)
I found the statement of Adoni-Bezek interesting as he mentioned the 70 kings he had done that to and who had been forced to eat the scraps of food that fell from his table. They had been thoroughly humiliated. Now this had been the treatment he had received. Adoni-Bezek then adds, “Now God has paid me back for with I did to them.”
He hit the nail on the head! God indeed punished him and the other peoples of the land for their sins—and his punishment came “in kind.” Have you heard the old saying, “What goes around, comes around?” It means “what you give, you get.” The Bible puts it this way, “What a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6:7.
I hope we can learn the important principles of this story of Judges 1. Let’s take care of how we treat others! Let’s remember that God watches and takes note. Adoni-Bezek saw his punishment as coming from God for his own mistreatment of others. In that, “He Got It Right.”
—Larry Keele
FAMILY MATTERS...
The church in Champions welcomes all our guests today! If possible, come again soon.
After last week’s bulletin had been printed, Landon and Lauren Casey were baptized into Christ. While we were able to acknowledge their great decision with a welcome circle last week, I did want to also mention their wonderful commitment to the Lord in this space. May their great choice of Christ as Lord and Savior be a positive influence on all of us!
Today begins a new quarter of Bible classes. You will enjoy being a part of these sessions as they will reinforce the things you read each week as we continue to read through the Bible in 2010. I hope you will make the special effort to attend a class regularly. You will be blessed for it!
I am sure the ladies had a wonderful weekend together. Whether the weather is bright and sunny or dark and dreary, the blessing of time spent together in the Word continues long after the retreat is but a memory. Thanks to all those who organized it!
This article is written from Kosice, Slovakia. Janet, Marvin, Sue and I pray that God’s blessings are upon you all. While the first half of the week has been spent on a plane or train (or spent lugging the bags around), we finally arrived in Kosice! However, by the time you read this, we will have already completed our morning service, and actually will be leaving tomorrow for a few days in Nitra, before going on to Bratislava. Isn’t it wonderful that we can still have that sense of family and unity even though our places of worship are so very far away! We have enjoyed being with the Christians here and hope that we can strengthen and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. Please keep us in your prayers. You will be in ours as well. Special thanks goes to Gregg Whittaker for preaching for me this morning.
Parting Thought: The glamour of the world fades, it doesn’t fill!
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!
Jeremy’s Junction
It is said that God can do anything. That there is nothing that God can't do. When it comes to His might, power and ability to strengthen His people or hold His people accountable, then this statement is very true. However, there is something that God cannot do.
18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
God cannot lie! It says it there in Hebrews 6:18. You see, God is good. God is perfect in everyway. He cannot sin and He cannot even be tempted. Therefore, God cannot tell a lie. So when He says that you will not be put through anything you cannot bear, He is telling the truth. When He says that we are promised eternity with Him in heaven, we can rest assured that He is not going to simply change His mind. He is going to hold to the promise He has given us. He sent his Son to be a sacrifice for us and whoever chooses to follow the Word of Christ is promised the gift of eternal life.
Be encouraged. Show someone God's love this week. Pray with someone you don't know. Give someone food who is hungry. Get some water that is thirsty. Let people know that God is alive in this community. Be encouraged by the fact that God cannot lie, therefore, we are going to spend eternity with Him in Heaven! Now, go share this great news with someone!
—Jeremy Geurin
John’s Jogs
BIBLE BASICS #6
It is interesting to note that Joseph from his high position as ruler of the most powerful nation in the world at the time as he was preparing to die made the sons of Israel swear an oath.
He said, “God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then you must carry my bones up from this place.” Joseph was a true son of God. He understood that the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be fulfilled and that his high estate was only a part of that fulfillment. Seventy Israelites entered Egypt and 400 years later 600,000 men of fighting age followed Moses out of Egypt.
Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and filled the land. A new king who did not know Joseph came to power and feared the Israelites because of their numbers. So they enslaved them into forced labor. The more they were oppressed the more they multiplied.
The Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the baby boys at birth. However, the midwives feared God and did not obey. Then Pharaoh ordered that every boy that is born, you must throw into the river, but let the girls live.
Amram and Jochebed a Levite couple married. She gave birth to a son and hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer she put him in a papyrus basket coated with tar and pitch and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. His sister (Miriam) stood at a distance to see what happened to him.
Pharaoh’s daughter went to the Nile to bathe. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent a slave girl to get it. When she saw the baby it was crying and she felt sorry for it. She said this is one of the Hebrew babies. Miriam asked if she wanted her to get a Hebrew woman to nurse. She responded, “Yes, go.”
She got the baby’s mother. She took him and when he was older, she took him back to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him MOSES, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” Thus Moses was raised as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, a prince of Egypt.
When he was grown Moses went out to see the Israelites at hard labor and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and he killed the Egyptian. When he realized the event was known he fled to Midian where he encountered God in a burning bush that did not burn up. God commissioned him to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of bondage with his brother, Aaron, as his spokesman.
Next: Leaving Egypt to form a nation
—John Qualls