BBD 08.10.16 Learning Your Lesson (New)

#1 · August 10, 2016, 1:31 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on August 10, 2016, 1:31 pm
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1767^th

Burning Bush Devotional

10 August 2016

Learning Your Lesson

Then the children of
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.
So the Lord delivered them into
the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian
prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel
made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was,
whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the
people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against
them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no
sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up
with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both
they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to
destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and
the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

And it came to pass, when
the children of Israel cried out to the Lord
because of the Midianites, that the Lord
sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up
from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out
of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and
drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’” – Judges 6:1-10
NKJV.

Noah
Elkins and Priscilla Simpson were driving along looking for a place to swim
when they had a close encounter with a power pole and some tiny little
creatures. It all happened in a rural area of Laurel County, Kentucky. Noah and
Priscilla were high on some drugs (Suboxone, neurotin and Klonopin), but I
digress. What were those tiny little creatures that viciously attacked these
two thirty year olds? Bees! It was
bees that immediately swarmed after them when they crawled out of their wrecked
vehicle. The bees were stinging them all over; they grabbed a water hose from a
home nearby, and tried to wash the bees off. Gary Anderson who lived in the home
said the two were, “screaming and
squalling, and running around about like a chicken with its head cut off.” Gary didn’t realize
at first that the bees were stinging them, and just thought they were high on
drugs.

Noah
and Priscilla were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries from the
accident, and from the numerous bee stings. Noah is facing a charge of Driving
While Intoxicated and Priscilla a charge of Public Intoxication. Gary Anderson,
the home owner, was also stung several times on his leg attempting to rescue
the two. Gary says, “Everyone around there hopes the two
learned a serious lesson. I'd say by today they are learning their lesson. If
they feel like my leg feels, I'd say they're learning. I'd say they're itching
real good because my ankle's itching. I think it's that poison from them bees.”
(CBS WKYT Lexington 07.27.16 and various other news venues)

Wonder which
lesson Gary and Priscilla learned? Don’t drive around while you are high on
drugs? Don’t crash your vehicle into a pole with a beehive on it? And if you do
crash into a pole with a beehive, make sure you are not wearing a bikini? That
had to be an unpleasant lesson they received, but I doubt they actually learned
anything from it.

This
reminded me of the Book of Judges where the children of Israel had a hard time
learning their lesson. The cycle of sin, repentance, and deliverance kept
repeating itself in their lives over and over and over. They would sin, they
would be oppressed, they would cry out to the Lord for help, and God would send
a deliverer, a judge to lead them to freedom. In the passage in Judges 6 it is Gideon that God raised up to lead them in
throwing off the oppressive yoke of the Midianites. Failure to learn their
lesson was a continual problem and eventually led the children of Israel to be
carried into captivity to Babylon.

It is
easy to condemn those who sin, those who have some kind of moral failure. God
knows I have had many painful lessons and have not always learned them. “There but for
the grace of God go I” is a saying I have heard all my life. Many of
us are familiar with this saying and google gives more than two million results
for it.

When we
are caught in the Judges cycle with our own lives what should we do? How can we
learn our lesson? The problem is a lack of focus on what is most important. The
most important of all in our lives should be Jesus. “…let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…(Hebrews
12:1b-2a). “…consider Him who endured such
hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged
in your souls (Hebrews 12:3).” “Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).” Discipline is necessary,
and there is no way around the need for faithfulness in applying the resources
of God to our lives so that we might have the mind of Christ: Prayer, Bible,
Church. May we all learn our lesson!

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first
devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison
facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

www.theburningbush.net

www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

Books now available at the Burning Bush website:

New Pastor's
Training Manual

Biblical Help for Overcoming Substance Abuse

Biblical Help for Overcoming Sexual Addictions

In Times of Trouble - Devotionals
to Encourage and Strengthen You

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for McCoy Greer, Michelle Abetz,
Shane Hall, Brad, Reta (my sister), Beverly (Jeanie’s sister), Loretta Brewer
and Jeanie. I am still recovering from my hip problem, but thankfully I am no
longer in pain.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by sending
a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Since June 8^th 1998, this
is the 1767^th

Burning Bush Devotional

10 August 2016

Learning Your Lesson

Then the children of
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.
So the Lord delivered them into
the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian
prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel
made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was,
whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the
people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against
them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no
sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up
with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both
they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to
destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and
the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

And it came to pass, when
the children of Israel cried out to the Lord
because of the Midianites, that the Lord
sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up
from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out
of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and
drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’” – Judges 6:1-10
NKJV.

