MONITE MA’ASI 23, 2026

FAKAMAAU 13-15; 1 TESALONAIKA 4:1-8

If you could watch a recording of your life from the past six weeks, what influences would you conclude had shaped your actions, reactions, and responses?

Kapau na’e malava ke ke mamata ki ha hulu mai ho’o mo’ui ‘i he uike ono kuohili, ko ha nai ‘a e ngaahi ‘oku ke tui na’a ne uesia ho’o ngaue, to’onga mo ho’o tali ‘i he fononga’anga?

Years ago I drove to the mall with my three-year-old son to complete an errand. It was a mundane journey on a mundane day. But the question the little voice in the back seat asked me was anything but mundane: "Daddy, if God made everything, did he make those light poles?" Now, what impressed me was not that my three-year-old son asked me a theological question. No, what impressed me was how deeply human it was to ask this question. God, in his creation wisdom, had designed my son to be an interpreter. He was created to think, that is, to try to make sense of his life, his surroundings, his relationships, and his own identity. When I heard the question, I knew that an interpretive process was happening and that the way my son made sense of the world would shape the direction of his life.

Before too long my son would be a young man, thinking about profoundly important moral and spiritual issues. Out of his moral conclusions would come a set of morally weighted desires, and out of those desires would come a set of choices, and those choices would form a lifestyle, and that lifestyle would carry with it a set of moral blessings and consequences. What I have described is the life cycle of every human being made in the image of God. That cycle is obvious in Judges 14:1-3:

Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, "I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife." But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes."

Samson desired a wife. This was entirely appropriate. God designed us to be social beings, and he created marriage for our thriving and our good. But the wife Samson wanted was a Philistine, and God had expressly forbidden such a marriage. Samson's parents protested because they knew that what Samson was thinking was wrong and that what he wanted was something God had forbidden. Samson's response to his parents' protest is telling: "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes." You see, our God-given ability to think is always shaped by whatever rules our hearts. The big moral question is, Are our desires and choices ruled by what we think is right or by what God thinks is right? Our thought life is a place of spiritual warfare, a place of battle between God's will and our will, and for that we need God's rescuing and protecting grace.

 SAPATE MA’ASI 22, 2026

FAKAMAAU 10-12; MATIU 22:34-40

Is your life its most spiritually vibrant when you are in times of trouble, crying out to God, or in times of ease, when things are going well for you?

‘Oku ke fakatokanga’i ‘oku ma’ui’ui ange ho’o mo’ui fakalaumalie ‘i he taimi ‘oku faingata’a’ia ai, ‘o to’e ki he ‘Otua, pe ko e taimi ‘oku faingamalie ai e me’a kotoa?

Great spiritual wisdom and counsel are embedded in the narrative of Judges. These accounts, lovingly preserved for us, demonstrate the patient love of God and are meant to warn, protect, and guide us. They have been recorded for us so that we would not err in the ways that our spiritual forefathers did. The book of Judges is like a father's sitting down on the couch with his children, telling stories of the mistakes and failures of past generations of the family, because he wants his children to learn, live wisely, and not fall into the same errors.

But perhaps the most encouraging thing about this portion of God's word is its revelation of God's jealous heart. Think about it. In a marriage, jealousy can be a good thing. If I were to say to my wife, "Go ahead and find another lover; that would be fine with me," she would be horrified. It is right for me to crave that Luella would give me the love of her heart to the exclusion of any other man. God's jealousy for the hearts of his people is a sign of the depth and faithfulness of his love.

The book of Judges is also helpful because it describes Israel's sad spiritual cycle. This is preserved for us as God's loving warning. Here is the cycle:

Israel experiences a time of ease and prosperity.

They forget the Lord.

They pursue other gods.

God uses the surrounding nations as tools of discipline.

Israel cries out for God's deliverance.

God sends a deliverer.

Times of ease return.

The cycle repeats.

Judges records this repeated cycle because God loves us and does not want us to wander away too. What is true for the children of Israel is true also for us. Times of comfort and ease are often the times when our prayer and devotional life weaken, our thankfulness for all of God's providing and protecting mercies wanes, and we begin to look for our identity, meaning, purpose, and inner sense of rest and peace horizontally rather than vertically.

It is also clear in Judges that God's discipline, no matter how harsh, is not his rejection. His discipline is a sure sign of his love. It is God's fighting for the love and loyalty of our hearts. It is God's wrenching us away from other lovers in order to claim us once again as his own. In times of comfort and ease, does your pursuit of God weaken? Does your heart wander? The cross and tomb of Jesus tell us how far our jealous God will go to claim us as his own. Bask in the depth of God's jealous love for you today, and cling to him with your whole heart.

 TOKONAKI MA’ASI 21, 2026

FAKAMAAU 8-9; ‘EKISOTO 20:4-5

Our God is a jealous God and will not share the love of our hearts with anyone or anything.

Ko hotau ‘Otuá, ko e ‘Otua fua’a pea ‘e ‘ikai te ne tali ke fakauoua’i Ia ‘e ha taha pe ko ha me’a.

