Seize the Moment – Day 710
Leadership in Times of War!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, February 25.
Judges 11:5-7 highlights that the people of Gilead had a similar opinion of Jephthah:
When the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob; and they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.” Then Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me from my father’s house? So why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?”
Leadership in times of war is different than in times of peace. It often requires a different skill set that is not usually acceptable at other times. With Jephthah, God used an unexpected person for His purposes. While we many not always understand why we are the way we are, realize that God has designed you for a purpose and desires to use you to impact your generation for His glory.
Seize the moment and ask God to use you today. You were created for such a time as this, so rise up, and seize the moment!
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Seize the Moment – Day 709
A Desperate Plea!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, February 24.
Have you ever cried out to God in a desperate plea? We sometimes call these 9-1-1 prayers. As we are going to see from our Bible reading today, these are the prayers with which we cry out to God when we hit rock bottom. I often say to people that God does His best work when we are at our worst and weakest moments of life.
Judges 10:15 records the desperate plea of the sons of Israel to God, “We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please deliver us this day.” While I know the story enough to know that we are still in the vicious cycle of sin and idolatry, I still can’t help but to love this prayer. It’s probably the reckless abandonment of the words, “Do to me whatever seems good to You.” There is a depth of trust in this prayer that only comes from knowing you can’t trust yourself. I have tried to make life work out for me and it hasn’t.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, yet expect different results. The nation of Israel was insane during these dark and chaotic days of the Judges, and so are we at times. If you haven’t seen yourself in the book of Judges yet, I pray the Lord would open the eyes of your heart so that you may see and repent. The Israelites kept trying to make life work out for them and would go to any source to do so. Until they hit bottom, to only hear God’s scathing admonishment to them in verse 14: “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”
It was those words from God that brought them back to their senses. Just like the prodigal son went home to his father in Luke 15:21, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
Seize the moment and cry out to God in repentance! The Father is waiting to wrap His arms around you and welcome you home (Luke 15:22-24).
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Seize the Moment – Day 708
Stand Out by Trusting God!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, February 23.
Judges 9 reads more like a Hollywood production than a Bible story, filled with political intrigue, family betrayal, and violence. It is a sad story about family politics, as an outcast child sows heartache and vengeance on his siblings and community. It is a disappointing story as Gideon’s progeny fall short of God’s call. Ultimately though, it is a true story about the human condition that teaches us to keep our eyes on God, and not put our trust in man, if we hope to walk true in our lives today.
Judges 9:22-24 provides a short summary of this story:
Now Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal [Gideon] might come, and their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.
Standing out like a beacon of light in this prevailing darkness, there is an intriguing character – Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon. He is the only son to escape Abimelech’s murderous rage (5). After narrowly escaping death, and before his departure from the story, Jotham delivers a prophecy from God to Abimelech and to the people of Shechem (7-21). The story ends with these words in verse 57, “the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.”
Jotham was different! He, of all the characters in this story, was the only one who trusted God and did not take matters into his own hands. He trusted God in his dire circumstances and leaned not on his own understanding, but on God’s promise, from Deuteronomy 32:35, “Vengeance is Mine.”
Seize the moment and trust God for His promises!
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Seize the Moment – Day 707
The Ruler of Your Life!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, February 22.
Have you ever felt like someone said all the right things, but didn’t follow through and live according to what they said?
If only his story ended with those words, but it doesn’t! Gideon went on to essentially live like a king, if not be the de facto king in the absence of one. He amassed wealth from the people and had seventy sons. Gideon said the right thing in that moment, but struggled to live it out with integrity, violating God’s decrees for the king of Israel (Deuteronomy 17:17).
Most tellingly about Gideon’s unofficial kingship was the questions of hereditary rule that followed his death, as seen in Judges 9:2 when Abimelech posed the question, “Which is better for you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal [Gideon], rule over you, or that one man rule over you?” If there is any further question to Gideon’s unofficial kingship, Abimelech’s name means, “my father is king.”
