Center of Influence

A series on the book of Micah
Week 1 – The judgment of God
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Micah 1:1-16 

[In the book “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, Robert Louis Stevenson explores the struggle between good and evil in human nature. Likewise, Micah contrasts God's hatred of sin but love for sinners. In this series, we will look at both sides of God’s character and what that means for us today.]

  

Big cities tend to be the center of influence. Commerce, culture, technology, government, education, entertainment and fashion often originate in big cities and then spread across the country.

 

Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel. Unfortunately, it had become the center of pagan worship, blending Canaanite religious practices with Israelite traditions. Samaria’s idolatry was graphically described as prostitution. It was a metaphor that illustrated Samaria’s unfaithfulness.

 

Following a vision from the Lord, Micah condemned this rebellious behavior and declared the judgment of God on Samaria.

 

⁶ “So I, the Lord, will make the city of Samaria a heap of ruins.
Her streets will be plowed up for planting vineyards.
I will roll the stones of her walls into the valley below,
    exposing her foundations.
^7a All her carved images will be smashed.
    All her sacred treasures will be burned.      NLT

 

Ominously, the Lord promised to come, and it wasn’t a social call!

 

³ Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place;
    he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.
⁴ The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart,
like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.   NIV

 

But the depths of depravity in Samaria weren’t restricted by the city limits. Like the cities of America, Samaria was the center of influence. As a result, Samaria’s rebellious behavior spread throughout the northern kingdom into the southern kingdom and its capital of Jerusalem.

 

⁵ And why is this happening?
    Because of the rebellion of Israel—
    yes, the sins of the whole nation.
Who is to blame for Israel’s rebellion?
    Samaria, its capital city!
Where is the center of idolatry in Judah?
    In Jerusalem, its capital!         NLT

 

What can we learn from this? Sin is not static; it’s dynamic. It’s like an addiction that grows progressively worse. It moves from city to city, person to person and even within an individual. Like a cancer, it lives to bring death.

 

Micah’s message is a warning for us today. Peter also gave us some good advice regarding how to live and navigate in a sinful world.

 

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.    NIV    1 Peter 5

 

Like Samaria, we as individuals are a center of influence. We influence those people around us at home, work, school, the grocery store, church – everywhere we go. So, will we be a center of influence like Samaria, or like the light of the world that Jesus spoke of?

 

¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.         NIV    Matthew 5

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

A Scene from a Horror Movie

A Series on Living in the Wilderness
The demon possessed man.
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 5:1-20 

[In this series we’ll be looking at people who lived in the wilderness of life. In fact, there are times when we all feel like we are living in the wilderness. During those times, it’s important to remember that the Lord is faithful, that He loves you and is always with you.]

  

When I was a kid, I loved watching horror movies. One of the scariest was Psycho. I can still hear the screeching sound just before the shower scene where a deranged Anthony Perkins viciously kills Janet Leigh.

 

But nothing rivals the scary scene that Jesus faced. Larger and larger crowds of people had been following him. In an effort for some peace and quiet, he and his disciples sailed at night across the Sea of Galilee when a sudden storm threatened their lives. Jesus calmed the waters and the disciples fear.

 

But fear would come again!

 

It was still dark when they reached the shore. Imagine how frightening it must have been when Jesus was immediately confronted by a naked man who was possessed by an evil spirit. When he saw Jesus, he ran up to him, fell on his knees and screamed in an unearthly voice.

 

This man had supernatural strength. In the past, he had been chained hand and foot and kept under guard. However, he always managed to break the chains. Nobody was strong enough to subdue him. He was out of control crazy.

 

⁵ Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones.                      NLT

 

Following this, something even more bizarre happened. The demon begged Jesus not to torture him but to send him into a herd of nearby pigs. When Jesus complied and exorcised the evil spirit, the entire herd of almost two thousand pigs plunged down a steep bank into the lake and drowned.

 

The final scene of this story is Jesus sitting with the man who had been possessed but now was fully dressed and in his right mind. He was no longer driven by the demons. He was no longer living in the wilderness. He was at peace.

 

In our culture, people commonly don’t believe in demons or evil spirits. But we can understand and agree that there is something within us that keeps us from doing the good that we desire to do. Something within us that we struggle with.

 

Paul wrote at length about this struggle in Romans. He described how he wanted to do the right thing but kept doing evil. Then he came to this conclusion.

 

²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.   NIV

 

Most likely, your struggles haven’t been like a scene from a horror movie. But we all struggle with sin. Thankfully, Paul didn’t end by just describing this struggle. He went on to give these words of hope, not only for him, but also for us.

 

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!       NIV

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

Guilty as Charged

A Series on the Psalms – a collection of prayers
Feeling broken from guilt
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 51 

[Life is filled with emotions. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that express our emotions which are the cry of our soul for help and hope. In this series, we will be looking into the Psalms to learn more about ourselves and our Lord.]

  

When I was growing up, my Dad didn’t have to spank me to make me cry. All he had to do was raise his voice. Even though there was no physical pain, I felt the pain of rejection and of a broken relationship with the person who mattered the most to me. David felt the same way with God.

 

He had sinned greatly against God. In the spring when his army went to battle, the great warrior David stayed home. As a result, he had an affair with Bathsheba who became pregnant. When her husband wouldn’t cooperate in David’s cover up scheme, he had him killed. David knew he had sinned. He was guilty as charged!

 

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.  NIV

 

In his guilt and shame, David begged God to forgive and cleanse him. There was a stain on his life that he couldn’t get rid of by himself. His only recourse was to appeal to God’s mercy and love.

