March 6, 2014 You Need an Exodus

You Need an Exodus

Exodus 4

Exodus 4:29-31 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

THE process of the Exodus begins. It is a process in which God introduces himself very personally to his people through the words and workings of Moses and Aaron. The Hebrews knew of the God of Abraham, and they knew the tradition of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, but they did not know God.

      Now God begins to introduce himself to demonstrate he can change nature and human nature. It is important for the Hebrews to know this because God will need to powerfully break into the natural and the human condition to secure their freedom. Now think about this for a minute: our lives need an Exodus event.

      Every one of us is born chained in bondage to sin. To free us, God comes in his miracle-making power through the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to you. It is a universe-changing, Heaven-celebrated event when your sin’s chains crumble, and you claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

      The Holy Spirit would come in power through Moses to change Moses’ life and the lives of those around him. Eventually the Spirit would come to change the world as he would release people from sin’s bondage with the blood of Jesus Christ. Time and time again, God shows that his power changes people. Have you trusted your heart to Jesus? I pray you do so.

LIFE Link: The Holy Spirit’s power is the key to your Exodus.

March 5, 2014 Fear God

Fear God

Exodus 3

Ex 3:4-6 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” …6 At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

CAUSING one to fear you isn’t a good way to build a relationship, is it? But what is at the root of Moses’ fear of God? It is God’s holiness – His perfection.

      One of the great challenges we have in understanding God is to know that Jesus is our friend (John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.) alongside such verses as Psalms 115:13 he will bless those who fear the Lord.

      God’s holiness is to be approached only on his terms. It is not possible for us to go to God in “our way” casually thinking God will take us into his presence in any way we want him to take us. That kind of thinking is what would condemn Pharaoh and has condemned people through the ages. We must fear God to obey him because he is the One who has our lives in His hand. He requires us to be holy to be with him, and that is why we can call Jesus, “Friend.”

      He has laid down his life for us to cleanse our sins and make us holy. He has made the way for us be able to stand with God on His holy ground forever.

LIFE Link: Deuteronomy 6:24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 

March 3, 2014 God-ordained Marriage

God-Ordained Marriage

Exodus 2

Ex 2:21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.

EXODUS 2 is all about Moses, but let’s consider Zipporah. The daughter of a wealthy man who lived in the Sinai desert region, Zipporah likely had no particular plans for life. She was simply “going along” in life when BAM! God sent His Deliverer to her doorstep.

      Of course, neither she nor Moses knew what would happen about 40 years after their marriage. But God did. God knew Moses would need a wife strong in will and duty, one who had grown up around a father of some wealth and strength with some apparent understanding of leadership in her family. She understood how to respond to authority, too, as she obeys her father to marry this stranger.

      And then look at Exodus 4:24-27: At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met (Moses) and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched (Moses’) feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone.

       Translated, it is likely that Moses had not circumcised his two sons, and the LORD met Moses here to kill his sons and keep them from entering into Egypt. Zipporah realizing her sons’ danger, took charge and did the bloody act to appease God and bring them into God’s covenant of circumcision. This act also formed herself into a covenant child of God. Zipporah understood the LORD’s authority, and now Moses’ family is complete. It’s impossible to imagine the trauma and fear this woman would face alongside her husband in the years ahead of them, but certainly God had formed her to be a woman of faith to urge her husband on to become the Deliverer.

LIFE Link: A God-centered woman completes a God-centered man. 

March 2, 2014 Ready to Listen?

Ready to Hear?

Exodus 1

Exodus 1:14  They (Egyptians) made their (the Hebrews’) lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.

400 YEARS have passed since Genesis. God has expanded his nation to nearly 2 million people in Egypt. Was that a mistake? Now they are slaves. Should he have put them in a place where they would have been treated more favorably, even in abundance and luxury? After all, they are the LORD’s people! After all, Jacob and his family were in Canaan, the place where the Hebrews would eventually settle. Why “waste”400 years of hardship in Egypt?

      It’s always good to “walk carefully” when we ask God, “Why?” We must not pretend or assume our ways are better than his. But, in the attitude of humility, asking God, “Why?”can lead us to understanding him more clearly. So, we humbly ask God, “Why Egypt? Why slavery, Lord?”

      When we look throughout the Bible, we can discover, to our dislike, that one answer is that God often puts people in a position where they desperately need him before they pay attention to him. One place to discover God is in our brokenness. I suspect that if the Hebrews were prosperous, they would ignore God, just as we often do. But they were in need, and they were ready to listen. He had a BIG (Believing In God) change planned for their lives.

      If you are in despair, and life is tough, God wants to free you. He may have allowed, even caused your situation because he needs your attention. When you seek him, and when you are prepared to trust his response, he will speak to you to bring great change to your life. Are you ready to hear him?

LIFE Link: Be still and listen for His voice.

March 2, 2014 Real Forgiveness

Real Forgiveness

Genesis 50

Gen 50:15-17 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?”16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brother’s the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

JOSEPH’S brothers still feel guilty. About 17 years have passed since Jacob and his family came to live in Egypt, and Joseph has repeatedly demonstrated his forgiveness and generosity to them. Still the brothers wonder if Joseph will turn on them for the wrongs they did to him many years before this.

      That’s the thing about sin. Even when someone says, “I forgive you.” we still want to keep condemning ourselves. The guilt inside lingers and eats away at us. And we are never sure of what the “forgiver” thinks about us.  

      Joseph weeps in his frustration. His brothers did not truly understand his grace. Joseph had forgiven those transgressions, and he wanted to move forward.

      In a like manner, God must feel a great sadness when we continually deny his generous love and forgiveness. He says that when we repent to say, “I’m wrong. Forgive me. I want to be with you, LORD.” he will forgive and forget our sins. He will point us away from our past and to our new and restored future relationship with him.

      Will you trust God’s forgiveness? The Son, Jesus Christ, bled on a cross to remove your sin.  Trust the blood. Trust the cross. Trust God’s generous grace.

LIFE Link: God forgives and forgets your sin. Will you?