Wednesday Thought -- July 8, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, “The LORD did not appear to you?”’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied. The LORD said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. ‘This,’ said the LORD, ‘is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you.’” (Exodus 4:1-5)

Moses’ first objection to what God was asking him to do was, “How will they know God has sent me?” God patiently told Moses how to respond and gave Moses His own name by which to identify Him.

Moses’ second objection was, “What if they do not believe me?” God patiently responded to this objection, too. God provided Moses with miraculous signs that would confirm that God was behind what Moses was doing. If they did not believe Moses when he told them God’s name, surely they would believe him when he demonstrated that God was behind him with the miracles God had given to him.

Moses would have more objections, too, and God would respond with the same kind of patience and provision. He would patiently deal with Moses’ objections and the graciously provide what Moses would need to overcome those objections.

God could have expected unquestioned obedience, instead, He allowed Moses to ask his questions, raise his doubts, and express his fears. God is not afraid of our questions, doubts, or fears. As He responded to Moses with such patience, so also He responds to us with similar patience. Ask God your questions, tell God your doubts, and show God your fears. God has offered you the kind of open and honest relationship with Him.

God provided for Moses in astounding ways. Everything Moses needed was given to him. God never sends His servants out without fully equipping them. Miraculous powers, spiritual gifts, co-workers, finances, whatever is needed, God can and will supply. Tell God what you need in order to accomplish what He has assigned you, and God will supply.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Tuesday Thought – July 7, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the

Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said, ‘I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.’ Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” Then what shall I tell them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites:  “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:11-14)

When you are doing God’s work, who you are doesn’t make any difference. David was just a young shepherd boy. Peter was a simple fisherman. Paul was a Hebrew scholar. Mary was a young maiden and Joseph just a poor carpenter. Just ordinary folks, and God used them in mighty ways to impact eternity. When Moses wasn’t sure that he was right one to go deliver the people of Israel from their slavery, God reminded him that who he was didn’t really matter. What mattered was that God was with him!

That brought follow-up question: who is God? To answer that, God told Moses a secret. God revealed His name to Moses. It’s a strange name, I AM WHO I AM, or just I AM for short. What is God communicating by calling Himself by that name? He’s saying that He is eternal. There is no past or future in God, He lives in the eternal now. There was no beginning to Him and there will be no end. He’s saying that He owes His existence to no one else. There was no other being responsible for bringing Him into existence. He is the self-existent One. He just is and always has been.

The name by which God identified Himself to Moses has been His sacred name ever since for the Hebrew people. It’s a name so sacred that they refuse to speak it. When they come to it in the biblical text, they substitute another word for it, afraid that they will speak the name of God without the reverence He deserves. It is God’s name, it still is. He’s revealed it to us. He’s invited us to know it and to use it. Bring the Hebrew name into the English language and it becomes Yahweh or perhaps Jehovah.

God revealed His name so that the people of Israel would know what power and authority was behind Moses. It didn’t matter how insignificant Moses was. It only mattered that God was with him.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Monday Thought – July 6, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

After killing the Egyptian slave driver, Moses fled Egypt to protect his own life. He wound up in the desert taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep for forty years. It seemed like God had forgotten Moses and His people.

“The angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight -- why the bush does not burn up.’ … God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ … The LORD said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey …. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’”  (Exodus 3:1-10)

God had been watching over His people and waiting for them to be ready for Him to deliver them. When the people of Israel cried out in desperation God moved to rescue them. God had a plan to rescue them and He was just waiting for the right time to unveil it.

When God moved to help His people, He moved through Moses. God could have helped His people without using Moses or any other man, but God’s plan almost always involves working through those who know Him and love Him.

God sees the pain and suffering of His people. He is not blind or deaf to our situation. His rescue may not come on our time table, but God is not absent, unknowing, or uncaring! God responds to the cries of His people.

God will move miraculously to come to the aid of His people. God’s rescue started with a small miracle, a bush that was on fire but did not burn and a voice that came from heaven. Those were just the first and the smallest of the miracles that God stood ready to perform to help His people.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Friday Thought – July 3, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

Have you ever gotten ahead of God? Moses did.

Moses had a heart for his own people, the people of Israel. Although he was raised in the house of Pharaoh, he never really became an Egyptian. The book of Hebrews says, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” (Hebrews 11:24) He knew who his people were and he identified with them, not with the Egyptian family that had raised him.

Exodus says, “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.” (Exodus 2:11) The Israelites were his own people and he cared enough about them to go watch what they were doing.

It seemed that God was building in Moses a heart of compassion for the plight of his people and a desire to be used by God to help them. God’s plan would not come to fruition for forty more years, but Moses was ready to get started right away. “He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:11-12)

It seemed like the right thing to do. There was an injustice being done, an Egyptian was beating a Hebrew. Moses moved to respond to the injustice. Surely this was God’s plan?

