ELIZABETH !!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELIZABETH !!!!!
# 1 __But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. (LUKE 1:7)
The godly Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, both from the priestly line, were aging people who seemed unable to have children. What a shock, then, for Elizabeth would have a son, John. 

# 2 _Is it any wonder Zechariah doubted? But saying the equivalent of "Oh, no you must be wrong" to an angel? What was he thing? God showed sense of humor, making the expectant father unable to speak until the birth of the promised child__perhaps so he wouldn't say any other silly things.  
# 3 - Some time later, Mary visited Elizabeth. Mary's relative immediately knew this young woman would bear the Messiah and praised her Lord for it. What a time of fellowship this must have been for these women who bore children with missions unlike any other in the world.  
# 4 - When Elizabeth had her son the relatives assumed the couple would follow custom by naming him after his father, Zechariah. But the angel had declared his name would be John, and that's what Elizabeth called the boy. The family questioned the father. As soon as he wrote, "His name is John," Zechariah's mouth was opened and he praised the Lord. From that moment on, all could see that John was somehow special. They wondered what the Lord would do with his life. 
# 5 - Elizabeth must have been amazed at the turn life took for her. Long accustomed to being thought barren, she was suddenly give a special child who would serve God in an unusual way. How blessed she must have felt! 
# 6 - When life takes unexpected turns for us, will we be a doubting Zechariah or a faithful Elizabeth? Trusting God takes a lot of faith when our lives are suddenly turned upside down. We have two choices: We can simply allow God to control whatever happens, or we can spend time worrying about the future. Since we can't change the future__and God has it all under control anyway__we may as well follow Elizabeth's example. We too, may find God has given us unexpected blessings. 

ELISHEBA !!!!!!!!!

ELISHEBA !!!!!
Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadad and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadad and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.   (EXODUS 6:23)   
Aaron's wife doesn't get a lot of press un the Bible. Her brother Nahshon gets more mention as a leader of the tribe of Judah, but Elisheba would have been well known to the Israelites, as wife to their high priest.
# 2 _Elisheba had a wonderful husband, but her children were another matter. Leviticus 10:1__2 describes the death of her first two sons, Nadad and Abihu. Instead of following God's directions in worship, they pridefully made an unauthorized incense offering. As punishment, God consumed them with fire. Some scholars suspect that Nadad and Abihu had been drunk at the time, a condition which led them to take such unholy actions. The scholars' reasoning comes from the fact that soon after this incident, God warned Aaron and his sons not to drink before worship (See LEVITICUS 10:9). 
# 3 __Not every woman of God has children who make her proud. Every child is different, and while one may delight a mother, another may bring much sorrow. Christian mothers may faithfully witness to their children, yet be unable to turn them away from wrongdoing. But, as in the case of Elisheba, God may also provide a believing mother with a great blessing. Eleazar, Elisheba's third son, honored his parents faith, following in his father's footsteps. He became the head of the Levites and then high priest in Aaron's place.

DRUSILLA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DRUSILLA !!!!!!
# 1 _Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. (ACTS 24:24)
Drusilla may have been a Jewess, but she wasn't a very faithful one. Felix was not her first husband__after only a year of marriage, she had left her husband Azizus, king of Emesa, to go with Felix. Perhaps this lack of faith isn't surprising, considering her background. Drusilla was a great-granddaughter of  Herod the Great and daughter of Herod Agrippa I.
Ruthlessness, not belief, was a hallmark of her family. 
# 2 _When the Jewish leaders brought Paul to Felix, demanding that he be punished for troublemaking, Paul took the opportunity to witness to Felix and his wife. They never came to faith, perhaps because they had another agenda__Felix was hoping for a bribe, not seeking the truth. Perhaps his wife had the same attitude.
# 3 _It does not matter if we come from a long line of faithless people. Each of us has an opportunity to accept Christ through a personal witness, a book, or the testimony of a preacher. Will we remain in a godless past or reach out to Jesus through faith? It's our choice alone.

DORCAS !!!!!!!

DORCAS !!!!!!
# 1 _In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor. (ACTS 9:36) _This faithful woman lived in the seaport city of Joppa, outside today's city of Tel Aviv. Dorcas was actually a Greek translation of her Aramean name, Tabitha, which means "gazelle." Scripture doesn't tell us if her frame matched her name, but it does say she leapt to do good works for others.
# 2 _While Peter was visiting nearby, Dorcas died. Her fellow Christians readied her for burial and sent a message to the apostle, who hurried to them. The sorrowing believes showed him example of Dorcas's generosity. After clearing the room, the apostle raised Dorcas, the other Christians, and even for those who heard about the miracle and came to faith in Christ.
# 3 _Do our lives testify to our faith as clearly as Dorcas's did? Living, dying, or being resurrected, she glorified her Lord. If we died, would our fellow Christians want to have us back as a powerful Christian testimony?  

