Good Morning Siblings!!
Today’s readings are 1 Samuel 18-20

To read today’s passages on BibleGateway, click here.

I want to share something Debbie Ingle wrote with you first and foremost and then I’ll add my notes in.

Debbie’s Rabbit Trail – The Best Of Intentions:

Today I have Saul on my mind.  He was the first King of Israel, and he messed up so badly, that the kingdom was ripped away from his family forever (1 Sam 13:13-14).  Think about that for a minute.  We know that Jesus/Yeshua will one day sit on the throne of Israel.  Saul’s sin kept him from being part of that lineage.  Ouch!
It is easy to judge Saul.  He was prideful, impatient, vengeful, and disobedient.
Can anyone relate?
I sure can.
You see, Saul was a lot like many of us.  He was not a deliberately evil man.  The bible tells us that He was trying to please YHVH/The Lord during his many fumbles, but he had one tragic flaw. Saul thought YHVH/The Lord would be honored by good intentions. And Saul believed that so much, that he chose to honor his good intentions over YHVH/The Lord’s commands.

For example…when YHVH/The Lord commanded Saul to strike down every living person and animal in Amalek (1 Saul 15:3), he did not follow through 100%.  He allowed the best of the livestock to live…in order to give it as a sacrifice to YHVH/The Lord (1 Sam 15:20-21).  That sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Saul was so grateful that YHVH/The Lord had helped him win the battle that he wanted to honor him with a sacrifice of the best sheep and oxen.  Saul had the best of intentions… When Samuel arrived, Saul reported that he had carried out YHVH/The Lord’s command, but Samuel had a question:

“Then what is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?”  (1 Sam 15:14)

And this is when we find out that Saul thought it would be okay to disobey YHVH/The Lord in order to make a sacrifice to honor Him. Again, Saul had the best of intentions…   The question then is this:  Did Saul’s good intentions please YHVH/The Lord and excuse Saul’s disobedience?
Nope, Nada, Lo, La, Nein, Nee (I think you get the point)
Samuel tells Saul, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22).
And that is still true today.
YHVH/The Lord’s desire for us is obedience.
Sometimes we have the best of intentions, but those intentions can get us, like Saul, into big trouble.
So how can we walk in obedience to YHVH/The Lord, and how can we see if our good intentions are blinding us to that obedience?
We live in a time (especially in the USA) where we have access to the Bible…like no other time in all of history.
He expects us to read it.
May we read our Bibles, examine ourselves, seek truth, and repent in order to walk in obedience with YHVH/The Lord.
Shalom Friends!


Christy’s Rabbit Trails – a tail of rotted fruit

Today I want to start by talking about rotten fruit. You know how there are the fruits of the spirit?

Paul lays them out in Galaitans 5:22-23  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

He ends it with “against such things there is no law.” Have you ever wondered what the opposite of these fruits of the spirit was, the things that there is a law against? As it turns out, directly preceding that verse we have a list of those, too.

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

These days, that list kind reads like a stroll through a Facebook news feed. Sure, some may seem a bit extreme to the point of us thinking “Well I’d never do that!” but pay attention to the fact that among these, carrying equal weight, are jealousy, dissensions, divisions, envy, strife. Now that fruit falls a little closer to our trees. In today’s reading we see a direct contrast between fruits of the spirit and fruits of the flesh – good fruit and rotten fruit. Pay attention to what produces each type of fruit and the results of bearing each type of fruit. It will go the same with us.

And now a few reminders to help keep you motivated!

•First and foremost- if you get behind, don’t try to catch up! This is a trap, believe me. It ends up with you berating yourself and getting further behind. Instead, if you miss a few days (or a week, or whatever) just dive right back in where we are! Show yourself some grace and don’t worry, we’ll come back around the bend again! The goal was never to read the Bible just once, but to become daily Bible readers.

•The best Bible translation is the one you will read. Check out Biblegateway.com so you can switch between some different Bible translations and see which one makes the most sense to you. I see Bible translations as a jumping off point so I’m not married to any one in particular but it is always best to start with one that makes sense to you. In my daily postings in this group I use the ESV because it is pretty standard and I think is a good common denominator, but in my private study I use several translations at a time. Please go with what works best for you.

•Make sure you read the comments each day whenever you can! So much wonderful discussion and insight is shared there. Better than that is participating in the comments. We have a lot of people in the group who never comment, and this is fine, but sometimes I run into folks and they tell me they’re in my Facebook group and when I ask their name I know for a fact I’ve never laid eyes on that name in my life – and that is a shame. The only way we know you’re here is if you comment so we can see you. Don’t be an invisible person, join us!

•We are believers from all walks of life, every denomination under the sun, and many varied stripes but we are of one accord in many things – most notably our appreciation of the wondrous grace shown to us by our loving father through our Messiah.

If you are reading this, I consider you my brother or sister. After all, we share the same Father, don’t we?

My goal for this group is to get as many of us as possible reading the Word of YHWH firsthand and to encourage one another on our individual journeys of faith. I don’t want you to walk out your faith as I do – I want you to walk as YHWH has called you to walk.

The Father has brought us all together here in this wonderful little corner of the internet to encourage and build up one another as we search His Word and seek His face. Let us pray for one another, hope for one another, and love one another as He so richly loves us!

I’ll leave my notes at that today and let you have a little more time in the Word!


Test everything, hold tight to what is good.~ 1 Thess 5:21

We are saved by Grace alone: Obedience is not the root of our salvation, it is the fruit!

May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!

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Christy Jordan
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