Gideon will always be remembered as one of the heroes of faith for his military victories, as seen in Hebrews 11:32, but what should we emulate from his life?
Seize the moment and trust Jesus as the ruler of your life, don’t just declare Him to be the King of Kings.
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Seize the Moment – Day 706
When God is With You!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, February 21.
Have you felt like God could not use you because you weren’t big enough or smart enough or significant enough? Well, do I have a story to tell you…
The story of Gideon is a powerful story of God working through a person, not because the person was big, strong, or important, but because God was with him. In Judges 7:2, God instructed Gideon to decrease the size of his army, commenting, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’” Even after cutting it in half, the army was still too impressive, so in verse 4 God proclaimed to Gideon, “The people are still too many.” God used only 300 fighting men to achieve the victory (4-25).
From the beginning of Gideon’s story, we saw that God was planning to do a great work amidst His people. Judges 6:15-16 captures an important point of the story: “[Gideon] said to Him, ‘O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.’”
The victory did not come through Gideon’s power or the size of his army, but through God. The same is true today! Paul made this clear in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.”
Seize the moment and trust that when God calls you to do something for Him that He will be with you. The victory comes from God through you, so be a living sacrifice for His glory today!
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Train to Live on Mission – Week 3
Battle Drill #3:
Cry Out for Discernment!
Proverbs 2:1-9 (NAS95)
Over the last three weeks, we have learned that the overarching battle drill of a good soldier of Jesus Christ is to submit to God. When we are on mission for God, submitted to our Commander, and we come under enemy attack, which we will, we are to resist the enemy by heeding God’s wisdom. If you want to live on mission, then you must remain focused; therefore, you must learn how to recognize the schemes of the devil and resist the enemy who seeks to take you off God’s mission. Often, the best defense is a proactive offense! That brings us to today’s battle drill and how we wisely discern God’s strategy for our lives.
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine, which we learned from our study of 2 Timothy 2:1-4, to learn how to apply God’s wisdom to our daily lives and train to live on mission today.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 2:3: “For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding.”
This verb carries an urgency of action that requires you to make a choice in how you are going to proceed forward with your life. There appears to be a life-or-death intensity when this word is translated, “to cry out.” Here are four examples of this from the Psalms:
- Psalm 57:2. “I will cry to God Most High, to God who accomplishes all things for me.”
- Psalm 119:145-146. “I cried with all my heart; answer me, O Lord! I will observe Your statutes. I cried to You; save me And I shall keep Your testimonies.”
- Psalm 120:1. “In my trouble I cried to the Lord, And He answered me.”
- Psalm 130:1. “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord.”
This intensity is made clear when we put our battle drill back into its context of Proverbs 2:1-9:
My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course.
Essentially, today’s battle drill is about the urgency of learning how to make wise decisions based on the wisdom of God! Accordingly, if you examine Proverbs 2:1-9 closely, you see that it is one large conditional statement, an “if-then” proposition:
IF you:
- Receive My words (1)
- Treasure My commandments in your person (1)
- Make your ear attentive (2)
- Incline your heart to understanding (2)
- Cry out for discernment (3)
- Lift your voice for understanding (3)
- Seek wisdom as silver (4)
- Search for wisdom as hidden treasure (4)
THEN you will be able to:
- Discern the fear of the LORD (5)
- Discover the knowledge of God (5)
- Discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course (9)
WHY? The passage explains that this “if-then” conditional statement holds true in life BECAUSE doing the IF’s puts you in the pathway of God, who:
- Gives wisdom (6)
- Speaks knowledge and understanding (6)
- Stores up sound wisdom for the upright (7)
- Shields (“He is a buckler” in KJV) those who walk in integrity (7)
- Guards the paths of justice (8)
- Preserves the way of His godly ones (8)
This is the logic loop of God’s Word and just like in computer code, a conditional statement determines pathways. For example, if you take a left out of church this morning you head towards Stacks and if you take a right you are going towards Park Restaurant. If you do this action, then this result will happen. If you don’t do this, then this result will not happen. But unlike computers, you have free will – the responsibility to make wise choices and deal with the consequences. If you stop at a red light, then… If you look both ways before you cross the road, then… There is a rationality to an IF-THEN statement that you can train into your life.
