Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
April 02, 2023: SOAP #4868: Judges 13-16; 2Corinthians 2

SCRIPTURE:  Judges (NIV) 13:19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar towards heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. 22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” 23 But his wife answered, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this?”

OBSERVATION:  Perhaps Manoah had recently been to the synagogue and heard one of the Levites reading from Exodus 33:20 where God said to Moses:  “you cannot see my face, for no-one may see me and live.”  When Manoah realized that this man who had just received their meal by sending it up in smoke and then rising in the smoke out of their sight was the LORD!   He knew they were going to die.   But Manoah’s wife had some common sense, “If He was going to kill us, why did He tell us what we are supposed to do?”   Good question, Lady!   

APPLICATION: I need that simple common sense today!   If God assigns me a ministry, then surely, He knows what it will take to develop and maintain that ministry!   If He assigns me to build a building, He already know how He will provide.   When God brings me a child to care for, He already knows how much it will cost to feed, cloth, and educate that child.  Does God expect me to convince others to pick up the vision He has given me?   If God gave me the vision and He is going to provide through others, I believe He will give them the vision also.  If He wants them to be a part, when they hear me tell the vision, God will speak to their hearts!  They will be responding to HIM, not to me.  I do not beg or put pressure on them.  I put my pressure on God.     

PRAYER:   Lord, help me to trust you all the way.  These are the principles you have given me for the SOAP ministry.  Three things I ask, be glorified, increase my faith and make this an example for others.  Amen.

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
On Facebook:  Today’s SOAP from Pastor Leon