Category: belief

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Waiting

how are your waiting skills

Exodus 24 Loyalty Tested 

As Abraham told his servants when he and Isaac went ahead,so Moses told the leaders: “Wait for us in this place until we return to you.”  This then was a test to see if Aaron and Hur would obey and be true leaders. Abraham tested his servants with those words and they passed the test. Not so with Aaron and Hur.

How often does God tell us to wait but we become impatient and step in to do what we think we need to do .  Waiting is hard but it is a test to see if we will be loyal to our Master Jesus. We wait now for His return and it has been centuries. Will we wait obediently or will we take matters into our own hands? 

The psalmist wrote: “Psa 106:13 They quickly forgot what he had done; they did not wait for his instructions.” How about us? 

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Exodus 16-18 Murmurings & Wise Counsel

What is our response when we face suffering?  Have you forgotten the work of God in the midst of a trial? Do you look back at what God did in the past for you? We are a part of the evil generation that forgets the blessings and only focuses on the present time. God has provided all that the Israelites have needed and yet their memories are short, so like us. They have witnessed the power of God to protect them from the hand of Pharaoh even in the time of suffering and yet they are focused on what will feed the body rather than what will feed the soul. 

One behavior we have honed is murmuring. We murmur when life has thrown us a challenge, a test if you may want to call it that, and it isn’t just us that murmur but our murmuring is caught and transferred to others. It is sort of like that yeast in the rising dough. It grows and fills the entire lump. 

Into this a visitor arrives; a man who has been seeking God and he finds it from the testimony of one. Now that he has seen the working of God, he believes. Where has your testimony of God spoken to the heart of another and you and he are blessed together? Moses’ father in law Jethro is wise for when he sees the predicament that is before Moses, he offers wisdom which is accepted. Learn from the aged! 

So many lessons here! Today rejoice and be glad for God has and is working. 

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Exodus 13-15 Where are you looking? 

Open the eyes of my heart Lord

What does it take for us to give praise to the Lord God Almighty? Does it take a miracle or more? The Israelites have seen the power of the Lord over 10 plagues, the last being more deadly than the firs, but when they come to the Red Sea they looked back. Looking back they saw the fearsome Egyptian army closing in on them and they began to murmur again. Looking back is a sin if you look and see the power of Satan instead of looking forward to what God has planned. Looking back means your focus is on what was instead of what will be. 

This will be one of many murmurings for the Israelites and as we study this scenario we learn much of what God wants us to see. God is our protector and provider, but just like the Israelites we lose our focus and begin to murmur because we fail to remember His goodness and provision. 

Today look forward to what God has planned for you. Keep your eyes on He who is your provider and protector. 

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Exodus 7-9 The Plagues of Egypt

When one does not desire Yahweh, then He will bring repercussions upon them to open their eyes to who He is, the God of all creation. God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh over and over to tell him to release the Israelites so they may go and worship. However Pharaoh continued to harden his heart and refused to let them go. Each plague increased in time and event. and even when the Israelites were spared and Pharaoh saw that, he continued to harden his heart. How like today, when men harden their hearts against God, He brings evidence before them to reveal their ultimate destiny and His power if they will open their eyes to Him.  Romans 1 explains much of the reasons behind this. Rom 1:19 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against allungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppressthe truth by their unrighteousness.” 

How grateful we are when we yield to God and allow Him to prove Himself before ourselves and others . Have you relinquished yourself to God so He can work in your life? 

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Genesis 48-50 Blessings, Death, Forgiveness

Forgiveness ..man's greatest need

As we close out Genesis, we come to these three chapters which might be called, God’s Diary for in it we find how God operates through human history. 

God blesses those who obey and honor Him. He brings “home” those of his servants to enjoy the afterlife. And lastly, maybe one of the most important lesson and take away for us is the trait of forgiveness.

As we have said, God never wastes a trial but uses it to show His faithfulness and his lovingkindness. We see that in the life of Joseph and even though it was years and years, God used them to grow Joseph to be the man of God He could use to bring about His plans for his people.  In the meantime, Jacob has to learn from his sins, which were many, to prepare his sons for the next stage in their lives. God opens the windows of heaven and pours out his blessings on Jacob after he has lived in the cauldron of affliction and sin. He is now humble and ready to see God’s plan unfold in steps in the restoration of his family in a very agonizing and challenging time. God restores Joseph to Jacob so that he and his children might be spared the death knell of famine. 

Jacob has a family time and pronounces “blessings” upon each boy  “what will happen to you in future days.” It seems strange to hear the words of Jacob because they don’t sound like blessings to us, but God will use each to show us Jacob may have had 12 sons but he knew the character of each. And after this time of reflection, Jacob blesses Joseph’s children, draws up his knees and dies. 

But, the last lesson is what we want to focus on: forgiveness. Joseph has had many a year to process his life and what has happened to him but has come to terms with “God’s ways are not our ways.” [Is 55:8-9] As he welcomes his brothers and provides for them,he is astounded and deeply hurt when they announce they will give their lives to be his slaves. They have not learned the lesson of forgiveness as seen by Joseph’s tears. They really didn’t get it! 

