[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY MARCH 16

Wed Mar 16 02:29:11 UTC 2022

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY MARCH 16

WORD OF WISDOM

Singing in the shower is great until you get shampoo in your mouth. Then
it's a soap opera.

___

DAILY DEVOTION

True to His Word 

"God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not
change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised
and not carried it through?"
(Numbers 23:19, NLT)

	 If you're spending more time talking about your problems than you
are about God's promises, that's out of balance. The Scripture says, "God
watches over His Word to perform it." It doesn't say God watches over our
complaints or our begging, "God, please, this isn't fair. You have to turn
this around." Yes, He's concerned and sees the wrongs, but what moves Him to
act is when He hears you speak His Word. It's very powerful when you switch
over to thanking Him for what He's promised.
Make a list of what God has promised you and put it on your phone, your
bathroom mirror, and your computer, and all through the day put Him in
remembrance. God has never failed in the past, and He's not going to start
with you. It may not happen your way or on your timetable, but God is true
to His Word. When you're constantly saying, "God, You promised," that's what
allows Him to bring promises to pass.

A Prayer for Today

"Father, thank You that You promised You would do exceedingly abundantly
above and beyond what I can imagine. Thank You that You have never failed to
be true to Your Word and fulfill Your promises. I believe You are watching
over Your Word to perform it in my life. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

___

DAILY BIBLE READING

Judges 16-18 New King James Version
Samson and Delilah
16 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. 2
When the Gazites were told, "Samson has come here!" they surrounded the
place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were
quiet all night, saying, "In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill
him." 3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took
hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them
up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of
the hill that faces Hebron.

4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose
name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said
to her, "Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what
means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every
one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."

6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies,
and with what you may be bound to afflict you."

7 And Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not
yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."

8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings,
not yet dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now men were lying in wait,
staying with her in the room. And she said to him, "The Philistines are upon
you, Samson!" But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it
touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have mocked me and told me lies.
Now, please tell me what you may be bound with."

11 So he said to her, "If they bind me securely with new ropes [a]that have
never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man."

12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to
him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And men were lying in wait,
staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

13 Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me lies.
Tell me what you may be bound with."

And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of
the loom"-

14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, "The
Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled
out the batten and the web from the loom.

15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is
not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me
where your great strength lies." 16 And it came to pass, when she pestered
him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was [b]vexed to
death, 17 that he told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has
ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's
womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become
weak, and be like any other man."

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called
for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for he has
told me all his heart." So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and
brought the money in their hand. 19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her
knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his
head. Then [c]she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And
she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" So he awoke from his
sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself
free!" But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

21 Then the Philistines took him and [d]put out his eyes, and brought him
down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in
the prison. 22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it
had been shaven.

Samson Dies with the Philistines
23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great
sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said:

"Our god has delivered into our hands
Samson our enemy!"

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said:

"Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy,
The destroyer of our land,
And the one who multiplied our dead."

25 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call for
Samson, that he may perform for us." So they called for Samson from the
prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the
pillars. 26 Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, "Let me
feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them." 27
Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines
were there-about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while
Samson performed.

28 Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray!
Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take
vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!" 29 And Samson took hold of
the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself
against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Then Samson
said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed with all his might,
and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the
dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

31 And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him,
and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of
his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

Micah's Idolatry
17 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 And he said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were
taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears-here
is the silver with me; I took it."

And his mother said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!" 3 So when he
had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother
said, "I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my
son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return
it to you." 4 Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother
took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he
made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house
of Micah.

5 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household[e] idols; and
he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there
was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah;
he was a Levite, and was staying there. 8 The man departed from the city of
Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to
the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. 9 And
Micah said to him, "Where do you come from?"

So he said to him, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my
way to find a place to stay."

10 Micah said to him, "Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me,
and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and
your sustenance." So the Levite went in. 11 Then the Levite was content to
dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. 12
So Micah consecrated[f] the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and
lived in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, "Now I know that the Lord
will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!"

The Danites Adopt Micah's Idolatry
18 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of
the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until
that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to
them. 2 So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their
territory, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and
search it. They said to them, "Go, search the land." So they went to the
mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 While they
were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite.
They turned aside and said to him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing
in this place? What do you have here?"

4 He said to them, "Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I
have become his priest."

5 So they said to him, "Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the
journey on which we go will be prosperous."

6 And the priest said to them, "Go in peace. [g]The presence of the Lord be
with you on your way."

7 So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were
there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and
secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for
anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties [h]with
anyone.

8 Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their
brethren said to them, "What is your report?"

9 So they said, "Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the
land, and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to
go, and enter to possess the land. 10 When you go, you will come to a secure
people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where
there is no lack of anything that is on the earth."

11 And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from
Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war. 12 Then they went up and
encamped in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place Mahaneh
Dan[i] to this day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.) 13 And they passed
from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

14 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered
and said to their brethren, "Do you know that there are in these houses an
ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore,
consider what you should do." 15 So they turned aside there, and came to the
house of the young Levite man-to the house of Micah-and greeted him. 16 The
six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of
Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 17 Then the five men who had gone to
spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the
ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the
entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of
war.

18 When these went into Micah's house and took the carved image, the ephod,
the household idols, and the molded image, the priest said to them, "What
are you doing?"

19 And they said to him, "Be quiet, put your hand over your mouth, and come
with us; be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest
to the household of one man, or that you be a priest to a tribe and a family
in Israel?" 20 So the priest's heart was glad; and he took the ephod, the
household idols, and the carved image, and took his place among the people.

21 Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock,
and the goods in front of them. 22 When they were a good way from the house
of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah's house gathered
together and overtook the children of Dan. 23 And they called out to the
children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Micah, "What ails you,
that you have gathered such a company?"

24 So he said, "You have taken away my [j]gods which I made, and the priest,
and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me,
'What ails you?' "

25 And the children of Dan said to him, "Do not let your voice be heard
among us, lest [k]angry men fall upon you, and you lose your life, with the
lives of your household!" 26 Then the children of Dan went their way. And
when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to
his house.

Danites Settle in Laish
27 So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged
to him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck
them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. 28 There was
no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no ties with
anyone. It was in the valley that belongs to Beth Rehob. So they rebuilt the
city and dwelt there. 29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the
name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel. However, the name of the
city formerly was Laish.

30 Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and
Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of [l]Manasseh, and his sons were
priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 31
So they set up for themselves Micah's carved image which he made, all the
time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Footnotes
Judges 16:11 Lit. with which work has never been done
Judges 16:16 Lit. impatient to the point of
Judges 16:19 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX he began to be weak,
Judges 16:21 Lit. bored out
Judges 17:5 Heb. teraphim
Judges 17:12 Lit. filled the hand of
Judges 18:6 Lit. The Lord is before the way in which you go
Judges 18:7 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX with Syria
Judges 18:12 Lit. Camp of Dan
Judges 18:24 idols
Judges 18:25 Lit. bitter of soul
Judges 18:30 LXX, Vg. Moses