To Save Lives

Genesis 50:20 - But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

There are many biblical stories that describe what seems to be hardship situations. Situations which seem unfair. But God...always has a plan. There are reasons for everything all of us experience. We don't always understand them but if we are open to believing we can't know everything and believing still that God is in control of all things, we will be better off.

Remember these things: 

• Egypt is symbolic of the world, of the things not of God, of evil, as it were, decadence, over the top power, fame, fortune, excess. 
• God always has a plan. He can use evil or discomfort to bring it about.
• If we trust in Him, no matter what, His plan will be for our good.
• Only God truly knows what we have need of. 

Yesterday I finished reading about Jacob and his deteriorating relationship with his father-in-law. Jacob needed to flee from his family in one country because his brother wanted revenge against him. And after being situated in that country for many years his father in law became upset with him so God told him to go back to his family and the previous land. Imagine being between a rock and a hard place. But it was God's suggestion. If he trusted God it would be okay, though he didn't know what the outcome would be. It would be fine. Reconciliation would take place! And because Jacob's life was spared, so was the lineage to Christ. And what was His role? To save lives. 

There's Moses. He was born a Jew. To save his life his mother put him in that little basket on the river. Pharaoh's daughter found it. Without her knowing it, Moses' mother became the nursemaid. The first 40 years Moses learned both his Jewish roots and the ways of Egypt. Again to save his own life, he fled to the mountains and became a sheep herder. Forty more years pass. During that time Israel is captured by Egypt and they are made slaves to pharaoh. God then calls on Moses to save them and lead these people out of Egypt back to their land. Moses needed those 80 years of training in Egypt's ways, his own Jewish roots and how to lead in the hills with sheep, for this important task. To save lives. I am reminded that we are all like sheep in need of guidance...(Isaiah 53:6)

Joseph's brothers were jealous of him because he was their father's (Jacob) favorite. Some wanted to kill him but rather than have his blood on their hands they decided to sell him into slavery. And guess where he ended up? Egypt, again. As a servant in his house, pharaoh's wife took a liking to him and attempted to seduce him. Joseph would not have it, but in trying to escape from her lost his coat. Out of anger because of the rejection, she used this to get him sent to prison. He was there for many years, an innocent man. Yet God used him in an extraordinary way and he was then released to become second in charge of Egypt, maintaining the storehouses. When there was a famine in Israel, Joseph's brothers were sent to Egypt to purchase food. Long story short, they met up with their brother, reconciliation took place, and Joseph saved his family.

God led all these people in one way or another into circumstances that, like I said, seemed unfair. Yet God knew the outcome already. He knew the preparation necessary in just these three lives. (Believe me there are more stories...Esther, Ruth, Noah, Jonah, Jeremiah, Job, and more...Jesus.) They were all used to save in some way. Sometimes salvation didn't occur, just like today. 

If we are believers and followers of God our lives may be in training for some end result. It probably, ultimately, even if we don't see it, will be to save someone's spiritual life. It may not be is as great a way as these three stories, but somewhere someone will have benefited. We don't see His plans. We live out our lives in that faith in the unknown and unseen going about His business. But God knows. Maybe not knowing or seeing takes the possibility of our pride out of the picture. God gets the glory. 

We trust in Him, right up to our last day. We stay obedient to our Father. We read His Word so we can know and hear our Shepherd's voice and be reminded of the times people of long ago went through trials just to see God's hand in the end. He speaks to us through His Word. All that is written in the Bible is for us to learn from. Examples of God's goodness to His people and His judgment when we choose not to trust and obey. 

We will never be perfect. We will take wrong turns or be disobedient at times. We might not hear God's voice because we are distracted by our own desires or thoughts. But God is in the business of saving lives. We have to lose things in our lives to gain the life He has to offer. Who is willing to trust Him in all things? Who is willing to look at difficult situations as stepping stones to greater things? He is the Good Shepherd. He will guide us and go before us, like He did with these three people. He will work behind the scenes. Who is willing to trust in Him till death's door is upon us?

Matthew 24:12-14 - And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

God Has Never Stopped Moving!

Genesis 1:1-2 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

I'm listening to a series of CDs by an evangelist who spoke at our church recently. The first message was When God Moves. As usual, this is part the preacher's message, partly paraphrased, and partly my thoughts. It even fits right in to our study in Revelation. I'm certain there is a reason for all this. Any italicizes words are his.

