Guide: Read Judges 13; Galatians 1; Listen to Just to Please You by @ThisIsPressPlay; Pray for courage to share Good News; Do you please God or people?
Verse of the Day: God is the One I am trying to please—If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10 NCV
Song of the Day: Just to Please You by Press Play — Youtube
Bible Reading: Judges 13; Galatians 1
Judges 13
The Birth of Samson
1 Again the people of Israel did what the Lord said was wrong. So he handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan, who lived in the city of Zorah. He had a wife, but she could not have children. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “You have not been able to have children, but you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Be careful not to drink wine or beer or eat anything that is unclean, 5 because you will become pregnant and have a son. You must never cut his hair, because he will be a Nazirite, given to God from birth. He will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.”
6 Then Manoah’s wife went to him and told him what had happened. She said, “A man from God came to me. He looked like an angel from God; his appearance was frightening. I didn’t ask him where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and will have a son. Don’t drink wine or beer or eat anything that is unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from his birth until the day of his death.’”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, I beg you to let the man of God come to us again. Let him teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born to us.”
9 God heard Manoah’s prayer, and the angel of God came to Manoah’s wife again while she was sitting in the field. But her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 So she ran to tell him, “He is here! The man who appeared to me the other day is here!”
11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
The man said, “I am.”
12 So Manoah asked, “When what you say happens, what kind of life should the boy live? What should he do?”
13 The angel of the Lord said, “Your wife must be careful to do everything I told her to do. 14 She must not eat anything that grows on a grapevine, or drink any wine or beer, or eat anything that is unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay awhile so we can cook a young goat for you.”
16 The angel of the Lord answered, “Even if I stay awhile, I would not eat your food. But if you want to prepare something, offer a burnt offering to the Lord.” (Manoah did not understand that the man was really the angel of the Lord.)
17 Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? Then we will honor you when what you have said really happens.”
18 The angel of the Lord said, “Why do you ask my name? It is too amazing for you to understand.” 19 So Manoah sacrificed a young goat on a rock and offered some grain as a gift to the Lord. Then an amazing thing happened as Manoah and his wife watched. 20 The flames went up to the sky from the altar. As the fire burned, the angel of the Lord went up to heaven in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw that, they bowed facedown on the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear to them again. Then Manoah understood that the man was really the angel of the Lord. 22 Manoah said, “We have seen God, so we will surely die.”
23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted our burnt offering or grain offering. He would not have shown us all these things or told us all this.”
24 So the woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 The Spirit of the Lord began to work in Samson while he was in the city of Mahaneh Dan, between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol.
Galatians 1
1 From Paul, an apostle. I was not chosen to be an apostle by human beings, nor was I sent from human beings. I was made an apostle through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead. 2 This letter is also from all those of God’s family[a] who are with me.
To the churches in Galatia:[b]
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 Jesus gave himself for our sins to free us from this evil world we live in, as God the Father planned. 5 The glory belongs to God forever and ever. Amen.
The Only Good News
6 God, by his grace through Christ, called you to become his people. So I am amazed that you are turning away so quickly and believing something different than the Good News. 7 Really, there is no other Good News. But some people are confusing you; they want to change the Good News of Christ. 8 We preached to you the Good News. So if we ourselves, or even an angel from heaven, should preach to you something different, we should be judged guilty! 9 I said this before, and now I say it again: You have already accepted the Good News. If anyone is preaching something different to you, let that person be judged guilty!
10 Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Paul’s Authority Is from God
11 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the Good News I preached to you was not made up by human beings. 12 I did not get it from humans, nor did anyone teach it to me, but Jesus Christ showed it to me.
13 You have heard about my past life in the Jewish religion. I attacked the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion, doing better than most other Jews of my age. I tried harder than anyone else to follow the teachings handed down by our ancestors.
15 But God had special plans for me and set me apart for his work even before I was born. He called me through his grace 16 and showed his son to me so that I might tell the Good News about him to those who are not Jewish. When God called me, I did not get advice or help from any person. 17 I did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was. But, without waiting, I went away to Arabia and later went back to Damascus.
18 After three years I went to Jerusalem to meet Peter and stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 I met no other apostles, except James, the brother of the Lord. 20 God knows that these things I write are not lies. 21 Later, I went to the areas of Syria and Cilicia.
22 In Judea the churches in Christ had never met me. 23 They had only heard it said, “This man who was attacking us is now preaching the same faith that he once tried to destroy.” 24 And these believers praised God because of me.
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Footnotes:
- 1:2 those . . . family The Greek text says “brothers.”
- 1:2 Galatia Probably the same country where Paul preached and began churches on his first missionary trip. Read the Book of Acts, chapters 13 and 14.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.