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I have become aware from my recent studies and readings (Luke 14-15, Romans 5-10, and the book of Judges) that I often do not acknowledge the fullness of God's grace and mercy towards the lost (and myself included). Sometimes I lack a rightful appreciation for these and pray that God will grant that His will be done in my heart and change me, so that I may have the compassion that Paul had in chapter 9 of Romans, "... my conscience confirms in the Holy Spirit--- I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers ". Lord, I want to extend your extravagant love and grace to the lost and rejoice with you upon their return to fellowship with you, just like you have done for me and continue to do for me every day.

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On the occasion that I ponder my current status with God, assessing my closeness or level of intimacy in my fellowship with God, my default thoughts go directly to evaluating my obedience compliance both to the so-called "holy habits" ( regular time in the Word, prayer, bible study, fellowship with the body, serving the church, etc) and secondly to behavior compliance in regards to sin management. Instead, my default thoughts should be acknowledging that my status in right standing and fellowship with God depends only on His grace and my position in Christ as an eternal child of God. Just like we can not steal the glory from Christ's work at the cross to boast in our efforts, works, and desires in our regeneration, we can not trust in our behavior compliance or sin management to impact our level or rate of spiritual growth. Our sanctification is the work of the Spirit. We have been destined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son-- only God can change our hearts and this is His work in us. Paraphrasing from 1 Corinthians 5: In Him, we are being enriched in every way... He will keep us strong to the end, ... and we will be declared by Him to be blameless on the day of the Lord. God who has called us into fellowship with Him is faithful !

in Judges 12, Jephthah led the Gileadites into a victorious battle against the Ephraimites. Jephthah then led Israel six years before he died. He was succeeded by Ibzan (7 years), Elon (10 years), and Abdon (8 years) before the Israelites returned to their evil ways again and the Lord allowed them to be oppressed by the Philistines for the next 40 years.

Judges 11 is about a mighty Gileadite warrior, Jephthah, who was given the responsibility of leading Gilead into war with the Ammonites. He tried to settle the dispute peacefully, but the king of Ammon paid no attention. "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."
Jephthah went out and fought the Ammonites and devastated their towns and Israel subdued Ammon. When he returned home, his only child came out to greet him , dancing with tambourines. Jephthah was horrified as he recalled his vow to the Lord, but he fulfilled his promise since the Lord had avenged the enemies of Gilead.

Judges 10
The Israelites went back to their evil ways and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths and foreign gods. They forsook the Lord and no longer served him, so He became angry with them and allowed them to become oppressed by the Philistines and the Ammonites. While in great distress, the Israelites cried out to the Lord, "We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals...Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now." They returned to the Lord and served only Him and "He could bear Israel's misery no longer".

Judges 9
The people of Shechem aligned with one of the sons of Jerub-Baal, Abimelech, and together murdered all the other sons. They then gathered and crowned Abimelich king of Shechem. But one of the sons, Jotham, had hidden and escaped. When he heard what had happened, he spoke to the people of Shechem and said to them, "Now if you have acted honorably and in good faith when you made Abimelech king, and if you have been fair to Jerub-Baal and his family, and if you have treated him as he deserves- and to think that my father fought for you, risked his life to rescue you from the hand of Midian - if then you have acted honorably and in good faith toward Jerub-Baal and his family today, may Abimelech be your joy, and may you be his, too! But if you have not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume you, citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and let fire come out from you, citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and consume Abimelech!" Later, the citizens of Shechem became afraid of Abimelech and gathered to the stronghold tower, but when Abimelech heard that they had assembled there he ordered his men to set it on fire. All the people were killed. Next Abimelech beseiged and captured the city of Thebez, but during this pursuit "a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull". The "curse of Jotham" had fallen on Abimelech and the people of Shechem as God punished them for all their wickedness.

In Judges 6-8, the Israelites again did evil in the eyes of the Lord and were given over into the hands of the Midianites, but the Lord called Gideon to rescue them when they cried out to Him for help. Gideon was doubtful that he was qualified to save Israel, but God said to him, "I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites". The Lord directed Gideon to tear down the alters to Baal and to cut down the Asherah poles and to build a proper alter to the Lord. Gideon and 32,000 of his men were preparing to battle the Midianites, but the Lord told him to only bring 300 men against the Midianites. This way, they could only boast in the Lord when He delivered the Midianites into their hands. After defeating the Midianites, the Israelites asked Gideon to rule over them, but he told them that he would not and instead "The Lord will rule over you". During the rest of Gideon's lifetime, there was peace for forty years.