 

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
    because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
    blot out the stain of my sins.     NLT

 

David had been a man after God’s own heart. He had stood up to the Philistines and defeated Goliath. He had led Israel into battle time and again. When he was unjustly persecuted by King Saul who intended to kill him, David didn’t retaliate. But now his sins overwhelmed him.

 

³ For I recognize my rebellion;
    it haunts me day and night.     NLT

 

However, what haunted him the most was the prospect of losing his relationship with God. The thought of being separated from God drove him to make amends.

 

¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence,
    and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.      NLT

 

David realized that he needed God’s forgiveness. In Israel, the normal way for seeking forgiveness was to offer an animal sacrifice. But David knew that wasn’t enough. He needed to change his life.

 

¹⁷ The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
    You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. NLT

 

Sin separates us from God. Only the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross can bridge that chasm; can restore us. Because of Christ, nothing can separate us from God. Paul put it like this to the Roman church.

 

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.        NIV

 

David was guilty as charged. But even though he knew nothing about Jesus, he understood that nothing could separate him from God’s love. Not even his sin.

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

What is the worst thing you have ever done?

A Series from the Psalms on “Disappointment with God”

Psalm 38

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2038&version=NIV;NLT

  

In preparing for this devotional, I ran across a You Tube video where 100 people answered the question, “What is the worst thing you have ever done”? How would you answer that question?

 

For myself, I made a short list at first; but the more I thought about it, the longer my list got. Apparently, David could have made his own list.

…my health is broken because of my sins.
My guilt overwhelms me…
My wounds fester and stink…
I am bent over and racked with pain…
A raging fever burns within me…
I am exhausted and completely crushed…       Psalm 38:3-8 NLT

 

Sin has consequences! For David, it resulted in an illness that sounds like a catastrophic combination of a severe open infection, the H1N1 flu pandemic of 1918 and intense stomach cramps, no doubt resulting in repeated trips to the bathroom.

 

In reality, we are all sick like David. Maybe our sin doesn’t result in physical illness, but there’s no doubt that we are sick. It’s a sickness that alienates us from our Heavenly Father, and ultimately leads to death. It’s a sickness that only Jesus can heal.

 

In his own words, David was a broken man; he had reached the bottom; there was no place else for him to turn. His life was out of control; so he cried out to the Lord in disappointment and desperation.

 

¹⁵ Lord, the only thing I can do is wait and put my hope in you.
I wait for your help, my God.

¹⁸ I confess all my sin to you; I can’t hold it in any longer.
My agonizing thoughts punish me for my wrongdoing;
I feel condemned as I consider all I’ve done.    

²² God, hurry to help me, run to my rescue!
For you are my Savior and my only hope!        TPT

Have you reached the bottom? Are you at the point where you are ready to turn away from your sin? Is it time for you to cry out to the Lord? There’s no better time than now. And He’s waiting to listen to you.

 

Victory in a Broken World!

Revelation 19:1-8

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2019%3A1-8&version=NIV;NLT

 

We live in a broken world!

·         In 2017 Columbus had a record setting number of homicides of 143.

·         Opioid addiction has become an epidemic in the United States.

·         Virtually every day in the news there’s a new revelation about a sex scandal. Most recently, it involved a world renowned doctor who sexually abused young girls.

 

This is a very short list of headliner examples of our broken world. Sometimes we don’t even need to go any further than our front door for an example. Is the world any worse today than the first century when women and children were considered property, temple prostitutes were common place and Christians were martyred?

 

John wrote Revelation from the island of Patmos, a Roman penal colony. While there God spoke to him through an angel in a highly symbolic style.

 

“Praise the Lord!
    Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.
² His judgments are true and just.
    He has punished the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality.
    He has avenged the murder of his servants.”           NLT

 

The “great prostitute” that John refers to is symbolic for Babylon which was the political, commercial and religious center of its day. It was also the center of moral decay and decadence. Today, we have our own version of the Great Prostitute still seducing people to do evil.

 

“Hallelujah!” which means “Praise the Lord”, is written four times in these eight verses. Why? Into this broken world, God sent His only son as an innocent baby. How ironic. His son brought the Good News. He brought hope and a future. He brought forgiveness and redemption. Therefore, let us…

 

⁶ …”Praise the Lord!
    For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. NLT

Hallelujah! The Almighty reigns!

(This link will take you to the song Hallelujah by Cloverton.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbdG-62PE3I

 

 

Teachable Moments

Psalm 25:1-9

(All verses are from the New King James Version.)

  

Teachable Moments… We all have them, but do we always learn from them? For me it usually takes a 2x4 upside the head before I say, “Oh yeah!” The Israelites were like that. They learned the same lesson over and over and over again. Kind of makes you wonder if they actually ever learned it at all.

 

David’s prayer in Psalm 25 is about teachable moments during the crucible of life.

² O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed;
Let not my enemies triumph over me.  

 

We know that David had many enemies. Some of them were those closest to him. Saul, his mentor, hunted him down like an animal. His own son, Absalom, rebelled against David declaring himself king. Indeed, David knew what it was like to have mortal enemies, but he also knew what it meant to struggle with enemies within.

⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.           

 

David’s sins are well documented. He seduced Bathsheba with his power, and then had her husband, who was a courageous warrior for David, killed in battle; quite a resume of failure. But in this Psalm, David cries out to the Lord and asks him to use his failures, his struggles and his enemies to teach him.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
⁵ Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
 

No matter what kind of struggles you face, how big your

demons are, how overpowering your temptations, how shameful your past sins; God can teach you, change you and use you for His Kingdom.

 

 

 

Just cry out to Him like David.

To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
² O my God, I trust in You… On You I wait all the day.        

 

 

 

 

 

And the Lord will answer.

⁸ Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.

⁹ The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way.