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Day 67, or March the 8th. Don't miss out like

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poor old Barak. Our thoughts today are from Judges

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chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. She, that is Deborah,

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sent for Barak, and said to him, The Lord, the

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God of Israel, commands you. Go take with you

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ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun, and

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lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera,

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the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots

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and his troops, to the Kishon river, and give

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him into your hands. Now the big picture surrounding

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these verses. The book of Judges covers approximately

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400 years of Israeli history, and is dominated

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by a group of leaders called Judges. They ruled

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the land until kings were appointed. The first

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judge we hear about following Joshua was Othniel,

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whose uncle was Caleb, one of the two spies who

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went to Jericho. He defeated the Assyrians and

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was succeeded by Ehud, who defeated the Moabites.

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The next judge was Deborah, the only female judge

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that we know about. She was called to defeat

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the Canaanites after the leader of the army,

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Barak, went to her for help. Events kept repeating

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themselves. The people sinned and were conquered

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by a neighbouring power, but each time God sent

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a judge who conquered the oppressors and brought

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peace. However, when the judge died, the people

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soon slid back into their old sinful ways, and

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God sent another judge to free them. And so the

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cycle was repeated. And now our action step for

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today. If you look at a list of judges you will

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find Deborah but not Barak. Sadly, Barak was

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called but preferred to see Deborah respond.

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God gives us free will so we are able to respond

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positively or negatively. We are not puppets

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so we can miss out on what God has for us. Many

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people in our churches are unfulfilled because

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they have rejected the call of God. If they have

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responded to the call for salvation, then they

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are saved, but they often go on to be frustrated

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and unfulfilled and wonder why. Check with God

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today about His call on your life. Do it now.

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Why risk losing out for another day?