Mighty Hero! E-100 Day 28 (Judges 6-7)

It was the end of the soccer season of my freshman year. I didn't play much. Mainly when the game wasn't super close and one of the fullbacks was tired. We were in practice, and only had one game left. I was sprinting toward a loose ball. On the other end of the loose ball was Hector. Hector was a senior and one of the best players in the state of California. As we got close to the ball, I backed down in fear of getting run over. Hector kicked the ball away, then turned around and came after me, grabbed my shirt and slammed me down. "Am I bigger than you?" Hector was yelling at me! "Ron, you are solid! You should be starting, but you play like a ______! If you would just be confident, you can run anyone over!" Hector saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. It shocked me. It also motivated me, and did give me confidence. Hector worked with me all summer long even after he graduated. I came into practice my sophomore year a different player and ended up as the starter at sweeper because I was so aggressive in getting after the ball. I never would have made that change in how I approached the game and life without Hector seeing something in me that I didn't see in myself.

Gideon was the least in his family. His family was the least in their tribe. His tribe was the least of all the tribes. So you can imagine his shock when the angel of the Lord came to him while he was basically hiding out and addressed him as "Mighty Hero"! The angel of the Lord knew what God was going to do through Gideon even though Gideon didn't know it yet. Can you think back to a time when someone saw something in you that you didn't see in yourself? Did it motivate you to try? Did it make you entertain the thought that just maybe that person was right and you could do what they saw in you? Did you know that when Jesus looks at you in your present state and calls you righteous? I know you don't see it in yourself, but God sees what His Son did on the cross for you! Can that help motivate you to start acting like a child of the King rather than a failure, a screw up, or a rebel? I know it does for me, knowing that Jesus sees me that way. How about you? Will you live as a child of the King today? Have a great day guys!

Ron Foster

Didn't See That One Coming. E-100 Day 27 (Judges 4-5)

Have you ever planned something out, or envisioned how a certain situation would go down with the best and worst case scenarios only to see a twist come in at the end that you didn't see coming at all? The movie Sixth Sense comes to mind. Think back to the first time you watched it. You're watching, you're watching, you're engaged. Everything is getting solved with the kid, and he tells his mom that he "sees dead people all the time!". He figures out how to help the dead people. Now you're thinking all that's left is for Bruce Willis to mend his marriage, and then the wedding ring drops out of his wife's hand. And it all becomes clear in one instance that you didn't see the entire movie, that Bruce Willis is dead! Oh my gosh! What a twist!

Well, in today's reading we see that Israel has once again turned away from God. There is a prophetess named Deborah, and she tells a man named Barak that God has chosen him to lead the people in victory over the enemy! Awesome news right? Well, apparantly, that wasn't good enough for Barak, so he tells Deborah, I'll go if you go with me. That's like a 12 year old boy going to play baseball at the park with all the guys and saying to his mommy, I won't go unless you go with me! Come on, man! Anyway, Deborah agrees and informs Barak that the honor of this battle will go to a woman.

So there out there in battle and the general of the army that they are going up against is named Sisera and is the man! The Israelites are quickly winning this battle right from the beginning, and Sisera sees this. He gets off his chariot and runs away, leaving the rest of his army to die. He makes it to a tent of someone who is on neither side of the battle, and only the wife is home, Jael. Jael says he can come on in, and hide him. Sisera tells her to get him some water and then stand at the door of the tent and be on watch. Jael gives him milk instead of water (remember they didn't have refrigerators back then, and what does warm milk do to us...makes us sleepy). Sisera falls asleep. Jael goes and gets a hammer and a tent spike. She walks up to Sisera and HAMMERS THE TENT SPIKE INTO HIS HEAD! WHAT? Are you kidding me? Where did this come from? What a twist! When Deborah said that the honor of the battle will go to a woman, we were all thinking that she was talking about herself, but it turns out that she was talking about this housewife with a tent spike named Jael! How awesome!

It makes me think though. Barak let that one slip. God was going to accomplish this plan and Barak didn't jump at his opportunity to be fully used by God. He was still used, but it makes me wonder how many times I didn't jump into God's plan 100% the way God wanted me to at the time He wanted me to do it. Let's not miss an opportunity today! Have a great day guys!

Ron Foster

A Message From GOD!!! Judges 3

We can all think of different guys in movies that in their character, they were the ultimate "tough guy". Russell Crowe in Gladiator, Mel Gibson in Braveheart, Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Another one of my favorites, also has one of my favorite lines of any movie. In Crocodile Dundee, Paul Hogan is with his lady friend walking through NYC as a shady looking character dressed more like Michael Jackson from Bad than a mugger approaches and demands his wallet. As he says this he pulls a knife on Paul Hogan's character. The notion of this prompts Hogan's ladyfriend to say, "Give him your wallet. He's got a knife." This makes Hogan smile and he responds, "That's not a knife..." as he reaches under his coat from his back, "that's a knife" emerging with this gigantic knife that makes the mugger run away! Love it!

