AI am starting a new series of thoughts with the blog. Recently, I got a new Bible. I am funny about my Bible. It is one of, if not my prized possession. When I had my three sons, I made a commitment to one day have studied the Bible, to write in my margins and to mark it with all God teaches. Not in just one Bible, but three of them. One for each of my sons. It’s funny though, as much as this is one of my goals, I always have a hard time letting go of the previous Bible for the new one. However, I looked at the pages of this one and was excited about the opportunity to start afresh. New Words from the Lord, fresh pages and new lessons to learn.
So, I started on those new pages this week in the book of Exodus. And honestly, as I read I couldn’t help myself. It was like I was starved and had this insatiable desire for the Words on those pages all over again. I did all 40 chapters of Exodus in five days. Studied, marked, listed and smoldering in my heart. It is because of these past 5 days, that I will write lessons from the Exodus.
Perhaps this sounds boring, but I can tell you the story of God’s deliverance is far from boring. I found myself so intrigued with the fact that Pharaoh was afraid that the people of God would multiply and become more powerful than he. Therefore, he chose to afflict them in hopes of discouraging them. Ironically, life today isn’t much different. God has called us to go and make disciples, to multiply. Due to a fear that we might actually do that and in an effort to discourage, many afflict those who are trying to multiply in order to stop that process. There will always be those who stand against the multiplication process. Those who are threatened by the process and those who will work diligently to stop it. Why? Because they fear the loss of control that will bring for them.
Multiplication has always been God’s plan. And God multiplies by addition. One on one, life on life to multiply His Kingdom. Perhaps you are facing opposition. Then rejoice, that is a good thing. If you aren’t multiplying then you are not a threat to the enemies kingdom. It is only when you threaten the power and control of those who want you to stop influencing and multiplying that you can rest assured you are living in the book of Exodus. With a Pharaoh whose heart is hard coming down on a child of God merely trying to multiply for the Kingdom.
Don’t let the affliction stop you. My favorite verse in chapter 1 is verse 12. It says, “but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out , so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.”
So, multiply and spread out, become the dread of all. Don’t let whatever you are facing stop you.
LL FOR YOU
Monday, October 11, 2010
exodus 2
Have you ever heard the expression “you need to stop and smell the roses.” We miss so much because we don’t stop to listen, look and learn. We rush right past. I am the world’s worst at this. However, the Lord is teaching me the art of just coming aside and looking for Him. Whether in a field, on a beach, in the backyard, HE always speaks in the moments where I pause.
Recently, I took 17 middle school girls into the field on quilts just to play look up. Look up is a game I play, where we simply get still, quiet and look up, wait for Him to speak and then share what He says. It is amazing to hear what the Spirit of God says in the silence, when we turn down the noise, come aside and listen.
Moses was a great picture of this. Many of us know the story of the burning bush from Exodus 3, however, we have probably missed the life principle found in that story. While the burning bush is incredibly fascinating, the beauty to me in the story comes before the revelation of the Great I Am, the holy ground He stood on or the fact that Moses got to talk to God.
Exodus 3 says that Moses saw the burning bush and that it wasn’t consumed. After seeing the bush, Moses said, “I MUST TURN ASIDE NOW and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”(emphasis mine)
It was in the turning aside that Moses got to have an encounter with God that is beyond what most of us could ever imagine. He saw it, but it was because he chose to TURN ASIDE NOW to see the marvelous sight that he got more. I am wondering if the reason we don’t see more and hear more from God is simply because we don’t turn aside to see and hear from Him?
There is such a life lesson in Moses’ act of turning aside. Just like my girls in the field, when we stop and listen, He speaks. Perhaps, it is time that we stop and smell the roses, play look up or turn aside… whatever words you want to use, there is a marvelous sight waiting, don’t miss it.
ALL FOR YOU
Recently, I took 17 middle school girls into the field on quilts just to play look up. Look up is a game I play, where we simply get still, quiet and look up, wait for Him to speak and then share what He says. It is amazing to hear what the Spirit of God says in the silence, when we turn down the noise, come aside and listen.
Moses was a great picture of this. Many of us know the story of the burning bush from Exodus 3, however, we have probably missed the life principle found in that story. While the burning bush is incredibly fascinating, the beauty to me in the story comes before the revelation of the Great I Am, the holy ground He stood on or the fact that Moses got to talk to God.
