“Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.” Psalm 43:3-4 (ESV) Have you ever used […]
Author: Stephen Trammell
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Orchestrated by God
“Adam, Seth, Enosh; Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared; Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” 1 Chronicles 1:1-4 (ESV) People matter to God. As you read chapter one and chapter two of 1 Chronicles, you read a list of names. Some of them may be familiar to you while some of the names may seem foreign. The chronicler detailed […]
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My Rock and My Redeemer
“I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.” Psalm 6:6-7 (ESV) David was well acquainted with victory, despair, and grief. He had known the favor of God and […]
“And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” 2 Samuel 2:4 (ESV) God’s will cannot be thwarted. God will accomplish His purposes and God will fulfill His plan. God’s timing is not always easy for us to understand with our human limitations. God is infinite and […]
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2 (ESV) Where do you look for help? Where do you turn when life takes a turn for the worse? Lift up your eyes to the hills. Your help comes […]
“Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.’ But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he […]
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Earnestly Seeking God
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 (ESV) How passionate is your pursuit of God? Is He your preoccupation? Our passion can easily divert to other things or […]
“And David answered and said, ‘Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Behold, as your […]
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Delivered Out of Affliction
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34:18-19 (ESV) Being adopted into God’s family is the result of God’s gracious redemptive activity. He included you in His plan of redemption. Now that you […]
“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Psalm 56:8 (ESV) God created you for a divine purpose to fulfill. You are not here by accident; you are here by divine appointment. God designed you so that you can know Him personally and fulfill […]
“And the men of David said to him, ‘Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’ Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. And afterward David’s […]
“Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, ‘If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.’ So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.” 1 Samuel 19:11-12 (ESV) God […]
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Decipher the Voice
“Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.’” 1 Samuel 15:24-25 (ESV) In our culture we are bombarded with […]
“And Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first altar that he built to the Lord.” 1 Samuel 14:35 (ESV) Saul had been preoccupied with his mission of mobilizing his army against the Philistines. His warriors were weary and faint since they had not been allowed to eat. In desperation, they killed […]
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Saul and God’s Sovereignty
“Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. And he said to the people of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But […]
“So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.” 1 Samuel 4:10-11 (ESV) Israel experienced a devastating […]
“As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, ‘How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.’” 1 […]
“Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you […]
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Lordship and Leadership
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25 (ESV) Chaos saturated the people of Israel as each chose to do what was right in his own eyes. The sense of covenant community was fragmented and the evidence of unity was shattered. Without a […]
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Energy Allocation
“Then Samson called to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.’ And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his […]
“And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No […]
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Continual Realities
“And the Lord said to the people of Israel, ‘Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you […]
“As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side,and they did not show steadfast love to the […]
“The Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, My own hand has saved me.’” Judges 7:2 (ESV) Gideon considered his clan to be the weakest in Manasseh and himself the least of his father’s house. He […]
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Drifting from God
“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.” Judges 3:7 (ESV) How quick they were to forget the Lord their God after all He had done to deliver them from Egyptian bondage! Sound familiar? The […]
“And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.” Judges 2:8-9 (ESV) Some of the most meaning funerals I have ever preached […]
“‘Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served […]
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Promises of God
“Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” Joshua 21:45 (ESV) A promise is only as good as the character of the one making the promise. A person who keeps his or her promise is a person who is […]
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Made to Worship
“Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.” Joshua 18:1 (ESV) You were created to worship. God has given you the freedom to choose your object of worship. You can choose to worship creation or you can […]
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Wholly Followed the Lord
“Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.” Joshua 14:14 (ESV) If someone were to shadow you for forty days, what would that person experience firsthand? Would that person be drawn to Christ or repelled? What that […]