Well in Judges 3, Israel finds itself under oppression and rule to fat King Eglon and the Amalekites for 18 years! They cry out to God, and God raises up a judge or rescuer named Ehud. Now we don't know if God told Ehud he'd be the man or if God had many people ready and no one was stepping up so God might have been waiting for someone to step up to the plate. But Ehud is chosen to be the guy that brings the taxes from his hometown to the King. He delivers the taxes, starts walking out, then decides to walk back into the throne room and tells the King that he has a secret message for him. The king sends everyone else out of the room, and Ehud approaches the throne. As he gets near, Ehud yells, "I have a message from God" Ehud then reaches into his robe and pulls out a huge knife roughly the length between your elbow to your finger tips and shoves it into Eglon's stomach! Here's the crazy part...Ehud loses the knife into the stomach of King Eglon! Ehud climbs out the window and sneaks back home. He tells his community what he's done and they go to battle and defeat everyone around! That's not a knife, that's a knife! Talk about guts, Ehud had it! What can we do this week to be daring for Jesus? Can we be a revolution? I would love to hear your thoughts or comments on this blog if anyone reads it... Thanks guys, have a great day!

It Only Takes One E-100 Day 26 (Judges 2:6-3:6)

In my high school English class, I remember one of the things the teacher told us about writing a paper was to put a sentence toward the very beginning or even a paragraph that would summarize what you are about to explain in the rest of the paper. In this passage today, we are given a paragraph like that. It tells us what is about to be explained in more detail for the rest of the book.

Basically the story of Judges will go like this. Joshua has died. Israel has started to worship other gods (Baal and Ashteroth), God allows them to be defeated by all of their enemies, they pray to God asking forgiveness, God will send a judge to rescue them, and it will all happen like that over and over and over.

How could something like this happen? We're also given the reason in verse 10 of chapter 2: "After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel."

That verse really hit me today. I am to love God. I am to know Him and explore a relationship with Him and make Him my life! But I also have a responsibility. It's my job to make sure that the generation younger than me knows how God became real in my life and that He wants to be real in their life too! I could enjoy the greatest relationship with God ever, but if I don't pass it on, then it will be on my head if the next generation falls away from Christ. Why? Because they didn't know, and it was my job to tell them! So I challenge you today (yes, even you teenager). Who are you passing Jesus on to? Who are you investing your life into to make sure the Jesus is passed from your generation to the next. Someone had to have shared Him with you. Now it's your turn. Go to it. Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Back to it!

I've obviously taken a break from my E-100 Book. I can give you all of the excuses: getting packed away and not finding the book until today, switching ministries, getting to know teens, preaching, teaching, planning, getting vans fixed, getting a new car, moving my life, etc...but they are just that...excuses. I have been reading my Bible, just not blogging. I am going to be getting back in my E-100 starting tomorrow and maybe I might just catch up with everyone (not in one day). But I will be starting back where I left off, so my next post will be from Day 26.

Let me just share one quick thing that God showed me the other day, however, from 2 Corinthians 4. As I was reading, the passage mentioned that we are to be lights to the world around us. I stopped reading right when I read that, and started thinking to myself. When God tells us to let our light shine before men and to be a light in the darkness, He isn't expecting me to try harder to live better then everyone else. He wants us to live our lives as transparent as possible so that people don't see us, they see Christ. Then I thought to myself that the only one that stops me from being that light in the darkness is...well...me. When I focus on putting me first and making sure that people see me, they aren't seeing Christ. Excited about the conclusion I had come to on my own, I continued to read soon to find in the next few verses that Paul went on to explain this very thing about us being the ones who get in the way of Christ shining brightly in our lives for other to see! So let me ask you today, when others see you, what do they see more of...Christ in you? or just you? Have a great day guys!

Ron Foster

Starting Over

For those of you that don't know, I have recently moved. It's not one of those moves where you change houses, it's one of those moves where everything is new. It's a new church, a new ministry, a new city, a new house, and new relationships that must be formed. Can I teach? preach? plan cool activities? plan meaningful spirit-driven events? I would say yes to all. But the most important part of being and doing what I do as a youth pastor...build relationships. Am I confident in that? Sometimes. There is uncertainty in who I'll click with and who I won't. Who will be on board with what we do and who will want nothing to do with me? It's the uncertainty that drives me. It's the not knowing that makes me want to see what will happen. If I knew the outcome, there would be no excitement, no risk, and no faith! Is there anything that you've been avoiding not doing because you don't know the outcome? Why not give it a try and put some weight on the Master instead of our own logic and knowledge? Have a good one.

Ron