Exodus 3 says that Moses saw the burning bush and that it wasn’t consumed. After seeing the bush, Moses said, “I MUST TURN ASIDE NOW and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”(emphasis mine)
It was in the turning aside that Moses got to have an encounter with God that is beyond what most of us could ever imagine. He saw it, but it was because he chose to TURN ASIDE NOW to see the marvelous sight that he got more. I am wondering if the reason we don’t see more and hear more from God is simply because we don’t turn aside to see and hear from Him?
There is such a life lesson in Moses’ act of turning aside. Just like my girls in the field, when we stop and listen, He speaks. Perhaps, it is time that we stop and smell the roses, play look up or turn aside… whatever words you want to use, there is a marvelous sight waiting, don’t miss it.
ALL FOR YOU
exodus 3
Have you ever spoken what is right and true only to find out that it made things worse instead of better? It kind of makes you not want to do what is right or true. However, just because it doesn’t make things better, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have spoken it. How do I know this to be true?
When Moses was sent by God to deliver the children of Israel, Pharaoh did not choose to listen. In fact, not only did he not listen, but because Moses spoke what God said, when he said it, to the person he was to say it to and it didn’t make things better for ANYONE. Reality is that it made it MUCH worse. As a result of what Moses did, Pharaoh chose to batten down the hatches and make things much harder on the children of Israel. He had the taskmasters increase the labor, remove extra help and discipline them when they didn’t accomplish the work.
Consequently, the children of Israel were not at all grateful for Moses showing up. Exodus 5:21 tells us that when Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, that they were waiting on them to say “may the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
The people were mad at Moses and asking God to judge him for making it harder, when in fact it was God who sent Moses with the words that brought the harsh treatment. How’s that for irony?
So, what’s the point? There is a great lesson for life in this passage. Sometimes speaking the truth makes things harder for a while before the Lord delivers. Before things got better, things got worse. Reality is that just because we speak truth, doesn’t mean freedom will come automatically. Sometimes we have to fight for it. Or better yet, watch God fight for us in it.
Maybe you have spoken words of truth and it only made things worse. Perhaps you have backed away from truth for fear that it would get worse. Odds are that it might. But deliverance will only come when we do as He commanded. It may not get better right away, but hang on, help is on the way. The point is that for better or worse, speak the truth of what God says and trust Him to deliver in His time. Hang on though, it could be a bumpy ride.
ALL FOR YOU
When Moses was sent by God to deliver the children of Israel, Pharaoh did not choose to listen. In fact, not only did he not listen, but because Moses spoke what God said, when he said it, to the person he was to say it to and it didn’t make things better for ANYONE. Reality is that it made it MUCH worse. As a result of what Moses did, Pharaoh chose to batten down the hatches and make things much harder on the children of Israel. He had the taskmasters increase the labor, remove extra help and discipline them when they didn’t accomplish the work.
Consequently, the children of Israel were not at all grateful for Moses showing up. Exodus 5:21 tells us that when Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, that they were waiting on them to say “may the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
The people were mad at Moses and asking God to judge him for making it harder, when in fact it was God who sent Moses with the words that brought the harsh treatment. How’s that for irony?
So, what’s the point? There is a great lesson for life in this passage. Sometimes speaking the truth makes things harder for a while before the Lord delivers. Before things got better, things got worse. Reality is that just because we speak truth, doesn’t mean freedom will come automatically. Sometimes we have to fight for it. Or better yet, watch God fight for us in it.
Maybe you have spoken words of truth and it only made things worse. Perhaps you have backed away from truth for fear that it would get worse. Odds are that it might. But deliverance will only come when we do as He commanded. It may not get better right away, but hang on, help is on the way. The point is that for better or worse, speak the truth of what God says and trust Him to deliver in His time. Hang on though, it could be a bumpy ride.
ALL FOR YOU
exodus 4
Have you ever felt like the weight of what you are called to or supposed to do was so heavy that you weren’t sure you could do it? Or maybe you are struggling with feeling inadequate, ill-equipped or not good enough to accomplish what lies in front of you.
Well, you are not alone. I am quite sure that all of us, everyday, struggle at some point with insecurity, inadequacy and feeling undeserving. If you say you don’t, you are not very self aware or perhaps you are just arrogant. Our insecurities and inadequacies cause us to respond, over react or mask our true feelings, our fears and our failures. The fear in that often causes us to hesitate and shrink back from what God may be asking us to do.
Moses is a great example of this. In Exodus chapter 4, God has called Moses to go to Pharaoh and command him to let the children of Israel go. Context would be important here. In this day and time, the Pharaoh had absolute power and was considered a god who owned the land and the people. He was also the high priest of all the religions. Therefore, for Moses to walk in and to command not only the ruler but the “god” of Egypt to let go what he owned because another god-the TRUE GOD commanded it was not only frightening, but fiercely overwhelming.