This battle drill must become instinctive, reflexive, and habitual. You must make crying out to God a habit in your life to help you make right choices so that you abide with Him in the pathway of God’s blessings. Every promise of God comes with this choice – choose obedience, which leads to life, or choose disobedience, which leads to death! These were Moses’ parting words to God’s people before they entered the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 30:19-20:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
Discernment, according to the Bible, is the capacity for rational thought and the ability to make wise decisions, to understand what is right and true and to act upon it. In other words, the discernment that we are to cry out for is not that God should make the decision for us, but that He would give us the capacity to know what is right, to understand truth, and to act upon that information to make good decisions that glorify Him and manifest the good fruit of His Spirit.
I often say to people, who ask me about the will of God, that discernment is more about how you make the decision, than about what decision you end up making. While I do believe what we do matters (of course it does!), I believe discernment is the why and how of the what! If you learn how to discern God’s will, then you will more times than not choose life and blessing. This is the exact opposite mindset of the Magic 8 Ball, which is the complete absence of rational thought; rather, discernment is the ability to apply the wisdom of God to real life decisions!
It is my desire to train you to be able to understand/discern God’s will accurately in a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual way, no matter the pressure of the situation or the stress you’re under. Like I’ve shared with you before, it is for this reason that I went through the rigors of the US Army Ranger School, to learn how to apply the military decision-making process (MDMP) under duress and in extreme situations. While I learned MDMP in a classroom environment first, like we are today, it had to be trained into me so that it was habitual. I needed to be able to lead my unit in ways that defeated the enemy and accomplished the mission, just like we need to be trained to heed God’s wisdom and make wise decisions based upon it.
Biblically, that process of knowing and proving God’s will for your life begins with the same step for every member of the body of Christ, as Paul explained in Romans 12:1-2:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We must first decide to gather around the Commander, Jesus Christ, and set our ambition on becoming like Him, gentle and humble in heart, before we can do or decide anything else – this is your spiritual service of worship, being transformed into His image through the renewal of your mind (think of Proverbs 2:1-9 IF-THEN statement)! What differentiates the church from every other team or community is that we gather around Jesus and not around a goal or task, no matter how biblical or spiritual that goal may sound, if it is not around the person of Jesus Christ and becoming like Him, that task can take you off God’s mission and into your own ambition. While the church is a missional organization, our primary purpose is to become like the One who has enlisted us to Himself. Becoming like Jesus is our greatest calling, and it is only through the spiritual transformation process that the church can ever make wise decisions or live on mission or even offer right worship to Him. To put doing before being is the fundamental error of the American church. As Ruth Haley Barton stated in her book Pursuing God’s Will Together:
We are unified by our commitment to be transformed in Christ’s presence through the work of the Holy Spirit so we can discern and do the will of God as we are guided by the Spirit. We participate in Jesus’ prayer “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done” in our own small corner of the world.[1]
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
That is why we must prioritize our spiritual formation and seek the transformation through the renewal of the mind that only comes by prioritizing seeking the approval of Jesus Christ, the One who enlisted you to be His good soldier. We must be the ones who receive God’s words (1), treasure His commandments in our person (1), make our ear attentive (2), incline our heart to understanding (2), cry out for discernment (3), lift our voice for understanding (3), seek God’s wisdom as silver (4), and search for His wisdom as hidden treasure (4). When we do this, then we will be able to discern the fear of the LORD (5), discover the knowledge of God (5), and discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course (9).
Just as Psalm 119:9 simply states, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.” We train discernment by abiding in God, hiding His Word in our hearts, and prioritizing our lives around His mission! The more we invest daily time into the meditation upon and memorization of God’s Word, the more instinctive, reflexive, and habitual it will be to remain on the path of God’s “good and acceptable and perfect” will (Romans 12:2).