DINAH !!!!!!!!

DINAH !!!!!
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 
      (GENESIS 34:1)
In this simple sentence begins one of the saddest events of the book of Genesis. Dinah, a young and thoughtless girl, comes to a new country and unwisely goes out to seek friendship with the pagan woman there. On the way, she is raped by Shechem, son Hamor the Canaanite who was ruler of the city that shares his son's name. Afterward, when young Shechem belatedly decides to marry Dinah, he unknowingly brings disaster on his people. 
# 2 _Hamor, pushed on by his son, approaches Jacob to arrange a marriage. It was a common practice of that day, and the heartbroken Jacob listens. But before he makes a decision, Jacob's furious sons intervene. How can they give their sister to an unbelieving man? Surely Jacob must have struggled with this idea, since his father had commanded him not to marry a Canaanite__but what could he do that would benefit his daughter? Though Jacob is unaware of it, his sons come up with a wicked suggestion: If the Canaanites will accept circumcision, Jacob's sons inform Hamor and Shechem, they will accept the marriage. But there's more to their offer than meets the eye.
# 3 _Hamor agrees, but not because he's had a sudden conversion experience__he's interested in getting his hands on Jacob's wealth, the large herd of sheep in his possession. But the ruler has not reckoned with the brothers anger. The siblings plot to kill the male Shechemites while they are still in pain from the surgery. Three days after circumcision rite, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's full brothers, begin the attack on the city. All the male Shechemites are killed, and the Israelites loot the city. In order to keep his family safe, an angry Jacob moves his family out of the area.
# 4 _Double sorrow was Dinah's her rape and her brothers precipitate actions. Scripture gives us no clue about her life after this event, but it was surely changed forever. Dinah's life shows us that sometimes even simple, foolish decisions impact us powerfully. We need to be careful how we walk and with whom we associate. 

DIANA !!!!!!!

DIANA !!!!!
So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nough; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. (ACTS 19:27) __Diana, also known as Artemis of the Ephesians, isn't, strictly speaking, a woman. She was a pagan fertility goddess who got the apostle Paul and his disciples into a lot of trouble. When Paul's ministry to Asia took off, Ephesian craftsman Demetrius the silversmith saw his nice little business of creating Diana idols going down the drain. So he calleda guild meeting and got the backing of his fellow silversmiths to take action.
# 2 __If they didn't act, the magnificent temple of Diana would suffer, the silversmith warned. Today that temple is known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In Demetrius's day, thousands of pilgrims flooded Ephesus to worship there, but he knew they wouldn't if the pilgrims became Christians. So Demetrius and his coworkers started a riot. Only the intervention of the city clerk saved Paul and his men, and Paul wisely moved on to Macedonia.  
# 3 __Diana led a lot of people into idolatry and away from the gospel. But her magnificence and her following only lasted a short time. After all, no one worships her today. Are you putting your faith in something that won't last long or the God who created the universe and will never fail you? Don't follow a Diana when you can draw close to the eternal Lord.

DELILAH !!!!!!!!!!!!

DELILAH !!!!!!! _Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. (JUDGES 16:4) _Say her name, and most Christians get an immediate picture of a sultry woman and desire gone wrong. The physically powerful Israelite judge Samson fell for this beautiful and desirable Philistine. As wise as he must have been, Samson had one fatal flaw: He never chose well when it came to woman__those foreign temptresses forbidden by God's Law always seemed to claim his attention. His marriage to a Philistine woman had ended disastrously, yet here he was, becoming romantic with Delilah. Maybe he thought it was okey as long as they didn't marry, but He should have read his Law a bit more carefully.

# 2 _No sooner had Samson fallen for this bad babe than the ruler of her nation asked Delilah to do some spying for them. The Israelites was so strong that they couldn't capture him, and they had a series of grudges against him. So they asked Delilah to find out what made her lover so powerful. Once they had his secret, the rulers planned to make him a slave.

# 3 __Maybe it was the money that made this bad girl decide Samson was expendable. Eleven hundred shekels from each of five rulers was no small amount of cash in that day. Delilah must have decided that all she needed was money, not love, and in her greed, she betrayed Samson completely.  

# 4 __At the same time, you have to wonder what Samson was thinking. Perhaps he enjoyed playing romantic games, but didn't he get the least bit suspicious when his beloved asked how his strength could be subdued? Didn't he figure that she was a Philistine and that others could be putting  her up to something? He'd had a very similar experience with his wife, before their marriage fell apart, so you'd think he had to have had an inkling, especially when he gave Delilah three false answers. You wonder how many times God had to show Samson the same lesson for him to learn.

