Agape Devotions

  Read : Ruth 2, Proverb 1.1-7 Reflection Ruth chapter 2 told us about the absolute devotion of Ruth to her mother in law, Naomi. What she had done demonstrated faithfulness and loyalty, absolute courage and trust in the provision of God. A widow, who had lost her husband and had a chance to leave the mother in law to return to her own home decided to stay and go through thick and thin with the mother in law. Furthermore she took up the courage to do what most people wouldn’t do to collect the left over crops from a stranger’s land. Ruth also trusted in God to provide, hence taking the risk and getting out of her comfort zone to do what she had to do to put food on the table for herself and her mother in law. Ruth’s loyalty and faith paid off as she was later blessed abundantly by Boaz (as we read in subsequent chapters that she married him and bore him a son, Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David). Relate Sometimes when we faced challenges in life we tend to give up and ...

Read Ruth 1; Psalm 150 Passage chosen for meditation: Psalm 150 ESV 1 Praise the Lord!    Praise God in his sanctuary;     praise him in his mighty heavens![a] 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;     praise him according to his excellent greatness! 3 Praise him with trumpet sound;     praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;     praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;     praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Reflect This is the very last chapter of the Book of Psalms. It ends with a bang of sounds produced by a powerful ensemble of wind, string and percussion instruments. No words need to be spoken, which are already spoken. Only wonder, acknowledgement and praise are in order here. After all, it is the final chapter, with a fitting finish and an anthemic ending! The following are four inspiring quotes...

READ: PSALM 149 PASSAGE FOR REFLECTION: Let the godly exult in glory;     let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats     and two-edged swords in their hands, PSALM 149:5-6 REFLECT This psalm is unusual in that it brings together pleasant acts of praising and singing and dancing with acts of violence in executing vengeance on the nations. The first half of the psalm calls "Israel to be glad in his maker, the children of Zion to rejoice in their King", and encourages them to "make melody to him with tambourine and lyre". Such a happy psalm. Yet the second half of the psalm explains that the praises of God is to "execute vengeance on the nations, to bind their kings with chains, to execute on them the written judgment". The point of change is in verse 6, "Let the high praises of God be in their throats (mouths) and two-edged swords in their hands". What a contrast! On the one side, the psalmist is having the...

Read: Psalm 148; catch up on readings No devotional today (Sunday)

Read: Judges 20-21; Psalm 147 Verses chosen for meditation: Judges 20:27-28   "27 And the people of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,  28 and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, "Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?" And the LORD said, "Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand." Reflect:  It had been a long time since the people inquired of the Lord. If not for the horrific sending of a piece of the concubine to each tribe of Israel; the people would have continued to live in their own dark worlds. Indeed, it was days of great wickedness, violence and lawlessness.  Notice that the Levite did not even speak of the whole truth and we are not even sure if the concubine was dead before the “priest” chopped her up. The Levite was as wicked as the people who violated the concubine. He did...

READ : Judges 19/Psalm 146 REFLECT : Judges 19 begins with the repeated warning that things are decaying: “In those days there was no king in Israel” (v. 1). Without moral authority, without a commitment to God as the Judge, without a sense of what is right and what is wrong ruling, then the nation loses its way. Such was the case here, and Judges 19 is famous for its horrific description of rape, murder, and (strangely to our ears) inhospitality.   In summary, the author of Judges is telling us that Israel had become like Sodom. The story will sound eerily familiar to those who recall the earlier story of Sodom   in the book of Genesis, and will ring alarm bells that Israel was becoming as much an embodiment of decadence as Sodom had been previously. The story is soon told.   A man had a concubine (v. 1), not a lawful wife but some slave chattel with whom he had relations (later he was called her master, v. 26-27). It was not any man, but a Levite (v. 1), a priest, who o...

