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Exploring Gideon's Fleece Test: When Weak Faith Meets a Gracious God - Judges 6:36–40

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If the Call of Gideon (Judges 6:11–24) shows us how God chooses the weak and fearful to do His work, the fleece test reveals something even more tender: **how God patiently deals with our lingering doubts**. Right after the Angel of the Lord declared him a “mighty man of valor,” built the altar “The Lord Is Peace,” and gave Gideon his first assignment, the new leader still wrestled with fear. The Midianite hordes were still camped in the valley. The odds were still impossible. So Gideon turned to the Lord with a bold, honest request that has puzzled and encouraged believers for centuries. Here is the text (ESV): > 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wr...
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The Cultivation of Gideon

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"Throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it." — Judges 6:25 Before Gideon could ever lead an army against the Midianites, God had a work to do *within* Gideon’s own household. We often want the public victory without the private purging, but the "Cultivation of Gideon" teaches us that God’s champions are grown in the soil of uncompromising obedience and the destruction of idols.   The Mandate of Separation In Judges 6:25-32, the Lord’s first command to Gideon was not to strike the enemy, but to strike the sin in his own family. Gideon’s father had an altar to Baal and an Asherah pole—symbols of a compromised nation that had forgotten the Law of Moses. True cultivation begins with **separation**. You cannot build an altar to the Most High God until you have dismantled the altars of the world. Fundamental to the Christian walk is the understanding that God will not share His glory with another. If there is a "grove...
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Location: Peru, IN 46970, USA
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The Call of Gideon: How God Calls Ordinary People to Extraordinary Faith - Judges 6:11–24

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We live in days that feel eerily like the days of Gideon. Moral confusion, cultural pressure, family struggles, and open hostility toward biblical truth surround us. Many conservative Christians look at the headlines and quietly ask the same question Gideon voiced: “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” (Judges 6:13). Yet the story in Judges 6:11–24 does not leave us in despair. It shows how the God of the Bible calls and equips His people—not because we are strong, but precisely because we are weak. The scene opens in crisis. Israel is starving under Midianite oppression. Gideon is threshing wheat—not on an open floor, but hidden inside a winepress, terrified the enemy will spot him and steal what little he has. Then the Angel of the Lord appears and speaks the most shocking words in the chapter:   “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” (v. 12) Gideon is cowering in fear, the youngest son of a weak family in the weakest clan of Manasseh. Yet G...
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Location: Peru, IN 46970, USA
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The High Cost of Low Living: Lessons from Judges 6:1-10 for Today’s Church

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In an age of cultural decay, moral relativism, and spiritual lukewarmness, far too many who claim the name of Christ have quietly lowered the bar. We want God’s blessings without God’s demands. We want the label “Christian” without the cost of the cross. We want tolerance from the world while compromising with it.   The Holy Spirit confronts this dangerous mindset head-on in Judges 6:1-10. This passage is no dusty Old Testament footnote—it is a mirror held up to the Church in 2026. The title of this post is **“The High Cost of Low Living.”** Let us open our Bibles and hear the Word of the Lord: > “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and t...
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Mary Magdalene Compared to the Other Women Disciples

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In the Gospels, a dedicated group of women followed Jesus, supported His ministry, stood by Him at the cross, and witnessed the resurrection. They were true disciples—transformed by Christ, serving faithfully, and proclaiming the Good News. Yet among them, Mary Magdalene stands out with a unique testimony that beautifully illustrates the Ministry of the Resurrection we explored in the homily and blog post. All these women were radically changed by Jesus. None remained as they were before they met Him. But their backgrounds, roles, and experiences differ in ways that highlight the personal, purposeful nature of Christ’s transforming work. Mary Magdalene: From Total Bondage to First Witness   As Mark 16:9 reminds us, Jesus cast out *seven demons* from her—the number symbolizing complete deliverance from the worst kind of darkness. Her past was one of total ruin: tormented, isolated, and without hope. After her healing, she became one of the most visible and devoted followers. She tra...
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Location: Peru, IN 46970, USA
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