When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the Lord blessed him as he grew up (Judges 13:24 NLT). As one preacher described it, Samson was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. As chapter thirteen concludes, we have great hope in Samsons future. Announced by an angel, the only child of

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1 NLT). John began his gospel as Moses began the Torah, with the words, In the beginning… This signaled the lofty aspect of Johns gospel that clearly proclaimed Jesus as Gods Son. Using the Greek λόγος (logos

Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord. And he was grieved by their misery (Judges 10:16 NLT). When the Israelites finally got rid of their idolatry, so that their deeds matched their words of repentance, God was moved to answer their cry. The description of the Lords response to Israels

‘When Jotham heard about this, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem! Listen to me if you want God to listen to you! (Judges 9:7 NLT). Jotham was the only surviving son of Gideon. All of his brothers had been murdered by their half-brother, Abimelech. Jotham

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42 NLT). In the gospel of Luke, it is recorded that Jesus was crucified between two criminals, one on either side. In the crowd watching the crucifixion were certain Jewish leaders who sneered at Jesus saying, “He saved others; let Him save

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” (Judges 6:14 NLT). The Lord told Gideon to go with the strength he had to rescue Israel from the marauding Midianites. But Gideon replied that he was far from being strong,

Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39 NLT). On the night that Jesus would be betrayed, He went out as usual to the Mount of Olives to pray. On this unusual evening, Jesus followed His usual habit: He prayed on the

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32 NLT). The Lord addressed him as, Simon, Simon, not as Peter, for he

“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom (Psalm 90:12 NLT).  Have you ever heard of the Urgent-Important Matrix? It is a time management system made popular by Stephen Coveys book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The matrix teaches that every task can be placed in

“While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins (Luke 21:1-2 NLT). As Jesus watched the people putting their gifts into the Temple offering, He offered several insights. One insight is that God sees