April - Day 18

Judges 13-15 - Israel turned away from God and were oppressed for 40 years by the Philistines.  God raised up Samson who would begin to rescue them from the Philistines but that would not fully happen until King David.  Samson married a woman from the enemy's camp.  This only created trouble for him.  The source of Samson's strength was the Spirit of God.  Each time he did something that required great strength, it says the spirit of God came on him.  A this point, he still realized that God was the one who strengthened him and gave him victory.

Psalm 88 - When life is full of trials and struggle, we should tryout to God and when we do, we can be honest about how we feel.  Often when we are honest about how we feel, we are able to identify the lies we have believed and allow God to replace them with truth.

Mark 7:1-23 - Jesus rebuked the pharisees for teaching man made tradition over God given truth.  Jesus cared more about the heart change than behavior modification because he knew lasting change started in the heart.  It is possible to do good things and not be "good" with God because you don't have a relationship with him.  Heart change come from a relationship with God.

1 Corinthians 12:1-13 - When we believe, we all receive and are immersed in the same Spirit.  The Spirit gives us different gifts so that together we can function properly and effectively as the body of Christ.