Moments With God

Exodus 1

God’s Old Testament people were living in the foreign land of Egypt at the beginning of the book of Exodus. Hundreds of years before Jacob and his sons and their families had moved to Egypt during a time of famine. Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob, was already living in Egypt at that time. Through a series of remarkable events over a period of many years and through the Lord God’s intervening working and will, Joseph had become second in command to the Pharaoh at that time. Therefore, Joseph was able to provide for his family during that time of famine.

Now at the beginning of the book of Exodus Joseph and all his brothers had died. The next generation of God’s people, the Israelites, were becoming "exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them." (Exodus 1:7b) A new king or Pharaoh as the Egyptian kings were called arose. He knew nothing about Joseph and his family. This Pharaoh became alarmed by the number of Israelites that were populating his land. He was afraid they would become so numerous that if war broke out they might join Egypt’s enemies against them. So Pharaoh decided to put slave masters over God’s people and "oppress them with forced labor." (Exodus 11a) The Israelites lives were made "bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields." (Exodus 1:14a) In spite of all this God blessed His people and "they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites." (Exodus 1:12b) Absolutely nothing will separate God’s people from God’s blessings, protection, and love. Trouble, hardship of any kind, danger, death, nothing will separate us from God’s love! (Romans 8:35-39) What a promise for God’s people in times of great difficulty!

Since Pharaoh's plan to squelch God’s people did not seem to be working Pharaoh hatched another plan. He ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the boy babies born to the Israelites, God’s people at that time. Pharaoh was hoping that in this way the Israelite boys would not be able to grow up and form an army against him some day. But the "Hebrew midwives whose names were Shiphrah and Puah" (Exodus 1:15b) refused to follow the Pharaoh's orders. They instead obeyed and "feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live." (Exodus 1:17b) It must have been frightening for these midwives to disobey the Pharaoh's orders, but they were more concerned about obeying the Lord. Do we have that same commitment and passion to obey the Lord in spite of possible difficult consequences? God is pleased when His people submit to Him in obedience, and He will bless and reward such obedience. Exodus 1:20-21 says this of the midwives, "So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own." Notice also that the names of these seemingly insignificant midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are listed in Scripture! We do not even know the name of the great Pharaoh of Egypt. Nowhere is that Egyptian Pharaoh's name recorded in Scripture. As the Lord’s children and the sheep of His flock we too are known to Him by name! John 10:3b tells us this about our Lord and Shepherd, "He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out." We can trust that He will always protect and love us, as we walk with Him in faith. He has a plan for our lives, and as we serve Him in our small corner of the world He will bless us as He did the Hebrew midwives. His plans for the world and for our individual lives will stand. Praise the Lord for His protection, blessing, love, and purpose in our lives!

In 2005 I gave a devotional book to my children and to some of my other family members. This devotional book was written by me and given to my family members as a legacy of my faith. At a later date I decided to begin publishing some of these devotionals in the form of blogs on this christianblogsites.com web site. With the exception of a few new devotionals interspersed in between, all my devotional blog posts at this site have been from my devotional book that I gave to my family members in late 2005. All my devotionals from my devotional book of 2005 have now been published at this Christian web site.

At this point I have decided to write some new devotional blog posts based on chapters from the book of Exodus. "Exodus? Why Exodus?" you might be saying. The answer to that question is simple. There is much of the Gospel found in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. The book of Exodus also teaches us much about living the Christian life. Through the Old Testament sacrificing of a lamb talked about in the book of Exodus we are reminded of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us. We are also reminded that Jesus Christ is our one and only Lamb of God. After reading about God’s Old Testament people’s slavery in Egypt and their later release from slavery we are reminded that we were once slaves to sin and its consequences before Christ redeemed us by His blood. Through the examples of Moses and his parents in the book of Exodus we are further reminded to walk in faith in our lives. We are reminded of God’s great power to help and protect us in this walk of faith. We are also reminded, however, that God in His power and glory will punish those who deliberately and continually harden their hearts against the Lord.