Sometimes our lives as believers can seem to be in a funk. Maybe we have become stagnant...in our lives or in our churches. As Jeremy Prochazka stated, we might proclaim, We need a move of God. Then he followed that statement with this nugget of truth: It's not that we need God to move; He is always ready to move. It is we who have moved on, on our own, in our own way. 

I think about God giving Israel a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to guide them as they left Egypt for their long trek to the Promised Land. As long as they followed they were well protected and cared for. These pillars were always out in front for guidance, although when they crossed the Red Sea with the enemy behind them, the pillar of cloud went behind while the pillar of fire stayed in front...protection at one end, guidance at the other. 

God has always been moving. Since the day He began to create, He through His Spirit, moved. Jesus hasn't stopped. If He had there would be no continuation of Christianity. There would be no continuation of persecution, for His name's sake. There would be no evangelists, pastors, and us as disciples to carry on God's Word! His Spirit keeps us going. 

Brother Jeremy went on to say that we who have received Christ are called followers. Why? Because He is moving! If He's standing still we aren't following. If we follow we will know we are in the will of God. Can you honestly say you following Him?

I'd forgotten some of this message. Or had I, because just before he would say more I was forming thoughts to write that were similar. As followers of Christ we are called to share the Gospel like Jesus shared. If you like or love something, you will want to tell others about it, right? Why is it that sharing Christ is so unappealing to so many hearing it? What nerves does it touch? Does it bring up guilt, knowing we have made a lot of mistakes in our past? 

Or maybe we like who we are without Christ and are determined to believe life without Him is okay. What nerves does it touch? 

I have said this before, and Jeremy said it too: Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8) Give Him a chance.

Jeremy started out his message with the story of Jesus when He was 12. The family had gone to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. On their way home Joseph and Mary realized they'd not seen their Son for awhile. He had lingered at the temple. They returned to find Him there...learning and asking questions, to the amazement of the others...and His parents when they arrived. Always about His Father's business, always in His will. Always following His Father's guidance. As we should.

It is pointed out in the scripture for this account that every year they went to Jerusalem. Jeremy points out how mundane that could become, a routine. Every year... After awhile, what happens? It becomes the same old thing. We may leave church after we have fulfilled our religious obligations, but Jesus may linger there and we won't recognize it. It's losing our sensitivity to the Lord. That's dangerous. We lose sight of Him. We've moved on but He has lingered. We are no longer following Him...we're off doing our own thing 
while He's about His Father's business. We're not in His will anymore.

But...He will organize your circumstances so you can find Him again. That is a wonderful, encouraging thought. I'm so thankful He loves us so much that He would provide another way...even through suffering, which was yesterday's blog. Amazed at how things are so tied together these days. 

If we follow Christ, we are in His will. Brother Jeremy added just as Jesus grew from a Child to a Man, we as believers need to grow in our walk, our faith in Him, following Him. ...as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1Peter‬ ‭2:2-3‬) We start out our walk slowly, taking small steps, feeling stupid, listening and learning, taking it all in, making mistakes. Then suddenly confidence happens. It's like "we get it." But we still do not stop growing. We never do. In time we will be ready for the meat of His Word. Just keep following. And know that God loves you so much that He WILL organize your circumstances to bring you back to Him. 

Maybe our country and churches need to turn back to seeking Him. He longs to move in our midst. But you know what, we have sought our own desires and ways, not His. It's all about me! It's all about us. It's all about how big we can build it or the success we can have. It's no longer all about Him. So we may very well be recognizing it with world circumstances, without really knowing it's God we are missing. He's been pushed aside for too long. He's not in this anymore.

Oh my...then Jeremy ends with the question Jesus' mother asked when they found Him in the temple. It about sums up the world circumstances and the questions people are beginning to ask about where God is in all that is happening, the violence, evil, disasters: So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? ... (Luke‬ ‭2:48‬) Is that what people are asking, Why, God, have You done this? Why will You not do something? (Like the friend and his email to me.) His answer: He was about His Father's business...while everyone else was about their own.

He is always moving, doing His Father's business. It's where we are supposed to be. Why have we sometimes stopped paying attention? Has He or Christianity become a routine? Linger with Him awhile. Follow Him more closely. 

John‬ ‭12:26‬ ‭- If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.