In the twenty years I spent as a counselor and counseling professor, I witnessed the devastation of adultery and divorce, up close and personal, countless times. I have heard shattered wives tearfully tell the sad story of progressively uncovering their husband's betrayal. I have sat with lost and afraid children who had been thrown into the chaos of the war of their parents' hurt and anger. I have listened to husbands, blind to the destruction of their lust, defend themselves and minimize their sin. I have seen homes become divided houses. I have watched the darkness of grief set in. But with all that I have experienced, I have come to understand that there is an adultery far more devastating than physical/marital adultery. Nothing leaves a legacy of deceit and darkness like spiritual adultery. It captures hearts, derails lives, and causes people to be comfortable with walking away from the one whom they were created to love, enjoy, and fellowship with forever.

Take note of the words of Judges 8:33-35:

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 family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.

As you read this passage, one phrase jumps off the page: "and whored after the Baals." This is your Lord using strong language to help you understand what was going on with his people. Israel's relationship to God was not a kind of loose friendship where they could enjoy the company and love of many friends. No, they had been bound to God by an eternal covenant. Their pursuit of and worship of Baal was the spiritual equivalent of a man or woman pursuing, seducing, and sleeping with someone other than his or her spouse. The dramatic difference here is that the person they are being unfaithful to is God Almighty.

What is spiritual adultery? Any time I give the love of my heart to something other than God, so that this love controls my thoughts, desires, choices, and actions in the way that only God should, I have committed spiritual adultery. This passage tells us two of the roots of spiritual adultery. The first root is God-forgetfulness: "The people of Israel did not remember the LORD." The second root is unthankfulness: "They did not show steadfast love" to the family of Gideon.

Jesus came to restore us to the one love we were created to give our hearts to. Confess with me that you too can be God-forgetful and unthankful. Confess with me that you still have a wandering heart. Pray with me for strength to cling with all of your heart to your Lord. Be thankful with me today that Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that you can know both his saving and his keeping grace.

 FALAITE MA’ASI 20, 2026

FAKAMAAU 6-7; ‘EKISOTO 4:1-17

Fear fails to rest in the power of the Lord and looks too much at the ability of oneself.

Ko e ilifiaa ko e ‘ikai nofo ma’u ‘ete falalaa ‘i he ivi ‘o e ‘Otua kae sio pe ki hoto mafai fakaetangata.

Judges 6 is a master class on the anatomy of fear.

Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." And Gideon said to him, "Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian." And the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?" And he said to him, "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." And the LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." And he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me." (Judg. 6:11-17)

Pay attention to how fear operates in the face of the call of the Lord. Let me set the scene for you. God calls Gideon, who is threshing wheat in a winepress, to lead Israel against the Midianites. You crush grapes in a winepress, but wheat needs to be threshed in an open, airy place so the wind can separate the grain from the chaff. Gideon is doing something inside that needed to be done outside, because he is afraid of the Midianites. God knows exactly who he is calling. God often chooses the most unlikely person to do the grandest thing, so that he gets the glory and not some human hero. Note how God greets this fearful man: "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." Because the Lord is with him, "mighty man of valor," is, in fact, Gideon's true potential. But Gideon misses the point entirely and is afraid for two reasons.

First, Gideon has come to doubt the presence, goodness, and faithfulness of the Lord, saying, "God, if you are with us, then why has all this bad stuff happened to us?" The defeat of Israel by the surrounding nations had nothing to do with the absence or weakness of the Lord; it was his discipline of Israel for their disobedience and idolatry. But a second thing contributes to Gideon's fear. He looks too much to his own experience and ability. "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's house." Here's the plan. God calls the weak to be vessels for the display of his power, so that he will get glory and our hearts will turn to worship him. 

 TU’APULELULU MA’ASI 19, 2026

FAKAMAAU 3-5; SELEMAIA 2:10-13

Nothing is sadder than when we exchange worship and service of the Lord for one of an endless catalog of God-replacements.

‘Oku ‘ikai mo ha toe me’a fakaloloma ange ka ko ‘etau fakafetongi ‘a e hu mo e tauhi ki he ‘Otua ‘aki ‘a e ngaahi me’a fakamatelie kehekehe.

It is heartbreaking how blind and foolish we can be. It is sad to think of how we are often content to make bad moral bargains. It is hard to think about the times when we are willing to exchange God's good thing for the world's bad thing. It is sad to watch someone grab hold of a temporary pleasure while letting go of eternal gain. It is tough to see someone begin to think of the enemy's lies as trustworthy while doubting God's truth. It is clear that the drama of the human community and of human history is all about one thing: worship.

The most significant function of any human being is his capacity for worship. Every human being is a worshiper. I don't mean this in the formal, religious sense. The most irreligious person is a worshiper, because that's how God designed him. This worship capacity is meant to drive us to the Lord, to offer ourselves to him, and to find our identity, meaning, purpose, and rest in him. Being a worshiper means you will always give over the rule of your heart, the causal core of your personhood, to something. Whatever controls your heart will then shape your thoughts, desires, choices, words, and actions. Nothing is more life-dominating than worship.