In the book of Exodus we learn that we need to depend on the Lord alone for strength and protection in the trials of this life. We learn that we can not depend on ourselves or on our own resources in facing life’s difficult situations. We learn, however, that in the Lord we need to fear nothing. In the past few years my husband and I have learned many lessons in the importance of depending on the Lord. Due to my husband’s incurable neurological disease which just continues to worsen and my recent eight months of treatment for cancer, we have had to learn many lessons in dependence on the Lord. Is not this a lesson we all need to learn? Dependence on the Lord is one of the life lessons that the Lord God most desires us to learn. In the book of Exodus we also learn about the necessity for putting God first in our lives. We learn we must show our love and devotion to the Lord by obeying Him in all things and by our lives of gratitude even in the difficult times in our lives.

In summary we will learn many exciting things in our study of the book of Exodus. Will you go with me on this adventure through many of the chapters of the book of Exodus? Together let us learn what the Lord God would have us to learn about Himself and about our walk of faith. Join me as in a few days, as I publish my first devotional blog post from the book of Exodus.

For the purpose of this one particular blog post I am going to take a break from my usual Bible study format. I would like to use this opportunity to share my personal testimony and to ask for continued prayers.

If the Lord wills, I will soon be a one year survivor of breast cancer! I praise God for His protection and care of me this past year! On July 18, 2007 I received the devastating news that I did indeed have cancer. I soon learned that the tumor was very large and that cancer had also invaded my lymph nodes. This threw me into the new uncharted territory (for me anyway) of chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and later radiation. After over eight months of treatment my cancer treatments were completed on April 3, 2008. My cancer battle came on the heels of my husband’s diagnosis of an incurable neurological disease in 2006. To say the least it has been a difficult couple of years for my husband and me. It has also been a period of many blessings and of spiritual growth, however. God has promised that He will never send a trial into our lives that He will not use for His glory and for our ultimate spiritual good.

So what has been the blessings of this experience for me? For one thing my husband and I have experienced the overwhelming love and encouragement of our family, our local church, and also the extended body of Christ. I have grown closer to family members and other believers as a result of this. I have always enjoyed our granddaughters. I believe the joy they add to my life is even deeper, however, because of the trials of these past years; and now we have just added another little granddaughter to our family less than twenty-four hours ago!

I have also grown closer to my Lord through the trials of these past two years. I have dug even deeper into God’s Word, and I cling even tighter to the Lord God’s wonderful promises in His Holy Word. The Lord’s promises in His Holy Word to always be with me are even more precious to me now. This experience has further made me see more clearly what is really important in this life, and it has opened up a freedom in me that I did not previously possess.

I do not believe that God has sent the trials of the last couple years into my life because of a particular sin in my life. God has used these trials, however, to stretch my faith, to help me grow in my faith, and to make me more aware of sin areas in my life. One big area that the Lord is working on in my life is convicting me of the need to cast my every anxiety on the Lord and to not give in to the devil’s desire to discourage me.

Sometimes people say to me, "You are so strong." This always makes me feel so uncomfortable. I am not strong at all. These last couple years have taught me how weak I am and how dependent I am on the Lord. The Lord and His promises alone have given me the strength to persevere. The Lord has been trying to teach me to abandon my "perfectionist, got to have it all planned out to feel secure" tendencies, and to rest in dependence on Him alone. The Lord has answered so many of my prayers by graciously meeting the financial, emotional, and spiritual needs of my husband and me. Why should I not truly rest in Him?

There are still challenges to face for my husband and me. I ask for your prayers. My husband’s neurological disease continues to cause him to go back physically slowly and steadily. This is very difficult to see happen and to process emotionally at times. Pray that I will be able to always rest this with the Lord. Pray that I will have the strength and patience to meet my husband’s needs with a cheerful heart. At this point I show no sign of cancer. Praise God with me for that! Pray that I will remain cancer free. Most importantly, pray that I will reflect the Lord Jesus and will bring Him glory. Finally, pray that I will always choose joy, patience, and dependence on the Lord.

Revelation 7:9-17, Revelation 21:1-7, Revelation 22

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4)

It is so easy to get immersed in this world's activities and worries. The truth is that this life with both its pleasures and suffering does not begin to compare with the joys of the eternity we will experience as a child of God. Paul says in Romans 8:18, " I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." As children of God we should "groan" in joyful expectation "as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:23b) There is a wonderful hymn that sums up these sentiments beautifully. The words of the refrain for this hymn says, "What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace. When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the promised land, what a day, glorious day that will be." May our hearts be filled with joyful anticipation and longing for that glorious day when we will be forever with our Lord.

