Bridging The Gap

Many people have a “grocery store” mentality when it comes to Christianity. They think they can just pick and choose the parts of the Bible that fit their lives. But God didn’t give us the bible to have it work that way. Pastor Lloyd is leading us through the Book of Judges, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Judges eleven is in front of us.  If you have a bible handy, turn there and join us! Here’s pastor Lloyd.

If you’ve been tuning in lately, you know that we’re in the midst of a verse by verse study through the Book of Judges and today we will looking at chapters ten through twelve, where we find the children of Israel engaged yet again in apostasy. This section of God’s word shows us yet again that mankind will go to great lengths to serve other gods, but it’s always a mistake.

Sometimes, God’s plan for our life doesn’t seem to make much sense at the time its delivered to us. But, looking back on the journey, we can see how He was working things out all along, right? The Bible is full of examples of this and we’ll be looking at one of them on today’s program.  Pastor Lloyd  is in Judges, chapter nine, with a few words about a man named Jotham.

God’s standards are much different than the world’s and we’ll do ourselves a whole lot of good to keep that in mind on a daily basis. Pastor Lloyd will direct our attention to Judges nine as we continue to examine these Old Testament men and women who were surprisingly a lot more like us than we may think.

Our passage for today can be found in chapter eight. Priorities were certainly important in the era of the Judges, and they are equally important today. It is so easy to get them out of whack, wouldn’t you agree? We invite you to find your place in Judges eight, as pastor Lloyd looks again at the life and times of Gideon.

Johan Sebastian Bach once said, "All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul's refreshment”. He was clearly a man who understood that God not only should get the glory in all of life’s victories, He also deserves it. We’re about to meet another man who understood this to be true.

Today on Bridging the Gap. we’ll see Gideon in a real predicament - his army of three hundred against thousands of Midianites. Let's let pastor Lloyd take it from here.

Gideon was given a great task to perform by God, and despite the seemingly long odds, he obeyed God and ultimately found victory. Now, I’d say that’s a life we can learn something positive from!

 On today’s broadcast we continue the story of Gideon. This historic account of this Godly man provides us the opportunity to evaluate our faith. We say we trust the Lord but do we really? As Christians, God has called us to certain things. And our response, like Gideon’s, is often doubt and uncertainty. But as we’ll learn, God in His grace comes down to our level, to bring us higher.

The book of Judges is really timeless because the problems God’s people face are perennial. From Judges chapter six here's, pastor Lloyd Pulley, to begin a mini-series on the life and times of a great man named Gideon.

God has used women greatly throughout the ages, and we’re going to see a great biblical example of that today.  Her name is Deborah, and we find her song of warning in Judges five. Communication skills are essential in our relationship with God and with each other, and Deborah is a shining example.

 Today, we’re going to have a little choir practice, as we look at the Song of Deborah, found in Judges chapter five. The lyrics of this song are really amazing. They challenge us, they remind us that we face the same issues today that Deborah talked about back then, and there is a little history lesson thrown in as well.

You cry out to God for deliverance, and He does so very graciously.  You’re set free, and then a little while later that cycle occurs again... and again!   This is actually nothing new.  As we’ll see in Judges three, the children of Israel did the very same thing.

Today we visit Judges chapter three.  The children of Israel are in a season of wickedness, and the Lord is really upset about it.  They’re about to cry out to God, and the Lord, by His grace, delivers them yet again.

What would happen if you went to your spouse and told them you were going to be faithful to them 99 percent of the time?  The result would probably be a few nights on the couch - or worse! Compromise can be costly in marriage, and in other aspects of life as well. Today as we again look at Judges chapter two, we’ll see just how costly compromise was for the people of Israel, when it came to their relationship with God. 

 You can go back to biblical times and find many instances where compromise was costly. That’s what we’ll do today as we open our Bibles to Judges chapter two. God’s chosen people compromised in their faith, and it cost a lot.

We have just begun a new series in the Old Testament book of Judges. The book of Judges details the continual failure of the children of Israel, and we’d do well to learn from their mistakes. 

Every time we compromise and sin- disaster and bondage is around the corner. This truth rings loud and clear throughout the book of Judges, and today on Bridging the Gap we’re pleased to begin a new series in this often overlooked book. Pastor Lloyd Pulley kicks off the series with a study in Judges chapter one, titled “Incomplete Victory”.

Today, Pastor Lloyd will share some ways that we can fight the battle against the forces of evil and come out victorious. Every victorious team has a game plan, and so it is with our battle against satan - we need a game plan and we need to stick to it!

Today pastor Lloyd is going to continue a message titled “Spiritual Cautions and Objectives”, and he will ask us to consider who we are in Christ, and what the bible says about who we are. First of all, we should all know just how valuable we are to God.