mark.o.reynolds

I believe that we can ask God for a sign when we are seeking His approval or His desires when it comes to making a decision in our lives. I pray often and ask His assistance in making decisions that affect my faith, my family, and my life. I do not challenge Him in any way to say that if He really exists that He needs to prove it or anything like that. I think that is when it becomes dangerous to ask Him to show me signs. I think if we challenge His existence or something like that it becomes dangerous. If you are questioning Him in anyway it becomes dangerous, but if you have full faith in Him and His doings then I believe it is alright to ask him occassionally to show you things to make sure you are on the right path.

Up to this point Joash was going back and forth between Baal and Yahweh. I think he believed in both but was uncertain of which to choose until this act happened. I think he needed a little connvincing and this forced him to make a choice himself on whether to serve a false god in Baal or serve the Almighty Lord God. Gideon's actions affected his father because it made him choose to follow God instead of serving Baal. It was a difficult decision for Gideon because he knew it would put his father in a very difficult situation with the townspeople. I am certain Gideon took his father's situation into consideration before he destroyed the altar and that is why it was such a difficult decision for him to make. In a sense Joash is now a follower of God becasue he tells the townspeople that if Baal was a real god he would have protected the altar himself. He chose the decision made by his son and that was the decision to follow the Lord. He got off his going back and forth between Baal and God and made the only choice there is to make and that is serving the one and only God.

I do not believe this is an oxymoron. I do believe that you can be a disobedient disciple. Is it the right thing to do? No, but we all fall short sometimes and that is when we become disobedient disciples. We try to follow the Lord in all we do but there are times when we make decisions not based on His word or teachings. We do them because of our wants or our needs and not based on anything He tells us. I try to follow in the Lord's footsteps but I know I fall short a lot. I believe I am a disciple of the Lord and I do feel that sometimes I am disobedient. It is not something I am proud of but that is why I am glad that our Lord is a very forgiving Lord and He loves us even though we may sin occasionally. Yes, Gideon had a choice here. The Lord didn't physically make him tear down the altar and build a new one for the Lord. He simply told him to do it and it was up to Gideon to make the decision on whether or not to do it. As we all know he made the right choice in following what the Lord told him to do. We all have choices on a daily basis. It is up to us as Christians to follow the word of the Lord and make the right decisions on those choices. We must think of the Lord in all we do. Every time there is a decision I need to make I always ask the Lord's advice and ask Him to guide me in my ways. If I leave it up to Him I should never have to worry about the choices I make. I am so happy to have Him on my team.

We are to honor our father and mother but never more than we honor the Lord Himself. Anything we are told to do by the Lord comes before anything anyone in the flesh tells us to do even our parents. If they are true followers of the Lors they will not lead you astray, however in this case Gideon's father is worshiping a false God which is the wrong answer. I think that is why there is justification in this case for Gideon.

Gideon was told to tear down the altar to Baal and Asherah because they were built for false gods. You are to forsake false gods and therefore the altars were wrongly built. Gideon was told to build an altar for his God, and give Him a burnt offering from his father's bulls. The danger in it was that Gideon did not want to anger his family or the people in his town. He performed the duty at night because he didn't want anyone to see what he was doing. I think doing it at night was a little of both. It showed signs of his weakness because he was afraid of what might happen to him if he was caught. However, he still performed the duty his Lord told him to do so it also shows a sign of his faith. He is still growing in his faith because he is just learning to put his trust in God. It is understandable given the circumstances he is in.

Together they will strike down the Midianites. Not Gideon alone or the Lord alone, TOGETHER. (Phil 4:13) We can do all things in Christ who strenghtens us. Just pray to the Lord to be with you in all you do. Do not let your mind tell you that you are too weak or uncapable of doing the job. Together with the Lord you can do anything.

Gideon blames the Lord for abandoning them after he took them out of Egypt. When all along it was them that abondoned Him. As we read, they worshiped the gods of the Amorites and not the Lord. His assessment was totally incorrect. He just wanted the easy way out and put all the blame on God. It is easy for us to blame God as well for all our shortcomings. If we fail a test, do poorly at work, have problems with our marriages, we tend to put the blame on Him. It is very dangerous to do this. We really need to look at why all these problems are occuring and then we will see the truth. We probably failed the test because we failed to prepare and study. We are doing poorly at work because we are not paying attention or just don't care. Our marriages are struggling because He is not the foundation and we are trying to make it on our own. Get the hint. Do not blame the Lord for all your problems.

God saw Gideon as a mighty warrior capable of saving Isreal, and Gideon saw himself as weak, "the least in his family". The Lord's perception is correct of course. He sees us in ways that no others, including ourselves see us. He knows everything there is to know about each and every one of us. We need to trust in Him and we can accomplish anything with His help. We sometimes feel that we are not the right person for the job or that we will not be able to accomplish the mission because we are weak or not skilled enough to do it. He would not tell us to do something if He didn't already know that we could get it done. We just need to have full confidence in the Lord and ourselves and get the job done. We will never be what God wants us to be by feeling like we are weak or not up to the task.

He told them He is the Lord God, not the gods of the Amorites, but they did not listen to Him. They worshiped the gods of the Amorites and that is why they were in the oppressed state. Today Christians get caught up in materialistic things. We sometimes do not put the Lord first in all we do. We want more and more and try to get it all by ourselves. We need to understand that eveything we have is due to Him. Without Him we would be nothing and have nothing.