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
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FOOTNOTE:
[1] Ruth Haley Barton, Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 77.
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Seize the Moment – Day 704
Be Thou My Vision
Deuteronomy 31:8 (ESV)
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
This hymn is possibly one of the oldest hymns we have today. The words were originally written around 700A.D by an unknown Irish author, Asking God to lead and guide his life. He was inspired by a well-known missionary to Ireland, St. Patrick. This Scotsman was kidnapped as a young teen, taken to Ireland as a slave, escaped his captors and returned to his family. But God had other plans for him. In a dream, he saw an Irishman pleading for him to come evangelize Ireland. At the age of 30, he returned with only a Latin Bible in his hand. Despite the opposition from the superstitious Druids, Patrick planted over 200 churches and baptized 100,000 converts. So centuries later, his life was still inspiring the people of Ireland. Look at verse 2:
Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my true Word,
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son,
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
We need to wake up and ask God to give us a fresh vision and purpose for our lives each and every day as we seek to trust and obey His will for our lives. We have to daily surrender to Him.
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Be Thou My Vision
naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
I ever with thee, and thou with me, Lord.
Born of thy love, thy child may I be,
thou in me dwelling and I one with thee.
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tow’r.
Raise thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.
thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Ruler of heaven, my treasure thou art.
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
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Seize the Moment – Day 703
For the Fame of the One Name!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, February 18.
Have you ever done an important job only to be overlooked? While the next three chapters, Judges 6 – 8, tells the story of the next great judge, Gideon, we first encounter an unnamed prophet in verses 7-10:
Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me.” ’ ”
That’s it! No name mentioned, but a faithful word given. We may never know who this person was, unlike the prophetess Deborah or the prophet Samuel, but God’s will was done through his faithfulness just the same.
Does your faithfulness depend on recognition, fame, or notoriety?
There is only one name that needs to be put up in lights and that is the name of Jesus Christ. So, don’t be discouraged from doing good if you are overlooked, simply pray that your life will elevate the name of Jesus, the only name by which anyone can be saved (Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9).
Seize the moment and keep serving faithfully for the fame of the One name!
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Seize the Moment – Day 702
Sing a Duet!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, February 17.
Do you have a favorite duet? Maybe when Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond came together to sing, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” or Faith Hill and Tony Bennett when they sang, “The Way You Look Tonight.” There is something magical about a beautiful duet.
This is a rare discovery because the next closest thing to a duet in the Bible was the Song of Miriam (Exodus 15:20-21), which immediately followed the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-19). They may have sounded like a duet, but their songs are not described as one.
Deborah and Barak sang as one of their victory, and they gave God all the glory! Just as foretold, the song gave honor to a woman for the victory, as Judges 5:24 declared of the heroin: “Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; most blessed is she of women in the tent.” But as you listen to their song, they are giving honor to many, not just the champion, but to the many from the tribes who fought, whether volunteer or commander.
Seize the moment and honor the people in your life who are fighting the good fight of faith as good soldiers of Jesus Christ for the glory of God! We are in this together!
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Seize the Moment – Day 701
Partnerships for the Glory of God!
Partnerships are necessary for life! There would not be a new generation of babies born if it were not for the partnerships of men and women coming together; it requires healthy partnerships to bring thriving to our homes, churches, and lives.
Deborah was unique during this period because she was judging in the ancient ways of Moses and his appointed judges. She is more akin to Samuel than the other judges of this time, who were all warriors raised up to defeat an oppressive regime. With this understanding in mind, she gave Barak God’s command in an important exchange recorded in Judges 4:6-9:
Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Through their partnership, God won the victory, and the people experienced forty years of rest. But, as we saw in the continuation of this story, it was not herself, but another woman who received the honor for this great victory – Jael (17-22; 5:24).
Seize the moment and work as a part of a God-designed team! It’s amazing what God will do through us when we don’t care who gets the honor, as long as God gets all the glory!
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