We do not know exactly what eternity with our Lord will be like, but the Bible does give us some clues. Revelation 7:9 tells us that there will be believers sharing eternity with us "from every nation, tribe, people and language." They with us will be "standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." Jesus is often referred to as "the Lamb," because He is the one that redeemed us from our life of sin and washed away our sins. Revelation 7:9 goes on to say that people from all nationalities and races will be "wearing white robes" and will be "holding palm branches in their hands." The white robes spoken of in this passage is a picture of the presence of sin being completely eradicated in eternity by "the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14b) The palm branches are a picture of the eternal peace that Jesus, the Lamb of God, has purchased for us on the cross. In eternity we as believers from all nationalities and races will also be forever praising and worshipping our God! (Revelation 7:10-12) What an awesome thought!

In eternity the Lord God "will spread His tent" of protection and love over us eternally. (Revelation 7:15b) In eternity we will never again experience hunger, thirst, or any other kind of suffering. (Revelation 7:16a) In eternity the book of Revelation says this about believers "They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:3b-4) In eternity believers will experience complete healing. There will be no such thing as incurable diseases. Believers will be all perfectly whole in all ways, because the curse of sin's effects will be forever gone. (Revelation 22:2b-3a) Finally, the book of Revelation tells us that believers "will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." (Revelation 22:4) This will all be possible because, "the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water." (Revelation 7:17a) These "springs of living water" represent an eternity of pure joy in the presence of our Lord and God! What an exciting future we can look forward to in eternity as believers. Let us be certain that we are His children and that we are persevering in the faith. The Lord says to us in Revelation 21:7a, "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be His God." Wow! What an inheritance we have as believers in Jesus Christ, our Savior!

Revelation 3:14-22

We as believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ must beware of lukewarm Christianity in our lives. Lukewarm Christianity is "Christianity" that is a halfhearted Christianity, and it is a Christianity which is lacking in conviction. Lukewarm Christianity is Christianity which is seeking to straddle the fence between living for the Lord and living for the world. This type of so-called Christianity is not willing to be one hundred percent sold out for the Lord. The problem with this so-called Christianity is that it is impossible to have two lords in our lives. We can't serve the Lord Jesus Christ and the world at the same time.

We need to beware of lukewarm Christianity in our lives, because it is distasteful to Christ. The Lord said to the church in Laodicea the following, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16) Jesus Christ was totally committed to God, the Father, and to doing the Father's will. As His children we must seek to reflect the character of Jesus, and we must be totally committed to the will of God. Being a lukewarm Christian is contrary to the Lord's purpose for our lives. The Lord wants us to be passionate about our relationship with Him. The Lord wants us to be passionate about our desire to bring glory to His name. God desires and demands our all!

Lukewarm Christianity seems to thrive in a materially affluent environment. When things are going well for us economically and financially we often tend to imagine ourselves to be self-reliant. We then have a greater tendency to not depend on the Lord but on our earthly riches. We then may become complacent, comfortable, and self-sufficient. But if we begin to rely on other things than on the Lord; the Lord tells us, as He did the church in Laodicea, that we are "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (Revelation 3:17b)

We need to beware of becoming lukewarm in our Christianity. We must instead heed the Lord's counsel, direction, and wisdom in His Holy Word. If we do this, Revelation 3:18 tells us that we will "become rich" spiritually in the things that count for eternity. We need to seek, value, and conform to the Lord's righteousness in our lives. We must desire to be clothed in the Lord's "white clothes" of righteousness in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. We also must desire the Lord's "salve" for our spiritual eyes. We must desire this, so we can have the spiritual insight to see our sins. We must also desire this, so we are able to see and live our lives according to God's perspective.

When we begin to lose our passion for the things of God and begin to become lukewarm Christians we must earnestly repent and turn back to the Lord. If we turn back to the Lord in wholehearted devotion and repentance, He will welcome us with open arms. In fact, the Lord searches us out. He says to us, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20) The Lord actually desires our fellowship!

If we persevere in our faith to the end, the Lord promises us wonderful and eternal blessings! The Lord Jesus says to us in Revelation 3:21, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne." We must persevere in our faith and never lose our passion for the Lord and His will!