# 5 __But when Samson should have left off dallying with Delilah, he kept coming around__giving her the opportunity to nag him endlessly. "You don't love me," she complained, and evidently he couldn't bear to see her unhappy. Eventually she wore him down, and he admitted that his vow as a Nazirite__and the long hair that was part of it__gave him his strength. Cut his hair, he said, and he'd be weak as any other man.  

# 6 __The Philistines took complete advantage of this information. Delilah got Samson to sleep in her lap, and a man came in to shave his head. Awakened, Samson soon stood powerless, and the Philistines made him a sightless slave. But these temporary victors forgot that hair grows again! And grow it did.

# 7 __Inside their temple, the Philistine rulers and an assembly gathered to rejoice at the capture of Israel's strong man. In the midst of their revealing, the crowd called Samson out to perform for them. 

# 8 __"Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform"(JUDGES 16:27). Adorned with a new head of hair and imbued with renewed strength, Samson stood before them, prayed for strength, pushed against the pillars with all his might, and brought down the pagan temple, killing himself and everyone in it.

# 9 __Who knows if Delilah was also there amid the crowd? Though she didn't seem like the religious kind, perhaps she had taken that opportunity to rejoice at the effectiveness of her sexual powers.

# 10 __Look at Delilah, and you get a clear picture of how not to live. Need an example of what loose living will get you? She's the poster child for it. The pain she caused someone who loved her ran so deep that Samson didn't mind sacrificing his life, if he could destroy the pagan temple he'd been taken to. Samson had been used by an immoral woman who evidently felt no guilt at betraying him.

# 11 __Delilah backs up God's Word, which commands a faithful husband-and-wife lifestyle. Romance is not a game, but a lifelong commitment. And any sexual activity outside marriage leads to heartbreak. Maybe yours won't come as quickly as Samson's did, and you may not die, but you can count on some pain when you don't live God's way. Just ask Delilah__if you can find her under all that rubble, that is.

DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS !!!!!!!!!!

DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS !!!!! _# 1 _Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She had court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.

(JUDGES 4:4_5)

# 2 _God doesn't explain Himself. Suddenly, in a time when Israel has become unfaithful to the Lord, the scripture proclaims the position of Deborah, the only female to rule Israel during the years of the judges__that era between Joshua's death and Saul's accession as king. Deborah was not just a minor judge; she was an authoritative woman who decided disputes between men and held the power common to all Israel's judges. Nor was this a piece-of-cake leadership for Deborah. Israel had been subjugated by the Canaanite ruler Jabin of Hazor, yet the Israelites never brought an army against him until this woman was in charge. Deborah became the answer to the prayer for help her people sent up to God as they saw the Canaanites commander Sisera heading their direction followed by nine hundred chariots.

# 3 _God had chosen an unusual leader in Deborah, a very strong-minded woman who was also very close to Him. (Just read her interaction with her military commander, Barak, in Judges 4:6__9, and you'll see she was used to being obeyed.) As a prophetess, Deborah would have heard and communicated God's will to His people. Though she is not the only prophetess in the Bible, she alone ruled Israel. Not only that, she effectively led her country during wartime, when many people might have chosen a man for the job. After all, she couldn't command an army, could she? In a way, she showed the doubters that she could.

# 4 _God had given her authority, and Deborah obeyed His will implicitly. Maybe you've known a powerful woman like her. An in-charge kind of person, this judge rallied her leaders and the people against the Canaanites. Barak, chosen by God as the country's military commander, seems shy and retiring compared to the confident prophetess. God spoke to her, and she told Barak all He had commanded. Deborah did not make decisions based on her own desires, but on God's direction for His people. And she showed greater faith than her commander. She was probably a "God says it, I've heard it, that settles it" kind of believer, because she did not understand why Barak balked at going to war when God told him to. Barak flatly refused to go to battle without Deborah. That may have been fueled in part by an understanding that following her was following God, but doubt also played its role. Because of Barak's hesitancy, God commanded that a woman would take the life of Sisera.

# 5 _Deborah accompanied the ten thousand troops who attacked Sisera's forces and gave them the order to go into battle on God's chosen day. When Barak and his men obeyed, God caused the Canaanites to flee before them. But this was something other than Barak's happiest moment. Deborah's prophecy of Sisera's death was fulfilled when Jael, a woman, killed Sisera in her tent, after all the Canaanite troops had been destroyed.