Which brings us to our own lives. Do we get it? Do we understand that verse in Isaiah? 

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We have walked with Joseph through many a year, beginning when he was a favored son of Jacob and hated by his brothers. In a moment of jealousy, they sold him to traders and then to Potiphar. From there, he was thrown into prison under false charges. Joseph triumphed over sin and temptations, and God blessed him with wisdom and understanding. God does not waste our trials but uses them to mature us and prepare us to be used for Him and His glory. Jesus gave the disciples a prayer, which we call the Lord’s Prayer. In it, He said for us to pray: lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. This was true in the life of Joseph and can be true for you.

Sometimes, God reveals his purposes in real time for two reasons: He alone gets the glory, and we become the instruments to proclaim His name and His work before unbelievers. Such was the case with Joseph; it is valid for each of us believers.

As you walk through the trials of life, ask God where He wants to use you in His kingdom work, but be prepared for trials to come your way just as they did in the life of Joseph. Behind every black cloud of trials is a line of pure light and God’s blessing. Claim it!

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Genesis 40 Joseph

The game of chess

There is much to be learned when we take time to analyze the biblical characters that we find in our daily reading. Joseph is always seen as the master of his fate and the beloved son of his aged father, but one author called him the “upstart” and one that used his position to garner his father’s love. So, with that on our minds, let’s really look at Joseph.

He was the son of his father’s love and the youngest son in this story but there is another son who will be the youngest, Benjamin. Joseph endeared himself to his father as the son of his old age, but his other brothers were jealous of him. These brothers, as we have seen, are not the best examples of purity and righteous for they schemed and plotted to destroy the Shechemites. It was after this, that Joseph is tasked to go and report on the brother’s work. Joseph innocently goes off to find them, but the brothers are once again scheming to remove Joseph. Through this we see Joseph as one who seems to lack discernment regarding these ten brothers It is into this saga we find innocent Joseph being sold into slavery where he rises in the ranks of Potiphar’s house and then is unjustly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. It is in these two places, Joseph’s skills as caretaker and interpreter of dreams are noted. God does not waste our positions but uses them for His purposes which brings us back to the words of Isaiah 55:8-9:

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

When we are in a quandary as to the “why’s” we need to turn back to Isaiah and trust God in all circumstances. Just as we read in Job, God is at work to bring about His plans for our good even though presently we are left in the dark.

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Genesis 35-37 Reuben

Reuben was the first born but his life did not reflect that in many ways. He brought shame upon the life of Jacob by committing adultery with Jacob’s concubine. He tried to save Joseph but that too turned badly. Reuben’s name means behold the son but he was not a picture of righteousness.

Easton’s dictionary has this to say about Jacob’s first born: ‘behold a son!, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:32). His sinful conduct, referred to in Gen. 35:22, brought down upon him his dying father’s malediction (48:4). He showed kindness to Joseph, and was the means of saving his life when his other brothers would have put him to death (37:21,22). It was he also who pledged his life and the life of his sons when Jacob was unwilling to let Benjamin go down into Egypt. After Jacob and his family went down into Egypt (46:8) no further mention is made of Reuben beyond what is recorded in ch. 49:3,4.” 

Many times we come across men in the Bible that cause us to shake our heads and as we read their life stories we wonder why God chose them and used them. But, God’s ways are not our ways.[Is 55:8-9] Reuben was saved because he did like all of us: admitting their wrong and seeking to live righteously. Where are you in this story? Are you a Reuben before or after his changed life? 

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Genesis 30 The Saga Continues

God cares for his own

Jacob has yet to stand strong in the face of his father in law, Laban, yet who can blame him for his actions? Laban has deceived and bartered away his livelihood, and it wasn’t just once but many times. And so now Jacob deceives Laban back. The deceiver becomes the deceived. Laban rightly said that his success has come to him because of Jacob’s faithfulness to guard his flocks. We wonder why Laban has not yet learned that what he just said might be a cause for his downfall, but I digress.The fool never learns from his actions and words. Jacob devises a plan to build his flocks and when he hears that his brothers in law complaining about him decides to leave secretly after gaining his wives encouragement to do so. Jacob and his family leave while Laban is away. When Laban returns and in anger goes after Jacob he fails to realize that this was a turn from God. It must have been humiliating to Laban to be confronted by God but he obeys reluctantly.

What is the lesson we can take from this saga? God will direct our steps even when we are afraid or others seek our demise.

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Genesis 28 “if…”

You can trust God

Jacob was a man who couched his obedience in the “if’s”. He did it with men and he did it with God. “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food to eat and clothing to wear, and I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will become my God.”  Like many today, Jacob shows us that men’s belief and dependence on God depends on His presence and provision with conditions they set up. How often do we also present conditions to God? We use manipulation to get what we want without considering the cost. 

Today, take a page out of Jacob’s diary and see that God wants obedience before He blesses and Jacob will learn that very soon. The deceiver will become deceived and it happens to us as well. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us that we are to trust in the Lord and he will make our paths straight. But Jacob has to learn that truth and it will be through hardship. 

Learn from Jacob. Put God first unconditionally and then He will bless. 

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