89 - "Sheer Wonder" Judges 20-21

Judges 21:25  "At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing."  What a disturbing reading about this concubine that so brings up for me my own rape where I was left on the threshhold of my door passed out for several hours.  Did they ever repent? Did I repent?  The rape wasn't my fault even though I thought it was for years.  Not my fault.  What I did with it was my fault. And praise God, He has set me free to forgive and love and leave justice in His Hands.  Even if there was a king, there may be restraints on their behavior but no restraint in their hearts, the Israelites never repented.  It was best-behavior Christianity if the kings are around. .  What does real repentance look like?  God has to get in us and pour His Love into my heart---Romans 5:5---so that His motives reach deeper inside of me (66 LL) than my motives for a good stable joyful life here.   So what lingers with you as we close the book of Judges?  I've thought a lot about how they really didn't repent but did what they felt was right.  They missed God!  Also, I've thought about the kings who "were longing for a better country, a heavenly one." Heb. 11: 16.  And some of these kings and prophets administered justice and became powerful in battle, attached to their God.  Heb 11:34 says:  "their weakness was turned to strength."  Oooh...that's my prayer for all of us!  I see some weaknesses in my life this night as I engaged a little bit ago in a heated discussion over trivial stuff that I should not have entertained. I hurt my son over it.  I don't want to look bad.  I hurt tonight over what I did. But do I hate sin more than suffering?  I will hold close to my heart the words on page 30:  "My plan is to change you from the INSIDE OUT, to change your motives and to change your impact on people so that how you relate to others, like my Son, will make them thirsty for Me and will draw them into desperate, grateful dependence on Me."  I met Beth Moore several times and the first time I met her, I said two sentences to her about what was going on in my life.  Her response was:  "Your desperation is a gift.  God has yanked you by the hair on your head out of your situation, Ezekiel 8:3."  She had no idea that it was like "Sheer Wonder" (Judges 13:18) to me---like an angel speaking. Those 2 words have caught my heart from the book of Judges. For God was changing my motives, my impact.  He still is! So what lingers with you from Judges?