Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Let God Be The Song That Rises Up In You
Exodus 15:2-3---The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.
The Israelites are now praising again. The enemy is washing up on the shores, and they are freed. But are they? They have escaped the land, but the system and ideas of Egypt are not yet out of them. The enemy army is dead, but the nation of Egypt will rise again and harass Israel. This is a perfect picture of us when we are delivered from sin. We are out of the world (positionally), but the Spirit of God will continue to get the world out of us through our experiences in life as we walk with Him (experientially). They have learned that the LORD is their strength, though when they get to the border of the Promised Land, they will think they are not strong enough, completely forgetting this lesson. May the LORD help us remember that He is our strength! He is our song! The joy that bubbles up in melodies of praise is the LORD. He is the song on my lips and in my heart. He is my joy, for He has become my salvation. Who is my salvation? Jesus! He has freed me from my enemy. He defeated death, hell, and the grave. That should always be our song and praise, as we exalt the One who has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. The mightiest Warrior is with me. Why should I fear an enemy? If God is for me, who can be against me?
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Forgive Like You Want To Be Forgiven
Matthew 6:12-14---Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
In the last half of the prayer that the Lord taught His disciples, Jesus teaches us the need to forgive others. We are to ask God to forgive our indebtedness to Him in the same way that we have forgiven other's indebtedness to us. It is human nature to become bitter toward those who have been unjust toward us, yet, we are daily unjust toward God. He pours out so many good things upon us, but we rarely return the gratitude that is due Him. We rarely respond to His love with the love that is due Him. He asks us to be perfect. (5:48) That would mean responding as we should. Yet, He remembers our human condition and asks one thing. Forgive others like you want to be forgiven. Imagine the transformation that would take place in the world if individuals would do just that! The prayer ends with a request to not be led into temptation, but instead, to be delivered from Satan. This prayer is in recognition of our weakness. It asks for divine intervention to keep us from areas in which Satan would ensnare us. Spiritual people don't consider themselves capable. They rely on the strength of the Lord. In the Spirit, they know they can do anything the Lord calls them to do. At the same time, they see how weak their flesh is and ask for heaven's intervention. The only way they will finish strong is by the grace of God. The one comment Jesus makes on the prayer is to point back to forgiveness. If you forgive others when they wrong you, you can be assured that God will forgive you. This teaches us that the heart of God desires to see me walk in peace, and longs for strife between individuals on this earth to cease. Are you walking in the light of this?
Monday, February 5, 2018
God Cares
Exodus 12:37-38---The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks, and herds.
In the area of what was the city of Rameses, where the Israelites lived, archeologists have recently uncovered Hebrew dwellings from this time period. Never forget you are reading true stories as well as the hand of God upon human history, revealing Himself to all who will see. One plague after another hit the things the Egyptians considered to be gods, but God spared the Children of Israel. God was demonstrating the truth to the Egyptian nation in each and every plague. If blessings (Joseph and the dreams of the Pharaoh) will not turn us to Him, then He will allow plagues that in the end will be for our good, if we heed the message. In the above verses, we see that God was successful in converting a great number of them. When the Children of Israel left "many other people went up with them." I imagine this was when Moses wife was converted (Numbers 12:1). These Egyptians, as new believers, joined this great throng coming out of Egypt. They had seen the true God demonstrate through the plagues that He was the only God. They believed His message. They also saw the lives of the Children of Israel and, though culturally very different, they chose to band with those who followed the true God. Many are converted today to the hardships of life as they see that the gods they cling to cannot save or even help. We must be there with an example that our God does care and will help so they can join a different nation that is coming out of the world, a nation whose citizenship is in heaven.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
The Cross of Blood
Exodus 12:22---Take a bunch of hyssop dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
The Hebrew word for basin meant a drainage trough at the base of the door that kept rain from crossing the threshold and muddying the house. That is why it is sometimes translated threshold. Follow the Israelite head of his home as he takes a specific type of branch, hyssop, and from the base of the door marks the top and the sides. What has he just done? He has made a cross over the entrance of his dwelling. Now come forward in time over a thousand years to a hill just outside a gate of Jerusalem. There is a man bleeding from his feet, his head, and his hands. Jesus is bleeding there for you so that the Destroyer cannot take your life. A Roman soldier grabs a branch with a sponge on the end to moisten Jesus' lips (John 19:29). What kind of branch is that? Hyssop! Jump forward to today, two millenniums later. Night has come upon the earth for the world is in darkness, but in the house of the Lord, there is light. Morning is coming. A new day will soon dawn, but until it does, you had better stay in the house (the fellowship of believers). The Destroyer is out on the streets and anyone not behind the cross of blood is fair game to him. "In Him (Jesus) is life and the life is the light of men."
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Keep Me Safe Under the Shadow of Your Wings
Exodus 12:13---The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
The Exodus is a story of deliverance. After God showed the Egyptians that He was greater than all things they worshipped as gods, they still refused to let the Israelites go to worship Him. The last plague was the death of the firstborn. Pharaoh was worshipped as a god by the Egyptians, and his son would take his place. This was the last god of the Egyptians to be plagued because God is merciful. God gave His people a way to escape the angel of death. They were to take an unblemished lamb and kill and eat it. The blood was to go upon the doorposts. If the blood marked their dwelling, God would pass over them. The word in Hebrew is that of a mother bird hovering over her chicks. God is not going to just skip over their home but stand as their protector, their shield (Isaiah 31:5). If the blood was applied, no destructive plague would touch them. The Lamb has been slain. The lamb God had promised to Abraham that He would provide died on Calvary. His blood was spilled that you and I could mark the doorposts of our home. When we do, we can be assured that He will hover over us to shield us from the plagues that come upon the world (Psalm 91). It is not that we will not face difficulty and tests, but that they will not be destructive to us. Instead, they will mature us. The trials will be productive instead of destructive, and so we can count it all joy when we face them. If the blood is applied to your heart, the Lord will protect you. The Destroyer will not be allowed to enter your dwelling.
Friday, February 2, 2018
Hear God Today
Exodus 7:16-17---Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the LORD says: By, his you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.
The indictment against Pharaoh is that he will not listen to the LORD. God is always speaking in the world to set the captives free. Are we listening or are we as guilty as Pharaoh? When we refuse to listen to God, that is, not just to hear but to take to heart, then He must use more drastic methods to get our attention. Pharaoh would not listen because he had respect for other gods. They are not truly gods but just creations that the LORD had made. God began to show Pharaoh that Jehovah alone is God. The most revered god of Egypt was the Nile. It was the first to be touched by a plague. Each plague struck something that Egyptians worshipped. When you read the story, notice that during the early plagues Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Even though God had demonstrated that Pharaoh's gods are nothing, he refused to take the word of God to heart. About halfway through the plagues, God hardened his heart. Pharaoh had enough evidence that the LORD is God, but he would not yield. Now the real god of Pharaoh is obvious. It is Pharaoh himself. The things that we refuse to hear the LORD tell us to forsake will be taken from us or shown to be worthless. What will we do when we find the real god we have worshipped is self? Will we turn around before we cross that line?
Thursday, February 1, 2018
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