Now the angel of the Lord came and… Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
--Judges 6:11
We all face spiritual struggles and personal battles. You and I both know people who are fighting for their family or their marriage. You might be fighting health or economic battles, or facing temptation and sin.
Battles are tough things. And fought in your own strength, they will wear you down. You may even feel like the last person capable of fighting the good fight of faith!
That’s just how Gideon felt when an angel told him that God was going to use him to save Israel from the Midianites.
Gideon was about as weak a person as they come. He was so weak that when the angel said, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor,” he proceeded to tell the angel that he had the wrong guy!
The enemy had beaten Gideon down because he had convinced Gideon that he was weak and not equipped to fight. But that didn’t matter to God! He doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called! And God renewed Gideon’s faith to be able to fight and win the battle.
Whatever your struggle, God will equip you to fight the good fight of faith! Don’t let the enemy keep you down. God is calling you to something higher, to something better, and to something greater, and he will equip you in that calling!
Whatever your struggle, God will equip you to fight the good fight of faith!
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”
Luke 23:54-56
It is popular among scoffers and those who do not accept the Word of God to propose alternate explanations for the resurrection. In the 1700s German rationalists proposed what came to be known as the “swoon theory” which suggested that Jesus merely fainted rather than actually dying, and then revived in the coolness of the tomb. This allowed them to provide a natural explanation for Jesus being seen by hundreds of people after His crucifixion.
The problem is that in addition to ignoring what the Bible clearly says, believing that Jesus did not die requires ignoring the thoroughness of the Romans in carrying out their executions. While it is certainly possible for people to survive for a day or two on a cross, the Romans did not casually declare someone as dead. The soldiers knew that if a prisoner escaped the punishment, they would be forced to take his place. Jesus, the very Son of God, did indeed die. His followers did not come to the tomb Easter Sunday morning expecting to find Him gone, even though He had told them of the resurrection. They came with the burial spices that were used to anoint dead bodies in that day.
The faith that we have is based on the Word of God being true. The events happened as described. The Bible is not a collection of fables or oral traditions passed down. Human authors wrote what the Holy Spirit spoke, and we have the very words that God has preserved for us through the ages just as He promised. Jesus did die—but He did not stay dead.
Today’s Growth Principle:
Never lose your confidence in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the sure foundation of your faith.
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