January 31 - Judges 1:22-26 22  The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the  Lord  was with them.  23  And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.)  24  And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.”  25  And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go.  26  And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day. I read these stories in the Bible and sometimes I wonder if they asked God ahead of time what they were to do.   In these verses it says “And the Lord was with them…” so I have to think they had asked for God’s wisdom and guidance as they went scouting in the city.   They found a man coming out o...

Testimony Tuesday - The trait of Jesus I would most like people to see in me is...

January 30 - Judges 1:16-21 16  And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad, and they went and settled with the people.  17  And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called Hormah.  18  Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.  19  And the  Lord  was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.  20  And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said. And he drove out from it the three sons of Anak.  21  But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived ...

  January 29 - Judges 1:11-15 11  From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher.  12  And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.”  13  And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife.  14  When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?”  15  She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. This little story inserted here is a lesson in “You don’t have because you don’t ask.”   How often do you think what you want to ask for is out of the question?   Sometimes with men, it is not possible, but when we are talki...

January 28 - Judges 1: 1-10 1  After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the  Lord , “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”  2  The  Lord  said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”  3  And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him.  4  Then Judah went up and the  Lord  gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek.  5  They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.  6  Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.  7  And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their t...

January 27 - Joshua 24:29-33 29  After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the  Lord , died, being 110 years old.  30  And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 31  Israel served the  Lord  all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the  Lord  did for Israel. 32  As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. 33  And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim. I love the comment that Israel the Lo...

January 26 - Joshua 24:16-28 16  Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the  Lord  to serve other gods,  17  for it is the  Lord  our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.  18  And the  Lord  drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the  Lord , for he is our God.” 19  But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the  Lord , for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.  20  If you forsake the  Lord  and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”  21  And the people said...

January 25 - Joshua 24: 1-15 24  Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God.  2  And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the  Lord , the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.  3  Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.  4  And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.  5  And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out. 6  “‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and...

January 24 - Joshua 23: 14-16 14  “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the  Lord  your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.   15  But just as all the good things that the  Lord  your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the  Lord  will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the  Lord  your God has given you,   16  if you transgress the covenant of the  Lord  your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the  Lord  will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.” Joshua is trying to prepare them for his death and the chang...

  "Testimony Tuesday" The area where I would like to grow this year is...

January 23 - Joshua 23: 1-13 23  A long time afterward, when the  Lord  had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years,   2  Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years.   3  And you have seen all that the  Lord  your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the  Lord  your God who has fought for you.   4  Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.   5  The  Lord  your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the  Lord  your God promised you.   6  Therefore, be...

January 22- Joshua 22:10-34 10  And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.   11  And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.”   12  And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them. 13  Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,   14  and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head...

January 21- Joshua 22:1-9 22  At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,   2  and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the  Lord  commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.   3  You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the  Lord  your God.   4  And now the  Lord  your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the  Lord  gave you on the other side of the Jordan.   5  Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the  Lord  commanded you, to love the  Lord  your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling ...

January 20- Joshua 21:1-45 21  Then the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel.   2  And they said to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, “The  Lord  commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in, along with their pasturelands for our livestock.”   3  So by command of the  Lord  the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasturelands out of their inheritance. 4  The lot came out for the clans of the Kohathites. So those Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest received by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, thirteen cities. 5  And the rest of the Kohathites received by lot from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities. 6  The Gershoni...