# 6 _Judges 5 records Deborah's wonderful song celebrating the victory. Together with Barak, she gave the credit to God. From her verses we get a clear picture of how sad life had been like under the Canaanites. She described herself as "a mother in Israel," but she had also been something of a mother to Israel, encouraging, warning, and setting the pace for a whole nation. She praised Jael for killing the enemy with tent peg and hammer. Through Jael, God ended ting and gave Israel a complete victory.

# 7 _Need a picture of a confident, powerful woman who was also humble and faithful? Look to Deborah. Being an unlikely leader didn't stop her in her tracks, and it doesn't need to stop a Christian woman today, either. She can be a successful mother, leader, and wife, if she's obeying God every day.  

 

DEBORAH - REBEKAH'S NURSE !!!!!!!!

DEBORAH - REBEKAH'S NURSE !!!!! __Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.    (GENESIS 35:8)
Did you know the name of Rebekah's nurse? Genesis 24:59 told us she accompained her change to their new home with Jacob, but it did not mention the nurse's name. Now, at Deborah's death, we finally can put a name with a position.
# 2 _Deborah spent plenty of tears with her mistress. Perhaps Rebekah appreciated Deborah's kindness to her when she was tiny. Rebekah would have still needed her nurse as she grew, because Genesis 29:29 makes it obvious the bride had no maid. For awhile after Rebekah's marriage there were no children to change in the middle of the night, but Deborah helped her charge settle into a new way of life. When children did come, Rebekah desperately needed the nurse, since she had twins. Deborah was always there to dandle a crying child or wrap him in a blanket.
# 3 _Many of us have received help with our children from a friend, teacher, or youth-group worker. Do we appreciate the effort that goes into caring for children? Like Deborah, many give tender care to youngsters who are not theirs. Will it be a thankless task or one that recieves appreciation? Rebekah appreciated her nurse: The name of that oak under which Deborah was buried became Allon Bacuth: "oak of weeping."

THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH !!!!!!

THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH !!!!

Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. (EXODUS 2:5__6)

Being important doesn't mean everyone knows you. Though this woman was the daughter of Egypt's powerful ruler, the Bible never records her name or even that of her father. All we know of Pharaoh's daughter is her position and the fact that she had a kind spirit, for when she saw the baby Moses floating in a basket, her heart opened to him. The woman knew he was one of the Hebrews whom Pharaoh had commanded to be killed, yet this woman disobeyed her father and bravely saved the baby, who ironically became the prophet God used to free the Hebrews from Egypt's grasp.
# 2 _In time, the princess adopted Moses, opening doors of education and power to the young Hebrew. Because of the training he received in Egypt's court, he was probably in a better position to rule over the rebellious Hebrews. As an educated man, he would be able to record the first five books of the Bible for all people to read through the ages.
# 3 _Though we don't know that she ever came to faith, the princess played an important role in God's plan. Without her, the tiny baby would not have had the advantages he needed. But God placed the right woman in the right place at the right time, and He moved her heart to help young Moses. Her name may have disappeared, but her good work hasn't.
# 4 _We're probably all familiar with someone who doesn't know God but performs many good deeds. An unsaved family member may help us out and enable us to fulfill God's will in our lives. Do we recognize that this, too, comes from God? God may use many different people to accomplish His goal, but He does not abuse them. He never forces them to have faith in Him.
# 5 _Many daughters of Pharaoh live in our midst, unconsciously guided by their Creator to do His will. Yet they have no spiritual connection to Him. Do we reach out to them, hoping to help them understand Hid role in their lives? We can rejoice when they come to know Him, too. 

DAMARIS !!!!!!!

DAMARIS !!!!!!! __# 1 _A few men bacame followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. (ACTS 17:34) __Luke mentions some men who accepted Christ as their Savior when they heard Paul's message in Athens, then sddenly he drops in the name of a woman: Damris. Perhaps, as John Chrysostom, a fourth-century archbishop of Constantinople, thought, she was te wife of Dionysius.

# 2 _Others suggest she was an important, educated woman, perhaps from another country. But in an age when women rarely got much mention, she must have had some stature to be listed immediately after a member of Athen's ruling council. Indeed, for her to be present at the meeting where Paul spoke would indicate she had some unusual importance.  

# 3 _The next time someone tells you women aren't important in the Bible, remind them of Damaris, Priscilla, and the Marys of the Gospels. People may write women off as being unimportant, but God never does. He includes them at every point in His story of redemption.

# 4 _You, too, are important to God. Whether or not you're ever mentioned in a book or known worldwide, God cares for you. His Son died for you, to draw you to His side. No one for whom Jesus died is unimportant or forgotten.