Moses had already confessed to the Lord his insecurities and inadequacies in chapter 4:10, stating that he was not eloquent, slow of speech and tongue. He even suggested to God that He should choose another. God quickly reminded him that HE made Moses and his tongue. That He was quite aware of his shortcomings-HE made him that way.
Even with those assurances and a friend to go with him and help him in his weakness, Moses asked the question TO GOD…the question we all want to ask and have asked at some point or another. In Exodus 6, he asks “how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled of speech?”
I absolutely love that! Why? Because that is so me! God calls us and equips us and then when it is time to speak, we doubt because we are relying on our own abilities. We are trusting on what we think we can do instead of relying on what God has said HE will do. We are leaning on our own understanding, instead of leaning into the calling and equipping of God. We are looking at our smallness instead of God’s bigness. We rely on our flesh instead of trusting His Spirit.
Moses was so concerned with what he thought he was unable to do, that he forgot to look at and focus on what God can do. I don’t know about you, but I so sit in that seat. But today, I am so convicted about trusting in my own abilities instead of fixating on the truth that NOTHING is impossible with GOD. He is our HOPE. He is our STRENGTH. He is…what we are not. And that is everything. It isn’t God AND you, it is Christ IN you. Moses forgot the same thing I do…that my God is bigger and stronger than ME. I know that sounds crazy. But I can’t limit God to what I can do and accomplish in my flesh. I can’t say to pick someone else because I am ill-equipped. I must trust the calling and equipping of a very Big God who made me and will make glory in my weakness.
What is the life lesson? Don’t lean on your own ability or skill, trust in the greatness of a big God who doesn’t need you, but chooses you to make Himself look big in something so small. God reminded Moses and He is remind you.
ALL FOR YOU
Well, you are not alone. I am quite sure that all of us, everyday, struggle at some point with insecurity, inadequacy and feeling undeserving. If you say you don’t, you are not very self aware or perhaps you are just arrogant. Our insecurities and inadequacies cause us to respond, over react or mask our true feelings, our fears and our failures. The fear in that often causes us to hesitate and shrink back from what God may be asking us to do.
Moses is a great example of this. In Exodus chapter 4, God has called Moses to go to Pharaoh and command him to let the children of Israel go. Context would be important here. In this day and time, the Pharaoh had absolute power and was considered a god who owned the land and the people. He was also the high priest of all the religions. Therefore, for Moses to walk in and to command not only the ruler but the “god” of Egypt to let go what he owned because another god-the TRUE GOD commanded it was not only frightening, but fiercely overwhelming.
Moses had already confessed to the Lord his insecurities and inadequacies in chapter 4:10, stating that he was not eloquent, slow of speech and tongue. He even suggested to God that He should choose another. God quickly reminded him that HE made Moses and his tongue. That He was quite aware of his shortcomings-HE made him that way.
Even with those assurances and a friend to go with him and help him in his weakness, Moses asked the question TO GOD…the question we all want to ask and have asked at some point or another. In Exodus 6, he asks “how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled of speech?”
I absolutely love that! Why? Because that is so me! God calls us and equips us and then when it is time to speak, we doubt because we are relying on our own abilities. We are trusting on what we think we can do instead of relying on what God has said HE will do. We are leaning on our own understanding, instead of leaning into the calling and equipping of God. We are looking at our smallness instead of God’s bigness. We rely on our flesh instead of trusting His Spirit.
Moses was so concerned with what he thought he was unable to do, that he forgot to look at and focus on what God can do. I don’t know about you, but I so sit in that seat. But today, I am so convicted about trusting in my own abilities instead of fixating on the truth that NOTHING is impossible with GOD. He is our HOPE. He is our STRENGTH. He is…what we are not. And that is everything. It isn’t God AND you, it is Christ IN you. Moses forgot the same thing I do…that my God is bigger and stronger than ME. I know that sounds crazy. But I can’t limit God to what I can do and accomplish in my flesh. I can’t say to pick someone else because I am ill-equipped. I must trust the calling and equipping of a very Big God who made me and will make glory in my weakness.
What is the life lesson? Don’t lean on your own ability or skill, trust in the greatness of a big God who doesn’t need you, but chooses you to make Himself look big in something so small. God reminded Moses and He is remind you.
ALL FOR YOU
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