The children of Israel were blessed to be chosen to be the people of God. God blessed them with his presence, his grace, and his love. He poured out his almighty power to deliver, provide for, guide, and protect them. He made a way for their sins to be forgiven. He gave them his wise and holy law so that they would know how to live. He exposed them to his glorious glory. Quite apart from what they deserved, he lavished these blessings on them. They were set apart from all the other nations on earth to be his children, his possession. It's hard to overstate the generosity of the blessing that God poured down on them. And in the display of his glory, God made it clear that there is no God like him. You might think that God had done so much for his children that they wouldn't even think of serving other gods. But then we come to one of the saddest verses in the Old Testament: "And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods" (Judg. 3:6). Let the sadness of these words grip you: "They served their gods." They turned their backs on the God of glory and grace (who had placed his love on them and led them into Canaan) for gods of wood and stone, completely lacking life, love, or power. This idolatry, the epicenter of sin, is the sad drama of the human condition, and it is the reason for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. He came to rescue us from us, and to free us from the bondage of the idolatry of our own hearts in order to worship God and God alone.

 PULELULU MA’ASI 18, 2026

FAKAMAAU 1-2; FILIPAI 2:1-11

The problem with partial obedience is that it is disobedience masquerading as obedience.

Ko e palopalema ‘o e talangofua fakakonga, he ko e talangata’a pe ia ka ‘oku fakapuli ko e talangofua.

Do you find joy in obeying your Lord? Do you treasure his commands? Do you recognize the protective wisdom of the boundaries he has set for you? Do you really believe that God's way is always the best way? Do you pick and choose which commands you obey? Are there moments when your behavior is formed more by your passions than by God's commands? Regardless of how correct your theology might be, at street level do you love your way more than God's? In what ways are you tempted to debate the wisdom of God's law? Do you use the grace of forgiveness as an excuse for stepping outside God's moral boundaries? Are you content with partial obedience? Do you respond to or resist the conviction of the Lord?

At the beginning of the book of Judges, we are greeted with a problem that will haunt the children of Israel, cause them generations of difficulty, and necessitate the loving discipline of the Lord. The problem is partial obedience. God's children start down the moral pathway he had commanded them to walk, but they fail to complete the journey. There are a variety of excuses for partial obedience. Obedience is hard and requires personal sacrifice. It requires really believing that God is wise and that what he calls us to is always best. Obedience requires us to confess that we are not at the center of everything-God is, so life is about his will and his glory. Obedience requires resisting the temporary pleasures of sin. Partial obedience is not obedience at all; rather, it is dressed-up disobedience. Pay attention to what is said of Israel in Judges 2:1-3:

Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you."

God had given Israel a job to do; they were to drive the pagan nations completely out of the promised land. But they did not complete the job. Yes, they fought many battles, but they ended up settling for living in and among these pagan nations with their false gods. In a real way, the rest of the drama, the spiritual struggle, and the discipline of the Lord that are so much of the content of the Old Testament have their roots right here. This passage also points us to the necessity of the gift of Jesus. He was sent to obey completely on our behalf, precisely because God knew that sin, somehow, someway, and at some time, makes us all too satisfied with partial obedience. He is our righteousness, because our righteousness is often incomplete.

 TUSITE MA’ASI 17, 2026

SIOSIUA 22-24; MATIU 6:19-24

Between the "already" of our conversion and the "not yet" of our homegoing, the big question is, Where the rubber meets the road in our daily lives, whom or what will we give our hearts to?

‘I he vaha’a taimi ‘o hotau fakamo’ui mo ‘etau ‘alu ki Langi, ko e fehu’i leva, ‘a e fetaulaki’anga ‘o ‘etau tui mo ‘etau mo’ui faka’aho, ko hai pe ko e ha ‘a e me’a ‘oku foaki ki ai hotau loto?

I have made many ministry trips to India. I have seen the dominating power of overt idolatry. I have experienced how idol worship forces itself into every area of a person's life. Those who worship physical idols in the temple also bow before idols in their homes, along the road, and in restaurants. The presence and power of idols cover every place and every activity like a dark and ominous cloud. The presence and influence of these things made of wood and stone seem inescapable.

In the book of Joshua, the children of Israel find themselves in a significant spiritual moment. They are in the place God had promised, but they are surrounded by the false gods of the nations around them. Will they surrender their hearts to God and God alone, being careful to keep his commands and resist idolatrous temptations? Or will they wander away from the Lord and progressively give their hearts away to false gods? Joshua gives the children of Israel this charge:

Be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day. For the LORD has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. (Josh. 23:6-11)

Joshua reminds the leaders of the children of Israel that, by the display of his awesome power, God has again and again demonstrated that he is the one true God and that no one can stand against him. As the one true God, he gives power to his people so that just one Israelite can drive a thousand enemies away. The one true God has fought and will continue to fight for his people. So Joshua charges them to bow down to no other god and to surrender their lives to the moral code written in the Book of the Law.

Again, it's important to remember that this passage was preserved for our instruction, conviction, and guidance. You might think, "I don't serve any idols." That may be true of physical idols. But the broader definition of idolatry in Scripture includes anything that takes the place in your heart that only God should have. Anything can be an idol. What has the power to control your thoughts, emotions, and desires? May God alone lay claim to our hearts.