READ : Judges 17-18 / Psalm 145 Verse chosen for meditation: Judges 17:5-6 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. REFLECT This section of Judges continues the theme of political and religious irregularity, with moral standards spiralling downwards. Just that from this point on, no more judges will be raised, and everyone did what they think was right without much governance. It’s basically relativism in ancient times, and we see what relativism can lead to, when not kept in check. The irony in v6 was that the king (our God) was always in Israel, just that His ways were rejected, and His availability ignored. On surface, it seemed the chaos and sheer human depravity of that period was due to the lack of a human king, but the true cause was disobedience to the divine King. In such a time, w...

  READ : Judges 15-16; Psalm 144. Verses chosen for meditation: Judges 16:28 - "macho" Samson. 28  Then Samson called to the  Lord  and said, “O Lord  God , please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”   REFLECT Samson, an interesting but not necessary the godliest judge out of all the 12 judges mentioned in the Book. It is not unusual for many to picture Samson to be a macho and muscular man due to the stories about the legendary strength in him. Although filled with his strength, the later account of the chapter (v.19 onwards) recorded that Samson’s power was overcame when Delilah betrayed him with her trap. Samson lost his physical power and was subsequently captured by the Philistines. In celebration, the Philistines assembled at Gaza, giving praise to Dagon their god. They decided to call for Samson and have him “entertained” the crowd. By this time, Samso...

Read Read Judges 13 to 14; Psalm 143 Meditation is based on the two chapters of Judges.   Reflect God seems to intervene at dark points in history. As for the method used, it's usually a time dependent, drawn-out process. This only shows that God doesn't go for a quick fix since he could easily have done what he wanted in an instant. The method employed here is not new, of granting a child to a childless woman and then declaring that the child in her womb will one day deliver Israel. The deliverance, this time round, is from its strong, perennial enemy, the Philistines (Judges 13: 5).  Since it was sin that first caused them to fall into the hands of the Philistines (Judges 13: 1), the Lord will use a child raised as a Nazirite from the get - go, starting in the womb, to carry out his plan of restoration. These preconditions are necessary for the outworking of a righteous God. So, into such a time, under such a condition, and for such a purpose, Samson was born. He would go on...

  READ: JUDGES 10:6- 12:15; PSALM 142 PASSAGE FOR MEDITATION: JUDGES: 11:29-39 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. 34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither...

 No devotional today (Sunday) Reading: Judges 9:1-10:5; Psalm 141

Read: Judges 8; Psalm 140 “The Might of God” Verses chosen for meditation: Judges 8:10-12 Judges 8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic. Reflect It is easy to miss the details of this famous chase. 300 men of the Lord chasing after 15,000 men of Zeba and Zalmunna. Can we even begin to imagine such a ridiculous scenario? The odds were astronomical and no army would do battle like this. Not even the “300” Spartans who held in defense of Thermopylae against 10,000 Persians. The Spartans, considered as one of the most skilled and courageous soldiers at that time,...

READ : Judges 6-7/Psalm 139 REFLECT : The pattern begins again. Rebellion, ruin, and then rescue. First Israel rebels (6:1). Then they are in misery and oppression because of their rebellion (6:2-6). Then they cry out to God for rescue (6:7). He then sends them a prophet to tell them exactly why they are in so much trouble—they have rebelled—in order to stir them up to repentance and prepare them for the rescue that is coming (6:8-10).    Thereafter comes one of the most well-known stories in the Old Testament: Gideon. It begins inauspiciously because Gideon is “hiding” (6:11). Is it ironic that he is called “mighty man” by the angel of the LORD (despite his “hiding) (6:12)? Or is it a statement of prophetic prediction of what he will become when the Spirit comes on him? We can do nothing without the Spirit of God.    Gideon asks for a sign (6:17), the first of several he will receive, to give him the courage and faith he needs to believe what he is being asked to do...

READ : Judges 3:7-5:31 / Psalm 138 Verse chosen for meditation: Judges 3:7-11 7 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 8 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. 9 But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. 10 The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. 11 So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died. REFLECT Judges tells the story about Israel’s failure after Joshua’s death, in a time when Israel was not gove...