Noah
Elkins and Priscilla Simpson were driving along looking for a place to swim
when they had a close encounter with a power pole and some tiny little
creatures. It all happened in a rural area of Laurel County, Kentucky. Noah and
Priscilla were high on some drugs (Suboxone, neurotin and Klonopin), but I
digress. What were those tiny little creatures that viciously attacked these
two thirty year olds? Bees! It was
bees that immediately swarmed after them when they crawled out of their wrecked
vehicle. The bees were stinging them all over; they grabbed a water hose from a
home nearby, and tried to wash the bees off. Gary Anderson who lived in the home
said the two were, “screaming and
squalling, and running around about like a chicken with its head cut off.” Gary didn’t realize
at first that the bees were stinging them, and just thought they were high on
drugs.

Noah
and Priscilla were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries from the
accident, and from the numerous bee stings. Noah is facing a charge of Driving
While Intoxicated and Priscilla a charge of Public Intoxication. Gary Anderson,
the home owner, was also stung several times on his leg attempting to rescue
the two. Gary says, “Everyone around there hopes the two
learned a serious lesson. I'd say by today they are learning their lesson. If
they feel like my leg feels, I'd say they're learning. I'd say they're itching
real good because my ankle's itching. I think it's that poison from them bees.”
(CBS WKYT Lexington 07.27.16 and various other news venues)

Wonder which
lesson Gary and Priscilla learned? Don’t drive around while you are high on
drugs? Don’t crash your vehicle into a pole with a beehive on it? And if you do
crash into a pole with a beehive, make sure you are not wearing a bikini? That
had to be an unpleasant lesson they received, but I doubt they actually learned
anything from it.

This
reminded me of the Book of Judges where the children of Israel had a hard time
learning their lesson. The cycle of sin, repentance, and deliverance kept
repeating itself in their lives over and over and over. They would sin, they
would be oppressed, they would cry out to the Lord for help, and God would send
a deliverer, a judge to lead them to freedom. In the passage in Judges 6 it is Gideon that God raised up to lead them in
throwing off the oppressive yoke of the Midianites. Failure to learn their
lesson was a continual problem and eventually led the children of Israel to be
carried into captivity to Babylon.

It is
easy to condemn those who sin, those who have some kind of moral failure. God
knows I have had many painful lessons and have not always learned them. “There but for
the grace of God go I” is a saying I have heard all my life. Many of
us are familiar with this saying and google gives more than two million results
for it.

When we
are caught in the Judges cycle with our own lives what should we do? How can we
learn our lesson? The problem is a lack of focus on what is most important. The
most important of all in our lives should be Jesus. “…let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…(Hebrews
12:1b-2a). “…consider Him who endured such
hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged
in your souls (Hebrews 12:3).” “Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).” Discipline is necessary,
and there is no way around the need for faithfulness in applying the resources
of God to our lives so that we might have the mind of Christ: Prayer, Bible,
Church. May we all learn our lesson!

Copyright © 2016. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather
began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those first
devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison
facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush websites:

http://www.theburningbush.net

http://www.theburningbush.org

The Burning Bush websites are celebrating
18 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the Burning Bush
Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to more than 14,000
subscribers across the world.

The Addictions Kit - Biblical Help for Addictions by Ed Wrather is now
available for download from Amazon. The Addictions Kit provides practical Biblical steps to defeat
your addiction that actually work.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VIYLNLM

The New Pastor's Training Manual is available for download on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJ8UTGS If you prefer a paper copy of the book you can order it from
the Burning Bush website at http://bit.ly/1uXDBnk

Books now available at the Burning Bush website:

New Pastor's
Training Manual

Biblical Help for Overcoming Substance Abuse

Biblical Help for Overcoming Sexual Addictions

In Times of Trouble - Devotionals
to Encourage and Strengthen You

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the
Devotionals at the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of
the home page. Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Prayer
Requests:
Please continue to pray for McCoy Greer, Michelle Abetz,
Shane Hall, Brad, Reta (my sister), Beverly (Jeanie’s sister), Loretta Brewer
and Jeanie. I am still recovering from my hip problem, but thankfully I am no
longer in pain.

Please pray for an end to the
racial hatred in the USA and that it will be replaced with peace and love. Many
prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page.
You can also post your prayer requests there (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com View LinkedIn profile with
endorsements at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92988105

If you enjoy the devotional
please recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank
email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by sending
a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org