Let's Make A Deal

Let’s make a deal!

There is a game show, “Let’s make a deal” first aired on December 30th, 1963, and still airs today. In this show there are times that you make a choice and get a really great deal. But there are times that you can make a choice and get a “Zonk”. It’s all about the choices you make in the show.

I come from a long line of “horse traders”. In other words, the Meadows family are known to trade and make deals. I can remember my grandfather turning on the radio every day and writing down everything that was for sale or trade on a show called “Swapshop”. I think that is where the saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, comes from.

When I was 19, I had 18 cars. I was always buying, selling, and trading to make a better deal. Have you ever made any deals in your life before? Have you ever tried to make a deal with God? I have shared with you about the time where my High School sweetheart broke up with me and I told God if He would just bring her back to me I would serve Him the rest of my life. As Garth Brooks sang, “Thank God for unanswered prayers”.

Today I want to share with you a story that I found in my personal Bible study. I have read the Bible from cover to cover many times in many different translations, but I never really caught this story until recently. It is one of the sadist stories in the Bible in my opinion that deals with someone one making a deal with God. Let me give you a little back ground first.

Judges 11:1 Now Jephthah of Gilead was a great warrior. He was the son of Gilead, but his mother was a prostitute.

Did you notice that Jephthah’s dad and the region shared the same name? But the region was not named after him, because you can read about the region of Gilead all the way back in Genesis. It tells us that Jephthah was a great warrior. It may be because of what it also states. His mommy was a whore. I can only imagine the fights that he probably got into while he was growing up taking up for his mom. But we read on that he had some half-brothers as well.

Judges 11:2-3 Gilead’s wife also had several sons, and when these half-brothers grew up, they chased Jephthah off the land. “You will not get any of our father’s inheritance,” they said, “for you are the son of a prostitute.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Soon he had a band of worthless rebels following him.

He was kicked out of the castle you could say. My granddaughter, Aspen, is always pretending all the time that she is a princes, (and in my eyes she is) and so if I burp or pass gas or something to that nature, then she will scold me and tell me that I am going to get kicked out of the castle for not being proper.

Have you ever been to a place where they make you feel like you don’t belong? The sad part is that exists in some of our churches. If you don’t dress a certain way, or act a certain way, then you don’t belong. And that is NOT how it should be. We should be the open arms to welcome all into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It amazes me of how many professed Christians condemn others who are not living up to their standards. Why should we be surprised when sinners sin? Lead those to Jesus, then let Jesus do the cleaning up.

If you have not watched the movie. “Jesus Revaluation”, then I recommend you do. It is based on a true story about how in the 60’s, ‘Hippies”, were coming to Jesus. It was a revival that spread though out the United States. We need a Jesus Revaluation today, because He is the one that can take care of this mess the world is in today.

But we notice when he got kicked out of the castle, the company he kept. It says a band of worthless rebels followed him. People who feel worthless, gravitate with others who feel worthless. I work in an area where there are many homeless people. But very seldom do I see one by themselves. I think about the woman at the well. She went there in the middle of the day, not when the others did in the cool of the morning. She did so probably because of the way that others made her feel. She had a pretty bad reputation. But when Jesus came to her, she shared with this woman the water that she would never be thirsty again by having a relationship with him. He went to her when no one else would and afterwards she went and told others so that they could come to Christ as well.