A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
Everybody loves a great underdog story. Before J.K. Rowling became the first author to earn a net worth of $1 billion, her Harry Potter pitch was rejected twelve times. We are all familiar with the film Rocky, in which Rocky Balboa is a small-time boxer from working-class Philadelphia and gets the opportunity of a lifetime when heavyweight boxing world champion, Apollo Creed, selects Rocky to fight him. Underdog boxer Rocky goes the whole fifteen rounds and knocks down Apollo for the first time in his professional career. Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in their September 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match in three straight sets.
It turns out that God loves a great underdog story too. In the book of Judges, God uses this unlikely underdog and hero named Deborah to help defeat the evil Canaanites, who were a morally corrupt people who worshipped false gods through child sacrifice. Living in a patriarchal society, Deborah is appointed by God as the only female judge over Israel and she uses her position of authority for the benefit of others. The Israelites had been under the control of the Canaanite king, Jabin, and the commander of Jabin’s army, Sisera. The Canaanites had 900 chariots of iron, which would be the equivalent of military tanks today, and they ruled over Israel for twenty years. The long story made short is that Deborah and Barak, the military commander of Israel, along with ten thousand troops attack Sisera and his army and they win. One of the major lessons we learn from the judge Deborah is that God brings deliverance from unexpected sources and in unexpected manners. We see this all throughout the Bible. The best example would be Jesus Christ Himself. When the whole world expected the Messiah to be this great military leader who would conquer the world by His sword and might, what did the world get instead? A baby lying in a manger, born into the messiness of this world.
You see, God uses ordinary underdogs, like you and me, to do extraordinary things. The question you must answer for yourself is this: are you willing to let God use you to do far beyond what you could ever dream of or imagine or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and watch Him use somebody else? This world needs men and women who are fueled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to step up and act on God’s greater purpose in this world. My prayer today is that you would get off the sidelines and get into the messiness on the field. After all, it is exactly what Jesus did for you and for me.
— Pastor Marge
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