But it wasn’t. It was Moses taking matters into his own hands. The time was not right for the Israelites to rally against Pharaoh. The Israelites weren’t ready. “The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’ The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’” (Exodus 2:13-14) The Israelites weren’t ready to follow Moses. They weren’t ready for God to come to their rescue. It would be another forty years before the Israelites would cry out to God to deliver them from their slavery. (Exodus 3:9)

Moses’ actions in killing the Egyptian slave driver came out of good motives. He really wanted to help. But his actions did not come out of a heart that was listening to God’s voice and following His direction. It was Moses’ plan and Moses’ action, not God’s plan and God’s action. When the time was right, when it was God’s time, Moses didn’t even have to lift a sword! God’s plan is always better than our own.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Thursday Thought -- July 2, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

Pharaoh had given the order that all boys born to the Jews were to be killed. It was a dark and frightening time for the Jews. The Jewish women must have prayed that they would give birth only to girls. In the midst of that darkness and fear, God moved to save one baby boy in miraculous ways. The story of how God saved Moses’ life is a story that demonstrates God’s ability to move to accomplish His purposes, even using those who are His enemies.

“Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.” (Exodus 2:1-4)

First, Moses’ mother did what she could to protect the baby. She hid the baby for as long as she could keep his birth a secret from the Egyptians. Even when she could no longer hide him, she found a way to continue to do what she could, putting him in a basket in the river. The principle is that God does expect us to cooperate with His work ... to do what we can. When what Moses’ mother could do came to an end, she trusted him into God’s care.

“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. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’” (Hebrews 2:5-7)

In a miraculous twist, God used Pharaoh’s own daughter to save Moses. God used His enemy to accomplish His purpose! God put Moses in the most secure place in all of Egypt, Pharaoh’s own house. God provided a way for Moses’ own mother to be involved in his care and training.

It’s a story of God’s creativity. It’s a story of God’s ability to protect in the midst of great danger. It’s a story that tells us that nothing, not even the worst of man’s schemes, can stand in the way of God’s plan.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Wednesday Thought – July 1, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ‘When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.” (Exodus 1:15-18)

The Hebrew midwives were given an order by Pharaoh that went directly against God’s will. It wasn’t a gray area, God’s will was very clear. Killing another person was wrong. God had spoken to Noah, “From each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (Genesis 9:6)

God’s will also was clear with respect to the obedience that was owed by His people to those who ruled over them. The Hebrews were not to be a rebellious people, they were to respect their rulers and be good citizens. The midwives were faced with a dilemma: should they obey their ruler or obey the clear will and command of God.

Actually, it didn’t pose much of a dilemma for the midwives. They knew what was right. When the ruler asked them to do something that was clearly wrong, they refused to obey. They followed the plan the apostles would later declare to the rulers of the Jews, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29)

Fortunately, this kind of situation does not arise often. Those who rule over us: the government, our employers, our teachers … do not often ask us to do that which is clearly wrong. But when they do ask us to do what we know is wrong, then the path before us is clear. We must obey God, even if it means to disobey those who rule over us.

God’s will and commands take precedence over all others. That’s what it means to be His disciple!

His, by Grace,

Steve

Tuesday Thought – June 30, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:18-20)

Before Paul came to Christ he studied under the finest teacher in Israel. He was advancing beyond many Jews his own age. (Galatians 1:14) Paul was so well known among the Jews that he could go to the high priest and ask for letters of authority to persecute Christians. (Acts 9:1-2)

After he came to Christ he was such an eloquent speaker that the people of Lystra called him Hermes, the chief spokesman among the Greek gods. (Acts 14:12)

As talented as he was, Paul knew that he could accomplish nothing significant in the Kingdom of God without God’s help. Human talent and effort would not advance the Kingdom. Only God’s blessing and power would enable Paul to do anything worthwhile.

So Paul asked other Christians to pray for him. He considered the prayers of others vital to the effectiveness of his work. Paul wasn’t smart enough to discern what he should say to the crowds that he addressed. He knew he needed God’s wisdom in order to touch the hearts of those who would listen. He knew that human fear would paralyze him without God’s help. Persecution awaited at almost every place Paul stopped to preach. He asked the Ephesians to pray that he would be able to preach without fear no matter what awaited him.

Prayer was important to Paul. He was a man of prayer himself. He taught others to pray and asked them to pray for him. He believed in prayer’s power. He believed God answered prayer.

Prayer is still powerful today. God still answers prayer. Only God’s blessing and God’s power will enable any of us to do anything worthwhile in God’s Kingdom and God’s blessing and God’s power come in answer to prayer.

His, by Grace,

Steve